Mike’s fast, very fast.  Reader that is.  Recently, I read the entire Twilight Saga in 1 week (I even worked overtime :) I subscribe to 40+ blogs and listen to a dozen podcasts.  No doubt that I’m living it up in the information age.  But all is not blissful, there are still a few topics not in my mainstream reading that I want more of…

1. How other balance their online lives on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.
2. How to make flash modifications for cameras with design plans
3. Tips on buying a classic Mustang
4. How to manage your kids online time effectively
5. Methods for parents to teach kids about Chemistry
6. Cool activities for Cub Scout leaders
7. Most effective exercises for toning abs
8. Why some people only attend Church on Christmas Eve
9. Best places to view wildlife in Kansas City
10. How to make a living on the internet
11. Best places to take outdoor portraits
12. How to organize a portrait taking event
13. Too many questions, not enough answers
14. What’s the optimum number of computers for a family of four?
15. Why should I be a Republican?
16. Basic car maintenance for a 2003 PT Cruiser
17. How to motivate employees during an economic crisis
18. Best ways to generate traffic to my blog (OK, that’s selfish)
19. Best training resources for photographers (not looking for free stuff)
20. Mentors experiences in the God and Country program

No mistake about it, I work for a large company.  When you have 20,000 employees there is just so much overlap and finding the one person who knows how to help you is tough.

I wish that my company had a status update like Facebook.com.  That way I could see what people are working on and offer my advice if I’ve done something similar.  My status would be updated about 20 times a day though, because I’m so attention deficit inattentive to any one thing.  I so want to pitch status updating to my management…  I need to figure out how to sell it… you know, got to have business value.

Who writes this stuff?
I’m Mike Reynolds, a software developer and avid photographer.  I studied Spanish, Education and Civil Engineering at more universities than any one I know.  Yes, I graduated multiple times!  I have taught web and database programming at Intel, Sprint and AT&T and loved every minute.  I manage a small group of software developers and help as many people achieve their dreams as humanly possible

When/why did you start this blog?
Originally, I launched this blog to rant about technology, but I’m quickly ramping up on the photography side more than ever.  One day I’ll focus my attention on a single topic, but until then enjoy my randomness.

How much time do you spend blogging?
I spend about 8 hours a week and have tons of fun doing so.  Chris, my wife, loves reading my typos as it makes me look more human.

What Blogger template do you use?
I use DAS Blog, because Scott Hanselman does.  He’s my favorite rock star famous programmer.  If he’s smart enough to figure it out, I figured I could, too.

How do I subscribe to your blog?
I make my entire post available over RSS feeds. You can subscribe by clicking here.

Being an avid photographer and Dad of a Tiger Cub allows me the unique perspective of shooting anything outdoors and passing it off as educational.  The kids and I were at the Prairie Center Park when I noticed several varieties of Chrysalis among the trees.  The kids found it very amazing that each kind of tree yielded a different kind of moth, though I’m still not sure what kinds of moth/butterfly is inside each.  Since we are proponents of the Leave No Trace program the little critters stayed very safe from little hands, but my next task will be to identify from these pictures what type of insect we are dealing with.  There are three different Chrysalis represented in the accompanying pictures and any help identifying would be welcome.  One step that should probably be taken is to identify the trees that the different moth/butterfly homes on which the cocoons were built.  In any event if you have ideas to help identify the photos, please, post in comments.

P.S.  You might not know this but in High School I won 1st place in an FFA entomology contest and placed in two state contests.  Yep that’s right, I’m the bug guy.  Strange, how wildly popular this made me with my classmates.  Popular and delusional. 

In my last Bald Eagle post I showed only photos that I snapped.  In this post I’ll show only pictures taken by Bryan Orr.  He’s become an avid Kansas City Bald Eagle watcher to the point that when I want to do a photo shoot involving our national bird I contact him first!

Bryan you got some awesome angles.  When are you start offering sight seeing tours, I’ll be the first to sign up!

After four months of using my HP MediaServer I’m sold that the little hunk of junk is the best backup system/methodology one can have without the hum of servers in your basement.  Here’s my quick list to justify the label of ‘Easiest home backup system.’

• Backups and Notification of backup status
• User Account Consolidation
• Remote Administration
• Free SSL certificate to secure remote administration
• Central location for file storage, both public and private
• Photo sharing web site
• Easily add more storage to your unit

Sometimes you think of people when you least expect it.  Rue Porter passed away a month ago and today I experience a flashback of the plumbing training he passed along to me.  For the last 2 weekends my intentions were to replace a cracked toilet in the master bathroom, but batch processing failures at my employer and lots of overtime had prevented the chore be accomplished until today. 

I went to the good ole’ Home Depot with the family and set out to select our new toilet.  Fortunately, for us this weekend was the big Bathroom Savings event.  There was a choice of about 40 different commodes and I could see a glazed look in my wife’s eyes.  Suddenly, I remembered the words of Rue… you can’t go wrong with American Standard. This narrowed our selection down to two models.  We ended up going with one with the biggest flush capacity.  With the industry’s largest flush valve and trapway, we are going to have a very fast and powerful flush…I can’t wait until the kids stress test out the flushing capabilities…ability to flush 200 sheets of toilet paper is what American Standard touts.

In my category scheme, this post falls under Management.

Unless you work for a web development company your decision on how or where to setup a web site just got a lot harder.  The core factors at the heart of the build or buy choices lie in what features are required to do business and range from the necessities to ultimate luxuries.  In my conversation with a non-profit organization their concerns rely in the realms of communication, social networking and branding.  In today’s Internet world some of the easiest and cheapest freebie web applications address all of these concerns.  Here’s a list of items discussed during that conversation that I will elaborate on in the upcoming weeks.

• MySpace, FaceBook and Yahoo Groups
• Updateable web site without programming and uploading
• Cost
• Technology that you know versus that which you don’t
• Email capabilities
• Use an out of the box solution or develop custom software
• Custom URL or use location shared via a parent organization

I look forward to doing a deep dive into each of the topics and meeting people who are interested in these topics.  Please, leave your insight in the comments of this web site.