But taking a good long look at my site tonight, I realized that this kind of fluidity isn't really present in my design, especially when it comes to my own personal creation of data.  So with that in mind, I have made a slight adjustment to the sidebar.  The previous layout had a single sidebar to the right.  This new layout moves that to the left side, and adds a second sidebar devoted to this idea of dynamic personal content.  Now, my latest postings to Twitter and YouTube, as well as my most current shared items within Google Reader, are visible and will be updated automatically whenever I make changes to those services.  Some slight tweaking may take place over the next couple of days, so please excuse the dust, and let me know what you think of the new layout.

LauncherPro
Android home screen replacement app

Developer:  Federico Carnales

Download:  AppBrain

I have a certain affinity for any piece of hardware or software that allows for customization, making something your own by streamlining it into a well-oiled machine.  A perfect example would be your computer's operating system.  You can change your wallpaper, move your icons around, or completely change the overall appearance of the interface.  The same holds true for your Android phone.

For most standard Android users, your phone usually comes with at least three, and up to five, home screens, easily flipped through by swiping your finger left or right.  These screens allow you to add, subtract, and rearrange all the apps and widgets you have installed on your device.  If customization is your bag, you've probably adorned your home screens with all your favorite apps and widgets, and have probably filled the available space to its capacity among all the screens.  This is just about the time you need LauncherPro.  The first big advantage to the app is that you can increase your screen count to seven.  With seven screens, you've suddenly got an immense amount of real estate to populate your apps and widgets.  Even some widgets that could take up an entire screen now can have their place without hindering screen space.  The app also allows for up to three separate, scrollable docks, with an increase in the icons available on each dock.  The icons that come with LauncherPro can even include notification capabilities (for instance, the Gmail icon can show the number of unread emails).

Another advantage is its very smooth scrolling between screens, docks, and within the replacement app drawer.  This is much improved over Android itself.  And if you're like me, and you have a lot of apps installed, this makes things much nicer.  Also, one of its many preference settings allows for a thumbnail view of all your screens at once.  Very handy.

Screenshots

Let's face it:  this site hasn't benefited from regular updates in quite a long time.  My videos haven't been updated like I want.  And the learning side of my creativity hasn't gotten a boost of energy for some time.  This needs to change.

I think what I'm going to do is put my best foot forward and begin adding more content to this site on a much more regular basis.  Most of those updates will be based around technology.  With that as a background, there's a lot of areas to spread my thoughts.  To a very large extent, this has already happened with my new podcast called TechBusters.  Even though the show is a part of this site, I'm ashamed I never officially announced it here (considering we're almost into our 20th show).  TechBusters is a weekly podcast devoted to the world of technology in all its forms:  art, culture, social media, entertainment, science, and news.  I'm joined every week by Matt Hecht and Debo Aderibigbe, both enthusiastic tech gurus.  We bring our unique talents and expertise into the show to give the listener a broad mix of tech topics, and hopefully, that listener leaves each show a little more informed and/or entertained.

Outside of TechBusters I want to find topics and projects I'm interested in that are worth taking the time to discuss or work on.  And one of those areas of interest is Google's Android mobile operating system.  I've been an Android user for almost a year now, and during that time, I've absorbed an insane amount of knowledge regarding the platform and the apps running on it.  My foray into Android also started with getting my first smartphone, the Motorola Droid.  I got a lot of great feedback regarding my initial reviews of the Droid (here and here), so I think Android reviews is where I'll put my focus.

And as always, there's the videos.  I love makin' 'em.  People love watchin' 'em.  They also love to get after me when I don't make them fast enough.  I suppose going months without making a new video would tend to be annoying for some.  I know it is for me.  This is something I need to change.  Now that's not to say that a new Tin Trio vid will magically appear online tomorrow.  Sorry, not quite yet.  What I want to create are videos with a more broader range than what I currently have up.  Yes, you'll continue to see videos based on music, but you'll also see more short subject videos with shorter running times, and higher production values.  I have to use that college degree somehow, right?

That, in a nutshell, is my plan.  I will do my best not to disappoint.

I also have a number of photos on Flickr of the event.  Enjoy!

Steve Jobs with the new Apple iPad

But does it live up to the pomp and circumstance that Steve Jobs bestowed upon it?  It is now 2010, and I think by this time, we should have a pretty good idea of what should and should not be (or what we want and don't want) on a mobile device like this.  On the surface, the iPad is a very sweet machine:  thin and light, big, full color, high resolution, multi-touch, and even a great price.  But when you really look at the specs (or lack thereof), to me, it's just not worth it.  And here's why:

1. no multitasking.
This is huge.  HUGE!  Not being able to run more than one application at a time is a deal breaker from this point on.  How long is Apple going to wait until this feature gets put in their mobile devices?  Palm figured it out.  Google figured it out.  Microsoft figured it out.  RIM figured it out.  I mean, come on, my Droid has it, and it's 1/2 as slow as the iPad.

2. no camera.
This was one of the things that blew me away.  So you're telling me that you can put a camera on an iPhone, but you can't put one on the iPad?  Why, because there's no room?  Yeah...right.  A high-resolution screen and no camera to take advantage of it.  If they put both a front- and rear-facing camera on this thing, and then added full support for Skype, that would be one seriously killer app.  This thing works at wireless N and 3G speeds, and if you've got a good signal, should quite easily handle it.  Imagine how much fun video conferencing on this would be.

3. storage size.
One of the biggest things I hate being limited on with any device is storage, especially if you can't expand that storage.  Now, granted, most people don't generate the crazy amounts of data that I do at the blink of an eye.  But there are plenty of people who, like me, have large music and photo collections that could easily reach that minimum 16 GB limit.  Steve Jobs always touts music, photos, and apps as the big features of his mobile devices.  And you can bet that the folks who buy the iPhone, iPod Touch, and now the iPad use all three of these in spades.  I think, at the very least, the iPad should have included a memory card slot of some kind.

4. no Flash support.
If you watched yesterday's Apple event when Jobs was browsing the web, you would have noticed  multiple instances where something designed with Flash was supposed to be on the page he was looking at.  But instead, the blue "missing  plugin" icon showed up.  I thought that was a bad thing to show at a press event.  And yes, Apple isn't the only company with Flash support issues, but when something is as globally ubiquitous as Flash, like it or not, you support it.

5. the name.
I think when it comes right down to it, Apple has totally burned up all variations of iThis and iThat.  A lot of names were thrown around the press during the rumor phase leading up to the event.  Some were good; some were not.  My favorite was "the Slate".  It's got a great ring to it.  The Apple Slate.  But no, now we have to put up with feminine hygiene product jokes for the next decade.

6.  no GPS.
The Maps application on the iPad is absolutely gorgeous.  It takes full advantage of Google's map infrastructure, including satellite photos and Street View.  However, if you want to locate your position on the iPad, you'll have to rely on either Wifi or 3G, depending on your model.  And in many places, those signals could be weak or nonexistent.

7. still no Verizon
For those people who make the monetary leap to the 3G-enabled version of the iPad, you'll still need to rely on AT&T's 3G service.  And as many iPhone owners can probably attest to, this just sucks.  Plus, adding a new device to AT&T's data pipe can only create even more bottlenecks than there are now.  Spread the love to other carriers, Apple.

I will say that I think Apple is now in a good position as far as e-books go.  And that mainly is because the iPad has a full-color screen.  And from the looks of it, reading a book on this thing is a very pleasurable experience.  But the real question is whether or not it will kill all other e-book readers.  I personally think it won't.  Devices like Amazon's hot-selling Kindle prove that if you simply enjoy the aspect of reading, you don't need bells and whistles.  Clean, easily-readable text and a nice way to turn the page sounds pretty good to me.  However, if I were an avid comic book reader, I'd be salivating over the full-color screen.

The iPad begins selling in March, and when it finally does, I will be making the trip to the Apple Store to get my first hands-on look at it.  Will that personal experience change my opinions here?  Honestly, I doubt it.  In all accounts, I can totally envision me holding the iPad and thinking "this is simply a 10-inch iPod Touch."  Apple changed the world when it released the iPod, and then completely altered the landscape when it released the iPhone, but since then, I think Apple has sort of lost its way in what today's mobile device consumers are wanting.  It just feels like Apple is giving you what they think you want, and I'm not really a fan of that.  If future versions of the iPad include the features I think it lacks, then yeah, I would really consider getting one.  Maybe I have a better chance of waiting for, perhaps, the Google Slate?

Quick disclosure:  I received a number of comments regarding my initial review on how many of the "features" that the Droid has are also available on other smartphones in some shape or form.  To clear up any confusion, what I should have mentioned in my review is that the Droid is the first smartphone I've ever actually owned and used on a regular basis.  I've played around with most of the smartphones out there in some capacity, as well as read many reviews for them, and for the most part, I've gotten a good grasp on their strengths and weaknesses.  But when it comes to the day-to-day operation of a smartphone, I am still discovering what is possible.

The Battery

So let me start with the battery life.  For the most part, the phone has a pretty good battery, but like all battery-powered things, its charge all depends on how you use it.  With all my previous phones, I was used to plugging them in at night, and if need be, going the next two days without it needing a charge.  But with all the apps I'm now able to download and use, those days are most likely gone.  The apps can quickly become the biggest users of battery power, since many of them constantly run in the background.  Moderation is obviously one way to conserve the juice, but you can also use certain apps to prolong your battery's charge.  The phone comes with a Power Control widget that you can place on one of your home screens that lets you quickly turn off power-hungry features like WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS when you don't need them.  I also downloaded an app called Advanced Task Killer, which lets you shut down many unused programs at once, freeing up memory and power.  When I first got the phone, I was burning through the battery by late afternoon, but I think I've got myself into a good pattern of use now, and can squeeze out a full day.

Google Maps Navigation

Click for larger version

I gave a lot of praise to Google Maps Navigation in my initial review, and to my surprise, I can give it even more praise.  Google has truly gone all out with it.  I mentioned my first "wow" moment after seeing my dotted location overlayed on top of a satellite image.  I played with this a bit more just to see how accurate it was.  Standing outside at the corner of my house, my location dot was indeed over the correct corner of my house on the image.  As I moved around the house, the dot changed to an arrow in the direction that I was moving, and continued to follow me.  The update happened fairly quickly, almost every two or three seconds.

And if it's even possible to top the first "wow", I discovered two even bigger "wows".  First, when using driving directions, as you approach your destination, the display will automatically change to Street View, displaying constantly updated photographs of your current location, and the direction that you need to go, until you reach the end.  This, of course, only works in areas where Google's Street View car has driven through.  And secondly, if you're standing in an area that is Street View enabled, you'll want to switch your display view to Compass Mode.  This will control Street View, not by moving your finger on the screen, but by tilting and pointing the phone in a north/south/east/west direction.  That, my friends, is very cool.

The Keyboard

I have always been a fan of a phone having a physical QWERTY keyboard, and I appreciated the fact that the Droid had one when I first heard about it.  However, after using it, the phone's physical keyboard was probably the biggest letdown for me in my review, and I think it still is.  Even after days of using it, I still never saw a noticeable increase in my typing speed.  As a remedy to this, I have now fully embraced the onscreen keyboard and haven't looked back.  I use the touch screen keyboard in landscape view exclusively, and because of it, my speed is almost as quick as using the physical keyboard on my previous phone.  Like other touchscreen phones, the keyboard has auto correction, which also helps increase my speed.  So typing words like "dont" or "Im" instantly corrects to "don't" and "I'm", respectively.  Even typing in "fam" switches to "family", which is pretty nerdy and awesome in my book.  I now see no reason why the physical keyboard should ever be slid out and used again.

USB

One other nuisance I failed to mention in the first review was the USB cable/charger.  The phone comes with a USB cable and wall outlet adapter.  To charge the phone using a wall outlet, you need to plug the adapter into the wall and then plug the USB cable into the adapter.  This is highly inconvenient if you're like me and charge the phone next to your bed every night, but also connect your phone to your computer.  You have to unplug the USB cable from the adapter just to use it on a computer.  Motorola should have included a single USB cable for computer use, and a single wall adapter with the cord for outlet use.  I'll probably end up buying a power adapter eventually.

The Apps

The following is a select list of apps I've download from the Android Market that I highly recommend you try out.  These apps are all free.

Flixster - movie releases and showtimes app.  Browse by current and upcoming movie releases, DVD releases, watch movie trailers, and find the nearest theater location via GPS.

Qik - live video streaming directly from your phone.  When the app is active, viewers can log on to your personal page on qik.com and watch the feed.  A strong wi-fi signal or 3G coverage area is highly recommended.

TWiT.tv - the current TWiT network of technology podcasts, available as streaming audio or video

Advanced Task Killer - close multiple unused apps at once, freeing up memory and extending battery life.

Speed Test - the mobile version of the online bandwidth tester.

Documents To Go - view Microsoft Word and Excel documents.  The paid version allows you to open, create, or edit Word, Excel, and Powerpoint files, as well as view PDF documents.

Twidroid - Twitter application designed specifically for Android phones.

Mother TED - wonderful app for watching the many presentations held annually at the various TED Conferences, devoted to technology, entertainment, design, world issues, and open thought.

Pandora - the popular music streaming website in mobile form

Photoshop.com Mobile - photo editing app.  Quick way to do basic adjustments on your photos, such as exposure, cropping, and even various effects

ShopSavvy - barcode scanning app.  Use your phone's camera to scan the barcode of a product, then find out if it's selling any cheaper at a different location near you

The Weather Channel - weather app, giving the forecast of your exact GPS location or any location you choose

The Docking Stations

Accessories for the Droid are mostly relegated to Bluetooth headsets and speakers at the moment, but Motorola will soon be releasing two docking stations specific to the Droid.  One is a car dock that switches your phone to car mode, and the other is a multimedia dock that switches your phone to a media station and desktop clock.  I can see the benefits in having both docks and will probably get both when they are available.

Final Thoughts (Again)

The Droid, for me, has indeed become indispensable.  I can't say enough about the many features that Google has provided with its Android operating system.  It's a great phone.

If you've also bought the Droid, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.  And if you have any apps that you'd like to recommend, send them my way.

Keeping an Open Mind

For so long, companies who create the smartphone have been chasing Apple's iPhone for the "must have" mobile device, and you can't blame them.  Ever since it came out, it's been a true sensation.  That's not to say that these companies didn't release great phones;  they just didn't pull in the masses like Apple has.  I, for one, have not made the leap to the iPhone, because it would require leaving Verizon and going to AT&T, which I never had any intention of doing.  So I admit that when I first heard about the Motorola Droid, and how amazing it is, and how it could be the iPhone killer, I kind of rolled my eyes.  An iPhone killer from Motorola?  I doubt that.  I'm pretty sure I never gave Motorola a single thought when hunting for phones, so why would I start now?  Since Day 1 of owning my first cell phone, I've bought nothing but LG phones.  There's been no rhyme or reason for this, except to say that when it was time for me to buy a new phone, LG seemed to have the phone that was a perfect fit for me.  But before I bought each of those phones, there was a lengthy bit of research into what phone would work best for me at the time.  I still do this today.  And with the latest phone to my name, I did more research than I've ever done.

So as I read through the features of the Droid when it was first announced, I came to realize something:  it's not so much about the phone itself - don't get me wrong, that is important - but it's about the operating system running the phone.  The Droid is the first mobile device to run Version 2.0 of Google's Android mobile operating system, and also the first Android phone on the Verizon network.  And as it turns out, this phone is quite the beast.

First Impressions

The first thing I noticed upon using the phone was the screen.  I was blown away by it.  With a 854x480 resolution, it is the best looking screen I've ever seen.  Every line, text, and icon is crystal clear and very sharp.  Even when using the browser or some of the apps, very small text is perfectly legible.  Even watching videos on YouTube is a joy.  The 3.7" touchscreen is definitely larger than any other phone I've had, and the touch sensitivity on it is very good.  Scrolling down a page is effortless and tapping on buttons and links is very precise.  

Using the phone is just great.  And the amount of features built into the operating system is great for a choice-driven person like myself.  Because this is an Android phone, your access to Google's services is second to none on a mobile device.  And since I use Google's many services, the phone was a perfect fit for me.  Once my contacts were transferred from my old phone, they were immediately merged to my Gmail contacts.  Then Google merged my Google Calendars into my phone's calendars.  And on top of that, you can merge all your Facebook friends with your contacts, which gives you a wide range of choices when getting a hold of someone.  All this is kept in sync on a constant basis, so if you change events on your Google Calendars, your phone changes with it.  If you add contacts to your Gmail address book, the contacts on your phone update.  And if anyone on your Facebook friends list updates their contact info or even their profile picture, those changes get applied to your phone.  I am now a true fan of Facebook syncing.

I do think that the best Google service available to the phone, and where this phone really shines, is Google Maps Navigation.  I've used Verizon's VZ Navigator for many years for all my driving directions, and it's been great.  But using driving directions with Google Maps is beyond compare.  How sweet is it to look down at a dot of where you currently are, but have that overlayed on a Google Maps satellite image.  That was a wow moment for me.  I couldn't stop grinning.  The navigation updated very fast and the map slides on the screen with such ease.  You can also overlay multiple layers of information on your Google Map, such Wikipedia, real time traffic data, and Google Latitude, which displays the exact real-time location of your friends, provided they are also signed up with Latitude.

Photo taken with the Droid (click for full size)Other features of the phone worth mentioning include built-in wifi, an included 16 GB memory card, multitasking which lets you run up to six applications at once, and a 5 megapixel camera (see photo at right).  You also have full access to Google's App Market, with over 10,000 apps and games to choose from, both free and priced.  I downloaded quite a lot of free apps, and some of them are amazing.  I recommend Barcode Scanner, for starters.

Room for Improvement

With all the great features and capabilities that the phone has, there are some things that I feel need improvement.  First off, the phone's design is very industrial and boxy.  That's not to say that it ruins the phone, but just from looking at it, it doesn't present itself as a phone of today, like Apple's iPhone or Palm's Pre.  Even the most basic of phones have very subtle curves to them, which feels more natural in your hand.

Secondly is the keyboard.  We all have that "getting to know you" period when using a new phone's keyboard for the first time, but I have to admit that even after hours of use, using it is still very rough.  In my opinion, the keyboard doesn't slide out as far as it should, because when typing on the top row of keys, my fingers rub up against or hit the screen's edge, which makes it feel cramped.  My fingers are relatively small, so I feel bad for anyone who does have larger fingers.  The keys themselves, while raised, don't seem to be raised enough, and I'll find myself pressing two keys at once.  Again, my condolences to you larger-fingered humans.  And the keyboard's layout really threw me for a loop.  For one, I don't like having to hit the "Alt" key just to type numbers;  they should have their own keys.  And no lie, it took me over a minute to realize that the "@" and "?" symbols have their own dedicated keys.  I was looking all over the place for them.  Admittedly, these issues should all eventually clear up with lots of time and practice, but with me being a fast typer on these kinds of keyboards, it's just nice to be able to pick it up and go, instead of practice, practice, practice.

If you're like me, and get dozens of text messages every day, you'll want to change the phone's default message ringer right away.  Everytime I got a text message, Gmail message, or app notification, the phone would spit out a very annoying and robotic "DROID" sound.  I'd have moments where I'd get many messages within, say, five minutes, and all I kept hearing is DROID.....DROID.......DROID.  There are a multitude of ringer options to choose from, so you're sure to find one that is much less headache-inducing.

The other big annoyance I have with the phone is its lack of a printed user manual.  It does come with a "Getting Started" pamphlet that covers the basics of what's what, but with so many features built in and buried in the phone, having a user manual is invaluable.  It is available, but you just have to download it in PDF form from Motorola's web site.

Final Thoughts

We all use our phones in different ways, and we buy the phone that best fits those needs.  If you're like me, and need a device that serves many, many purposes, this is the phone for you.  Ultimately, this is the best phone I've ever used.  Despite some shortcomings, it's quick, smart, very customizable, and jammed with features.  Is it the iPhone killer?  Hard to say.  People were saying the Palm Pre was the iPhone killer when it came out this summer, but it never got a foothold.  What I do think the Droid has that no other phone in its class has is the Verizon network, and for many people, that will be the turning point in moving away from the iPhone.

Ever since Joseph Nicéphore Niépce created the first permanent photograph back in 1825, the amazing evolution of photography has completely changed the way we capture our life's experiences. And in our modern world, digital photography is able to do this in ways Niépce couldn't possibly imagine. Vacations, new additions to the family, a day at the park, sunsets on the beach, birthday parties: these are experiences that we have all taken through the lenses of our shiny digital cameras. Cool, huh? But with all these digital photos piling up in your hard drive, you need to ask yourself one very simple question: "Are these photos really that important?"

Now looking through photos of your family outings, your daughter's first birthday, or your own wedding, you may think to yourself: "That's a stupid question. Of course these pictures are important!" OK, if that's the case, then let me ask you another question: how many duplicates of your photos do you have? If your answer is "none", then you and I need to have a little chat.

Back in the day - say, 15 years ago or more - we would take our little rolls of film to wherever and get them developed. Once they were finished, we would receive our freshly-printed photos and their respective negatives. Those awesome pictures mightly eventually grace the pages of a photo album, sit in picture frames, or get stowed in a shoe box, but what happened to the negatives? Did you keep them or throw them away? It just so happens that the photo negative was the very first backup. If, for any reason, your photos got lost or damaged, you could take the negatives back to the store and get those pictures reprinted. However, if you didn't have those negatives, you were out of luck. This is the very same scenario you could face if you don't take the proper steps of backing up your digital photos.

With the multitude of options available to help preserve and protect your collection, there's no reason why your photos can't last forever, no matter what happens. I have unfortunately seen and heard too many "Oh my God, I lost all my photos!!" incidents over the past few months, and I think it's important for everyone to know their options.  So after many years of trial and error, here are my recommendations:

External Hard Drive
It is my personal opinion that if you own a computer, you need an external hard drive. If you need more storage space, but don't want to go through the hassle of opening up your computer, an external hard drive is a perfect choice.  For less than $100, you can get a hard drive with 1 terabyte of disk space.  That's enough space for over 600,000 average-sized photos!  For many people, that's a lifetime of photographs.  Hooking up the hard drive is a breeze, with nearly all of them having a simple USB connection and power cable.

Backup Software
As a compliment to an external hard drive, software that backs up your files automatically is a true life saver.  I'll give you my setup as an example.  Every photo I take gets stored in the default pictures folder on my computer.  But to protect those photos from a hard drive failure, my backup software automatically copies any new photos I add to an external hard drive each night.  This way, I have two copies of my entire photo collection in case either hard drive fails.

Scanner
Anyone old enough to remember the days of film developing more than likely has a fairly good collection of photographs stuffed in albums or shoeboxes somewhere.  These photos are also prime candidates for digital preservation - and that's where a scanner comes in.  Simple flatbed scanners can be had for less than $100 and can scan at very high resolutions.  All the detail of a photograph can be preserved, and the scanner's own software might also be able to automatically restore a photo that has faded over time.  Depending on the number of photos you have, scanning them all can be rather time-consuming, but in the end, it's worth the effort.

Disc Backup
If you don't want to spend the money on an external hard drive, a cheaper backup method would be to copy your photos to blank DVDs or CDs.  You can get a bulk spindle of 100 blank DVDs for around $30.  That amounts to almost 500 GBs of storage space.  And for even further protection, you could store those newly-burned discs in a fire-proof safe.

Online Backup
For the ultimate in photo protection and peace of mind, you can sign up for an online file backup service.  With their large data centers and redundant backups, these services (either free or for a small monthly fee, depending on how much storage you need) allow you to upload your photos to their hard drives and have access to them whenever you want and wherever you are.  And unlike social media sites like Facebook and MySpace that actually compress and shrink your photos to fit on their pages, these backup services let you upload your full-resolution photos to their data centers, keeping the original quality when they were first taken.  Depending on the speed of your internet connection, it may take some time to upload your photos to them, but once they're there, if for some catastrophic reason your own computers and hard drives are destroyed, your photos are safe and sound.

There are many options available to keep your photos safe, but in my opinion, the options I've listed above are the best options for protecting and preserving your valuable photo collection.  You just need to decide which method is the right one for you.  And if you have other backup methods you like, please share them.

Mechanical failure or human error can wipe out years worth of memories in a second, so take the time to ensure that your photographic life will last a lifetime.

But the one thing I really enjoyed was being able to share my entire experience with all you wonderful people on an almost real-time basis, and then have almost instant feedback and comments on those experiences.  I've been on trips before where I might post an update once a day, or beyond that, not post a single thing until I returned.  This is all well and good, that is, if you can remember every detail of your trip once you did get back.

Seeing as I have a not-so-good memory when it comes to the details, I made the decision early in the planning for this trip that I was going to go completely nuts with my as-it-happens updates.  This gave you all a chance to find out everything I was doing, but even more so, it gave me the chance to take a mental snapshot of what I was experiencing and thinking at that particular moment.

The equipment for this little endeavor was really quite simple, but as a whole, quite extraordinary:  cell phone, point-and-shoot camera, camcorder, laptop, and access to the internet.  I mean, think about it, when most of us were kids on vacation, I highly doubt we had a full TV studio coming along with us.  I just love how far technology has progressed over the last couple decades just to allow someone like to me to be able to photograph, film, edit, update, and broadcast all of this either as it happens or a few hours later from a hotel room!  Incredible.

Here's a few tidbits of the week:

And so I hope you all enjoyed following along with me.  It was quite a trip.  Here's to the next great adventure!