Where the Hell is Matt? (2008)

I blogged about Matt Harding and posted his 2006 video two years ago HERE.

I still consider him the luckiest guy in the world being able to travel almost anywhere he likes without any worry on how he can fund his trips especially now that StrideGum sponsors his continuous travelling. I haven't checked his site lately but discovered his 2008 video can now be watched in HD on YouTube. You can also watch it here, just click on the bottom-right arrow  to choose the version you want. Let it 'buffer' first before you play the whole video if needed.

To find out more about him, just check his website.

David and Missy Dancing the Cha-Cha Slide

December has always been a month of going to parties and get-togethers. Last Dec. 13 was MRH's 6 Central's Christmas party so off we went there.  I have been enjoying my Lumix DMC-LX3, mostly shooting some videos with it and the party was a good way to test it's capabilities. I already signed up with a free Vimeo account but haven't decided yet if I want to get the $60 per year premium membership for unlimited HD uploads with a 2GB weekly file size restriction. Right now, I'm getting by with a once a week HD video upload with a maximum 500mb file size, roughly a 3-minute video thus a clipping is usually needed.  I've read that 'youtube' has HD uploads now but I still have to check it out.

I thought I can do some serious editing when I came across a free MOV to AVI converter without compression called MP4Cam2 AVI Easy Converter v2.79 but the audio was not syncing properly and the delay was like at least 10 seconds. So much for thinking it was a goldmine but I'm sure there's a way to fix it. I just need to explore it more.  Anyway, here's a sampling from the LX3's night scene capability. As usual, the HD version can be seen only by clicking on the link and when you want to view it full-size.

6 Central's Christmas Party-2008 from Ariel Magno on Vimeo.

Weekend Getaway in Key West

This was my 3rd time in Key West but the last one was like almost 8 years ago and since my mom is visiting us right now, we wanted to bring her to where she haven't been before. Key West is still part of Florida but is really down south. It's even nearer to Cuba than to where we live here in South Florida. The Keys as it's called is composed of 1700 islands starting from Key Largo after leaving the mainland. Other 'bigger' well known islands are Islamorada, Marathon and Bahia Honda. All in all there are 34 islands or "keys" that are connected by US-1 and the last one and of course the best known is Key West. One of the longest bridges we passed is known as the 7-mile bridge made famous in the movie 'True Lies' starring Gov. Arnold S.

We left home at 6:30 am on Saturday and got to Key West around 10 am I guess. It's only about 170 miles from home but since most of the traffic is 2-way, the speed limit is generally lower. I'm quite aware of the numerous speed traps in the keys thus I just drove quite cautiously. There were periods of light rain esp. in the morning but it was not really a deal breaker as we were still able to walk around and enjoy the place.

A visitor's impression of Key West will probably be like it's such a sleepy town. It's so laid back but once you visit Duval Street where most of the 'attractions' from shipwreck to art museums, to restaurants and bars to some high end stores are located, one will easily feel that this is indeed a very 'intense' city. Famous personalities who once made Key West one of their regular abodes were Pres. Harry Truman and Ernest Hemingway. Their houses now used as 'attractions' for those who want to cough up some dough to visit. It's the low season now but we actually like it this way.

Sunday, after one last hurrah at the historic district, we left for home. We have planned to stop by Bahia Honda State Park so the kids can swim at the beach. One thing I will definetely remember though the next time we come back is to bring a lot of coins for the meter parking. A quarter will only buy 10 minutes of parking time and we are constantly scavenging for coins everywhere we went and making sure we come back before the time expires.

A hole-in-the-wall kind of place I read about in the New York
Times so we tried it. Not bad!

Mama is from Orion, Bataan. Get it? lol!

Tasting an award-winning key lime pie.

At the Hotel

Key West Museum of Art and History

Inside the shop at the museum.

Mallory Square




















One of the more famous landmarks there.

Bahia Honda State Park

Some video clips:

Southernmost Point.

Just walking around.

Driving around Duval St.

Driving around Mallory Square.