I picked up a new MacBook Pro (MBP) Core 2 Duo on Friday. This is a replacement for my iBook G4 1.3GHz I purchased in the fall of '04. This is my third Apple laptop, and my first professional model. My other one was an iBook G3 700MHz model.
I spent most of Saturday moving into and getting comfortable with the MBP. This is my fourth OS X migration since switching to a Mac. All in all they have gone impressively well, and this one was just more of the same. Boot the Mac for the first time, hook the firewire cable to the old machine and wait. When it's done it's your machine, with all of your files, settings, applications, etc. Apple has really made the process of moving from machine to machine a painless exercise.
Sometimes you stumble upon something that takes you back in time. In past times this would frequently occur in an attic, or old closet that someone was cleaning out. For me this happens when I change computers. I just got a new laptop, and I'm moving into it, after migrating all of my files over.
In this process I happened on an old QuickTime movie I made with photos from the first year of having my Canon Digital Rebel. Take a look (10MB). I thought I had posted it on this site, but apparently I hadn't. This video covers Septmber 2003 to September 2004.
West "By God" Virginia -
For business reasons I needed to go to Fayetteville, WV last Friday, August 11. So, I loaded up the R1200GS and headed south. I departed on Thursday, quite late, around 11:20 AM. My goal for the day was Staunton, VA. I accomplished that easily, got a motel room, dinner and a bottle of wine. (I must say I like the conversion to screw caps, they travel well on the bike.) In talking to the lady at the wine store I outlined my plans for the next day, and she said, "I would ride over four mountains in forty miles." Woohoo! Ooh la la! My kind of roads. Well, I headed out US-250 from Staunton and road over those four glorious mountains. Great twisties, sweepers, small Appalachian towns, valley views, pastoral landscapes... what more could one ask for.
Torrey XI -
I've finally gotten my files from Torrey XI to the point where I wanted them. So, here's the gallery. This was an amazing trip. More to come in the near future. 
Portraits of Freemasonry -
I'm starting a new project today. Over the past few years I have collected a number of pictures of Freemasons, doing various Masonic things. I will be working this into a full section of the site covering Freemasonry and illustrating it with photos from my travels in the craft. Be sure to check it out.
In August and September of 2003 I took my first long motorcycle ride. In March of 2003 I purchased a 1999 BMW R1100RT. My only previous motorcycle was a Yamaha V-Star 650 custom cruiser.
In 2002 I started reading a BMW sport touring discussion board BMWST.com. This story was originally posted on that site in about 18 parts, as I edited them for posting. I wrote this story as I travelled, then edited it and posted it on the BMWST.com site.
