On my many flights out of Newark I’ve wondered what this distinctive airfield was I always flew over. On my last flight I whipped out the GPS and marked the spot. A tour of Google Earth shows it to be Lakehurst Naval Air Station. Those tracks are for jet cars where the Navy tests its aircraft on jet-powered sleds.

Lakehurst was the site of the Hindenburg disaster in 1937.

Amazing what you can learn from the Internets, isn’t it?

I was amused to find that retailers are selling a “Bill Gates Signature” version of Microsoft Vista. For a premium of more than a hundred dollars, one can buy Microsoft’s DRM-crippled operating system with Bill Gates’s scribbling on the box.

So what’s wrong with this picture? For starters, who would want Bill Gates’s signature? Yeah, as a young 14 year old geek I admired the brash, young 30-something geek that Bill Gates once was. Somewhere along the line he turned evil and that was that. In the words of the great Chapel Hill philosopher Mojo Nixon, Bill Gates has no Elvis in him. I don’t think I’m alone in saying the Cult of Bill Gates was short-lived if not stillborn.

Now a copy of OS X autographed by Steve Jobs (or even better, the God of Geekdom Steve Wozniak), now you’re talking. I’d pony up a few extra bucks for that! It’s because Jobs and Woz have something all of Gates’s billions can’t buy him: Hipness. Legions of devoted, fanatical customers. Great products that Just Work. Ingenuity. These guys don’t just spout the word “innovate” like Bill does, they live it.

OS X has its own share of DRM crippleware, though for the most part Apple still provides what its customers want, not what Hollywood thinks its customers want. At any rate, OS X users seem to be smart enough to work around any roadblocks Apple may put in front of them.

If Microsoft Vista is where things are headed, I’ll make The Switch to OS X, or perhaps stick with my trusty Linux.

Linux may be free, but Linus Torvolds’s signature is still worth more than Bill Gates’s.

Number one on my list of 2006 highlights would have to be our new sailboat, Whimsy. This should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me.

We found Whimsy one day in August when Kelly and had a day off from parenting. We had just finished horseback riding at a nearby stables and were on our way to Lake Crabtree for some sailing. Parked on Leesville road was a fine looking sailboat. On a whim (heh) I stopped the car and we looked it over. A day or two later, and with the help of some sailboat-savvy friends, we bought it.

The practical side of me was in a royal battle with the fun side of me. I knew it wasn’t a big financial commitment, yet it was a big step to become a boatowner. I’m happy I decided to do it, though. It was an investment in happiness: one that is still paying off.

We took Whimsy out no less than six times in the first few months we owned it – an impressive count if you ask me. Our whole family loves to sail it, which is even better. It’s a great family activity since we’re all together and everyone can get involved if they choose to.

I was going through some videotapes a few weeks ago when I came upon footage of us out sailing. I watched transfixed as Kelly steered the boat through some impressive wind. It made me long for the warmer days ahead and a chance to get back on the water.

Once it does get warmer, we hope to do an overnight or two on the boat to get the feel for that. With that under our belts, we may consider doing a little weekender cruising, perhaps somewhere Down East. It would be fun to get the boat out around the coast, where the wind is stronger and more constant.

Its not an exaggeration to say the boat has changed my life. I’ve always loved to sail. Now that we’ve got a boat of our own I am happy to be out there whenever I can.

Sailing is artistry on water. I’m enjoying learning how to sail like the masters.

(Yes, this is the Mark-can’t-count entry. Somewhere I lost entries 2 and 8 from my list. Oh
well, better luck next year!)

Last year brought more travel than I’ve had in a while, Unlike my occasional trips to places like Portsmouth, VA or Lower Armpit, MS, I managed to get to a few more desirable destinations: Australia and Holland among them.

My trip to Australia began in late March and lasted for two weeks. I went there to jump-start my company’s product sales and conduct some training to get our reseller’s competent in their product knowledge. I also went there to represent my company at Linuxworld Australia during the second week. The training went well and sales began to take off, though I had very little to do with that thanks to our fantastic Aussie SE already in place. The trade show went well but not spectacularly well as attendance was quite small. I did however get to do my first keynote speech at a tradeshow, which was fun.

My Australian SE counterpart, Clinton, and the rest of the team made me feel welcome. Clinton invited me to his family’s beachhouse on Phillip Island, souuth of Melbourne for the weekend. It was great to be out in the bush as the Aussies say. It was also my first trip back to the Indian Ocean since my Navy days. I had much work in Australia but treasured the visiting and sightseeing when I could get it.

The first day in Sydney we went to Bondi Beach by ferry. The whole harbor was filled with sailboats racing on the waves, spinnakers flying. I vowed to come back and sail among them someday. It killed me not to be crewing a sailboat at that moment.

I said goodbye to Australia after too-short a visit and then got word that training was needed in Europe. A month later I was in Rotterdam, providing a weeklong session on the product (which went very well, by the way). For some stupid reason I had left my ATM card at home, which severely limited my spending abilties there. I had to be creative but I managed through the whole week. I even got to visit Amsterdam, though only for a few hours. It was enough of a taste of Holland to want more. I hope to return with Kelly and perhaps the kids too, some day.

Among many other trips in the US to places like Newark and Chicago, I got in a trip to Charlotte: my old hometown. While driving through my old neighborhood, I mustered up the courage to introduce myself to the current residents of my old home. They graciously gave me a tour of the house, sparking happy memories from 25 years ago. Man, that made my day! It made me glad to know how happy the current owners are.

There were many other trips to NYC; Boston, South Bend, IN; Chicago; Tampa; Buffalo; and Keene, NH (among others). The fridge is littered with magnets from these and other places. I did get plenty of opportunities to catch my breath, though, and the upcoming travel schedule isn’t nearly as busy.

I look forward to a few more trips this year, hopefully with the family along. Nothing broadens one’s horizons like a little travel. It’s a wonderful world we live in and everyone should see as much of it as they can.

I quietly took a step last year that I probably should have taken long ago: I closed my computer consulting side business, Siteseers. Siteseers stopped supporting my family long ago. My full-time job has kept me happy and employed. Thus, there was little use in keeping up with the side company.

I am not entirely through with side projects, mind you. I’m just going to pursue those that can offer me something that I don’t or can’t get with my day job. As for Siteseers, though, it was a good ten year run.

Next on the list of wonderful events of 2006 was our vacation to Panama City Beach in August. We stayed at the Sterling Beach Resort again and had a pretty relaxing week. Our family friend Carl volunteered the use of a boat during our stay which we used to visit the beaches of a nearby state park. My dad and I joined Carl one early morning for a little fishing. Dad and I each caught nice, 10 pound red snappers among smaller fish. We might have brought in more if we hadn’t been joined by two hungry dolphin and a nurse shark. Still, it was fun and productive. We recently fried up the fish at my parents house and boy, was it good!

The other big highlight of the trip was our fishy kids! Hallie and Travis dove right into the pool with gusto, putting their heads under and everything. We were on our last day there when they decided to do this and we were wishing we had had a few more days to build on it. Even so it was a big step for the two of them and thrilling as a parent to see.

That trip also marked the first time I’d been to Panama City when Grandma’s house wasn’t Grandma’s anymore. It was during our beach vacation two years ago that we last saw Grandma. We miss her but life goes on.

We also missed my brother Allen’s and sister Suzanne’s families, who couldn’t make it this time around. Fortunately we’ve got a family reunion coming up this summer where we can all get together.

March brought the sad and unexpected news that my Uncle Don passed away. He was a few years into his retirement and enjoying it from all accounts: playing golf and tennis on a regular basis. Don went to bed one night and never awoke. He was found by his daughter that morning, a day he was supposed to play golf.

I was wandering around Best Buy when my mom called with the news. I was stunned. Don had seemed so healthy and happy. Just a night or two before, I was exchanging emails with him because he wanted to pick my brain about VoIP. I never got a chance to answer all his questions. I was also leaving that weekend for a business trip to Australia, so I missed his funeral to my great regret.

I couldn’t help but think of my own father, who was retiring that very month from the job he held for 37 years. Don’s retirement was how I saw my dad’s retirement – happy, secure, and full of activity. I was sad Dad and Don weren’t going to be able to share their retirements together.

If you love somebody, let them know. Hug them, laugh with them, and enjoy their company because there always comes a day when it’ll be too late.

The 2006 International Remote Viewing Conference I attended in May was a mind-bending (and spoon-bending) experience. I learned things there that I’m still trying to wrap my mind around. Some of those things I probably never will fully understand.

And I discovered that it gets frickin’ hot in Las Vegas in May. Whoo wee.

I’ve rediscovered a passion of mine long left dormant. It’s photography, and digital photography is what’s inspired me. Sure, we’ve had a digital camera (a Canon Powershot S50) for years now. While I enjoyed its compact size and resolution, its fixed lens was uninspiring and the shutter delay made capturing the moment a frustrating experience.

The big break came when my employer sent me to Australia for two weeks. I couldn’t go without taking pictures, nor could I leave the family without a means of taking pictures. We finally agreed to get a Nikon D50 to augment our Canon Powershot. In an ironic twist, the Powershot mysteriously stopped working a few weeks later.

I have fallen in love with the D50. It takes beautiful pictures so quickly that snapping the shutter is like a hit of crack: you just can’t stop! I take my camera with me practically whereever I go, looking for that once-in-a-lifetime shot.

I took two weeks’ worth of beautiful pictures in Austalia, although it resulted in an altercation I still don’t fully understand. I toted it to Holland a month later. Finally I could share the beauty of my travels with the folks at home.

I shot wondrous pictures at the America’s Sail event in Beaufort this spring. I arrived the day before most ship tours but landed quite a few pictures of the host of honor, Beaufort’s own privateer, Horatio Sinbad. Which reminds me that I owe him some pictures . . .

I took my camera to Artsplosure this summer, too, little knowing it would result in controversy. As we were finishing up our tour, I heard a Squirrel Nut Zippers song playing at a nearby stage and snapped some pictures of the Maxwell/Mosher band warming up. In my blog entry I made note of how N & O music critic David Menconi’s recent story about the band’s breakup made them sound like . . . well, dicks. Well, the bandmates surf the net with the best of them and zeroed in on my blog, unloading on me with their side of the story. Either I touched a big nerve or the guys were looking for a place to vent. Or both, who knows? Once the lead had stopped flying I was left a bit bewildered at it all but was happy to provide a forum for their side. My blog still gets a ton of hits for that entry, so much so that I disabled comments. Menconi’s blog entry still links to my site as an example of the bad blood among the former Zippers.

I took my camera to our family beach vacation. In spite of the comical scene of herding the Turner clan around the beach for a few family pictures, I got two job offers from spectators to shoot pictures for them. I took one of them up on their offer the next day. I turned 15 minutes and 100 pictures into a handful of cash and some unforgettable mementos of a family’s beach visit.

Seeing the pictures of the Raleigh Flickr group have inspired me to take my photography much more seriously. As a fine musical instrument inspires a musician to play better music, so does a fine camera inspire a photographic artist.