Chris Keating's Space

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!