Known to his nearly 68,000 Twitter followers as Astro_Wheels, Wheelock has been posting impressive photos of the Earth and some of his thoughts ever since he moved into the space station in June, five months after it got Internet access.

Greek islands on a clear night during our flight over Europe . Athens shine brightly along the Mediterranean Sea.

‘Mystery Island’ …located in the Indian Ocean close to Madagascar . Interesting features on the island and the unusual shape should be enough to help you discover this beautiful place.

Northern lights in the distance in one of the finest nights over Europe. The photo clearly shows the Strait of Dover . Paris is dazzling with the city lights. A little fog over the western part of England, particularly over London.

The moon is breathtaking.

Of all the places of our beautiful planet few can rival the beauty and richness of colors in the Bahamas. In this photo, our ship is seen against the backdrop of the Bahamas.

At a speed of 28,163 kilometers per hour (8 kilometers per second), we rotate the Earth’s orbit, making one revolution every 90 minutes, and watch sunsets and sunrises every 45 minutes. So half of our journey is in darkness. For the work we use lights on our helmets.

Every time I look out the window and see our beautiful planet, my soul sings! I see blue skies, white clouds and bright blessed day.

Another spectacular sunset. We see 16 such sunsets each day, and each of them is really valuable.

Beautiful atoll in the Pacific Ocean, photographed using 400mm lens.  Approximately 1930 km south of Honolulu.

Perfect reflection of sunlight in the eastern Mediterranean.

Above the center of the Atlantic Ocean, before another stunning sunset. Downstairs in the setting sun visible spiral Hurricane Earl.

A little farther east, we saw a sacred monolith Uluru, better known as Ayers Rock. I have never had the opportunity to visit Australia , but someday I hope that I will stand by this miracle of nature.

Morning over the Andes in South America. I do not know for sure the title of this peak, but was simply amazed by her magic, stretching to the sun and wind tops.

Over the Sahara desert, approaching the ancient lands and thousand-year history. River Nile flows through Egypt by the Pyramids of Giza in Cairo … Further, the Red Sea, Sinai Peninsula, Dead Sea , Jordan River, as well as the island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea and Greece on the horizon.

Night view of the River Nile, stretching like a snake through Egypt to the Mediterranean, and Cairo , located in the Delta. Far away in this picture, one can see the Mediterranean Sea ..

Our unmanned ‘Progress 39P’ approaches the ISS for refuelling. It is full of food, fuel, spare parts and all necessities for our station. Inside was a real gift – fresh fruit and vegetables. What a miracle after three months of food from a tube!

I wanted to share with you this view from the Dome. We said goodbye to the members of our group Sasha, Misha and Tracy this weekend, and they returned safely back to Earth. In this photo, Tracy quietly dreams of returning home.

Module Union 23C Olympus docked with the ISS . When our work ends here, we go back home to Earth. We fly over the snow-capped peaks of the Caucasus . The rising sun is reflected from the Caspian Sea .

The flash of color, movement and life on the canvas of our amazing world. This is part of the Great Barrier Reef off the east coast of Australia , photographed through the lens of 1200 mm.

All the beauty of Italy , a clear summer night. You can see many beautiful islands that adorn the coast – Capri , Sicily and Malta . Naples and Mount Vesuvius are allocated along the coast.

At the southern end of South America lies the pearl of Patagonia .. The amazing beauty of rugged mountains, massive glaciers, fjords and seas combined in perfect harmony.

“Dome” on the side of nadir station gives a panoramic view of our beautiful planet. Fedor made the picture from the window of the Russian docking compartment. In this photo I’m sitting in the dome, preparing the camera for our evening flight over Hurricane Earl.

Florida and southeastern U.S. in the evening. A clear autumn evening, the moonlight over the water and sky, dotted with millions of stars.

Clear starry night over the eastern Mediterranean . The ancient land with a thousand years of history stretching from Athens to Cairo .. Historical land of fabulous and alluring island … Athens – Crete – Rhodes – Izmir – Ankara – Cyprus – Damascus – Beirut – Haifa – Amman – Tel Aviv – Jerusalem – Cairo – all of them turned into tiny lights in this cool November night.

In this time of year you can enjoy the beauty of the polar mesospheric clouds. With our high-angle illumination, we were able to capture a thin layer of noctilucent clouds at sunset.

Astronaut Douglas Wheelock

Abhisit Vejjajiva อภิสิทธิ์ เวชชาชีวะ

Born on 3 August 1964, is the 27th and current Prime Minister of Thailand. He has been the leader of the Democrat Party since February 2005.  Abhisit has assumed office since December 17, 2008.

Abhisit married Dr. Pimpen Sakuntabhai, a former dentist and now a lecturer at the Department of Mathematics at Chulalongkorn University.  They have two children.

44th President of USA

What a historic day! On January 20, 2009, Barack H. Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States of America – the first African-American ever to hold the office of U.S. Commander-in-Chief. The event was witnessed by well over one million attendees in chilly Washington D.C., and by many millions more through coverage on television and the internet. Collected here are photographs of the event, the participants, and some of the witnesses around the world. 

People gather to watch US President Barack Obama’s sworn in as the 44th US president by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts in front of the US Capitol in Washington, DC on January 20, 2009. (JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images)

LONG LIVE THE KING

These photos were originally found in a so-called ”Siam Box” at a library in Massachusetts, USA, by a Thai student.  Therefore, the student asked permission to make photocopies of these rare photos.  Since then the photos have become a special addition to the collection of memories of His Royal Highness King Bhumibol Adulyadej The Great, Rama IX of Thailand, in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of his coronation on June 9, 2006.

Name: Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama

Born: January 17, 1964

Education: Princeton University, B.A. in sociology, minor in African American studies. Graduated 1985.

Graduate: Harvard Law School. Graduated 1988.

Michelle Obama is a new icon for a smart, intellectual, working woman, a mother, a wife, and The 21th Century First Lady.

It was years ago that I saw someone on TV.  Without paying much attention, I only remembered that he was a Democrat and from Hawaii.  I thought that he was handsome and really wanted to know who that ‘handsome’ guy was!  Somehow I could tell that he was half-white & half-black.  My husband came up with some Democrat politicians’ names but it did not ring the bell to me either.

Just when the Democrat started their 2008 campaign, I somehow started to pay more attention of the U.S. politics.  When I saw one Democrat candidate named Obama — I immediately knew that it was him, the handsome guy that I once saw on the TV and had been wondering WHO HE WAS!!!

I went further to research who he is.  I even came to tears when I learned his path in life.  More impressively, he is Barack Hussein Obama II, who is the same age as me!  He is the son of a white American mother from Kansas and an African father from Kenya.  His father was a foreign (scholarship) student at the University of Hawaii where he met his mother.  The two got married and Barack was born, then seperated when his father moved to a doctoral study in economics at Harvard University, and finally divorced when Obama was 3.  The father went back to Kenya after graduation, and later married and had 7 children with a Kenyan wife.

After divorce, Obama’s mother met an Indonesian scholar, married him, and moved to live in Jarkarta, Indonesia in 1967.  Barack attended primary school there and moved back to Hawaii to live with his white grandparents when he was 10.  He has a half-sister Maya from his mother’s second marriage.

After Barack’s graduation, he went to Kenya by himself to reunite with his father.  And that was the only time that Obama Sr. and Jr. met as the adults.  Not too long after that, Barack’s father died in a car accident.

To me, Barack Obama is a symbol of a real American, a mixture of races and ethnic groups.  He is such an international individual who experienced living in Asia, Hawaii, and North America, in addition to his mixed-African blood.  He has experienced a great deal of discriminations which still widely exist in the States, although it is written everywhere of “Equal Opportunities” and bla.. bla.. bla..!!!

I had such overwhelmed feelings which caused me into tears.  My most concern is also for our “American-Thai” daughter who was born as a U.S. citizen and raised with the mixture of two cultures — American & Thai.  I DO believe in equality and freedom.  I do not support any discriminations although I accept the differences!  I understand the confusions that Obama had when he grew up, and I absolutely felt his pain.  YES WE CAN to HOPE for CHANGE – the Change We Need!!!

Fortunately, my husband and our 9-year old daughter have their hearts for Obama.  However, it was not too fortunate that my mother-in-law said to me, “I’m sure, no Americans would want to have a colored President!”  Well, she might forget that she was talking to her colored daughter-in-law.  When my daughter asked her ‘white’ American grandparents and grandaunt “Who would you vote for?” during the Democrat primary vote, they all replied, “Of course, Hillary!”  My daughter immediately responded, “My dad and I will vote for Obama!”  My husband added, “Joy really has her whole heart for Obama.”

And here we are…

 HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN!!!!

Having heard alot about “life changing” or “change in life” — I don’t really care.  To me, the color of life is beautiful.  Changing a career from being a scientist and a government official of Thailand to become ‘nothing’ in America is quite a drama.  However, being optimistic all my life and living in the eastern world lead me to believe in a happiness.  According to the Buddhist teachings, the hell and the heaven are no where, but they are in our hearts.

Carrying both family and professional lives in two different nations and cultures, between Thailand and the United States, was neither easy nor difficult for me, and so was our 2-year old daughter.  However, it was quite a challenge for my ‘American’ husband.  We managed to meet every three months, either in America or Thailand, from one to three months each trip.  Finally, it became unbearable for my husband and he asked me to leave my homeland.

Fortunately, my parents were in the front row to encourage me to choose my family over my career.  The reason was that simple — I am a wife and I am a mother!

Leaving a well-respected professional career in Thailand to an unknown situation was okay with me and it caused me no fear whatsoever.  Unfortunately, my long-time old friend (for 27 years), who co-signed a contract to guarantee me for my study leave and scholarship, decided to turn down her freindship and became my enemy.  She threathened me, in many ways, to have to pay off the scholarship otherwise I could not leave Thailand.  She also spreaded out the rumors that a former scholarship recipient like me chose to run away and left her, a guarantor, in hell to be responsible for everything that I still owed to the nation!

Photo: Topographical map of Thailand

It became even worse when my sister also requested me to reconsider not to resign from Thailand.  She believed that I should be grateful to our nation since I was a Royal Thai Government Scholarship recipient during my doctoral study in America.  It would be selfish if I chose to leave everyone behind.  She also believed that living in America, my life would be worse because the immigrants were usually treated as a 3rd- or 4th-class residents.  

YES, she was somewhat RIGHT!

Anyway, I was confident enough to move forward with my sole responsibility for everything — including the scholarship, which somehow bothered some people so much.  They were those who believed that I was irresponsible and ungrateful.  Absolutely, they were so WRONG!

• The happy part was that my family was then reunited.  The sad part was that the relationship with some good old friends was ended.
• The good part was that I didn’t have to go to work everyday since I resigned.  The bad part was that I had no income.
• The interesting part was the feeling that I became unemployed.  The challenging part was how and when I would get paid again.

Anyway, two months later I started to work again as a post-doctoral researcher, but this time without pay.  This is because I was still on a tourist visa, and thus, unauthorized to work for money.

My life was truly changed from ‘Somebody’ — Dr. Jarunee Nugranad, a well-respected scientist in Thailand to become a stay-at-home mom and ‘Nobody’ for most Americans.  However, I am a mother of the most beautiful daughter of a happy family!

I enjoyed working with no pay since that’s the way to keep my profession polished.  I started to look around and found one best thing about America — the land of HOPE and OPPORTUNITY.

I discovered eBay as one interesting hobby.  Yet, it surely generates some possible income.  I have since then become an eBay queen.  I taught some friends who felt hopeless looking for jobs in America since it is not easy for any non-residents to find any jobs.

I, myself, also sent out applications to various places.  However, no one really contacted me even just for an interview.  They mostly said that I was over-qualified with my Ph.D. degree, or there was already someone else who was better qualified than me.  One American friend even suggested that I should change my name to become Joy Marzilli, and never Jarunee Nugranad if I really wish to get a job.  “No thanks”, I replied.

It’s okay for me to put my ‘profession & career’ on hold for a while.  It’s also okay to change from somebody to be nobody!!!  During the final year working as a Post-Doctoral Researcher, I also sent out some job applications.  I got a clear answer from one job that the position was already filled by someone who has been working with them for years. 

And that had become a turning point in my life… to a final decision… of final job applications. 

And here I am… N-O-B-O-D-Y!!!

I decided to leave Thailand and moved back to the United States in 2001, and continued my professional career as a “Post-Doctoral Researcher” for nearly half a decade.  With my role as a mother and a wife, I finally changed my career to become an “Independent Research Scientist” and a “home maker”. 

In January 2007, I founded AmericanThai.net (http://AmericanThai.net), originally to promote the American-Thai children and particularly for the American-Thai society.  Recently, I became licensed as a Real Estate Salesperson, REALTOR®, as well as ePRO (http://JoyMRealEstate.com).

As we all are currently living in the Information Era, while having an ‘IT’ daughter I also enjoy being an ‘IT’ mom.  I regularly send out updates to friends via e-mails with photos, stories, and websites.  Eventually, I will utilize more of cyberspace to share with friends or anyone about anything.  

Today, I’m proud to see myself as an Independent Research Scientist.  Somehow I hope to share with you something!!!

Dr. Joy