So the first issue I came across was getting the GPS coordinates to my photos. I don't have a GPS attachment for my camera and don't really want to have to buy one. They're not cheap. An app that myself and Randy McCaig tested on the way to Texas last year was an application for the iPhone called GeoTag. Basically, you'd give it the photo naming convention (ie DSC_0001.jpg) and then hit the capture button to capture save the GPS coords, which would be sync'd back to the photos later. The app did a great job as it would increment to the next photo name (DSC_0002.jpg) but wasn't as preferable as we had to remember to hit the capture button everytime a photo was taken.

I found another app that wasn't specifically designed for this use but would be more efficient and automated. Trailguru allows for tracking of biking, hiking, walking, driving, etc. It records the GPS coordinates over time, speed, etc. You upload the trail info after recording to their website and their site allows for exporting as a GPX file. After recording the trail, you can take the exported file and use an application like HoudahGeo to sync the GPX file with the images, based on the time taken of the photos. You only really need to leave the application running on the iPhone and sync up later. Works really well after testing.

The second issue was creating a script to map out the photos on a Google Map. It took a while but I finally managed to get the script to read all the images in a directory and display them on a map. Needs a few changes so that it displays the thumbnails when the marker is clicked but it's working a lot better then I expected.

Above is a test of both Trailguru and the Google Maps script I was working on. Both worked really well and I expect to be tweaking and using the script in future vacations and such. Maybe I'll put the script up for others to use. Ah, who knows?

It's surprising how many of these hold true for me

- More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can’t wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that’s not only better, but also more directly involves me.

- Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you’re wrong.

- I don’t understand the purpose of the line, “I don’t need to drink to have fun.” Great, no one does. But why start a fire with flint and sticks when they’ve invented the lighter?

- Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you’re going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you’re crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.

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- I totally take back all those times I didn’t want to nap when I was younger.

- Is it just me, or are 80% of the people in the “people you may know” feature on Facebook people that I do know, but I deliberately choose not to be friends with?

- Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn’t work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ’s. We just figured it out. Today’s kids are soft.

- There is a great need for sarcasm font.

- Sometimes, I’ll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the f was going on when I first saw it.

- I think everyone has a movie that they love so much, it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I’ll end up wasting 90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone’s laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I’m still the only one who really, really gets it.

- How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

- I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

- I think part of a best friend’s job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

- The only time I look forward to a red light is when I’m trying to finish a text.

- A recent study has shown that playing beer pong contributes to the spread of mono and the flu. Yeah, if you suck at it.

- LOL has gone from meaning, “laugh out loud” to “I have nothing else to say”.

- I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

- Answering the same letter three times or more in a row on a Scantron test is absolutely petrifying.

- Whenever someone says “I’m not book smart, but I’m street smart”, all I hear is “I’m not real smart, but I’m imaginary smart”.

- How many times is it appropriate to say “What?” before you just nod and smile because you still didn’t hear what they said?

- I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up to prevent a dick from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers!

- Every time I have to spell a word over the phone using ‘as in’ examples, I will undoubtedly draw a blank and sound like a complete idiot. Today I had to spell my boss’s last name to an attorney and said “Yes that’s G as in…(10 second lapse)..ummm…Goonies”

- What would happen if I hired two private investigators to follow each other?

- While driving yesterday I saw a banana peel in the road and instinctively swerved to avoid it…thanks Mario Kart.

- MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

- I wish Google Maps had an “Avoid Ghetto” routing option.

- Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

- I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.

- Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

- I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t at least kind of tired.

- Bad decisions make good stories

- Whenever I’m Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning who just got the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don’t mind if I do!

- Is it just me or do high school girls get sluttier & sluttier every year?

- If Carmen San Diego and Waldo ever got together, their offspring would probably just be completely invisible.

- Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I’m from, this shouldn’t be a problem….

- You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you’ve made up your mind that you just aren’t doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

- Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don’t want to have to restart my collection.

- There’s no worse feeling than that millisecond you’re sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

- I’m always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

- “Do not machine wash or tumble dry” means I will never wash this ever.

- I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching TV. There’s so much pressure. ‘I love this show, but will they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren’t watching this. It’s only a matter of time before they all get up and leave the room. Will we still be friends after this?’

- I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Dammit!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What’d you do after I didn’t answer? Drop the phone and run away?

- I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

- When I meet a new girl, I’m terrified of mentioning something she hasn’t already told me but that I have learned from some light internet stalking.

- I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it’s on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.

- Why is a school zone 20 mph? That seems like the optimal cruising speed for pedophiles…

- As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.

- Sometimes I’ll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

- It should probably be called Unplanned Parenthood.

- I keep some people’s phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

- Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn’t know what do to with it.

- Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, hitting the G-spot, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey – but I’d bet my ass everyone can find and push the Snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time every time…

- My 4-year old son asked me in the car the other day “Dad what would happen if you ran over a ninja?” How the hell do I respond to that?

- It really pisses me off when I want to read a story on CNN.com and the link takes me to a video instead of text.

- I wonder if cops ever get pissed off at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.

- I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

- I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lites than Kay.

- That’s enough, Nickelback.

Recently, George updated his site. I think it looks pretty good. His previous version of the site wasn't too bad at all but it had a few small display issues.

Also related to George's update, I released version 2.4 of ReedGal. This version brings a few nice additions including making it easier to integrate the gallery into a pre-existing layout. George's gallery and Mike Aubin's gallery are good examples of how it looks when integrated. I will say that Mike's gallery reminds me that I need to add a pagination style setup for the gallery so all images aren't on one page.

The gallery still has some ways to go, adding some sort of authentication for the "admin" page, etc, but I'm pretty happy with how it is currently working right now.

Check out the ReedGal page or go directly to the SourceForge page.

Some New Year's Resolutions (that are bound to be ignored like everyone else)

• Stop procrastinating and earn my CCNA
• Actually continue working out every week instead of stopping and starting 20 times a year
• Possibly look into new job opportunities more toward the south (I'm not a cold weather kind of guy and wouldn't mind changing things up a bit)

That's all I can think of off the top of my head but I'm sure I'll add a few on by the end of tonight.

Before I left for TN, I decided that the best place for my car was the parking lot at work. It would be pretty safe from vandals as the place has security almost 24/7. But I did recognize that it could snow and I was not there to move the car for the plows. I decided that I would leave the key in my locker at work and ask a friend, Jason Lomba, to move the car if needed. This may have been a mistake.

When I got back from TN, Brian Roy had offered to pick me up. Pretty cool as otherwise I would have just grabbed a taxi. When we got to the parking lot, I noticed my car was in a different spot and the plows had packed me in pretty good. I chalked up the new parking space to having to move the car for the plowing, nothing weird.

I end up grabbing a shovel from work and starting to shovel out the front of my car. Brian suggested starting the car up just to get it warm. Not a bad idea, I thought. I hop over to the driver's side and notice 4 of my friends, Joe Webster, Jason Lomba, Chris Lomba, and Jim Stergiou, hiding behind the car. I immediately knew something was up. I looked in the car and saw that my car had been completely filled with packing peanuts.

Now when I say "filled with packing peanuts," maybe you're thinking "must have filled up the seats and floor." Not sir/madam, that is not really what I meant. The peanuts filled up the entire car and were put in place through the sunroof of the vehicle.

A couple things to note:

1. Joe spent $120+ on biodegradable packing peanuts.
2. My boss, boss's boss, and boss's boss's boss were all aware of the prank. They were concerned I'd be upset. I definitely was not.
3. The name Operation Blockhead came from George Simon's son. I went to a BBQ at George's and his son asked him "why does he have such a block head," referring to me. Yup...
4. The peanuts start to biodegrade as soon as water is introduced. This causes them to get really slick and stick to the bottom of shoes. They were really annoying to get off.
5. I had to drive around for a while, looking for a gas station with the large nose vacuum hoses and not the narrow, easy to clog noses.

I must say, it was an interesting experience. Check out the pictures after the break. (Higher quality pictures will be uploaded later this week)

The car prior to peanuting

Truckload of peanuts

Teek filling up balloons for to fill in spaces in the car

Teek and Dan filling up ballons

Teek and Dan filling up the car

The car filled with peanuts

Grace can't believe it

This prank is Jim Approved

George, Joe, Dan, and Teek

The GLI waiting for its owner

Brian Stewart sacrificing himself for video of the event

Me realizing what's going on

It was pretty funny

That's a lot of packing peanuts

More peanuts

In front of my car

Ready to drive?

Ryan Approved

Passenger side airbags?

I thought donuts with all windows down would clear them out...
It didn't work

More updates to come in the near future, I would hope. Been pretty busy with a few projects at work and home so sorry for the lack of updates.

Anyway, I will be attempting to update a bit more in the coming weeks. For now, here's a nice little picture from the phone of the view

More updates to follow.