Joshua Tree Under the Milky Way from Henry Jun Wah Lee on Vimeo.

I can’t remember where I found out about Henry Jun Wah Lee’s incredibly time lapse photography, but ever since I’ve been mesmerized viewing the videos. The video above of the Perseid meteor shower and the Milky Way as seen from Joshua Tree. When we were in New Hampshire we were able to see the Milky Way from the Kancamagus Highway like I hadn’t seen it in a very long time. Everyone should have the opportunity to see the Milky Way like that.

The other video/time lapse I fell in love with is the Time Lapse Tour of Yosemite National Park. A place I would love to visit and hopefully will someday with my camera.

We spent the weekend, courtesy of friends at a beach rental in East Lyme/Niantic. It was a nice break from life and great times with friends. Our friend’s kids kept Craig busy wanting to play games and go exploring. While at the beach Dunkin Donuts flew their banner over head several times.

It was really peaceful to be in a private community where you can walk around, leave the house unlocked, everyone waves and says Hi, and people follow the speed limit. There was also something rejuvenating being near the water and having the expectations lowered significantly for two days. More photos on Flickr.

Then last weekend my iPhone stopped waking up. I have it in a dock each night while I sleep on my night stand. In the morning I turned on the phone, but got the black screen and the silver/white apple logo. I figured ok strange, guess it had a hiccup. I waited and made the doc was indeed getting power. It stayed on that screen for a minute and then went black. I tried a full reset holding down the power and home button, still would not go past the Apple logo.

Into the office I went and opted to restore. Of course last weekend iOS 4.0.1 had been released and iTunes was giving me that as my only option. I’m sure I could have forced it to grab the 3.1.3 ipsw file, but I was very tired and just wanted my phone working again. I clicked ok and waited a good hour while it got reset and it copied everything back over to it.

The Positive

I cringed at the thought my iPhone would again be slow, crashing and not fun to use again. To my pleasant surprise that has not been the case. It’s a tiny bit slow on certain things, but the iOS 4.0.1 update actually improved the speed of other items, and everything I wrote about in my previous post is no longer an issue. I’d like to say that will teach me for being an early adopter but I’ll still do it.

My iPhone 3G now has a second life and my imperative need for an iPhone 4 has been delayed a while longer.

Bryan and his dog Anna

Val and Autumn

Fun with cameras

At first it seemed to be working well. Then as the days went on I noticed it got slower and buggier. Craig pointed me to a post that said to reset it 3 times in a row, so I tried that. Slight improvement but only temporarily. I even tried reinstalling iOS 4, and still the issues persisted. This was the first time in owning an iPhone that I wanted to throw it across the room or through a window. Below are the issues I ran into.

Typing
The keys would be severely delayed and act as if they were sticking, making it extremely frustrating to work on the phone.

Maps
This became also completely unusable. The locate feature which worked excellent before, would now take upwards of 2 minutes to find me, and was off several times. The redraw on the maps would hang and sometimes never load.

Mail
Also very slow, when it checked mail in the background it would bring the entire phone to a crawl.

Safari
This was a first ever on my phone. I was loading a website in Safari and the entire phone crashed and reset.

iTunes
Anytime any process was running in the background, especially Mail, iTunes would skip and stutter through songs. It would also hang while trying to move to the next song, it would take a second or two audibly but then the artwork would not change for another 10 seconds and if I pressed the next button again it would completely hang.

All of these were enough for me to say mercy, and downgrade to 3.1.3. I found the .ipsw file from my back up and followed the instructions on Lifehacker.

I have successfully downgraded and restored from a back up I did two weeks ago. My apps all load quickly, no crashing, typing works again and Maps finds me every time and updates very fast. At some point in the future, I’ll upgrade to the iPhone 4.

Brilliant. (Found on Richard’s Notes)

While I’m not a huge kei$ha fan, I love the mash up of all the old Star Trek episodes.

The MicroCell is $149.00 as a single cost. It uses you’re existing minutes and hooks up to your internet connection which does not have to be an AT&T specific connection. We have Comcast and it’s hooked up via the cable modem. The setup does take about an hour for it to register and set up the MicroCell to be a tower in your home. It’s secured and only available to the numbers you program into it via the website. You can add up to 10 lines to be authorized. Only 4 can be on it at the same time though.

The Pros:

• We now have 5 bars of service everywhere in our home, even in the basement two levels down and in the parking lot
• We were able to fully get rid of a land line and save $80.00 a month

The Cons:

• Recently I’ve had a call get dropped
• We have a slight echo/delay on some calls
• We’ve also recently had static / air noise on calls, the other user doesn’t hear it but we do

Unbeknownst to us the spare bedroom at our rental had a taxidermied bear under it. Craig and I had been in the room several times before my sister in law arrived and didn’t notice it. Then when she arrived and we went to make the bed, there was silence, a gasp and a scream. Of course this was all happening at night and thus making the “not what you expected” factor rise a lot more.

Before we left Craig and Kerry took some fun pics. Kerry has been vegan since the start of the year, so it seemed perfect to have her reading her book, “Simply Vegan”.

Of all the reasons to come to Maine this is by far my favorite; biking the carriage trails of Acadia. The hills are deceiving and I’m in awe of people who just fly by me. Today we did a 9 mile loop with a stop at Jordan Pond House for some pop overs.

Route: We parked at Bubble Pond, headed up to the Jordan Pond loop, went by Jordan Pond House, then around the mountain, down the backside of Eagle Lake and then back up to the Bubbles parking area.

Observations along the way:

• I bike up hills at 3-4 mph
• Stopping for longer than a minute after mile 5 garnered much longer start ups
• 65 degree weather and cloudy is perfect for me for biking
• Pack a small point and shoot camera
• Get an extra battery pack for the iPhone
• Listening to the Crystal Method for most of the trip seriously kept me moving?

Accomplishments:

• First ride of the season, 9 miles
• Did not have to stop on the hills, just went slow and steady
• Did not stress about hills, but accepted them and chose to conquer them

We managed to time our ride perfectly again to bump into the horse and carriage teams leaving the stables with their passengers. Each group waved to us and said Hi.

As always I loved the ride, had a great time and wish I could do it every weekend. A slightly easier version would be nice everyday to get to work.

We had fun later in the trip where we seemed to be the only ones on the trail and we shot some video. Craig is going to be compiling it into something fun to watch and I’ll post when he does.

Kerry and I decided to explore Great Wass Island today. The weather was perfect and we wanted to get out of the house, as well as get some exercise. My inlaws and Kerry had gone to this island last year but I never made it. It definitely ranks up as one of my favorite trails to hike.

The trail included several varieties of terrain, from roots and dirt, to boardwalks and several large boulders. I love the trees through these island landscapes, they’re small and scraggly growing in directions clearly blown by the Atlantic wind. In the woods the temperature was perfect, we worked up a good sweat. Along the trail I managed to scare a red squirrel and a spruce grouse.

At the terminus of the trail we got an incredible view of the Atlantic Ocean. We had the whole beach to ourselves for quite a while.

The rocks were wonderfully sun baked and kept us warm as the wind picked up and made for a chilly but sunny lunch. We were able to keep with our vegan eating packing left overs. It was a great way to spend the afternoon. According to the LoseIt app, our 2.5 hour hike totaled 1100 calories burned.  We spent a total of 3.5 hours out on the island.

Onto tomorrow and more adventures!

Unlike last year we’ve had incredible weather. Almost everyday has been sunny with a light breeze and as I said before, gorgeous views. I’m incredibly grateful for that. We’ve spent a lot of time reading and brainstorming projects and future plans. We’ve made some delicious healthy meals and working on sun tans. We both managed to get decent burns after sitting out for 5 hours on one day.

We made a trip into Bar Harbor and enjoyed town life and lots of lobster. I visited my favorite store, Cool As A Moose and picked up some new Life Is Good swag. Today begins the second week and we’re off to do some biking and enjoy the outdoors.

Sitting out on the deck with Craig enjoying this gorgeous weather. We’re reading books, catching up on email and having our great philosophical conversations.

One of my favorite recipes yet from The Kind Diet is the Edamame and Sugar Snap Peas. The recipe is so easy to make and uses only olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, shallots and ume boshi plum vinegar.

My mother in-law has a beautiful Azalea bush at their home. An idea of how much “warmer” it is this year, two years ago when I took photos of this in bloom it was Mother’s Day. This year it is mid-to-end of April.

I took this photo around 6pm with the sun setting behind the hill and backlighting the flowers. I shot it with the Canon 50mm 1.8/f lense which I love for it’s wonderful depth of field.

My 2002 Honda CR-V rolled over 170,000 miles two weeks ago. I’m happy to say it’s still running very smoothly and the engine is still pretty quiet. I’m still glad I made the switch to Honda back in 1998 and haven’t looked back. There will still be another SAAB in my future, but I doubt there will be a time when we don’t own a Honda.

Onto the next 30,000 miles.

In my efforts to lose weight and get my health back, I opted for an impromptu hike nearby last weekend. We’ve tried to hike at Black Rock twice before but our timing wasn’t the best (frigid winds in the winter). I came armed with my map found at the CT DEP‘s site. We headed up the blue trail on the western side of the park.

As usual with CT, it starts off gradual for about 50 feet and then up! This is a deceiving “short” hike. The funniest part was on the way back down we passed several people in their 20-30′s who said, “good grief I feel old”. I’m guessing too many of us sit behind our desks and computers too much. Then there was one guy who was pretty lean and limber and was doing the loop, up and over the mountain and back down, he passed us 3 times. Pretty damn impressive.

I’ve kept up with eating vegan and exercising minimally 3 times a week. My total weight loss is 12 lbs so far. My short term goal is another 8 lbs. The next goal is 45 lbs from that point. The final goal is another 25 from there. I’m sure there will be plateaus and I’m preparing already to mix things up.

Those who know me, know that I love New Hampshire. This is an awesome parody. Having spent almost every summer vacation for many years in Franconia Notch, I knew quite a few of the jokes. New Hampshire tourism should pick this up and run with it.

My wrap consisted of:

• Tomato Basil Tortilla Wrap
• Sabra Hummus (as a spread)
• Alfalfa Sprouts
• Roasted Red Pepper
• 1/2 Avacado
• Lemon Juice (added when I went to eat it

It seemed to be lacking flavor, I tried to add lemon juice to make it a bit tastier but I think I should have actually used more roasted red peppers.

Today’s wrap was quite a bit tastier. This is what it consisted of.

• Tomato Basil Tortilla Wrap
• Sabra Hummus (as a spread)
• Alfalfa Sprouts
• Roasted Red Pepper
• 1/2 Avacado
• Couscous with Pine Nuts
• Cannellini Beans

I’m thinking of trying some seasoned tofu in my next round of experiments along with getting better at actually wrapping up wraps.

Tonight’s dinner was quite yummy as I’ve rediscovered couscous.

My schedule is still a bit crazy to get into cooking big meals. This past weekend I decided to simplify, choose only meals that could be quick, not even heated and still fall under the vegan and healthy guidelines.

I made home guacamole for the first time. It was awesome! I’ve been eating oatmeal and fruit for breakfast. I cooked up crispy orange tofu from the Kind Diet cookbook. Tonight I made couscous, which I haven’t had in a very long time. I also attempted to make a wrap for lunch. I used a tomato tortilla, hummus, roasted red peppers, avocado and sprouts. It was…ok…I need to figure out something to first add more flavor, but also make the avocado a bit smaller. I used chunks and I wasn’t really loving it.

I’ve also gotten into the habit of impromptu exercising. My Mom called me up on Saturday and gave me a 20 minute notice if I wanted to go for a walk. I was in the middle of working on some projects, but I decided, this nice weather doesn’t come along that often and I need to get out from behind the desk. So off I went for a good walk. Tonight, I was waiting for Craig to be free but he got busy with a few different things. I watched as the sun went down more and more, and said, screw it, I need to take advantage of this weather. So I took myself out and went for a walk. 45 minutes later and my heart pumping I feel much better.

I’ve always made the excuse of not enough time, energy and being too busy as to why I didn’t just get out and exercise. It’s fun… you only live once right? and I’m sick of not being able to take off my rings and not being as flexible several years ago. I’m only 31, not 61.

I knew there was a reason I waited to get a remote starter. I want this!

1. “Clients are never as prepared as they say they will be.”

Is almost an understatement. As I am reminded by stories on the website Clients From Hell, it’s all too common. I think this also leads to many in the creative field, myself included, feeling like we’re not being respected. But I am also reminded of an article in the February 2010 issue of HOW magazine, “The Q Factor” by Andy Epstein. In the article Andy described how helpful it can be to our projects and how they progress, by being involved and educating the people around us. Our jobs are not only relevant but they add value.

The issue, at least for myself, is educating takes time. I’m usually rush, rush from one project to the next. Better. Faster. Next. In many companies this step is usually under valued and seen as a time and money waster. Not to sound cliché but being proactive can help immensely as the project advances. I often forget this and jump right in. The times I haven’t, and put the effort in, it’s made all the difference.

Will this solve all clients not being as prepared? No. There is only so much as the provider you can do. Some people have no desire to change from rush/react mode. I’m trying to get better at reading these signs and stepping away from clients who refuse to at least meet in the middle.

2. “Clients always change their mind.”

Again, so very true. Similarly being proactive and anticipating clients’ expectations/fears will reduce this, and there will always be changes.

Recently I was in a relatively heated discussion around this topic. I still feel my point is valid and possible to implement. My issue was regarding a change to a header that I made six times, back and forth between two options. I did not have direct contact with the client, so I could not test my method. What I would have liked to see happen was explaining to the client that each change back and forth was going to cost more money. That maybe, they needed to pause for a moment, get everyone on the same page and then make a final change. This is not an unreasonable request. It saves everyone involved time and money as the project progresses.

3. “People always underestimate the amount of time it will take to do something.”

Absolutely. I’m a horrible offender of this. I know I do work quickly and I always think I can do it even quicker, because I think the client will be happier if it’s faster. Of course this is the farthest thing from the truth. The client will inevitably hold me to it and be unhappy when I don’t make the deadline.

In the article, Erin recommends taking your time and doubling it. If you think it’s going to take two hours, make it four. It never fails, that my quick off the cuff estimate didn’t realize that the client supplied a flattened PSD, or didn’t actually have a copy of the original source document, only a PDF.

Designers, Developers, Project Managers, Sales people can all benefit from remembering these three truths when starting a project with a client. In a field that seems to try to move at the speed of light, we could all benefit from taking a breather, doing some more thinking, laying some ground work to make all of us saner at the end of the day. Really, what is the rush?

When going through old photos last weekend, I came across this one of my mother. I had said to her when I saw it, “my god Mom your hair looks phenomenal”. Her response was “yah but it was too hard to keep up”. It turns out this was from a family wedding in the summer of 1972, in Darien, Connecticut. Long before my parents were thinking of me.

My grandmother is on the left, and I believe my mom’s cousin is on the right. The original photo had faded quite a bit and I used levels, curves and contrast in Photoshop to bring back the depth of the photo. I also did some burning in of areas that had faded more than the rest of the photo.

I’m a bit behind in seeing this, but what awesome work from the Providence St. Vincent Hospital in Portland, Oregon. I’d love to read more on how this came together and how many people actually participated. I could definitely see Danbury Hospital doing something like this. I wonder if they’ve seen it.