The Longest Run

Spurred to action by Virginia Heffernan's article in the New York Times Sunday Magazine ( Confessions of a TED Addict ), I've started watching videos from the annual TED conference . You can read Heffernan's article for a more in-depth overview of what the conference is about, but I think the TED tag line sums things up pretty well: Ideas Worth Spreading. I've got a bunch of videos lined up to watch, but my favorites so far are by Peter Reinhart on baking bread and Benjamin Wallace on the price of happiness. Here's the Reinhart video: And here's the Wallace video: (here are links to the Reinhart and the Wallace in case you can't see the embedded videos). If yoy are interested in baking bread, you should also check out Reinhart's new cookbook The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread . The cookbook has won a couple of awards and is terrific. I've not made any of the breads yet but have enjoyed just reading Reinha...

Check out this video - it's a new holiday season campaign from a number of book publishers working together.

Check out this video shot on the new Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera. Amazing quality for video shot with a digital SL; almost makes me want to be a Canon owner. Of course, I'd still have to work on my creative skills.....

I loved these segments from Jon Stewart's Daily Show on Barack Obama's acceptance speech in Denver. Laughed out loud each time I watched them. There's a lot of great lines, so listen carefully!!

In case you didn't get the link for yesterday's video, here it is again .....

Our cat George, as you can see in the video below, loves to shower. Strange, no? Even stranger is that his brother Henry prefers the tub. George has this routine where he runs into the shower, walks a quick loop, and runs out to lick himself off under a chair. Henry will periodically join him, but lately has figured out an even better method - wait by the chair to lick the water off George once George has been in the shower. Even stranger.

....and wonder what 'teaching me this' is, check this link .

We had a 5 hour drive yesterday from Cape Cod to New York City. For really long car trips, we bring a portable dvd player for the kids. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Yesterday we had just the right thing: The Brady Bunch - The Complete First Season The kids were very, very happy.....and very, very quiet - for the entire trip. Thanks to Bob for the recommendation!

I had an absolutely fantastic day today. Some highlights (most of which were enhanced by the fact that it was a drop-dead gorgeous spring day here in NYC). Waking up at home rather than in MunichStockholmBermudaHoustonGalveston. 7+ mile run in Central Park at a pace of just under 8:30 per mile. Breakfast and a leisurely walk to school with the kids followed by time in both of their classrooms. Met another dad from our school who I really liked. He's a the NYC bureau reporter for an international newspaper who writes about business and culture; needless to say we instantly found lots to talk about. Impromptu coffee at Le Pain Quotidien with Katherine. At a time when everything feels busy and highly scheduled, it was great fun to have some one-on-one time at the spur of the moment. Nice walk to work listening to my new favorite song: David Cook singing Mariah Carey's Always Be My Baby from American Idol. I'm not afraid to admit I've become a fan of the show. David became ...

As I mentioned in yesterday's post , we had some interesting outside speakers, including an executive from Nokia named Annsi Vanjoki. Mr. Vanjoki shared a video called The Fourth Screen, which tracks the evolution from tv screen to movie screen to computer screen to portable device screen; it's worth watching. One of our afternoon speakers shared a video called The Break Up which captures the ways in which advertising is changing as consumers change their media consumption habits.

For some reason it seems the time-lapse video may not have come through the post in feed readers; if that's the case for you, here's a link to the live post: Time-Lapse Photography - Sunrise in Galveston

Here's a short time-lapse video I've made of a drop-dead gorgeous sunrise in Galveston, Texas. The video is comprised of about 285 separate pictures, each taken just a few seconds apart. To capture the sunrise I mounted my camera (Nikon D300 with a 12-24mm lens) on a tripod and attached a Nikon MC-36 Multi-Function Remote . I set the remote to shoot a picture every 4 seconds and then just stood back to watch the camera fire away. I then used Apple's iMovie to stitch the photos together. Enjoy!

...is the ice cream truck during vacation. Elizabeth and Sarah are joined by their J cousins - Jacob, Joshua, and Jonah. Shot with my Flip Video Camera

David Pogue of the New York Times reviews the Flip Video Camera I use and have recommended. You can find his review at Camcorder Brings Zen To The Shoot . UPDATE: Here are links to my earlier posts with Flip video: The End of the February Birthdays A Day at the Goat Farm, Part One  Heaven......

Katherine's brother Christian and his wife Lisa have started a goat cheese business in Field Store Community, Texas. Katherine and I and the girls, along with my sister Amy's daughter Anna, spent this morning at the farm getting an update on what's happening on the farm. You can find out a lot more about the business at the web site for Blue Heron Farm . To give you a sense of what things are like out at Blue Heron, I figured I'd start with some video. I'll follow up in my next post with some pictures from the day. Here's one of the two pigs who live on the farm (the audio is particularly fun): It's baby goat season, and though most of the baby goats won't stick around Blue Heron for long, there were two babies on the farm today (one of which is just 4 days old). Here's some video of the goats: Finally, there is a cool group of cows who live (or maybe they just graze) across the street. Here's a video of my encounter with one of the bigger ones.....

Last Friday marked the end of the annual February birthday-palooza (three family birthdays in the space of just eight days). To bring things to closure, and in the spirit of more blog bling, here are videos of the girls blowing out the candles at their birthday parties. Both of these videos were shot with a nifty new video camera I received as a gift. While it doesn't rival the quality of a full digital camcorder, given the price and the simplicity it's a great gadget; you can literally use it right out of the box without reading the instructions. Here's a link to check out more details at amazon . Finally, a shout-out to Katherine (the only family member who doesn't have a February birthday) for organizing a great two weeks of celebrations.