Easy Chair Talks Back

barry@barry-peters.com (BP) — Thu, 28 May 2009 16:43:00 +0000

Twitter, Facebook, Digg: Can You Join Too Many Networks?: http://ping.fm/o1huB

Memorial Day 2009

barry@barry-peters.com (BP) — Mon, 25 May 2009 22:36:00 +0000

Another great holiday with our friends in Mystic for Memorial Day. Trip started off a little sketchy as the train before ours from Trenton hit a deer and dumped all the passenger on our train. We were sure we'd be standing, but we got seats and were only 40 minutes late.

As usual, lots of eating, cycling, drinking, walking sightseeing, laughing, joke telling (as you can see from this video...in the center Lisa tells her famous "Pretzel" joke for the 152nd and best time!!)

Had some great wine (1997 Grgich reserve and Peju cab) as well as some killer meals. Went out once to Skipper's Dock in Stonington for lobster rolls, yumm!

Rest of the time, my bud David manned the Weber.

Just back now from an uneventful trip home to Trenton. Weather considerably warmer here and headed down to make a nice BBQ meal!!

Blogged with the Flock Browser

barry@barry-peters.com (BP) — Sat, 23 May 2009 09:44:00 +0000

up early for a great Memorial Day weekend trip to visit friends in Mystic, CT http://virl.com/7bcf4 #fb

Flocking 101

barry@barry-peters.com (BP) — Tue, 19 May 2009 21:14:00 +0000

Just came across a very cool tool to tie blogging and other social media tools together, called Flock by Mozilla.

Very easy to use and keeps track of FB, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, Picasa, MySpace, etc.

Drag and drop blog editor (that I am using now) makes life easy as well.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Will Apple Buy Twitter?

barry@barry-peters.com (BP) — Tue, 05 May 2009 10:18:00 +0000

http://bit.ly/WaAEA

Looking Back on Our Vacation

barry@barry-peters.com (BP) — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 17:30:00 +0000

As always, returning to reality is tough after a fantastic holiday! The sights and location was beautiful, but the people you meet really are what makes a trip great. Going through the 3000 photos I took, I stumbled upon these as they were taken from a secondary camera. It was 12 March.

We had decided that we wanted some space to ourselves to shoot macro on Mabul and maybe see a whale shark. So we went back to a site called Stingray City, 10,000+ miles from the one on Grand Cayman.

We saw so many mating nudibranchs and unbelievable critters, but the most memorable were our guides. Trying to stay in touch with them so when the few things I hoped to see and didn't surface, I can see them online (the elusive flamboyant cuttlefish for example.

Heres to Abbie, Froi and Niger (and Richard)!

barry@barry-peters.com (BP) — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 00:57:00 +0000

reliving my Sipadan trip http://ping.fm/gWV2Y?v=58961393723

barry@barry-peters.com (BP) — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 00:47:00 +0000

insightful future of social media by. Charlene Yi http://ping.fm/boMrq #SXSW

barry@barry-peters.com (BP) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 19:30:00 +0000

home after a 63 hr return trip. worth every second

Days 5 to 13 - Sipadan Water Village

barry@barry-peters.com (BP) — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 09:01:00 +0000

Days 5 to 13 - Sipadan Water Village

Just finished a great stay there. Thanks to manager Alex Ho and the amazing staff. The diving was spectacular...from the small creatures of Mabul and Kapalai to the pelagics of Sipadan. And the reefs some of the healthiest on Earth.

New camera setup (Nikon D300 with SubAl) worked great. Bulletproof Austrian engineering as usual. Writing this from Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah. Comfortable Shangri-La resort here (same as on the way to diving). The weather here has been hot and incredibly humid. The only downside to the resort was the lack of air conditioning. Difficulty sleeping due to the heat and unending jet lag.

Some HD video footage I took of the resort follows.

Posting a full spectrum of UW photos soon on picasa.

barry@barry-peters.com (BP) — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 02:20:00 +0000

finishing a great book on social networks by CLay Shirky http://ping.fm/YcLc6

barry@barry-peters.com (BP) — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 02:19:00 +0000

thanks to Sipadan Water Village and staff. great trip http://ping.fm/CB5vo

barry@barry-peters.com (BP) — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 22:55:00 +0000

still struggling with jet lag after 8 days... http://ping.fm/FlIx2?pid=1374192&id=778868723&ref=mf

Southeast Asia - Day 4

barry@barry-peters.com (BP) — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 10:45:00 +0000

Day 4 Kota Kinabalu - Tawau - Semporna - Mabul

Long day but worth it. Poured rain during the last leg (50 minute boat ride) but sun came out when we arrived.

Resort rushed us a little bit to get checkout dive done (30 minutes after arrival). We pushed back and had lunch first. We had a great buffet lunch with local fair including a hamburger with egg instead of beef.

Checkout dive with Marcos from Brazil ling in Sarawak 3 years working for Shell. Just off dock but saw huge sea turtle, crocodile fish, yellow moray, etc.

Nice dinner and early to sleep for first full day tomorrow

Southeast Asia - Day 3

barry@barry-peters.com (BP) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 08:40:00 +0000

Day 3 - Singapore to Kota Kinabalu (Sabah)

Yesterday marred by Lisa's fairly severe bout with dehydration complete with nausea, etc. Missed dinner at Raffles Grill. Had local Thai instead...good but missed a classic meal. Something to return for.

Today we left for Changi early. Raffles lounge in Changi for breakfast. Pretty good for airport fare. Flight to Kota Kinabalu on Silkair (regional airline owned by Singapore Air) uneventful save Lisa's confiscated cuticle scissors. They promised to deliver them to her at baggage claim on arrival. When we got there, we were informed they were still in Singapore and would be delivered after we had already departed on our next leg (to Tawau). No one here seems to understand or care. They promise they'll be delivered to us in Sipadan. We'll see.

Shangri-La Tanjung Aru Resort is beautiful here in Kota Kinabalu. Lisa able to replace the contraband toiletry items in gift shop. Going to have a nice Italian dinner as everything we've had so far is a little too spicy for her. Tomorrow.. to Tawau, then bus to Semporna and boat to final destination.

Southeast Asia - Day 2

barry@barry-peters.com (BP) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 08:15:00 +0000

Day 2 - Singapore

Today like night and day from yesterday due to a good 8 hours sleep. Back to Botanical Garden to see the National Orchid Garden of Singapore before 9. Tons of joggers in the park. Some nice orchide photos then over to Mount Faber Park to take the cable car to the island of Sentosa. Some scary moments for this acrophobe. Then lunch at Delifrance under the Merlion. Up to the top for photos.

After lunch, a warm walk from the Amara to Nei Xue Tang, the National Buddhist Museum. Very beautiful. Hanging out in afternoon after getting pretty dehydrated. Singapore humidity is amazing. Lisa headed over to Capital Tower to meet with GIC to sell some novel investment products.

Speaking of investments, this place seems recession proof. The new construction here is incredible. They are building 2 casinos as "integrated resorts."

More complete photostream available here.

Southeast Asia - Day 1

barry@barry-peters.com (BP) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 22:33:00 +0000

Day 1 - PHL-Frankfurt-Singapore

Great, long trip on Singapore Air. Business Class worth every penny. Arrived around 6 AM after 23 hours in transit. Got in Early to hotel. Then went on city tour that was disppointing. Arranged by the concierge and hosted by Luxury tours. Reminded me of Cairo. Half the stops (Tiger beer and jewelry factory) were to let us shop. Botanical gardens nice.. headed back today. Had lunch in VivoCity mall. Very western..had Western fast food for lunch. Walked Chinatown in afternoon and couldnt find decent restaurant that had local food and a liquor license.

Ended up at Hue after Lisa devleoped blister on her bad foot, a nice Vietnamese restarant in the Hotel. Stayed awake till 8 before hitting a chemically induced sack.

Today, Buddhist Museum, more time at Botanical Garden and dinner at Raffles before leaving for Sabah tomorrow.

More complete photos available here.

barry@barry-peters.com (BP) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 06:19:00 +0000

goodbye snow. hello Singapore http://ping.fm/Y2gUt

barry@barry-peters.com (BP) — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 13:00:00 +0000

see you guys in a few days http://ping.fm/5p2TL

barry@barry-peters.com (BP) — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 12:53:00 +0000

sitting on my last suitcase trying to get it closed.

barry@barry-peters.com (BP) — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 10:56:00 +0000

is packing video stuff for Sipadan vacation!http://ping.fm/FHQTX

barry@barry-peters.com (BP) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 11:21:00 +0000

learning how to optimize Tweetdeck #tweetdeck

The Winter from Hell

barry@barry-peters.com (BP) — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 18:40:00 +0000

Not a lot of snow this winter but grey, damp and cold in Philly. Where is Al Gore when I need him?? Headed to the equator next week (Sipadan) and I sure hope spring is here when I return in a few weeks...

Holidays with Friends

barry@barry-peters.com (BP) — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 23:21:00 +0000

We have the good fortune to have some of the best friends going, the Kays. The friendship goes back to college days some 40 years ago. We share the ability to pick up and go, which is made easier by being DINKs.

As we did today and enjoyed the claustrophobia test that is Manhattan less than 2 weeks before Christmas.

First lunch at the Yale Club, courtesy of my father-in-law, Bill. At 88, still an active member he was gracious enough to host us so we didnt spend the entire afternoon foraging for food. nice buffet.

Then onto Rockefeller center to become pickpocket bait. Good times were had by all and we returned home with our wallets. Needing fresh air, we headed across the street to Christie's and saw a viewing of some awesome black and white photography, which we, as amateurs, ourselves enjoyed.

Last cocktails at the Algonquin Hotel (upper right) before heading back to the string of sardine cans known as NJ Transit. All in all, another great time with our friends, J&D

the other half (and Greed)

barry@barry-peters.com (BP) — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 11:18:00 +0000

Interesting in these economic times to see if anyone is immune to what's going on. Just got back from a long weekend at a friend's place in Delray Beach (actually Gulfstream, FL).

Seeing places on the left as I rode my rental bike around made me realize that if you lose half of everything and still have $50 million you are building an addition onto a place like this.

That said we were right around the corner from the Briney Breezes trailer park. Residents recently turned down over a $1.6mm each for their trailer. This was due to a few holding out for even more money!! Read about it here.