I was dispatched to a fire alarm sounding at one of the apartment complexes in town around 2am Sunday morning. The people in the building didn't seem to mind, the alarm had been sounding for some time but the party on the second floor kept going. The alarm was actually called in by a police officer driving by. I was making idle chit-chat with the cop when a young man walked out of the second floor apartment party, looked around (clearly looked at the police officer and I) and proceeded to turn around the corner.

"James Dustin, Operations Coordinator for the Innovation Space in Learning Technologies at Virginia Tech, received the university's 2011 President's Award for Excellence.

The President's Award for Excellence is presented annually to up to five Virginia Tech staff employees who have made extraordinary contributions by consistent excellence in the performance of their job or a single incident, contribution, or heroic act. Each recipient is awarded a $2,000 cash prize.

Christmas is always a fun time to gather with family and friends; whether you share a meal, exchange gifts, or just enjoy each others company. This year, like every year, I had a fun time visiting with my family, and they all had fun too. While going through the pictures though, I noticed several poorly-timed photos, and thought I would do something different this year: here are all the "bad" pictures, which taken out of context, make it look like it was a rough Christmas at the Dustin household. Link to album