Just a quick note, earlier this evening I took and passed the exam for the BlueCoat Certified Proxy Administrator (BCCPA) certification. Next up is the BlueCoat Certified Proxy Professional (BCCPP) exam, which I’m hoping to take next week. I must say that I am pretty impressed with how they handle these exams; two attempts at passing each test (I only needed one for the BCCPA) were included as part of the authorized training classes I attended last week.

Hopefully by this time next week I’ll have even more letters to put after my name. =)

I’ve been slacking on my Flickr photoset announcement postings here, so without further delay:

Memorial Day Weekend In Oak Openings (May 25, 2008)
Pictures taken Memorial Day weekend as we walked the Ferns & Lake (a.k.a. Blue) Trail at the Oak Openings Preserve near Whitehouse.





Training In Indianapolis (May 18-22, 2008)
I recently visited Indianapolis for a week of BlueCoat proxy training for work. While there, I took these pictures at various places around the city.





Weekend In Central Ohio (May 17-18, 2008)
I head down to central Ohio with Cheryl to visit my parents, walk around the German Village in Columbus, and watch the Mud Hens take on the Clippers at Cooper Stadium (and somehow find time to help cut down a tree).

After spending nearly a week in Indianapolis for BlueCoat proxy training (I took a few pictures, available via flickr), I made my way back to Maumee on Friday. While I was hoping to visit the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Carboration Day festivities on Friday, I awoke to a constant rain that didn’t seem to want to let up. While I may not have made it to the track, I did take the opportunity to stop by the Mad Anthony Brewing Company in Fort Wayne for food and drinks before taking US-24 back home. All in all, this has been a pretty good week in terms of brewpub visits with four new additions to the growler collection.

The week after returning from a trip is always a hard one, but thankfully it is only a four-day work week, and Cheryl and I are heading to Detroit on Saturday to watch the Red Bull Air Race qualifying from the banks of the Detroit River. I’ve seen these events on TV before, and I’ve been quite impressed with the pilots’ ability to maneuver through the course. I’m not exactly sure how close I’ll be to the action, but I am hopeful that I will be able to snag a couple good pictures with my Canon PowerShot SD850 IS camera. Speaking of cameras, I’ve been giving serious consideration to picking up a digital-SLR camera, but am hesitant as it would be impractical to take with me on snowboard excursions. I’ve heard a lot of talk about the Canon PowerShot G9, which offers professional features and various lens adaptors (wide-angle, telephoto, etc.) while maintaining a point-and-shoot body (albeit a slightly larger one). While I’d like to pickup something new now, I think I’ll wait until at least the Fall before buying yet another digital camera.

I’ve also been contemplating buying a new bike for a little while now to go riding on the various trails in the area. If anyone who actually takes the time to read this site has any suggestions on a good entry-level mountain bike, please leave a comment. I’m looking at picking up something that isn’t outrageously expensive (I’d still rather spend more for a snowboard than a bike), but comes with a good, solid, lightweight frame that I can build off of if I ever desire to.

Finally, as you’ve likely noticed, I’ve changed the color scheme of the website to celebrate the warmer months, reorganized some of the pages on the site, and done away with the redirect I was using before (via Godaddy.com). I hope you enjoy! =)

Even though gas prices have risen to $3.95 since this morning, I've got a lot of driving coming in the next week, with trips to Columbus and Indianapolis already scheduled. Saturday morning, Cheryl and I are meeting at Starbucks in Bowling Green and driving to my parent's house in Bellefontaine before heading to Columbus for the day. We have dinner reservations at the Columbus Brewing Company, a brewery near downtown that I just recently found out about. After that, we've got tickets behind home plate at Cooper Stadium where the Clippers take on the Mud Hens. As I've said before, this is the last year the minor league team will play at the old stadium before moving to Huntington Park in the arena district.

Sunday, I'm heading to Indianapolis for a week of certification training on the BlueCoat proxy appliances we are in the middle of deploying at work. By the end of the week, I should have earned my Certified Administrator and Certified Professional credentials. The entire trip won't be all work, however, as I'm already planning on visiting the Rock Bottom Brewery on the north side of the city, as well as the Broad Ripple Brewpub -- billed as the first in the state. If I'm feeling adventurous, I may even stop by the Mad Anthony Brewing Company in Fort Wayne on my way back to Toledo Friday evening.

Oh yeah, and as long as Amazon ships my order on time, I should have a copy of Wii Fit waiting for me when I get back... can't wait to go snowboarding in my living room. =)

After hearing about geotagging on a recent Macbreak Weekly podcast, I thought it would be a great idea to geotag photos from the various trips that I go on throughout the year, especially when I'm snowboarding. While I love taking pictures on the slopes, I often find it difficult to remember exactly where a picture was shot so that I can accurately tag and describe it on my flickr account. Using a third party piece of software called HoudahGeo and a hardware GPS data logger (I chose the AMOD AGL3080 after reading several very positive reviews), I can now embed geographic coordinates into all of my pictures. Even better, this data can be loaded into Google Earth, allowing me to see exactly where I was when I took each photograph. In order to test to see just how well it worked, I took the data logger and my camera with me while I went on a hike through the Oak Openings Preserve out near Cheryl's house. Below is the route we took, as captured by the data logger.

All in all, I'm very impressed with this device and just how easily I was able to sync and write the data to my photos. You can take a look at the photos I took along the way in my latest flickr set (Sand Dunes & Picnic), and expect to see more geotagged photos in the near future!

EDIT: You can also view the photos I took along the way via a map interface from my flickr account... too cool! =)

After a one week delay, Sofa Mart finally delivered my new sofa this past Thursday. The movers had little trouble navigating the couch up the stairs, around the corner, and through my front door, but they did have trouble installing two of the back legs. After a visit by a "couch tech" (and another trip home from work), the legs were properly installed and I finally had a comfortable place to sit.

Click on picture for interactive view of the living room.

While I was waiting for the couch to arrive, I took the opportunity to do a little reorganization of my living room and moved my desk and iMac back out into the sunroom. This left quite a bit of room behind the couch, so I've moved the couch back as far as I could. I also decided to move the two framed Jon Baker snowboarding prints (titled Lanch and Last Run) from the dining area to the back wall behind the couch. I also put the snowboarding prints I made via the photo services available in iPhoto in a couple frames I purchased as IKEA and hung them up around the living room as well.

Finally, Cheryl went down to the Kentucky Horse Park last weekend and attended the 2008 Rolex Horse Show. She took a ton of pictures (245 at last count) and posted them to her flickr account. She also picked me up a limited edition (#219/2500) ceramic bottle of Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale -- which was just what I wanted! =)