You have likely all seen these little grid type bar codes floating around more and more lately and have probably wondered what they are. They are called QRCodes and have been popular in Japan for quite some time as a way for businesses to market products, websites, or provide coupons to their customers. They are gaining more popularity here in the US and it will not be long before they are in restaurants, online and in other locations that we consumers hang out.

How to Decifer

They are deciphered by the use of mobile phones with a camera and, obviously a QR Scanner app. Simply open the app and point the camera at the code and it will take you to the desired location. It s pretty straight forward.

So about that code to the left…scan it to see what I wish I was doing right now.

Has anyone else seen these around?

As a family, we love to get away and travel throughout they year as often as we can. Sometimes it is a trip to the beach, maybe to Colorado or even to a hotel here in our own town.

Regardless of where it is, we always try and get outdoors and either hike, camp or something in nature.

This year for UEA, we went to Kanab, Utah and spent some time together going through various caves, slot canyons and Indian Petroglyph’s. As we were leaving, Spencer mentioned to me that he wants to move to Kanab. Maybe one day when he gets older and grows up he will head south to K-Town.

(BTW: About the video below. Cami told me that she wants to put our pictures each month together into a short video so this was a little bit of a test. I found a program called Animoto that is super easy to use and make videos. I would recommend checking it out. Also, because it was thrown together very quickly, I didn’t think much of the music and just grabbed a track that is included in the Animoto software. I don’t care for it much.

Claybaugh Family Takes Over Kanab, UT from brandon hansen on Vimeo.

On March 22, we welcomed Camryn Ivy Hansen to our family. It has been a busy couple weeks with family coming to visit and life in general, but we feel extremely blessed to have her in our life. The boys of course love her.

The family is growing and we are all excited to welcome our new princess.

]]> http://www.brandonhansen.com/blog/camryn-ivy-hansen/feed/ 0 http://www.brandonhansen.com/blog/michael-jordans-hall-of-fame-speach/ http://www.brandonhansen.com/blog/michael-jordans-hall-of-fame-speach/#comments Mon, 14 Sep 2009 17:47:53 +0000 Brandon http://www.brandonhansen.com/?p=465

A couple months ago I put out a quick post about Michael Jordan’s Hall of Fame nomination.

Well, here is the actual Hall of Fame Speach.

From the Chicago Tribune:

DETROIT – Michael Jordan accepted a Hall of Fame jersey, looked at former competitors John Stockton and David Robinson and threatened to make another comeback.

“Every time I see these guys, I want to put my shorts on,” Jordan said.

The former Bulls great was elected to the 2009 Basketball Hall of Fame class along with Robinson, Stockton and his coach in Utah, Jerry Sloan. Rutgers women’s coach C. Vivian Stringer was also elected.

As remarkable as Jordan’s career was, a five-time MVP who won six NBA titles, he said this day was one he never imagined.

“I would never have envisioned myself at any point being in any hall of fame,” he said.

The announcement was made in Detroit, site of the men’s Final Four, on the day Jordan’s North Carolina Tar Heels will face Michigan State for the national championship. He won a title with North Carolina when current coach Roy Williams was an assistant in 1982.

Induction is Sept. 10-12 in Springfield, Mass., home of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

I also found this video on ESPN.com today that says it all. He is the greatest of all time.

I think it is very interesting to think about what makes people do what they do. I used to think that the only running I would ever do would be on a basketball court. I would often ask myself -  “Why would anyone want to go out and run for running sake?”

Then one day, for reasons that I can’t quite remember, I went out for a jog and the next thing I knew I was training for the Bolder Boulder, the Freedom Run and even the Loveland half marathon. Cami would often question me as to why, and it was just one of those things that I enjoyed at that point in my life.

I think we all have certain tendencies and certainly desires to do things in our lives that others would question. This is fine as it is what makes us unique and interesting. There are many things that I would love to do that other people would just shake their heads at. I would love to go on an extended, open ended world tour. It’s not happening anytime soon (if at all). I have a little notebook that I carry that has a list of lifetime goals I want to achieve all written down and when I get an idea of something else I want to do (like hit a hole in one), I jot it down.

But where do we draw the line. Or maybe a more appropriate question is, do we draw the line. I think for some (myself included) there is a definite line that needs to be drawn.

There was an article written in the September 1996 issue of Outside Magazine that was called “Into Thin Air“. It talks about one man’s personal account of his summit of Mount Everest and what happened in the weeks leading up to it and the tragedy that followed. Even without the imminent risk of losing your life or limbs, I am not sure what people are thinking when they decide to attempt the summit of Mount Everest.

Anyways, the author talks about how he was given 4-5 times as much space to write the article then is typically given in a magazine, but he still did not feel like it did justice to the events. He wrote a book by the same name that I got for my birthday last week that goes into a lot more detail about the whole experience. If you are looking for an interesting book, this is one I would highly recommend.

So, this begs the question and I want to hear your responses. What is one thing that you want to do that others would think “What are you thinking?”

For me, I would sail around the world.

Well, with the holidays coming up, Cami and I thought that we should really do something special with our boys and help them get into the Christmas spirit. We tried to think of something that would bring joy to those around us and put a smile on everyone’s faces.

After much thought and evaluating, we decided on this.

What do you think? Honest feedback is appreciated.

(By the way, this website falls under the category of cool websites that you could spend way too much time on.)

Earlier this year I posted about Zac Sunderland, a kid from Marina del Rey, California that is attempting to sail around the world alone. He is attempting to become the youngest person to sail solo around the world. He is making progress daily and it is cool to follow his progress.

Well, yesterday on the radio I heard of another Mike Perham, a kid from England who is about 6 months younger then Zac who is attempting the same record.

I wonder if they know of each other and follow each other’s progress. Interesting that they are going to be out at the same time.

They both have maps with current position on their sites and blog’s that track their progress.

Maybe one day I’ll have a boat of my own and be able to go out with the boys. (Cami gets too sick even thinking about it, so she can stay home.)

I have always been drawn to stories of people doing crazy things and have blogged about a few of them here (& here, & here). There is something about pushing oneself to the limit and accomplishing something remarkable that is appealing to me (to watch and read about, not to actually do myself).

Here is another one.

In the August 08 issue of Outside magazine there is a story about an ultra-marathon runner named Karl Meltzer that is attempting to cover the Appalachian Trail (2174 miles from Maine to Georgia) in the shortest amount of time. To do so, he needs to cover 45.7 miles per day. This will put him in under the current record of 47 days, 13 hours and 31 minutes. His website (http://www.whereskarl.com/) publishes an RSS, so I will be following his progress.

45.7 miles per day for 47 days. That is nearly 2 marathons per day on a hiking trail. Amazing!

There is a great book by Bill Bryson called A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail that I read a month or so ago that talks about the trail so when I saw this article, it caught my interest.

This is the story of a young man (16 years old) who is attempting to become the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe alone. I found his blog about two weeks ago while reading another one of my favorite blogs and have been following his progress since before he left. His website is here.
I told Cami about him and every couple days she asks how he is doing and what is going on. I am tracking his progress on his blog as well as the feed from Google Earth. If you have Google Earth downloaded, you can track his progress from this link. It is awesome to see his update everyday or two.

The previous record of a solo circumnavigation was set by Jesse Martin, a 17 year old from Australia about 10 years ago and if Zac is successful, he will break the record. He plans on the adventure taking about a year or more and wants to be back by his 18 birthday.  He plans on recording his adventure and writing a book and documentary.

I am looking forward to following his progress and reading about his adventures.

Ever since I was on my mission and had the chance to meet some Brazilians, I have thought it woul be neat to see the Amazon river. I read an article tonight that made me think about how simple my ideas are as compared to others.

This is a story about a man who swam through great rivers like the Mississippi, the Danube (the 2nd longest river in Eurpoe) and the Yangtze (the longest river in Asia, third longest in the world). He also was the first person to swim from Africa to Europe (in 29 hours, 36 minutes). Completely insane. Insane but awesome.

Well, last year he swam the entire length of the Amazon river. All 3,274 miles of it. Incredible.

(Sidebar: I was at a pool in California a couple years ago and saw a lady swimming laps for about 45 minutes and thought to myself that it looked relaxing and like something I would enjoy doing. I came home, got a membership to a club with a pool and hit the lap lane. No problem right?

It was the hardest sport I have ever tried. Hardest by far! I went down the lane and back and thought I was going to puke. I tried it again and was in so much pain I had to stop.

I kept practicing though and after a couple months I got to where I could swim about 5 lengths of the pool before puking my guts out. I gained a new respect for swimmers.)

So anyways, he not only had to deal with the physical part of the swim, but imagine having to deal with the other junk – the snakes, spiders, piranha’s, aligator, larvae, bull shark, candirú (a very dangerous fish which lodges up human orifices with a razor-like spike and then sucks your blood) and oh yeah, Pirates.

No thank you.

But he did it, and lived to tell about it.

As much as I would love to live by the beach, this is a little bit extreme.

It is a movie about a doctor and his wife who gave up their medical practice, bought an RV and moved from Hawaii to the mainland and drove from beach to beach. They had 9 kids (8 boys and 1 girl) and they didn’t let them go to school, ever. They just drove around looking for different beaches and they would surf all day.

Now there is a movie about it. I would be interested in seeing it.