One of the things about blogging is that when you stop for a while, it is hard to get started again.  In addition, when you feel like you have long entries to write, you get writers block.

As a result, for the last two weeks I have been trying to write a summary blog entry about my trip to Alaska, but there were so many memories, fish, float plane trips, animals, and just amazing experiences that it is nearly overwhelming…. So, I am instead going to break the entries up into smaller entries.   This one will just be pictures of some of the many fish that we caught!

Hey all,

If you want to get daily updates from Alaska and the fishing trip, you have to check out the blog that we are writing on Trevor’s blog.   Given the time it takes to upload photos, we are just posting one blog entry per day on http://alaskog.blogspot.com

Last night we posted pictures of the bears that we saw at Katmai as well as some of the fish that we caught.  

In addition, I have two new converts to Windows Live Writer since the Internet is so flaky…

See you soon.

-Chris

This is the first long (over a week) vacation that I have taken since I started working at Microsoft about 2 years ago, and I have to say that it is going to be amazing.   I cant wait to escape from work email and spend some time in nature…. although the lodge does have some serious amenities so it isn’t exactly roughing it in the traditional sense.  We are staying at the Rapids Camp Lodge and it looks absolutely insane.

I leave tomorrow morning for Anchorage and then connect through to King Salmon where I then hop on a shuttle which takes me to the camp to meet up with my father, brother, and my other “extended family” that is on the trip as well.

Then every day we jump in our own group’s personal floatplane and fly into the Alaskan wilderness to partake in some sort of activities around Alaska.   There are some particularly tough daily choices like fishing for all five different types of salmon, deep sea fishing for halibut, fishing for Trout, fly fishing in Bristol Bay, or perhaps not fishing at all and watching the bears fish!

I plan to post daily updates with pictures and stories so stay tuned for more.  You can also check out some stories on Trevor Walker’s (another co-conspirator) newly created blog at: http://alaskog.blogspot.com/

Ill be back in civilization on the 31st so until then keep your eyes peeled for the pictures and stories on this blog.

-Chris

Over the last week, I have had two small world moments with acquaintances/friends that just hit the public eye/spotlight.

The first one I saw the other night was an acquaintance from high school who is on The Mole.  I was randomly watching the Mole and saw a guy that looked familiar but I couldn’t remember his name.   Then they flashed that his name was Alex and I realized that I knew him in high school – Alex Jacobs.   It was fun/funny watching him interact on the Mole, and in fact I was psyched to see that he seemed to be doing really well.

Then that night, I received an email from Georgetown saying that a former Hoya rower is going to the 2008 Olympics in the straight Four (a 4 person boat without a cox).   Turns out he is a friend of mine and I used to row with him at Gtown.   His name is Mike Altman.  While I guess I should be less surprised about Mike since I knew that he had continued rowing for the National team since graduating from Gtown, I was pumped to see that he had accomplished his dream of making the Olympics.  Go Mike!  If only I had kept rowing after college…. 8^)

This is me dipping my toe back into the blogging water after taking a 2 week hiatus.  And this is the start of a blogging tear as I prep for my fishing trip to Alaska next week….(more on that later)

I play every Tuesday in a weekly co-ed soccer league.   Since I seem to upload all of the team pictures from the leagues that I participate in, I am adding this one as well.

We won the league championship last season and I am hoping for a repeat this season!

I just cannot believe that it is going to snow three inches in the pass in Seattle tonight.   Is it really summer???
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004466972_webweather09m.html

Update:  Clearly winter is still affecting (in this case positively) other places in the US.  I just heard that Aspen is going to re-open for skiing from June 13 – June 15th because they still have 3 feet of snow that is accessible.  Now that is cool!
http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=93380&catid=188

Okay, this is probably dating myself but watching the Celtics-Lakers game tonight actually gave me flashbacks to my childhood when the rivalry between Bird/McHale/Parrish and Magic/Worthy/Kareem was the stuff of legends.  Check out the first 2 minutes of this teaser from 1984 if you don’t know what I am talking about.

The only problem is that back then Dr. J/Mo Cheeks/Moses Malone (see first 70 seconds of video below) were always in the run for the championship…

Unfortunately that was not exactly the case this year, but it is still going to be a great NBA Final series.

BTW, check out Kurt Rambis’s glasses and moustache in the 57th second of the second video.

With football season coming up, you will probably hear a lot of positive thoughts about Philadelphia sports on this space.

For that reason, I wanted to make sure that you all understand where I am coming from as a Philadelphia sports fan….  

Below is an article from Sports Illustrated called:   100 seasons ... 100 Heartbreaks and it lists off 100 ways that Philadelphia sports teams have disappointed their fans.  Some of the highlights:

• No Philadelphia team has won a championship since the 76ers won the '83 Finals
• Phils, Eagles, Sixers, Flyers have combined for 100 straight seasons without a title
• Philadelphia teams have lost in the championship round seven times during streak

Welcome to my world!

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/more/05/14/philadelphia.drought/index.html?eref=T1

I just read this article this morning about how American Airlines is now charging $15 for the first bag that you check and $25 for the second checked bag.  

I am actually fine with a cost for the second bag since it might actually mean that people just have to pack more efficiently, but charging people for packing one checked bag?    Here are some reasons why I think it is bogus:

• With liquid restrictions so tight these days (<3oz.), there is going to be some set of people that don't have a choice to carry-on since 3 oz. is a pretty small amount (and completely arbitrary in my opinion)
• This is going to push more people to bring more carry-ons, but the problem is that airlines aren’t making the carry-on areas larger so there is going to be an increase in gate checking.  Will they be able to make people pay for gate checking?
• Cut other services – why do they give us free soda, snacks, etc…?   No other location, store, restaurant, hotel, etc… gives those types of amenities.  Charge for them as well.

What other reasons am I missing?   I am writing this as a pure reaction to the article and I haven’t thought through the argument well….  One question I have is will every airline go this route and if not, will it be a reason to not fly AA anymore?  

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/05/21/travel/main4114301.shtml

I just read an article in Business Week which described a year long research project that Nokia just completed in three shantytowns of Mumbai, Rio de Janeiro, and Accra (Ghana).  Their goal was to understand the technology needs of of people living in those areas.

In each locale, Nokia set up booths and asked the local residents to draw up their dream phones.    You will be amazed by some of the designs that they came up with.     Check them out on the bottom frame of the BW web page: http://images.businessweek.com/ss/08/05/0501_dream_phones/index_01.htm 
and a few of them below:

What an amazing research project.   Do you think that any of the ideas or designs will be put into use?   I can only hope so!

The time has come.  With oil at $4 a gallon, the negative environmental impact of driving, and the extended commute time due to Mariner’s games, I am going to start a part-time shift of my commute to The Connector – Microsoft’s free shuttle service.

I have talked with tons of Microsoft employees that currently ride the Connector and even the most initially skeptical people have grown to love it.  Not surprising really since there are a ton of things to like about it.   Some of them are:

• Free
• Multiple stops (but not TOO many) throughout Seattle
• A stop about 4 blocks from my house
• Free wifi
• AC Power ports
• Bike racks (although I am not sure that I will use them…)

Ill let you know how it goes.  My plan is to start once I get back from Chicago this week.  

I just read an article written by Caroline McCarthy from Cnet analyzing the number of videos watched by people in the US in February.    The number comes out to 10 billion and is a 66% growth year over year.    That is just remarkable.

In typical Comscore style, there are some nice juicy data tidbits tidbits which further describe the type of videos people watching and the quantity.  For example:

• There were 3.42 billion YouTube videos watched
• The videos that people watch are still reasonably short.  The average video length, according to the statistics, was 2.7 minutes.
• The average viewer watched 75 videos in the month of February

Pretty amazing stuff.   I really wonder what the growth will be in next Feb's numbers?  Do you think it will grow at a faster rate?   It is pretty hard to think that it will but honestly video has barely hit phones yet.  Once that happens, who knows....

http://www.news.com/8301-13577_3-9920206-36.html?tag=nl.e433

Although it is not really summer here in Seattle yet, sometimes you get those blessed days of amazing weather like we did here on Saturday.

I decided to take advantage of the weather and got out and played the Coal Creek course at Newcastle golf club in Bellevue, WA.   What a great course, a great game, and good people.   Some of the views from the course are just spectacular.

Check out the picture that I took with my camera of hole 14 and where I was hitting from.   You can see the green in front, Lake Washington in the background, Seattle in the background on the right, and then the Olympics in the far background being highlighted by the sunset. 

It is a little scary to think that I already have the golf bug but I do....   Too much fun!

One of my best friends and roommates at Georgetown grew up in Bellingham, WA and skiied Mt. Baker as his home mountain.   In comparison, the majority of my experiences took place in the relatively tranquil parts of the Poconos and Vermont.  

When my roommate got talking about skiing, he used to regale us with stories of knee/waist deep powder (Cascade Concrete) and white-knuckled trips up the pass to Mt. Baker in his 2WD Honda Civic at 7am while chugging coffee and blaring the Nirvana NeverMind album.  Ever since those times, I have been dying to hit up Mt. Baker and see just how truthful his stories were.

This weekend, I got my chance.  I went up to Baker with some friends who had rented a cabin for the weekend right on the edge of the park in the town of Glacier, WA.  We skiied Saturday and Sunday at Mt. Baker, and I was constantly amazed by both the quality of the terrain and the low-key nature of the mountain.   Plus, they have one of the best (if not the best) slopeside lunch spots in the country.  

On Sunday we got an added bonus to the 400 inch base and 3-5 inches of powder on Saturday -- we were greeted by 8 inches of fresh powder and ski-onto-the-lifts lines.  Needless to say, it was an epic weekend of knee deep powder and a serious workout

The pictures I took with my cameraphone don't do the mountain any justice but Mt. Baker is 180% recommended for everyone that loves skiing/boarding and it will be an annual trip for me from now on.

Well, for those of you that have been reading this blog for a while, you might know that I am slightly obsessed with a few things including:  views of Seattle/Rainier/the Olympics, photography, and panoramic photo stitching using Windows Live Photo Gallery.   You also might know that I officially moved into my new place on Monday.

So, when I got home tonight and saw the unbelievable weather and views, I couldn't resist putting them all to the test using my cell phone camera.  So I took 9 pictures of the view from my one end of my deck to the other and stitched them together.  The result is below.  Clearly I don't have a steady hand as you can tell from the black marks where Photo Gallery did its stitching, but it still turned out pretty well in my opinion.

As some of you might recall, I posted a blog entry a few months ago about a good friend of mine who started a winery in Walla Walla called Gramercy Cellars.   My initial post was a result of some great praise that they received for their Syrah releases from a huge wine critic.

Flash forward to today...  they have fully sold out of their first release, they are about to release their second set of wines, and they get the news that they are going to be featured in Seattle Magazine as Washington's Best New Winery and Best New Winemaker.    Pretty cool huh?

I guess recognition like that makes all of the sacrifices that Greg and Pam have made to start this venture worth it.  AND just in time for their new releases of Tempranillo, Pinot, and Syrah on April 21st.  Might as well sign up for the newsletter and be notified when they are available...

Here is what Seattle Magazine said:

Best New Winery
Gramercy Cellars
Walla Walla; 646.642.3138; gramercycellars.com
At Gramercy Cellars (which shares space with Waters Winery in their new industrial-chic winery), this year’s celebrated new winemaker, Greg Harrington, hopes to make Old World–style terroir-driven red wines with earthy aromas and flavors—using less oak and focusing on the unique characteristics of the fruit and where it’s grown. Gramercy’s first releases, the 2005 Syrah and the 2005 Lagniappe—a Syrah co-fermented with a bit of aromatic Viognier—have already developed a Cayuse Vineyards–like cult following with cherry-picked fruit from the best of Washington Syrah vineyards, including Forgotten Hills and Les Collines.

Best New Winemaker: Greg Harrington
Gramercy Cellars
Walla Walla; 646.642.3138; gramercycellars.com
For 37-year-old Greg Harrington, Walla Walla today is like Napa in 1975: rich with possibilities. At 26, he was the youngest American to earn the title of Master Sommelier. He came to the valley to work harvest with Pepper Bridge, and eventually gave up his life as one of New York’s hottest sommeliers to begin his adventure—and experimentation—in Walla Walla. In addition to making his own terroir-driven red wines at Gramercy, Harrington also partners with Brown on their joint venture, Substance, a label inspired by the periodic table of elements. He is also growing his own grapes for Gramercy (expect the release next year), and he will indeed be one to watch.

Check out the article here online or you can go buy Seattle Magazine.  Congrats to Pam and Greg. 

While I know that photo contests where you upload a photo and potentially win something are not that unique anymore, I still have to say that I thought this competition was pretty cool.

This campaign by Purina called Long Live your Dog asks people to upload a picture of their dog and every picture uploaded will be shown on the big screen in Times Square.

While I didn't grow up with a dog, I have recently grown seriously attached to a friend's dog named Nelson who I oftentimes take on walks/urban hikes on weekends in Seattle.    I now know first-hand what it is like to feel slightly dog-obsessed (luckily not bad enough to want one yet).  

The competition is cool because it capitalizes on the obsession that people have with their dogs and taking pictures of their dogs....   Wanna see other examples of obsessed dog-owners?   Check out the number of comments that people leave on each blog entry on Daily Puppy.

I get blog updates from a guy who works at Microsoft and blogs about interesting things you can do with Windows products.

Today, he posted an article about a roadtrip he took around the Pacific Northwest last weekend.  During the trip, he took a bunch of photos and stitched them together using Windows Live Photo Gallery.

While the stitching feature is one of the coolest features in Photo Gallery, I honestly haven't personally used it other than in demos.   Well, I think I am going to have to start experimenting with it since some of the pictures that Brandon took using it were pretty damn cool.

Check them out:
http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsexperience/archive/2008/03/25/panoramic-stitches-from-around-the-pacific-northwest.aspx

Also, here is a teaser photo of Seattle from on top of the Space Needle.

MSN and Windows Live have a PR outreach program called "The Expert Series".  It is a group of people throughout MSN and Windows Live that are chosen by the PR team as experts in certain areas.  Once an expert has been established, the PR team then goes out to newspapers and radio stations and pitches them interesting interviews with those experts.  

So when they approached me to be the Windows Live resident expert for blogging, I was honored.   I was slightly hesitant at first since I had never done a live radio interview before, but of course was I up for it and they immediately went to work setting up interviews for me.

Their labors bore fruit, and over the past week I have done interviews with: the Morning Show with Dana Childs (KWYK-FM Albuquerque, NM), the Valder Beebe show (KXVI-FM Dallas), and yesterday morning at 4am PST, I was on the Martha Stewart Living channel on Sirius radio.  

Here was the paragraph from the Martha Stewart website:

Are you baffled by blogs? Tune in to Chris Keating, a Windows Live Blogging Expert. He'll tell you how to select a blogging service and start your own blog. Chris will also discuss the most popular blog topics and blogging cities!

You can listen to my interview on Martha Stewart here (in MP3 format)....  Remember that the interview took place at 4am PST (thus the slight stammering and slow moving mind) and I am suffering from a cold (thus the voice), but nevertheless it was fun and I am looking forward to the upcoming interviews over the next few weeks.

I didn't realize that allergy season hit Seattle so early in the Spring, but clearly it has based on how stuffed up my head feels.  The culprit is the evil Cherry tree (see picture to the right).

For the past two days, I just have not been feeling normal and I wanted to have a chill night watching the first round of the tourney and sorting through the stack of magazine articles that I have saved over the past four months.  Sounds like fun huh.... 

The great result of the night was that I was able to go through every article I saved and download the interesting songs, add new restaurants to my "to eat" list, and add new activities to my wishlist.   After reviewing the lists, it is clear that even if I can only do 10% of the things, this spring/summer/fall is going to be great.

Check out my latest lists:

• Places to Eat in Seattle - http://keatingcwk.spaces.live.com/lists/cns!4951C608E64F098B!681/
• Things to do in Seattle - http://keatingcwk.spaces.live.com/lists/cns!4951C608E64F098B!905/
• Breakfast in Seattle (2 new) - http://keatingcwk.spaces.live.com/lists/cns!4951C608E64F098B!103/

Anyone have any interest in joining me for any of the "activities" in the Things to do in Seattle list?