krummefamily

Benjamin jams to the music

Hey, here's a clip of Benjamin dancing at the Methow Cafe.  He really loves it.

Back from a week on the road

I returned Thursday morning at the end of what has been a long 9 days of partnership meetings with a variety of Computer Hardware Manufactures, Broadband Providers and Fiber to the Home (FTTH) service providers for my company StashSpace.com.  All-in-all, the meetings have been very productive as we look to take our product mainstream through marketing partners.

At the tail-end of the trip, I spent the last three days in Fort Wayne, Indiana at the KillerAppExpo.  I was on a panel Tuesday morning - Your Media Your Way -  with Chris Brogan of Network2.tv, who gave a very entertaining presentation.  Let's just say that I was happy to have gone first, as my demo/presentation was definitely a bit more....traditional.  Network2.tv is a Meta-Aggregator of Online Video.  What does that mean?  Well, instead of having to spend hours on YouTube or Revver looking for the best videos, you can go to Network2.tv to find video series that they have identified and pulled together into one spot. 

On Wednesday, I was with Ken Tysell of AT&T's Three Screen Initiative and Scott Lamond of SightSpeed.  Ken spoke of how AT&T HomeZone and UVerse were approaching partnerships with content/application companies, and Scott gave an overview of how SightSpeed works and how they look to approach potential partners.  [*SIDENOTE* - I would definitely recommend SightSpeed for anyone wanting to do multi-party video conferencing via the web.  From what I saw from Scott, it is very high-quality and has many other uses as well...]

Happy to be home after the 4-hour drive got me home at 5:30am on Thursday, and I'll definitely be trying to catch up on some sleep tonight.

My Blog Network

Here's a rundown on what I'm up to these days.  In addition to the crazy schedule that we have at stashSpace, I'm trying to create and maintain a network of blog in my "off-time", you know, the 8 to 10 hours a week that I'm not eating, sleeping or working (It's 3:30 in the morning right now, but I really wanted to get this post up for the family).

Anyway, I'm not really sure at this point which ones will continue to be regularly maintained.  Some of them (this blog, Fun For a Family, Sailing the Northwest and Start a Fish Tank) are for personal interest, and should probably get a post once a week.  Others are quasi-professional in nature (Online Video Sharing and DV Gadgets) where I am trying to gain a voice in the blogosphere to be able to drive traffic to stashSpace, although they are in no way related other than in content .   And I'm tracking all my activities at a blog called Make Money Online, on which I hope to be able to provide some baseline level of analysis on what works and what doesn't work in terms of making money online.

So here's a brief rundown on each blog:

1. http://www.KrummeFamily.Com
   Wait, that's this blog!  It's my personal family blog.  Does the world really need another personal blog?  In my case, yes.  With the relocation of one of my companies (stashSpace) to the Methow Valley - a remote rural mountain valley in North Central Washington - my family moved ~250 miles away from our closest relatives, and find little time to get across the mountains for visits.  I'm hoping this will be a quick and simple way to keep you all updated on our activities.
   
   In addition, a personal blog is a great general platform to be able to post about anything you might want to write about.  I'm also hoping that my family might just also get more variety in their activities -- you won't want to go to the same place more than twice!
   
   
2. http://www.Online-Video-Sharing.com/
   This is a personal blog about an industry that has been my life for the last 7 years.  My two companies have been involved in online video since 2000, long before anyone ever heard of "User Generated Content".  This blog will include information about Online Video companies, products and services; Video Tips and Tricks; Photo Sharing Tips and Tricks; and Video editing and storage services.
   
   
3. http://www.DVGadgets.com/
   This will be a companion site to Online Video Sharing, where I will primarily post product reviews for items in the Digital Video and Audio space, and the companies behind them.  Consider it the site for that which is "tangible" in audio/video, whereas Online Video Sharing focuses on web-based applications.
   
   
4. http://www.Sailing-the-Northwest.com/
   This is a blog about a long-time hobby of mine - sailing.  Growing up, my family spent 6 weeks each summer on our sailboat, and during my college years I managed a Sailing Club and raced 4-5 days/week over a five year period.  This will be my "hobby" blog.
   
   
5. http://www.FunForAFamily.com/
   This will be the family blog about activities that families can do together. This blog will let the whole family feel like they are part of the process, and will give us some undisturbed, scheduled time each weekend to spend time together. It was Tabitha's brainchild, and she will be driving the content and activities each weekend. In her words, "I'm kind of like your boss, right?"
   
   
6. http://www.lugnut22.com/
   This site will be where I document all my different approaches and track my results and lessons learned through my online blogging.  During the first few months, the blog may be a bit disparate in nature, but after getting these other blogs established and full of content, I will start to compile my various experiences and lessons into month-by-month activities, checklists and approaches to succeeding online.
   
   
7. http://www.StartAFishTank.com/
   This one is more of a lark than anything else.  I've been keeping fish for a long time, and want to be able to impart some of what I've learned to others, and be able to point them in the right direction to what's available online.  Simplicity will be the key. I already have a bunch of content that I had previously prepared for a never-launched site, "Aqua-Pages", so I'll only need to spend a few hours to get this one going, and then will probably only add updates twice a month.
   
   
8. http://blog.stashspace.com/
   This is our corporate blog for StashSpace.com, where we track the latest feature enhancements and bug fixes for our online video sharing and editing product aimed at home videos.  It's a great system for unlocking the video content that is stuck on your videotapes on the shelf, and then sharing it with friends and family.  You can either record video through our website on your own computer, or make it even simpler by sending us your videotapes to digitize for you.  You then can access your video to watch, edit, share and store your video memories from over the years...  I'll be posting some of my movies as soon as I have time to actually work with my own video!

So that's about it.  If you want, subscribe to any of the RSS feeds for the blogs and pass them along to your friends and family.  I'm not sure which ones will continue to grab my attention (other than the StashSpace blog for obvious reasons), but that will probably be determined by the users....

Toulouse Goose - Two New Family Members

About three weeks ago, we added two new members to our family - two Toulouse Geese.  Jean and I have always wanted to have Geese, and are frankly more than a bit surprised that we actually got some.  We've been enjoying their company, and the kids have already named them - Lucy and Ethel.  They are still goslings, although they are growing quite quickly, and have been much happier since we put them in their outside pen.

The Toulouse Goose is actually one of the larger goose breeds reaching 18 to 20 pounds for standard Toulouse, and up to 20 to 26 pounds for the Show Toulouse.  They originated in France near the city of Toulouse, and were originally bred for pate de Fois Gras.  They will have white eggs, but luckily only average about 35 per season (Phew! we have eggs coming out of our ears right now from our chickens -- 18 to 20 every day!).

Geese imprint the easiest of any waterfowl.  We've already experienced this as Lucy and Ethel follow Jean and Benjamin around the yard all day long while the kids are in school and I'm at work.  As they grow, they will truly believe they are part of our family!  This has caused us to build a permanent (and separate!) pen for the Geese, as they can't be held with other birds.

We have been questioned by some as to why on earth we got geese.  "Don't you know they bite you??" is a common question.  But Toulouse Geese (in addition to being beautifully colored) have a very placid disposition and are quite docile.  I've read that they are relatively quiet, calm and slow-moving birds.  Luckily, they are also quite tolerant of cold, which is handy in our neck of the woods!

We are also hoping that they will serve as "Watch-Geese" for our other chickens (and two turkeys) that roam free during the day.  The Toulouse are not wanderers beyond what they consider their "home" so, we shouldn't need to worry about having to wonder where they went, but they will serve as a good alarm to approaching coyote or other predators.

You can read more about on WikiPedia's entry on Toulouse Geese.

Geni Family Tree Grows to 78 People

Despite the stories I had heard, I was still surprised to see the quick growth to the family tree I started earlier this morning.  Having put in my direct family and Jean's family (a total of 25 people), 9 family members have already joined up and added information to the list. 

My cousing Nedim in Turkey was the first to login and add his family details, and Jessica Hillgrove (Jean's sister) gets the award for adding the first sets of pictures, as well as detailing much of her husband's family, which has already grown through invites to over 20 people as well.

I'll update at the end of the weekend to see how many additional entries there have been.  I have my whole Dad's branch of the family to add, and my mother just found a family tree that I had traced back 4 to 5 generations back in High School.  I'm eager to get some additional information posted online, and hope to hook portions up with other established trees to quickly grow.  What am I hoping for?  I'd like to see 5,000 connections by the end of May... so if you're reading this, please make sure that your information is posted up as soon as possible!

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Update, 4/14: The Tree is now up to 186 people in only two days! And a lot of my cousins (you know who you are!) have not gone in yet to add their kids and spouse's families yet... hopefully we'll continue to see some big growth in the next week...