Kelsey

"Camping camping. Camping camping. Camping camping." sang two year old Connor in the back seat of the minivan. He sang these words over and over. It was a tune his dad did not quite recognize, but quite enjoyed. And it was a little familiar. Connor had probably used the tune before to sing some other one-word song. "We go camping" had been Connor's favorite phrase for days now, ever since Daddy had brought up the possibility of using a "boy's day" to go camping with just the boys.

Sitting next to Connor, his five year old big brother, Tyler was in charge of the animal crackers; eating one; handing one to his brother. Handing one over, eating one. Soon, he would run out and ask his dad if he could move on to sun chips. Camping had also been one of Tyler's topics of conversation over the past couple of days. When Connor had been very young, and Tyler had been three, Tyler had gone on a "just me and my dad" camping trip. Tyler and Daddy still talked about that trip. There was some excitement about leaving Mommy at home while the boys went on their little adventure. Hopefully Tyler could use his rank of Big Brother to help his little brother enjoy the experience.
Daddy turned off 285 to head towards Buffalo Creek, a little town about an hour Southwest of their Denver area home. This general area of Pike's Peak National Forest was special for the family. When Mommy and Daddy first moved to Colorado (before the boys), their first camping weekend had been along Forest Road 550, minutes South of Buffalo Creek. Their first backpacking trip in Colorado, and most of their subsequent backpacking trips, had been in Lost Creek Wilderness which they had accessed a bit further down on FR550. Tyler's third time camping and also the "Just me and my Dad" trip had been in Buffalo creek campground which was also down FR550. Connor's first camping trip was at Lone Rock Campground which was along the Platte river a bit further South of the town of Buffalo Creek. Daddy's last "Sheppy Quest" had also been in the lost creek wilderness in the same general area.
Daddy checked his cell phone. No service. Shoot. He should have called Mommy before now. Too late. He would have to suffer the consequences later. Daddy even now did not know where they would camp tonight. He was thinking one of three possibilities: Buffalo campground (the location of just me and my dad), one of the non-official campsites along FR550, or a campground called Kelsey which they had never been to but passed several times on their way to other camping adventures.
Approaching FR550, Daddy still had not decided which way to head, so he asked Tyler which way to go. Tyler did not even hesitate; Kelsey campground would be the place.
The sign was partially hidden coming from the North. Daddy passed the campground and had to turn around to come back. The campground was quiet in the early evening. Only one site other than the campground host was occupied, and the boys and their Dad saw no one as they circled through looking for a site. Just about every site had a reserved sign on them, but they were all reservations for the weekend .... Starting tomorrow.
After a couple of loops around the campground road, they settled on site number 10. It was pretty large, had a decent number of trees, and a bunch of good rocks to climb on.
Daddy and the boys unpacked, setup the tent, and setup for dinner sort of slowly. The boys for the most part helped by climbing rocks and pushing their toy dump trucks around. They also did an excellent job collecting rocks.
Rain came through. It was nothing heavy and Daddy just put rain jackets on the boys and kept at the tasks at hand. Connor and Tyler thought he rain added to their grand adventure.
By the time supper was ready, it was getting dark. They ate in the rain in the darkness. So cool. The boys just thought it was the most fun they had in weeks. Maybe it was the most fun they had all summer.
It was downright dark when dinner was over. Daddy put the boys in the tent with a lantern, put Connor's PJs on him while Tyler put his own on. Then he asked Tyler to read to Connor while Daddy cleaned up the site. We don't want bears to come get our stuff Daddy said.

While Daddy cleaned up, he heard the boys giggling up a storm. Tyler read one book but just being in the was just so much fun, it was hard to concentrate. Daddy was not sure what they were doing exactly, but it was obviously a blast.
It was not too long before Daddy joined the boys in the tent. He was pretty proud to have a couple of kids who do not need to cling to their parents. He was especially proud of big brother for agreeing to take care of his little brother while Daddy needed to do some work. Daddy read the boys some stories and tried to get them to go to sleep. Sleep did not come very quickly. There was just too much excitement. It all made Dad smile.
He loves his boys and always will.

Is anybody there?

So here I am sitting on a bench in downtown Denver trying not to think about a techical issue I am having with Captaris Workflow. If you do not know anything about Captaris, don't worry. It really does not matter.

The point is, sometimes the best way to come up with a solution is to stop thinking about it. Quite often, for me, a solution will come when I stop thinking about it. I think this happens to others as well, but maybe more for me. I do not know why this would be. It is probably just my ego-centric imagination.

My kids and I are going camping tonight. I mentioned it a few days ago and if for some reason it does not happen, it will devistate Connor. Every night since I brought it up, Connor seems to get upset that we are putting him to bed in his bed. He says 'No night time! Go camping.' I should probably realize by now that I should not talk about the future with my kids because future dates mean nothing. Daddy says we are going to do something a year from now and the kids will expect it to happen any time now.

Camping should be fun. I do not know exactly where we are going and chances are I am going to forget to bring something that I wil end up wishing I brought. Since, I do not know where we will be, I do not know what we will do. It will be an adventure to be sure.

Well... Nothing came to me about Captaris. Might as well go back in and try something else.

Bally

I am not sure what to write about.

Apparently, I have some time to kill as I sit outside Bally Fitness waiting for someone to open the door. There is a growing number of people waiting outside the door. I am sitting in my car with a view to the door. Bally opens at 6 am on Saturday. It is now 6:15.

For awhile I quit going in the morning because of this. But then they hired one of the people who always work out early. Now, it usually opens at least 15 minutes early... And probably earlier. I just never beat her in. Even though I rarely get a workout in early anymore, it is nice to know that it will be open when I do get there. I guess she is probably on vacation . I hope that is it and that we don't have to wait on a consistent basis.

Some guy just let a bunch of people in. He is 20 minutes late.

I will go get my heart pumping.

AA

I am currently sitting in my mini van outside the building that we just set up for an automated auction. It was an easy setup and we are now pretty much done 2.5 hours ahead of time. We could have been done even sooner but took our time. I have sort of blogged about Auction Automations before, but never really explained too much about it. If you would like to read about it, http://www.auctionautomations.com/ .

I sort of have mixed feelings about the whole idea of automating silent auctions as a business. For those of you who didn't go to website and who I have not talked to about it, basically what we do is setup a network with SQL server and use tablet PCs to enter bids rather than the traditional piece of paper that most silent auctions use. We have a bunch set up on the tables with the items and a bunch of "roaming tablets" which connect wirelessly to the network. It is more fun than the old paper based system and people LOVE us. No one in the area does this and so people who are used to the old paper based system just think it is so much cooler than any silent auction they have been to. Having everything in the computer also make things much easier for he people who put on the auction.

It is a lot of work to setup an event, and computers are expensive. And it is sort of hard to juggle a fair price for our service against the fact that the silent auctions are meant to raise money for charities. Every dollar they pay us is one that can not go to the charity.

Getting work is not a problem.
People love us. No one else does this. And it appears that we really are not charging enough. We charge a percentage on the silent auction proceeds with a minimum. It basically takes about 10,000 in proceeds to get to our minimum. Early on, we were getting events in the 30 or 40 thousand dollar range and that was nice. But lately we have been getting right around the minimum. For the most part it is the same amount of work for us for a 10 thousand dollar event as it is for a 60 thousand dollar event.

We are doing Ok. We are not in real danger of losing too much on this. But I do not think we are "in danger" of becoming rich either. And it is sort of fun to do these things, especially since people always tell us how awesome we are during these things. But sometimes I wonder if it is worth it. Most of the time I wonder.

Typically, we do a couple events a month. For us, an event basically starts early in the morning. We unload everything, and setup servers and lay cable for the network. Then we place tablets and charge the roamers. By the time the event starts we have typically spent an 8 hour day setting up and testing. Then we do the silent auction which is usually lasts 3 or 4 hours. Then it takes us a couple hours to tear down and load the trailer for going home.

I am getting too old for this kind of a work day. Especially since we are not getting paid. As owners, eventually we will get paid. But, I am just not sure if it will ever end up being worth the effort.

Needless to say, I have not quit my day job. I am self - employed with a client who is understanding about having to take time for auctions, so I am in a perfect situation for doing this. I also manage to spend more time with my family than most people (I think). So, that is not really a problem. I just wish that we would start getting 50 thousand dollar events on the norm rather than 15 k events. And wish we could hire other people to do this for us. Although, if I stop doing these completely no one will tell me how awesome I am.

Well, that is not true. Tyler told me I am an awesome Dad.

I should get back in there. My partners probably think I have deserted them.

Miscellaneous thoughts

I got an email from my sister. She reads my blog. I am quite sure she is the only one. I need to stop writing that no one reads this. My sister is having a baby. The bulk of her pregnancy (at least the time when she will be the biggest) is going to be during the summer, which I imagine will be somewhat uncomfortable.

I think this past June is by far the most blogs I have ever written. Part of it is that the emailing a blog seems to work better now so that I can compose the email on my phone when I have a few minutes and feel somewhat confident that it will actually end up posted. I am not writing about anything spectactularly interesting, so it is not really that bad a thing that only one person reads this.

The New York Yankies are in town right now. My current client is located downtown right across the street from Coors field. Tons of people were making their way to see the game while I was on my way out toward the light rail station. I would say 90% of hats and jersies etc. was Yanky stuff. There was sort of an excitment in the air though. It is hard to explain the feeling of being around so many people on their way to the game. It is too bad most of the fans do not care about the Rockies. I believe that if the Rockies ever got decent, it would not take the Yankies to fill the stadium. I don't even think the Rockies need to be great to get Denver fans to pay attention. Just make us think you have a shot at making the playoffs. Denver isn't a good sports town, it is a GREAT sports town. Fans will come out to watch a decent team. The Rockies just do not qualify. Lately they have been playing pretty good, though. Maybe the can keep it up.

-----

They just swept the Yankies 3 games. Nice

My wife and kids are visiting Grammy and Papa Lou (Tracy's parents) in Las Vegas. My little boy asked me why I usually don't come when they go. I didn't really have a good reason to share with him. The main reason is that I do not really like Vegas. It is too hot and deserty for me. It is too polluted and there are too many cars out there. I told Tyler that next time they go out there I'll go with them. He seemed happy with that. I guess I'll have to go then... That is not something Tyler will forget.

When Tracy set up this trip, my intent was to do SheppyQuest during this weekend. I have an auction this weekend, so now I can not do SheppyQuest. Had we known about this event, Tracy would have picked a different time to do the trip. I blocked off my Calendar so that perhaps the guys who set up this kind of thing would stay away from this weekend. They just ignore that. We probably are not in a position to turn down an event just because I have it blocked off, anyway.

I am bummed out to miss a SheppyQuest opportunity. I didn't do a SheppyQuest last year either. Part of the reason was also this darn Auction Automations company. To be honest, I did not intend to become as heavily involved as I have become. My intention was to simply help develop the software, and pretty much stop there. I got caught up in the exitment, though, and now here I am involved. This is not necessarily a bad thing. It is nice to have a hobby. Sometimes it seems to own me a bit more than I would like, but it is somewhat fun. And who knows? Maybe someday it will make me rich.

Anyway, another boring blog written from my cell phone. Hope Tera does not get too bored reading it.

Caiaphas

The little passion performance that our church put on protrayed Caiaphas as a really mean, bad guy. He was a bad guy. Anyone who engineers the murder of an innocent man cannot be considered a Saint. Not only did Caiaphas murder an innocent man, but he helped torchure and brutally killed God's son. The Son of God suffered hanging by nails through his hands and feet because of Caiaphas and his angry, bitter evil jealousy. A priest should conduct himself better. Surely if anyone deserves to rot in the firey pits of hell, it would be Caiaphas, right?

Of course, Caiaphas was not alone. He was the head priest of a religious community, and the overwealming mass of this community, God's Chosen People, joined in. The other priests, Roman guards, the Jewish nation, the whole world could claim blame for the death of Jesus. Even the discipples, Jesus's friends, are not blameless. There was plenty of sin to go around the week of Christ's passion. But Caiaphas was the architect, the leader. Surely this is a man who ended up suffering for eternity, right?

Of course, Jesus spent much of his time criticizing the religious leaders of the time. Religion had lost sight of its primary purpose which was to serve God, and Jesus pointed it out. By doing so, he alientated Caiaphas and the rest of the established power structure of the time. To get even, Caiaphas arranged to have Jesus killed. God frowns on this kind of vengeance.

I picture Caiaphas dressed in black, scheming in the dark with demans looking over his shoulder, supporting him with nods and laughter. Satan himself was certainly there to help plan Jesus's assassination. Caiaphas had eyes as black and evil as the devil. They might have eve glowed red. Caiaphas is burning hell even now, isn't he?

I do not think so.

I believe that the Grace that saved us all and forgives all our Sins even saved an evil vengful murderer like Caiaphas. When Jesus said "forgive them for they know not what they do", he was asking and granting forgiveness to everyone who participated in his torchure, humiliation and death.

Why do we call the events leading up to and including Jesus's death the Passion of Christ? Jesus was born so that he could be crusifed and raised from the dead. That was his purpose. That was God's plan for him. To die was his passion.

And Caiaphas helped execute God's plan. The betrayal, the abandanment, the brutality, the blood, the cross, the death, the whole plot was part of God's plan. Without Easter, the raising from the grave, Jesus was little more than one of the many prophets from God that came and did their thing. And without the cross, and the atrocities that it represents Easter, could not have happened. God executed His will through the evil in the heart of Caiaphas.

This is not the first time that God transformed evil deeds into good. God used Joseph to save the nation of Isreal. The reason that Joseph was in a position to save his family was because his brothers acted out of petty jealousy and sold their brother into slavery. A brother should know better.

So Caiaphas probably eventally died and went the Pearly Gates with shame and dread in his heart. He probaby felt like Joseph's brothers when they discovered their broter in Egypt. Seeing Jesus, Caiaphas must have realized what he had done and expected punishment and was probably ready to beg for mercy. Jesus, however, had forgiven before Caiaphas could even begin to appologize. The lamb of God scooped Caiaphas up in a heavenly embrace and celebrated the return of one of his prodigal sons.

This is what I assume happened because I believe in the Grace of God. I do not know. I would assume all Christrians would look at this the same way, except wrath of God and Judgement of sinners is also a way to go. And Judgement is something that humans seem to understand more than forgiveness, especially when it comes to certain atrociousities. Like I said, I do not know. I'll let God take care of that. Of course, I do not have much of a choice, do I?

But I have come to belief that the Lord forgives Caiaphas all his sins. And, if God can accept an evil murdering monster like Caiaphas, I guess my spot in heaven can not be in doubt.

Unfortunately, I am the kind of person who beats himself up for every part of me that lacks perfection. I am tough on myself for not always treating others as myself. I know I do not always act like I love God with all my heart. I feel bad about all these little transgressions. I beat myself up even though I say that I know I am forgiven. Afterall, I just said that Caiaphas is probably in God's arms, and I certainly have not done anything as bad as putting any innocent person to death.

Chances are, you have not done anything that bad either. Remember always that you are God's child and that everything will be alright. This is not a trivial thing, being a child of God.

Anyway, I started writing this blog right around Easter. I wrote it mostly on my cell phone and always intended to come in later with supporting bible verses and other brilliant additions. I guess since it has been over 2 months, I might as well go and publish it. God’s grace is timeless, so it does not really matter if I publish it now or 2 months ago or two months from now.

Of course, no one reads my blogs, so it REALLY does not matter.

Waiting

I took a number and have to wait. I do not remember when the last time I actually took a number to wait for anything. And I do not particularly care for it.

It is a Wednesday around 10am in the Colorado State Parks office. Shouldn't these other people be working?

I have to be here because we bought a minivan last night, and traded in the truck that had our CO state park pass on it. To get a new sticker without paying the $55 again, I had to come down here to get a new one.

Of course buying the van took way longer than it seems it should have. I had already test driven an exact van (except for the color) and had the price worked out before I got in, so it should have taken no time at all. But it did take time. And most of it was waiting.

33 got called. I guess that was not too bad a wait.

.....

Now I am at U-Hall waiting for a hitch to be installed. They had me come back. Then I would be next so I left them the key and took a walk. It has now been an hour and a half total and they just now pulled the van in the garage. I probably should have just installed it myself. Hopefully it will not be much longer.

It is a nice day and there is not much work to do at CHFA today, so I guess there could be worse situations to wait. I do have to pick up the kids in a couple of hours though so hopefully I am not too much longer.

This van is pretty nice, but I already miss the Blazer. And the van takes up a bunch more room in the garage. It will be great to be able to fit more than just the four of of in a vehicle. The Blazer was great for us 4, but 5 was uncomfortable for one person and downright dangerous (possibly illegal?) for 6. So, Papa Lou had to ride in the cargo area a couple of times. With the van, 7 should fit ok. 6 a piece of cake. Of course, it is somewhat rare that we would ever need seats for 7.

Anyway, this email is probably going to ge cut off, so I'll end the blog here. I'll be waiting some more.

Bye.

Carpenter Peak

I am sitting on a rock on Carpenter Peak, looking down on the Roxboro Mansions. I would love to live there but even if I could afford it, I would not want that kind of mortgage. The red rocks all around with the green trees and other plants really look beautiful. The foothills I am sitting in have miles of trails through beautiful National Forest wilderness.
It always amazes me that there is such beautiful wilderness minutes from the Denver Metro area. I go into it somewhat often and it still catches me little by surprise.
I hear some hikers. I had better get of the phone before they see me and make fun of me for messaging here on a hike.

Lattes

Hello my name is Eric and I am addicted to Venti Vanilla Non-Fat Lattes.

I am ashamed to say it but I am addicted. Anyone who pays $4.00 for a coffee is an idiot. Well, I guess, I am not very smart. To be fair, it is $3.89, not $4.00, so I guess I am 11 cents less stupid than originally portrayed. AND, I only purchase these with my company credit card on my way to a client or while talking business with an associate, so these are tax deductible. In a way the government is subsidizing my addiction.

It started out innocently enough, but that does not really matter. An addiction is an addiction. I just hope my wife never finds out. She would be so disappointed in me.

At least I have plenty of company. Starbucks is ridiculously popular. There are shops all around and even so they are packed. It is bad enough to pay almost $4 for a coffee, but to pay $4 and to have to wait is even worse. Only idiots would do it.

Anyway, someday I will kick the addiction. Or maybe I won't. Either way, It probably will not destroy my life. But, the shame of it all certainly will not be easy to live with.

California Stanley

I am bit bummed out that the Ducks won the cup last night. I did not like Carolina winning it last year. I hated that Tampa Bay won a couple of years ago. To be honest, I do not think NHL hockey belongs in cities that never see snow. Ottawa should win the cup. Calgary should win the Cup. Colorado or Buffalo should win the cup. The California and Florida teams should not.

But the Ducks did win. They were the better team and deserved to win. Congratulations. Hurray for them.

At least the Red Wings did not win it.

Super Joe

Joe Sakic may be the nicest professional athlete in the world. He is certainly the nicest one I have met. I pretty much shook his hand and said 'hi', so I am basing this on limited experience, but no one reads this blog, so I'll go ahead and say make the claim as if I know what I am talking about. Joe Sakic is a really nice guy.

I attended a charity event this past weekend that featured most if not all the Avs. I only really got a chance to observe a few of them and only talked very briefly to a couple of them because I was pretty busy working the silent auction. http://www.auctionautomations.com

I found myself feeling a little sorry for Joe. In Denver, he is THE man. If you are a hockey fan AT ALL, Joe is your hero. As soon as he walked in, tons of people mobbed him for pictures and autographs and just to say they met Super Joe. I am not sure he was able to go the the bathroom there were so many people around him all the time. I doubt there are many places he can go where he is able to get away from people. And I get the feeling he never says 'no' or 'leave me alone'. He just always handles himself as a fan would want him to.

While at the silent auction, a lady showed me a photo of Joe with a beautiful 8 month old girl in childrens' hospital. Joe was holding the girl while wearing a santa hat and with a big smile on his face. The lady told me the picture was taken on the 23rd of December and her daughter passed away on the 27th. The story made me feel sad for this poor woman. It also reenforced my suspicion that Sakic is a very nice guy... Much nicer than I have ever been. The woman REALLY wanted to win a signed Sakic jersey in the auction. This jersey went for over 1,200, and the lady did not win it. Sort of sad, but at she should feel good that she helped drive up the price for a chidrens charity.

Joe was also nice enough to let us take a picture with him for our website. I got to say hi and shake his hand. He even came by once when we were too busy for him and he came back when things were settled down. I did not expect him to do that. I just think it was really nice of him.
So anyway, that is my limited experience with Joe Sakic. Of course I watch him play hockey a lot and think he is one of the goal scorers I have ever seen. (because he is). For such nice guy, Joe Sakic has a wicked wrist shot. He is still one of the best in the league and certainly the best on the Avs. But I guess my main point is that I don't think I would want to trade places with him or any other top pro athlete. The money would be great and it would be nice to play a game for a living and be recognized as great. But it really seems that all the fans all the time would get old quick. Especially if you are one of those nice guys who will not say 'no' to your fans.

I would like to know how Joe gets such force with his wrist shot, though.

Emailing Blogs

I think BlogSpot has issues with emailing blogs. I know for sure I have inconsistent results when I do it. At least one of my issues has to do with the phone. The phone truncates messages that I send. It seems that this should be a setting that I can control, but if it is, I cannot figure out where it is.

Anyway, emailing blogspot is not nearly as wonderful as I think it should be.

Semi-Charmed

I lead this Semi-Charmed kind of life. Third Eye Blind came up with the phrase, but even before the song came out I always felt I had the Semi-Charmed life. Everything seems to work out for me. I've always sort of felt someone or something was looking out for me, because it seems that every situation turns out for the best. And it not as if I am some hyper-optimistic person. Things just always wok out for me better than I could ever imagine. Actually, I believe in many cases that if I chose how I would like things to turn out perfectly, they would probably turn out worse than they end up naturally. My life turns out better than I would know to choose for myself

Bad day

I was up late last night working my non-paying job. When I got up today my wife told me the furnace was not working. While I was looking at it my wife told me that the car was not starting.

Somehow I got the furnace working, and had Tracy take me to the train. Now I just want to go back to sleep. It is going to be a long day.

The car needs fixing, and although the furnace is working right now, I do not think I permanently fixed it. I do not have time for things to break.

It is a beautiful day. I still want to go back to sleep.

Tablet Pc

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Curlier today I tried writing to this boy with ^ PDA. It turned out even wise. I guess the tablet technology might be much letter to those with good handwriting. Wow! The sentence I just write was actually what A tried to write. I must be getting your ht this!! MAYBE Not.

wall, I yours that shins his been enough of this.

Bye

Ghost Busters

I saw a VW bug today with the Ghost Busters logo on its side. I took a picture of it.

When I got into work, I mentioned the sighting to Wes, my coworker. He looked it up... Ghost Busters came out in 1984.

Why would someone in 2006 have a Ghost Busters logo on their car?

Jerry, another coworker, had a theory. He asked if the car was dressed up for Halloween. I'm not sure I like the idea of weirdos 'dressing up' their cars for Halloween. Of course, have you ever met a VW Bug owner who was not at least just a little bit strange? It seems sort of like something my inlaws might do. They are not Bug owners, but they certainly are weird enough to do something like 'dressing up' their cars.

I can not imagine a person who loved that movie enough to have decorated their car as a tribute to the movie. I enjoyed the movie, but come ON. Maybe right after it came out, but not 22 years later. Of course, let's not forget what freaks Bug owners are in general.

My favortite theory is that there are real Ghost Busters running around downtown Denver. Lodo is pretty old with documented ghosts in several old buildings. I am pretty sure Molly Brown haunts an old brothel in town. Or maybe it is Molly Brown's old house that she haunts. Molly Brown lived in Denver after she went down with the titanic, didn't she?

Anyway, I just thought I would share my photo of the car. Maybe someday, I'll figure out what that is all about.

Snowy travel

This is the first snowy travel day of the season, so I am taking the light
rail. Back before I could deduct mileage, I rode the light rail just about
half the time. Since I became self-employed, I only take it on Rocky Home
Game days or real bad traffic days. Maybe now that I can blog from my phone
I'll do it more.

The problem with taking the light rail is that it takes a longer time to get
to and from work. The big advantage is that I don't actually have to drive.
Of course, I should be glad about how much gas I save, but unfortunately,
the $.45 per mile I am able to pay myself as my employer pretty much negates
that advantage. Perhaps I am way too attached to cold hard cash. It is
easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for me to enter
the kingdom of heaven. It is a good thing that with God all things are
possible.

Well, I am coming up on my stop. I will then have to walk through the snow
to my current client. It is a heck of a lot better than driving with the
weather-challenged drivers of Denver, though.

By the way, if you are looking for a smart phone , I completely endorse the
Motorola Q.

=========

It is now time to go home. I never synced during the day so, my blog was
still in the outbox... And I can continue where I left off. Battery life on
this is not as good as it was on my old phone. This is actually because I
use the smart phone more than the stupid one. One nice thing, though is
that power come through the little mini-usb port, so I can charge up
anywhere i have my laptop (which Monday thru Friday is almost everywhere).

As of now, I still bring my mp3 player with me, but I have a 2 gb mini-sd
card ordered for my phone. I can load a bunch of music on the phone and not
need the player anymore. Of course I basically have ALL my music on the mp3
player, and the phone cannot hold everything. So, maybe I will just still
use the mp3 player. It is nice to have the option, though.

So, it is nice riding the light rail. I think I may make a special effort
to ride to work once or twice a week. Environmentalists probably are glad
I got the Q.

My con man

My one year old is really learning to talk, and it is incredibly cute to see. Every chance he gets to use one of his words is an opportunity that he really seems to relish.

'No' is his favorite word. It used to be 'dada', but now I think I have to be content with a close second place.

Every time he goes into his room and sees his little heater, he points at it and tells me 'ha' (hot). He does the same thing when he sees the fireplace or the grill.

When Conner sees a hat, either a picture or a real one, he pats his head and says 'ha' (hat). I am not sure what would happen if he ran into a hot hat.

Connor's favorite book is 'Baker Baker Cookie Maker' because he knows how to say 'coocoo' (cookie monster).

Every day, the baby improves his talking skills. And amazingly enough, he just keeps getting cuter and cuter. I do not know how I became so lucky to live with this joy.

Incidentally, this is the second blog I have written on my smart phone and emailed to my blog to publish. I am really impressed at how this works. I also attached the photo above to the email, but it did not automatically publish the picture. That is somewhat disappointing, but probably understandable. Hopefully they will make the blog publish work with attached photos at some point. Anyway... isn't he just the cutest baby you have ever seen?

Smart Phone

I am typing this blog on my new smart phone . It is really a neat little
piece of technology, but I am not sure it is worth the effort. It is sort
of overkill for what I really need it for. I still have the cheapest
wireless plan I have ever been able to find, and I could not bring myself
to pay for a web / data plan that will allow me to do much web serfing.

I do foresee myself developing little smart-phone apps for this, but without
wifi, I will be dependent on web services to do any client / server type
things ... And that costs me by the kb.

Unfortunately, the unlimited data plan with verizon seems ridiculously
expensive for what I would use it for. The web-browser seems awefully slow
for the price as well. I guess as I see how much I use this, I'll know and
can adjust.

This phone definantly has some cool features. I really like the sync
between outlook on my laptop and the phone. Although I am really
disappointed in the fact that the sync does not include notes. The phone
also does not come with a text editor. I really wanted to use the sync to
push important information form and to my phone such as account numbers and
stuff like that. Of course, I could download an app to do that or I could
even develop one myself, but it just seems that the smart phone software
should have included that.

But, for the most part, I am pretty pleased with the phone. I probably will
use it enough to be worth the extreme cost. It will be cool to have.

Afarensis

Skeleton Sheds Light on Ape-Man Species - NEWS - SCIENCE - Comcast.net

Australopithecus afarensis

Apparently, scientists found the remains of an Ape-Man (Ape-Girl) in Ethiopia sometime in the year 2000. They have taken over 5 years removing the body and apparently, the job will take several more years to complete. They are very excited about the find.

I'm not sure why this is listed as "news" on my comcast portal given that the find was made several years ago and that the body has not been completely removed, but that is not really what I am blogging about.

The article says that this Ape-Girl is about 3.3 million years old.

She was about 3 years old when she died (apparently).

3.3 MILLION years old.

I am 36 years old.

If you compare 3.3 million years to a 24 hour day, 36 years would represent a little less than one second of the day. All the years I have been alive could be gone in the time someone could say "one-thousand-one".

It is the year 2006. 2006 years corresponds to less than one minute on our cosmic clock. In turn, if you compare the age of the Earth (4.6 Billion Years old) to the 3.3 Million years of the little ape-girl from Ethiopia, we are talking only about one minute on THAT cosmic clock.

I guess I could look at this and feel insignificant. Scientists think that homo sapiens have only existed for about 50,000 years on an Earth that is 4.6 billion years old in an universe that is only 20 billion years old. And I have only existed 36 years. In the grand scheme of the universe, I am less than a blink of an eye.... a lot less than a blink.

But this does really make me think that insignificant. It does put me in awe of the God who created it all. I am amazed that the One who designed this universe and put it in motion has the capacity to look at me as special and important. To say that this capacity amazes me is so completely understating the situation that it is not really funny. There is probably not a word in the English language that communicates how awesome this is. I certainly do not have the capacity to see myself as wonderful as God apparently sees me.

Anyway, I hope the little 3-year old ape-girl had a happy, healthy life over her limited years. I hope her death was not too traumatic. I wonder if someday I will meet her in heaven.