Well, it’s mid-July. I’ve been rather busy, so I haven’t had a chance to write this for awhile-I doesn’t help that I do it at work, where I have to squeeze it inbetween regular work tasks-usually it stays open while I work on other things, then I forget about it, then it’s time to go home. I wouldn’t be able to do it at home for the same reason, though, so the point is a bit moot…
Lessee, what’s happened since the last round? (I’m glad I keep a journal, otherwise this would be tough, like counting strokes in golf after finishing a hole). Erika spent the 24th in Long Beach for UU GA, she loooved it. So much so that she’s thinking of going into the ministry-she spoke at church last week…everyone liked it. I get to play guitar there this Sunday… We spent that Friday afternoon at an office party at a park in Irvine-I got to fly my kites a bit-people complimented me on it. We went to Sunday service that weekend at GA as well-a lot of people. We took apart the bunk bed in the kids’ room to prep for Erika’s folks coming down. July 1st some guy crashed his car into the fence around our complex. I’ve been waiting for some kind of crash here-people go really fast and it’s a bit of a blind curve as you come over the top of the hill, especially if you’re going fast. Erika’s parents spent the weekend of the 4th-Erika fixed up the room, we got a comfy chair and turned on cable inthere. Erika got sick last week-she took a bunch of antibiotics, we went and got an ultrasound and she had a ruptured ovarian cyst. Ouch. They gave her drugs. We didn’t go to Seal Beach to fly kites. That’s about it. I decided to only take Pilates for the fall semester-Erika wants to take some counseling courses. She also wants to figure out what to do about the ministry bit… The kids are swimming a lot. Colin is feeling more confident in open water, and Matt is working on taking the arm floats off and swimming. I don’t particularly want to swim, so I just stand around and help them out.
I’ve been thinking about the whole digital convergence thing lately. I also read an article by this chick who’s complaining about juggling several handheld devices. So, I came up with a feature list for a phone/computer. It also has a docking station, so you can hook it up to a keyboard/video/mouse, with networking and ports. I’d also like to see the docking station be a base station, so you can hook it up to a phone line and it works like a normal cordless phone. Most people only use their computer for what? Email, web, writing docs. They use their PDA for what? Addresses, calendar, notes. Their phone? Voice, phone book; calendar and camera in new phones. The jump to a phone/PDA is really already here, the jump to a more generalized handheld computer isn’t that far. The limiting factors are display size, input modalities and battery life. Display size is coming, batteries will follow with fuel cells, input modalities need work-you can’t really use a mouse, keyboards are cumbersome, and Graffiti and stylii aren’t the answer. Kids are really good at 10 key alphabet and the simple thumb rocker are OK, but I don’t really want to mess with 10-key. I think it’s going to take a revolution in voice input for this to really work. VR glasses might be good too.
Politics-there’s a cool website that tracks the polls for electoral votes. Right now Kerry is ahead, but a lot of his wins are in swing states. The country is so evenly divided that this is going to come down to a Florida situation again. That’s going to be ugly. I’m bugged by the concept of all this ugliness-the problem is that the people who want to hold elected office aren’t the ones we really want in there-the money and power are just so corrosive and it’s such a nasty process. No one is a gentleman (or woman) anymore, but I guess that reflects the electorate as well-no one pays attention unless there’s shouting or the equivalent. I guess the aphorism about the people getting the government they deserve is coming true in spades. Yuck. Makes me want to move to a tiny desert island where the only government is a tribal chief who just has to resolve disputes between tribesmen. Problem with that is that they have the “other people” problem. Well, I guess you trade one icky situation for another. Maybe Bali is better-the people are peaceful and happy, the land is lush and fertile, and the government, well, the government is corrupt and repressive, but far away. It might be that anywhere you go, it’s different, but really the same. Until everyone has gotten over their attachments, I don’t think there’s any good chance for a true peaceful society. We had a chance, but in the transition from provincialism, agrarianism and industrial society to post-industrial society we forgot that separation and fragmentation breeds tribalism and the “other people” problem. OK, if everyone is like me, then the problem is solved! heh. Time for evolution to try something else.