All Posts
Development and Technology
Simple Rivals/Yahoo Image URL Decoder
People post and share images on Message Boards all the time and a user posted the question below earlier this week when frustrated by Rivals automatic rewriting of images to pass through Yahoo’s CDN.
Cycling
Sixty-Four Miles + Flat Tire – No Pain, No Gain
After a string of 20-35 miles rides over a few weeks, I was really long overdue for a high-mileage ride. After all, I’m training for the MS150 and I’ll log about 80-miles on back-to-back days. So, I combined one of my previous routes through Southeast Austin and Creedmoor with the route that I took
Cycling
First Organized Ride: Bike for Little Heroes
While making plans to attend a wedding in Houston, I saw a charity ride on the outskirts of town on the next day. So, I did what any budding cyclist would do — took my bike and entered. This was my first organized ride and I did the 54-mile route. I did a 50 mile […]
Cycling
First Half-Century Ride: Austin to San Marcos and Back
One of the big hurdles for a new cyclist is making their first 50+ mile ride. I’m training for the MS150, a two-day 150+ mile ride from Houston to Austin in April 2014. So obviously, I had to get a 50+ miler under my belt soon! I had decided to do the 54-mile route at […]
Photography
Maui Sunrise at Haleakala Crater Summit
Even though I like my photos, these do not even come close to doing justice to this experience. If you ever have the opportunity to go, don’t scoff at the notion of waking up at 3am to make the drive. Temperatures at the summit are about 30 degrees cooler than at the surface which made […]
Photography
On the Road to Hana: Wai‘anapanapa State Park and Black Sand Beach
We were excited about our last stop before making it to Hana because we really wanted to see the black sand beach. We wish we had brought swimwear, but we were so focused on the drive that we didn’t think about bringing anything along with us to enjoy the stops. Regardless I enjoyed walking around,
Photography
On the Road to Hana: Kahanu Garden and Pi`ilanihale
After a few more stops along the roadside, we decided to spend a little time at the Kahanu Gardens. It was a good decision and worth the per person fee. Among the gardens, which showcase plants with significant roles in past and present of the islands, sits a huge platform made of volcanic rock that
Photography
On the Road to Hana: Ke’anae Peninsula
Our first non-roadside stop on the Hana Highway was at the Ke’anae Peninsula. We stayed for about 30 minutes marveling at the rocky beaches and taking a few photos. Here are some of the shots I took.
Photography
A Visit to Lahaina, Hawaii on the Island of Maui
Having never been to Hawaii and not sure when/if I’d be back, I wanted to see another island. So we headed off to Maui for a few days. We ended up staying in Ainu Nalu in the town of Lahaina. It was the perfect place to be our home base. Plenty of slow-paced activity during […]
Photography
Land and Sea at Makapu’u Beach, Oahu, Hawaii
Get in a car and drive away from the big city of Honolulu to the eastern most point of the island of Oahu and you’ll find this beautiful beach near Makapu Point. I’m glad I had my camera with me when I ended up here recently.
Photography
On the Road to Hana: Random Stops Along the Roadside
While winding along the curvy, mountainous, scenic coastal Hana Highway, there are dozens of places that you can pull off onto the side of the road to take photos or to have a adventure hiking along a trail to hunt down swimming holes and waterfalls. We pulled off the road and few times, and here […
Photography
Vistas of Wakiki Beach, Honolulu, Hawaii
The Wakiki Beach area of Honolulu really has some nice looking views. While it’s easy to find tons of photos of the beach I wanted to snap a few frames of a couple of hotels and surrounding areas.
Photography
Sailing Wakiki Beach on a Catamaran
Blue skies, bluer water …. on a catamaran in Honolulu has to be somewhere in the upper half of a list of the best places to find yourself on a Saturday afternoon. I had this opportunity recently and had a good time. Captain Jon of Sail Mankani and his crew were awesome and I recommend […]
Photography
Sunset Valley Nature Trail
Took a quick trip out to the Sunset Valley Nature Trail area this past Sunday. I’ve worked near Sunset Valley for 12+ years and never knew that area was back there. I guess I should make better use of my lunch hour! We couldn’t figure out the best place to “get on” the trail, so […]
Photography
A Few Snapshots with my new Sigma 17-70 f2.8-f4.0
Got a new lens (Sigma 17-70 f2.8-f4.0) recently and decided to give it a test run in a clearing near my house. Of course, I still don’t really know how to use my camera, so don’t judge me too much! So, if you’ve run across this article while considering this lens, don’t let my shots […]
Photography
Carnival Triumph Cruise to Cozumel
Went on a family and friends cruise in January 2013 that was 15 months in the making. We were on the Carnival Triumph about a month before it broke down on another voyage that shared our same route. Luckily we had no problems and I had a Nikon D5200 with me to take some shots. […]
Photography
Hiking down Sandia Peak, Albuquerque, NM
On a recent trip to New Mexico, I had the chance to hike DOWN Sandia Peak. We got a ride to the summit and then hike a 2-3 mile trail to the gondola drop off point. We then rode the gondola down to the bottom. I had recently purchased a Sony RX-100 camera and took […]
Photography
Day Trip to Santa Fe, NM
While in New Mexico, we took a day trip out to Santa Fe to see the square and visit a winery. Here are a few of the photos.
Other Thoughts
Does the Four Hour Body Slow Carb diet work? I lost 65lbs in 7 months
I lost 65lbs from August to the end of February doing the Slow Carb diet from the Four Hour Body. Even lost weight during the weeks of Thanksgiving and Christmas despite eating anything I wanted on those two days. Previously, I was successful with Aktins, but going SO long without carbs on Atkins ma
Development and Technology
Just found the WP theme to use for my church’s website
I’ve been working on bringing the website for the church I attend into the modern era and I think I just found the perfect theme. It’s called Outreach, and it’s awesome. Make sure you click on the “Test Drive” link to get the full effect.
Palm Pre
WebOS 1.3.1 Update Fixes Google “My Contacts” syncing issue
Well folks, my NuevaSync Google Contacts syncing workaround has served me well since the Pre launched on June 6th. I checked PreCentral.net before I went to bed and found this article Tonight, Palm released WebOS 1.3.1 to Sprint customers here in the U.S. Among it’s many fixes read this line: If you
Palm Pre
Palm Pre: Troubleshooting NuevaSync / Google Contacts
Judging my my blog stats, my post on setting up your Palm Pre to Sync only the Google “My Contacts” group via Nuevasync is pretty popular. I hope there are some people out there who have it setup and working for them. In the comments, I’ve tried to help a couple of people who were having problems. I
Palm Pre
Palm Pre App Writing Looks Straightforward
I’m excited to see all of the work being done on precentral.net and predev.wikidot.com on Palm Pre hacking/development. One of my main reasons for Palm Pre excitement was the notion that I’d be able to build apps without learning Objective-C or some other language.
SQL
T-SQL: Calculating number of weekdays between two dates
Tonight someone tweeted trying to find a ColdFusion or SQL solution to counting the number of weekdays (excluding Saturdays and Sundays) between two dates. Most of the solutions online involving looping over the date range and adding to a counter if that iteration of the loop is a weekday. That’s fi
Palm Pre
Palm Pre: Only Sync Google “My Contacts”
Palm Pre Syncing with GMail pulls in records from “All Contacts” instead of “My Contacts.” The result for heavy GMail users is a contact record for virtually everyone you have ever emailed.