Friday, July 31, 2009

Kayaking- Behind the Scenes

As you may remember I shot a story a while back on Kayaking in the Florida Keys for the New York Times travel section. I spent three days paddling around different parts of the lower and middle keys with my good friend and travel writing partner Christopher Collier. We got to go to some pretty interesting sites such as paddling through a forest of mangrove trees as well as uninhabited areas off the main keys that many don't know about.

Originally I wanted to have more video footage but considering I was doing this as extra I'm still happy with the footage I got.

For those who look for continuity errors or other oddities in movies (i.e. the "ghost" behind the curtain in Three Men and a Baby), if you look closely in the opening scene you can see the digital audio recorder I'm trying to hide in my hands. I had to record a separate audio track for that shot because the handycam was about 20 yards and prevented me from getting clean audio from it's internal microphone.

And if you wish to see this at a better resolution you can watch it at YouTube.

Monday, July 20, 2009

In-touch at 34,000 Ft.


This past weekend I flew up to Milwaukee with Benjamin to see my grandmother on Orlando-based Airtran. I had never flown Airtran before and was unfamiliar with their new program of offering wireless internet on board their flights.

Traveling with Benjamin on a 2:40 flight was different this time than it was when we flew last summer considering he runs around now. I didn't think having WiFi during the flight would be anything great. I mean who has time to watch silly YouTube clips at a cruising altitude of 34,000 feet when Mr. Crankypants wants to run up to first class to see what all the fuss is about.

Well count me a fan of airborne WiFi. That is because I realized how valuable it was on the way back. The flight up was a bit painful for my mom and I because I didn't correctly transfer Benjamin's TV shows over to my iPhone and he needed some entertainment.

While we were flying back I gladly accepted the $6.95 charge to use the WiFi just to access YouTube and fire up some clips of the Backyardigans. Since I always keep my phone fully stocked with media I had no room left to purchase and download shows directly from my iPhone before boarding the flight so YouTube was my only option. And it worked.

Yeah yeah I know electronic babysitter but have you ever enjoyed being on a plane with a screaming baby?

Well I wasn't playing the Backyardigans for the entire flight as Benjamin kept turning around to play peek-a-boo with the little boy seated behind us. During those times I was able to try out the rest of the internet including talking with Cathy via a Facebook chat session. She was driving back from a babyshower in Tampa and was able to check in on how Benjamin was doing during the flight which I think made her feel better.

I was also able to send out some email which I couldn't do earlier on the ground as I was running around with Benjamin at our gate.

I did try using Skype to make a call but the sound was horrible. I first tried calling my friend Robert who was online but it went to his voicemail. I then called Skype's test call number to hear how my voice sounded to someone on the other end. While I was able to clearly hear the British woman's voice recording informing me to speak after the beep to check for clarity I could only hear burps and bleeps of my voice on playback. So fear not travelers who don't want phones to be used on flights. It's still not there.

Overall the WiFi feature onboard Airtran is nice for those who would like to be able to conduct a little business. The good news is that you aren't completely accessible to the world. So business travelers who want to be productive but undisturbed for a couple of hours can now do so.

Now can we just get a children's play area with sound proof walls on all flights?

Monday, July 13, 2009

Out of Commision


Well for the last 10 days I have been nursing some injuries. You see the morning of Independence Day I went for a workout and had an accident during the bike portion. I'm getting better now but the three stitches are still in and the road rash is still visible.

Needless to say it kept me from entering my second triathlon last weekend as well as limited my exercise.

To answer the question of what happened it's simple. I should have pulled off on the side of the trail and not try to clear out someone's text messages while riding. In the quickest of moments I had veered into the side rail of the wooden bridge I was crossing and was thrown off the bicycle. I never hit my head (which thankfully was protected with my helmet) but suffered a deep wound in my left elbow. Yes the same elbow I needed stitches in two years ago when crossing the street.

The ER visit only took 3 hours and Cathy took care of me the next three days. Since then I have found new ways of coping with everyday life using my right hand a majority of the time.

I'm scheduled to have the stitches removed in the next few days and hopefully will be back to training. Since the accident I have gone on a 20-mile bike ride and didn't seem to suffer any flashbacks when crossing the bridge.

So there's the reason why saran wrap has been at the top of my blog for way too long.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

That's a Wrap


Tonight was an unexpected passing of a friend who has seen us through a lot. It went off to law school with Cathy, returned to Central Florida three years later, moved in to our first apartment with us a newlyweds and helped us with Benjamin's meals. Yes I'm getting sentimental over our restaurant-sized roll of Reynold's saran wrap.

It was originally purchased by Cathy's folks along with a lot of other apartment supplies in August 1997 when she left for Pitt. It has been moved all over with us and finished it's last job tonight wrapping some thawed chicken to be cooked later this week.

If you are reading this and thinking to yourself, "Why is Chris wasting a blog entry on saran wrap?" Well then you aren't one in on the running joke.

Cathy and I had our doubts if we'd ever finish the roll. It just kept giving and giving platic goodness to out leftovers. We wrapped Thanksgiving turkey, bowls of salads, and even some rice cereal when Benjamin was just learning to eat solids. For the Pitt crew as well as our folks they know what we're talking about. It got to be like a member of the family because it was always at our house in good times and bad. Holidays, weekends it didn't matter Reynolds was always there.

So tonight I say thank you for your 12 years of service. And I wonder, "My god how much leftovers does a restaurant have to need this type of roll?"