Paul Merrill
I monitor a MySpace account as part of my job. (And I think some of you may have read about how I am not fond of MySpace.)
So an email like this came in this morning. I had never seen upside-down type in a subject line that before! And the funny thing is that the sender did not look like someone who would know their way around coding.
My dad loved to take pictures. (The apple didn’t fall far from the tree.) He captured my teen angst pretty well in this shot.
(And a technical note – colors do fade with time.)
This Subaru lives in our neighborhood.
Maybe its owner has never heard of masking tape? Or maybe it’s a rebellion against coloring within the lines. In any case, I think the owner has seen Napoleon Dynamite one too many times. (That might be the car Napoleon would drive – and the owner secretly wants to be like him. But now I’ve let the cat out of the bag.)
And I guess it just struck me, because it seemed like something Napoleon Dynamite would do to his car if he had a Subaru.
“Once someone has an iPhone, it is going to be tough to persuade them that they also need to spend money on and carry around a dedicated GPS device, point-and-shoot camera, or tape recorder unless they have an unusual need.” from here.
I’m not an iPhone user, simply because I can’t afford the monthly charges. However, even if I were, I would not give up my beloved point-and-shoot. I like taking photos, and there just isn’t as much quality or control with any iPhone.
Having said that, it is amazing all the things that an iPhone can do. It’s the Swiss Army Knife of the late 00’s.
Dunno if you have ever been to an Ignite event. The best way I can describe it is TED-lite. (TED = “Technology, Entertainment, Design” – international talks that have the very best minds in our world today sepaking on all number of topics.)
Ignite is more “normal” people from the geek community speaking on whatever strikes their fancy. Since Boulder has a thriving geek community, the Ignite events there sell out the Boulder Theater. (Roughly 700 people come.)
I went to my first Boulder Ignite on September 16th. It was fascinating. Roughly fourteen presentations were on the program – topics ranging from climbing Mt. Everest blind to how one speaks Swedish.
If there is one in your town, it’s worth a try. The great benefit for me is the chance to hear how people very unlike myself think – and express themselves.
The other day, our dog was having fun chasing squirrels up a tree. They love this particular tree because of the tasty acorns it has been producing lately.
The funny thing was that as I heard the chattering, I thought it was a monkey. Briefly, I was back in Africa. Even though we lived in a crowded city of more than four million people (Nairobi), the occasional squirrel would sneak into homes in our neighborhood to see what tasty treat they might find.
You can react to something by laughing or by getting upset. I choose to laugh. (I wish I would choose to laugh a lot more than I do!)
This was one instance when laughter won out…
My sister, her husband and three children were visiting. We had a fabulous time together. Jacques, the youngest, is not quite two. He’s very curious – and is figuring out what life is about. (But then I’m not young, and I’m still figuring that out.) A byproduct of his curiosity is that he was into everything. The vast majority of our frig magnet collection disappeared. No worries – I figured they would show up again at some point.
So Heather noticed something out of the ordinary as she glanced at our heater vent. She took it off and discovered the missing magnets! Jacques had taken them and pushed each one through the slots – maybe like a vending machine.
We all had a good laugh!
Some people are artistic. Some people are practical. Some people are both. Even though I am an artist (graphic designer) by training and partly by profession, I tend toward the practical side.
So when we visited this home I was struck by the beauty of the familial display on the master bedroom’s dresser.
My dresser is cluttered with little things that have nothing to do with beauty – and everything to do with life – keys, wallet, sunglasses and camera.
What’s on your dresser?
I went to our nearby new library recently. I checked out a book in a new form – the “Playaway“. Basically, I am a sucker for new things – and free new things are even better.
These are not for the average consumer – they are about $35-40 each. (You can buy the Kindle edition of this book for about $10.)
The title? (“Living Well in a Down Economy” – one of the “Dummies” series.) I didn’t listen to the whole thing. There were some interesting bits about breathing right and preparing a resume. (My wife is looking for a job). It’s rare that I would have time to listen to a whole book like that, so this format isn’t for me.
I think this is a bad idea. You get a cheap MP3 player with a pre-loaded title. The sound is very poor compared to a real MP3 player. Navigation is sub-standard. (The interface “screen” is a tiny LCD readout.)
My recommendation? Libraries should “lend” MP3 titles of audio books via iTunes that would be playable for a 3-week time period. Then you use your trusted MP3 player and the interface you know and (hopefully) love. For people without an MP3 player? Perhaps Apple could produce a super-durable iPod that libraries could lend out for 3-week increments.
Ah yes, you are thinking that this is a proverb about how I hate it when people get labeled.
Wrong.
Simply put, I hate labels on clothes, towels and washcloths. So I cut them off, sometimes. Why? They are scratchy against my neck. They stick out. The tell me how to wash it, which I already know. And once I figure out that it’s 100% cotton, I no longer need to know that. Finally, I don’t care what the brand is, as long as the quality is decent.
That last statement is not entirely true. Those of you faithful readers know that I do care about what brand my computer is.
And I do celebrate the move by many clothing companies to print their info on the garment, rather than having a separate sewed-on label.
