day 1642: well i'd like to see you try to beat odin while skating with a handycam! from Eric C. Snowdeal III on Vimeo.

racing with odin at the griff's ice house on new year's eve.

day 1638: slotcar racing! from Eric C. Snowdeal III on Vimeo.

odin gets his first chance to play with his cousin's slotcar race track and the inner kid in me can't help but imagine building the biggest, bestest slot car track, EVAR.

i wonder if it'd be o.k. to just turn the upstairs of our house into a slot car track?

of course we all know how much odin loves hockey, but we've never been to a "real" game; so we decided to take odin to see the grand rapids griffins for his first minor league hockey game. even though the griffins lost in overtime, it was an exciting game nonetheless.

odin seemed to have a great time watching the players, even though it was difficult to follow the puck, but i'm not sure he knew what to make of some parts of the extravaganza - i thought we he was going to lose it when they dropped the house lights to announce the players with much bombast. or like the griffin mascot dressed like santa clause wheeling around a gatlin gun that launched t-shirts into the crowd.

well, at least hi figured out quickly enough by mimicking others that he should put his hands out for some reason or another.

i'm still testing video hosting providers. i thought i was going to just go with facebook, but i'm seriously impressed with vimeo. i've been having problems with choppy videos in facebook, even in standard definition, so i created a vimeo account and a test video plays much smoother than any of the videos i've uploaded to facebook. plus vimeo gives stats on views, the ability to allow others to download the original video and the ability switch between standard def and high def for embeds on external sites ( like snowdeal.org ) . i think i'm about to become a vimeo paying customer. here's a comparison of a vimeo embed and a facebook embed.

feel free to leave a comment regarding your impressions of the relative quality of either version ( at the time of this posting, the facebook embed won't even load, while the vimeo embed plays perfectly ).

this is another test of the kodak zi6 hd pocket video camera - shot at 30 frames per second in relatively low light. i have to say that while it's not the greatest video of all time, the results are perfectly acceptable given the tradeoffs with the handycam.

note: these videos are hosted on facebook. you can see them in high definition if you add me as a friend on facebook and watch the video on the facebook web site. i may end up going with vimeo which would let snowdeal.org visitors see the video in high definition on the site, but for now, facebook it is.

it's been oft requested that i shoot video of odin but i've never been that interested in lugging a camcorder around in addition to the camera. that is, until the advent of good-enough quality pocket video cameras.

so i went out and picked up a kodak zi6 hd pocket video camera and i have to say i'm mighty impressed with the device. you can shoot HD at 60 frames per second, HD at 30 frames per second, or VGA (Video Graphics Array. and it has an expandable SD/SDHC card slot for up to 32 gigs of memory. and videos are in mac-friendly h.264 format. and it uses regular ol' recharchable AA batteries.

needless to say, you'll be seeing a lot more videos in the future :-)

it's a little hard to tell but there's not a lot of light in the hockey arena. if i shoot with the nikon, i usually have to crank up the iso settings to get a reasonable photo.

for those interested in such things, this was shot at 30 frames per second.

anyway, here's odin being a little impatient because he feels he doesn't understand what the coach is asking him to do. but then he goes on to master the ol' push-push-pick up the foot drill.

update: i ended up hosting the videos on facebook over flickr primarily due to some technical issues with flickr and the zi6, and this video has aged a couple of weeks before posting while i tried to figure out where to host the videos. if you're viewing this video on snowdeal.org and want to view it in high definition, you'll have to add me as a friend on facebook and watch the video on facebook. i may end up going with vimeo which would let snowdeal.org visitors see the video in high definition on the site, but for now, facebook it is.

merry christmas to all!

i think odin will remember this as the year he got a giant mack truck and front loader from his auntie m and uncle andrew. and some other stuff :-)

we hatched a plan that we'd spend christmas morning in wisconsin before heading on the road for a 7 hour drive for more present opening funness and christmas dinner in michigan.

the only problem is that we would have to be on the road by 9 a.m. it's 8:51 and we're still all in our pjs.

we're going to be late - leave some leftovers!

thanks to the 8 or so inches of snowfall we've had in the past few days, conditions were perfect for ripping down the steep slope of the park bowl which is about a 200 foot (61 m ) run that ends in the baseball field.

odin kicked up his bravery by a notch - it's pretty fast and pretty steep and today was first day that he decided he'd give it a try all the way from the top.

here's some video that i shot on that day:
day 1631: sledding at the park bowl. II from Eric C. Snowdeal III on Vimeo.
day 1631: sledding at the park bowl! from Eric C. Snowdeal III on Vimeo.

today also marks the last day of the relatively unstructured "learn to skate" portion of the season. the rest of the season will be a little more structured and involve actual sticks and pucks instead of just doing skating drills.

since a small number of the kids might not be returning, they took the opportunity to take a group shot.

odin, of course, can. not. wait. to get to skate around with a stick and whack away at the puck.

well, if you're lucky!

today was 'fridge magnet photo op day! since the magnets were so popular last year, we ordered a few extra so if you've made santa's "nice list" there's a chance you might find one in your christmas stocking.

update: perhaps you've already surmised that there's no way we'll get the magnets back in time for christmas, so even if you don't find one in your stocking that doesn't necessarily mean you're not getting one.

update again: here's some video i shot that day:
day 1631: first day of skating with a stick. I. from Eric C. Snowdeal III on Vimeo.
day 1631: first day of skating with a stick. II. from Eric C. Snowdeal III on Vimeo.

'tis the season for going door to door singing christmas carols, also known as wassailing ( as in, "Here We Come A-Wassailing" ) and odin was all too happy to help carry the lanterns used to light the way to some houses around town.

though some of the adults could have used a few vocal coaching lessons ( *cough* me *cough* ), it seemed that the kids brightened the evening of more than a few folks around town.

i have to admit that we have not historically been the outdoor christmas light types. not that there's anything wrong with them, it's just that we've never got around to putting them up.

until this year.

odin has been enamored with the various light displays around town - particularly with the mutlicolor arrangements - proclaiming them to be most beautiful.

so, we decided to get a few strings of lights and hang them around the front porch and around trees in our front yard.

judging from his earnest interest in the project, you'd have thought we were embarking on a public works project of national scope :-)

who knows, maybe next year, we'll have to put on one of those intricate displays synchronized to flicker with obnoxious renditions of holiday tunes.