My Wonderful Daughter

Her head and shoulders used to fit in my hand with the rest of her body laying on my forearm.
My little girl, at that moment I knew I would never let anyone keep me from being the best Dad I could be for her. Now she is all grown up with plenty of talent in many aspects of life.

She is musical with a great grasp on the clarinet. She is also very smart with an affinity for Spanish, Earth Science, and many other subjects. Creativity abounds as well with some impressive dabbling in design of clothes, computer related ventures, and writing that I have read over the past few years.

This past Christmas my daughter surprised me with a few presents including a spice rack that I had my eye on for a while but only mentioned once in her presence. The fact that she noticed warmed my heart. I usually do not verbalize many of my practical or impractical objects of desire. So she was listening. I think she picks up on the fact that I lead a somewhat minimalist life so when I want something it is usually practical.

My daughter is absolutely wonderful. She knows I will always be there for her and she is always welcome to come live with me where ever I may reside. Take care of your daughter and raise her right. Give her the room to figure out life on her own but build a good framework of guidelines within which she can flourish. It has worked for me. I love my daughter. She continues to make me proud.

Photograph Slide Show with Adobe Rome

One Photograph with my Photo Slideshow

© Songer Photography

In the past few hours I have been trying a few simple projects in Adobe Rome and wanted to test them out here.  This is a basic slide show although in large 800 px by 600 px format flash object so it may take time to load.  I also had trouble finding a place to place it on the web as far as web storage as I really do not have my own domain with a web storage company other than Mobile Me, so that is what I used.  Eventually I plan to have a a small photography business where I can sell prints to people who like them.  Here is an example of how I might present the photographs in a flash based format.

In the Presence of Greatness

Tyler Silberberg Columbia Flier/Howard County Times 

boys Golfer of the Year. (Staff photo by Matt Roth of explorehoward.com)

Stepping through the door of my oldest sister's Maryland townhouse in the late nineties, I was excited the see my second nephew for the second or third time.  He was at that time past the fragile toddler age and starting to really enjoy testing the physical limits of his body.  He and his older brother decided that their new favorite game to play with uncle Kyle was to wrestle and jump on him as if he was human jungle gym.  Both of my nephews are really incredible human beings.  Blake, the older brother, used his intellect to prevent hurting himself or his uncle. Tyler, the younger brother, just stepped on the gas sort of speak.  He would slam himself right into me with no thought of the impact on me or himself.  My original thought was this kid is going to be a professional football player.  I did not really want to promote that idea at such a young age for knowing his very intelligent parents, it would be better if like my daughter, my nephews pursued careers or endeavors that challenged their minds more than their bodies.  I did think I was in the presence of future greatness at whatever this child, now teenager, decided to do.

It turns out I was not too far off.  This kid is now a budding amateur golfer as a young adult and is rapidly reaching for and attaining greatness.  At a recent family get together at my parents house in New England, he was very astute, poised, and full of eagerness for the game of golf.  He was invited to play at local golf courses during our family visit and did a great job of balancing the social activities of that event and his desire for some green time during that week.

I see children, young adults, and even adult friends with a talent for sports and other activities, but there is something special or different with this young man.  Not only does he seem to have the talent but there is this cerebral energy and simultaneous stoicism in his mannerisms.  Watching him drive golf balls at a driving range one day told me this kid is all business but the same time he really seems to enjoy himself and keep himself grounded.  To me those are the ingredients of a champion.  I am not a golf expert nor did I even watch the game in the past.  That will change now that my nephew is a rising golf star.

Tyler led his golf team at his high school as a freshman and now as a sophomore, he is Howard County, Maryland's top golfer.  His prowess on the golf course sends chills up my spine.  I recently told a complete stranger who mentioned she was just learning the game of golf and loves it that my nephew will be a top professional golfer some day.  I just get that sense.  Follow these links to learn more about this exceptional young man and the game of golf he loves.

• Boys golf: Strong finish makes Silberberg Howard County's top golfer
• Golf: Freshmen holding their own for top teams

WD TV Live Hub media center

WD TV Live Hub media center

I recently bought a Western Digital WD TV Live Hub media center and I am very pleased with the features and performance of this lovely little device. In short it is a wireless router, a network attached storage device, and DLNA/UPnP compatible media server all rolled into one sleek unit capable of 1080p video.  Most people will be happy about being able to stream content from Netflix Blockbuster, Facebook, and others but I am most happy with being able to get my personal content on my HDTV without having to tie up my computer.  Many months ago I purchased a mini dispaly to HDMI adapter that allows me to use my HDTV as moniotr for my iMac in eoither a mirrored fashion or as a cloned monitor and I am extreely happy with this adapter as it works very well.  Every now and then I just need to be able to view and listen to content via my HDTV while working on my laptop or desktop computers.  Often I even use my iPad to complete tasks while watching content on my HDTV.  The WD TV Live Hub media center allows me to d that with extreme ease.  I am also happy with the integration with Mediafly (see earlier post on Mediafly) which has lead me to rediscover netcasts (podcasts and videocasts) as a way for me to stay on the cutting edge on technology, science, news, and more.  In short I think this WD TV Live Hub media center was a great investment.  - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Podcast Aggregator and Player - Mediafly

© Mediafly, Inc. 2006-2010

I have been using iTunes for many years to listen to audio podcast and watch and listen to vodcasts or video podcast. Recently I bought a new media hub that connects nicely to my HDTV and I would like to play those podcasts and vodcasts through my television. I can do this with the computer to HDTV adapter but that ties up my computer if someone else wanted to use it, or with the podcast player built into my Sony HDTV but that player makes it very difficult to add my preferred media. Enter Mediafly, a podcast and vodcasts media aggregator and player. Mediafly is a wonderful service and software that let's me add and syncs my Mediafly account across many devices. I added my Western Digital Media Hub, my iPad, iPod Touch, and my iMac. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Altering Meal Plans to Work for Me

Torso of "The David" Statue in Rome, Italy

Being pretty health conscious and incredibly busy every day, I have been trying quite a few methods for loosing and maintaining weight. I find that with the right amount of exercise and eating right, one can loose weight a keep it off. This however as most of you know, is in the perfect low stress world where you have a residual income that allows you to spend a few hours in the gym each day or at home exercising. Overpaid actors and athletes, as well as people who inherited a lot of money that basically get paid to workout or pay themselves to workout often come to my mind. They may also have someone buy and prepare their meals for them as well. I am not saying that their jobs are not stressful just not as stressful and time consuming as the average American's job. Most of are not in that situation and so we have to find other ways to loose weight and maintain a healthy weight. Enter the multibillion dollar diet and exercise industry.
I have supported Body For Life in the past and modified it to work for me. But for the most part if I skimped on either exercise or eating perfectly healthy, I would go up and down in weight and not reach my goal of 180 pounds. The Body for Life program is great and will work if again you have the time. You have to make the time and you probably should. I am overworked and have to force time to get to the gym and spend an entire Sunday cooking meals for the week. I will probably go back to this program once again in my modified manner after I reach my 180 pound goal while closely following the Belly Fat Cure lifestyle.
The included link at the top is to the Web MD article that discredits this program but I will include a link to the website for the author of the actual Belly Fat Cure program here for your consideration as well. When a colleague mentioned this meal plan/program I was floored. "You are only allowed to eat 15 grams of sugar or fewer per day" was my response. "That is crazy" I said. Because I am a little crazy, I tried it. It really does work. I had already jump started my weight loss by 10 pounds before starting this program with one of my many but too infrequent bumps in high powered exercise and healthy eating. Since starting this program I have lost over 20 pounds. I am currently at 188 pounds. Once I make 180 pounds, I am going to return to my own meal plan program with some influences from the Belly Fat Cure program. In other words I will watch sugar more closely. The portion in the accompanying book does do a nice job talking about the science of insulin and carb swapping which is the backbone of the program. Below I have outlined what I like about the Belly Fat Cure program and what I do not like or would change.

What I liked:
• Completely cutting out processed sugar and all the products within which you fined processed sugar
• Following this plan had a great side effect of helping me control portion size
• The reinforcement that one should eat 5 or 6 small meals per day
• The science behind trying to keep insulin levels low and steady

What I did not like:
• Cutting out healthy fruits like mangoes, apples, and citrus fruits
• The amount of cheese and red meat that seemed condoned in this plan
• Having to travel further to find some of the more rare ingredients in some of the suggested meals due to the time and inconvenience

To summarize, I have used the Belly Fat Cure program or lifestyle change to get me down to an ideal weight and then from there I will design my own program. I may even consult a sports medical professional or sports nutritionist to help me design just such a program. In short, cutting out processed sugar is very good, and anything that helps me adjust my portion size and frequency of eating is also very good. Most important to busy professionals is taking time out of your weekend to plan, buy and prepare all your meals for the week will do wonders for your health and well being. I hope you have gleaned some helpful information from my ramblings. Take this advice and the advice from Web MD into consideration when analyzing both the Body For Life and Belly Fat Cure programs. Ultimately the decision is up to you and it is smart to do your research before beginning either one or any meal plan program.