Updated - Feb 20, 2008

Upcoming trips:

*Phoenix, AZ (Feb)
*Denver, CO (Mar)
*Santa Barbara, CA (Mar)
Europe Tour (May-Jun)

*denotes business trips

We've been married since March 5, 1993 and firmly believe that our success in love and life is attributed to our faith. If you would like to know more about our faith, please visit www.watchtower.org. Agape!

The biggest thing right now for us is planning our trip to Europe. We are SO excited! So much so, that we are a little afraid that it might not happen (smiles). We have been wanting to take this trip for the past ten years and have been actively planning it for the past year. Flights are booked, hotels are semi-final and we are now in the process of planning our excursions and entertainment. If you would like to preview our trip through EIGHT COUNTRIES and EIGHTEEN different HOTELS, check out the Microsoft LIVE Map of our route. We are also going to be setting up a travelblog while we are away so that we can upload photos and journal notes on the fly - it's almost like being there with us (smiles). We will post the link here once we have finalized the travelblog site.

 

Cool Links and Gadgets
(no, none of these are paid advertisements, just links and sites we like and sometimes use - and plus Jennifer is truly a GEEK at heart) :


Jennifer's work....

Pinger lets you trade voice messages with anyone's mobile phone. It's better than voicemail because there's no ringing or lengthy instructions. It's more personal than text because it's your voice. You can send messages long distance without having to worry about time zones, expense or interrupting people - all by simply dialing your local Pinger number. Plus you can send a Pinger message to a group with one call. Pinger is free - you can reply or forward voice messages at the press of a button. It's like having an entire conversation like you would with text messaging, but with your voice. In the USA call 858 2 PINGER and try it now from your phone.

Imagine driving in your car about 50 miles an hour, and sending an E-mail/message to yourself to remind you of things you need to do today, while it's still fresh in your head. So you no longer have to type and drive at the same time. Note to self: stop typing and driving. Very dangerous. This is a great mobile technology. Jott! best of all…it’s free! What is Jott? Well, with Jott, you can record free voice messages that are transcribed and sent as text messages or e-mails without having to fumble for a pen or your mobile device. How can you use it: send emails or notes from the car to yourself or anyone in your Jott address book. You can even find out where the speed traps are by saying your location and getting an email back from trapster.com.

With the free jaxtr service, users can link their phones with their online network to hear from callers worldwide while keeping their existing phone numbers private. And jaxtr is not just about hearing from people who visit a user's profile or blog. By adding their jaxtr link to their email signature, global friends can call our users on their phone with the click of the mouse - without downloading any software, incurring international phone charges or even registering for jaxtr. When users change their work, home or mobile number, they simply add or update their number on jaxtr; incoming calls then get routed to the phone of their choice. They can even block callers from reaching them or specify on a per-caller basis which callers can reach them live and which get routed to voice mail. Isn't that sweet?

meebo.com is a website for instant messaging from absolutely anywhere. Whether you’re at home, on campus, at work, or traveling foreign lands, hop over to meebo.com on any computer to access all of your buddies (on AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, Google Talk, ICQ and Jabber) and chat with them, no downloads or installs required, for free!


Undergoing launch - research neighborhoods...

We help busy people manage and enrich the many relationships in their lives — family, friends, work, school, sports teams and more. Groups of people use Nexo to do more online: Create Web sites and email lists. Share pictures, videos, files and Web favorites. Have discussions. Create shared calendars and vote on activities.

Ning offers the latest social networking features, all infinitely customizable to meet your unique needs. The Ning Platform makes this possible. As a platform, you don't have to appeal to Ning for the features you want. If you have the time and the inclination, you can build them yourself. It's the software equivalent of Home Depot. Unlike other services that offer a “one-size-fits-all” offering, your social network on Ning runs on a programmable platform.

Nutrax gives you the ability to track and monitor your diet and exercise, so you can learn how to make smart changes to improve your health. Nutrax isn’t a diet or a prescribed program. It’s a personal monitoring tool, giving you an in-depth look at the types of foods you consume, how their nutritional contents affect your body, and how you can make changes to look and feel healthier. You just snap and send pics of your food and fitness from your cameraphone. Then, sign in to your free nutrax.com account to view your photos, build your photo journal, and get the information you need to make better decisions about your nutrition. All of this with the support and guidance of your own personal nutrax dietician.

A reliable and secure website for getting your financial life in order. This website, which has been around for several years, helps you structure and keep track of your personal finances for free. You can upload your bank accounts, loans, credit card debts, car loans, mortgages, investments, etc., and Yodlee Moneycenter processes all of your information into a convenient net-worth statement. It considers your assets, liabilities, and expenses. Yodlee Moneycenter does not provide you with any financial advice, but it does allow you to track all of your money and expenses in one place. And it’s free.

Not free, but it's the one we use - GoToMyPC is for individuals needing remote desktop access to 1-20 PCs. It’s an easy and secure remote-access solution that enables you to conveniently access email, files, programs and network resources from home or the road. Get unlimited access to your PCs from any Web browser anywhere. Teleworkers: Work on your office PC from home, easily and securely, with just an Internet connection. Travel: Access and use your PC and files from hotels, airports, Internet cafes – anywhere with Web access. After-Hours Access: Access and use your office desktop, email and other corporate resources after hours from any location connected to the Internet. Highly secure, fully encrypted and can be set up and ready to go in minutes – even by novice users.

Make FREE video calls, phone calls, text messages and send video mails to anyone in your network, anywhere in the world. SightSpeed is optimized to work well with all Creative webcams as well. Offers the best quality video and audio experience among all the other free video chat software out there. You can see your friends and family in real-time, as though they are sitting right in front of you. Also the only free video chat service that gives you the ability to send high-quality Video Mails to anyone, even to non-SightSpeed users.

GIMP (or GNU Image Manipulation Program) Free program for photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format converter, etc. Designed to be augmented with plug-ins and extensions to do just about anything. The advanced scripting interface allows everything from the simplest task to the most complex image manipulation procedures to be easily scripted.

Pando is free P2P software that makes downloading, streaming and sharing large media files fast, easy and fun. Email large attachments, IM a folder, or publish your downloadable videos to the Web. Accelerates and manages downloads of huge files and folders. Bypasses email attachment limits with small pando attachments. Email files and folders up to 1GB Use your existing email, no registration required Know if your files are downloaded and how often No compression, FTP or flaky web uploads IM links to your files or entire folders to any IM buddy 100% Clean. No spyware, no adware.

SyncToy is a free PowerToy that provides an easy to use, highly customizable program that helps users to do the heavy lifting involved with the copying, moving, and synchronization of different directories. Most common operations can be performed with just a few clicks of the mouse, and additional customization is available without added complexity. SyncToy can manage multiple sets of folders at the same time; it can combine files from two folders in one case, and mimic renames and deletes in another. Unlike other applications, SyncToy actually keeps track of renames to files and will make sure those changes get carried over to the synchronized folder.

MediaMax gives you a private and secure place to upload, store, access, and share your personal videos, photos, movies, music, and files. Store files securely on the web. Get 25 GBs of FREE online storage. Access your files from any web browser. Share all your files quickly and easily, without file size restrictions. Host videos, audio, images and more on the web. Backup your files and data safely and reliably.

Backpack is an incredibly easy-to-use Web-based organizational service. This deceptively bare-bones-looking app provides straightforward functionality you can use to organize a wildly varying array of projects. Straightforward, intuitive, and versatile. Easy to set up and use e-mail/SMS reminders. Premium members can share and download calendars online. Easy to share your page and make it public. Easy to update your page via e-mail and allow others to do the same. Writeboards provide hassle-free online collaboration on text documents.

Pageflakes enables you to easily personalize the web and make it your own. Create a page using Flakes; they're small, movable versions of all of your web favorites that you can arrange on your personal homepage. There are Flakes for thousands of uses and interests, including news, sports, e-mail, local events, search, photos, music, videos - even interactive tools like a calendar and a to-do list - and just about anything else you do on the web at work and at home.

Audacity is a free, easy-to-use audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux and other operating systems. You can use Audacity to: Record live audio. Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs. Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files. Cut, copy, splice or mix sounds together. Change the speed or pitch of a recording.

DVDShrink is software to backup DVD discs. You can use this software in conjunction with DVD burning software of your choice, to make a backup copy of any DVD video disc. DVDShrink will also burn your backup DVD, if you have installed the latest version of Nero. If you already possess alternative burning software and prefer to stick with it, then you can still use DVD Shrink. The output from DVDShrink can be saved as files on your hard drive, which you can then burn with software of your choice. DVDShrink is free software

Free personal assistant system that works by email. Need to be reminded to pick up your dry cleaning at 3:00? Send an email to your personal "Sandy" address and "she" will send you a reminder at that time. Need to add an item to a task list? Just email it and it will be added. Add the "@weekly" tag and you can get a weekly reminder. You can also get a daily email with tasks for the day. You can interact with Sandy through email, the web or even SMS text messages. The number of possibilities is huge. Some examples include:Remind me to refill my prescription tomorrow @todo,
Remember to put the porch light on a timer @travel, @Hawaii, @todo
Booking airline tickets, hotels, rental cars and restaurants leaves you with lots of separate pieces of paper. Throw in maps, directions, things to do, and weather and the chaos multiplies. TripIt turns chaos into order by making it easy for anyone to: Organize trip details into one master online itinerary -- even if arrangements are booked at multiple travel sites Automatically include maps, directions and weather in their master itinerary Have the option to book restaurants, theatre tickets, activities and more right from within the online itinerary Safely access travel plans online, share them, check-in for flights, or print an itinerary


Members and visitors share photos online, host images, order prints and utilize most other options available through the top photo sharing sites. PictureTrail's full range of social networking features include highly customizable member profile pages and many popular options for community interaction - from blogs to clubs to friends features.

PictureTrail's Flash-based slideshows - called "Photo Flicks" - are customizable from dozens of unique designs, with options for captions, speed control and color selection. Its "Bling Maker" offers online stylizing of images. Its "Adopt a Pet" offers a custom, interactive "virtual pet" for member accounts.


Jajah Web, takes an approach called web-activated telephony, using VoIP to connect traditional phones (landline or mobile). Calls are made without download or user-installed software, and in most cases at rates lower than those of traditional phone companies or even free of charge.


PhotoShow.com is the fastest, easiest way to turn your memories into a PhotoShow online, from any Mac or PC. A PhotoShow is a rich, personal multimedia experience that combines your own images with broadcast-quality credits, captions, transitions, effects, and a great musical soundtrack. PhotoShow.com gives you all the tools you need to create a PhotoShow using your own photos, then share it on the Web, on TV, or on DVD. Membership in PhotoShow.com is free, and every member gets a personal web page where they can showcase their PhotoShows in custom viewing Channels.


TripAdvisor.com is a free travel guide and research website that offers reviews and information to help plan a vacation. Users research potential locales and attractions to visit, and hotels to book, primarily by browsing the thousands of reviews posted on the website each week by other travelers.

   


Bobby's Interview with OC Register