Welcome to Mark's Page

Some things that interest, fascinate or otherwise divert my attention. Rocks, yes rocks, minerals, metals, gems. Geology stuff, can't explain it and am really an amateurs amateur but it really fascinates me. History of all sorts (no particular time period), Ghost towns, Caves, Crystal, Glass, Treasure stories, Pirates, Cartography, Light, Mycology, Energy, Chemistry, Geography are all things that are interesting to me. I also like to read and spend a great deal of time doing it. I mostly read about all the things listed above but I also read the newspaper every day. I like to read about how things are made and also how stuff works. I read some fiction too. I also have a thing about maps. I can study maps for hours on end and also have a large collection. Computers have been a hobby for me for over 30 years (my first one had to be programmed by typing 1's and 0's and recording it on a cassette tape). I also like to travel and see new places but I don't mind going to places I've been before. Me and Janie are really into RV travel now and have made several trips. We have such a great time everytime we go somewhere together. I love spending my time doing things with Janie or just sitting and talking with her, she's so much fun to be around. One thing we like to do is go way out in the country and find abandoned houses and explore them. We have taken videos at several of the old farmsteads we have found and one of these days maybe I will get around to posting some of them. I also enjoy Geocaching. It is so much fun, I use a Garmin gpsmap 60cs. To learn more about Geocaching go to http://www.geocaching.com/ .

I have been spending alot of my free time cutting gemstones. I have cut quite a few now, mostly in quartz (amethyst, citrine and clear) and synthetics. Of the synthetics I have cut mostly Cubic Zirconia, also Ruby, Spinel and Quartz. If I say so myself, most of them are really beautiful gems. I can't seem to take decent pictures of them but if I can figure out how to get a good picture I will post some of them. I've given a few away already so the opportunity for pictures of them is already gone. I am really enjoying this hobby even if it is very challenging. Maybe that's why I enjoy it so much.

I am also learning the art of soap making. It is an art that I think will take quite a while to perfect. In the meantime, need soap? I think soon I will have more soap than I can use in a lifetime. Click here to see my soap cutter that I made.

I am also very fond of my cat Ozzy. OK, OK. I love the little guy, he's my buddy.

I like all different kinds of music, click here for the list of songs that I have although just because I have them doesn't necessarily mean I like the song, in fact, I hate some of them. One of these days I might weed through them. I have to keep some of them because Janie likes them but I'm sure there are songs that neither one of us likes. This list is always getting larger and I will try to update it when I have added enough songs to make it worthwhile. There are currently several thousands. I am particularly a fan of Latin music and some of my current favorites are artist like Marisela, Myriam Hernandez, Marco Antonio Solis, Los Fugitivos and Angela Carrasco. Email me at m@markandjanie.com if you want any song.

We went to a family reunion in Sept. 2004. This was my mom's side of the family and I took some still images off of the video I took but the quality didn't turn out too good. The pictures are here.

Click here to see pictures of me when I was much younger.

I have several pictures that I took on some of my other trips to Honduras. I have some miscellaneous pictures of various places, some from the Copan area, Gracias area including Mount Celaque, Lago de Yojoa, the capital city of Tegucigalpa, the very pretty Tela bay area, and some from Trujillo. (There are 4 other pages of Honduras pictures under the Vacation page. For direct links click 1, 2, 3, 4.) Click here for my letters written to Janie from Honduras August 2007.

Some pictures of Maria 2009, some of my other pictures from Honduras 2009, pictures of the hotels I stayed at.

Some pictures of me and Janies trip to Ecuador in 2010. Here are some videos we took.

Some pictures I took in Honduras Feb 2011 and some more here

Some pictures I took in Honduras June/July 2011 with Janie