Tempus Fugit

I’ve been thinking for some time about buying an iPod, but it hasn’t happened yet, probably for a couple of reasons.

One certainly is the price. At $349 for the 30gb video iPod + taxes + the required accessories like a case, dock, FM transmitter etc. this couple be a $500+ purchase. Seems like a lot for portable music.

 But, I like my music and I subscribe to a couple of podcasts and while riding the bike or walking it would be kind of nice. Plus I like the toys and this one certainly has the “cool-factor” going for it, perhaps too much, everybody has got one.

That lead to the next reason why I’m hesitating. Ever notices about how the web is big on building community as we sit in isolation looking at a little screen and interacting with people at a distance? I know I’m guilty. Next time you’re out and about, look at the people you pass. How many have those little white buds tucked in their ears? If it’s not that, how about the cell phone. Everybody seems to need to plug into something other that where they are and who they are with. Have you seen couples waling together where one or more of them are plugged into the little white device? I have, many times. The one that really gets me is the guy & girl walking together and he’s plugged in and she’s talking to him. Is he paying attention? I think not. That will cause trouble down the road buddy, trust me.

So, there is the appeal, perhaps the need to have the toys that all the others have. I can almost justify it for listening to work related podcasts and at IBM we’re really cranking them out. Everything recorded is being pushed out as a podcast. However when the voice says “as you can see on slide 23…” the podcast starts to fall apart and you know that some folks really don’t get the full podcast picture, but that’s another story.

Maybe I’ll just borrow my son’s Nano from time to time and get my iPod fix that way. Free is good.

Technorati Tags: ipod, podcast

You may have noticed the new look, I hope so as it’s quite different and a big improvement over the old theme. The new theme is Alexified and it’s working out great. Now the theme colours match my bike!

The previous theme was working OK in Firefox, but one day I looked at the blog in IE and OH MY, what a mess! There must have been some evil CSS or non-compliant or for sure non-IE friendly stuff in that theme. Rather that figure it out, I switched, it’s easier and more fun.

On another note, after being all excited about Pandora I’m now having a listen to last.FM. It’s a little early to tell but it’s interesting and has a plugin that tracks what I play in iTunes. Hey, that might be a bad thing eh? Where are the privacy police when you need them. Pandora still has the browser simplicity going for it and has served up some pretty good tunes. I’m still pretty keen on the Squeezebox connection, that looks so sweet.

I’ve been reading the Purpose Driven Life daily devotionals via email, and they are all quite good. Today’s especially hit home, perhaps because I can relate all too well to the authors “peace at all costs” strategy. But the final paragraph really make me stop in my tracks and take some extra time to think about what I was reading. It must have something to do with where I am personally but you probably know the feeling. You see or read something and it has an impact on your heart, a deep down impact that is kind of hard to explain, that makes you stop and think in that special way.

I’m so grateful that “He came all the way” for me.

Purpose Driven Life

If there is a chasm in a relationship, you may have to reach further than you thought to establish peace. You can’t always count on the other person meeting you somewhere in the middle. Thank goodness God didn’t meet us halfway or he’d still be waiting there for us. That’s much too far for us to reach. God did the only thing that could bridge the chasm between us. He came all the way.

We made a quick trip out to the lake this weekend going out Friday at about 5pm and back for the Father’s Day service at church on Sunday at 11:30 am. The weather was great at the lake and very hot until late Saturday night when the temperature dropped back into the high teens. This was one of the rare times when we actually ran the air conditioner non-stop for 24hrs. I’m normally a purist at the lake preferring to just deal with the heat by spending more time in the lake, but it was quite nice for sleeping on Friday hight when the humidity was thru the roof.

Eric & Dez were out and we enjoyed a great sun tanning day on Saturday with them. I took care of the last few “opening up” tasks by fixing the gear shift of the outboard, the one I broke putting the motor on the boat this year. It’s interesting how after doing the same thing for over 25 years, one year you can get a different result. For some reason the tilt mechanism jammed up a bit just as I was lowering the outboard onto the transom of the boat. Instead of investigating I forced the throttle into Forward gear (required to get it to tilt up for the install) but instead of that working there was this funny little “pop” sound as the linkage broke under the hood. Well after being given the wrong part a couple of weeks ago and only finding out last weekend, I got the correct part this week and everything went back together just fine and all is good.

Father’s Day service at church was very good, and quite an elaborate production with several special events. It’s also interesting how a day that is set aside to value, honor and affirm fathers can cause you to  think  a lot about where you’ve been in your own personal journey as a dad. Not only the things you did that were good and right but also the things you did or didn’t do where there are regrets. On of the best bits of advise I heard this morning when you’re thinking like that is Philippians 3:13-14 (NIV)

13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

I’ve been blessed with two wonderful sons whom I love, respect and I am very proud of them both. As they get older I tend to think that they need me less and less as they are so much more independent (I guess that’s a good thing as one is married).However, I’m reminded that once a father always a father and no mater what the age or what has happened or not happened to date I can always strive to be a better father to my children in days ahead.

The best is yet to come, Happy Father’s Day to all you Dads.

Dr. Doom & Friend

Originally uploaded by Big Dadoo.

The last night of the Rational Conference in Orlando, Florida and we’re at the Universal Studio’s Islands of Adventure. On the way in a couple of characters are posing for pictures. This one made me laugh.

Back in Winnipeg a couple of days ago while walking by a store in a mall, I had another good laugh. This just struck me for some odd reason as being very hilarious. The store was selling t-shirts with funny sayings on them and behind that rack, there was a display of door mats, each with a saying written on it. One simply said,

The entire Rational Conference just became very very worthwhile. While the conference it self has been good and the sessions covering a wide range of topics have been excellent, this mornings presentation by Benjamin Zander was outstanding.

While most conferences will have a motivational or featured speaker, I think in the long term, this one will be different. In his presentation he positioned his talk as transformational rather that motivational, likening motivational talks to Chinese food, a few hours later and you’re hungry for more. With me, thinking back over the last several conferences there are few I can recall and fewer that made a lasting impact. Actually, I remember one keynote speaker at Lotusphere a few year back when they had Gene Kranz the flight director on the Apollo 13 mission who established the phrase “Failure is not an option”. This may be because I was at the Kennedy Space Center this week and they use that phrase heavily on their merchandising in the store.

Zander’s highly energetic and yes motivational presentation got me to but the book and I’ve read half of it on the plane back to Winnipeg, and it’s great stuff.

Well the preconfernece day has ended with the traditional poolside reception. I arrived for the opening at 6pm, had something to eat and drink and then is started to rain. and not just a little bit, but a full out thunderstorm with heavy rain. I think the late comers will be out of luck and who knows how they will move the party for a couple of thousand people to another venue. I’d say the food would be soaked before they could put it away.

 Right now I’m hanging around a kiosk waiting for it to let up before I head out to the car. At least I’m not hungry.

Speaking of food, bad marks for the fodd so far. Hotdogs & Hamburgers for a fancy party reception really doesn’t cut it. It seems that the conference glory days of the 2000 era are gone and cutbacks are in effect. Funny, they didn’t make the conference any less expensive.

I spent Saturday at the Kennedy Space Center and enjoyed the day. I thought I’d get up rarely early an hit Cocoa Beach first, but I slept in a bit too much so I went straight to KSC and got there shortly after 9am and caught the first tour.  

Kennedy Space Center
Originally uploaded by Big Dadoo.

What a great day! The tour was very informative and it’s amazing to see where the space program has come over the last 30 years. We take everything so much for granted now that we don’t even notice when a shuttle goes up any more, only when things go very wrong do we pay attention. I was amazed to learn that the International Space Station has been continuously manned and worked on for over 3 years. And, as the shuttle returns to space on July 1 to continue building the ISS. If you’re interested, have a look at my Flickr photos

Two of the many attractions were the IMAX 3D movies, Magnificent Desolation with Tom Hanks and Space Station with Tom Cruise. Wow, 3D has come a long way and even though you still need the glasses, the effect is great. Of the two films, by far the Space station one was incredible. I saw it late in the day and was a little tired and had closed my eyes a couple of times in Magnificent Desolation but not so with this one. The footage was exceptional and riveting. It’s totally amazing what is being built high above the earth and it was especially interesting after touring the clean room area where the next 3 actual  modules were being prepped for delivery to the station. I think I’ll be tracking the launch and progress of STS-121 Discovery for sure.

The KSC was worth the trip and deserves the entire day is you at all interested in the space program and it’s history.

NASA – Kennedy Space Center – America’s Spaceport

Where else in the world do history and the future, nature and technology, young and old meet for an unforgettable and inspirational journey through space and time? The Kennedy Space Center has hosted millions of guests from around the world for more than 30 years — telling the story of how the United States built a space program that launched men to the Moon, orbited satellites that have improved our lives, and sent probes into distant space to solve the mysteries of the cosmos.

Bull Creek Wildlife Management Area

Originally uploaded by Big Dadoo.

After getting settled at the hotel, I decided to do a little exploring, something other that the typical theme park stuff. I picked up a brochure on Kissimmee that made it seem quite interesting, wrong! It was quite a let down. The couple of attractions I went to were quite disappointing. The “historic train station” turned out to be just a run down old train station with nothing of interest for a visitor. Today, it’s just another Amtrak stop. The Bull Creek Wildlife Management Area sounded better with an “interpretive loop” 8.6 mile driving tour. There were 3-4 spots that looked like this, and the rest was just a road through the low level brush. I saw 3 deer and two different kinds of birds and not much else. The brochure for the self-guiding tour was a simple map with all the hunting and camping regulations. No explanation of the area or why it’s a wildlife management area. It seemed to be more about the hunting. Oh yeah, I did see one other van driving slowly with the side door open. I didn’t get a close look, but I’d bet there was some fire power pointing out that door.