Keeps Getting Better

Ok, so here’s the deal. I am just about done getting everything moved from my iWeb site this weekend.
I have gotten all of my posts copied over, I am just trying to decide how I want to handle photo galleries. I really don’t want to post big galleries in the blog directly, I really don’t want to slow things down again- but I still want to have the ability to post lots of photos. So I will probably be using Flickr again,- but with some new twists that I expect to make things a little more fun.

There are lots of new features in WordPress since I had left to go to .mac, so I need to test more to learn a little bit about how the servers over here handle different types of media.

Stay Tuned.

Time For Change – Friday Sept 5, 2008

I have heard several times lately that my iWeb blog is ridiculously slow to load, hard to see videos, etc. Nobody has been able to make comments, either. I have read many other iWeb users struggling with the same things. Apparently the servers at Apple are having some problems STILL. I had heard that in the past, but they seemed to have gotten better. But maybe not so much better after all, so I am planning to move everything back to another hosting service. Probably end up back at WordPress, but not sure yet. Looks like I will have to copy and paste all of my previous posts into whichever I go with.

So I need everyone to update your RSS feed for me to:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/neildini

Astronauts: True Superheroes? – Monday Sept 1, 2008

I have been watching a series from TV titled When We Left Earth that was on the Discovery Channel several weeks ago. Can I just tell you how ridiculously cool this show is? For those of you who watched Planet Earth, this is every bit as impressive. This is a series of several episodes chronicling all the early space missions like the Gemini Project, the Apollos, etc. VERY COOL.

Growing up, I was never taught about what true heroes these guys were. When the Russians were running at full speed towards landing on the Moon, JFK issued the challenge to our space program to land on the Moon first. From that time on, the astronauts had to completely build the program from ground up. At that time, nobody knew ANYTHING about space, about the Moon, orbiting, or anything else for that matter. So these guys who were picked to be the astronauts were nothing more than scientists with big ambition.

The series tell the stories of these guys starting, building their equipment on the little that they knew, and kept building with what they learned. An episode I watched today made a comment that illustrated the situation: one of the former Mission Control Directors stated that the technology and computing power from the entire Mission Control Center was equal to about the same computing power from a laptop computer today. The computing power on any one of the spacecraft (Gemini or Apollo missions) was equipped with about the same computing power as a digital watch today. Isn’t that crazy? I mean these guys were shooting into space at like 1700 mph on less technology than a cell phone today? wow.

So after watching today about the story of when Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong were 15 seconds worth of fuel from crashing into the Moon, or when, after their famous walk on the Moon,  almost weren’t going to be able to launch back up to join their ship and their ride home. I watched Buzz talk about how he had to use a ball-point pen to jimmy-rig the control panel just to fire the thruster to get back off the surface of the moon. He is so unbelievably humble about what he did, it was truly moving. Truly.

So I think that the things I have seen and learned today have truly inspired me to be a little braver, a little more bold, a little more focused, and a little more humble about the things I accomplish in my life. And as Ferris Beuller once said “Life moves pretty fast…if you don’t stop to look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

Links to check out:

http://shopping.discovery.com/product-71602.html?hp=HPB_Right_DVDBestSellers-WhenWeLeftEarthTheNASAMissionsDVDSet

http://grin.hq.nasa.gov/BROWSE/eva-spacewalk.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_We_Left_Earth:_The_NASA_Missions

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1233514/

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-9949264-36.html

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2008-06-05-when-we-left-earth_N.htm

Hopscotch – Wednesday Aug 27, 2008

In an effort to become more interesting, I am trying to write a bit more about the boys. I have taken a ton of photos that I haven’t posted in any shape or form, so I’ll try to get some content loaded here.

A week or so ago, we were all outside with the boys, and playing with the sidewalk chalk. Beck decided he wanted to play hopscotch, which led to some pretty funny video. Here are a couple of photos and a clip of his skills. Enjoy.

This is why riding is like nothing else. – Tuesday Aug 26, 2008

I found a video that pretty much sums up why I love riding so much. Seriously, it embodies everything consoling about getting out on the road all alone. I have found very few things in life that are so truly enjoyable, challenging, and freeing at the very same time. Enjoy the video.