Central Park Winter Wonderland

It's been a while since I last updated this blog. Safe to say that the recent downturn in the economy has diverted my attention to my "day job" (or lack thereof). 

That being said, I owe this entry to my lovely wife who encouraged me to head outside the apartment last month on the morning of the inauguration to experience the serenity of walking through the snow in Central Park. For more photos of that historic morning, view the latest slideshow to the right. Enjoy!

Soundslides!

Many thanks to NYIP student advisor Chris Corradino for introducing me to Soundslides, a great user-friendly application for creating photo slideshows complete with audio and transition effects.

I pulled together this quick demo of some of my photos and was surprised at how easy it is to construct a professional looking show. You do need to host the files affiliated with the show on a server (blogger doesn't support it), but Chris introduced me to a free web host called WebNG which made uploading the files quick and easy. Soundslides even has instructions and an embed utility for embedding the show directly into your blogger site.

Florida for the Holidays

White Christmas took on new meaning as we headed to the white sandy beaches of Boca Raton for the holidays. I've never traveled anywhere during the holiday season, but when the temperature in New York hit ten degrees on Dec 22nd, I felt very good about our decision to head to Florida for a week.

And just as we did back in November, we enjoyed the beautiful view off the balcony of our beach side apartment which included para surfers in the Atlantic, gorgeous, if not treacherous Portuguese Man o' War, and of course, beautiful, vibrant, tangerine sunrises. Check out the latest slideshow to the right.

We also took a day trip down to South Beach to check out the colorful art deco of Ocean Drive. The historical hotels are actually a lot smaller than today's modern resorts, but the great architecture and neon make one nostalgic for the heyday of the 1930s. Anyone heading down to South Beach should definitely check out the newly renovated Tides boutique hotel which features great views of the ocean and a surprisingly tranquil infinity pool. Tell them at the front desk that you're considering booking a room on your next visit and they'll likely show you a room. I can only imagine what it costs to actually stay there!