Easy Chair Talks Back

And now for something "completely different", er controversial

2010-08-23T20:30:00.001-04:00

I came across this on Facebook today (thanks Chris)!!

After spending a good 15 years making and supporting vaccine quality at Merck, I got a little tired of the anti-vaccination movements supported by charlatans like Andrew Wakefield. This british gastroentreologist conducted some poorly designed "research" showing linkages between autism and administration of childhood vaccines containing thimerosal, a mercury containing preservative since banned.

The studies were flawed, an outbreak of measles and other controllable diseases were easily attributable to the anti vaccine movement, but none speak how I feel better than Penn and Teller!

Posted via email from The Easy Chair

Ride to Hellertown

2010-07-31T17:04:00.004-04:00

A beautifully cool Saturday morning to finish July!

Ran into some friends on a different route 30 miles from home and then a second time (Steve and Michele). A great time. still working out kinks for vibration from camera.

Where is my iPad?

2010-07-30T12:54:00.001-04:00

Ok.

So for a self-proclaimed gadgetophile, I reacted slowly...

But now my friends are rubbing it in. By the time I decided I had to have one (acting like the South Park characters in the famous Best Buy video). Is it a big iPhone? "I don't care."

So I start my search. Realize that Best Buy's online inventory isn't worth a hill of beans and make 40 calls for a 16 or 32 gig wifi..to no avail. I dismiss the 3G versions as more than I want to pay and, of course, I knew then about the Library of Congress ruling to make jailbreaking legal :)

So why pay 2 data plans. Jailbreak the phone, make it a 3G hotspot and connect the WIFI iPad!

Easy if you can find one.

So I continue my quest at the local Apple retailer Mac Outfitters, locally in beautiful Doylestown. I put myself on waiting lists for 2 models, 23 and 8-deep respectively. After a week, they get no shipments!

I go to Apple online and place my order for a 32 gig WIFI with protection plan and a camera adaptor to attach camera via USB.

Then the idea for a Doylestown Bar Camp comes together. On the 22nd of July, I attend a planning meeting and am subjected to the scene below.

Download now or watch on posterous

IMG_0925.MOV (3564 KB)

Yesterday, my friend Angela at Bucks Happening tweets "I got an IPAD!!!!". This is the final straw! Where did she get one, I ask. "Oh, I planned a friends wedding and she gave it to me as a gift!" Here I am turning over every blessed rock on the East Coast and some one drops one on her door step and says "enjoy!"

The fina straw today was when the item below arrived from China (on a slow boat, I presume). Great, I can really find a use for this!

So I wait until August 9th to get mine. How much more angst by then?

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M.O.M.'s Beer tasting Dinner

2010-07-27T17:08:00.001-04:00

Attended a 4 course beer tasting meal at Maxwell's on Main (M.O.M.'s) last night. Some intersting beers including some California microbrews and a local one infused with tea from Prism Brewery in North Wales, PA. Second and third course served with Coronado's Idiot IPA and the Bruery's Trade Wind Tripel.

All in all, company was good, beers were interesting and food and service was great. My only opportunity for improvement would be that they had 8-10 oz pours and the portions of food were miniscule (main course served on a saucer size plate).

Given the volume of beer and the hour, the expecation was a normal size meal!

some of the group of beer aficionados

friends Geoff and Chris

Download now or watch on posterous

IMG_0042.mov (10091 KB)

a pan of the 20 or so attendees

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Patriot Triathlon - near Wind Gap, PA

2010-07-25T14:03:00.001-04:00

This morning I cycled up to see my CyclePA traning partners Joanna and Jerry race in this race. It was about 8 miles north of Bath, PA. Even though I left at 5 am, I didnt make it for the swim leg. Arrived just in time to change and see my friends finishing the cycle leg

a mile south of the race. shooting toward Blue Mountain

Jerry coming in after the cycle leg

Download now or watch on posterous

IMG_0040.mov (5371 KB)

Jerry sprinted toward the finish. 13th overall!

Download now or watch on posterous

patriot.wmv (23208 KB)

Joanna gets 3rd overall despite injury

Joanna and Ginny (3rd and 2nd respectively)

Team Nutrition in Motion

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River to River Ride

2010-07-24T17:12:00.001-04:00

This ride benefits the Heritage Conservancy, a great cause to preserve our area. This was our first year doing the ride with my CyclePA bud, Mike Rubillo and beau of my friend Angela Giovine of Bucks Happening and LimeEvents. His name was Sal and he's a great guy.

We wrangled with the ride organizers about the sanity of doing the 50 mile Bucks loop first followed by the 50 mile Montgomery loop (Its set up as 25,50 and 100 miles). We were going to ride the 100, but due to the less shady and more trafficked Montgomery loop being second in the heat of the day, we opted for the 50.

It was a very nice route, but one of the rest stops at mile 13 was well secreted or missing. Consensus was the latter. Though we had fun (see above), the rudeness of the organizers when both my friend and I asked questions will leave me looking to find another way to support the Conservancy in the future!

Posted via email from The Easy Chair

Bucks County on Two Wheels (in motion)

2010-07-22T11:06:00.001-04:00

After two tries, I found a mount for my newest gadget: my waterproof 1080p videocam the Kodak ZX3 (Playsport). I hope to be able to continue my Bucks County on Two Wheels series from Facebook and Flickr.

A few of these are below.

Peace Valley Park, my favorite spot in the county

Rickerts Road Farm, Doylestown

Cutalossa Farm, Solebury

Cabin Run Covered Bridge

So I hope to be able to add video to this now that I have found a safe way to ride shoot video. A first raw clip is below.

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Jerry We miss you!

2010-07-20T21:17:00.001-04:00

My cycling bud and engineer extraordinaire Jerry had the nerve to send me this photo today at WORK. I believe he is playing hookie as this does not look like a PENNDOT civil engineering job but more like an all inclusive spot in Jamaica... YA MON. rest up, J, I will be at your tri this Sunday, even if I have to ride 50 miles in the dark to get there. You supported me in CyclePA2010, bud!

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Frenchtown Bastille Fête 2010

2010-07-18T15:26:00.001-04:00

The 12th annual celebration to celebrate Bastille Day in Frenchtown, NJ. Though the only thing about it that's French is the name. We did have a nice time though. Lots of nice merchants, live music and food. And I maintained my mayoralty on Foursquare of two local venues!!

National Inn

Flags everywhere

Lisa browsing in CB studio

Elizabeth Gilbert's store Two Buttons (author of Eat Pray Love). It was Buddha Central

Download now or watch on posterous

IMG_0012.mov (787 KB)

Panorama of Main Street

Download now or watch on posterous

IMG_0020.mov (3495 KB)

These kids were playing at CB studio, where Lisa minced up her wallet. Nice stuff though!

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Now that CyclePA 2010 is Over...

2010-07-13T17:12:00.001-04:00

Our campaign to hit our fundraising goal for Make a Wish still continues. You can find our page here to make a tax deductible contribution! The great memories from the trip are located on the CyclePA blog.

Mike Rubillo and I appreciate your support!

Much of our trip followed the PA South route shown below, which was a total accident! Working with PennDot to gain one of these sign as a momento.

We are hoping to do another fundraising effort next year and hope we can solicit your participation then!

Posted via email from Easy Chair's Posterous

Cycle PA 2010

2010-07-04T20:26:00.001-04:00

Please check my other blog here and consider helping our Make a Wish drive here!!

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Open Lands on Martha's Vineyards

2010-06-25T16:20:00.001-04:00

We explored this one on foot today since it was a gloriously clear and moderately warm Friday in June. No one was there. Located on North road about .7 miles west of Tabor House Rd, it is marked by a small sign.

Some spectacular vistas and beautiful land. Believe its about 211 acres. Learn more about it on the Trustees website here. You can find it on a Google map here!

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Cycling on Martha's Vineyard

2010-06-24T16:51:00.001-04:00

I live in Bucks County, PA, which has some of the most beautiful countryside with untravelled roads. I am moving to Greenville, SC in the next year which has more of the same, especially north of town toward the NC border.

I come to Martha's Vineyard each year of the last 12 to relax in June. the cycling and countryside here is superb (at least this time of year). Count all the cars in the video below!

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Spring in the Northeast

2010-04-17T16:13:00.001-04:00

Each year I look forward to April and May. Moderate temperatures, beautiful colors and nature comes alive once more. As much as I love to vacation and dive in tropical climates, living in an area where we can experience all four seasons and the wonderful annual cycle of nature is hard to beat!

Click for large Flickr image.

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Welcome to Googleville?

2010-04-02T16:14:00.001-04:00

By Dan Fletcher / Greenville Monday, Apr. 12, 2010 (via TIME magazine)

Scott Barbour / Getty Images

It would have been easy to mistake the thousands of people assembled in Greenville clutching their colored glow sticks and chanting the name of an all-knowing entity for worshippers at some sort of kooky New Age outdoor revival. But it wasn't God who inspired this crowd of 2,200 to gather on a recent Saturday night. It was Google — and the chance that this South Carolina city might be able to coax down the manna of super-high-speed Internet from tech-giant heaven. (See 10 tech trends for 2010.)

Since Google unveiled plans in February to build — for free — an ultra-fast fiber-optic network in one or more U.S. cities, local officials across the land have been engaged in quirky battles of one-upmanship to get their hometown chosen as a demo site. Topeka, Kans., renamed itself Google for the month of March. The mayor of Sarasota, Fla., went swimming in a shark tank as a publicity stunt. And Greenville organized a "We Are Feeling Lucky" campaign — a play on Google's second most famous search button — with enough glow sticks to form a massive Google logo in a downtown park. (See historical photos on Google Earth.)

How much speed does it take to inspire such fervor? The broadband network that Google is offering may cost as much as $1 billion to build and will be able to transmit 1 gigabit per second. That's fast enough to download a feature-length DVD movie in about 70 seconds — and more than 100 times as fast as the typical connection available in the U.S., which ranks 22nd in the world in network speed, according to Akamai, an Internet-analytics firm. The Google guys are doing this to help spur the U.S. to overtake Romania and other we-can't-believe-we're-slower-than-they-are countries.

Greenville's geek-savvy campaign was a fast operation too; it came together in less than 14 days. Highlights included a YouTube channel and a cartoon with instructions on how to participate in the glow-stick event (plus a tout for the town as the birthplace of a co-inventor of the laser, which gave rise to fiber optics). "We're a city in the midst of reinventing itself as a tech community, and we think Google Fiber could really help," says Aaron von Frank, the baby-faced 31-year-old tech developer who spearheaded the effort to get Google's attention as local officials completed the documentation necessary to keep the city in the running. (See the story of Google's doodles.)

Competition is stiff: as of March 26, the deadline for cities to submit information, Google said it had received more than 1,100 applications. It will analyze each city's demographics and infrastructure before deciding on one or more locations by the end of the year. "One of the top things we're looking for is to develop the network as quickly and efficiently as possible," spokesman Dan Martin says. "We're not looking for special treatment, but we do want to find a community that wants to work with us."

If efficiency is Google's main criterion, von Frank says he likes Greenville's chances. "It's a tight-knit community that comes together to get things done," he says. In short order, thousands of people formed a Google chain. Now Greenville has to wait to see whether faster connections will follow.

See the best pictures from Google's candid camera.

See the 50 best websites of 2009.

Posted via web from Easy Chair's Posterous

#GoogleonMain Celebration: Greenville, SC

2010-03-21T07:13:00.001-04:00

A brief video clip from my iPhone taken from the "e" as 2,000 of us spelled out G-o-o-g-l-e in Reedy Park on the first day of spring. Electric, er battery-powered experience

Posted via web from Easy Chair's Posterous

Dogs of the Vineyard

2010-03-19T21:07:00.001-04:00

In 2006, snapped these goldens while waiting for the ferry from Woods Hole to MV

Posted via web from Easy Chair's Posterous

Dogs of the Vineyard

2010-03-19T21:06:00.001-04:00

In 2006, snapped these goldens while waiting for the ferry from Woods Hole to MV

Posted via web from Easy Chair's Posterous

Google on Main!! Greenville and Google Fiber!!

2010-03-18T15:09:00.003-04:00

For those who think this is bizarre, this is part of Greenville's submission to Google's FIber to the home project detailed here.

Posted via web from Easy Chair's Posterous

Sunrises are beautiful anywhere!

2010-03-17T08:00:00.002-04:00

Barry
Sent from my 3GS

* Please excuse my brevity and typos!

Posted via email from Easy Chair's Posterous

Blue Spotted Ray

2010-03-13T10:04:00.001-05:00

Close-up from trip to Malaysia last year ((Kapalai near Sipadan)

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Singapore Botanic Gardens: National Orchid Farms

2010-02-14T15:43:00.001-05:00

This beautiful attraction has been in existence over 150 years. You can learn more about at their website. We spent 6 hours there last march and it was amazing. Spotless (as is everything else) in Singapore, well marked, and easy to navigate.

The highlight was the National Orchid Garden where this photo was taken. The Google synopsis of the garden is found here. My advice is to not do one of the multi-stop bus tours to the Botanic Gardens; they will give you an hour that will leave you aching for more.

Every item in the entire facility is meticoulously tagged for the avid botanist (not me; I just enjoyed the beauty).

On our trip, there were a handful of other sites recommended to us, this was not among them. Hopefully if someone reads this and is headed to Singapore soon, they won't make a mistake by missing this!!

Posted via email from Easy Chair's Posterous

Siri: Awesome new mobile app for iPhone with AI

2010-02-05T12:29:00.001-05:00

Well, I said that if it was as cool as adveritsed I'd be blogging here. Almost better than the app is the pedigree of the senior management team. Read on!!

Siri is created by an all-star team of designers and engineers drawn from Google, Yahoo, Apple, Motorola, Netscape, eBay, RealTravel, SRI, NASA, and Xerox PARC.

Siri's Founders: Tom, Dag and Adam

Dag Kittlaus

Co-founder and CEO

Siri's CEO is Dag Kittlaus, who founded the company as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at SRI.
A serial innovator and consumer wireless internet veteran of 10 years in Scandinavia and the US, Dag is working on creating his third consecutive mobile internet product with over a million users.

Dag has held leadership roles as VP of Consumer Internet Services at Scandinavian telecom giant Telenor Mobile, and several consumer product groups at Motorola including GM of xProducts and founder and GM of Motorola's Interactive Media Group. He conceived and launched Screen3, a breakthrough consumer mobile application currently used by millions of users and adopted by Cingular, China Mobile, and Telefonica.

Adam Cheyer

Co-founder and VP of Engineering

Siri's VP of Engineering is Adam Cheyer, who joined the company from SRI, where he was the Program Director in SRI's Artificial Intelligence Center and Chief Architect of the CALO/PAL project. A pioneer in the areas of distributed computing, intelligent agents, and advanced user interfaces, Adam is the author of more than fifty peer-reviewed publications and nine patents. He was previously the VP of Engineering at Dejima and the VP of Engineering at Verticalnet. Adam is also a founding member of Change.org and Genetic Finance, LLC.

Tom Gruber

Co-founder, CTO, and VP Design

Siri's CTO is Tom Gruber, a recognized expert in Artificial Intelligence, intelligent interfaces, and semantic technologies. Tom was a founder and CTO of RealTravel, a knowledge sharing site for travel; a founder and CTO of Intraspect, a collaborative knowledge management application for business; and a founder and Chief Scientist at Consider Solutions. Products designed by Tom are used by millions of consumer and professional users. He was a pioneering researcher at Stanford in the use of Web for knowledge sharing and semantic integration, and helped establish the technical foundations of the Semantic Web.Tom has served as advisor to SocialText, LinkedIn, Powerset, and others.

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"The Gates"

2010-01-31T10:26:00.001-05:00

Going through the archives, I came about this 2005 trip to New York to see this amazing exhibit. Details below

The Gates is a site-specific work of art by Christo and Jeanne-Claude. The artists installed 7,503 vinyl "gates" along 23 miles (37 km) of pathways in Central Park in New York City. From each gate hung a panel of deep saffron-colored nylon fabric. The exhibit ran from February 12, 2005 through February 27, 2005.

The books and other memorabilia distributed by Christo and Jeanne-Claude refer to the project as The Gates, Central Park, New York, 1979–2005 in reference to the time that passed from the artists' initial proposal until they were able to go ahead with it.
The Gates were greeted with mixed reactions. Some people loved them for brightening the bleak winter landscape; others hated them, accusing them of defacing the landscape. Some cyclists saw them as an obstruction which could cause accidents, although cycling is not legal on those paths. They received a great deal of their nationwide fame as a frequent object of ridicule by David Letterman as well as Keith Olbermann, whose apartment was nearby. (notes courtesy of Wikipedia).

My Social Media Personae

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Apple reports record revenue and profits for Q1 2010

2010-01-25T21:09:00.001-05:00

by Kelly Hodgkins on January 25th, 2010 at 5:21pm
Filed under: Apple, Breaking News20 Comments

Apple reported its financial results for Q1 2010 which ended December 26, 2009 and the results were nothing short of impressive. Apple posted its all time highest quarterly revenue, its all time highest quarterly profit and when annualized, these numbers will push Apple into a $50+ billion per year company. Dollar figures that are so impressive they don’t require an explanation, so we will let the numbers speak for themselves:

Revenue of $15.68 billion ($11.88 billion in Q1 2009)

58% of revenue derived from international sales

Net quarterly profit of $3.38 billion or $3.67 per diluted share ($2.26 billion, or $2.50 per diluted share in Q1 2009)

Gross margin of 40.9 percent (37.9 % in Q1 2009)

$5.8 billion generated in cash

Sales of Macintosh computers and iPhones went through the roof in Q1 2010 with Apple selling 3.36 million computers and 8.7 million iPhones, representing a 33% unit increase for Macintosh sales and 100% unit growth for the iPhone when compared to Q1 2009. The only blotch on an otherwise stellar performance was the iPod which sold 21 million units in Q1 2010, an 8% unit drop from the same quarter last year. Estimates for Q2 2010 remain equally as optimistic with the Cupertino company expecting another quarter of impressive revenue that will top out at an expected $11.4 billion. And oh yeah, Steve Jobs said, “The new products we are planning to release this year are very strong, starting this week with a major new product that we’re really excited about.”

Read

Tags: Apple, Financials, iPhone, iPod, Macintosh

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Taveuni, Fiji looking toward Matagi

2010-01-10T09:46:00.002-05:00

Taveuni, Fiji looking toward Matagi
Originally uploaded by petersbar

Going through my old photos, I found this and some other shots of our 3 trips to Taveuni in Fiji.

Its about a 90 minute flight on a small plane form the international entry point of Nadi (pronounced NAN-dee).

One of the most beautiful places I have been on my travels over 6 continents and 55 countries. Its the Kauai of Fiji, boasting beautiful waterfalls, beaches and spectacular diving in the Somosomo straits.

We stayed all visits at Dive Taveuni, owned by New Zealanders Rick and Do Cammick. They sold it a while back and returned to NZ after almost 20 years there.

A great vacation retreat and if you enjoy diving, a treasure!

Get Ready for 14-Megapixel Camera Phones

2010-01-04T21:25:00.002-05:00

Camera phones may soon offer more megapixels than some DSLR cameras. Imaging company OmniVision announced today that they have developed a 14.6-megapixel image sensor that will fit in cell phones. These sensors are capable of both high-resolution still photography and 1080p high-definition video recording.

I wonder how long it will be before camera phone imaging quality rivals the quality of the best point-and-shoot cameras.

(via Photography Bay)

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via petapixel.com

soon to carry only a phone, no camera...

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iPhone posterous test

2010-01-04T17:47:00.001-05:00

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Why DO I use Windows?

2009-12-27T08:24:00.005-05:00

My friends are asking me this all the time.

The latest foray that makes me question my sanity was trying to upgrade my main machine at home from Vista to Windows 7. Windows 7 is great they say (I guess compared to Vista; which was two days spent just for that Aero thingie).

After 12 hours, I have abandoned the upgrade path and am doing a fresh install, which means reinstalling all my programs. This was after 2 separate hangs, and applying a Microsoft fixit for the infamous 62 percent hang.

I've played with a MAC, guess the ONLY thing thats keeping me back, even after almost free MS stuff from the MS store, is the investment in software and that many of my favorite pieces of software don't run on a MAC.....

Happy Kwanzakuhmas!

2009-12-24T09:34:00.004-05:00

However you celebrate this joyous season it's another opportunity to be thankful for family and friends, past and present, here and above.

As we've aged, its no longer about giving of gifts, but of love and ourselves.

I wish everyone the happiest of holiday seasons.

The Aftermath

2009-12-08T06:10:00.004-05:00

Looking back on the party it seemed be a big success. Lots of work and fun. The
video was a big hit!

Below is the ustream recording. thanks to all that braved the storm to arrive on
time!

Party

2009-11-07T06:19:00.008-05:00

Spent the last couple of days since my wrist surgery planning Lisa's 60th birthday. Lots of milestones this year make you reminisce. 25 years of marital bliss on top of her birthday (October 27th).

In planning the party and making the guest list, I found lots of photos (memories) and remembered lots of friends from around the world.

We have invited friends from 5 continents and are broadcasting live to them on Ustream on December 5th! Sitting here racking my brain to see who I might surprise her with and just got a few brainstorms. Bye for now.

Sunrise

2009-09-25T18:09:00.010-04:00

Sunrise has so many meanings. Its the start to each day and the first seconds to make the most of it. I have begun to make it a ritual to begin to find amazing spots to enjoy and photograph this most beautiful of events.

The beginning of day, like the beginning of a life is both magical and mystical.

My favorite easy spot is at nearby Peace Valley Park in New Britain, PA.

The first and second of these were taken five minutes apart.

The light and sunrise grows as the day gets older. A couple of different metering tricks can produce different color but waiting will as well.

The last one was taken when a cold front came through and the air temperature was about 20F cooler than the water.

I am blessed to have Lake Galena so close to me.

If you have another great Bucks County location, drop me a line

The Greenville Saga Continues

2009-09-07T13:24:00.000-04:00

Just returned from a weekend in Greenville, confirming our love for the area. We stayed in the golf cottages at Cherokee Valley Golf Club. We spent most of the weekend trying to confirm our decision to build there. We visited the lot to see the 6,700 square foot McMansion going up next door.

Now I have nothing against large homes, but on a 0.3 acre lot!!

On top of this we find out that this (Cherokee Valley) semi-private course with intentions to go private sounds like it will be public ad infinitum. We found a house style that we thought we would like to build, a traditional Southern look like the second photo here. But could we make it work.

We set out the second day after taking a ton of photos of our lot to look for a golf club more like the one we have here. We fell in love with Greenville Country Club and then started to think that although the mountains are beautiful, its a bit too remote. I dont know if I can live without proper broadband and 3G wireless. I am spoiled?

Also the commute seemed better if we settled closer to the I-85 corridor since I would be commuting to Shelby, NC area a few days a week to work.

We'd certainly be sacrificing an amazing view to move closer to town, but would we be happier?

We had a great dinner at Saskatoon on Saturday night in town, recommended by new online friend, Trey Pennington. Very unique and good!

We met with a builder, Jason Bergeron of Bergeron Builders, on Sunday via a realtor. We realized that, although building has slowed dramatically, new home costs per square foot have not. So now, we're thinking possibly buying a used home.

Of course to do this, we would need to sell our lot next to the McMansion. Many folks might argue that a home of this value would increase the inherent value in our lot.. We'll see.

All in all, another great weekend Upstate, but one that gives us new information that answered some questions and raised others...stay tuned.

Freezing Sweet Corn

2009-08-30T11:55:00.001-04:00

Our annual assembly line in progress!

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2009-08-27T20:58:00.001-04:00

thanks to @joehewitt for an amazing piece of work on Facebook for #iphone 3.0!! bravo!

2009-08-17T05:39:00.001-04:00

making final plans for LHH network gathering tomorrow at www.redstonegrill.com in Plymouth meeting! Ping me for info.

2009-07-25T06:57:00.001-04:00

Reading "Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us" (Seth Godin) http://bit.ly/WQDOG great read on social media!!

2009-07-22T18:49:00.001-04:00

Organizing Lee Hecht Harrison alumni gathering in Plymouth Meeting, PA on 18-Aug. http://bit.ly/8qeDt ping me if interested!

2009-06-13T07:10:00.001-04:00

packing lightly for trip to Martha's Vineyard! http://bit.ly/rVHFM

Covered Bridges of Bucks County - Pine Valley

2009-06-11T17:56:00.003-04:00

The Pine Valley Covered Bridge is located just in New Britain just west of Doylestown. It is on Iron Hill Road and crosses Pine Run Creek. If you want to see and photograph the bridge there is a small community park, the New Britain Civic Association Covered Bridge Park with ample parking just off the south end of the bridge. The bridge is heavily traveled which makes walking through it hazardous at best.

Pine Valley Covered Bridge carries Old Iron Hill road across Pine Run Creek in New Britain Township. It was built in 1842 and is 81 feet long. It is just outside Doylestown.

Below is Cabin Run just North of the bridge with a cool little waterfall.

Video from the Vineyard - 2008

2009-06-07T14:53:00.004-04:00

Covered Bridges of Bucks County

2009-06-05T16:09:00.006-04:00

A map of the dozen plus bridges is located here. Much of the material here was found on the Scenic Bucks County Website

Given how cool they are and there is a lot of published info on them, I wanted to add them to my blog. I have ridden through all but 1 (Perkasie) on 2 wheels.

The Central Bucks Bicycle Club (CBBC) does an awesome ride through most of them every fall, thus I am familiar with their beauty and serenity.

The first in the series is Loux Covered Bridge.

The Loux Covered Bridge is one of the smaller covered bridges in Bucks County; you come upon it suddenly following Wismer Road as it bends and drops down to cross Cabin Run on the Bedminster/ Plumstead border. At short distance down stream this creek is crossed by Cabin Run Covered Bridge.

Location: Wismer Rd., Plumstead Twp.
Height Limit: 11 ft. Width: 15 ft.
Length: 60 ft. Weight Limit: 15 tons

History: BUILT of hemlock in 1874, you'll find this bridge is one of two bridges to span the Cabin Run Creek. Nestled in a scenic valley, it was built at the insistence of local residents who complained about the dangers of crossing the creek

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Salmon Fillets Stuffed With Crabmeat

2009-05-31T15:49:00.002-04:00

3 large, preferably thick, salmon fillets
1 pound backfin or other high quality crabmeat
1 egg
2 tsp. dry mustard
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp. Old Bay seasoning
3 Tbsp. mayonnaise
3 Tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
1 lemon

Cut a pocket in the center of each salmon fillet. Either slice through the fillet or make a slit in the middle and then cut from this slit into either side of the fillet. Don't worry too much about this process. You are just trying to get some sort of pocket to hold the crabmeat. Gently combine the remaining ingredients trying not to break up the lumps of crabmeat. Evenly divide the crabmeat mixture and stuff into each fillet pocket. Cut the lemon into three sections and squeeze one section over each fillet. As an alternative, you can cut the lemon into slices and lay the slices evenly over each fillet. Bake stuffed salmon for 30 - 45 minutes in a 375-degree oven, checking every few minutes after 25 minutes. The cooking time will vary depending on how thick the salmon fillets are and how you made the pockets. The salmon is done when the fish is flaky and the stuffing is cooked through.

The Skinny: Use light mayo and your favorite egg substitute.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

2009-05-29T15:49:00.001-04:00

85 Iconic Images ruined by Technlogy http://digg.com/d1sH4p #photography

2009-05-28T12:43:00.002-04:00

Twitter, Facebook, Digg: Can You Join Too Many Networks?: http://ping.fm/o1huB

Memorial Day 2009

2009-05-25T18:36:00.006-04:00

Another great holiday with our friends in Mystic for Memorial Day. Trip started off a little sketchy as the train before ours from Trenton hit a deer and dumped all the passenger on our train. We were sure we'd be standing, but we got seats and were only 40 minutes late.

As usual, lots of eating, cycling, drinking, walking sightseeing, laughing, joke telling (as you can see from this video...in the center Lisa tells her famous "Pretzel" joke for the 152nd and best time!!)

Had some great wine (1997 Grgich reserve and Peju cab) as well as some killer meals. Went out once to Skipper's Dock in Stonington for lobster rolls, yumm!

Rest of the time, my bud David manned the Weber.

Just back now from an uneventful trip home to Trenton. Weather considerably warmer here and headed down to make a nice BBQ meal!!

Blogged with the Flock Browser

2009-05-23T05:44:00.001-04:00

up early for a great Memorial Day weekend trip to visit friends in Mystic, CT http://virl.com/7bcf4 #fb

Flocking 101

2009-05-19T17:14:00.002-04:00

Just came across a very cool tool to tie blogging and other social media tools together, called Flock by Mozilla.

Very easy to use and keeps track of FB, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, Picasa, MySpace, etc.

Drag and drop blog editor (that I am using now) makes life easy as well.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Will Apple Buy Twitter?

2009-05-05T06:18:00.002-04:00

http://bit.ly/WaAEA

Looking Back on Our Vacation

2009-03-29T13:30:00.005-04:00

As always, returning to reality is tough after a fantastic holiday! The sights and location was beautiful, but the people you meet really are what makes a trip great. Going through the 3000 photos I took, I stumbled upon these as they were taken from a secondary camera. It was 12 March.

We had decided that we wanted some space to ourselves to shoot macro on Mabul and maybe see a whale shark. So we went back to a site called Stingray City, 10,000+ miles from the one on Grand Cayman.

We saw so many mating nudibranchs and unbelievable critters, but the most memorable were our guides. Trying to stay in touch with them so when the few things I hoped to see and didn't surface, I can see them online (the elusive flamboyant cuttlefish for example.

Heres to Abbie, Froi and Niger (and Richard)!

2009-03-20T20:57:00.002-04:00

reliving my Sipadan trip http://ping.fm/gWV2Y?v=58961393723

2009-03-17T20:47:00.001-04:00

insightful future of social media by. Charlene Yi http://ping.fm/boMrq #SXSW

2009-03-16T15:30:00.001-04:00

home after a 63 hr return trip. worth every second

Days 5 to 13 - Sipadan Water Village

2009-03-14T05:01:00.003-04:00

Days 5 to 13 - Sipadan Water Village

Just finished a great stay there. Thanks to manager Alex Ho and the amazing staff. The diving was spectacular...from the small creatures of Mabul and Kapalai to the pelagics of Sipadan. And the reefs some of the healthiest on Earth.

New camera setup (Nikon D300 with SubAl) worked great. Bulletproof Austrian engineering as usual. Writing this from Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah. Comfortable Shangri-La resort here (same as on the way to diving). The weather here has been hot and incredibly humid. The only downside to the resort was the lack of air conditioning. Difficulty sleeping due to the heat and unending jet lag.

Some HD video footage I took of the resort follows.

Posting a full spectrum of UW photos soon on picasa.

2009-03-13T22:20:00.001-04:00

finishing a great book on social networks by CLay Shirky http://ping.fm/YcLc6

2009-03-13T22:19:00.001-04:00

thanks to Sipadan Water Village and staff. great trip http://ping.fm/CB5vo

2009-03-08T18:55:00.001-04:00

still struggling with jet lag after 8 days... http://ping.fm/FlIx2?pid=1374192&id=778868723&ref=mf

Southeast Asia - Day 4

2009-03-06T05:45:00.006-05:00

Day 4 Kota Kinabalu - Tawau - Semporna - Mabul

Long day but worth it. Poured rain during the last leg (50 minute boat ride) but sun came out when we arrived.

Resort rushed us a little bit to get checkout dive done (30 minutes after arrival). We pushed back and had lunch first. We had a great buffet lunch with local faire including a hamburger with egg instead of beef.

Checkout dive with Marcos from Brazil living in Sarawak 3 years working for Shell. Just off dock but saw huge sea turtle, crocodile fish, yellow moray, etc.

Nice dinner and early to sleep for first full day tomorrow

Southeast Asia - Day 3

2009-03-04T03:40:00.008-05:00

Day 3 - Singapore to Kota Kinabalu (Sabah)

Yesterday marred by Lisa's fairly severe bout with dehydration complete with nausea, etc. Missed dinner at Raffles Grill. Had local Thai instead...good but missed a classic meal. Something to return for.

Today we left for Changi early. Raffles lounge in Changi for breakfast. Pretty good for airport fare. Flight to Kota Kinabalu on Silkair (regional airline owned by Singapore Air) uneventful save Lisa's confiscated cuticle scissors. They promised to deliver them to her at baggage claim on arrival. When we got there, we were informed they were still in Singapore and would be delivered after we had already departed on our next leg (to Tawau). No one here seems to understand or care. They promise they'll be delivered to us in Sipadan. We'll see.

Shangri-La Tanjung Aru Resort is beautiful here in Kota Kinabalu. Lisa able to replace the contraband toiletry items in gift shop. Going to have a nice Italian dinner as everything we've had so far is a little too spicy for her. Tomorrow.. to Tawau, then bus to Semporna and boat to final destination.

Southeast Asia - Day 2

2009-03-04T03:15:00.008-05:00

Day 2 - Singapore

Today like night and day from yesterday due to a good 8 hours sleep. Back to Botanical Garden to see the National Orchid Garden of Singapore before 9. Tons of joggers in the park. Some nice orchide photos then over to Mount Faber Park to take the cable car to the island of Sentosa. Some scary moments for this acrophobe. Then lunch at Delifrance under the Merlion. Up to the top for photos.

After lunch, a warm walk from the Amara to Nei Xue Tang, the National Buddhist Museum. Very beautiful. Hanging out in afternoon after getting pretty dehydrated. Singapore humidity is amazing. Lisa headed over to Capital Tower to meet with GIC to sell some novel investment products.

Speaking of investments, this place seems recession proof. The new construction here is incredible. They are building 2 casinos as "integrated resorts."

More complete photostream available here.

Southeast Asia - Day 1

2009-03-03T17:33:00.006-05:00

Day 1 - PHL-Frankfurt-Singapore

Great, long trip on Singapore Air. Business Class worth every penny. Arrived around 6 AM after 23 hours in transit. Got in Early to hotel. Then went on city tour that was disppointing. Arranged by the concierge and hosted by Luxury tours. Reminded me of Cairo. Half the stops (Tiger beer and jewelry factory) were to let us shop. Botanical gardens nice.. headed back today. Had lunch in VivoCity mall. Very western..had Western fast food for lunch. Walked Chinatown in afternoon and couldnt find decent restaurant that had local food and a liquor license.

Ended up at Hue after Lisa devleoped blister on her bad foot, a nice Vietnamese restarant in the Hotel. Stayed awake till 8 before hitting a chemically induced sack.

Today, Buddhist Museum, more time at Botanical Garden and dinner at Raffles before leaving for Sabah tomorrow.

More complete photos available here.

2009-03-03T01:19:00.001-05:00

goodbye snow. hello Singapore http://ping.fm/Y2gUt

2009-02-28T08:00:00.001-05:00

see you guys in a few days http://ping.fm/5p2TL

2009-02-27T07:53:00.001-05:00

sitting on my last suitcase trying to get it closed.

2009-02-26T05:56:00.001-05:00

is packing video stuff for Sipadan vacation!http://ping.fm/FHQTX

2009-02-25T06:21:00.001-05:00

learning how to optimize Tweetdeck #tweetdeck

The Winter from Hell

2009-02-22T13:40:00.001-05:00

Not a lot of snow this winter but grey, damp and cold in Philly. Where is Al Gore when I need him?? Headed to the equator next week (Sipadan) and I sure hope spring is here when I return in a few weeks...

Holidays with Friends

2008-12-14T18:21:00.007-05:00

We have the good fortune to have some of the best friends going, the Kays. The friendship goes back to college days some 40 years ago. We share the ability to pick up and go, which is made easier by being DINKs.

As we did today and enjoyed the claustrophobia test that is Manhattan less than 2 weeks before Christmas.

First lunch at the Yale Club, courtesy of my father-in-law, Bill. At 88, still an active member he was gracious enough to host us so we didnt spend the entire afternoon foraging for food. nice buffet.

Then onto Rockefeller center to become pickpocket bait. Good times were had by all and we returned home with our wallets. Needing fresh air, we headed across the street to Christie's and saw a viewing of some awesome black and white photography, which we, as amateurs, ourselves enjoyed.

Last cocktails at the Algonquin Hotel (upper right) before heading back to the string of sardine cans known as NJ Transit. All in all, another great time with our friends, J&D

the other half (and Greed)

2008-12-12T06:18:00.005-05:00

Interesting in these economic times to see if anyone is immune to what's going on. Just got back from a long weekend at a friend's place in Delray Beach (actually Gulfstream, FL).

Seeing places on the left as I rode my rental bike around made me realize that if you lose half of everything and still have $50 million you are building an addition onto a place like this.

That said we were right around the corner from the Briney Breezes trailer park. Residents recently turned down over a $1.6mm each for their trailer. This was due to a few holding out for even more money!! Read about it here.

Giving Thanks!

2008-11-23T17:45:00.003-05:00

As the holiday approaches, it is good to reflect. I could complain (as I have) about the Eagles, economy, my retirement, job, yada yada bit I won't (again).

Having seen my sister in law gravely ill a few weeks back made it easy for me to focus on the positive things in my life: my family, my boss, my pets and most of all my health.

Yeah, I fell on my bike in February and messed up my spleen. Big deal. I was fine in weeks and I had the support of family and friends to help me. Others aren't so lucky. It's what Thanksgiving week is all about.

I hope anyone who reads this remembers the true meaning of this holiday. Give thanks in whatever mode you prefer for all that you have and focus on the positive! Life is too short.

Philly Sports Teams

2008-11-23T16:05:00.000-05:00

I think there is a finite amount of goodness in the Philly sports teams. The Phillies have sucked it all out of the Eagles. I wonder who it'll gt passed to in 2009.