Tea Cups

Max, Molly, and Liz enjoy the Tea Cups at Disney's Magic Kingdom

Monorail Co-Pilots

Max and Molly (and Liz & Jarrett too!) get a very special ride to the Magic Kingdom in the cockpit of the Disney World Monorail. Secret tip: Simply ask a cast member on the loading platform to let you ride up front, and they'll oblige you.

Disney 2009 Day 1 Recap

Max and Molly recap what they did on their first day at Disney in 2009, when we toured EPCOT

Max plays secret agent on Kim Possible Adventure

Max tries out the Kimmunicator while playing the Kim Possible Adventure at EPCOT. The new attraction opens on January 28th but we got to participate in the "soft opening" or "beta test" if you will of this very cool interactive technology

Molly Plays in ImageWorks

Molly had a grand time at the ImageWorks in EPCOT making music by jumping on the lighted squares of carpet.

Snow Day 2009

5 to 6 inches on the ground and still falling...hopefully we'll be able to fly out to Disney World tomorrow...but for now, it's snow angels and snowball fights.

Max Playing Soccer at XL Soccer World

After a hiatus for a few months, Max got back to playing soccer this weekend. He's on XL Milan at XL Soccer World in the U8 coed league.

Molly's First Soccer Game at XL Soccer World

Molly started soccer this week in the U6 Instructional Program at XL Soccer World. She had done things like Soccert Tots and L'il Kickers before, but this was really her first "real" experience playing soccer.

New Year's Eve 2008 Hurricanes Game

For New Year's Eve, we took the kids to a Carolina Hurricanes game (vs. the Atlanta Thrashers). It also gave me a chance to play with one of the new toys that we got for Christmas, a Kodak Zi6 pocket-sized High Definition camcorder.

Here's a little video from our evening out.

3 New Home Video Channels for your New Year's Viewing Pleasure

Over the holidays, I've been cleaning out an old VHS tape cupboard and transferring many of the videos to digital format using this new toy I got for Christmas so I can clean out the closet and get rid of the tapes.

In addition, I dug through all the little home videos that Liz had shot on her digital camera of Max's and Molly's school functions and posted them all on the web under my Veoh.com account.

To make it easier to find the videos, I've created three distinct channels for your viewing pleasure:

Max's Home Videos: Videos primarily featuring Maxwell



Molly's Home Videos: Videos primarily featuring Molly




Jarrett's Music Videos: Don't worry -- not me making music, but videos of my family members, for example, Griffin and Liz, in their musical endeavors.



There's a few other videos posted there too that don't fall neatly into one of these three channels -- like this video of Liz's Baby Shower (without Liz being present) or this video of my nephew Caiden as an infant.

If you want to automatically download the latest copies of all my videos that I publish at this site (including a few not included in those 3 channels), you can either subscribe to my RSS Feed or simply click on this iTunes link and you'll be automatically subscribed (assuming you have iTunes installed on your computer).

Seven Foot Politic Live at the 40 Watt 1997

A performance by Athens-based Seven Foot Politic at the 40 Watt Club in Athens, GA circa 1997. The band features my brother, Griffin Campbell, on bass guitar.

Merry Christmas 2008

Merry Christmas to all!

For those that couldn't join us this Christmas, here is our morning festivities compressed into a 4 min 17 sec YouTube video so you can share in all the fun.



And here are some still pictures as well.

The Political Mind of a 7 Year Old

I must confess that I have become practically obsessed with the Presidential election this year, most evenings slipping upstairs at 8pm to watch Keith Olbermann on MSNBC before putting the kids to bed or staring endlessly at Real Clear Politics polling data.

Max has taken to watching Countdown with me and he too has gotten very interested in understanding what all is going on, especially after our recent trip to DC. The other day, he came in from playing outside and told me that he and his friend Jake saw the McCain-Palin signs in the yard across the street and that he told his playmate that "McCain has been telling lies".

It's been really exciting around here with North Carolina actually being in play this election, for the first time since Carter won the state in 1976. The down side is that we are completely deluged with telephone calls all evening long and political advertisements on our local television stations around the clock at the moment.

While we were sitting around watching TV today, the McCain "Surgeon" TV ad came on. The basic premise of this ad is to attack Obama's "inexperience" and it's tag line is "OBAMA: Never been in charge of anything".

I hate ads like this because while they may bring up the point that Obama has never held an executive position in government, they completely gloss over the fact that neither has John McCain. I guess he might claim that his brief stint as a commanding officer of a small training squadron for less than a year over 30 years ago might qualify as "being in charge of something", but that is certainly not what the ad is trying to imply.

Irritated by the complete lack of full disclosure in not only this, but just about every other political ad I've seen in the last month (e.g., Elizabeth Dole's despicable Godless Americans ad), I shouted at the TV --> "SO WHAT EXACTLY HAS JOHN McCAIN EVER BEEN IN CHARGE OF?!?!?!"

Max, without missing a beat, responded: "Having the most houses!"

:)

Happy Halloween

The video clip above was shot on Halloween as Max the Weatherman was reporting on Hurricane Jarrett. During the broadcast, he was interrupted by a surprise guest who apparently got lost on her way to grandma's and ended up in the middle of Category 4 storm.

Here are some more photos of the kids from Halloween 2008.

DC Vacation Photos & Video

We took the kids to DC this week while Max is tracked out from year-round school. The main event was Max and I going to Max's first ever US National Team soccer game, a World Cup qualifier betwen the US and Cuba, which the US won handily 6-1.

While in town, we also checked out the National Zoo, the new Udvar-Hazy National Air and Space Museum out at Dulles airport, the Natural History Museum, and the National Mall. We also saw a neat performance by Hakim, a star from the Dutch version of Sesame Street, as part of the Kids Euro Festival that was going on this week in DC.

On the way out of town, we stopped at IKEA at Potomac Mills and loaded up the van. Now I'm going to be putting together modular Swedish furniture for at least a week!

I posted a number of pictures from the trip and a few videos from the soccer match in this set over at Flickr.

My favorite photo from the trip is this one...of Molly praying for our government. It could use all the help it can get right now, don't you think?

Obama rally in Greensboro

After picking up my new Mini Clubman S this morning in Winston-Salem, I stopped off in Greensboro to see Joe Biden and Barack Obama speak.

I was running late, as evidenced by the fact that I was held up by Obama's motorcade, as I was trying to find a parking spot and since there were over 20,000 in attendance according to local police there was no way I was getting anywhere close to stage. But the sound was good and with my 300mm telephoto lens, I managed to get a few glimpses of our next presidential duo.

Here are few a photos from the event.

She's Here...My new Mini Clubman S

When I ordered my new Mini Clubman S, I really wanted to get a sunroof but decided it wasn't worth the $1000 adder to the price of the car. Well, as luck would have it, the dealer screwed up and actually ordered the car with the sunroof. So now they are stuck basically giving it to me for free, or ordering me another car and waiting another month to get my money.

Dumb luck, or a sign that it was meant to be??? :)

Here's a couple of more pics the car being detailed at the dealership down in Winston-Salem. I'm off to pick it up first thing in the morning and then I'm going to stop off on my way home to see Joe Biden and Barack Obama speak at the Amtrak depot in downtown Greensboro.

Should be a great day.

Start! Heart Walk

Back in October 2007, my employer conducted a free health screening where I learned that based on my weight, gender, and blood counts, I was at significant risk for heart disease, heart attack, or a stroke.

Over the last 8 months, I've been working really hard through diet and exercise to reduce those risk factors. After losing 50 pounds and leading a more healthy all-around lifestyle, my most recent health assessment shows that I have corrected those problem areas and am now considered low risk!

To celebrate my success, I am helping the American Heart Association fight the nation's leading causes of death by participating in the Start! Heart Walk. Step out against heart disease and stroke by supporting my efforts. Please make a donation so I can reach my walker dollar goal. Thank you for your support!

Click here to donate.

Quotable

In April 2006, my boss asked me to take over responsibility for my company's business in the packaging machinery business. At the time, I split my time between working in the semiconductor industry and trying to learn a new business. After about 8 years working in the semiconductor industry, I have now transitioned to 100% of my time focused on packaging machinery automation, leaving my semiconductor roots behind.

I used to get interviewed and quoted all the time about Advanced Process Control in the semiconductor business. That was something I really knew well and was confident to play the role of industry expert. Now I'm finally starting to feel like I understand my new business well enough to not sound ignorant when talking to magazine editors and industry trade types about packaging.

Last week at a Schneider Electric trade event in Las Vegas, I was interviewed by Linda Casey, and editor for Packaging Digest. Here's her writeup on our interview from her magazine's website.

Do I sound like I know what I'm talking about? Do you think she could tell I'm still sort of wingin' it? :)

50 pounds later

As of this morning (August 1st), I have now officially lost 50 pounds since the start of the new year!



Can you tell the difference? :)

January 2008:

August 2008: