Graduating from iMovie to Final Cut

Special is not the video; rather how it was made. Final Cut has a pretty steep learning curve, but I finally can do with it what I can do with iMovie - and then some. Thus I'm retiring the latter.

What you may notice this time already:

• Audio editing and audio transitions


• Dissolve video transitions


• Multitrack audio (three in this case)

No worries if you didn't notice - there will be some more drastic enhancements in the posts to come (I hope).

Hike it

A five-hour hike through sleepy lion park in the Rockies. A few photos.

Converting one family member at a time...

Mom got a Mac!

Ivy the mountain dog

Ivy was my roommate for a few months during my last year of college. She's now nine years old, but still has her same slobbering habits. And she still likes to hike - here she chases prairie dogs in front of the flatirons backdrop.

Three cities in two days

It's humbling how fast you can overcome time and space - and then scramble to prove it in a multimedia story. In less than two days, I dropped off the folks in Grindelwald, Switzerland, landed in Denver, and sped on to Las Vegas. Although it was fun to compare and contrast the Alps and the Rockies while both fresh in the head, traversing time zones and climates that fast takes its toll on body and mind. Luckily, I dropped in on friends and family during the tour (with intermittent work commitments), which kept me going. Off to Frankfurt tomorrow.

Rumble in the Rockies

Tomas hustles like a hare. What he lacks in skill he makes up for in sheer tongue-sticking-out-the-corner-of-the-mouth determination. Here's a look at his Pele-caliber soccer moves. Way to scrap, T!

Again to Auggen...

One of the last stops on Kris's itinerary was a (too) quick visit to Laurie and Ernie in Auggen. It was a mini-reunion with sauerkraut and Ernie's constant consultations on marriage.

Konrad Ernst Soennecken has arrived...


OK, usually babies this young aren't what I would call cute. But little Konrad here is a special case. This one is acutely cute. The dude's got the disposition of a boy beyond his, well...months. Just try to avert his piercing gaze. He's already got the world figured out and is ruminating on his conclusions.

This precocious tot is the son of my cousins Brendan and Corey. He joined the planet about two weeks ago. He'll be heading over to Germany end of October. Kate and I hope he'll be staying a while. Congrats Corey and Bren - you've definitely got a little corner of the sun now!

Visit from Portland

I hadn't seen Ivan in about six years. He's an Edinboro, PA native who showed me and the high-school crew around the panhandle back in the day. We met his wife Tara and their one-year-old daughter Adha for the first time. The three of them are doing a tour of Europe, with four weeks to do it in. We were fortunate enough to see them twice during their ramble. The sights of Heidelberg were a given on the agenda.