Wintergatan Marble Machine
This was pretty fascinating to watch.
The Casual Haversack
I'm a family man, gadget fan, reader, musician, arm chair traveler and love a good cup of coffee in the morning.Working with a new keyboard
My new Microsoft Universal Folding Keyboard arrived in the mail yesterday. I have to say that I’m really pleased with it so far. I pre-ordered this device back on April 1st and I’ve been waiting (sometimes not so patiently) for it to come in. The main thing for me is the convenience factor and the ability to link it to my iPad. It has really exceeded my expectations. With this new combo in hand, I’m looking forward to much more writing throughout the day on my mobile devices. Time will tell if I’m successful or not, but I’m really optimistic.
I feel optimistic that today is going to be a good day. It’s not enough just to have this feeling. Now I have to go out and make it happen. 😀
Writing on an iPad
I’ve had a MacBook Air for several years now. I really enjoy writing on it and it’s a fantastically designed machine. Two things make me hesitant to bring it with me everywhere. First, it’s an incredibly expensive item to be schlepping along with me. If I were to drop it or if it were to get stolen, I’d just feel terrible at the expense of the loss. Secondly, since it’s an older computer, the battery life isn’t quite what I’d like it to be. I seem to burn through my time unplugged much faster than I’d like.
For my most recent trip to San Francisco, I decided to leave my laptop behind and try working from just my iPad mini (with bluetooth keyboard) and my iPhone. I have to say, thus far I’ve been very pleased with result. The battery life is great and the cost for the tablet/keyboard combo is less than half what I paid for the MacBook Air. So far, so good. I’m willing to give this a try long term and see how well it works.
Enjoying the cool ocean breezes.
It’s a great day in San Francisco! Time to go get myself checked-in for the conference.
I just had a huge freakout because, as I was typing, a big spider crawled out from under my wrist. I don’t want to know how it got there, I just want it to be gone. Yeah, I don’t like spiders much.
Every Moment Is Important
I’m feeling melancholy. Three families I am friends with are mourning the loss of loved ones this week. Two of the families each lost a parent/grandparent and one young couple had to say goodbye to a precious newborn daughter. My heart goes out these people. A few years ago, my father, brothers, and I had to sit by my own mother’s bedside while she passed out of this life. It was perhaps the hardest thing that I’ve ever experienced.
After hearing the sad news from our friends, my family and I sat down to watch some television. In the episode we saw, one of the main characters spent most of the show providing hospice care for her terminally ill mother. The moment when she said that final goodbye, I was somehow transported back to my own similar experience and I wept. Just when you think you’ve got a handle on the grief and the mourning that results from losing someone close to you, circumstances come together and make it fresh all over again.
Employment has taken me far away from family and friends. My wife, two of our kids, and myself now live on the west coast while most everyone who is important to us remains back east, including my father who resides in Michigan. The funny thing is, I talk with him now more than we’ve ever done before. I make it point to telephone regularly and not take for granted the time that remains to us. Our calls can’t fully replace spending time together and giving my dad a firm hug, but I cherish them nonetheless. It’s what I have now and I’m going to make the best of it.
I’ve seen life come into this world, having been present at the birth of my own children and others while doing medical relief work overseas. There is such joy and life seems so full of possibility when a baby takes its first breath. The other side of the coin, though, is that at some point, all life will also depart from this world. It’s a sobering thought, but one that shouts out: “Every Moment Is Important.”
This is what’s on my mind today - make time for the things that have real value and even if you’re far apart, stay close to those that matter most.
Got a Facebook friend request from someone I haven’t seen in 27 years, so I’m feeling a little nostalgic today. We first got to know each other on a college internship in East Africa where we worked on a relief project in the late 1980s. The movie “Out of Africa” had come out just prior to our departure from the United States and our whole group watched it at a bon voyage event. Even though most of our time was spent out in the rural, desert areas, we did have the opportunity to visit several places shown in the movie, including Karen Blixen’s home. This song has always been memorable and I often think of it as the unofficial soundtrack of that experience. Whenever I hear it, I can’t help but think of the majestic remote places of Africa and the incredible wildlife - but most importantly, the amazing people which I had the good fortune to meet.
