I've already written about trying to choose a camcorder, selecting the Canon HG-10, and problems with shipping.

Now that the camera has arrived, I've had a little time to play around with it.  Here are some of my first thoughts:

First, this may be obvious but, this camera is small.  It's not even the smallest camera out there but but I like the size.  Most of the controls feel good, especially the zoom rocker control, which was mentioned as a highlight in reviews.  When recording and playing back HD video with the 2.7in LCD, the picture is really awesome.  For the most part the camera seems pretty easy to use.  I did notice, immediately, that the scroll wheel that is used to do a lot of the menu navigation is a little weak.  I read about this in some reviews.  Everyone seems to agree that this is a cool attempt by Canon and a step in the right direction but it needs work.  Basically, the scroll wheel feels like a cheap plastic toy that could break easily.  I certainly hope it is stronger than it appears.

Unfortunately, I had some problems watching the video off of the camera.  First, the HDMI cable I purchased is the wrong size (see below).  So my only TV hookup was "low def".  The pictures looked good but not spectacular.  But I hope a new HDMI cable solves that.  So it was off to the PC for me.  I easily and quickly uploaded the files via USB to my PC's hard drive.  However, when I tried to playback the video using the included software, Corel Intervideo WinDVD SE, the picture was was a little choppy and was not synchronized with the audio!  I know HD video playback is hard on the processor but I have a dual core 3.2 GHz processor with 3GB of memory.  Plus my video adapter is an NVIDEA GeForce 7600 GS, which I thought was supposed to be pretty good.  I even used a 1 GB ready boost thumb drive and I turned off the Vista Aero features to try and help but no luck.  I am really surprised at this performance problem.  I expected it for editing but not playback.  This was a really big disappointment.  Could the problem be that I need to upgrade the software?  I also tried editing with the included  Ulead DVD Movie Factory SE but that didn't work very well either.  First, the PC couldn't keep up very well.  Second, I am not impressed with my first look at the software.  Again, maybe I need to upgrade.  The free software is probably not the best one on the market.

I also wanted to complain about some accessories I purchased at Best Buy.  I should know by now to trust my instincts and not listen to the people there.  First, I already mentioned the incorrect HDMI cable.  They told me that was the correct one, even though I said I thought the connector looked too big.  Second, they said that the camera bag I purchased would hold the camera and the accessories.  I was interested in a slightly larger bag but they told me not to bother.  Strike two.  Why do I listen to them?

I expect that I'll be very happy once I get my HDMI cable and can view my home movies on my 46" High Def TV.  Then I'll need to figure out how to edit these videos.

In my last post, I wrote about my decision to purchase a camcorder.  So here's what happened next.

So I ordered the device at around 11:30PM on Tuesday 1/29 from TigerDirect.com.  Since it was pretty late, the item would ship on Wed.  Since I splurged $3 extra, I got 2nd Day Shipping which meant I have my new toy on Friday.  Now I've ordered from TigerDirect before and I've had problems with them, so I know what to expect.  Still, I trust them because even when there are problems, they seem to be genuinely nice about it and are pretty accommodating.  And don't forget, the price was right - about $350 less then Best Buy!  So starting Wednesday I got my tracking information from TigerDirect and started following my package on UPS.com.  Yet another cool benefit to the Internet, I can watch my package get closer to its destination.  OK, it left the factory, good start.  It's headed to Philly, this is going well.  Thursday night I checked and it arrived in town, this is good!  Friday morning it is listed as Out For Delivery - this baby is on the truck!  It was raining that day so I left a note on my door for the drive to leave the package on my covered porch in the back.  Early afternoon I checked UPS.com again and low and behold my package was listed as...Delivered!  I was so excited that I even called home on my way from work to make sure.  Rebecca assured me that the package was on the back porch when she came home and now it was in the house!

Upon arriving home, I immediately opened the box and started checking out my new Canon HG-10.  Wow, this is small.  Cool, I can plug it in and test it without the battery being charged.  Wait, what is this!  Why is there a door covering a DVD burner on my HG-10?  Wait, why does my HG-10 say HV-20 on the side?  I was so excited to check it out that I never noticed that the box said HV-20...TigerDirect shipped me the wrong unit!  Arrrrrrgh.  So I called up TigerDirect and, like usual, they were cool about it.  They can't ship me my model until I return the old one, or they can temporarily charge me for both on my credit card.  I can understand that, they don't want me running off with both of them.  And they promised to send the correct model next-day.  Since it was Friday at 5:00pm, next-day means Monday.  I still need to send the wrong one back and get my credit.  But I'm expecting that to go well.  If not, I'll be sure to blog about it!

Oh well, no camcorder for the Superbowl party.  Now all I really needed to do was convince my wife not to go into labor until Monday night at the earliest! 

OK, it is getting late.  Tomorrow I'll write about my first thoughts on the Canon HG-10.

About a week ago I posted on my struggle to choose a camcorder.  Well after lots of research, conversations with friends, and a little bit of "oh, what the hell", I picked a camcorder.

I selected the Canon HG-10.  It's an HD model that uses an internal Hard Drive for storage.  The web site CamcorderInfo.com has a pretty thorough review of the model, its features, and issues.    Here's what lead me to choose the HG-10...

Storage - Hard Drive:  All I read about the cameras that record straight to DVD is that they are a pain to edit.  Since I plan to do some editing, that was ruled out.  The mini-dv tapes are still popular and seem to actually have the highest quality video due to lower compression then the other formats.  But, you can't quickly access portions of video and transfer to the PC is a pain.  The hard drive model has pretty good video quality (I think it is in the middle between dvd and min-dv) and offers some other features, like quick access (mentioned above) and the ability to record large portions of video without changing tapes of dvds.

Format - High Def:  This was a tough call too.  The quality is obviously much better, that's easy.  But it is quite a bit more expensive.  Also, I was concerned about editing (you need a strong PC).  Another factor is that I don't have a way to burn DVD's in HD.  So I can only watch the videos off of the camera in HD.  Well, I'm hoping the prices come down soon on those HD burners.  In the mean time, I'll save up my footage, and wait for prices to drop.  I'm told editing won't be too bad since my PC is Dual Core 3.2 GHz, with 3 Gigs of Ram.  That left price.  After some research, I got a good deal, so HD was the way to go.

After doing a lot of research, I settled in on the Canon HG-10.  Basically, I thought it had a great feature set, excellent video quality, and was rated well in low light conditions.  That's fairly important because in video terms, most conditions except outside are considered low light!  A few things I was disappointed about with the Canon was the manual focus (not a ring, it's menu driven) and no mic adjustments.  But everything else looked good.

I started looking at BestBuy.com where the price was listed around $1100.  I think Circuit City had it for about $50 less.  At some point it went on sale at Circuit City for around $850 and I started to get excited.  Some more research on the web and I found it for about $835 at Buy.Com, $800 at J&R and then $717 at 42nd Street.  There were a few other places that were pretty low too. But Tiger Direct had the camcorder for $759!  Bingo.  This was a little more then some a few of the others, but I have done business with them before and I don't mind paying a few bucks extra to a company that I trust (that's not too say I don't trust the others, I just don't know them).

It was around 11pm and I was pretty excited to find a good price on the model I wanted.  I went to sleep, figuring I'd sleep on it and order it the next day.  A little while later in bed I thought to myself...What if the deal ends tonight at midnight?  What if they run out of stock?  So around 11:30 pm I came downstairs and ordered the Canon HG-10.  As a bonus, I found out I had a $50 credit from a previous purchase!  Plus, shipping via 2nd day air was only $3 more than the standard, so I could get the Camera by Friday!  Sweet. 

This is getting long so I'll end the story here.  To read about a few problems that came next, along with my first impressions, read my next post.

I have an idea, I hope it will catch on like the "I've Been Tagged" (see below) series of blog posts.  It was inspired by my previous blog post, which was inspired by a recent post by Scott Hanselman.  I encourage all bloggers to write a post and mention 5 people that influenced their careers.   It doesn't have to be a chain, you don't need to be "tagged" to join in.  Just pick your 5 people.  None of the people I am naming have blogs themselves.  It's just a chance to say thank you.  You can pick anyone you want, it doesn't even have to be someone you know personally or worked with, just someone who has had an impact on your career.

So here is my list:  5 People That Influenced My Career.  I suggest Including a name, relationship, current title, and description.  (These are in order of when we met, by the way)

*If you aren't familiar with "I've Been Tagged", it is a series of blog posts where the blogger writes 4 or 5 things about themselves.  Then the blogger "tags" 5 other people by adding their names to the post.  Those 5 people do the same.  Sure, it's kind of like a chain letter but there is a purpose.  It has spread to include many, many people.

In a recent blog post, Scott Hanselman writes about a topic that I have always felt strongly about - honoring those who have helped us in our lives.  He writes about how he got to where he is now, noting that if it were not for the help of his parents and some teachers, his life might be quite different.  He suggests that we do the same, blogging about how we got to where we are.  And he mentions Paying It forward.

I've always like the concept of Pay It Forward.  This can mean different things to different people. But here is how it fits into my career...

As a kid, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life.  Some people seemed to know right away what they wanted to do for a living and that always frustrated me.  I guess around junior year in high school we start looking into colleges.  Time to pick a school, a major, and possibly a career that we'll have for the rest of our lives.  I had no idea what to do.  I wasn't a great student in the first place.  I spoke to some friends and family and decided that Communications seemed like a good major. 

Through college I worked at a movie theatre and decided that I wanted to put my degree in Communications to work in the film industry (distribution, not production).  It took a while but a few years after college I got a break and was off to work at Sony Pictures Releasing (at the time called Triumph Releasing). 

I was always interested in computers and programming but didn't have a head for all of the math back in high school or college.  But at work I looked for ways to get involved with technology and I liked it more and more.  I worked with Spreadsheets, Access Databases, helped with Operating System issues...whatever I could do to get some kind of experience.  I was loving technology.  I taught myself about Access databases, the best I could do on my PC with no programming experience, and wrote some cool programs using VBA.  I couldn't have done it without the help of friends.  In particular, my friend Marc spent a lot of time explaining stuff like programming and database normalization to me.  He often jokes how we'd sit on the beach and he'd be checking out the girls but I kept asking him about problems with the programs I was writing!   I guess my inner geek had been released.  But Marc always made time to help me.  And he encouraged me too.  While I was having fun with programming, he seemed to think I had some real abilities and encouraged me to change careers.  Other people helped too.  My friend Doug had a lot of experience with Access DB's.  I emailed him with some questions and he went above and beyond and really helped me with the programs I was writing.  I was really surprised at the amount of time and support he gave me.   People, some that I didn't know very well, went out of their way to help me learn and they got nothing in return.  It was very generous. 

Fast forward to around mid 2002.  I had been working as a programmer for a few years doing Java, JSP, PL/SQL, etc and had been hearing about Microsoft .Net.  It sounded really good to me.  I started reading some books and took on a side project.  Marc suggested that I check out Philly.Net telling me that I could learn a lot at the meetings. At my first meeting I was lost.  Some guy was talking about a bunch of stuff that was way over my head.  And then it happened.  As a side note, sort of unrelated to what he was really doing, the presenter said "oh by the way, did you know you could do this...".  The "this" that followed was something I had been struggling with for weeks.  My problem was solved with a 30 second comment that wasn't even related to the presentation! From there I was hooked on Philly.Net.  I attended many great presentations and picked up a lot of knowledge.  If it were not for Bill running Philly.Net, and all of the presenters who shared their expertise, I would not have progressed as quickly with my career.

A few years later, Bill Wolff started asking for help with Philly.Net.  I volunteered and now I am pretty involved with helping Bill run the group.  I'm often asked why I put so much time and effort into our community.  I see it as Paying It Forward.  Many people have helped me a long the way with my career.  Some directly, some indirectly.  Now I get a chance to help other people with their careers.  I've mentored several people in .Net and I put a lot of effort into making sure that the Philadelphia .Net Community is strong so that people can learn and share information.  Now I realize that the people who helped me did in fact get something in return.  They got the pride and satisfaction that comes from helping other people.  It's a nice feeling.

With the baby on the way, it's time to buy a camcorder.  This is proving to be much more difficult than I thought.

I was really excited about this.  I love gadgets and electronics and I'm pretty handy with them.  There are all kinds of "gadget-guy types" out there and I am a combination of two of them.  First, I have that "gadget instinct" - I can usually pick up a device and not only figure out how to make it work but instinctually tap into the high end features.  On many occasion I have helped a friend with a device that they own but I have never seen before.  Second, I actually read the manual.  I'm such a geek.  But I like to know what my equipment can do, especially when it comes to something complicated like a camcorder.  Also, I have some experience with this stuff.  I used to shoot and edit videos (some professional stuff and a LOT of weddings).  But that was at least 15 years ago and a lot has changed.  And I have owned a few camcorders too but the last was probably 8 years ago.  So I have experience but I'm seriously out of the loop.

The first and probably biggest decision is format.  MiniDV, DVD, or HDD? 

It seems like MiniDV (little tape) is the popular standard.  The downside is that they are slow to put onto the computer and you can't quickly access different portions of video.  The upside is that the picture quality is supposed to be the best, which seems odd to me.  It sure would seem like the quality on a DVD or Hard Drive would be better but I guess the camera use more compression with those formats.  Plus, you can only play these back with the camera, unless you migrate them and burn DVDs.  It seems that this technology is old and on the way out.

DVD seemed like a cool option.  Shoot video and stick it into your DVD player - couldn't be easier.  But this has drawbacks too.  It seems that this doesn't work with all editing software.  And some reviews say you need to "finalize" the DVD before watching it, and then you can't put it back in the camera to shoot more vide.  But, some people have told me this isn't true.  Maybe the newer models work differently...I don't know.  Plus, DVD has a short time span, I think 20-30 minutes on a DVD.  That could be a pain but probably not too often.

At first, Hard Drive (HDD) seemed like a bad idea to me because of the durability issue.  But many people seem to think that these portable hard drives are pretty strong.  It makes me a little nervous.  But the cool part is that you can store hours of video on the camera.  I was really surprised to read the the manufacturers use a lot of compression though, so the quality isn't the best.  But it's really easy to move files between the camera and the PC for editing and storage.  I still can't figure out if these formats work well with editing software.  I think that this format will catch on and some of the issues it will get better quickly.  But I am leaning in this direction.

Next comes the HD question.  HD is cool, no doubt.  But is it worth the extra money?  Buying electronics is always depressing because as soon as you buy something it is outdated and replaced by a better, cheaper model.  I am sure this is the case with the HD cameras.  They are still quite a bit more expensive then the regular models.  I don't know if it is worth a few hundred dollars extra yet, when all of the kinks haven't been worked out yet.  Plus, I don't know if I can edit the HD video with the same software.

Features, features, features.  There are so many options on these things that it is tough to weigh out all the pros and cons.  Some people like just the basics.  But I think I'll use some of the advanced settings.  I have a digital camera and I am always playing with the exposure time and aperture to tweak my photos.

So here is what I want in my Camcorder... so far.

• Size - Small to Mid sized.  Doesn't need to be tiny, but nothing too large.
• Format - I think I am leaning towards Hard Drive (HDD)
• High Def - NOPE, I think I'll wait on that.
• Video Quality - High
• Features - Bells and Whistles include:
• Good battery life
• Wide Screen Format
• Manual Control (focus, white balance, etc)
• View finder would be nice (for sunny day shooting)
• Good image stabilization
• Good in low light
• Mic and headphone jack
• etc
• Editing:  Must be compatible with typical editing software and not limited to manufacturers proprietary editing software.

And the winner is... I still have no idea!  Let me know if you have any suggestions.

A cool thing happened at work today.  Dean was stuck trying to figure out how to get the EditItem from an asp:Listview.  So he hits his favorite search engine to look for an answer.  Believe it or not, the first item in the search result was a link to a post on my blog!  Dean got his answer.  But I thought that was the coolest thing that he his answer could have come from anywhere in the world but he searched and got a post from the guy sitting right across from him!

Some time ago my wife and I found out that our baby, due in Feb, will be a boy!  It's really sinking in that this baby is coming.  As weird as that sounds, my friends with kids say they felt the same way.  I guess it is harder for men, since we aren't actually pregnant.  Now the responsibility of being a parent is starting to kick in. 

As if it isn't bad enough that this poor guy is going to inherit my genes, I now face my first real situation to screw this kid up - picking a name for him.  This is a tough choice for many reasons but my wife and I are discussing a few options.  We've chosen to keep the name a secret.  That's partly because the surprise will be fun, and partly because it shields us from a lot of criticism and suggestions.  If we tell people we're gonna call him "X" people will tell us what they think, good or bad.  But if wait and announce it after he is born, people can't really criticize us, it is too late!

My second dilemma is pretty serious too.  As I write this post, I am watching the NY Giants game.  Yes, I am a fan of the NY Giants, living in the Philadelphia suburbs.  I grew up in central NJ and have always been a big Giants fan.  My wife and her family are, of course, Eagles fans.  So this is a big situation.  Which team in this classic NFL rivalry will my child support?  Well, I am sorry to do this to him, but I plan to encourage him to back the Giants.  I'll try not to share my "anti-Eagles" attitude with him.  So when the Eagles are playing, I'll encourage him to cheer them on (I don't want him to get picked on too much!) but when they are playing NY, I hope he'll side with his old dad and cheer on the Giants.  Of course, he'll eventually make his own decisions so who knows what will happen.

As of Monday, 10/1, I'm starting a new job for a Web 2.0 startup.  I'm really excited about this great opportunity, I think it will be a big challenge in many ways.  This new job has a very high technology "cool" factor in my book.  For instance, they've been using VS2008 since May!  In addition to ASP.Net, I'll also use LINQ, AJAX, Silverlight and other cool stuff.  The team seems like a really smart group and I'll have a lot of catching up to do. 

Did I mention that the office is 5 miles from my house?  I haven't had that short a commute since I was 22!  For the past 3 years I've been in the car about 50 minutes each way commuting to and from work.  Many days were much longer.  I'm looking forward to getting that time back.  Also, this is much better, environmentally speaking.  This should make my personal carbon footprint much smaller!

I've enjoyed worked at Diamond for the past 3 years.  They've got a great team and I hope to stay in touch with many of them.  Leaving Diamond was not a simple decision but when a good opportunity presents itself, you have to take notice. 

Growing up, I had always heard people around me say "Where were you when it happened?"  The it was a variety of different events.  It was usually referring to when JFK was shot or another significant event in our history.  It seemed that each generation had it's own events that brought on this question.  I always thought those conversations were weird.  Why couldn't people just move on?  Why did they feel the need to dwell on that stuff?  What I hadn't realized is how fortunate I was.  My generation was lucky, we didn't really have any events that were so significant that we could never forget. 

Here it is, Sept 11, 2007.  And I can't help myself from asking that very question.  Ever since September 11, 2001, I understand why people ask that question.  It's not just that we can't forget, it is that we don't want to forget.  We shouldn't forget. 

I'm typically not the kind of person that remembers all kinds of details about days in my life.  But 9/11 is completely clear in my head.  I remember waking up in North Carolina, I was there for a lengthy consulting assignment.  I had been having some remote connection problems with my laptop.  I needed to call the desktop support team after 9am and I needed to do it from my apartment so I could test the system.  If it were not for that situation, I would have been at work before it happened.  I had the TV on, I was watching Good Morning America.  After some typical morning stories, Charlie Gibson announced that they were going to a live shot of lower Manhattan, where a plane had hit one of the towers.  Of course, all of the information that Gibson gave out at this point was hearsay.  Maybe it was a commuter plane?  Maybe it was a suicide?  I remember watching that live shot when the second plane hit.  My jaw dropped.  Everything was obvious at that point, this was not an accident.  The newscasters were in just as much shock as I was, just as I'm sure everyone else was that was tuned in.  I immediately called my friend Steve.  He lived in Battery Park City.  Not only was his apartment a few short blocks from what we now call "ground zero" but I knew he took the subway from the World Trade Center each morning.  Luckily, he was already in his office up town and his wife was fine too. I watched the coverage for a while and of course, I saw the towers go down.  There was also the news of flight 93 and the Pentagon as well. The whole situation was surreal.  I was very sad.  I was very confused.  I called my friend/coworker Chris.  He was in the apartment downstairs and I knew he typically went to work late.  He came up for a while and we watched the coverage together.  Eventually I went to work for a few hours, just for a change of scenery.  I couldn't watch the coverage any more.   Everyone was talking about it of course.  So many people were worried for someone they knew who lived or worked in lower Manhattan or the other affected areas.  Having recently lived in Hoboken, NJ (right across the river from Lower Manhattan) I served as source of information for many people in the office who had never visited the area.  My sad mood lasted for a long time, just as it did for many people.  Days later, Chris and I had to drive home to the Philly area because the airports were still closed.  My friend Steve's apartment was a wreck.  His windows had all blown in.  The building had a lot of damage.  He never lived there again.  And of course, many people died or were badly hurt (none that I knew personally).

I'm not sure what is harder to comprehend, each obviously for a different reason - The will of man to execute such a plot against his fellow man,  the loss of life on that day, or the bravery of men and women who risked their own lives to help others?  Tragic events like 9/11 continue to prove the complexity and sadness of life.

With a child of my own on the way now, I really hope future generations never understand why we ask the question "Where were you when it happened?"  They should be so lucky.

I've got some speaking engagements coming up.  It almost sounds like an official tour is planned.

Presentation Topic: Developing Custom Controls for ASP.Net

Description:  In this demo I'll show you how to get started creating your own custom server controls for asp.net.  I'll show how to create controls, expose public properties to make them easier for other developers to implement, and handle events from the control.  We'll  create a ControlDesigner so Visual Studio can render the control at design time.  I'll even build some extra features into the control using Ajax.

Where:

• Saturday, September 15 2007 at Philly.Net (Code Camp)
• Monday, October 15 at Lehigh Valley.Net
• Thursday, October 25 at the Northern Delaware .Net User Group
• Saturday, December 1 at the Central Penn .Net Users Group (Code Camp)

I'm really excited to get out to some of these other groups for these presentations.  If you live near any of these groups, check them out.  They've all got regular, monthly meetings with great .Net content.  I've also got calls in to Madison Square Garden, LA Coliseum, Wembley Stadium and others.  But I haven't heard back from them yet.

Please, no brown M&M's.

Update:  When I get some time I'll be writing the demo out as a tutorial blog post.  In the mean time, if you are interested in the source code for this demo, here it is:

ControlsDemo.zip (1.05 MB)

It's official, I'm going to be a dad.  Of course, I am pretty excited about it but I am also pretty nervous.  Life as I know it is about to change. 

My wife and I have been telling our friends and family about our expected baby.  More then one person responded to me with "So you got one past the goalie!"  Goalie?  What goalie?  The goalie was already in the locker room.  If the goalie was anywhere near the goal she'd have been helping with rebounds! 

Telling the women we know is a lot of fun.  They all seem so sincere about how great it is to be parents and how much we'll love our child, etc, etc.  Some of my male friends have a different response.  They say they are happy for me, but behind their words I hear a sort of sinister laugh.  The kind of laugh that says they can't wait to watch me dealing with all of the issues.  A "misery loves company" kind of thing.  Thanks guys.  Maybe I shouldn't have made fun of them all these years about how I can sleep late, do whatever I want do (spontaneously), and relax at will.  Maybe I shouldn't have played with their kids until they were completely out of control and then, with a simple "See ya", walk out the door.   What's that they say about pay backs?

Na, nothing to worry about.  This is gonna be a piece of cake...

In May I was tagged by by Pete Laudati.  Well it took me a while but it is time for my response.  Here are 5 things you may not know about me.

1.  I've had a significant career change.  I studied communications in college.  I had big plans to get into TV or Film productions.  Maybe even radio.  Throughout college and a few years afterwards too, I worked as a movie theater manager.  From there I moved on to Sony Pictures in NYC as a film booker and then Clearview Cinemas in NJ  as a film buyer.  As part of my job I got to watch a lot of movies and decide at which of our theatres they would play.  This was a great job with a lot of perks.  I even got to go to several movie premiers and parties in NYC.  But I was always interested in computers and after many years of debate, I made my move in 2000.  I took a significant pay cut but I knew that technology field was booming and I'd make the money up in a few years.  Do I need to remind you what happened next?  The dot-com bust.  Oh well, it took me a little longer to get my salary back up but I have never regretted it.  I love working in technology.  My inner (ok, and outer) geek can really shine.

2.  I love movies.  That helped make my previous career a lot of fun.  I like many different types of movies...comedies, dramas, sci-fi, action, etc.  I'm not really into horror, that stuff freaks me out a bit.  And I am a tough critic too.  I like good character development, a solid plot and many of the other components of a quality film.   Some favorites are Blazing Saddles, Stripes, Fletch, Shawshank Redemtion, the Lord of the Rings series, Star Wars and many more.

3.  I play guitar.  I'm not great, but I love to play and sing too.  I play rhythm guitar and prefer acoustic to electric.  I'll only embarrass myself if I try to play a lead.  I taught myself to play (around age 24) with the help of some friends when I was getting started.  I was in a band named "Ale" for a while.  We played a bunch of parties for friends.   I've written a bunch of songs too.  I enjoy that and people seem to like some of them.  A few bands I like:  The Beatles, REM, U2, Bruce Springsteen, Grateful Dead and much more.

4.  I'm from NJ.  Since I was tagged by Peter and he mentioned NJ a lot in his post, I figured I'd better do the same.  The funny part is after we met we figured that we were from the same home town, Manalapan, only I was in High School a bit earlier then him.  I hate when people bad mouth NJ.  Sure, there are some bad parts and lots of traffic and (I'm sure) some toxic waste, and more then a few body buried in the pine barrens.  But NJ has many great features too.  Lots of farm land with the best tomatoes and corn, beautiful countryside, easy access to two of the best and largest cities in the country (no, not Camden and Newark) and much more.  What really gets me going is when people from Philadelphia (I live in the Philly suburbs now) sit on NJ beaches and bad mouth NJ!  If you don't like it, go home!

5.  I love to be out in nature.  I love camping, hiking, backpacking, biking, skiing, boating, kayaking, exploring, site seeing, relaxing and a bunch of other similar stuff.  My wife and I share that passion and we have had some great times together checking out great, natural places.  This year we took an awesome vacation visiting several national parks

Now it is my time to tag a few people:  Dani Diaz , Steve Andrews, Jeff Deville, and Jeff Caterer (sending the tag up to Canada!)

My wife Rebecca and I just got back from a great trip out west!  We took advantage of her spring break to head out to see some of our great  National Parks.  The trip was awesome.  I had been to Arizona before so I had seen some desert landscapes.  And I had been to Utah before but that was for skiing.  But there is no preparing for the beauty of these parks.  They were unlike anything I had seen before. 

You can read the stories below, or just look at the pictures included, all of which were taken with my camera.  If you click them, they get bigger!

After spending a quick night near the airport in Las Vegas, we hopped in our cool rental,  a blue Chevy Malibu.  In about two hours we arrived at Zion National Park.  Our first stop was the campground to find a place to sleep.  We got a nice spot with a fantastic view!  It was March 31 and Zion's official season started on April 1.  That meant it was the last day that cars are allowed on the scenic road through the park.  So we decided to take a car-tour of the park.  We stopped at the Court of the Patriarchs, Weeping Rock, and a few other stops, eventually making our way to the Temple of Sinawava.  The sites were great all along the way.  Dinner was Rebecca's famous (well,  famous for us) Campground Pizza cooked on the open fire.  The next morning I made us omelettes with fresh bell pepper and cheese (on the camping stove) and we headed out for Angels Landing.  This is a great day hike (1500 ft climb in 5 miles, about 4.5 hours including a 45 minute lunch break).  A lot of people tried to scare us off this one saying it was too scary and dangerous.  That's because the last 1/2 mile is a steep hike on narrow cliffs.  There are permanently anchored chains to help you hold on.  But in the end we didn't think it was too scary at all.  That didn't take away from the fact that it was an amazing hike.  After an exhausting hike up the steep lower portion of the trail we got to the even more steep "Wiggles" which brings you to the first great scenic overlook.  This is where a lot of people end their day but we continued on the true peak.  Scrambling along the rest of the way with the help of the chains was a lot of fun.  And the view from the top was well worth it.  It was a great place for our lunch.  Not a good place to be if you are scared of heights but otherwise great.  The hike down was much quicker but pretty tough on the knees!

  Our second night was fun, we had an easy dinner... mac and cheese.  The sky was again very clear with an almost full moon.  The next morning after pancakes we were off for Bryce Canyon National Park.  Bryce is hard to explain, you just have to see it.   Bryce is full of Hoodoos, these crazy rock formations that.  From a distance, you'd swear must have been man made.  After once again pitching our tent on an incredible camp site, we headed off to the scenic drive to check out the awesome vistas.  After an early dinner (I made sauteed chicken and red bell pepper with couscous on the camp stove) we headed back to Inspiration Point (I kept thinking of Ritchie Cunningham..."I found my thrill on Blueberry Hill") to watch the sunset.  After a "chilly" night at around 30 degrees, we   went out for a day hike of the "Figure 8", an 8 mile (I think) combination of three trails:  The Navajo, Queens Garden, and the Peek-A-Boo Loop.  It goes right through the heart of the park's natural "amphitheaters".  On this trail we got to explore the Hoodoos that we had admired from above on the previous day.  The sun was bright and hot, it was hard to believe  the temperature was only in the 50's all day.  Also, we have learned that the key to solitude in these parks seems to be the longer day hikes.  You start out with a lot of people but if you hike out a little bit the crowd thins as most people don't do the 4-6 hour hikes that we like.  So we did have some quiet, peaceful time out with the Hoodoos.

After another night camping around the freezing mark, we packed up and headed down to warmer climates at Lake Powell in the Glen Canyon Recreation Area.  Since the lake was about 1/2 way to the Grand Canyon, we figured we'd spend a day there.  After a quick stop to check out the Glen Canyon Dam (a pretty cool dam) we pitched our tent at the campground overlooking the lake.  Since the previous parks did not have showers, we figured this would be a good time to wash up.  We grabbed a handful of quarters and hit the "pay" showers.  All cleaned up, we were off to the town of Page for lunch.  Unfortunately, we quickly discovered there wasn't anything to do in Page and the Lake didn't offer much entertainment without a boat.  Uh oh, time for a change of plans... we are outta here.  We decided to bail on this stop and head for the Grand Canyon.  This would give us an extra 1/2 day there to explore.  There are really only a few decent hotels near the Grand Canyon in Tusayan (I knew the ones inside the park itself were already sold out).  I called all 5 of them and got lucky on the last one, getting a room for the night.  By the time we checked in there were no vacancies left in town so I think we got lucky!  (We changed hotels the next day to the one we had booked previously) From here on out, we are no longer camping.  Hotels, restaurants, and climate control!

  Our first view of the Grand Canyon was from the Eastern entrance by the watch tower.  Of course we  had big expectations and the Grand Canyon did not disappoint.  It is huge. It is beautiful.  It is amazing.  There is no question why it is one of the 7 wonders of the world.  We stopped along the way a few more times to check out the vistas (it is a long drive into park) and before long it was near dusk so we stopped one last time to check out the sunset.   We spent our first full day at the Grand Canyon hiking the South Kaibab trail (6 miles round trip, very steep, no available water).  Unfortunately we planned this trip too late so we could not get a permit to hike to the bottom and camp overnight.  But the Kaibab trail was a great way to go part of the way down into the canyon for a short while.  It was pretty crowded until the first rest area where most people quit.  We pushed on and made it to Skeleton Point where we could see the Colorado River for the first time.  We had lunch and relaxed before the hard part, the hike back up the canyon.  That evening we caught  up with Rebecca's friend Shaine and her husband Brett who drove in from Colorado to spend  some time with us at the Canyon.  Brett used to guide hiking and rafting trips in the Grand  Canyon so spending the day with him is like having a personal tour guide.  It was very educational and a lot of fun for me since I like a lot of facts.  Since they have a four-month old baby Rosie, we were limited to the rim trails for the next day but the views were incredible and we saw a lot of the canyon, staying now mainly to the west side of the park.  We also had the treat of several California Condor sightings. 

The next morning we headed back to Las Vegas for one night before our flight home on Sunday.  But I'll write more about Vegas, it deserves its own post.

Once again Rebecca and I had great adventure.  We met a lot of nice people along the way, saw many, many incredible sights, and had a lot of fun together.   I am already looking forward to our next trip (which has yet to be planned)!   Also, I am planning on posting some more pictures on the web soon.

Time for all of us to confess.  I know that don't do a good job of it.  Once in a while I copy a bunch of files from the hard drive on my PC to a portable USB drive.  I try to do a better job with photos so when I push them to my PC I also put them on the portable drive.  But it is easy to get out of sync.  Well, that is hardly a "backup plan".  I really need to come up with a better strategy.  Scott Hanselman had a post about this topic and it got me thinking.  

I am planning to install Vista in the next few weeks.  Vista seems to have some cool backup features built in so maybe that will help.  Once it is set up I will blog about it again to tell how well it is working.

Isn't it odd that we put a lot of thought into this for our clients and employers yet for our own data we are pretty lazy?  Good luck to us all.

The other night after the Philly.Net meeting I was talking to Peter Laudati about my new blog.  He suggested I check out Windows Live Writer (Beta).  Basically, it is a Windows application that lets you edit/save your blog posts on your PC and publish them too.  It has some pretty cool features that I am pretty sure will make my blogging easier too.

For instance, I added this picture of the Colosseum very easily (yes, I took the photo).  OK, that's no big deal.  But this made it VERY easy to adjust the appearance including the size, border, margins and add the water mark.  Plus, it was easy for me to wrap the text on the side of the picture.  I couldn't do that with my web interface.

A map of Philadelphia!

Another cool feature is that you can add maps and aerial photos in!  This is all done with Live.com. So I added this map.  I tried to do an aerial photo of my house but each time I inserted it, it changed to a picture of someone else's house!  So I guess that is why this is called Beta software.  But otherwise this is a really nice tool.

So if you are blogging, check out Windows Live Writer (Beta). 

Since today is the last full day of winter, it seems appropriate to blog about the ice storm we suffered through on Friday.  What a mess.  I had no idea how bad the weather was until I left my office.  Luckily, I was warned by my wife to leave early.  As soon as I got outside it was apparent that this was gonna be a bad ride home.  My usual 45-55 minute commute turned into almost 2 hours to get home.  I don't think I had ever seen so many cars on the side of the road.  Anyway, I made it home without any problems.  The snow/sleet/ice/rain continued to come down for a while.  Unfortunately, the wind was blowing in just the right direction because we had a snow drift in front of the door to the house.  It wasn't that deep but it was frozen solid!  Same problem with the back door!  Uh oh, we are stuck in the house.  So I had to climb out the front window.

The snow wasn't that deep but clearing the driveway was a huge pain because it was solid ice!