Eat Ice Cream to Help Animals is a post from: Ziray Studio Labs

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Petition for a Family Member

It’s kind of strange to call someone you’re going to be married to a relative, but that’s what it’s referred to. Any legal resident can petition the government to allow immediate family to join them in the United States. This is the case if you’re an immigrant or a citizen. Upon marrying someone, a citizen can request that the government allow the spouse to enter, live and work within the US. The spouse, if already in the US, can update their visa from, in our case, an F1 student visa, to permanent resident status. The law gets really tricky if you enter the US on a non-immigration visa, in other words not intending to immigrate, after having filed a Petition for Alien Relative. And yes, they call them aliens.

The form, I-130, is just a form stating who I am, how I’m legally in this country (through birth), and what my relation is to the person for whom I’m petitioning. Pretty straight forward.

Changing Visa Status

At the same time, we file an Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, form I-485. This allows Ana to update her F1 visa to a Permanent Resident visa. After having filed this, she can not leave the country and return on her F1 visa. The reason is, upon entering the US under an F1 student visa, she is stating that by entering on a non-immigration visa, she is not intending to stay in the country, which would be false, since she has filed for permanent residency. It makes sense, but is something people need to be aware of. To get around this, there is another form I-131, Application for Travel Document, that we would need to file until she’s approved for a green card so that she can travel to Colombia or somewhere else on our honeymoon.

Additional Forms

There are a few more forms to file, such as an Application for Employment Authorization, form I-765, biographic information, form G-325A and my favorite, form G-1145, E-Notification of Application/Petition Acceptance, which will send me an email and/or text message when my application has changed status.

The process is pretty straight forward, but we consulted with a lawyer first to know what we were getting ourselves into. The tough part is understanding each form that needs to be filed, how to file it, what you need to file it properly and gathering all the other information and supporting documents that are needed. We can hire a lawyer to do all of this for us after we get married, but we don’t have the money right now. But we’re confidant we can properly do all of this. The trick is just taking a bit at a time and a lot of reading. Each government form has accompanying instructions to follow so it makes the process a lot less daunting.

Immigration is a post from: Ziray Studio Labs

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iPhone Development

We started a company last year to allow independent iPhone app developers to make the transition from “wanna-be” to published developer. The model works similar to a record label, where LTZ provides the leverage, so that developers can concentrate on coding rather than the logistics of getting apps out. We wanted to start small, get a few early successes and then use that momentum to gather a pool of developers. We’re also planning a Code Kitchen, which is a class to teach iPhone and Mac programming to anyone interested for free.

Most of our early time was spent on logistics, even though we had our first app idea right from the start. It was a lot of waiting; we waited for resources (copy, data, images, feedback), we waited for Apple, we waited for the lawyers and we waited for contracts. So in a year’s time, we finally had an application ready to release. But thankfully, most of that work won’t have to be completed again since the contracts, setup and other logistics are taken care of. I’ll post a longer article on the whole process (what it took, what we learned, etc), but as I type this, our app, BarNinja is “In Review,” waiting to go up on the Apple App Store. It still might get rejected (one never knows with these processes), but we’re hopeful that it will appease the Apple review gods. We’re also more hopeful that the app will actually sell well and we can get some money into the business so we can buy “test” devices, like the brand new iPad for all our people.

Scuba Diving in Blacksburg

As many already know, scuba diving is a relatively new thing for me. However, I instantly fell in love with the sport and have tried to progress as quickly as I can. It’s been a lot cheaper than flying.

I got my Open Water (OW) certification in November of ’08 (with dives in Cozumel, Mexico in December), my Advanced Open Water (AOW) in July of ’09 (with dives in the Florida Keys and on the US Coast Guard Cutter my grandfather served on in World War II), my Rescue Diver certification (that required another certification of Emergency First Responder) and now I’m working on my Divemaster certification, which is a professional level diving certification. As you can image, this has been a long journey, with a ton of training, reading, and diving. The diving part was especially difficult due to the location. Blacksburg is not known for it’s amazing scuba diving, but diving in the local river, which has a maximum depth of 41 feet, has made it a bit easier.

We should be able to finish up the divemaster certification in May of this year. That’ll allow me to help teach some classes with Scott, who runs Avalon Adventures here in Blacksburg and the New River Valley (NRV). He’s my current instructor and I’ve helped him out with his website. The plan is to serve Blacksburg, Christiansburg, Radford, and the surrounding NRV to provide classes, dive trips, dive refreshers and other adventures. Hopefully, we’ll also make some money in the process.

Music

I’ve picked up my guitars again. Sadly, I don’t think I’ve picked them up in at least six months, but I’m at it again. Luckily it only took me a few minutes to remember what those six months made me forget. I am also helping my old Computer Science instructor with his business at Rocket Music. It helps me get back into music, even though its on a strictly computer programming level. Just talking about guitars, buying guitars, customizing guitars and everything guitars reminds me to go pick up one of my guitars and practice, if for only 15 minutes.

Our Foster Dog

Our foster dog Petunia has really adjusted well with us. When we first got her, she had some problems with other dogs, being generally nervous, crying when we left her home alone, etc. We weren’t surprised, since her previous owners abandoned her and she spent a long time in the shelter. Now all she does it try to cuttle up with us and never leaves us, even if that means following us from room to room.

Ana is getting attached to Petunia and I don’t think we’re going to get her adopted. Being a Pitbull mix, people are afraid of her. However, everyone that’s met her has loved her, which is another reason we don’t think we’ll let her be adopted. She never barks, is great with our cat, loves to play, never complains, and is so adorable. She’s gathered such nicknames as Petu, Petufilese and just Perrita. Dogs are a lot of work, but I think in this case, for her, she’s worth it.

Apartment

My girlfriend of about a year, moved in officially a few months ago. She still has her old apartment, but the rent there is taken care of by a sort of sub-lease. Previously, we were always together anyway, cooking food, studying together, grocery shopping together. The only difference was, she wasn’t paying rent or the massive electricity bill we seemed to rack up with her presence. I have an extra bedroom in my condo, which I gave to her for all her stuff. We moved in her tredmill into that room (producing some of the first small scratches in my new hard wood floors), her desk and a bunch of other things so that she has her own space. It’s worked out extremely well and while we’ve had our fights about stupid apartment and living stuff, you don’t truly know a person until you lived with them. That goes for friends and girlfriends.

Spanish

As a result of living with a native Spanish speaker, I’ve picked up a lot. I never learned Spanish. It was always the language of poor people where I lived. Instead I studied German, the language that’s most understood in Europe. While living in Hungary, I learned Hungarian so picking up Spanish was probably the easiest thing for me. With Spanish, for example, just add an ‘O’ or an ‘A’ after any English word of more than 2 syllables and translate word for word and you have a pretty good, understandable sentence.

Before I met Ana (pronounced Ah-na, not Anne-uh by the way), I probably knew less than 20 words, and that’s after having spent two weeks in Mexico scuba diving. Before that, I probably knew around 5. Now I wish I would have learned it sooner, but I’m glad I learned German since Ana and I are planning a trip back to Europe. Ana has never been, so I’ll take us around Hungary, we’ll visit Italy (which is a language both of us have studied, but she understands a lot better) and she can take us around Spain since they almost speak the same language as she does.

We have a savings account set up that we’ve been putting money in since last summer. It’s not a lot, but it’ll at least pay for the plane tickets out there. Then we plan on staying with friends where we can, and since we both have friends all over Europe, it shouldn’t be an issue.

What I’ve Been Up To is a post from: Ziray Studio Labs

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Washington DC – Summer 2009 is a post from: Ziray Studio Labs

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There’s enough for me to see in Medellin, since I’ve never been to South America before, or a Spanish speaking country, but we’ll be traveling throughout Colombia during our brief vacation. Around Christmas will obviously be reserved for spending time with her family but before and after that we have a few excursions planned.

Colombia is a Catholic country (even though a lot of them are scared of how religious the United States seems) and as a result, the city is full of lights and other decorations during this special time. Since towns in the United States are generally discouraged from putting up Christmas specific decorations, it’ll be something entirely different to see an unabashed version of a city Christmas display. Hungary has always put up lights in Budapest, with Christmas trees and other Christmas specific things, but from what I’ve seen from photos, Medellin Christmas lights are far more spectacular.

We’re still looking for a scuba resort where we can dive for a few days for less than $1000. You can do that in Florida in the Keys for half that price, including hotel, but for some reason, we’re having a hard time finding a good/cheap one in Colombia. I really don’t want to spend that much money right now, though if we had to, it’d totally be worth it to swim with whale sharks and huge manta rays.

Other than that, we are planning on visiting some colonial era Colombian towns, the coffee region (with Juan Valdez, the guy with the donkey on all the Colombian coffee) and various other things unique to South America or Colombia. We don’t have a whole lot of time, but we’re going to make the most out of the time we have. You can be assured there will be a ton of photos when I get back.

Colombia for Christmas is a post from: Ziray Studio Labs

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We got Petunia through the Animal Wellness Foster Program (AFWP) who provides the food and any medical care she needs. So really, it’s like renting a dog almost for free, keyword being rent, since someday we’ll eventually need to give her up to another loving home. We also buy her extra treats because, well, she’s just too cute not to. However, the reason we chose Petunia from the Montgomery Animal Shelter was that it was unlikely she would be adopted and as this animal shelter is a kill shelter, the foster program is essential to save these dogs’ lives. The problem is, Petunia is a pit bull, a bully breed as it’s known. People have a misconception about these dogs and ignore other aggressive breeds like dalmatians because there’s a Disney movie about them. I’ve never met a sweeter dog in my life. These dogs are also infamous because of the Michael Vick dog fighting incident. Just like with bad children, it’s usually the parent’s fault and that goes with bad dogs as well.

Since I’ve gotten her, we’ve trained her to sit, lie down, come and not snap when giving her treats. Instead, she’ll put her teeth on the treat and try to knock it out of your hand with her tongue. We’ve also taught her to walk without a leash and will come when called if she wanders too far ahead. She’ll also run with me on grass but she’s a little slow and I can usually out run her if I sprint (but just barely). She also allows us to brush her teeth and even though you can tell she’s not a huge fan of it, she puts up with it.

Dogs and Cats Do Get Along

It was a little tricky getting Petunia and Meko to tolerate each other. When I first brought Petunia home, the first thing she wanted to do was sniff everything she could, including poor Meko. Luckily Meko is an extremely curious cat and kept approaching Petunia to check her out, then hissing, moaning and running away. I never let Petunia off the leash at any point while she was home. Every time I caught her looking at him funny I’d poke her to divert her attention. Sometimes I would even turn her head, she’d try to look at Meko and I softly move her head away again. This went on for about two weeks with Petunia sleeping in her own room with the door closed. I wasn’t worried for Meko’s safety, but really Petunia’s. Meko isn’t declawed and while I clip his nails every other week or so, he can still take a large chunk out of your skin if you’re not careful.

I tried to introduced them properly several times with Meko always feeling too uneasy. Petunia now won’t even look at Meko and instead diverts her eyes when she walks past him. It’s the funniest thing to watch but that’s not what I intended. So maybe they don’t get along, but I feel 100% confident I can leave them alone together without either one of them hurting each other. As I said, she’s the sweetest dog ever.

She’s an Eligible Bachelorette

Next week she gets spayed. After that, it’s full time advertising to get her adopted. It’s not that I don’t want to keep her, it’s just that at this point in my life I can’t. Had she come into my life at a later time I wouldn’t think of letting her go. And everyone that has met her has said the same thing: she’s the sweetest, nicest dog ever. Check out Petunia’s own webpage on Petfinder.com. Make sure you check out the video of her playing in the back yard, it’s hilarious at the end:

I’ve been a little rough when I’m playing with her but she’s never shown aggression at any point that I’ve had her. Not even toward Meko. Now, when it comes to other dogs, it’s hit or miss. She’s already made one good dog-friend already, so I know she can learn to be around other dogs as she’s learned to be around Meko.

The dog, not the girl!

Not All Dogs are Perfect but They Do Go to Heaven

Petunia does have her problems, and in the interest of full disclosure here they are:

• She snores, loudly, and sometimes snorts in her sleep. She also dreams about chasing things so her flailing legs on her bed could get a bit noisy during the night.
• She poops, a lot. OK, maybe not anymore than the average dog, but this is my first dog. Maybe when they breed a dog that doesn’t pee or poop, it’ll be the perfect pet.

So, if you or someone else you knows wants a sweet, huggable, playful dog, Petunia is an awesome dog. And don’t feel bad about taking her away from me. Sure I’ll miss her, but we plan on saving and training another dog as soon as we can after Petunia. Dogs are a ton of work, but they’re also a ton of fun.

Oversized Lapdog

Other Links

More animals, cats and dogs, from the Animal Welfare Foster Program.

Petunia is a post from: Ziray Studio Labs

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New Floor

The cost of it all? Less than $800. Of course labor was free and you’d be looking at 3-4 times that cost for the same work we did.

New Floor is a post from: Ziray Studio Labs

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As it had been raining for the past several days prior, the river level was two feet higher than normal, and big trees were being swept down river. The visibility was non-existent and we didn’t want to get caught or crushed by the trees coming down, so we didn’t get to go diving. However, there is still a ton more beer cans and other trash left by the fishermen at the bottom of the river that we have yet to get to.

While we were there, a photographer from the Roanoke Times took several photos of us as we worked. I had passed up picking up some trash that was in the water because I was wearing shoes but since I had all my scuba equipment with me, I put on my diving boots and jumped into the water to pick up the pieces I had missed.

The photographer caught me just as I was walking out of the river and they put me as their main image. Pretty cool. Check out the image below and download the PDF for the full size.

SCVT May 7, 2009 River Cleanup

River Clean Up and the Roanoke Times is a post from: Ziray Studio Labs

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Scott, Kevin and I diving in the New River

New River Dive is a post from: Ziray Studio Labs

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The first dive lasted for only 12 minutes as we quickly lost the other two divers in the murky water. We came back up to look for them and got caught in the current that carried us under the bridge. In 53F water, it really wears you out. We continued that dive to about 45 feet for 24 more minutes before surfacing. The only thing to note on this dive was that I found two bottles of Vitamin Water at the bottom of the river, unopened. Visibility was only a meter or two, if you had a light.

The second dive was a lot better as we stayed down for 41 minutes to a max depth of 46 feet. It might as well have been a night dive since it was almost pitch black. There was an eery green glow from above as the sun shown through the water, but I lost my dive buddy several times since he only had to swim 2 meters away for me to lose him. However we quickly found each other by shining our lights like a light house until we saw each other’s lights.

We ran into at least three catfish of varying sizes. One was a about 150cm (~5ft) in length and that’s not exaggerating. He literally scared me as he came right at me appearing within arms length from my face out of the darkness after my dive buddy flushed him out from the other side of a large entanglement of tree roots on the bottom. He swam right by me until I tried to grab him and then he disappeared faster than I knew he was gone. We saw two other smaller, but at least a meter long, cat fish who we stumbled upon. If you want to catch those catfish, I hope you have a lurer that glows in the dark, because otherwise, they’d never see it.

Near the end of this dive I was starting to get cold from fatigue, but that 7mm wet suit from K2 Scuba was definitely worth the investment.

Everyone definitely had a lot of fun, despite the cold, but we all love diving so no one complained about the cold. We’re putting together classes for the summer in Blacksburg if anyone is interested in learning to dive. More details will follow as we hash out those details, but if you’re interested, let me know so I know how many people to expect. You know how to find me.

New River Dive

First Dive 2009 – New River is a post from: Ziray Studio Labs

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Our booth this year was right next to the stage, so we had no problem with people coming by our booth. There was also no shortage of people at the fair, so it really didn’t matter except we got to watch all the performances without leaving the comfort of our booth and our food.

The best dances were the Persian dance with my friends Rana, Elika and Mana and the Indian dance, which won first prize in a competition in Washington D.C. Elika danced in our dance as well so you can see from the photos below that she’s dressed in traditional Hungarian attire. Also, my other Persian friend Golnaz is wearing a blouse that is strikingly similar to a Hungarian blouse, but she assures me its Persian. Glad to see the Kingdom of Hungary’s influence on the Persian Empire.

After the street fair, the Persians and the Hungarians had an awesome after party at my place. We purchased $150 worth of alcohol and people brought even more. Vintage Cellar was closed or else it would have been more!

International Street Fair 2009

International Street Fair 2009 is a post from: Ziray Studio Labs

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Enjoy the pictures below from one of our dance practices!

Hungarian Dance Practice

International Street Fair 2009 – Dance Practice is a post from: Ziray Studio Labs

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Beach Diving is a post from: Ziray Studio Labs

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Octupus, Sharks and Eels, Oh My! is a post from: Ziray Studio Labs

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Forest of Reefs is a post from: Ziray Studio Labs

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