Travel: Wineries of Niagara-on-the-Lake. Top Pick - Rosewood Estates

Rosewood Estates is located on the road from Niagara Falls to Toronto.

We decided to visit Rosewood Estates because of my conversation with Krystina Roman on twitter. It's nice to have a connection prior to visiting a winery.





Here's some info on Rosewood Estates from their site:

Rosewood is built on our family’s foundation in beekeeping and European heritage. Today, we create distinctive vineyard-inspired wines, produce natural honey and, as Niagara’s first winery-meadery, handcrafted, innovative meads.

We had a fun tasting and took a a bunch of photos.

We're at @rosewoodwine@ Rosewood Estates Winery instagr.am/p/QnJCmcBCmd/

— Steve Garfield (@stevegarfield) October 10, 2012

Just posted a photo@ Rosewood Estates Winery instagr.am/p/QnJMiBhCmp/

— Steve Garfield (@stevegarfield) October 10, 2012

Just posted a photo@ Rosewood Estates Winery instagr.am/p/QnKfJdhCnk/

— Steve Garfield (@stevegarfield) October 10, 2012

Semillon = Awedome!@ Rosewood Estates Winery instagr.am/p/QnKzW7BCn6/

— Steve Garfield (@stevegarfield) October 10, 2012

Slideshow:

@rosewoodwine The tasting was great!Enjoyed all the wines. Honey Mead was good. ;-) I have more pics to post.

— Steve Garfield (@stevegarfield) October 10, 2012

Travel: Wineries of Niagara-on-the-Lake. Top Pick - château des charmes

When I started looking into a trip to Niagara Falls, my wife asked, "Are there any wineries up there?"

Well yes there are.

There are 28 wineries in the Niagara-On-The-Lake area, with more on the road towards Toronto.

As I began researching wineries to visit, I reached out social media to get travel tips.

One of the first people to respond to me, on twitter, was Michele Bosc from château des charmes winery.


Image: Chateau Des Charmes - Wine Tasting Glass

This became the first winery that we had to visit.

When I got there, I tweeted a pic:

.@mbosc I'm here! instagr.am/p/QkxXLvBCsr/

— Steve Garfield (@stevegarfield) October 9, 2012

Then we got a picture together:

With @mbosc instagr.am/p/QkxS-4BCsp/

— Steve Garfield (@stevegarfield) October 9, 2012

Image: With Michelle at the winery

We had a great tour and tasting.











Here's a slideshow:



Here are some videos:

Travel: Niagara Falls Attractions - Side Trip to Niagara-on-the-Lake Old Town

Niagara Falls on the Canadian side it big and busy. It's full of attractions and chain restaurants, with a huge casino thrown in for good measure.

When I made reservations for Niagara Falls, I didn't realize how much there was to do there.

I also didn't know much about Niagara-on-the-Lake, or Niagara-on-the-Lake Old Town, a quaint little town that is the total opposite of Niagara Falls.

There are also 28 wineries in the Niagara-on-the-Lake area.

Niagara-on-the-Lake Old Town is a cute little town on the shore of Lake Ontario.

There's lots of shopping on the main street.


Image: Shopping in Niagara-on-the-Lake Old Town


Image: Pretty Sidewalk in Niagara-on-the-Lake Old Town


Image: Niagara on the Lake Fudge Shop in Niagara-on-the-Lake Old Town

We used Yelp to find a place to eat, and ended up at Bistro Six One, which had good food and cold beer. ;-)

This is a nice side trip from Niagara Falls, and if you plan it correctly, you could also stop at a winery or two for a tasting on the same day.

Travel: Niagara Falls Attractions - Butterfly Conservatory. Whoa! Look at that one.

Image: Niagara Falls Butterfly Conservatory

[Video] Your Excuse Sucks - Voting Is Too Complicated

Your Excuse Sucks - Voting Is Too Complicated from Cultivated Wit on Vimeo.

More here: Your Excuse Sucks

TV Reports Ignore Electoral College to Promote Horse Race Scenario

Image: Courtesy 7News Boston

President Obama and Mitt Romney are tied in three National Polls.What do you think??#7NEWS

— Sarah French (@SarahSFrench) November 5, 2012

I think you are picking the polls that are tied to continue the horse race charade for ratings.

See Nate Silver:

The last three days of polling have brought what is almost certainly Mr. Obama’s strongest run of polling since the first presidential debate in Denver. Mr. Obama led in the vast majority of battleground-state polls over the weekend. And increasingly, it is hard to find leads for Mr. Romney in national surveys — although several of them show a tie.

Image: Courtesy FiveThrityEight Nate Silver New York Times

Then there's the Electoral College, where the election will really be decided.

NATE SILVER: Obama's Odds Of Winning Have Now Hit An Overwhelming 86%


Image: Courtesy FiveThrityEight Nate Silver New York Times

Please vote on November 6th.

iJustine! Call of Duty®: Black Ops 2 Action Movie FX App

Oh look, it's my friend iJustine!

Call of Duty Black Ops 2 Action Movie FX

[Video] Tired of Bronco Bamma and Mitt Romney

This is the original video by Elizabeth Evans. She says:

This is my four year old daughter, Abigael, after hearing one too many mentions of the election.

9,535,791 views.

It's sad that you have to wade though all the duplicate uploads to find the original.

Also:

Huffington Post: Abigael Evans Video: NPR Apologizes To 4-Year-Old Who Is 'Tired of Bronco Bamma And Mitt Romney' (VIDEO)

What's Trending: Meet 4-Year Old Tired Of Barack Obama And Mitt Romney (Video Interview)

The Story of Qik Mobile Video and My Part in It

Great interview in TechCrunch about Qik. I was an early adopter and investor.


Image: Steve Garfield with Nokia Smartphone and Qik

Qik Founder’s Story: Taking Mobile Video Out Of The Garage And Putting It Into The Hands Of Skype

I love this section about technology where Ramu talks about the problem Qik solved of video being lost. They called their solution, the Steve Garfield Fix. ;-0

Bernard: What was unique about Qik’s technology?

Ramu: We built a smart streaming cloud that understood the different types of cell phone videos and the frames that were missed from going to the cloud. It intelligently transcoded the video and made sure the consumer doesn’t see the choppiness or the missing frames. This was our own proprietary technology. We built all the servers and phones, maintained one or two TCP/IP connections to the cloud, and managed everything on them unlike Skype’s peer-to-peer infrastructure. This was a required architectural decision as we went further along, because PCs have more capacity than mobile devices and don’t work off a battery. This is an important tradeoff when you’re building a product for mobile consumers.

The cloud infrastructure we built takes any kind of video from any mobile device and puts it out on any device and/or on the Internet in real-time.

We had built technology in four different areas. How do we do this video in real time without giving up on quality? The first area was real-time video quality. The big tradeoff here was you stream a little less just to fit through the pipe, but if you stream more, it jams the pipe. How do we do this without compromising quality? That’s where we had six patents. Then we had technology, which worked across disparate smartphones. When we started with Nokia it forced us to think of all variances between phones. So we built our client-side technology that could go with all phones and leverage the best quality video and consume the least amount of battery.

We also built our IP with the idea that video should never be lost. When you take a video, your cell connection could drop, your phone battery runs out, and so on. This is where we said: “We have to build technology where our video is never lost.” Our initial users were all journalists and they were really upset if their video was lost. We maintained a journal on the device and the cloud, did periodic checkpoints and a phased commit to ensure the video is archived in its entirety.

Here's a story from my reporting in New Hampshire with Qik in 2008 during the presidential election: Steve Garfield Scoops CNN: Duncan Hunter Does Not Quit

As I was walking down the sidewalk in Manchester, NH I asked what was goign on. The response I got was that Duncan Hunter was going on CNN to make a major announcement. I asked if I could interview him live about it. An aide told me to walk back down the sidewalk and talk to another staff member. I replied, "No. I can interview him RIGHT NOW with this cell phone!" So the aide said, go right ahead. then I ran up to him and started streaming live video from the cellphone.

Best. Moment. Ever.

Learn more about online video in my book, Get Seen:


Here's a nice video report on my use of Qik for reporting by The Uptake:



Here are all the stories from my blog mentioning Qik.

My Silicon Valley Status is 945

This is a fun promotion for the BRAVO Startups: Silicon Valley reality show.

Notice I said fun. I'm sure lots of people will be complaining about yet another ranking tool that only looks at numbers and doesn't take in to account the quality of the subscriber.

Hey, it's for fun and the implementation looks nice.


Image: Silicon Valley Status Leaderboard

I'm #2, I'm #2! Maybe I'll end up on a billboard. ;-)

One thing it could improve though, is on the Facebook score it should also take into account, Facebook Subscribers.

Update:
Another thing that needs to be added ASAP is the ability to follow people from the leader board. There are no clickable links to people's Facebook or Twitter accounts.


Image: Facebook

On my Facebook account I hardly ever approve friends anymore. I've added a SUBSCRIBE button where anyone can follow, without me having to approve.

Check your Silicon Valley Status: siliconvalleystatus.com/#/status


Image: Hermione

My friend Hermione Way is in it.


Image: Sarah

Oh and look, another friend is in it too, Sarah Austin. Ha! Just found out by reading the bios on the site.

Learn more about online video and streaming in my book, Get Seen:


I hope the show is not as bad as the reviews say it's going to be.

New York Post: Idiots run riot in ‘Valley’.

With nearly 100 people dead from Hurricane Sandy, our city in crisis and New Yorkers and Jerseyites risking their lives to help one another, along comes the most shallow, self-absorbed, reality show from the land of silicon and silicone.

It’s Bravo’s “Start-Ups: Silicone Valley” and it’s a show which focuses on a bunch of pretty, white young entrepreneurs with a sense of entitlement that is actually so revolting — especially in this day of mourning and sadness — that you might want to throw your TV set through a window. If you still have a TV. Or a window.

Ouch!

[Video] Broadside: Debating Question 2 for Mass

Watch video at NECN, where it doesn't AUTO PLAY

The controversial ballot referendum on physician-assisted suicide has prompted a flurry of late-breaking, heart-wrenching TV ads, and fierce opposition from a broad coalition of religious, conservative, and antiabortion activists across the country who have dramatically outraised proponents. Opponents, fearing that passage in Massachusetts would advance the movement nationally, have poured nearly $2.6 million into efforts to defeat it, with contributions coming from Catholic dioceses as far as Minnesota, Kansas, and even the US Virgin Islands.

Note: Would love to know how to stop auto-play on this video when embedded. Help.

Happy Birthday to My Blog. I'm 12 Years Old!

Happy Birthday to My Blog.

It's 12 years old.



I started blogging here in November of 2000.

Here's my first blog post.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 09, 2000:

Today we had a really good meeting and lunch. The best part of the day was when our meeting went off on a tangent and we started discussing the current election. After lots of talk about Saturday Night Live and the Hamburger sketch (watch it in the screening room Season 3-5 3/18/78), we decided that this stuff had to be logged somewhere.

I've been using Blogger hosted on Blogspot since then.

Blogger just works.



MY START IN BLOGGING - 1997
I first started blogging in 1997 in a hand coded site for the Karlson and McKenzie morning radio show on Eagle 93.7 in Boston where I was a producer from November 18, 1997 to April 1, 1999..


I was also the wacky sidekick and boxed for charity one time. Crazy!

I met some great people over the years. I met them when they came into the station to be interviewed and brought them into the green room where we got to spend quality time together.


Image: Kathy Griffin at Eagle 93.7


Image: John O'Hurley, Seinfeld's J. Peterman


Image: Werner Klemperer at Eagle 93.7

That's where I learned that people are people. Chris Brogan likes when I say that. People don't want to be treated as famous people, they just want to be treated the same as everybody else.

Well, except for Simon Cowell. I think he might want to be treated better. ;-)

But back to Blogger and this blog.

STARTING BLOGGING WITH BLOGGER
When Blogger came out, it made everything so much easier.

I use the blog to write about all kinds of topics, and still do.

CATEGORIES ADD ORGANIZATION
Recently I've started using categories in a more structured way so that people who are coming here, looking for certain types of posts, will be able to find them.

The Categories are:

Tech | Pop Culture | Food | Travel | Beer | Wine | Politics | Golf

YOU ARE NOT A FOOD BLOGGER
One time I asked to go to a local food blogger meetup, and the organizer said, "You're not a food blogger."

I told him that I was and had to break out all my food posts. Now that's a lot easier.

The categories will also help prospective sponsors see the kind of content that I produce in their field of interest.

STEVE GARFIELD'S VIDEO BLOG
In January of 2004 I branched out and started a video blog. It started as an experiment to figure out how to put video on a blog. I called it Steve Garfield's Video Blog and used it to learn, teach, and experiment with putting video online.

That lead to me writing my book about online video, Get Seen.



MAKING FRIENDS
Blogging has also allowed me to make friends with people from all over the world. Hi!

SOCIAL MEDIA OUTPOSTS
My blog is one of my social media outposts. SteveGarfield.com is my home base, and from there, you can link over here to my blog, to see my posts.

My other outposts are on sites that are not totally under my control, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, etc.

Here, I'm in control.

THANKS FOR VISITING
Thanks for visiting and I'd love to hear from you in the comments.

How am I doing?

What categories do you like reading?

What's your blog?

Thanks!

[Video] Jimmy Fallon, Christina Aguilera & The Roots Sing "Your Body" (w/ Office Supplies as Instruments)

[Video] Jimmy Fallon, Christina Aguilera & The Roots Sing "Your Body" (w/ Office Supplies as Instruments)



In Jimmy's office before the show, Christina Aguilera, Jimmy, and The Roots grabbed some office supplies and used them as instruments to perform Christina's "Your Body." (Instrument list below)

Christina Aguilera - vocals, stapler
Jimmy Fallon - iPhone keypad
Questlove - coffee pots with pencil drumsticks
Tuba Gooding Jr. - Scotch tape
Frank Knuckles - Poland Spring water cooler jug
Captain Kirk - tissue box & elastic band guitar
James Poyser - spiral notebook (a.k.a. the "tear snare")
Mark Kelley - keyboard washboard
Black Thought - paper clip shaker
Kamal Gray - scissors



Get more Jimmy Fallon:
Follow Jimmy: http://Twitter.com/JimmyFallon
Like Jimmy: https://Facebook.com/JimmyFallon

Get more Late Night with Jimmy Fallon: http://LateNightWithJimmyFallon.com/
Follow Late Night: http://Twitter.com/LateNightJimmy
Like Late Night: https://Facebook.com/LateNightWithJimmyFallon
Late Night Tumblr: http://LateNightJimmy.tumblr.com/
Full Episodes: http://full.sc/LgPtX0

[Video] Jimmy Kimmel YouTube Challenge - I Told My Kid I Ate All Their Halloween Candy Again 2012

I love this. It's great. Especially the kids at the end.



Video: YouTube Challenge - I Told My Kid I Ate All Their Halloween Candy Again

Follow Jimmy Kimmel on Twitter.



Jimmy Kimmel Live's YouTube channel features clips and recaps of every episode from the late night TV show on ABC.

Subscribe for clips from the monologue, the interviews, and musical performances every day of the week. Watch your
favorites parts again, or catch-up on any episodes you may have missed.

Website: http://www.jimmykimmellive.com

Channel: http://www.youtube.com/jimmykimmellive

Get Seen for Students

Talked with John Wilpers' Degrees2Dreams class about:

Live video using Ustream from smartphones.

Example:

My Ustream Channel

---

RebelMouse

Examples:

My RebelMouse Page
Embedded RebelMouse

---

NewsJacking

Mobile Creation tools - It's about the story.

Smartphone Video Tips: Composition, Stabilization, Location, Lighting, Sound.

Capturing Moments
Instagram, TOUT, Lightt

Examples:
My Instagram, My TOUT, and My Lightt.




Update:

Roll call video from the class:



Video streaming by Ustream

Photo:

@stevegarfield at @degrees2dreams right now! Learning cool things and live streaming us! #GetSeen #D2D

— Kim Kern (@klkern) November 2, 2012

@stevegarfield @johnwilpers @degrees2dreams awesome class today, left inspired. #degrees2dreams #onourgrind #dowork

— John Otterbein (@JohnnyQuesst) November 2, 2012

quality Fri evening with @degrees2dreams: lots of laughter, @stevegarfield left me inspired, dinner with @jackiepauley24. time to do work.

— Michelle (@michelllelynn) November 2, 2012

A big thanks to @stevegarfield for visiting #D2D today! We learned a lot of cool, new stuff& appreciate you taking the time to meet with us!

— Degrees2Dreams (@degrees2dreams) November 3, 2012

Big Thanks to @stevegarfield for coming to talk with us tonight! Learned a ton about #video streaming

— CorryHanna (@corryhanna) November 3, 2012

From one video guy to another, Thank you @stevegarfield for the insight and knowledge#learningfromthemaster

— Matt Marina (@MateoTalk) November 3, 2012

AP Mobile iPhone App Does Social Media Sharing Right

Image: AP Mobile iPhone App Social Media Sharing

Travel: Niagara Falls Attractions - Maid of the Mist. Otherwise known as "You are going to get soaked!"

I've heard about Maid of the Mist for a long time.

There is an old family story that gets retold over and over again about my parents taking a bus tour up to Niagara Falls. They didn't have a lot of time to see the falls, but my father really wanted to take the Maid of the Mist boat ride. So they found their way over to the Maid of the Mist and took the boat ride, but that put them off schedule. They had to hitchhike back to where the tour bus was, and they were very late.

That's bad when you're taking a tour bus. They got on the bus, and everyone booed them. ;-)

Well, we weren't on a bus tour. Thankfully.

We walked over to the Maid of the Mist from our hotel and was admitted as part of the Adventure Pass that we had purchased earlier.

The Maid of the Mist is described this way on the website, "A powerful diesel-engined boat will take you from the Canadian docks past the base of the American Falls, then into the basin of the magnificent Canadian Horseshoe Falls."

We were given our flimsy blue rain gear, and herded onto the ship. Like cattle. In a good way.






Image: American Falls

Video:


Watch the slide show for more photos:

An Argument Against Mass. Ballot Question Two #Factcheck

Just saw this online and had to fact check it.

An Argument For, An Argument Against Mass. Ballot Question Two:



Rose-Anne Meade chairs the committee against physician-assisted suicide.

Here's her argument, fact checked against the full text of ballot Question 2.

---

Rose-Anne Meade: “We don’t require that they get any kind of counseling."

FACT:

The bill recommends consultations.

"(3) refer the patient to a consulting physician for a diagnosis and prognosis regarding the patient’s disease...

(4) refer the patient for psychiatric or psychological consultation if the physician believes the patient may have a disorder causing impaired judgment;"

---

Rose-Anne Meade: "We don’t require any family notification."

FACT:

The bill recommends family notification.

"(5) recommend that the patient notify next of kin of the patient’s intention; "

---

Rose-Anne Meade: "There’s no tracking of the prescription from the time somebody picks up this lethal dose of (medication) at the pharmacy. They take it home and then there’s no tracking."

FACT:

There's tracking.

"...the proposed law would require the attending physician to report each case in which life-ending medication is dispensed to the state Department of Public Health."

---

Rose-Anne Meade: "there’s no physician at the end."

FACT:

There could be a physician at the end.

"(6) recommend that the patient have another person present when the patient ingests the medicine and to not take it in a public place;"

---

Rose-Anne Meade: "They say it’s physician assisted suicide but there is no requirement for a physician to be there at the end."”

FACT:

It’s not physician assisted suicide.

"This proposed law would allow a physician licensed in Massachusetts to prescribe medication, at a terminally ill patient’s request, to end that patient’s life."

---

VOTE YES on 2.

Learn more:

Death With Dignity National Center.
Massachusetts Dignity 2012 - Yes on 2

---

They also have that annoying TV commercial.



On YouTube: Comments are disabled for this video.

I need to fact check it too.

[Video] Darth Vader: "I'm going to #Disneyland."

DISNEY TO ACQUIRE LUCASFILM LTD.


Image: Darth Vader: What Are You Going to Do Next? Courtesy DisneyParks