Google domination.

Google is putting out some really cool stuff. I've been playing with Google Wave and Voice and both are really cool. I'm actually thinking about becoming an all Google on-line user. I may even stop my MobileMe subscription... I know, really. Google, with on-line applications and storage, Android, Chrome, Voice and Mail. What the hell else is there to want? It's amazing that all of this came out of a simple Internet search engine.

Just pondering this morning.

Halloween has just passed and we are now into November. The weather has certainly helped to make things seem much more Fall like with non-stop drizzle and cool weather for the past week or so. The trees are changing color quickly and the leaves seem to be falling even faster. I really like this time of the year. I like the changing seasons better than the static seasons.

I've heard a few people say that this winter is supposed to be more "wintry" than the past few winters. I guess that means colder weather with more precipitation in the form of snow. As long as the snow melts the next day, I won't mind it. I will probably put my hardtop on my Jeep soon just in case those people are correct. Of course, as soon as I do that, the temperatures will shoot back up in the 80's with plenty of sunshine.

Men and Urinals

Why do so many men spit when they pee? I don't understand it. I think it actually makes peeing even more gross. And what about the men that flush BEFORE they pee. I can see if someone has pee block and needs the sound of water to get them going, but then why don't they flush again when they are done. I just don't get it.

Ripping CDs

That's right, tonight is ripping CDs night. I got out all of my Yes CDs and now I am ripping them to my MAC. Soon they will be on my iPod for me to take with me where ever I want. And they all fit right in my pocket.

Not too long ago it wasn't that easy to take your music with you. The most common way to listen to music was on the radio, AM radio no less. You needed a record player to play your own music (33, 45,78 RPMs), then it was 8-tracks or cassettes, boom boxes, Walkmans, (remember mini-discs?) and finally, where we are today, media players like the iPod and Zune. I have no idea how many times I have purchased the same pieces of music because of these changes. Now I don't even buy CDs, I just buy files off iTunes. I have no idea what I am going to do when I need a new computer or, heaven forbid, my harddrive crashes.

Sure I back things up but still, I've never tried to restore anything before. What if it doesn't work right? Then where will I be?

I think it says something about the disposable mindset we all live in these days. Everything seems so temporary. Nothing appears to be made to last. Things have a lifespan of 3-5 years before it is deemed outdated and in need of an upgrade. Not like in earlier times when people tied to keep things as long as they could. It meant something to have anything for 20 to 30 to 50 years.

People may finally be seeing what's happening, missing some of the long term benefits of keeping things around. Global warming, the Green movement, reuse, recycle, all of these ideas are picking up steam in the world. If you aren't involved in something green then, by God, you just don't care about our planet and life in general. It's amazing. The world view is changing once again. I wonder if it will all align and come to the top with the year 2012. Wouldn't that be bazaar in a cosmic sort of way.

I know, all of this rambling because I starting ripping CDs. Oh how my mind wanders.

The rain must be in Spain.

Here in the southeast we are known for our hot, sunny days (we average around 300 days of sunshine a year). We may not have the highest temperatures in the continental US but it does get warm. It also gets very humid which makes having the heat a little hard to take some times. It feels like you're walking through a steam bath some days.

I'm originally from the northeast where it might get into the 90's for a few days every summer. Here in the southeast, we can be in the 90's for weeks at a time. And when those weeks match up with high humidity and little precipitation, that means trouble.

We have only just gotten out of a 7-8 year draught and I'm starting to see a pattern of no rain that may just put us back into one. Oh, we did get a few drops of rain over night but that barely got the ground wet and that was the first drops of rain we've had in over two weeks. I'm watering the lawn this morning in hopes of keeping it alive. Soon we'll be back on water restrictions and then the watering will have to stop.

The first year we had little rain after moving here I was amazed at how hard the clay soil got. I was used to digging in brown dirt just about any time of the year. In the southeast, if it hasn't rained lately, forget about digging in the latter part of the summer. The clay dirt turns into cement. You need powered equipment to get into the ground. That's why most houses in these parts don't have a basement either. The ground gets crazy hard.

I hope it rains soon. We need a good couple of days of steady rain.

Getting a new cellular phone.

For me, getting new gadgets is fun. In this case it is a new cell phone (icing on the cake, it's a company phone). It is a Samsung Saga. The phone I am replacing is a Motorola Q (black). The Moto Q had a few problems from spontaneous reboots (battery connection issue) to locking up when using some applications like GoodLink (my companies choice for Exchange access). But my 2 year contract was up and it was time for a new phone.

Now, the Saga hasn't gotten the best reviews on the Verizon website. Complaints range from a slow OS (Windows Mobile) to short battery life. The short battery life should be mitigated through the use of the upgraded battery that was ordered with the phone. There were also some notes about poor reception.

The slow OS is supposed to be fixed by installing and using SPB (?). Not quite sure what that is, but I will have to check it out. I'll have to see if it really bothers me before I go through the trouble of installing anything on a company device.

So I'm a little excited about it. For a personal cell phone, I'm pining for the iPhone 3G S that just came out. I have the iPod Touch and really, really like it. The only issues are that you have to be on a WiFi network to use most of the applications, it does not have built in GPS service, again limiting some application usage and finally, it does not have a built in camera. I would have thought that with the Touch being a media device, Apple would have put in a camera. So as a device, the iPhone wins but for total cost, not having to pay $100 a month for service gives the edge to the Touch.

The incredible heavyness of work...

It's incredible how every day I go into work thinking that I am going to be able to focus on getting one or two things done and then, at the end of the day, find that I have not completed anything. I think this happens to a large number of people as often as it happens to me (at least I hope it does or I'm really doing something wrong). All it takes is one or two e-mails, I don't usually get many phone calls first thing in the morning, that I didn't expect and then, BAM!!, I am off and running in a totally different direction, never being able to circle back around to what I originally set out to accomplish for the day. It has gotten to the point that I now expect this as a regular part of my day.

Working day in and day out like this has made me unsatisfied at work. I never seem to get a sense of accomplishment since I never feel like I am ever able to finish anything. So much left undone, so many more things to move onto and not finish. In seems like it will never end.

My boss tends to be a perfectionist and an idealist at the same time. She thinks about every little detail that should be done in an ideal environment and then continues to redo and analyze it to the point that she often comes back around to where she began, this creating a never ending circle that seems like it will never end.

You should do everything to the very best of your ability and to the point where you are proud to show it to others is her new mantra. I always have the feeling that we never really finish what we are doing and then one day she comes in and decides that we are done and we need to move on to the next thing. In the meantime, I'm left with a number of more unfinished documents, spreadsheets and presentations that, at the time, we absolutely had to have to get the project done.

Don't get me wrong, I like the things I get to work on. I just want to be able to say that I got something done.

Good morning moon...

Okay, this is about the tenth time I have started a blog or journal. I just can't seem to keep them up or can't find the interest to keep them up. I even have a Facebook page, a Twitter account, an Evernote account and I use Whrrl and Urbanspoon to comment on places I go, restuarants I eat at, etc. At least this Blogger application seems to make it very easy to set up and start blogging (access may be another thing). Others I have tried just don't seem to make it "friendly" enough to keep me wanting to log in and blog.

So, off I go, yet again.

Here is where I currently want to work: http://www.apple.com. Just testing the web link feature.

Have a great day!