Easy Canoe Trip

Last Sunday we were lucky enough to have the perfect weather for a lazy canoe trip down the Saint Croix. There are a couple outfitters that you can go through. This was our second trip with Wild Mountain Its $45 for the canoe with paddles and life vests. It's a bit steep but still worth it. We highly recommend parking your car at the end of the trip just on the Minnesota side of the HWY 243 bridge into Osceola, WI. This way when you are done - you are DONE - and and literally leave the canoe on the beach and just jump into your car and leave. We took our time - stopping a couple of times along the way - and still made it down in under 3 hours.

From St. Croix River

The water was really low in some spots. A little girl canoeing by when mol snapped this even said "look mom it looks like he is walking on water" :)



Even though there were a lot people on the river - it was very peaceful with plenty of "nature" all around. I was able to sneak up pretty close to this hawk before he flew away.

Mol was rockin the super cute baby bump. Passers by would all smile at us and then to each other about how cute they thought it was.

My Favorite Top Gear Segment.

Each time I watch this I still get goose bumps. It is rare to find someone so "expert" at something that can also explain their expertise in such a simple and easy to understand way. "Like Yoda"

Mother of all Belly Flops

Classic Big Picture Blog. I can't believe the big news sites still get away with low resolution fuzzy images.

Video: Leonards Leap

As promised here is some of the video shot with my Canon T1i and Sigma 10x20mm.

Leonards Leap from Nathan Grahek on Vimeo.

Man I love Vimeo.

Another Perfect Day in Osceola

The weather was perfect on Saturday and Erik was excited to show me Leonards new favorite game.

From Fishin and Dog Jumping

For some reason Leonard really likes jumping off the boat way more than jumping off the dock. This made it tuff to get back far enough - hence so many of the shots his head is out of frame. It does however give you a good sense of how fast he is going. I will post a couple videos of it later this week. I was literally hanging off the front of the boat dangling the camera out as far as I could. Next time I am going to try and be in a second boat - and have my back to the sun. Black Labs are always just big black shadows when shooting into the sun.

He likes jumping off so much - he gave us all a mini heart attack when we started driving again - Erik had the stick in his hand - Lenard just exploded over the rail off the FRONT of the pontoon. Luckily we were going slow and my Dad was quick to kill the throttle.

So far this is still one of my favorite shots of the summer, from Memorial weekend.

From Memorial Day Weekend 09

Sunday Morning Bloody Mary's

Over the years a number of people have asked for the bloody recipe I use, and I have been meaning to put something like this together for a while.

In a nut shell - while I almost always stick to the same foundation - experimenting with different ingredients is what I enjoy most. Take a look at what I have so far, please leave your comments - and let me know some of your favorite ingredients.

A short list of my favorite IDOL bookmarks

To my fellow Capella - soon to be - graduates:

I will add more to this post in the following weeks as the dust settles and I bask in the great feeling of being done with my Masters. !!!

I completed the Training & Performance Improvement track, it was the perfect combination of depth with high-level macro scope. I was able to develop skills for identifying performance gaps, recommending the best solutions, and evaluating their impact ... (in a nut shell).

In doing some reflection on my integrative project, I am realizing that because I chose to develop an actual program, it allowed me to really focus in on my passion for IDOL, and explore the state of this specific industry. With the rapid advancement of technology combined with the current economy - there is (and will be) a huge rush to leveraging web based solutions. It will be important that we stand our ground and use what we have learned to make sure the RUSH to the online learning is done with responsibility and caution. As we all know e-learning is not a panacea.

I am especially interesting in this whole term and concept of "Rapid-elearning" Is this just an excuse to cut corners to increase volume and lower ID quality?

Enough already, here is my list of bookmarks to share:

Please reply back to this with your favorite bookmarks that you use.

I just found these today, they should offer plenty of good inspiration. Most of them are really well-done, but many are riddled with extraneous load distractions:
Rapid-elearning Examples made with Articulate

This is a great list of some of the best training and IDOL blogs all in one spot:
http://www.pageflakes.com/trainingblogs

http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/

http://c4lpt.co.uk/index.html

http://elearningcurve.blogspot.com/

http://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/