Looking at the map, my dilemma was clear. I had two great options both in opposite directions from one another. To make the decision harder, I didn't really have a good sense for how quickly I could travel through the countryside. Norway generally has an 80 km/h (50 mph) speed limit. I was expecting an... Continue Reading →
I've long been a fan of Navigon, a navigation app for iPhone and Android. The benefit to using Navigon over Google Maps is that all of the maps are preloaded on the phone. You don't need cellular data for directions. In general, Navigon worked flawlessly once you get beyond it's weird UI paradigms. I also... Continue Reading →
I fulfilled a dream today. I remember in middle school social studies class learning about the world and all of the different places in it. Much like every kid in America, we covered the world in chapters with each culture being a week or two in school. Three chapters resonated with me: Australia, the Nordics,... Continue Reading →
It was mid August. Long, hot, humid days ruled the week with the occasional thunderstorm that really rocked my world as I miss them immensely living in California. I was traveling all over the Southeast seeing friends and family and everything in between. I was back in the land of front porch culture – where... Continue Reading →
I had two great days up in Lake Tahoe experiencing very different coworking spaces. Before that, I’ve been to a couple of different coworking spaces where I’ve stayed over in certain cities and extra day or two. I find that in coworking spaces I'm much more productive for me than sitting in a hotel room... Continue Reading →
Ever since I was kid I've been fascinated by the big yellow machines used in construction. As kids we've all had the earth moving equipment: bulldozers, excavators, dump trucks in our toy collections. Much like most kids here in the states those toys spent many hours in the sandbox building castles, moats, and other fortresses... Continue Reading →
It didn’t seem that long ago that I moved out west. I remember a fraternity brother of mine, Steve, mentioning that I should go see Truckee and the beauty of Lake Tahoe. Driving west to my new life I remember seeing fires often the mountains as we passed through Reno. Jeff and I were sort... Continue Reading →
This year I'm headed to Central Florida three times on business: once in August, once in October, and once in November. Everyone at work gave me the, "You're going there?" My good friend Rob whom I visited in Austin last year moved here a few months ago. It's always great to see friendly faces when... Continue Reading →
Before I left, I had mentioned to my roommates that I was going to be in Washington DC for a business trip. Both of us were thrilled as it turned out all three of us would be in DC at the same time and all of us were taking an extra day to sightsee. We... Continue Reading →
I've never actually been to Washington, DC until now. For some reason we never had a school trip to go see our nation's capital. Nor was there a family vacation in that neck of the woods. Actually, the closest I ever got to Washington, DC was the trip after college to Lynchburg, Virginia to evaluate... Continue Reading →
Today was one of the first days I felt really far from home. From California, it's a chunk of flying to get home. From Australia, it's literally halfway around the world. It takes 24 hours of continuous flying to get to home from here to see family. I got news today that my uncle had... Continue Reading →
Up to the mountain This weekend is Homoto’s annual board retreat. One of the members has access to an awesome cabin up in Lake Tahoe. When starting my term as president, I felt it was important to gather the full board to have a time of connection and bonding as well as planning out the... Continue Reading →
Man time passes quickly. It didn’t seem that long ago that I wrote the article “Dad is 62.” This year was the big 70. My mom and sister had the idea to surprise him this year a few weeks before his birthday. The plan in his mind was to spend a weekend down in Destin... Continue Reading →
On Sunrise I’ve not been back to Destin, Florida in over 20 years. The last time I remember being there was as a high schooler on family vacation with my parents. We were staying out near Sandestin which is about 10 miles east of the downtown. I woke up early Sunday morning to go take... Continue Reading →
I was in Nashville for the Agile 2013 conference. It was fun being in the booth talking with many people about Agile technologies and what's going on with software development: coding, managing, teaching. There are couple of people out from Australia that had flights the day after the last day of the conference. Tom and... Continue Reading →
My last few days in Canada were to be spent at Banff National Park. Banff was about 90 minutes to the west of Calgary up in the mountains. I was hoping that the elevation would give some relief from the heat. Bummed that I had lost my phone at the rodeo, I pulled out the... Continue Reading →
Modern rodeo has 2 events that involve bucking horses: saddle bronc riding and bareback riding. The 2 events differ in how the cowboy rides a horse. In saddle bronc riding there’s a substantial, special saddle that the cowboys can use while riding the horse. In bareback, as you can infer, the cowboy is just about... Continue Reading →
Steer wrestling is an event where two cowboys on horseback chase after a steer. One of the cowboys dismounts his horse and wrestles the steer to the ground. Both the steers and the horses are running at a pretty good clip so it’s an event of careful timing and execution. Out of the gate the... Continue Reading →
I will say I had fun with this lens! The 70 – 200 f/2 .8 lens is a beast but when tuned, it takes great photos. I was struggling with how to set up the camera to balance depth of field, ISO, and shutter speed to get crisp photos that weren't grainy. Looking in all... Continue Reading →
After a day during Edmonton it was time to get into rural Alberta. If anything became clear over the next couple of days Alberta is more Texas than Texas. I was really surprised how far into the valley Edmonton really was. It definitely sits out on the wide-open plain. Ponoka is about 75 minutes south... Continue Reading →
