My Camera’s Back

Like a long lost friend returning and giving me a big hug! I’m so happy to have my camera back. $130 to have it repaired, vs. 4-500 for a new camera body, seemed well worth it.

So, here’s some photos from around the park. It’s a *GORGEOUS* day. We woke up to 58 degrees! Clear and sunny. Life is good, money or no money!

From 200810

From 200810

From 200810

My good friend Chris, and I went to the Obama rally in Sunrise. We waited in line 2 hours, but it was worth it. Hard to believe I got this photo from the upper balcony of a 20,000 seat stadium! Did I tell you I’m glad to have my camera back?!

From Geeks on Tour blog 200810

From Geeks on Tour blog 200810

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Full Weekend

I don’t take as many pictures when we’re parked as when we’re in travel mode. Besides, my camera is still being repaired … it should be back this week.

But that doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty going on. Both Jim and I had appointments with long-time clients for computer work. Interestingly, they both had digital video on their minds. Computers and digital video has become a big thing and there is SOO much to know. In my appointment, we only use Picasa. I am so impressed with Picasa 3’s new video capabilities. If you have one of those built-in webcams at the top of your computer screen, you can now use Picasa to record your video, save it to your computer, and it’s one-click to upload it to Youtube!

On Sunday, I spent most of the day with my Mom. We watched the first couple hours of digital video that she took in her recent travels to Cyprus and Jordan. We just watched her raw footage from the camera tapes. The next task is to edit it. This is beyond Picasa. Picasa can manage short video clips. We use Adobe’s Premier Elements to do the editing. That’s going to take a while.

And, what was Jim doing on Sunday? Football! The Dolphins played at ‘home.’ Bill, the manager of this RV park, had an extra ticket and invited Jim to go watch the game live. What a treat. And, the Dolphins even won!

A good weekend all around.

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Will somebody pay our health insurance?

Aw c’mon! You know you want to Doesn’t everyone want to throw $1,100 down a black hole every month? I don’t want to be a hog, y’know. If someone else would like the thrill of writing a huge check every month for nothing … I’d be happy to turn it over!

We are extremely healthy. The only thing that makes me sick is having to pay that health insurance bill! I’ve had health insurance all my adult years. I really needed it once – after a skiing accident in ‘89 when I had to have knee surgery – $40,000 worth – all covered! If I hadn’t had that experience, I probably would feel OK about going without insurance. As it is, I just can’t. I do have to find some alternative though.

I know I’m a crybaby. There are many others out there paying as much or more, and there are many who go without and may even be sick. We’re healthy, we have no mortgage, no debt, and very marketable skills. We be fine.

Still … health insurance cost sucks!

There … I feel better now.

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Wi-Fi, Florida, and New Zealand

We had a knock on our door this morning from a guest in the park, Kevin, who was having trouble connecting to the Wi-Fi. Jim wasn’t here so I gave it a go. Sure enough, something was very wrong with his internal adapter. The indicator light was off. When I switched it on, the computer responded with the ‘blue screen of death.’ I tried several things and always got the same result. I gave up on his built-in Wi-Fi adapter, installed a USB adapter and got it to work.

Then Jim came home, I told him what I’d done and he said, “Let me take a look.” He got the Blue Screen of Death too. But he has a deeper bag of tricks than I do. He proceeded to delete the adapter from the Device Manager, then let it reinstall itself and, voila! Everything worked just fine. A happy customer!

Then we got to chatting. Turns out Kevin and his wife are from New Zealand. They’re traveling in the states by motorhome for 5-6 months and, so far, they don’t think they like Florida very much. Oh no! Well, they were in Miami and got off at the wrong exit. They’re already uncomfortable driving a 38 foot motorhome on the *wrong* side of the road and then, they find themselves in a traffic jam of crowds attending a Miami Dolphins football game! And, this was after having brake trouble in downtown Miami and having to get towed. What they were doing in downtown Miami I don’t know! But I’m not surprised that they have a bad feeling about Florida so far. Kevin wants to go to the keys but his wife just wants out. I told them this is the best time to go to the Keys and you can get there by going *around* Miami using the Turnpike.

They both asked, “What’s a Turnpike?” One of the best parts about traveling is meeting other travelers! I sure would like to travel around New Zealand by RV one of these days.

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Scuba Diving!

What a gorgeous day! Jim had all our gear ready because he tried to go out diving last week but the weather didn’t cooperate.

Today was different!

From Geeks on Tour blog 200810

And the water … oooh the heavenly water. It was a *perfect* 82 degrees. Visibility was about 50 feet. AND … Jim caught 6 lobsters! We’ll have a good dinner tonight. And, my Uncle John joined us for today’s dive too. See a past video of kayak diving.

From Geeks on Tour blog 200810

When I’m scuba diving, I imagine that my skin is just soaking up all those natural minerals from the ocean water. I also am in a meditation mode while diving. It’s so beautiful, so relaxing. Just floating in that warm water – no talking is possible – my mind has free reign! So, what am I thinking about? All the things I want to do with our Geeks on Tour website!

I’m working on putting every article I’ve ever written into a blog post (the wifisavvy.com WordPress blog.) That way, you can search for anything and a list of articles will appear. Or you can view all articles by category or keyword. Jim says he wants to do podcasts. And, I’m determined to finish a complete new series of Picasa tutorial videos on the new Picasa 3. And we need to learn more about how to market our membership site with all the video tutorials.

I came home and started reading my email – opened Kim Komando’s newsletter. It mentioned that her radio show today was going to talk about making money online. I generally stay away from any come-ons for making money online because there are so many scams, but, I trust her and wanted to hear what she had to say. I needed an AM radio. I couldn’t find one. I sat in the car and listened for a little while, until I felt too stupid. Then I thought I’d check the web. Within 5 minutes, I was listening to a live radio broadcast of the Kim Komando show on my computer. Check out www.web-radio.fm/ if you want to try it. You can look up any radio station in the country by call letters. Geeez I love the web. Oh … and here’s what Kim has to say about using the web to both save and make money.

Aha … it’s dinnertime! Now, that’s fresh lobster

From Geeks on Tour blog 200810

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Home Alone

One thing about life on the road is that Jim and I are together *all* the time. While we’re here in Fort Lauderdale for a while, we get to remember what *normal* life is like. We actually have some time alone. What a treat! and I say that in the nicest way

Jim works in the office here (his work camping job) 3 days a week. I generally stay home and work on computer stuff. I know it makes him happy to get away from me, and I enjoy my time alone. When you’re together as much as we are, you can even hear each others’ thoughts. Ahhh, the quiet is nice!

From Geeks on Tour blog 200810

This time alone is what is allowing me to get some new videos made. I’m also doing some really weird things, like singing in a chorus with an old friend. That means that Jim even gets some time alone at home at night when I go to rehearsal.

Transportation can be a problem. We have our toad (towed car) … I couldn’t live this lifestyle without it. But, although one car is fine when we’re in travel mode, we run into a few problems here. Like when a friend called and said, ‘Let’s do lunch’ and I said, ‘Sure’ Then I realized that Jim was off with the car. Ooops

So far we seem to work it out. I just schedule appointments on Jim’s work days. He has to fend for himself for his commute.

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Google Map in Blogger Sidebar

I hope you’ve noticed the map at the right side of this blog. It is a live, interactive link to my custom map on google maps. It shows our route for the entire year of 2008. You can click on a placemark and see details, even a photo sometimes. Or, you can click on the link to ‘View Larger Map’, and it will take you to the full map on Google Maps.

My latest video … still testing Camtasia … is on how to put this map into the blogger sidebar. And, as long as I’m experimenting … ’sharpening the saw’ … I embedded the video into my *other* blog called www.WiFiSavvy.com . I’ve had WiFiSavvy.com for quite a while, but have never decided exactly how to fit it in. It’s a WordPress blog hosted by www.HostMySite.com , whereas www.GeeksonTour.com is hosted by Godaddy.com. I am a firm believer in not putting all my eggs in one basket! I use WiFiSavvy to learn more about WordPress, and to have a place to put more technology thoughts … no travel/personal stuff.

Your mission, should you decide to accept it , is to visit Tutorial-video-google-map-in-blogger-gadgets and watch the video in both the .flv version (the first one) and the .swf version (the second one.) Leave me some comments if you see any difference. No, there is no pay for your services, but you do get the video for free! And my appreciation

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Experiment with video hosting

There are now soooo many choices in how to produce, manage, and host videos. My head is spinning. I have decided to devote some time to exploring and experimenting. I may end up deciding the way I’ve done it on http://www.geeksontour.com/ is still the best way. But, I have to know about these other hosts.

This video is an old one of our first few months on the road. We created it using Photo Story 3, so it is a .wmv file. I upoaded it to http://www.screencast.com/ and used their procedure to embed it here. Please leave me some comments as to how this looks (and sounds) to you. I’m especially interested in feedback from Macintosh users. Since this is a windows media file, I expect that Mac users won’t be able to see it at all. However, it is using a player from the web, rather than your computer’s media player, so I could be wrong.

10/13/08: enough of you watched the video that we exceeded the free limit of bandwidth on screencast – so I have now linked to the free video host Viddler.

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World Travels

We took my Mom to the airport yesterday. This is my Mom on the left and Sue on the right.

From Geeks on Tour blog 200810

This is her third big trip this year! The first was to the Kimberly area of Western Australia, the second to China and North Korea, and now she’s off to Cyprus and Jordan. I just follow along with Google Earth!

I’m looking forward to seeing her video when she gets back, especially of Petra. Hopefully we’ll get some of it edited so you can see it too. Hard to believe she’s 77 years old, isn’t it? I hope it’s in the genes!

From Geeks on Tour blog 200810

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World Travels

We took my Mom to the airport yesterday. This is my Mom on the left and Sue on the right.

From Geeks on Tour blog 200810

This is her third big trip this year! The first was to the Kimberly area of Western Australia, the second to China and North Korea, and now she’s off to Cyprus and Jordan. I just follow along with Google Earth!

I’m looking forward to seeing her video when she gets back, especially of Petra. Hopefully we’ll get some of it edited so you can see it too. Hard to believe she’s 77 years old, isn’t it? I hope it’s in the genes!

From Geeks on Tour blog 200810

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