Stuart's (aka Mr. R) Blog

5 Minutes of Fun

2009-08-13T12:48:00.000-07:00

I know, I know. I basically took the summer off and still have to put up articles on my summer vacation BUT sometimes inspiration is what it takes to get things going.

As you all know, I love flying and most things to do with planes. Each year there is a HUGE show at OSHKOSH put on by EAA. It's the MECCA of aviation and I have never been there... one of these days I will make it.

I ran across this AWESOME video by an 18-year old future Naval Aviator. James Perkins from Georgetown, Texas. I have put it below, but to get the best effect you should go watch it in full screen with the volume cranked up. You can click here and then click the full screen icon in the top corner.or just click on the play button below and then click again to go directly to YouTube to select full screen.. Enjoy.

Reflections on One Year of Blogging, What Next ?

2009-07-10T14:01:00.000-07:00

Its now been 12 months since I started this blog. It was just a way for me to learn about blogging and testing some "cool tools" so that I could figure out how to incorporate them in my classroom. Like many things in my life, it didn't turn out that way. I did not use blogging at school and hope to try again next year, but I have LOVED the writing experience. Crafting sentences, articles and trying to keep things clever has been a real challenge for me, probably not one I have always lived up to, but I have tried my best. IT'S BEEN FUN. and I really enjoyed testing out and using some cool stuff like Animoto.Writing mostly about trips and family with a few teacher and school things mixed in has been great, but what next.

I will probably begin playing with some new tech tools like twitter (@stuartr52) ,although I still don't get it, and spend some of my Beach Break time in Del Mar thinking about what kind of things to write about. I have enjoyed it too much to give it up, but not sure if continuing writing about trips, family and school is the right answer. With my current readership, its probably the ok, but maybe I should branch out. Maybe even start a second blog on a different topic. I'd love to hear suggestions from my readers; email me here or leave a comment.

I have to finish up our last big trip blog (If you are impatient you can see my review here), but probably won't post the pictures until we get to Del Mar. Meanwhile we are heading to SoCal this weekend to move my darling daughter into her new apartment, so I'll probably write something about that as well, after that, who knows. Stay tuned.

PS Still no winners in the new tool contest. Its here as well.

Happy Birthday Harvey

2009-07-04T00:24:00.000-07:00

OK, OK, I know its been a bit of a delay in catching up on my blog, but with a busy June now behind me, I am back and plan to catch you all up whats been going on, and by the way, I learned a new tool in a class I am taking this summer. I tried it out here. A prize goes to the first that can find it and identify it. Look away.

In Mid May, it was time to celebrate the newest member of the Octogenarian club- My Uncle Harvey. For those who don't know him, there is so much to tell, but here's a few key items:

He grew up in Chicago with my dad and Auntie Lynn (duh), at world famous Flornoy Street. Famous only because that is where they grew up and the family saying has become "just like Flornoy Street".

He was the first of the family to head west (smart guy) and stopped first in Albuquerque. He sold and serviced coffee machines at Sandia Labs, where he was advised to change his name from Rosenberg for obvious reasons. If its not obvious to you check it out here.

He then moved farther west and ended up in Los Angelas, where he still lives.

I will always remember our first trip to California to visit him and his family.

He had a pool in his backyard, how cool was that.
He was a pilot. Cool item #2.
He took us to a mountain lake (Arrowhead ) to go water-skiing- Cool #3.
He was really buff Cool #4
He retired early and took on a second career- Cool #5

If you haven't figured it out yet, I'll spell it out. I have a pool in my backyard, I am a pilot, I have a place at a Mountain Lake and I am in the middle of my second career. I am Cool, just like my Uncle Harvey !!!! (OK, 4/5 isn't too bad)

There are so many stories about my Uncle Harvey's escapades and "interesting" friends, you will just have to ask me about them. The one I will share is when Bonnie and I first moved to California, we went to LA and attended a New Year's party at his place. Everyone there was wearing heavy gold chains, open shirts and we felt like we were in a strange gangster world.

After he sold his coffee business, he invested in the Commerce Casino. He was on the board for many years and oversaw its growth from a small card club to the major casino resort it is today. He even has a section of the casino named for him- "Harvey's Corner". His second career was pretty cool, almost as cool as mine, although his was a little more profitable. Now on to the celebration trip.

All my best trips include the 3 F's; Flying, Food and Family. This one was no exception. Bonnie and I jumped in our trusty steed (airplane) and headed to St. George, Utah to pick up Harvey's sister, my Auntie Lynn and her husband, Uncle Tony. After a quick overnight we headed to LA for the party. Prior to arrival, I had heard that a famous Chicago Italian Beef Sandwich Shop (Portillos) had opened only a few blocks from the airport. For those who read my blog regularly, you know I couldn't resist, so after landing, off we went. YUMMMY. It was awesome.

Off to stay at the Commerce Casino Resort, Havey's home away from home and site of the celebration.People came from near and far to honor Harvey, including Daryl from Hawaii and Sheryl from Anaheim.

Daryl had flown in the night before and was hanging out at Sheryl's place, so we headed down to pick him up and revisit one of our other favorite food places, Rudabagorz, for a light dinner.

The day of the party arrived and after listening to stories of years gone by, we all moved to the party room where Harvey's wife Linda had set out a feast for all to enjoy, followed by a couple of wonderful comedians. Of course the highlight of the evening was my dad's speech about the antics they participated in as kids, followed by my brother Mark's speech. Me, I'm just too shy to speak out. :). Enjoy a slideshow below of some of the great pictures at the party.

The next morning the fog lifted as we arrived at the airport for our return home via St. George. Another wonderful family celebration. On September 10th, 2010, my Uncle Harvey passed away. We will always remember him fondly. I am sure he is just hanging out at Flornory street these days looking for a card game.

Check back soon to learn the story behind the pictures below

Mothers Day and Memories

2009-05-26T20:30:00.000-07:00

Bonnie and I decided at the last minute (what else is new for us) to take a quick trip back to Chicago on Mother's day to surprise her mother (Doris). The week before, Bonnie dropped a big hint (she left a catalog on my mail pile) about what she wanted, so on our next trip to the mail, the jewelry counter it was. Looks nice- huh?

We decided to take advantage of flying standby (Thanks to Daryl), so we jumped a quick flight on Friday morning, no muss, no fuss, and we were in Chicago, they even gave us the exit row, lots of legroom.We were picked up at the airport and then had dinner with Bonnie's sister Leslie and her husband, Harry.. Lake Superior Whitefish- Yummy. One of my favorites from growing up- and so the memories began. We then surprised Doris, she nearly fainted and began a fun family and food (yes, my constant theme returns) Mother's day weekend.

We connected with Bonnie's oldest friend, Natalie, and brought the 2 mothers together for a fun lunch at Rise n Dine. Lots of talk about our kids and the food was great. On the way home, I even found a place called Gator's, just like my school mascot. :)

Saturday night was a quiet night at Doris's place, some Italian Beef Sandwiches and more time with Leslie and Harry.

Sunday was the big day, Mother's day brunch at Becky's, Bonnie made her famous Zucchini Fritatta, Harry chipped in French Toast and Lox and Bagels all around. (not the best picture, but it will have to do)

I spent the afternoon fixing Becky's computer (what else is new), then we all walked over to Leslie's house for a birthday bash for Becky. (and I worked on Leslie's computer while I was there- what else is new)

We were supposed to head home on Monday evening, so we took a drive to my old neighborhood just to reminisce a bit. (I also had to pick up some more memory for Leslie's computer and there was a discount memory outlet in the neighborhood that I grew up in.) We drove by the house I lived in for most of my childhood, knocked on my old neighbor's door (Larry) and chatted for a while and then toured the old area. My elementary school had been turned into a police station and the new elementary school my brother went to that was only a few blocks away was now a parochial school for Muslims. Diversity has arrived in Morton Grove for sure.

Standby being what it is, the flights Monday night were all full, but no worry, plenty of room Tuesday morning, or so we thought. That night United canceled the flight- OOPS. All of a sudden, all the flights home were full. Luckily I found a US Airways flight connecting in Phoenix for only $150 one way per person. We arrived home in time for me to head to the Teacher of the Year Awards. All in all a weekend of fond memories and great family.

Coming Next,- A sweet trip to Saint George and LA to celebrate my favorite new Octogenarian.

Teacher of the Year

2009-05-16T17:23:00.000-07:00

Before I start, I just want to remind all my loyal readers that I write for you. I love the encouragement you provide with your comments, but a few (OK most) of you are not keeping up your end. Red is doing a great job, how about a few others chipping in as well. Reading your comments inspires me to write more, so please take a few minutes to let me know what you think. You can be funny, serious or let me know what you liked on my blog. Keep your comments coming and I'll keep writing. OK on with my next topic- ME

This year, the teachers at my school, Garden Gate, honored me by selecting me as their "Teacher of the Year" . I never imagined that when I started teaching 10 years ago, I would be honored this way. I love working with the kids and all my colleagues. It's hard for me to believe I have been at it almost 10 years. Like any award winner, I have so many people to thank. :)

First and foremost, my wife Bonnie, for putting up with all my schoolwork and even helping me grade all those States tests. To both Daryl and Sheryl for encouraging me to "make the change" and saying I should just "go for it". To Janice and Mariana for taking a "newbie" like me under their wing and showing me the ropes for so many years. Taking a chance on a "convert" to teaching who only wanted to work part-time was a big risk on their part and I really appreciate it. Having a principal like Nancy who has given me the freedom to pursue my "passion" of using technology (and data) to improve our school and my lessons has been a blessing and having colleagues like Red that encourage me to try new things, and be more like Harvey Milk has kept me going when I wanted to just move on to another topic.

Anyway, enough mush, here a few pictuers from the award celebration at the district as well as the crown (thanks to Marty) and cake (how did Jill know my favorite) that the staff honored me with this week.

My current 5th Grade team; Cris, Mariana, Me and Sarah. The other Sarah was sick.

Step Back to Colonial Times

2009-05-09T19:31:00.000-07:00

On May 1st, the 5th Grade Teachers at our school, but on a full day activities for the 120 5th Graders at our school. Most of the students and all the teachers were dressed in Colonial garb and it was a chance for them to learn in a hands-on way about what it might have been like. There were 8 stations that the students rotated through during the day, including dancing with Ms. Alwell, a tavern hosted by parent volunteers, a classroom with subjects and games from Colonial times led by Mrs. Hastings, tinsmithing by yours truly, cross stitching by Miss Schwinge, quilling with Mrs. Lawson, candle making with our student teacher Ms. Linn and word turning with Mr. Wells. It was a great day for everyone. Below is a podcast I put together to show you a little bit and just because I love ANIMOTO videos, there is one below the podcast. Hope you enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed the day.

Colonial Day Podcast

Click the play button, be sure your sound is on.

You may have to wait a few seconds for it to download

Colonial Day Music Video

How High Can You Go

2009-05-09T16:09:00.001-07:00

On April 28th, I had the opportunity to visit Beale Air Force Base to receive training in high altitude physiology and take a ride in an altitude chamber. This class is normally reserved for Military Pilots, but once every few months they allow civilian pilots to attend.

I flew up to the base the night before (its near Yuba City, CA) with Ken Maples, my fight instructor. Before checking in to the hotel for a good nights sleep, we went to the local Sports Bar to watch the Sharks attempt their comeback against the Ducks. Unfortunately they lost the series as we all watched in vein. Very sad, but that's another story.

The training took all morning and part of the afternoon. Lots of good information on how pilots react in harsh (not enough oxygen) environments and the instructor did a nice job.

Beale AFT is also the home of the U-2 spy plane and the Global Hawk unmanned aircraft used in Iraq. We had a chance to see them, very cool.

The best part was when we all entered a large chamber, donned our oxygen masks and then pulled the air from the chamber to simulate high altitude atmosphere. There were 3 Air Force personnel in the chamber with us to be sure we all stayed safe.

After a series of simple activities, the took us up to 25,000 feet and we removed our masks. WOW, not much oxygen at 25,000 feet. The goal was that as soon as you felt ill, you were supposed to put your mask back on. After 2-3 minutes most everyone had put their masks back on, but I was still doing the worksheet they gave us (simple math problems, silly questions and a maze). Its important that you are able to recognize your symptoms with reduced oxygen and that is the purpose of this activity.

Unfortunately, after 5 minutes, I still felt fine and was told to put my mask back on, as it becomes dangerous after 5 minutes at that altitude.

What it turns out to mean for me is that I don't exhibit any obvious symptoms of oxygen deprivation and therefore need to be extremely carefully when flying above 12,000 feet. Even with supplemental oxygen, I need to monitor and be sure I am getting the right levels into my system as my body won't give me much warning.

Spring Break on the NCL Pearl- What a trip !!

2009-05-05T20:32:00.000-07:00

I know, I know; its been a month since my last update and so much has happened. I will try and add a few new updates over the next week or so. Here is the first one from our Spring Break Trip.

Over spring break we decided at the last minute (what else is new ) to take a cruise to the Western Caribbean. We had never been there and the last few years we have really enjoyed being on cruises. We had hoped to depart from New Orleans as we had never been there, but it wasn't to be. My cousin, Dena, is an agent for NCL, so we called her and she booked us on the Norweigan Pearl, one of their newer ships. The ship was very nice, we thought the food and entertainment was top notch and the overall experience was great. The ports were new to us and Bonnie did a great job researching and choosing some great shore excursions, so it was a great week. The best part of our trip was that Bonnie's niece Becky and her husband Brian were able to come along as well. She had the same spring break so it worked perfectly.

The itinerary was to visit Roatan in Honduras, Belize (you have to see it to belize it) and Cozumel. You can check out a full-sized slideshow here, watch a smaller version below, and then read about each port with a few photos in the next section. Be sure and watch the ANIMOTO video at the end of the post; they are fun to make and watch.

View Album

Get your own

Roatan- Honduruas: Bonnie found a guide to take us all over the island. Brian had requested seeing animals, Becky and I wanted to visit a school and we all wanted a fresh lobster for lunch (yes, me and food again). Our guide did a great job at meeting all our desires, we visited an iguana farm where they are trying to save them. They have over 4,000 wandering around and Brian had a blast petting them (eeww). We visited a school , Alberto Gonzales Cabllero at French Cay where our guide's son is an english teacher. The Honduran government just mandated bilingual education, but there are very few english teachers. He was very nice and took us around while telling us about the school system. We dropped off some supplies we had brought for the kids and I promised to email him for his address so I can send him more English materials. He especially needs grammar books that are designed for English learners. We headed off to visit some monkeys and birds. Can you imagine Bonnie making nice with a bird, never in my wildest dream, it must have been something in the air. The monkeys were all over us and very mischevious. We finally headed to our lobster and coconut shrimp lunch right on the water. We had planned on laying on the beach, but we were just too lazy for even that and headed back to town and the ship to prepare for another great night ont he Pearl and our next port- Belize.

Next stop- Belize. It's UNBELIZABLE. (I'm so funny sometimes). Bonnie found a great excursion company called Major Tom that took us Cave Tubing; His guides were AWESOME. We took a 45 minute ride through town and the countryside, learned all about Belize (only Central American country where English is the first language, where the name came from, etc) and ended up at the river. A nice 35 minute walk through the forest, with a few interesting facts and then jump into the tubes and float down the river with headlamps on. About 1/2 the time was in a dark, cool cave. Only a few bats (just kidding). And Brian even jumped off a cliff before and after the tube ride. What a daredevil

Our last inhabited spot was Cozumel. We decided to take a snorkel boat trip and although it was a bit wavy we still had a great time. Early departure meant a little nap on the boat as we motored for ~ 1 hour to get to the best location. The coral reef that goes from Roatan past Belize and up to Cozumel is the second largest in the world. The fish were beautiful and we had a nice time. Back on the boat to clean up and just a lazy afternoon instead of shopping in all the shops in Cozumel. (been there, done that). Senor Frogs will have to wait for our next trip.

Our last days on the ship brought a few exciting events, some planned, some unplanned. One of the passengers took ill. After doing what they could on the ship, a Coast Guard Helicopter was dispatched to airlift them back to shore. A little bit of a show on deck for all of us, and fortunately the passenger was fine. The next morning we spent 6 hours searching for someone who had fallen (or jumped) from a different ship at 3am , not sure if they were ever found the person, but it was kind of sad as we were just slowly trolling with 4 other ships trying to find them. According to a crew member, this is more common than you might think. Finally, we spent our last afternoon on a private beach followed by a toga party for our lat night. What a great week we had. Can't wait for our next cruise.

We really do love cruising. If anyone wants to join us, we are going again in the near future, probably a trip to Alaska or maybe Egypt. Of course we are up for anywhere, so give us a call and we'll join you. No need to plan in advance we can be ready to go in no time.

Enjoy the ANIMOTO from our trip

Check out Science Camp with my 120 kids

2009-04-08T22:44:00.000-07:00

I know I have gotten behind, I have some updates that I promise to get to soon, but in the meantime, check out the blog I have been keeping on our trip to Marin Headlands with my 5th Grade Class. All 120 students. It was an awesome trip. Next week I am off on a Caribbean Cruise with my wonderful wife and a couple of our favorite relatives. (Becky and Brian)

Marin Headlands Blog

Here are a few pictures just to give you a taste of what I have been seeing this week.

Snow, Sun and Sheryl - What a Vacation !

2009-03-10T14:39:00.000-07:00

I know, I know; its been a month since my last post. No real excuses, just became a bit lazy. Better late than never so here is some of what Bonnie and I did over the Winter Break Vacation in late February

SNOW, SNOW AND MORE SNOW

We started our week of fun and frolic with a weekend back in the snow, and I do mean snow. Even our Welcome Bear was covered. Daryl flew in from Hawaii and we headed up to snowboard amidst the fresh powder. It was as perfect as you can imagine; new snow at night, fresh powder during the day. We boarded for a couple of days and had a blast. Our good friends, Rajeev and Sushma then came up on Saturday afternoon with their 3 fantastic children. A minor mishap (they lost their keys at the grocery store), delayed them, but by late afternoon we were all assembled. We all went out and built a snowman in the middle of the street. Not the best idea, but fun nonetheless.

A friend of Daryl's drove up from Lodi, so we had a full house. The next day, major league snow. Check out the picture of Bonnie and Dakota. Dakota had fun playing with his ball in the snow, I'm sure he will want to return. Everyone but me headed for the slopes. I'm a fair weather outdoorsman and wasn't up for blinding snow. Besides, Rajeev had to use my goggles. (Any excuse in a storm). Everyone had a great time, Daryl said it was the best powder ever. More snow the next day, so Daryl and I just chilled while the visitors drove home. Finally headed down the mountain after 6 days. Daryl and I took in a Sharks game, (Sharks 4 Oilers 2) while Bonnie washed the clothes and packed for our imminent departure the next day. Before long Daryl was on a plane back to Hawaii and Bonnie and I were headed south for some sun. Side note: We were not able to fly ourselves because of upcoming weather, but thanks to Daryl, we were able to catch all our flights compliments of MESA- I knew having Daryl as a pilot would pay off, just didn't think it would be so soon.

SUN, FAMILY AND FRIENDS

Next stop- Scottsdale. My brother Richard and his wife Cindy were visiting from Minneapolis, so it was time for a visit to catch up with them. Bonnie's mother was also visiting and I hadn't seen her for a while, so it ended up a perfect twofer family.We also managed to meet up with some of our Phoenix friends (Harry and Pat; Nat and Barb) so it was a perfect 2 days.

Like many of our quick trips, its all about family, friends and food. Dinner at our favorite fish house, McGraths, with Harry, Pat, Doris and my Dad; lunch in downtown Tempe with Richard, Cindy, Nat and Barb, followed by a nice walk along the waterfront in Tempe. Who would ever have thought; a waterfront in the desert, Dinner with all the brothers and wives (Mark, Richard, Me, Bonnie, Cindy and Joyce) along with my dad and his new friend Nancy. Managed to watch the Sharks win an exciting game 4-2 over the Kings after dinner- Go Sharks! And finally, brunch the next morning at a great hole-in-the wall place with Doris, Lee, and my dad- JP Pancakes. The weather in Scottsdale was FANTASTIC; especially after all the snow in Tahoe. Sure could have stayed longer, but it was time to head out on the big silver bird to catch up with our baby girl.

SAYING HI TO SHERYL

Some would say we saved the best for last, but I would never show any partiality. Started with week with Daryl and ended with Sheryl, my defintion of a perfect 10 days. We arrived in Orange County just in time to meet Sheryl at one of our favorite eateries (yes more food) for some great salad and wraps; Rutabegorz. Sheryl had lots of work to do, so we dropped her off and then headed to the movies. It was Oscar weekend and we still had one movie left to see - "The Reader". It was very good, Kate (she said I could use her first name) deserved the Oscar for an amazing performance, but I must tell you, both Bonnie and I found it a fairly disturbing movie on so many levels. Thoroughly enjoyed watching it but we needed to lighten up after we left the theater. We noticed as we exited that in the adjacent theater "He's Not That Into You" was playing and had just started. We have never done this before, but what the hey, we ducked in and and watched a second movie. Very light-hearted , a bit funny and definitely took off the edge from "The Reader". After the movie we were a bit hungry (how could that be you say- all you guys seem to do is eat) so we headed to our favorite SoCal fast food; Del Taco. The Mexican food is ok, but the fries are to die for. The next morning (actually late morning), we picked up Sheryl and headed for; you guessed it; Brunch. Another favorite eatery of ours has become Polly's, just around the corner from where Sheryl lives. All kinds of fresh baked goodies, oh so yummy and quiche to die for. Yummnn. Back to Sheryl's house for a little visit and then off to the airport for our final flight home.

We had a great time. I can't imagine a more diverse and enjoyable vacation. In just a week, we hit the snow, the sun and the Sharks; spent time with my kids, my brothers, Bonnie's mom, my dad and lots of friends. Too bad it all had to come to an end. I'll do my best to not take so long for my next post and take more pictures instead of using "generics" from the web. Keep those comments coming. Its what inspires me to write.

Skiing on Super Bowl Sunday

2009-02-01T20:06:00.000-08:00

I just can't believe its already February. What happened to January?

Daryl took a quick trip home last week and went snowboarding with a friend. I was so jealous, that I decided to take a quick drive this weekend to Lake Tahoe and Ski for a couple of days, Super Bowl Sunday included. Although the snow is only so-so, the weather is magnificent. 40-45 degree temperatures, sunny and clear. Many of you know that I broke my ankle snowbaording last year, so for my first time out, I put on ski's instead. Not really sure why, but just felt more comfortable.

I spent Super Bowl Sunday on the slope, it was amazing and I returned to the cabin just in time to watch a pretty exciting game. Too bad Arizona lost, but they played a great game and they have nothing to be ashamed of.

I ski at a smaller resort called Homewood Mountain Resort. Its right on the lake and even though its a bit smaller, it generally means fewer crowds and more importantly, it has the best views you can imagine. You feel like you are skiing right in to the lake- its just amazing Here are a few pictures just to give you a sampling taken by my skiing buddy, Nicki.

If you want to see all the pictures (mostly scenery), just click on this link

Kudo's to Captain Sullenberger and First Officer Skiles

2009-01-19T09:23:00.000-08:00

I am sure all of you have heard (and may even be tired of hearing) of the dramatic event of US Airways 1549 last week. One of my favorite radio shows is "Prarrie Home Companion" with Garrison Keillor and I ran across this ballad he did in honor of the crew. Give a listen, I think you will enjoy it. Click here to see the words and listen to it or just click the play button on the audio below (takes a few minutes to start).

No need to add my comments on the crews actions, its been all over the press, but suffice it to say, that it gives me impetus to keep my skills up and attention focused during my flights. I only hope to be as collected and successful as they were if I ever have an emergency.

First Tech Tip for 2009- Back Up Your Stuff !!!!

2009-01-10T15:19:00.000-08:00

It is definitely not the "coolest" stuff to play with and if you are lucky, it's all a waste of time, but if you need it, (and eventually everyone does) you will be so glad you did it that you will want to buy me a gift card to Dairy Queen. Don't become this picture and remember; for my loyal (and not so loyal) readers, I am just an email or call away to help. I know this is a long article (sorry) and for those that won't read it- PLEASE CALL ME SO I CAN HELP YOU BEFORE YOU HAVE A PROBLEM, NOT AFTER. Special Thnaks to "Red" for pointing out a few options I originally missed, I've now updated this blog and owe her a DQ treat.

There are a couple of approaches to backing up the important information on your computer, depending on what you want to achieve. Its all about how safe you want to be and how easy you want the recovery process to go. There is a lot to read on the internet if you want to know more (Here's a good example). I have tried to summarize the basics below; it doesn't really matter if you have a Mac or a PC (I have both), the theory is the same; although some of the tools, as you will see later, may differ slightly.

What to back up
Pictures, documents, and other files such as tax information or checking account ledgers seem obvious. If you use a mail program such as Outlook Express (Windows XP), Windows Mail (Vista), Apple Mail, or Entourage that lets you save mail on your computer, you will want to back that up, along with your contacts. Don't forget your bookmarks or favorites if you use them. in IE, Firefox or Safari. Many of you may also want to back up your music, it dramatically simplifies recovering compared to taking it off your iPod or reloading all of your CD's. Finally, if you want the simplest recovery process from a disaster, you might consider backing up your entire hard drive (called a disk image), everything including your programs, settings and operating system (Windows or OS X) is preserved. In case of a crash you then don't have to rebuild and reload all your programs, just copy the backup image and you are ready to go, good as new; even if you need a new hard drive.
.

Where to back it up.
The safest approach involves keeping your backup in a different place than your computer in case of a fire, flood or earthquake. I think this is important for things that you do not want to lose under any circumstance, such as cherished pictures or critical files, but it might be overkill for other things- you have to decide. If you keep your pictures online for viewing you might think you are OK (and you might be), however be sure and check to see what is stored, and if you can recover them via download. For example Google allows you to upload your full-size photos (but you have to choose that when you upload), and download them later, but the "free account" only allows 1GB, you have to pay for more storage. Shutterfly allows unlimited storage, but you can't download them, only purchase prints, and Flickr's free account is very limited, its paid account ($25/yr) allows unlimited storage but they shrink all your originals, so what you download is not exactly what you had. You can also back up pictures (and files) "online" with a service such as Mozy (its what I do).

Another popular choice is an external hard drive, very easy to use, but a little less safe for those cherished pictures. Next are CD/DVD- excellent for backing up Music or files that don't change (you can also use this for pictures), probably in combination with a flash drive, which is good for smaller backups or ones you use all the time, like documents you work on often. Finally, backing things up elsewhere on your main hard drive is another possibility, but provides the least "safety"; but it's still better than nothing.

Of course you can "roll your own" and backup some things on a CD/DVD and mail them to a friend, keep an external drive with your backup in your safety deposit box, use a flash drive for files and even use free space on a friend's computer, but for many people, these might sound good, but won't be followed through on, and the key to having a good backup strategy is that it is one that you will use, or for me, works by itself. Many people decide that backing up on a flash or external hard drive only and not worrying about natural disasters is good enough; and most of the time they are right, although for me the exception is pictures. You have to decide for yourself how much and what to "insure".

I know some of you are saying "I can't afford it !" When you have a crash, you will not be sorry you spent the small amount of money involved. You can backup 2GB on Mozy for free, or have unlimited backup on Mozy for $60/year; Using CD/DVDs cost less than $10/year, or buy an external hard drive for $80-$100. Just email me and I'll help you find a low cost solution. You can combine ideas for the best cost/benefit that fits your need. For example, keep you large files (pictures and music) on CD/DVDs and keep small important files and mail backup on Mozy's free service or a flash drive. If you want to keep an "image" of you hard drive for full backup and ease of recovery, you will need an external hard drive or a second drive in your computer; still less than $100.

OK- I'm committed, what next

Once you have decided what you want to backup, and where, just get started. Its not as hard as you think, and you will be glad you did when your computer crashes. I have set up a few over the past year; here's my experience and what I have used. There are lots of free or low priced (less than $50) tools besides these, just do an internet search on "computer backup".

If all you want or need to backup are a few files or pictures (less than 2GB) use the free Mozy, or buy a flash drive at any store. 4GB Flash drives can be had for less than $20 with 32GB ones at less than $60 (that's a lot of backup). If you want to backup all your pictures and music as well, you can do it with CD/DVD's for the least amount of money but you have to remember to do it often. A more convenient solution is to pick up an external drive, for $80-$100, at most stores or online. You can just drag the files from your computer to the drive (be sure and do it regularly) or use one of the many free programs to automate and simplify the task for you. Most of the external drives even have their own program built in to help you. Windows XP and Vista have their own backup program that you can configure if you like and OS X.5 (Leopard) has Time Machine. For earlier versions of Mac OS X, check this Mac Support Article out or use SuperDrive (like I do). But remember, your pictures aren't totally safe if they are right next to your computer, its one reason why I use Mozy. Call me if you need help to find a strategy that fits your budget.

Mostly because it is "set and forget" (not safety) I have 3 of our family computers using Mozy's Free 2GB program. Its easy to download and it runs in the background so important information is safe in case of a crash (or burn). My kids use a flash drive as well, but this helps in case they forgot to back up something. (You know me, plan A and plan B). The limitation is, if you have music or a lot of pictures, 2GB isn't enough space. You either have to backup some of it with CD/DVD or a hard drive, or pay the $60/year for more space, which I do for one computer. iDrive is an online competitor to Mozy and gets good reviews, I just have not personally used it. I have also read some nice things about HP's Upline and may give that a try since it provides space for sharing as well as backups and there is a family plan and for Mac users of mobileme, you can use that service, depending on how much you want to back up.. You do need to be sure and allow the program to do the backups and configure it correctly. To be honest, I think ours need some clean-up, which I am committed to do ASAP.

If you prefer to create a complete backup of your drive to simplify the recovery process, just pick up an external drive and use one of the readily available software programs. I do this so I don't have to find all my old disks and re-install everything. For Macs, if you have OS X.5 (Leopard), just turn on Time Machine and you are good to go.If you do not yet have Leopard, the Mac program of choice seems to be SuperDuper. The free version works fine (although a little slow) and I have been using it for 6 months with my school-provided MacBook. I will probably pay the ~ $30 for the full version soon, just to simplify things so I backup more often. For Windows users one of the more popular (and affordable) programs seem to be Macrium, which has a free version available here. Of course there are others, but I can vouch for the ease of use for Macrium's free version as I set it up the first week in January on both my Uncle Tony's computer in Utah as well as my Dad's in Scottsdale. I feel better knowing when they have a computer crash, recover is just a few clicks away.

Feel free to combine different strategies to suit your needs. I keep some files backed up on Mozy and have an external drive to keep an image of my computer for quick recovery, if needed. Do what works for you, but DO SOMETHING.

Sorry for all this techno mumbo jumbo, I tried to keep it direct and to the point with some links to get started, but you all know me; ramble ramble, ramble.

The important thing, is DO SOMETHING,!!!. Don't think it can't happen to you, I worked on 3 computers over the last month that "crashed" and recently my brother had a hard drive crash and lost tons (lots of Gigs) of music and movies that took him many hours to reconstruct. He now has everything backed up. Don't wait too long. DO IT SOON. I promise to help if you need it.

Just Some Fun

2009-01-03T08:36:00.000-08:00

Laying around here in Arizona visiting family and friends as we bring in 2009, my lovely wife sent me a video that I just have to share. I'm not sure if she is challenging me to try this, but it is certainly something to think about for the coming year (just kidding). Click the play button if it doesn't start automatically. If you want to watch it in full screen click on the full screen icon (4 outward pointing arrows to the left of the word Vimeo).

wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo.

Wishing all of my friends, family and students a Safe, Healthy and Happy New Year.

Come back soon to read an important tech topic for the start of 2009.

A Visit to Hawaii.

2009-01-01T23:48:00.000-08:00

We decided since Daryl couldn't come home for Hanukkah and New Year's, what better way to end the year than for all of us (Bonnie, Stuart & Sheryl) to visit him. Besides a week in Hawaii sounded pretty good with the cold weather quickly approaching California. Below are a few pictures and some narration. There is a full slide show at the end as well as an Animoto with music and effects. (Animoto's are soooo fun)

Our flight left San Francisco at 9AM, however we received a call from AA at 6:45AM (just as we were getting ready to go) that our flight had been canceled and we had been re-booked later in the day (through LA with a 4 hour layover). NOT OK. The agent was very helpful and after 30 minutes on the phone had us booked on a United flight leaving at 9AM. Unfortunately it left us little time to get there and make the flight.

With heavy rain it was close but as we drove we saw an awesome rainbow and knew all would be fine.

Sheryl and I dashed through the airport after an extra security screen (Thanks to Homeland Security) and we made the flight with a few minutes to spare.

When we arrived, it was off to the condo. Bonnie had spent untold hours checking out every possibility in the Waikiki area for the best view. She knows I love to just look out at the Ocean. Well as you can see below, she succeeded. The 2 walls of our corner unit were all glass and these were the day and night views. AMAZING.

We spent a few days just hanging out in Waikiki, enjoying the evenings and beach before we set out on our adventures. Daryl had 5 days scheduled off, so we had lots of family time.

After resting up, we headed for our first hike, to the top of Diamondhead (pictured below), it was a decent walk up with over 200 stairs and a scary tunnel just before coming out at the top. The views back to Honolulu and Waikiki as well as toward Kaniheo were magnificent.

After such a strenuous hike, we needed a day of relaxing before our next "adventure". Off to the North Shore, famous for home-made ice cream, Macky's famous shrimp truck , and some great beach time at Waimeha beach. We had a chance to visit the beach where Daryl volunteers to protect the turtles, can you tell which one is Daryl and which one is the turtle?

Well rested and ready, we set off bright and early (at least for us) at 11am for a hike to a hidden waterfall and pool. It was 1.5 miles each way. Because of recent rains the path was just one long length of slippery, slimy, gooey and sticky mud. After a couple of hours of sliding around the path we found the pool, swam around and headed back. Everyone enjoyed it, although I think next time, Bonnie might wait in the car.

Unfortunately, there was one problem; insect bites. They were drawn to Sheryl like bees to honey. By the time we returned to our hotel (after great burgers and onion rings at Teddy's), her legs were covered. She was on benadryl and cortisone cream for the next 2 days. We felt so bad for her, but it was still an awesome hike.

The rest of our trip was just relaxing, basking in the sun and enjoying the views from our Condo. We will definitely come back soon.

Below is our Slideshow and Animoto (same pictures), or just click on the links to see full screen versions of our trip. For Animoto, you have to click on the full screen icon to the left of the volume icon.

Problem viewing photo's-shout out

2009-01-01T23:40:00.001-08:00

I was just getting ready to work on a new post and identified a problem. I am working on my Dad's computer in Arizona which is set at 1024 x 768 and noticed that some of the pictures from my "An Amazing 30 hours" post don't show up. Seems that they show fine if the screen is set to 1280 x 1024. I'm not sure the reason or why it seems to only effect that post. I'll work on it, but feel free to drop me a note if its a problem for you. My apologies to my faithful readers.

HAPPY 2009. I AM SURE IT WILL BE A GREAT YEAR FOR EVERYONE

Visiting the Googleplex

2008-12-20T15:50:00.000-08:00

I know its been a while since I have blogged but I am excited to have a few weeks of R & R in front of me and plan to catch up on my musings. The first one is some thoughts from a recent trip to the GooglePlex, beyond that, we will see what comes forth.

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to visit Google (called the Googleplex) in Mountain View, CA. With my background in hi-tech from 1974-1999, the opportunity to visit the heart of one of the premier hi-tech companies sent shivers up my spine. During my stint at Intel, I had the opportunity to visit a number of leading edge companies, but over the last 10 years, more has been written about the innovative culture and work environment at Google than any other. I was really stoked to find out more about it.

The visit started with a tour of the Googleplex by one of the Googlers. Yes, they do call themselves Googlers, how cute. Wen-I was our tour guide and she normally worked int he Google Calendar group. It turned out great, because I was having some issues synching an iCal with a Google Calendar for a school project (Staff Web Page) and she gave me a number of helpful hints to fix it. Talk about getting advice from the source. I guess doing these tours is kind of an "extra thing" but she seemed to really enjoy it. The place was filled with cool things that the founders find interesting, such as a replica of the X-Prize ship (Google it if you want to see it), a bronze set of dinosaur bones (T-Rex) and a set of doors that go nowhere. (What's that about- just a reminder of the past according to Wen-I.

The perks of working there are amazing and just what you read about. Three meals a day (free) if you like, subsidized cars if you buy a hybrid, shuttle transportation, on-site services such as laundry etc. I'm sure these people all work hard and are very productive, but Google sure makes it easy to stay there if you like.

On to lunch at Charlie's- the first cafeteria they opened. (Pictures not allowed, so I pulled this one off the net via a Google Image search- how appropriate). According to Wen-I, they now have 19 eating choices at the Googleplex and there are espresso and snack stations all over the place. (free of course). This is definitely not like Intel was, maybe if I had worked at Google, I would never have left for teaching. Good thing I didn't, because I love what I do now.

The final activity was the meeting- of course that was the main reason for coming. Although I am not free to comment on the meeting, suffice to say that all the Googlers were open, friendly, easy to talk with, cooperative and anxious to help move things forward. I can see how these people have become so successful. They make you feel like they really WANT to do business with you and they want to help you succeed. I think it must be something they put in the water.

I left feeling that I had seen a unique situation, one that has created success in a way that few others could have imagined. Its exactly the opposite of the "Robber Barons" of the early 1900's that I had studied so many years ago and is probably more like what a company formed and run by Karl Marx might have been like if he had ever had the chance. What a difference a 100 years makes.

I will certainly remember my visit for a long time and I hope I have the opportunity to work with some of these Googlers over the next few years. Its inspiring, to say the least.

An amazing 30 hours

2008-11-25T23:06:00.000-08:00

As Thanksgiving drew near this year and we were getting excited about the family (Mark & Joyce, Daryl, Sheryl and Grandpa Bob) gathering at our house, we were also missing my Aunt and Uncle in Utah. Bonnie and I realized we hadn't seem them since July- just too long so on Friday afternoon, we decided to remedy the situation.

Friday evening Bonnie prepared a lasagna feast and I called my dad to prepare some of my Grandma Mary's famous Apple Slices, which he and my brother Mark had raised from an old recipe.

On Saturday at 1:00pm we headed to the airport, jumped in the plane and headed to Scottsdale to pick up my Dad.

As long as we were there we had dinner with Bonnie's brother Barry and our sister-in-law Diane. Our good friends Harry and Pat also joined us.

Sunday morning we packed up the Lasagna and Apple Slices, left Scottsdale, flew over the Grand Canyon and landed in St. George.

Bonnie Guarding the Food in the back of the plane

Over the Canyon

Pilot and Co-Pilot(?)

Once at Auntie Lynn and Uncle Tony's place, the feast began.

Veggies and fruit for an appetizer while the lasagna was heated, Caeser salad prepared and garlic toast was cooked to perfection. Yummmm. Some fudge, eclairs and of course the Apple slices were brought out for desert.

Just enough time for some catching up on the patio, a quick nap and then back to the airport to fly home into the sunset. We passed over the lights of Vegas, headed across the Sierra's and by 7pm Sunday night we were back on the ground in San Jose. You can see larger versions of the pictures by clicking on them or if you want to see all the pictures from the trip, check them out by clicking here.

Check out the Animoto (new favorite on-line toy) from our trip:

Can't believe it was only 30 hours since we had left, but what a great way to spend the weekend before Thanksgiving, visiting my favorite Aunt and Uncle in Utah. Bonnie and I vowed to never let 5 months pass again without seeing them.

Teaching Teachers about Technology

2008-11-10T20:21:00.000-08:00

WOW- The alliteration just rolls out. Nothing like a long 4-day weekend to charge up the brain, so I thought what better than to add another blog post about my busy last 6 weeks. Here goes...

As many of my readers already know, in addition to teaching my wonderful 5th Grade students this year, I agreed to continue to be an advocate and resource for technology at our school. This is a continuation of a role I took on last year and I was so inspired with new ideas from my June classes I just had to find a way to introduce them to our staff. If you haven't read my posts from this summer showcasing some of the new technologies I learned about, just stroll back through the blog. In fact, this blog is one of my major opportunities to learn new ideas which I hope to introduce to my students this year.

As I thought about what I wanted to achieve this year, two things really influenced me. The first were some of the inspirational videos I have seen on how our world has changed (and is changing) and that the pedagogy (teaching technique) needs to change along with it for our students to be successful. There are many I watched, but I thought I would put one here for you to get a flavor of what I mean.

The other was a series of conversations I had with my good friend Stacy (Red to those that read the comments on my blog). She helped me crystallize my thoughts on how to have our teachers and our school see technology in a new way. After talking with her it was clear to us that in order to have the teachers embrace the use of technology, it had to move from "cool stuff" to another tool for teachers to improve their lessons. Technology had to become part of the classroom activities, not an extra-curricular activity like PE & Music. Another important part of our discussion was that everyone is at a different place on the technology curve and delivering technology at only one level leaves some bored, some overwhelmed and only a few satisfied.

With all that in mind, I took on a challenge to organize technology training at our Teacher Learning Day on October 27th. I first used Google Docs Survey's (what a cool tool- ha ha) to get input from the teachers on what they wanted to know more about in the area of technology. Next with the help of some teachers at our school I brainstormed a list of 9 possible classes to be taught. Another Google Survey (I suspect the teachers were getting tired of these) to see who wanted which class and ended up with 7 possibilities ranging from the basics of pictures on your computer, to building webquests with frames for student activities. Other classes included teaching lessons in the lab, digital storytelling, classroom websites, internet resources and using computer games and quizzes with your class. WOW ! I didn't realize what I had taken on.

The biggest job was finding instructors and designing each class to be at the right level, impart knowledge and lead teachers to think about using these ideas in their classroom. I ended up with a cadre of super instructors from Garden Gate and the District Office. Jamie, Stacy, Donna, Sandra, Cris, Laurel and I all put in tons of time getting the class material organized and prepared. Sandra even learned a new classroom website tool, just so she could teach it to our staff. Stacy taught two classes in addition to being a lead for the math portion of the day - what a trooper!

Not all our teachers have laptops, but to make the classes effective I had to borrow some from the district so as many of the classes as possible could be "hands on". Scott C let be borrow 5 laptops and the weekend before I had them all spread out in my dining room configuring thm and upgrading the software so teachers could use them. Bonnie was so understanding, she didn't even yell at me.

I must admit that organizing and executing this was probably one of the most exhausting things I have done in many years and without the help of all the other instructors, I would never have been able to pull it off. Bonnie will tell you that I was a maniac on the computer for nearly a month pulling together ideas and grouping the teachers to get the most out of the day. The weekend before the training we were in Orange visiting Sheryl and Del Mar for a Wavecrest owners board meeting and I spent hours and hours in the hotel room finishing all my presentations.

Was it worth it?

The feedback at the end of the day and since then has been fantastic. The teachers really appreciated that the material was designed for what they wanted, not just something someone was pushing on them. I have already seen many of the them starting to use ideas from the classes. The next step will be to do some follow-up activities and sessions to take the initial training into full blown classroom activities for as many teachers as possible. Our newly formed tech team will be our SWAT team to accomplish this.

I'll definitely do it again, but next time, I'll know what I am getting myself in for.

Catching up- Doggy Halloween

2008-11-09T11:15:00.000-08:00

So much to catch up on as I have not blogged in over 6 weeks. Our trip to SoCal, Halloween, setting up tech training for the teachers and the recent drama with Dakota- no worries, he's fine now. I'll try and tackle all of these this week. First on the platter- Doggy Halloween.

It was a dark and scary Halloween at our house this year. Sunset had come early, the skies were cloud-covered and an eerie breeze had started around 4 o'clock in the afternoon. It was strange that we had almost no trick-or-treaters this year. As the witching hour drew nearer (what is a witching hour anyway), a pumpkin suddenly appeared in my kitchen.

I had no idea where it might have come from, but it looked strangely like Dakota, the newest member of our household. He wandered around looking for children to join with him in his quest for candy, but alas, none were to be found. One in Hawaii and the other in SoCal left him alone and dejected. Poor Dakota.

As the evening progressed a few unsuspecting children arrived at our door for a helping of Almond Joy or Kit Kat (no healthy treats here, that's for sure), but they were certainly few and far between. Then a noise from the back yard startled us; lo and behold (I always wanted to write lo and behold) Marty, Dakota's mother, had arrived from next door, in full princess attire.

The evening turned out just fine and although we had very few children, our dressed up dogs entertained us well into the night,begging for candy and looking cute as ever.

Postscript : After using other tools the last 6 weeks such as Google Sites (a wiki) and Teacherweb blog, I am finding working with Blogger to be very limiting. Placing pictures, inserting tables for formatting, adding background colors and generally doing any formatting other than simple text seems very difficult. Even to insert the horizontal lines, I had to use HTML code. There must be a better way.

Postscript 2. For anyone interested; in order to have the pictures of Dakota and Marty facing each other, I had to "flip" one of them horizontally. iPhoto does not allow you to do this, however if you open the picture in Preview, there is a flip command and you can use that instead. Sweet :)

Happy Birthday to Me

2008-09-26T23:11:00.000-07:00

WOW! I can't believe its been a month since my last post. I thought this would be a slow year, with time to catch up and do lots of things- Not yet! School has been busy, even for a part-timer like me. I thought I would try and get back into blogging by wishing myself a Happy Birthday. Check out my birthday present .

His name is Dakota, he's 4 years old and although he is a pure-bread Labrador Retriever, he is HUGE. One good piece of news is his mother lives next door, so living at my house is pretty cool for him.

In addition to one great dog for a present, I had 2 of my favorite home-made dinners; Tuna Casserole and Pepper Steak. I also went for a great lunch with our good friends. Not bad for celebrating my 56th Birthday.

Found out today that I have one more AWESOME present to come. We will have a full family dinner next Thursday to celebrate. Daryl will be here from Hawaii and Sheryl will be home from college. That will be the best of all. Family dinner at Maggiano's. Yummmm.

Meet My New Class

2008-08-29T23:31:00.000-07:00

After the first week of school, I am so excited to have this group of students. They are all enthusiastic and anxious to try new things. Of course we (Ms. Alwell, Ms. Lawson and myself) have a few challenges up our sleeves for them, but I think they will be up to the task. Although you probably can't come and visit them, I thought I would show a quick video introducing all 60 of them. (It will take ~ 2 minutes to meet them all so be patient). Sorry about the fact that the pictures are a little fuzzy, it's due to the compression needed to fit on the blog. If you want to see a higher quality version, click here

Guess I forgot to mention that last week, we were in the computer lab and each of the students (including the teachers) created Avatars to use in our online activities. (Much safer than real pictures and a lot more fun). They did a great job, didn't they? All the students were able to make their Avatars in ~ 30-40 minutes and only a few of the 60 needed any help at all.

If you wan to create your own Avatar, here is a link to the website I made for them to help with this activity. Yes, I made the website in one weekend. It was fun, easy and did the trick. I'm pretty proud of it.

I used iWeb from Apple, it very easy to make the site and our district set up space on their Webserver to host it. Special thanks to Scott Conklin for doing this.

Time to be whimsical

2008-08-24T13:26:00.001-07:00

I have been pondering a few topics I wan to blog about (pedagogy, inspiration, and starting the new school year), but I just don't have the mental energy at the moment. Maybe later in the week. For now, I thought I would just post an interesting video my dad sent me that was recently on News3; (Editors note:- the video site has been taken down since the election- sorry if you missed this cute video)

Del Mar Pictures 2

2008-08-14T23:16:00.000-07:00

I had a few minutes tonight to goof off between watching gymnastics, swimming, volleyball and sleeping, so I played with computer stuff (what else). I tried to make a Flickr Badge, which seemed pretty cool until I realized I couldn't post it on my blog, just on the sidebar (look left) and it can only show up as a small item.

Of course I also did a Animoto show, its still one of my favorite ways to show pictues. Enjoy.

Finally, using the Ken Burns effect and some music I made a movie version of the slideshow in iPhoto Not too bad, but by now you are probably sick of these photos, so I'll move on to something else this weekend

As before, in order to fit the video onto the blog it had to be compressed (shrunk). If you want to see a higher quality version you can watch it by clicking here. (May take a little time depending on speed because the file is ~ 100MB)

My Del Mar Beach Time

2008-08-04T00:41:00.000-07:00

It took me a while to think about how to write about my 3 weeks in Del Mar, CA this summer. Although we certainly did plenty of fun things including a Pops Concert in the park, venturing out to find Italian Beef Sandwiches (are you surprised?) and attending a San Diego Padres game, the more I thought about my time on the cliffs overlooking the beautiful beach, I realized the entire 3 weeks was about family and friends. We were able to spend time in a beautiful location AND have many of our favorite people come and visit. Just visiting, talking and laughing made it one of the best vacations Bonnie and I have ever taken.

Visitors included my Dad, Bonnie's Mom, my favorite Auntie Lynn and Uncle Tony of St. George fame (it was too bad that they left before Friday), my Uncle Harvey and Aunt Linda, cousin Becky, of course both of my wonderful children, Daryl and Sheryl, our Saratoga friends Laurie and David, Bonnie's brother Barry and sister-in-law Diane, our new family Debbie Mark and Madison and our wonderful friends from Phoenix, Harry, Pat and their kids.

As I get some time, I'll play around with some more creative ways to show off the pictures, but for now here is a slideshow of our visitors from my Picasa Web Albums. Just click to start the show.

If you want to link directly to the album, just follow this link

Google Earth Tour of M6 Return +

2008-07-26T23:33:00.000-07:00

OK, I know its been a while, but I have been working on this post in between my other activities in Del Mar, CA (Eating, Sleeping and a little Jacuzzi time). Also, the more I worked on it, the more I thought about adding, so it just grew and grew. (no surprise from me)

I spent the last week or so working on putting together a Google Earth Tour; although it takes a little practice its pretty easy once you get the hang of it. I'm sure I will use it in my class this year and will probably have students make some tours as well.

Here is a picture overview from Google Earth of the trip home I made from Duluth earlier this month after the COPA M6 convention. This was the basis for setting up my tour.

How to experience this tour:
After putting the tour together, I had to think of a way to show it off in my blog. As it turns out, that was a bit more difficult to accomplish than actually making the tour. After some serious thinking (in the jacuzzi of course) I finally came up with 3 approaches

Download the Google Tour and run it on Google Earth yourself
Post a screencapture video using programs like Jing or iShow and post
Take pictures of the tour using screenshots and use iPhoto to make a sideshow and post.

The rest of this entry gives you opportunities to experience all three methods and a little bit on how I did them. Feel free to leave me some feedback on which you like best or contact me if you want more details on how to do any of these.

Watch the Google Earth Tour directly
Certainly, one great way to experience the tour is to view my trip directly in Google Earth. Download this KMZ (Google Earth tour file) and then play it directly in Google Earth. Click on Google Earth to go and get the program if you don't have it. Its free and lots of fun to play with. There is so much you can do , its amazing. The new Google Sky is even cooler. Its like having your own planetarium. (sorry for the digression)

A few hints to get the most out of the tour:

Be sure and set the tour preferences (go to Preferences) to include the pop-up balloons- they have some nice pictures and links to explore.

When you get to a stop you want to know more about, click the pause button, then just click the icon on the map, the balloon pop-up will appear and you can read my comments or click on any active links to learn more.

Here is a link to a Google Earth help section on tours and preferences if you need it. You can adjust the speed and pause time in the tour preferences as well.

Enjoy the trip, it takes only ~ 2 minutes this way, instead of the 2 days I spent flying. Of course I had the fun of flying, but that might not be for all of you.

Watch a video screen capture of the tour as it plays:
Another approach was for me to run the tour and use a screen capture program such as Jing or iShowU to make a movie of it as it plays, although you will not be able to pause and check out the links I put at each stop. In addition, the terrain does not show up as well due to needing to compress the details in order to post the file. The good part is when you click on the movie below, it will play quickly and smooth, even with a slower connection.

Some of the downsides caused by need to "shrink" the video so I can insert it in the blog and have you see it can be avoided by using a direct link to the file. If you have a very fast connection or are patient, and want to see it in more detail then shown above, you can use the link at the end of the paragraph to play the full version . This file is ~ 80 MB so even with a very fast connection, you may have to wait up to 3 minutes to get a smooth play. A slower connection might take as much as 20 minutes to retrieve the file.
Google Earth trip home with iShowU

How I captured the video:

I first tried to do the capture with Jing (my new favorite screen capture tool), however after playing with it for 2 days, I was generating files that were 150MB to 450MB with only 1 minute and 30 seconds of video. Much too large to post and view from my blog. I contacted Jing. and they told me that their program doesn't work well with real time video content like a Google Earth Tour. Wish I knew that before I started.

I finally found a tool called iShowU that allows more options for saving and using the files, but it was $20 to get rid of the watermark on the video. I guess I was feeling cheap, so that's why there is a big green iShowU label in the middle of the video. (If you send me a donation, I'll buy iShowU and get rid of it- JK).

Use iPhoto to make a slideshow of the tour.
After discussing this project with my Auntie Lynn (of Saint George fame), it seemed like another approach would be to just take some screen captures of the tour using the Grab utility in OS X, keyboard shortcuts (command-shift-4) or the image capture in Jing. (I used Jing, but all will work). This approach still does not have the full effect of Google Earth, and the downsides of the video capture above still exist, such as lower resolution, and inability to read the balloon pop-ups, but like the one above, the video below plays fairly well. If you started the one above, you may have to wait for it to finish to see this one unless you have a fast connection. You will know its queuing up as it will display a buffering pop-up notice.

Once again, the downsides are due to the need to "shrink" the video so it will play with minimal delay in the blog. If you have a very fast connection or are patient, you can use the following link to play the full version (sorry this one has narration, but not music). This file is even larger than the previous one at ~ 100 MB so even with a very fast connection, you might have to wait over 3 minutes or more to get a smooth play. Google Earth Tour Slideshow of M6 return

How I created the slideshow:
I played the Google Earth Tour on my computer, paused it whenever I felt it was good for a picture (of course I captured all the pop-up balloons), snapped a screenshot and then imported them into iPhoto and made a slideshow. I used the Ken Burns effect (manual mode) to adjust the pan and zoom of the image to simulate real motion. This actually worked even better than I thought it would. It was easy enough to do that I am confident I could teach my students this process. I think having the students create a Google Earth Tour based on something we are doing in class, creating a slideshow of it and posting it to a class website or wiki will be a great project during the year. Take a look and see what you think. I added the titles and narration in iMovie, because it was quick and easy. I am pretty pleased with this version, give me some feedback.

M6 Was AWESOME- Thanks COPA/Cirrus

2008-07-19T17:39:00.000-07:00

The last 10 days have been super hectic with all the fun in Duluth, my dash back across the country with Tony, packing for Del Mar and then driving here. I am finally in Del Mar, CA. (here is the view from my window)

With some peace and quiet I plan to catch up on my summer blog. My first update is on my experiences in Duluth, more to follow in the next week as I get my "relax" on good and tight.

M6 was the best yet.
After dodging a few storm cells on the way up (no big deal with NEXRAD on board), I arrived in Duluth for the COPA event (M6). This was my 5th Migration and probably the best yet for me. I met up with lots of COPA friends including Sanjay, Rick, Mike, Curt, and Jim, and made a lot of new ones. I also ran into someone I worked with 30 years ago at Intel (Steve Dominick). Isn't it a small world. Not sure how many planes came this year, but you can see for yourself, its a lot.

Rather than relay all the details, here, for anyone interested, I will provide a couple of links. Fellow COPA member Gil Williamson put up some pictures and captions on his website. Just click here if you want to take a look. (since I wrote this Gil has attended the Dayton Airshow, so you need to scroll down and move to the second page to find the pictures.

Just added today- Aero News Video about the COPA Migration. Its about 8 minutes but check out my 5 seconds of fame at the 3:43 mark

One of the other great improvements this year was the publication of the Migration Daily News. I put up the files on this website for anyone to read. I tried using a new on-line program called Scribd to allow easier viewing. [note: sometimes it takes a few seconds to download, be patient] Let me know what you think. If you want to download the files, click the Scribd logo and then download. Use the + sign to make it larger. I think this will be great for putting things on my class website for parents to read.

For those that don't want to delve into the details, here is my "15 minutes of fame" picture in Saturday's Daily Update. No surprise, the picture is of me standing in line for some food. Eating fish and shrimp while walking around at the Duluth Aquarium was sure a bit weird, although tasty. It was a nice change from the trains at all the previous events.

My best memories from this year's Migration were Rod Machado's great speeches and just having the chance to "shmooz" with a bunch of great people. Of course being across the street from Dairy Queen didn't hurt either. I also had a chance to see "the -jet" in its hanger as they were doing some maintenance, as they prepared it for Oshkosh. Thoughts of purchase are still dancing through my head, if someone can get the stock market to go up instead of down, I might be tempted. For now, its just drool and watch.

Duluth put on a great weather show with nice days mixed in with a wonderful lightening storm on Friday night- what a show. As always, everyone in Duluth was nice, and the people at Currus, IOLS and Monarch Aviation were all wonderful. Thanks to all the hard working volunteers of COPA that put this event together. I'll certainly be back next year.

Traveling to Chicago

2008-07-09T14:32:00.000-07:00

As previously reported, I had a long trip ahead of me to the Midwest. Tony and I had a long day enroute from Saint George to Ann Arbor (outside of Detroit), but we made it.

Our first stop was in Denver after a beautiful crossing of the great divide. We had an awesome breakfast at the Perfect Landing- I need to find more excuses to go to Denver, it was fantastic. (Of course I had a Denver Omelet)

After spending the night at Tony's son's house outside of Detroit. I decided to proceed to Chicago along the lakefront. I have never done this before, what a beautiful view of the city. Take a look for yourself:

For those that know me, the second most important reason I come to Chicago is to get my taste of Luke's Italian Beef Sandwich. (First is seeing everyone). If you ever see this sign, you MUST STOP and try one. Tell them Stuart sent you:

Tomorrow I'm off to Duluth for the Cirrus get together. I can't wait to go and I'm sure I will have lots of new cool aviation toys to discuss next week.

Preparing for Duluth

2008-07-05T16:35:00.000-07:00

Only 2 more days until my big flying trip of the year. I attend the annual migration of Cirrus Aircraft in Duluth each summer. I love the comradary as well as the opportunity to fly a long ways. I am sure this year they will show us their new jet flying. Here is the first flight from a few days ago.

This year, I will be stopping in Saint George to pick up my Uncle Tony and drop him off at his son's place outside Detroit. A quick stop in Chicago to visit (time and weather permitting) and then to Duluth. Below is a map of my routing. Over 13 hours of flying (yeah) and 2394 nautical miles (2700 for you ground based people).

Have done a lot of planning (even though I have done it before), to be sure I know the route and planned stops. Plan A (there is always a Plan B and Plan C as backups) will have me overnighting in Saint George, breakfast in Pueblo,CO the next day, lunch in St. Joseph MO and then drop off Tony in New Hudson, MI. If its not too late, I'll jump over to Chicago to spend Wednesday with family and then hop up to Duluth on Thursday for the weekend. My main requirements for stops are fuel, food and clean restrooms.

Checking weather is one of my main pre-flight activities as well as ensuring all my maps are up-to-date. Weather is showing a forecasted front moving through Chicago and Detroit on Tuesday afternoon, with some isolated T-Storms along with it. Depending on how the forecast looks in a few days, I will either delay my departure from Saint George by a day or be prepared to spend an overnight in Southern Illinois. Time wil tell.

Most of my maps are updated, I'll get the rest done Monday morning before I leave. Working out the details of the route, preparing Plan B and Plan C and just the anticipation of a big flight always gets me excited.

Cool tool- Animoto

2008-07-04T13:02:00.000-07:00

Stumbled across a site (don't even ask me how I found it), that some of you might already know. Its called Animoto and it will take pictures and music and make it into a cool video. The free ones are 30 seconds (just fine) and if you want to make a longer one, its not much. I made one this morning from a recent trip, it was easy and fun. I think maybe I'll take some pictures of the teachers getting ready in their classrooms just before school opens and have Cheryl post the video on the school web site. I'll probably make some more from my own pictures as I suspect practicing with the techniques will improve the quality.

Bonnie's New Computer and iPhoto 08

2008-07-04T00:02:00.000-07:00

I had planned to work on my flight-plan to Duluth for next week, but was sidetracked when one of the teachers from our school called. Her name is Bonnie, coincidentally the same as my wife. She does pre-K early intervention work and is a wonderful persson. The district gave her a new computer on the last day of school, but did not set it up. I know she wanted to practice with it this summer, so I went over to see if I could help.

Turns out Office 2004 (including mail) was not loaded. I learned a new trick last week; you can boot up a Mac in "target mode" and it acts like an external hard drive. I took her old laptop, booted it in target mode and then copied all her programs and files to her new computer. We checked everything out without any issues. We then spent some time looking around her new Leopard system. She loved "spaces" as well as the document preview and widgets. I know she is going to enjoy playing with it this summer.

On her personal Mac she has a lot of pictures but didn't really know how to do anything with them, so we talked about what she wanted to do and decided iPhoto combined with Google's Picasa web albums would work the best. When we upgraded her setup to iPhoto 08 (since that is also what's on her new notebook), it was amazing. It reorganized her photos and set up the new interface. Its very cool. One cool feature is when you search a subject for help (like combining events), it actually tells you and shows you what to do, not just describes it. Very slick. Signing up for her Google account was quick and we downloaded the iPhoto plug-in for Picasa (why we chose this approach).

She can now put her photo's in iPhoto, select the ones she wants for an album, upload them to Google to store, email her friends the location and send them to Snapfish with just a few clicks. All inside iPhoto 08 and all free (except for the cost of printing her pictures) She is going to the Tetons this summer and is excited to try out her new photo capability. She might even bring her notebook and upload her pictures as she goes.

My good deed for the week (setting up her computer and teaching her pictures) was made easy because of the capabilities and simple interface of Apple products. Yes, I am a real fan now.

I promise not to do all my posts on Apple and technology (although I will do some on the new cool tools I am practicing with for next year's class). Upcoming entries will focus on my upcoming trip to Duluth and having a great time flying myself in my Cirrus.

Tiger and Leopard on my Mac

2008-07-02T20:06:00.000-07:00

OK, I'm now going to take this blogging thing a bit more seriously and see what might come of it. I spent the last couple of days playing around with my school computer. I was offered a chance to put Apple's new OS on it (Leopard with lots of cool things), but I was concerned since I provide support for teachers at my school with Tiger, that it might be a problem. I read online (in a blog) that you might be able to run both.

Off I went to Fry's, purchased a 160GB portable drive to back up before I started and then dug in. I had a few problems, but the online resources were great and in a few hours, I was able to boot either Tiger or Leopard onto my laptop. Both seem to work ok and with a little optimiztion today, I was able to free up ~ 16GB of space for data files on my puny little 60GB hard drive. Not bad, all my applications including iLife, iWork, Office, all the apps the kids use, a school photo library, some background music for school projects and all my presentations and documents PLUS 2 operating systems all on one 60 GB drive.

If anyone wants to see a video of what my desktop looks like now, here it is - just click the play button when it opens. The desktop is amazingly clean for me; fyi, the reference in the video to Stacy is one of the teachers at school who always gives me a bad time with how cluttered my desktop is.

Tomorrow, I think I will blog a bit about some of the cool new computer tools I learned in the last couple of weeks. Next week, I'm off to fly myself to Duluth, so there will be lots to talk about.