March 2010 Archives

I've been thinking a lot about the future lately.  Not so much about flying cars, nuclear powered personal home energy generators, or flying to Jupiter for vacation but really about just the next ten years.  The last few years have been fairly tough for us.  Certainly it has been tough for a lot of people and my family and I have dealt with our share of rough spots but I am happy to say that we are getting through it together.  Ever since I finished graduate business school, however, I have personally suffered from a lack of direction and I think that has exacerbated the situation.  Once I reached that goal I found I didn't have something else lined up to work towards and things become quite stagnant.  I haven't been able to see much past the next paycheck and haven't had anything major to work toward or look forward too and I am beginning to think not having those things is a bigger problem than I had believed.  As I have come to this realization I have started tossing around ideas in my head that are both scary and wonderful at the same time.

The crazy thought that has been occupying my free cycles has been going to law school.  Yes, I realize how insane that is for someone in my position.  I have commitments, responsibilities, and obligations that put going to school full time out of the range of possibilities but the thought still exists.  I think the recent political changes in our society of inspired this line of thinking.  I see our country moving away from the principles of liberty and freedom and is scares me.  It is therefore not surprising that my mind has been occupied by thoughts of Constitutional law.  I realize, however, going to law school would just be another way to try and put off the one thing that seems to trouble me the most...becoming an adult. 

I think the reality for me is that I don't want to be a professional anything and going to school...again...is a way to act like I am living up to my potential while really I just do something I am actually good at - regurgitating information.  No, going back to school is really out of the question and I wouldn't want to put my family through that again nor is it really something we could afford.  Still, I can't stop thinking about the academic pursuit. 

Of course there are other things that continue to tickle my fancy.  I have been saying for years that I missed the boat on a career in science.  Lately I have been enamored with the study of aquatic life and I have often remarked to my wife that I should have been a marine biologist.  It's a shame I didn't realize that interest while in college.  My mind, however, was focused on other things I suppose.  Still, I find myself drawn to aquariums and marine documentaries and while thinking about days on the ocean or lake studying ecosystems and the wealth of life below the surface.  I don't know if these thoughts are just the mind yearning to experience something new and different or if they are clues to something deeper.  There really is no reason for me to feel any special affinity for water.  I was born in a land locked state and have only been to the beach half a dozen times in my 34 years of life.  No matter, such a life is beyond my reach but I doubt I would turn down an offer to live near water.

All of these flights of fancy aside, I need something to work toward some kind of goal and I feel it almost has to be academic in some way.  It doesn't need to involve formal school but I need to find something that interests me enough to keep me going.  For the second time in my life I find myself without a direction.  Can't say I like it much.

Getting up early on Saturday mornings was a ritual for me as a child.  I don't suppose I was often still in bed by 8:00 and I am sure some days I was out as early as 6:00.  This was, of course, those heady days in the 80s when Saturday morning cartoons was the rule on the TV networks and not the exception.  I remember the hours wasted away watching cartoons like The Smurfs, Dungeons and Dragons, Rocky and Bullwinkle, Pac-Man, and even the one where the guy turns into a car.  Of course nothing can beat Super Friends which was always the perfect cap for the morning.  It was campy, full of non-canon characters and 100% awesome.  Seriously, if Super Friends was on today it would be Must-See-TV. 

It is with quite a bit of sadness that I have come to realize my daughter will not have this experience.  Sure there are channels like The Cartoon Network and BOOM that show plenty of cartoons around the clock it just isn't the same.  I am sure no kid today gets up and runs to the family TV, they probably have one in their room, in the hopes of catching Mr. Peabody and his boy Sherman zip off on another irreverent historical adventure before the clocks strikes 7.  No, today cartoons, both good and bad, are available any where, any time.  It seems to me that this abundant availability reduces the value of what was once so important to kids across the country.  I love SpongeBob as much as the next guy but really how can that toon compare to 30 minutes of high adventure with a talking Rubik's Cube? 

Personally, I think the death of the Saturday morning cartoon is directly responsible for both the decay in American society and the destruction of our economy.  Whadaya say we bring them back?   

Coca-Cola Museum
Originally uploaded by Shadowhelm

The modern age of electronics brings with it a scourge to tourist destinations everywhere and that scourge is the camera phone.

The camera phone seems to be a great invention but the issue is that everyone has one and I mean everyone. From preteens to the geriatric set everyone is carrying a camera phone these days. While the technology itself is convenient in moderation, it is a royal pain in the rear in practice. Can't see why? Let me explain...

Take a trip out to one of America's great tourist destinations. It doesn't matter where just pick one and go. What you will find is thousands of people, all with camera phones and all taking pictures of everything...all the freaking time. So, what 10 years ago was one camera per family is now four or more cameras per family. If you do my little experiment the problem will be clear. Basically, it take 4 times as long to see something because people are taking that many more pictures. Therefore, people end up lingering longer trying to get a shot with what is still pretty bad hardware. This backs up lines and just causes chaos. Of course in the current society where courtesy has all but disappeared patrons are also subjected to people jamming their arms into the field of view to gut that critical, low res photo. Camera phones are just murder when it comes to people getting the opportunity to enjoy the attractions they have paid to see.

My eyes were opened on a recent trip to Atlanta to visit the World of Coca-Cola and the Georgia Aquarium. At just about every corner there was ten or more people shooting low quality photos which require the "photographer" to stand exceptionally close the subject. All this accomplishes is making it harder for the rest of the people to see and it really slows down traffic flow. On top of that the pictures can't be very good so why would anyone want to take a couple of hundred pictures on these cameras. To me it just doesn't make sense. It seems to me a lot of people are spending way too much time taking crappy pictures and too little time actually enjoying what they came to see.

Down with camera phones!

I have had a Flickr Pro account for a few years now but haven't really done much with it recently. I haven't taken many pictures recently so I guess that explains my lack of activity on Flickr. If anyone has any cool uses for Flickr or maybe some hidden functionality please let me know. I need some things to get excited about when it comes to web technology. Maybe something will motivate me to start taking pictures again. I need to learn so much but when I am sporadic with my practice I tend to forget everything I have learned. I hate that feeling of "starting over" every time I pick up the camera.

For some reason I found myself wanting to try MovableType 5.  So, as I usually do, I took the READY-SHOOT-AIM approach and wiped out what little was still here and installed MT5 completely clean.  This version takes what was new in the last big release and ads what I feel is just another level of complexity to the system without really changing too much under the hood.  The first hurdle for me was understanding the concept of Websites versus Blogs as they relate to MT5.  It seems that in this version everything has to be contained in a "Website" and a blog can not exist on its own but is rather part of a website.  I am slowly starting to see how this can be advantageous and I suspect it is intended as a framework for building sites that include blog content but that are not strictly weblogs only.  For me, however, it was and still is confusing on a technical level if not necessarily on a conceptual level.

I get the feeling that I really should be using WordPress for this personal blog.  I don't really have any reason to say that other than MT seems to be more and more big website/corporate focused than personal user focused.  Of course, if I had any real skill at design and layout I might be able to actually use the power of this software but I just don't have the experience.  Still, I am used to MT's publishing interface and familiarity often breeds contentment...or something along those lines.

It looks like I have to rebuild my layout...again.  I'll get around to it but really what is more important is giving this website a reason to exist.  Such a thing has been hard to define over the last year or so but I still feel a certain pull to this medium even if I don't use it particularly well or for any lasting purpose.  In the long run I suppose this site and anything associated with it continues to be my little playground.  I guess every so often I just like refilling the sandbox with fresh, white sand.