Cancer killed my grandmother, Wild Bill’s wife, just before my 28th birthday. She never even got to see Band of Brothers. The Lance Armstrong Foundation unites people to fight cancer, believing that unity is strength, knowledge is power, and attitude is everything. I have therefore chosen to enter the Livestrong Challenge 08 in Philadelphia, PA! I’ll be riding my new Cannondale bike for the 45 mile ride, which will mark the first time I tape on a number while riding a bike. I’m pretty pumped about it and it’s a great cause.
I’ve signed up by paying the entrance fee, but I’m also asking for donations to help fight cancer. Read on and help out the foundation! All donations go directly to the foundation.
Through the dollars and awareness that we raise, we can inspire and empower individuals, and we can make life better for the more than 10 million Americans affected by cancer.
$10 provides information packets to 16 cancer survivors to offer support, inspiration and hope.
$50 provides 35 people cancer survivorship information, worksheets to organize their fight against cancer and support, inspiration and hope from other cancer survivors.
$155 provides a cancer survivor one-on-one direct support through the LIVESTRONG SurvivorCare program.
$250 provides LIVESTRONG Survivorship Notebooks to 27 cancer survivors.
Sorry I haven’t been around, folks! In fact, I was touched to hear that some of you were actually looking for my weekly dispatches only to find them missing from the website. Well, I can only say I’ve been a little busier than usual, but those are the signs of an industrious life! In addition to a heck of a lot of activity over at Pixeldust Films, I’m starting to enter into the core training for the Chicago Marathon. I’m pleased to mention that my good friend Frank will be with me in Chicago, and that means I get a training partner for the entire 18 weeks.
Just like last year, when I participated in the Philadelphia Marathon, I’m going to use Hal Higdon’s training plan to ready myself to run 26.2 in the Windy City. Last year, I tried to do Hal Higdon’s Intermediate Training Plan, but had a tough time adhering to the schedule all by myself. This year, not only have I picked up a training partner, but I’ve chosen a schedule that in fact is more attainable, and I believe I’ll be able to complete the weekly mileage much more happily, if training for a marathon could ever be such a thing.
The primary difference between the Novice and Intermediate programs is the amount of days you spend running. In the Novice plan, you run 4 days a week and cross train 1 while taking 2 off. In the Intermediate plan, you run 5 days a week, cross train 1 and take 1 off. In the end, it’s more realistic for me to do 5 solid days of activity than it is to do 6. I’m absolutely confident that I can hit my target of 4:20:00 by following the Novice schedule and actually hitting all the targets. Last year, I missed a lot of the weekly targets anyway, and in the end, wasn’t keeping to the schedule.
Oh, and 2 other things...
So in addition to having a training partner, this year I’m adding two other variables to my training: I’m going to lose 10 pounds before October 12, 2008, and I’ve purchased a road bike and will be using it for the cross training. Last year, “cross training” meant “take the day off and drink beer.” This year, I’m going to be out riding hard for 20 + miles at a strong cadence. I truly believe that the only way to up the ante from my 2007 racing season, where I PR’d in every major race I entered over 2006, I’m going to have to lose the weight. I’m thinking of a way to post a “weight meter” on my website so we can all keep track of my progress. More on that as I figure it out.
So there it is, folks. I’ll be posting more on my new swan dive into the world of Road Cycling under a separate series of posts. There’s just too much to talk about on that one, and I’m just too new at it to know what I want to say (I bought the bike 2 weeks ago).
I recently had the honor of shooting photography for the Upper Dublin Senior Olympics running event, which took place on May 14th at Upper Dublin High School. Watching the senior citizens run was inspiring, and a good opportunity for me to do some shooting of moving objects before I undertake a shoot at the Philadelphia Insurance Triathlon this June.
Naturally, my Father-in-Law was a participant in this event, which was the primary reason I was there. This was the first event he’s run where he was actually competing solely against other seniors, and he medaled 4 out of 4 events in his age group, which is a huge achievement. Considering he didn’t run the Broad Street Run this year, this was a great way to make up for it.
I was able to shoot over 800 pictures at this event. I’ve taken the best of the best and made them available in both color and black and white versions.
Since I’ve pretty much abandoned Flickr for SmugMug, and since I want to start featuring a lot of my photography right here on Pixeldust Films.com, I figured I’d try some experiments. Getting my photos from Flickr to the bottom right corner of the website footer was pretty simple, and I’ll now attempt to do something similar, perhaps even better. This post will be evolving over the next couple of weeks, as it’s sort of a “live” experiment. Depending on the day and time, you may find something highly appealing or something highly unusual. So it goes with all experiments…
Refresh the page to see it in action
Random Albums
This causes some layout problems since not all photos are the same aspect ratio, but here goes:
If anyone wants to utilize the last technique, which places your album thumbnails side by side using validated markup with css, here it is:
Here is the markup in a text file. Basically, just use this markup in conjunction with the CSS above and you'll get the layout I've achieved. Naturally, change the html code to reflect your own Smug Mug galleries, and feel free to tweak the CSS! Let me know if you need any help!
This year’s Broad Street Run, 2008 introduced some new surprises, and I have to say that it was certainly different than any other Broad Street (or any other race, for that matter) I’ve experienced. Culminating with a first-time runner beating me by several minutes, a late start (I was late, the race started on time), and the Garmin watch not finding a satellite in such a way that I could track my splits, let’s just say things weren’t exactly as I’d hoped. Coming off a Broad Street PR in 2007, I had high hopes, all of which were dashed in just 1:33:47.
For starters, I picked up my friend Frank at 6:45 AM in Gladwyne, which forced us to go into the city on I-76. There was race traffic everywhere, and somehow, my plan to meet a bunch of friends on Franklin field at 7:30 AM was rapidly disintegrating. In desperate need of a porta potty, I coaxed a parking lot “guard” to let me into a closed parking lot to use one of the many vacant porta potties situated at the far corner of the empty lot (this would prove to be a lifesaver later in the morning)...After using the porta potty, I pulled into Lincoln Financial Field to park the car and walk to the subway for the overly-crowded, sardine-can-esque ride up Broad Street to the starting line.
Let’s Ride the Subway
Getting on the Subway for the Broad Street Run is a singularly unique experience. While the subway is free on this particular morning, there are also non-runners who need to get where they’re going as well. All told, the subway literally has as many people riding it as can fit. You are smashed up against others for the entire duration of the 20 minute trek, and I can’t possibly imagine that this approach isn’t in some violation of the maximum allowable capacity...This is one of those moments where you realize you’re probably cheating death, and you (or at least I) talk incessantly to take my mind of the fact that there’s no way we should all be on the subway at the same time…
8:30 Start, and we’re 2 stops away
For the first time in my short-and-uneventful racing career, it occurred to me at 8:25 AM that we were not going to be off the train for the 8:30 start. I seemed to be the only one concerned about this, but my theory is that anyone on that particular train was probably not really worried about starting on time (the college girls in front of me were asking me when they were going to get their racing chip. I explained that it came with their race packet. They giggled and started fishing around for it at 8:27 AM).
At about 8:35 AM, the subway slowed to a stop and the doors opened. I had no idea what to expect when I reached the surface, but I knew that I had already missed the following opportunities:
Meeting my friends on the field. This year I was meeting up with more people than ever before.
Hearing the Star Spangled Banner, which for me is a defining moment and a reminder of why I love to race
Getting a chance to focus my energy on what I needed to do for the next 10 miles
Lining up in the appropriate corral, which is a big factor in allowing me to keep my race pace
Allowing my Garmin 305 GPS to find a satellite so I could track my splits. The subway isn’t a great place to grab a satellite signal.
The race began Underground
As the doors opened, it was a little scary, as everyone on the train felt a certain urgency to get off (including me). I literally started running underground, up the steps, and along the corridor street that leads to the start line. People were kind of shuffling along, but there was somehow a bunch of people standing on the sidelines, clearly unconcerned with the fact that the race was already underway...My heart rate was up to 145 before I even reached the racing area, and I was in such disarray that I had no idea where I was in relation to those in front of me.
Frank’s last words...
My friend Frank followed me to “the surface” and stated that he had to make a “quick stop, don’t lose me.” I said ok, turned around, and he was gone. I looked 360 degrees, looked into the street, looked around once again, and just ran out into the street to begin my haphazard event. I was sorry not to run with Frank, but, as it turned out, he wouldn’t be behind me for very long, a theme that seemed to play out for me over the next 10 miles with a number of other runners as well.
On the road with the Broad Street Gang
At mile 4, Frank caught up to me and tapped me on the shoulder. I was happy to rejoin my friend, and was glad that we were still on pace. As we rounded City Hall, I could see that Frank wasn’t satisfied with the pace I was keeping, and I told him we were about a minute behind schedule. I felt, however, that I was where I wanted to be (a decision I would regret at the end). I told Frank to put the hammer down and I’d see him at the finish. He did, and I wouldn’t see him again until I logged at least another 4 miles or so of pavement.
In the end, I came in about 4 minutes slower than last year. My FIL, who came down to support us, spoke to another friend of mine who he happened upon while leaving Philadelphia. He mentioned my time to the friend...This particular friend, who is always brutally honest, looked at my FIL and said, “...that’s a HORRIBLE time for him” in reference to my performance.
I believe he was right, and I plan on redeeming myself at another 10 miler as soon as I can find a local one. I’m going to get my Star Spangled Banner back, dammit, and my PR is going down in 2008.
The Valley Forge Revolutionary 5 Mile Run is a great trek through Valley Forge Park. With hills fore and aft, it’s not exactly my favorite course (that honor is reserved for The Broad Street Run, coming up in 2 weeks). Anyway, given the hills, I still ran a race I was happy with.
I clocked a 44:42 on the chip, and a 43:55 on my Garmin GPS. I’m never quite sure how there’s always such disparity between the two, but it seems my Garmin always makes me faster than the chip! Putting me under a 9 minute mile for 5 miles was a great tune-up for Broad Street, and my Broad Street time from last year was 1:29:37. Interestingly, my pace for both Valley Forge 2008 and and Broad Street 2007 according to the clock time was 9:07 pace per mile. With the hills removed, I’m confident that I might actually beat my Broad Street PR.
The Valley Forge race was also special because I ran it with my good friend Frank. This was his first race, and he actually beat me by a minute! I saw him pulling away a little at mile 3 and was pumped to see him doing so well his first time out. On the heels of that, we’ll both stride down Broad Street in 2 weeks with a few other folks that I’ve been running with for years. Should be an exciting time for all!
Stay tuned for my results from Broad Street in a couple of weeks!
It occurred to me yesterday that tomorrow marks 6 years online of my grandfather’s website, Wild Bill Guarnere.com. The site, as many people know, was in response to the HBO Mini Series, ”Band of Brothers.” Once the series hit HBO, everyone wanted to know the real men behind the story. So who had the idea for the website, you ask?
Well, that honor goes to my father, Gene, Bill’s son. He thought it would be a good idea to give the website to my grandfather as a Christmas present. It was kind of funny, actually, that at some level my father and I both thought my grandfather would be excited by having his own website. Well, he wasn’t. In fact, he looked at me and my father, shook his head and said “we’re a bunch of internet-NUTS.” Nonetheless, we launched the site on March 29th, 2002 and it has become one of the largest internet repositories in the world pertaining to information on WW2. The site, to date has 183643 unique posts by over 4200 members from all over the world. There are usually several hundred users on the site at any given moment, and we have over the years had visits from the actors, producers and historians who were part of the original HBO mini series. The site has also become an online community of friends who call each other on birthdays from different countries, send each other Christmas cards, and have provided other members with places to stay when members are traveling.
Wild Bill Guarnere has hosted 3 Community Dinners, all in Philadelphia, and have brought together several members to South Philly from as close as Pennsylvania and as far away as Australia. My grandfather has done a few “live” chats with guests over the years, which gave the opportunity for his fans to ask him questions via the internet and get his responses. Wild Bill’s website has made donations to disaster recovery efforts in the Tsunami that hit Sri Lanka in 2004 and has made many charitable donations of Wild Bill Guarnere hand signed merchandise and memorabilia.
Wild Bill Guarnere.com has mostly, however, raised awareness about the sacrifices made by our allied forces and has educated the young and old alike. If you’re a history buff, educator, enthusiast, military personnel or just interested in one of the most significant periods in world history, then Wild Bill Guarnere has probably been a stopover in your internet travels.
Wild Bill Guarnere is 84 years old as of this writing and still is active as a guest speaker for many schools and corporations around the world. He’s been an inspiration to his family and to the world alike. I’m proud to celebrate 6 years online!
Well, like I mentioned in my past post about running, I’m planning on running a marathon each year until I’m dead. That’s quite an ambitious tradition, and of course, many things can happen that can destroy this idea at any given moment. However, I think what I really mean is that I aspire to commit to a healthy lifestyle in such a way that a marathon each year is possible. Chicago looks like a great run: it’s flat, fast and a city that celebrates food. For all these reasons, it marks the destination of my second-ever marathon.
After having seen Spirit of the Marathon with my father-in-law, I decided the Chicago Marathon was next on my list after having gotten my butt kicked at the Philadelphia Marathon in November, 2007. I knew it was important not to press my wife too much in allowing me to go to Chicago while we were still waiting for our daughter to arrive, but now that she’s here, today was the day to do the pressing! My secret weapon was to take my wife out for a full sushi lunch, a food she’s been craving the entire 9 months of her pregnancy, and we ordered piles of the fleshy delicacy today. While the food was coming out, I said, “...So, hey, ya know I really want to run the Chicago Marathon if that’s ok with you...” As she was pouring the soy sauce in her little dish, she said, “Ok, that sounds great...go ahead.” I didn’t hesitate.
Immediately after returning home to the house, I hit the Chicago Marathon website and dutifully signed up for another 26.2 in the Windy city. I’m planning on taking Kathi as well for moral support, and of course my FIL loves an adventure, so I’m guessing he’ll be along for the ride.
What a ride! The birth of our 3rd (and final) child was an amazing experience in more ways than one. I thought I would try, for posterity, to recollect as much as possible, as we went in the hospital on Tuesday, February 26th, gave birth on the 27th, and didn’t leave the hospital til the 29th. I think I can say that the easiest part for my wife was actually giving birth. The issues that developed after, however, had me frightened, perhaps more than ever, and I owe a debt of gratitude to the fine doctors and caretakers at Paoli hospital for their pro-active approach to healthcare and getting my wife the attention she needed with no hesitation whatsoever. When things go perfectly, you tend to forget how skilled these people are. When things don’t go perfectly, and a doctor is asked to bring out more of his or her skillset than you ever want to see, well, that’s when you realize that most of us can’t be doctors.
Tuesday Evening
Kathi and I went to Paoli hospital on Tuesday evening for an 8:00 PM appointment. She was about 1/2 cm dilated and that’s not enough to deliver a baby. As she was almost a week overdue, the doctors decided that we were going to make this baby come out whether she was ready or not. I was introduced to a medicine called “Cervidil,” and apparently this is the way to get a not-ready-for-prime-time mother to dilate so she can be brought into a stage of active labor. Our doctor did some voodoo that I mostly couldn’t watch and walked away saying “we were all set.” Then, I unfolded the amazingly uncomfortable hospital chair into its makeshift bed form and cracked open a bottle of Yellow Tail Chardonnay, which would serve as my sleep aid, while my wife was utilizing more conventional forms of sleep aids per her doctor’s orders (Ambien was the order of the evening). I took tons of snapshots of my wife and the general condition of the room, and we were, for the most part, ready to tuck in for the night without much fanfare. I’m not sure what worked faster in the end, the Ambien or the Chardonnay, but we both ended up asleep, which was the plan in each of our respective-yet-highly-different-cases.
Wednesday Morning
Through the night we had a lot of visits from nurses checking vitals, etc, and I slept horribly, but I woke up anxious to see how the Cervidil worked. It took a while for a Dr. Sheila Kambin to bounce through the door, but when she did, we were happy to hear that Kath was 3 centimeters, and the prediction was we should be able to have active labor by 2:00 on Wednesday afternoon with the help of a wonder drug called Pitocin. I was familiar with this drug from our last 2 babies, and recalled that it threw my wife into labor fairly quickly. The nurse came in and said, “Ok, looks like you’re 3 centimeters. No problem. We’ll just relax, crank up the ‘pit’ and you’ll be ready to give birth.” That was at about 9:30 AM. My father-in-law showed up with his wife shortly after and I gave the two of them a run down of the events thus far. My FIL brought me some “Zeps” (a Norristown hoagie) from a great Italian deli and by the time we went to eat them, Kathi was 6 centimeters along. The Pitocin was working as advertised. We all hung out and just talked about the great event that was about to take place…
Fast Forward about 30 minutes
Around 11:30, my FIL and I went to a room outside the Maternity Ward to eat our “zeps.” About 5 minutes later, we got a call on the cell phone..."Kathi is ready to deliver. Get back here right now!” I charged back through the labyrinth of hallways and pushed open the door. Kathi had gone from 6 cm to 10 cm in less than an hour, and she looked at me and it was clear that now was the time. Dr. Kambin came in and said we were ready, and that’s when Kathi asked her father and stepmother if they wanted to remain in the room for the birth. While she was asking, the nurses were breaking down the bed for a delivery, lights were coming out of hidden areas in the ceiling, and I’ll never forget the look on my FIL’s face as the room went from what looked like a hotel room to a birthing room in less than 60 seconds…
Anything in the name of Education...
Our nurse had been shadowed by a Villanova University nursing student all morning, and this would be the first birth the student nurse got to witness. Somehow, a bunch of other student nurses were in the nurse’s station with little to do, and they, too, got wind of what was happening in Room 247. As we were about to start pushing, they all crashed through the door (about 7 of them) and asked if they could watch. The scene was quite funny, as I was holding my wife’s left leg and the nurse was holding her right with the doctor in a catcher’s stance tacked onto the end. By this time, we already had at least 5 people in the room as part of the delivery team, so my wife graciously agreed to let the students see their first birth and we went from 5 people to around 12 people in the blink of an eye. It was cool to watch the students, all females in their 20’s, witness a birth. You could tell that they were marveling not only at the site of birth from a clinical perspective, but they were watching it as females who would no-doubt go through something similar in the not-too-distant future.
12 Pushes and you’re done.
Kathi rode the wave of 3 contractions, pushed about 4 times at 100% for each contraction, and our daughter came into the world on approximately the 12th push. Dr. Kambin knew exactly when to tell Kathi to push and when to hold back, and when our daughter’s head appeared, Dr. Kambin grabbed it with both hands and started to gently help our baby through. I’m always amazed at how something that big fits through something that small, but when her shoulders cleared the area, she came through and was placed right on top of Kathi. I’m 3 for 3 on the cord-cutting, although for the record I asked my FIL to do the honors. He passed…
Our daughter weighed in at 8 lbs, 7 oz, and was 21 inches long. She came at 11:41 AM, several hours before we anticipated.
And then this.
A few hours later, I could see that Kathi’s nurse wasn’t liking the amount of bleeding that was going on, and I could see some concern in her face. When the doctor was called and came through the door, I knew something was not exactly as it should be. Kathi had delivered so quickly that her uterus was apparently not “bouncing back” to it’s normal state, and the doctor began to do everything she could to find the source of the bleeding right there in the room. I was sitting in a chair feeding my daughter, and Kathi was mostly writhing in pain from what was basically a highly invasive exam to figure out where the bleeding was coming from. After the Dr. did some cleaning out of the area, she said she’d be back in to check on Kathi’s progress. 20 minutes later, Kath was being unhooked and the bed was being rolled to the OR.
A short stopover, but an important one
Kathi had a tear in her cervix from the rapid delivery. Dr. Kambin needed to get Kathi into a anesthetic situation so she could take a proper look. Since Kathi had eaten just after birth, they had to opt for another local spine anesthetic instead of putting her under. I was so upset that she had to go through a minor surgery completely awake. I sat in the room alone, as I asked the nurses to take my daughter back into the nursery in case I was needed. The 1 hour procedure seemed to take days, but I called my FIL on the phone and told him what was happening, as well as Kathi’s mom. My FIL decided he was coming back to the hospital, and I told him to bring a few bottles of wine! He showed up just as Kathi was coming back to the room, and she was surprisingly alert given everything that just happened. One of the highlights of the entire stay was Kathi, her father, and myself chatting until around midnight, while Paul and I tugged on our wine to keep the edge off. I was really scared that night, and Dr. Kambin knew exactly what to do and when to do it. Kathi’s nurse as well was the one who initially noticed the anomaly, and I’m so thankful we had this particular set of folks on call that evening. Things could have really gone differently depending on who was there. I really believe that. From then on, the concern was that Kath lost a lot of blood, and we were fearful that she might need a transfusion. That step never came, and we were thankful for that.
A day of monitoring and rest
Kathi had a good day on Thursday, but they wanted to keep her until Friday to monitor blood counts. Since they had stopped the bleeding, it was anticipated that the blood counts should stabilize, but they wanted to be sure. Kath was weak as expected, but she had our baby for large parts of the day and was doing very well. She seemed happy and the doctor was confident we were going home on Friday…
Friday
I sent Kath a text message on Friday morning, and didn’t hear right back. Then I sent another asking if she was ok and didn’t hear right back. Now, a nervous wreck, I called her cell and she answered. “I have an infection from the surgery,” she said. I was thinking, “Man, I just want her to have a win, here.” They gave her an IV drip of antibiotics and some painkillers, and the doctor said he wanted to monitor the effect of the antibiotic on her condition, which resembled flu-like symptoms. It was expected that they might keep her yet-another day, but by mid-afternoon, Kathi was completely transformed, and it was clear that the antibiotic was doing what it was supposed to do. Her blood counts were stable and although she was weak, the doctor said he could administer the antibiotic by prescription drug instead of keeping her in the hospital any longer. By 2:00 on Friday, we were packing up to go home.
On the mend
Kathi is feeling pretty good, and it’s clear that she’s getting her strength back. Our daughter, by the way, was perfect from the start, so forgive me if she hasn’t been the focus of this post. I’m thankful, however, to Dr. Kambin and Maurina for their kindness, skill, and compassion. They acted in the right way at the right time, and, as a result, we’re back home with our daughter safe and sound.
Last week I went to see the movie “Spirit of the Marathon” in King of Prussia, PA. I felt many things while watching it, both as a runner and as an aspiring filmmaker (which is different than straight-up event coverage, although I believe a good sense of composition is critical to both mediums). One of the things I believed is that I could have made this movie. Of course, I didn’t, so I tip my hat to the producers and athletes, all of whom are “real people,” and all runners. Not an actor anywhere in sight. This year, I plan on producing an original film, probably also on running, and I’ll announce more of the details on that as they shape up. The story is largely already in my head, and is a documentary-style film as well. It’s time to watch less and create more.
The second thing I realized while watching is that I believe I can run a way better marathon than I did in Philadephia on November 18th, 2007. For those who follow my blog, you’ll already know that I got my butt kicked through a series of miscalculations, inexperience with the distance, and horrible weather. Nonetheless, I felt a kinship while watching this movie with “regular runners,” who are featured as 3 of the 5 subjects they chose to spotlight. And in spite of the fact that I’m not one of them, you can still feel a kinship with the Elite athletes and that’s one of the beauties of running. Deena Kastor and Daniel Njenga are both astonishing athletes and human beings, and it was great to see them both featured in the film.
The third thing I learned is that Chicago looks like a great city to run in. The movie is basically the story of 5 runners, all of differing abilities training to run 26.2 miles at the Chicago Marathon, 2005. The movie does a great job of showing off the windy city, and as marathons go, Chicago is one of the flattest, fastest 26.2 mile courses in the world.
I decided as a result of all this momentum that I’ll be signing up for the Chicago Marathon this year, which takes place on 12. October, 2008. I have also decided on the following:
To run 1 marathon per year until I’m dead.
To run at least 1 race per year that takes place somewhere I’ve never been before.
The Chicago Marathon meets both requirements for 2008!
As I’ve continued to grow my photography collection, as well as the photography part of Pixeldust Films core business, I’ve started to look around at some other photo storage solutions besides Flickr. I love Flickr, especially because of the huge community they have there. Frankly, however, I haven’t really found the community to be very beneficial to me in terms of building out my photography business.
In fact, there are SO many people on Flickr that getting noticed at all takes a heck of a lot of work. In the end, with over 1000 photos there, I have yet to receive any real feedback from anyone (except my mom, go figure). Of course, I’ve only recently started to avidly post there, and I know all that will change over time. And, in fairness to Flickr users, I generally don’t comment on people’s photos either, so it’s probably not fair to expect the world when I’ve hardly given it myself…
Anyway, I’ve been aware of Smug Mug for many years, as a good friend of mine has been using it exclusively and has, to date, well over 300,000 photos up there (they say they have no storage limit, and apparently they mean it). As well, I found a heck of a lot of pro photographers over there, a lot of useful photography tips and tutorials, as well as some very robust client and organizational tools. While this is not a head-to-head comparison of the 2 services (I may do that another time), it is clear that Smug Mug promotes themselves as a family business with personal service and more of a boutique approach to digital photography storage. As well, there were a few other cool things that really pushed me over the edge to sign up as a pro user:
Smug Mug makes multiple, redundant copies of your photos for maximum security in case of data loss
There’s this insane plugin called Smugglr, which literally allowed me to move my entire Flickr album (1000+ photos) with virtually no effort. I set it up, walked away, and when I came back my entire Smug Mug Gallery was totally loaded with my Flickr photos, tags, descriptions, and even my Flickr galleries. It was just ridiculously easy to migrate the content.
I got 50% off my first year as a Flickr defector (I signed up for a Pro account)
Smug Mug offers pretty robust image management categories, and an especially useful set of tools for hiding and showing galleries. This for me will make Smug Mug the place to house all my client-related photos.
Smug Mug offers some pretty nice themes, and the ability to create your own. I’ll eventually make my Smug Mug page look more like it’s integrated into the Pixeldust Films website.
Smug Mug is a family-run shop, and that’s largely in alignment with where Pixeldust Films is headed. More on that later, as I’ll have some cool announcements on this in a few weeks!
Anyway, I guess the list goes on, and maybe this is the beginning of a head-to-head shootout, but in the meantime, check out my new Smug Mug gallery of photos!
My short motion graphic on my grandfather, Wild Bill Guarnere has recently been posted on You Tube and is starting to garner some attention. The short was created as a celebration of my grandfather’s numerous accomplishments while an enlisted man and has become a favorite of the folks over at his website (built by Pixeldust Films, of course)!
The motion graphics were created entirely in After Effects, and, I’m proud to say, the music is being used by permission of the late Michael Kamen, who composed the soundtrack to Band of Brothers. I’m proud of this piece, and I’m placing it here directly from You Tube. To see the original, head on over to my portfolio page and check it out in the Multimedia Player under “Motion Graphics.” It looks better on the Pixeldust Films site, as it’s less compressed. You Tube compresses everything yet-again to help them with their obvious bandwidth issues…
Looks like my Villanova sizzler reel is getting all sorts of attention over on You Tube. I'm not saying it's going to make me famous, but it's been favorited a couple of times and is being syndicated to some other websites as well. For those who may not know, Pixeldust Films was asked to shoot a short fan reel of Villanova hoops fans heading to the Pavilion to watch the Nova-Seton Hall game. Anyway, I'm embedding my You Tube video here as well so I can keep the hit count high. Hope you enjoy it!
I’m pleased to announce that I have, for the third year in a row, signed up for the Broad Street Run in Philadelphia. I believe it’s my favorite run: 10 miles, totally flat, and great weather year after year. There are usually around 15,000 people involved, but the bottlenecks at the start break up pretty quickly and you can fall into your groove about a mile in.
I posted a blog entry on my results from last year’s race. I really ran the best race of my short career last year on Broad Street. I’m actually wondering if I’ll be able to do anything close to that this year. I think the conditions were superlative: the wind was at the runner’s back, the weather was perfect...just so many things went right on that day. I should know, as I am no stranger to what can happen when things don’t go right. If you also take into consideration that I was running Broad Street , 2007 one week after setting a new personal record in Nashville Country Music Half Marathon, it was even more of an anomalous performance.
I feel, however, that I’m the best shape of my life, and as the weather breaks, I’ll be starting to work on my Tempo runs in preparation to break my 2007 record. If I break it by 10 seconds, I’m happy.
I’m not a huge fan of college basketball, but somehow I always end up near it: In the early 90s, my then-rock-band played the Final Four in Charlotte, NC. One of my good friends has been taking me to the Big East in New York for 2 years running, and recently, I was asked to go on a journalistic assignment by a California destination video firm to capture some footage of the Villanova fans getting ready to take their seats at the Villanova Pavilion.
This was one of those cool shoots where it was totally up to me where to take the camera. The company that hired me gave me a “shot list,” and it was then on me to go find the shots. There was no interest in the game itself for this piece, but rather, it was all about profiling the many types of people who make up Villanova Basketball’s fan base. Naturally, I knew I’d eventually end up outside the Pavilion, but it occurred to me that there might be some good footage in the bars...boy was I right.
So many bars, so little time
As I started cruising towards the Villanova campus, I knew there were tons of bars. On a tip from a friend, I singled out a few bars that were most likely to draw hoops fans through their doors. I started out at Kelly’s on Lancaster Avenue. A nice bar, and perhaps more of the kind of bar that would accomodate alumns rather than students. The place was more on the elegant side, and definitely for those sports fans who wanted to watch the game on TV from the comfort of their chairs. After explaining to the owner what I wanted to do in his bar, he happily agreed and let me speak to some folks. Everyone was so great, and I have to say I miss everything-college. There’s just such a difference in priorities, even for the alumns, who for a moment harken back to the days when they were students. Everyone’s cares seemed to just float away...of course, the beer wasn’t hurtin’ anything! As I was “on duty,” I couldn’t partake…
After about 50 cents worth of my 75 cents depleting from the parking meter, I decided on a tip from some folks in Kelly’s bar to head about a block east to Maloney’s Pub. Not only was the place completely jammed, but it was jammed with Villanova seniors who were, among other things, celebrating 100 days until graduation. When the bouncer saw me, he motioned to the bartender, who I believe was also the owner. When I explained my purpose and presented my credentials in the form of a business card and a high definition camera, he happily let me in. The students immediately noticed the camera and the noise levels went up to about 120 decibels. I happily spoke to many students, as well as some “seniors” who joked that when they heard it was a “senior” party they mistakenly showed up thinking it was for the soon-to-be-retired. There were rabid Villanova hoops fans everywhere, and they gave me a lot of great shots.
Back to the Pavilion
I got to the Pavilion about 4:30 to shoot in advance of a 6:00 pm game. It was pretty empty when I got there, but it started picking up very quickly. He helped us identify the players as they were arriving, and I had a chance to briefly interview one who gave us the opening voiceover in the movie below. I had great responses from the many hundreds of fans who started to make their way to the game, and I looked down at my shot list and saw that I had accomplished my mission. I then started getting some great “b roll” shots on campus and began to pack up for the day as I was losing my light anyway.
It was a great day at Villanova and the surrounding areas. I was thankful to everyone for their cooperation in my quest to chronicle Villanova hoops! Check out the movie below!
This year’s 
It occurred to me yesterday that tomorrow marks 6 years online of my grandfather’s website, 
Well, like I mentioned in my 
Last week I went to see the movie 
The second thing I realized while watching is that I believe I can run a way better marathon than I did in 
I’m pleased to announce that I have, for the third year in a row, signed up for the 
I’m not a huge fan of college basketball, but somehow I always end up near it: In the early 90s, my then-rock-band played the Final Four in Charlotte, NC. One of my good friends has been taking me to the Big East in New York for 2 years running, and recently, I was asked to go on a journalistic assignment by a California destination video firm to capture some footage of the Villanova fans getting ready to take their seats at the Villanova Pavilion.
