Wednesday, March 30, 2005
and rachel makes three
We welcomed the newest Lennard, Rachel Louise, on March 29th at 8:34 pm. Needless to say, it was the single best day of our lives. After never thinking the day would get here, we could not have asked for anything more. We have been truly blessed!
I'll post a longer entry later this week, but for now the important stuff. Click here for the first set of what I am sure to be many sets of pictures of our precious little girl. Other stats: 6 pounds 13.5 ounces and 19 3/4 inches long.
I'll post more when we're settled in at home.
Sunday, March 27, 2005
Today's Pictures (Day 13, October 30, 2003)
Dive Log for Day 13:
1st Dive Info:
Location: Tiputa Pass, Rangiroa
Time In: 7:48a - 3000 psi Time Out: 8:30a 500 psi
Max Depth: 81 ft Bottom Time: 42 minutes (3 minute safety stop)
Temps - Air: 82 F Surface: 80F Bottom: 79F
Visibility: 50 ft
I thought it apropos I finish the French Polynesia entries this weekend. Since an adventure lasting the rest of my life begins no later than Tuesday, it is about time I finish the travelogue on the prior voyage. By Day 13, our trip was really winding down. I had 1 dive left before stopping to meet the suggested 24 hour before flying rules. It wound up being a quiet day. A perfect sea breeze scented dream before returning home to reality.
The dive was early this morning, as the log indicates we were in the water by 7:48 am. This morning's dive was a drift dive through the pass. I had one other drift dive experience in Florida, but the Atlantic's current was sluggish. The push today justified the title. Some may really like this type of diving, but I find it disappointing. With the rushing current and dangerous depths below, I found myself focusing more on the necessary safety checks of air, time, and depth than observing the reef passing in front of us. The force of the water was fierce this morning. Our pace along the wall rivaled New York City sidewalks at rush hour; your attention is devoted to the necessities of negotiating the task at hand with little time for casual observation.
Sunday, March 13, 2005
cricket - the movie
As I mentioned in my previous entry, I took advantage of the Cricket outing to test out my new toy, the Sony Handycam. Just as you would expect from home movie footage, I managed to get some pretty interesting shots. Unfortunately, in contrast, the majority of the clips were erratic blurs trying to capture a moving ball or boring vignettes of the fielders waiting on the next volley to come their way.
Rather than subject everyone to that, I did my best to try and reduce it down to a reasonable length and include just the highlights. As soon I as I brought the camera home, I installed the Sony supplied software. It was immediately apparent that the software was not sufficient to meet my editing requirements. Knowing I wanted something with lots of capabilities, I thought about Adobe Premiere. But, I can't afford to drop that kind of coin on editing software. I learned, however, Adobe Premiere Elements is now available. It was much more suitable to my needs -- and more importantly price range.
Click here to view my first attempt at video editing - Cricket: The Movie. I apologize up front for the titles, I ran out of time and didn't get to design anything that looked better. I'll try to improve next time.
Editor's Update: Just realized that I needed to add a couple of more notes about the movie. First, the movie is approximately 7 megabytes. If you don't have a broadband connection (DSL, Cable, LAN) this will take a while to download. You probably want to wait until it is completely downloaded before you try to play it. Currently, the file is in .WMV format. Since this needed to be shared with my friends offshore, this was the most logical format. In the future, I'll probably use MPeg format for most things. Finally, I need to give credit where credit is due. The rendition of Bryan Adams' Summer of 69 is begin performed by Bowling for Soup. I'm hoping since I went to high school with these guys, they won't sue me for using their song from one of my CD's.
Monday, March 7, 2005
tejas cricket
I had an unique opportunity yesterday for a boy from Wichita Falls. The CTS consulting group that I work with organized an afternoon picnic with various activities planned including a game of Cricket. And I'm not talking about the annoying insect chirping away at 3 in the morning hunkered down in a hiding spot so remote that even Bin Laden would be jealous. We're talking Cricket.
I've had contributors for pictures this time, too. Pictures 1 through 22 are mine with my comments. Pictures 23 through 76 were graciously donated by Badri. I've included his original comments with each picture. It was nice to have someone else narrate for a change. Click here to see the latest version of the album. I expect even more photos soon.
The match also provided me an opportunity to try out my new Sony Handycam DCR-HC42. I bought it to make annoying home videos once the new one arrives, so friends and relatives beware! I'm going to put together a short video; I'll make it available as soon as it is ready. I'm still waiting on editing software to arrive. What Sony provides just isn't sufficient.
It was a fantastic afternoon. Frankly, I'm sorry I don't take more chances to enjoy these types of afternoons. I'll go ahead and say the cliché at this point -- "I'll have to do this more often..."
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