Dedication to Dad

Tomorrow is the 5 year anniversary of my dad's death.

Oddly enough, I didn't plan the perfect timing of any of the following:

• Last week, our family went on a camping and road trip to Colorado. Before we left, Amanda asked me to pick up a particular book from Target for her to read. While I was looking for it, another book caught my eye - tuesdays with Morrie.
  
  I remembered my dad recommended it to me when he was still alive, so I grabbed it to take on our trip and read most of it while we were gone. Tonight when I got home from work, I sat outside with the kids while they played and read the last chapter and the Afterword. So that book is finished as of tonight.
  
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• Several years ago, my dad sent me a book in the mail called the Chip. He found it at a book sale that the Nashville Public Library was holding, and thought I might find it interesting.
  
  I was busy with grad school at the time though, so I never did read it. A few months ago however, I was looking for a new book to read and came across it again. So I started reading it, and it just so happened that I finished that book tonight as well.
  
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• When my dad passed away in 2003, my siblings and I hastily scanned pictures, selected music, and put together a Power Point presentation for his memorial service.
  
  For Father's Day this year, I decided to finally hunt it down and post it online. Sounds easy enough, right?
  
  Well, I ran into numerous problems with posting a Power Point presentation online. It doesn't import/attach mp3 files properly, the wav files are way too big, when accessing through a web site the file downloads and opens up locally in power point instead of in the browser, etc. After wrestling with these problems and talking to other people about it, I decided to create a video out of it instead.
  
  First I tried using Windows Movie Maker (it's included with Windows XP), but it doesn't have "Ken Burns" effects (after watching a slide presentation at VBS, I decided that these effects were a necessity to make it right). So I did a little research and ended up using Photo Story 3 for Windows instead.
  
  After adding the music, a few new pictures, the Ken Burns effects, and putting it all together, I just finished it yesterday. Not in time for father's day, but pretty good timing nonetheless.
  
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You can now see the new and improved version of the presentation here, if interested. I'll also write reviews of the books soon on the Book Review page of my web site. It's 11:30pm though, so they'll have to wait until tomorrow.