March 2009 Update

After joining Facebook, I've really neglected this blog. :)

A ton of updates since last so may have to spread this across several posts.

- The biggest update is our Kilimanjaro trip in Jan 2009. Our party of 6 all made the Uhuru peak summit successfully! We used Thompson Safari with Andrew Kitema as our guide. We took the 'Western Approach' route. It was a really nice experience and I recommend it for everyone to do at least once in their life. Not only is the climb fun, but the people there make the experience more rewarding. We have over 3000 pictures and quite a few videos from the trip - took a while to go through them all to make a family DVD.

- Interestingly side-note. The camera I brought with me to take videos got stolen during the flight home (out of my checked luggage). I didn't care much about the camera, but the memory card inside it had all the video clips from the Barranco wall to the summit unfortunately (with some pretty funny stuff along the way). I filed a claim with US Air hoping for a miracle chance of recovering it, but not really expecting anything. Although the camera was not found, to my surprise though US Air sent a check for $345 as a settlement for the loss (I didn't even have to submit any receipts). Doesn't replace the memories, but improved my opinion of US Air a lot. FYI: This was from a Washington Dulles to Charlotte flight where it was lost. Humorously, the package had travelled without incident before-hand from Zanzibar, Kilimanjaro, Nairobi, Addis Ababa, and Rome - only running into trouble right when we got to the US. Don't get me wrong though, we were extremely happy to be back (and all made a dash to the closest fast food at the Dulles airport which was a Wendy's). :)

- I'm getting real interested in photography now, especially videos. To start with, I bought a Canon HV30 with a few accessories (tripod, external mic, wide angle lens, filters, etc). Also purchased Sony Vegas Movie studio. I've been happy so far with the HV30 video quality - an amazing difference from what I've been used to taking videos with. We'll see how my interests hold up. Sony Vegas software has worked out well so far and I like it. Most of all, it's really cheap compared to the alternative products (e.g. $100 vs $1000). I'd rather spend that difference on a Steadicam Merlin! Here's a link to my first test with it:
http://www.vimeo.com/3523016


- The iPhone app side project has worked out really well. I'm happy with the results so far and am looking forward to releasing my next application (mostly finished). That work was put on hold with family obligations and Kilimanjaro trip, but now I'm ready to work more on it. I really dislike the XCode/Mac environment but it's a necessary evil. I'm not sure if Visual Studio .NET and Windows have spoiled me, or if it's just because I'm not "used to it" as much. Right now, I'm much more productive materializing an idea with VS.NET than XCode.