Non-Social Blogging: There was a couple of contrasting articles on the net this week that said that either blogging was on the rise, or it was about to die. It made me think about this space (which is certainly not MySpace). The deal with MySpace, as I understand it, is to get as many "friends" to subscribe to their site. It seems to me that this is a terrific technological tool, for those with a pathetic self esteem. Hey look, I have more friends than you, and I can show you. But, in my way of thinking, if I don't reveal who reads my blog then I don't necessarily have anything to prove. Some might read this and say "sure you say that, you don't have any friends". Maybe, maybe not. I am content with what I know. I have gotten a fair amount of ego stroking from my rankings on CoolPhotoBlogs and am now in the top 20%. My goal will be to make it to the top 10% and that will be the end of it.

Deer, oh, deer: We have a problem here at the digital ranch. We have a couple of bird feeders and its Pokey's job to keep them filled. He grumbles. He says that as fast as he fills them that they are empty. So I decided to fill them and then see for myself. Well, sure enough that night they were full, the next morning they were empty. I have done a lot of camping and haven't noticed a lot of birds flying around at night. Well a few nights later (and two more refillings) we came home at night to find a couple of deer standing right next to the feeders. They were eating my food! So now I don't know what to do. I don't want to take the time to bring them in each night, but I also don't want to leave my birds unfed. Stumped.

I added X-Drive to my repertoire of technologies. I need to share files with my someone in my office and think that we will give this a spin for a while. This is a really cool (and free) app from AOL. I install the app, the other computer installs the app, and then we can share up to 5 gig of files. That is a ton of space!

I Love Global Warming!: I was just reviewing some of my picture on TheDigitalLife.net and saw that two weekends ago I was featuring a picture of our pond frozen. Today it was 70 degrees (yes, it is December 17) and we drove home from church with the windows down.

Contented Weekend: I am sitting here ripping a movie, listen to "Frampton Comes Alive" in 192kpbs, and downloading my podcast updates and I realize how different I am from Mary. While we are in the same room, both sipping on cups of great English Tea Time, she is reading a mystery novel while I occasionally jump in the air to join Peter in an awesome air guitar duet. Even the dog has stopped noticing these fanciful fits of far out flashbacks. I crave the smell of incense and wish the lights were at about half as bright.

This DVD conversion thing is really bugging me. I have ripped the same movie about 5 times now and still can't get it to work on the iPod. I am giving it one last shot. I am following the instructions carefully from CNET, hopefully Jasmine's instructions work.

My Tag: Within the genre of photoblogging there is a popular thing whereby you tag pictures with names so that they can easily be searched by others. This is something that Flickr does really well. You know, life is like that. We tag each other. I am defined by my tags. Most people define someone else by their job tag. We say "So, what is it that you do?" and by that we put a little tag on them so that we can relate to them by what they do.

Every now and then people transcend their tags. I had an elder that I once loved who stocked shelves for a company. It seemed a rather lowly job in my eyes for this man who had more wisdom than most people I know. When discussing it he said "Look, you come home with your laptop, plug in and worry about your business all weekend long. I never do. In fact, I don't worry about it when I am doing it. I wear my headphones and listen to great music. When I am done I go home." Great perspective. He really had it all. I think his house was paid, he had a great and comfortable life style, and he didn't need to ride that wave.

So what are your tags? I have a lot. Here are a few that come to mind:

Dad, husband, friend.
Christian, Republican, Conservative, white.
Photographer, blogger, writer.
Male, middle aged, medium build, greying.
Funny, optimistic, joyful.
Hunter, fisherman, outdoorsman.
Entrepreneur, business owner, tax payer.
Patriot, Far right, constitutionalist.
Artist, writer, poet.
Geek, gadgeteer, pioneer.

Educated. Learning.
Married, faithful, in Love.


How else would you tag me?

Bottleneck Bytes: This weekend I experienced two depressing technological foes: lack of bandwidth and lack of CPU power. I guess that I was really pushing things to their limits. For the bandwidth problem I was sucking down some great files (and huge) and couldn’t get a web page to load because of the downloads. I thought about killing the download but I had some great connection speeds. Reminded me of the surfers who are looking for the perfect wave. Once a series of waves comes along there is nothing to get these guys off their boards. So I decided that since my humble connection was maxing out that I would just let it flow and try to remember to hit the web site tomorrow night (CNET’s iPod Central).

The second problem was a lack of CPU power. I was using Videora and they have a little feature that tells the computer how important the program is. I left it on default which basically says that it is the most important program and everything else is insignificant. Can’t even play a good game of Cribbage!

I have been asked again about how to rip DVDs to iPod. I have looked at a bunch of programs but there doesn’t seem to be a cheap and easy way to do it. Sure, I could go out to a P2P site and grab them, but what’s the fun in that? What I really want on my iPod aren’t movies that are out there anyway. I want every Hitchcock movie, or at least those with Jimmy Stewart.

e-Books: Several years ago I read an e-book and fell in love with the concept. I collected some 1000 e-books, most of which I confess that I never read. I remember one particular trip that I read an entire book, all from my old Casiopeia (which is now in the possession of my youngest son and I don’t think that he has ever turned it on). I found that the Pocket PC fit perfection between the top of the steering wheel and the center airbag of my Cadillac. Sure, probably one of the stupidest things that I have done, but it was cool none the less. Then I discovered audiobooks. They are tons larger files sizes, but at least I can keep my eyes on the road. I am not sure that this is something that I will collect because I don’t see myself listening to the same one more than once, with a few rare exceptions. But, I am rather excited about one series – Orson Scott Card’s “Ender Saga”. I read the first three of these books (in eBook form) and will be excited to listen to the whole set. I listened to the first one from the local public library and was eager to hear the second. Someone has checked it out and hasn’t returned it. Grrr! They have the third, but that kind of ruins things when they are in a series. Our local library has several books now available in the MP3 format. So cool to see that this is becoming a much more popular format. If I ever get published I think I will negotiate for the audiobook to come out in the MP3 format only. Yeah, right, like that is going to happen!

Kudos to my eldest daughter for working so hard on her latest novella. She has been published a couple of times and is working on a rather lengthy work now.

Downloads complete, now back to work!!

Tech Time: I am going to make this my last "I Love iPod" post for a while, but what a difference that it has made. I just completed a great MP3 audiobook - 10 hours unabridged. Makes that daily commute so tolerable. In the office I listen to podcasts in the morning until Susan (my admin) comes in, then I switch to Christmas music. I hit the podcasts during lunch and on the way home. I had a blast today when a podcast that I had downloaded "The Super Secret Apple Rumors Podcast" was hosted by Apple's Steve Jobs. What a great communicator. Wish I owned an Apple (in addition to the iPod). They really have some innovative things coming. (for those who care, the podcast was from 9/13, I just got around to listen to it from Engadget.com)

I got "Stranger Than Fiction" on the iPod this afternoon. The quality is great. I tried to look at it on the laptop screen and it was terrible. Oh well, something to watch tonight in bed. Working on a couple of others of my favorite movies right now. I have 20% to go to get the complete Matrix collection and I am also working on my favorite family movie - The Godfather. The title indicates that it might be in Italian, so I might just rip my own tonight.

Sad to hear that James Kim died yesterday. I have really enjoyed watching his vidcast from CNET. I really, really hope that they continue with these great vidcasts with another host.

I remember that when my bro-in-law told me that he first got his 60GB iPod that he didn't think that he would ever fill it up, and now he has something like 60% full. I am thinking that I might push for a birthday present and get the 80GB. But (if my beloved is reading this), I will hold out for the new version that is being rumored that will have a widescreen like the Zune.

RANT: If you are going to go through the trouble to put up a podcast, and take the time to have a great intro, don't tell me about your kids, don't yawn while you are reading, and if you cough edit that out (Speaking directly to Digital Experience). The guy who does this does 50% of it better than anyone else, but does so much else so poorly that I have dropped it off my list. Yuck. Was just listening and his phone rings - he doesn't edit that out either. Geesh, there are so many great programs out there.

Podcast of the week- Engadget.
Wow, these guys dish out so much information.

My own theme music: Have you ever watched a movie and thought that the music didn’t quite fit the scene? Maybe the music seemed forced. I think that a good musical score so enhances the movie that you hardly think about it.

My iPod is becoming my own theme music generator. I put on a fast beat techno piece when I am shopping (makes me walk faster), a mellow jazz piece when I am in tough traffic, and some good ol’ rock and roll on the way home. Now I just need to find a virtual DJ to program my life for me.

When I first got the iPod I loaded up on the podcasts. I really love these things and thought that would be a great way to spend the time. I loaded something like 50 of them, then realized that this is going to be a huge strain on bandwidth when I have 5 other people trying to share. So, I deleted some. Then I realized that most of these things only update once a week so I loaded back up again. Then I listened to everything and during a trip yesterday found that I had to revert to the old playlists. Cool, I have a 1ooo to chose from.

What I am finding that I like the best are the podcasts that somehow enrich me (spiritually) or improve my general knowledge. This is what Dale Carnegie referred to as Automobile University. Yesterday I listened to a great podcast that told me about the oldest city in Europe (5000 years old) and something about how geysers work. Pretty cool stuff. I think that if I could find stuff like this (even trivia) I would listen to it 24/7. I need to find a podcast that is a combination of the History Channel, Discovery, and TechTV (which I know isn't around anymore).

Got any podcasts that you just love? Drop me a note so that I can give a listen.