I have always been a proponent of technology, and at the same time I have been for things staying classic, so I must admit that when i saw this article on CNN, I was at least intrigued. I really can't say if i am happy about it, or not. I mean really are we going to keep giving our kids ways to lose their imagination? The Radio Flyer 2.0 is pretty interesting, it has a built in MP3 jack, with speakers, cup holders, and even a digital handle so that you can keep track of the temperature, time, and distance traveled.
That makes it pretty incredible, because now when soccer mom's take their kids to the park they can keep track of how far they have pulled their kids, and incorporate it into their workout regiment. The mp3 player jack is also pretty cool, I mean your kids can sing along to their favorite songs, or parents can force their music on their kids.
But here is where I get a little cranky, what happened to the creative side of things? This thing is so aerodynamic and "stylish" that there is just no way you can make it into the thousands of things kids made their old red wagons into. People made them into lemonade stands, and forts, and big play pens, jumps, all sorts of things. It was a home base for all of the superhero's that we used to pretend we were, and more importantly they were incredibly durable.
the old ones were made of metal, so if you scratch it its just a scratch, and a story, dents become scars of battles, and wars that were fought in the imagination, the foxhole you were hiding in while your friends pelted you with imaginary weapons, or even a storage unit for all your snow balls.
I must admit that i am completely torn about whether or not this thing is cool or not, i mean cane you take the mp3 player out in the snow? Anyway it sure is a sign of how things are totally changing, the digital world is making its way into every single aspect of our lives. Is that a good thing? Maybe, maybe not. I wish that we encouraged children to imagine more. When i was young everything we did was imaginary, we could play for hours or days, or even weeks with a big pile of snow.
I don't mind having technology, but i really think we need to continually encourage our children to imagine, and think in new and amazing ways. I hope that they will continue to grow, but without imagination will our country continue to sink into a deeper hole?
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Technology????
There is a lot of talk these days about technology and how wonderful technology can be, and it is very true, the possibilities with technology are amazing, the wonderful things that you can do are endless. I was at a conference today and they were using a power point for their presentation, which is wonderful, but how could it have been better?
Well the laptop that handled the presentation was about 15 feet away from where he was presenting, which means that the notes he used for his presentation were on paper, instead of listed at the bottom of his presentation where power point gives you the ability to make your own notes. Did you even know that power point had a presentation mode, that is specifically designed to be used on projectors, to give you a different view than what is on the slideshow?
Its simple things like this that are troubling to me. I was at my in-laws for Thanksgiving, and we wanted to watch a netflix movie instantly. Now we can do that on the laptop screen no problem, even better the laptop that my father in law owns has an HDMI output. It would have been wonderful to be able to just plug in the cable and watch the movie on the 42" HD tv, but it just didn't work right when it was all connected. Did you know that HDMI carries audio and video? So while we were able to see the movie on the screen the sound was still coming out of the Laptop.
There was no audio setting inside of windows that would allow us to make the sound come out of the sound system connected the to the TV. We tried everything, and you know how it finally worked? I had to open up Windows Media Center and then the sound majically worked. But you can't watch netflix movies from inside of media center. I hope that you are getting the point of this little rant. Technology is wonderful, but there is so much innovation that there is no time for any implementation, and to quote Jurrasic Park "Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."
It is my hope that we can put off the "innovation" and start to focus on the implementation, there are so few people who can actually use the technology that we have today why on earth do we even have it? Honestly how many of you spend more time trying to get your technology to work than having your technology work for you?
Well the laptop that handled the presentation was about 15 feet away from where he was presenting, which means that the notes he used for his presentation were on paper, instead of listed at the bottom of his presentation where power point gives you the ability to make your own notes. Did you even know that power point had a presentation mode, that is specifically designed to be used on projectors, to give you a different view than what is on the slideshow?
Its simple things like this that are troubling to me. I was at my in-laws for Thanksgiving, and we wanted to watch a netflix movie instantly. Now we can do that on the laptop screen no problem, even better the laptop that my father in law owns has an HDMI output. It would have been wonderful to be able to just plug in the cable and watch the movie on the 42" HD tv, but it just didn't work right when it was all connected. Did you know that HDMI carries audio and video? So while we were able to see the movie on the screen the sound was still coming out of the Laptop.
There was no audio setting inside of windows that would allow us to make the sound come out of the sound system connected the to the TV. We tried everything, and you know how it finally worked? I had to open up Windows Media Center and then the sound majically worked. But you can't watch netflix movies from inside of media center. I hope that you are getting the point of this little rant. Technology is wonderful, but there is so much innovation that there is no time for any implementation, and to quote Jurrasic Park "Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."
It is my hope that we can put off the "innovation" and start to focus on the implementation, there are so few people who can actually use the technology that we have today why on earth do we even have it? Honestly how many of you spend more time trying to get your technology to work than having your technology work for you?
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Why Money is Evill
I have no pictures for this post, i ony have my heavily medicated words. It has been a full year since we moved into our dream home, and you know what, i still love it here. Its me and Tara, Samwise, the crazy mean fat cat, Macey the most loveable dog that i have ever seen, she would go home with anyone, and of course the new adition to our family the little beagle, who is quickly becoming not so little. The three of them are by far the light of my eye. I guess that means i have 3 sparkles in my eye. 8
Anyway here is what has been bothering me, all of these retailers out there trying to make up for the poor sales of the year by having "Black Friday" sales. I do not know who came up with these sales but there is no way they could have actually had to spend time working on a Black Friday. I have done it on a number of occasions, and i will tell you, the deals that they offer are not worth it. The mark something down so much just to get you into the door, then when you get there they only 2 of them and someone already bought that one. That is just the marketing stand point. there are people that are hired to deal with these people, they are paid a very low wage, eight or nine dollars an hour to put up with us. The ravinv loonatic's who come into their place of business, scream yeall, often harm your own customers. And we can only afford to employe young teenagers who can't get jobs else where, and who therefore have no expierieice dealing with the diffiicult situations that will invariably arrive.
It makes me sick that people could do that to others, and because of the lower wages, and lack of brilliance in the staff, the people who come in to the store automatically l0ok down on the people that are there to serve them, thinking that just because they make more money than they do that they are worth more than the person who does all the work for them.
I wish that black friday's could be banned, the only poeople who continue to come up with this type of lunacy has to be the people who are only paying attention to the bottom line, they are not caring about what they are doing to the people who work there, taking them away from their families, nor that they are trying to make it so attractive to shop that they encourage people to leave their families and shop. This takes away from the original intent of this holiday, a holdiay which was designed to give the people of this country the ability to spend time with their families. Close down the shops, and get absolutely everyone in their homes, speding time with their families. These are the most important times in our lives. I wish so very much that i would have had more time with my family when i was younger, instead i was out with my friends, not that there is any thing wrong with that, there is a part of life that is very important to be learned with your freinds that you can't learn anywhere else.
all of this devaluation of people who just work retail and are there fore below everyone else is a trajic misnomer. If you want to be an educated consumer you want to buy from an educated sales force, someone who will do his best for you, not because of the comision that he recieves but because of the fair wage he is paid for his honest work, at getting you the best possible solution to the problem that you have. These people should be paid on the same levels as everyone else, because they provide you with a service that you would be unwilling to do yourslef. I have spent a great deal of time in retail, in sales, technical support, and managment, none of those positions afforded me respect by anyone other than those i worked with. I think it is time we reevaluate the compensetory system in our country, where professional athleets make millions and teachers, strive to survive, and are therefore looked down upon by so many.
Anyway here is what has been bothering me, all of these retailers out there trying to make up for the poor sales of the year by having "Black Friday" sales. I do not know who came up with these sales but there is no way they could have actually had to spend time working on a Black Friday. I have done it on a number of occasions, and i will tell you, the deals that they offer are not worth it. The mark something down so much just to get you into the door, then when you get there they only 2 of them and someone already bought that one. That is just the marketing stand point. there are people that are hired to deal with these people, they are paid a very low wage, eight or nine dollars an hour to put up with us. The ravinv loonatic's who come into their place of business, scream yeall, often harm your own customers. And we can only afford to employe young teenagers who can't get jobs else where, and who therefore have no expierieice dealing with the diffiicult situations that will invariably arrive.
It makes me sick that people could do that to others, and because of the lower wages, and lack of brilliance in the staff, the people who come in to the store automatically l0ok down on the people that are there to serve them, thinking that just because they make more money than they do that they are worth more than the person who does all the work for them.
I wish that black friday's could be banned, the only poeople who continue to come up with this type of lunacy has to be the people who are only paying attention to the bottom line, they are not caring about what they are doing to the people who work there, taking them away from their families, nor that they are trying to make it so attractive to shop that they encourage people to leave their families and shop. This takes away from the original intent of this holiday, a holdiay which was designed to give the people of this country the ability to spend time with their families. Close down the shops, and get absolutely everyone in their homes, speding time with their families. These are the most important times in our lives. I wish so very much that i would have had more time with my family when i was younger, instead i was out with my friends, not that there is any thing wrong with that, there is a part of life that is very important to be learned with your freinds that you can't learn anywhere else.
all of this devaluation of people who just work retail and are there fore below everyone else is a trajic misnomer. If you want to be an educated consumer you want to buy from an educated sales force, someone who will do his best for you, not because of the comision that he recieves but because of the fair wage he is paid for his honest work, at getting you the best possible solution to the problem that you have. These people should be paid on the same levels as everyone else, because they provide you with a service that you would be unwilling to do yourslef. I have spent a great deal of time in retail, in sales, technical support, and managment, none of those positions afforded me respect by anyone other than those i worked with. I think it is time we reevaluate the compensetory system in our country, where professional athleets make millions and teachers, strive to survive, and are therefore looked down upon by so many.
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