erikjaeger.com

I’ve spent some time in Pittsburgh recently and I have been pleasantly surprised with the city- very walkable, great restaurants, and interesting architecture.  See photos of Pittsburgh or a slideshow.

It’s been an interesting holiday season, see some of my photos in and around NYC (slideshow).

VLC Media Player is a free opensource media player which can do a few things which make it a great all around video manager including:
- Playing nearly all video types with no need to download additional codecs.

- Backing up (or ripping) DVDs to an electronic format you can save on a hard drive

- Convert video to ipod video format
See Lifehacker’s post on mastering your digital media with VLC for more details.

Continuing from Portugal, the trip included stops to Jeres de la Frontera, Marbella, Puerto Banus, Rhonda, and Nerja before flying up to Madrid.  Marbella, was my favorite place in spain; a beach town with amazing seafood at Bar Altimarano, great tapas, and churro con chocolate in the plaza de naranja.

See the photoset from the trip or slideshow.  Also see my food from spain photoset or slideshow.

In August, I spent a week in Portugal; starting in Lisbon, then driving down to a resort in Vilamoura on the coast, and stopping by Lagos.  The comparison has been made before, but Lisbon reminded me of San Francisco; hilly, major west coast city with wine country near by and a golden-gate like bridge.
See more photos from the set or the slideshow. Also see my food of portugal photoset or slideshow.

I recently spend a few days at the Windham Hill Bed & Breakfast in Southeast Vermont.   Vermont has some beautiful state parks, covered bridges, and tasty cheeses. More photos (slideshow).

I’ve made several trips to Newport, RI recently and it’s beautiful…. when the weather is nice.  Pictured here is the view from the Vanderbilt’s Breakers, one of many mansions open for tours.  See more photos of some of my favorite places in Newport (or the slideshow).

A few weekends ago, we visited “the waiting room for heaven” on the West coast of florida.  The weather was perfect, the water was green, and the beaches were shelly.  See photos from the trip or the slideshow.

A few weekends ago, I went on a six hour drive to Stowe Vermont, where we enjoyed great conditions, a 3.7 mile long trail called Toll Road, Belgian Waffles and Apple Cider on the slope, and ping pong in our cabin.  Photoset and slideshow.

Just in time for the primaries, the electoral compass is a web site that asks you a series of political questions, then plots your political disposition and matches you to the candidate with the most similar views.
Previously another web-based pick a candidate tool.

This holiday season I participated in Santacon in NYC, went up to Boston, out to New Jersey and back to midtown Manhattan.  Pictured above are a few of the Santas in Times Square.  See photos from this season (or slideshow).

From Luxembourg, we stopped by Antwerp on our way to the Netherlands.  After spending time in Amersfoort, Utrecht, and Amsterdam, we spent one night in Brussels before flying home.  Highlights from this leg of the trip include mussels in the oldest restaurant in Antwerp, walking the cute town of Amersfoort, and touring the canals of Amsterdam.
See photosets by city; Antwerp (slideshow), Amersfoort (slideshow), Amsterdam (slideshow), and Brussels (slideshow).

I recently visited Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands.  Bruges, the medieval  city pictured here, was my favorite city of the first half of the trip.  Other highlights included  stumbling upon a festival in the town of Vianden in Luxembourg and enjoying wine along the Moselle river. See photo sets by city; Ghent (slideshow), Bruges (slideshow), and Luxembourg (slideshow).

One of my hard drives recently crashed and I lost my mp3 music library, however my music was still on my iPod. After doing some research, I found Music Rescue, software that rebuilds your music from your iPod including ratings and playlists. While the software is free, you’ll need to pay around $20 to avoid having to click a prompt for every 50 songs that are transferred. I purchased the software and it worked very well.