Every now and then it hits me that a paradigm shift has occurred and we’ve taken it for granted. One such shift is the amazing technology we so casually carry around in our pockets. A couple of decades ago the thought of owning a tiny device which allowed us to talk to each other, send each other messages, take a picture, or even record a short video was the stuff of Star Trek or other sci-fi. Today we have the cell phones we accept as a normal part of life. Even very capable cameras capable of 10 megapixel images can be easily carried inside a tuxedo or stashed in a small handbag. This image below of our new President and First Lady dancing at an inaugural ball shows what I mean. It took me a second to realize what all the little blue lights were. You would not have seen them at Bill Clinton’s inaugural ball. Funny how quickly we adapt.

Ups and Downs of the week.

  Fireplaces- Nothing like a toasty fire on a cold, rainy night.

   Homework- It’s bad enough when it’s useful. When it’s pointless it really gets annoying.

  Polycom Videoconferencing systems – Very cool to connect in real time to another meeting halfway around the world.

    Patriots – Not a stellar season so far, but much better than predicted. Cassel will never go back to being a number two QB. He was record-setting incredible last night and the rest of the team let him down. He played well against Indy, too, and they let him down there as well. I wonder who he’ll be starting for next season?

  Space shuttle launch – I never tire of watching them. I love the shot where the external tank separates.

I mean a real vacation. Something with a beach and warm breezes and bottomless Margaritas. Some place where my mind can just drift. No phones, no kids, no cold rain, no school work, no server worries, no email, no internet, no driving, no newspapers, no TV. Maybe a good book would be ok.

It seems lately that annoyances are everywhere. Last weekend we went out to eat at our favorite Indian restaurant in Champaign. Just after we sat down, a family came in and I knew right away they’d be obnoxious. The two kids, especially the little boy, were quite loud and the parents’ only reaction to their outbursts were to shhhh them. Over and over and over. Then the kids starting singing “Frère Jacques” and the parents joined in!! So instead of my wife and I having a nice dinner conversation, we were treated to two verses of the world’s most annoying song. We couldn’t get out of there quickly enough. Then this past weekend we went into our favorite Thai place in Urbana and the same family was there!! No singing this time, but the same “this is our living room” attitude. Luckily the place filled up and the generic background noise drowned them out.

Today I received a laptop from our office in Chicago. This laptop is a Dell with the idiotic Media Direct button on it. Apparently the owner pushed the button by mistake and it now will only boot to Media Direct. After searching for answers online, I learned that this is a common problem with such laptops. The Media Direct application overwrites the Master Boot Record (MBR), supposedly temporarily. However, in many cases it’s irreversible. Good thinking Dell. Even Dell support failed to correct the issue, so they suggested reformatting and reloading the OS. All the remedies I found online failed to bring the OS back to working condition, so I decided to stop wasting time and I started over from scratch. Just what I needed to start this week.

To top it all off, this whole week is supposed to be cold, gray, and rainy. Fits my mood perfectly.

 This is where I’d rather be.

Ups and downs of the week. 

  Cool cover art – This is Sarah’s most recent cover story for Bookmarks. Great art for an excellent article.

  

  Be it ever so humble. – Good to be home again.

   Stomach bugs- Nausea and travel don’t mix well..

  Serendipity – US Airways needed a volunteer to stay in Boston one more day and I needed to sleep until this stomach bug went away. I ended up with a free stay at a Hilton, dinner, and two free round-trip tickets on US Air to anywhere in the US. US Air got the seat they needed for another passenger. I had almost canceled my flight earlier thinking I couldn’t fly being that ill, but it would have cost me a fortune. I’m glad I waited. Funny how things work out sometimes.

    Patriots – They *might* have a halfway decent season after all, but I’m not getting my hopes up yet.

  Shapiro Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston – Awesome care. Super professional staff. Great facility. It’s THE place to go if you need heart surgery. 

  Philadelphia Phillies – They’re making a series of it and showing the Rays that an AL victory in the World Series is definitely not a given. They need to take heed of the ALCS, though, and finish this before it returns to Cowbell Palace.

Ups and downs of the week.

 Red Sox - Still looking pretty good, although two tough losses to the Rays have us still 2 games back. 

  Hurricane Ike - This one is going to wreak havok on Galveston and then come up and smack us.

 

 Modern medicine – It really is miraculous how the doctors can spot developing problems and solve them before they become life threatening. 

  Cancer – It’s wrought havoc on my family in the past and has struck again. Luckily, modern medicine will most likely make this a mere inconvenience. See above.

  Formula One – Tight race this year. Best season in a long time.

Ups and downs of the week.

 Digital Photography - A paradigm shift in the way we capture images. So much easier to take and store hundreds of images. 

  Red Sox - Game 1 against the Yankmees and they can’t even score a single blasted run. Wake up, Boys. We need this series.

 Verizon EVDO Rev A. – More than twice as fast.

  Politics- Had enough yet?

 Summertime – One more month to go.

  Summertime – Only one more month to go.

Ups and downs of the week.

 Margaritas - Perfect on a 90 degree day. 

   Red Sox - Out on the West Coast for another road trip. Downright embarrassing game tonight. TB won, so the Sox are back in 2nd place.

 Skype – Seems to work pretty well, even when conferencing with several land lines.

  National 55 MPH speed limit- We’ve been down that road before. It was stupid then, it’s stupid now.

 BMW’s Ultimate Test Drive - Had a ball driving some awesome cars this past Monday. Great way to raise money and awareness for breast cancer research, too. 

Ups and downs of the week.

 Apple iMac – We bought 5 of them (24″) at the office. Sweet machines that run Apple OS X and Windows XP faster than a dedicated Windows box.

   Red Sox - They swept the Twins while the Yankmees were sweeping the Rays to gain back 3 games, but when they had a chance tonight to gain another game and pull to within a half game, they suddenly forgot how to hit. Or maybe they used up all their offense in Wednesday’s 23 hit rout.

  Noise at the office - This week they were jackhammering the back stairs, demolishing the old library area, and cutting/scraping up the concrete road surface out in front of the building. At times you couldn’t hear yourself think.

 Yet another 3-day weekend – Well, sort of. Monday is the Susan G. Komen foundation BMW Ultimate Test Drive at Isringhausen Imports in Springfield. I’m scheduled to drive a very nice Alpina B7 and a Z4. In the past, they’ve had enough free time slots available to allow you to drive anything you want, so I’m also looking forward to driving a new M3 and maybe a 135i. 

  Amazon’s “Free” Shipping – You don’t pay extra for it, so in the strictest sense of the word it’s free, but if time is money, their free shipping is plenty expensive. I ordered a pair of sunglass last Friday and they supposedly shipped on Tuesday from a town in MO that is only 110 miles from my house. I still haven’t received them. Amazon claims they’ll arrive on Monday. So almost a week to travel 110 miles. Next time I’ll pay the extra 2 or 3 bucks, but I suppose that’s exactly why they make the free shipping so painfully slow in the first place.

Update: I just found out that despite Amazon’s email notifying me that my glasses “shipped” on the 8th, they didn’t actually make it to the post office until today. I suspect they were packaged on the 8th and not picked up by USPS until today.

Ups and downs of the week.

 Red Sox – Riding a 7 game winning streak, albeit against NL teams. Still, I’m enjoying the ride.

 Celtics – They barely beat Atlanta and now they’ve lost their first home game and still have not won on the road.

 Jason Varitek – He was catching for Jon Lester’s no-hitter this past week. He’s been the catcher for 4 no-hitters in his career. During that time, there have only been 11 no-no’s in all of baseball, and Tek has been behind the plate for 4 of them. I think he’s the best catcher in major league baseball.

 National 55 MPH speed limit -  Please. Did we learn nothing from that farce the first time around?

 MacBook Pro – Got one this week. Not too impressed so far. The trackpad is lousy and the machine itself is uncomfortable to work with. The edges are too sharp.

 Garden Ramble – Is this weekend. I wrote about the last one. Should be a perfect weekend for it.

This one is in Ramsau, Germany. Beautiful sunrise.