I woke up this morning at 9:35am, quite shocked that I had not been woken by some small person in the house already. There hadn’t been a peep. Quite odd.

But, my unexpected bliss was short-lived, as Alex came in to let us know it was 9:37am. (Pronounced “Nine-Three-Seven”.)

So, with a little coaxing, Alex was able to rouse Mom and Dad, and soon the family began to awake. I took my morning shower, then collected the laundry to do a few loads today on my half-work day. I came down and had a bit of breakfast, and we planned to head out and do some thrifting today, since we had a few items we were hunting.

All of this went mostly as expected.

We didn’t find exactly what we were looking for, but a decent alternative. We returned home for lunch, and then put Kirstie down for her nap, and I headed out to get our oil changed, and then work on my book at the coffee house.

I was not expecting to be there for most of two hours.

It ended up our brake pads and rotors were toast. So, a twenty dollar oil change ended up being $450 worth of repair. Ouch. And, I was not able to get to the coffee house…. which I had been looking forward to all week.

One positive – I met a fellow musician from Fairport. Nice guy. Hopefully we will connect again in the future.

So, I came home a bit frustrated by my foiled plans, and had to do the dishes, switch the laundry and make dinner for the family. The reailty of a pregnancy-hindered wife is setting in. Time to hunker down I suppose.

We’re heading out tonight to get Kirstie’s birthday photos at WalMart (a coupon) and some other stuff. Though, I am not wanting to spend ANY more money today. Funny how an unexpected major expense can do that to you… 🙂

OK, I have to eat my dinner now… and then get on to the rest of the day. 🙂

I wonder what else I can expect from today?

Apple will be announcing “some new fun products” on February 28th according to an invite they sent to selected media personnel this week. In anticipation of that, the internet is full of rumors about what those products might be. Well, as I have mentioned here before, I have a column at a news site called Newsvine(.com), and I posted some thoughts there. That column should be public within the next week or so, but until it is, I’ll post some of my favorite articles here as well. 🙂

Here it is…

---

And The New Apple Products Will Be…
by Greg Campbell

On February 28th, Apple has promised to reveal to a group of invited members of the press “some fun new products”. The speculation began soon after the last wave of Apple products was unveiled at the 2006 MacWorld Expo back in January. Will we see a full-screen video iPod with a touch screen? Will we see a tablet Mac? How soon will the rest of the Mac line-up be switching to the Intel processor?

But my favorite by far is the rumor that Apple will finally put the Mac Mini in its rightful place: in your living room.

There are rumors that the mini will receive the Intel upgrade, and perhaps a built-in iPod dock. There are some rumors that the Mini will be the next in line to receive the FrontRow software that has been offered in the iMac and now the MacBook Pro lines. Even cooler, perhaps, than these, some have speculated that Apple will ship the new digital media hub Mac Minis with their own DVR software integrated with all of Apple’s iLife suite.

Now that would be something wouldn’t it?

Media is certainly moving toward digital. I mean completely digital. CDs of course, are digital. However, so many people are ditching their CDs for MP3 players of various sizes, and certainly the king of these is the iPod. The idea that you can actually carry your entire collection of digital music with you everywhere you go is simply amazing. Add to that your digital photos stored on phones, or the 4th gen iPod on down, and you already have quite a collection of your life, literally in the palm of your hand.

As iTunes has begun integrating video into their offerings, and the 5th generation iPod has been capable of playing video, people have been increasingly moving toward a more digital approach to TV and other visual content. Apple adds new content every week to the iTunes store. TV shows are even being offered now before they actually air. And, even for free!

As the selection increases, and as hard drive space becomes greater for a smaller price, why would we not do the same thing we have done with our music, and our photos? Instead of having shelves full of DVDs, perhaps the time is coming soon when we will have our entire collection of DVDs (and VHS?) on one tiny 6″ x 6″ x 2″ box sitting unassumingly in our giant entertainment center.

The day is certainly coming, and I am hoping that 2.28.06 is it.

I actually submitted an idea to Apple sometime last year about this. Long before I heard rumors on the rumor sites (perhaps simply because I was not paying attention) I thought it would be really cool to have the Mini be a home entertainment hub. And beyond that, I thought it would be really cool if Apple would not just offer content song by song, or video by video… but channel by channel. Apple with their a la carte media offerings could put the cable companies out of business by offering monthly subscriptions or even yearly subscriptions to just one channel’s content. Packages would also be available, but the appeal to me was the thought that I could actually pay for say 10 channels that I really want instead of 400 that I don’t care about at all!

And all of this could be piped directly into a DVR Mac Mini!

Here’s a clip from the e-mail(s) I sent to Apple on March 24th, 2005:

We were frustrated recently by our large cable bills ($65/mo for digital cable with DVR) when all we really want are local channels and perhaps 4 others. And we asked the cable company if they would ever offer packages where you could select your own channels. They said no. And I thought, why not? This is the age of select the songs you want from albums for $0.99 each… making your own greatest hits albums. Why could we not do something similar with cable TV.

But I had no idea how to get started, and then I had an idea.

What if Apple opened the iTV (or something like that) Video Store! It could be similar to the Music store, except you could purchase monthly or annual subscriptions to individual cable networks. This way people pay either buy the network, or perhaps some sort of package price for people who really do want all of those channels? AND, in addition to that, people could purchase movies just like they do songs!!! Not “rent” them like cable companies offers now with their OnDemand videos… PURCHASE them, download them, and burn them to DVDs on the Mac Mini!!

The service could work as some sort of attachment to your regular cable internet – perhaps through your computer? That box/device could then send a signal (ethernet OR wireless) to the Mac Mini-like device that sits in your entertainment center (with your TV). That device (which would no doubt have a fantastic name, better than iTV.. iView or something?) would act as a cable tuner (using software) and a DVR (using it’s hard drive, way bigger than any other decive out there, such as TiVo) and a SuperDrive with easy Apple-designed software that allows you to click a button on your remote (instead of a mouse) and burn a DVD of the movie you just downloaded for $9.99!

Cable channels would work similarly… you would purchase channels by the month, year, or more, and those would be in your purchased channels screen (with all the information of what’s on that channel for the next two weeks at your fingertips…) You could purchase ESPN for the baseball season, and then take a break over the off season. Or, you could purchase a sports-lovers package for a whole year that includes ESPN and several others… much like an iTunes Essentials album collects several tunes and puts them in one easy to purchase package.

I was really excited about this when I sent it, and couldn’t wait to hear back from Apple. I actually received a legal notice back telling me Apple does not allow unsolicited ideas. Ha! Actually, that made me think they were close to something like this, and last summer, they added video content to the iTunes music store, and away we went.

I believe this device is coming. I don’t know if it will be next week, but probably this year. As for the movies and even the cable channels… that might take a bit longer.

But wouldn’t it be cool?

Well, I for one am looking forward to the “fun new products” to be unveiled next Tuesday.

(NOTE: The image with this article is completely fabricated. I made it in Photoshop. I have no inside information — does anyone? — this is just based on the rumors I have read, and my own creative ideas. There is certainly no basis to claim this product will be made by Apple this week, or ever. That said… I sure hope they do!)

I have thought a lot recently about the dangers of viewing the world as black and white. One thing is right, one thing is wrong. There can be such a rigid interpretation of this way of thinking that legalism, and even hatred and violence completely take over. People take sides, and create battle lines. Wars are waged over the noble cause of Truth and Purity.

I understand that there are some things in life that are true, and right, and good. Unfortunately, there are so many things that do depend on the circumstances of the situation to determine their “rightness”. Sometimes, it’s ok to take another person’s life. It is a side effect of a broken, fallen world. Even though murder is wrong, if someone attacks you, with the intent to kill, and in self-defense, you end up taking their life – though tragic – it’s not “wrong.”

There certainly can be danger in a world full of shades of gray. Who’s to say what’s right and wrong? Who determines which version of “right” is actually “right”? Well, unfortunately, it is often those who see the world as black and white who attempt to enforce their views on the rest of the population.

I watched the movie Remember The Titans yesterday. I had just copied it from VHS to DVD and was testing out the DVD, but was quickly captured by the story. It was about black and white. Right and wrong.

If you’ve not seen it, please do. Excellent movie. It’s not really just a football/sports movie. There’s a lot more there. It’s set in 1971 Alexandria, Virginia. The social climate is hot with racial tension. T.C. Williams is the first public school in the area to be forced to “integrate”. (At the time, “colored folks” did not mix socially with “white folk”, so this was quite scandalous.) (EDITOR’S NOTE: I can’t believe this happened only 3 years before I was born. That’s insane.) The movie focuses on the school’s football team (it’s based on a true story, by the way) where a hall-of-fame coach had commanded the troops for quite a long time to many state championships. As part of the integration however, Herman Boone – a black man – was named the head coach. The rest of the story is how two starkly opposite worlds – black and white – are forced to integrate, and in the process learn that their “black and white” understanding was not so clear after all.

Titans is a wonderful story of people choosing to see what’s inside a person rather than prejudging from what is seen on the outside. Very cool movie. I highly recommend it.

I watched it by myself – no one else was awake! – but Jen is going to watch it with the boys today. I hope they see the craziness that used to pervade our society. How we treated people like animals, even worse than animals, just because they had different skin color. I can’t even believe we could think such a thing. I still see remnants of it in my grandparents’ speech. Every once in a while, an old way of thinking will emerge in a word or a sentence. But for the most part, it is really good that we have moved on from seeing our world as “black and white”.

We’re not done yet. There is more to go. Maybe when our kids are having kids things will be different. Perhaps by then, their children will look back at the mid to late 20th century – even the early 21st century – and wonder why we just didn’t get it.

But, probably not.

In every generation, there will be people who will see black and white. It may not be applied to skin color, as it was in the 60s and 70s. It might be something else. But it will be black and white. I am right, and you are wrong. It is, as I said, an unfortunate reality of a fallen world.

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God – Rom 3:23

But all are freely justified by faith in Christ Jesus. All of us. Whether we can’t leave other people to their own journey because we can only see black and white, or whether we steal, kill, lie, commit adultery, or some other “grand” sin. We’re all on equal footing, whether we think so or not. There are no sides – like black and white.

We are many shades of gray.

I have read a few articles expressing disdain for the modern day Olympics, with the overwhelming influence of professional athletes. “The Olympics is for amateurs!” they say. I think I slightly agree. I don’t think that people who do these sports as a profession should be excluded from the competition completely. I actually like that the pros and the amateurs compete side by side. It’s kind of like what the digital era and the internet has done for indie musician. We are approaching a time when the independent musician will be on a level playing field with the big record labels and marketing companies. They still have the advantage, but at least we are able to compete, and in some cases do very well. (Perhaps even medal?) 🙂

My beef with the Olympics is those crazy announcers! Maybe there is where there should be no “professionals”!!! Come on folks… give the athletes a BREAK. I have not watched that much, but every time I do, it seems the announcers know WAY too much (or at least they think they do) and so they are constantly critiquing every move made by the athlete. A steady stream of picky, negative commentary comes from their mouths, berating the slightest deviance from perfection. Ahhhh!!! Stop it already!

I do enjoy watching the Olympics – though usually only in short bursts – and if these professional announcers would just stick to giving us background stories and perhaps try to emphasize the good things the athletes are doing, then I wouldn’t be so tempted to just turn off the sound!

Good thing I only watch about 10 minutes at a time… 🙂

Just saw this come across my news feeds:

Macworld: Podcasts: Macworld Podcast #29: Examining Leap-A

(it’s a podcast about the more well known of the three malware issues that surfaced this week affecting the Mac OS)

If you read news online, chances are you have heard about the nasty streak of viruses hurled at the Mac platform this week. It’s terrifying! It’s catastrophic! No one is safe anymore!!!

Or, not.

Really, they were very small malware scripts that do mostly nothing. That’s my summary. I found this article today, which I believe is appropriately titled.

Before you believe the hype, take a look at this article:

Wired News: Mac Attack a Load of Crap

Just an update…

I spent a few hours last night compiling more stuff for the book to be released early this year. (Question: at what point does it no longer qualify as “early” this year?) 🙂 I am really enjoying putting this together. There is a lot of great stuff that I was thinking through (And in some cases, I still am!) and some well said articles that I hope will challenge, encourage and inspire folks who get to read them – either for the first time, or again, minus typos and with correct sentence structure and stuff. 🙂

(like that one, I guess…)

So, my hope is still that I would have the rough rough draft complete by the time the baby arrives. That grows ever closer however! If you’ve not had a chance to get your prediction in, perhaps you should stop by today, or… you might be too late!

More to come soon. Just wanted to give an update on the next book.

Today is February 20th. 20 years ago today, our niece (the first of her kind in Jen’s family, being the first child of Jen’s oldest brother) was born. That’s a good long time ago. But, imagine this… 32 years ago today, two of our other friends were born – in different, unrelated places. Yes, that makes three folks we know and do life with who were born on this day.

But it gets weirder…

Exactly one year ago today, our new friend Chloe was born bringing the total number of friends and family born on February 20th to a whopping FOUR. Four!!!

That’s crazy.

Happy birthday all!!! 🙂

If you’ve seen Jen lately, you have wondered that very thing. After a double take, or two (wait, would that be a triple take?) you compose yourself and realize that whenever it is, it’s quite soon… 🙂

The actual due date (3/17) is fast approaching, so, we have once again created a little page for you to guess the baby’s due date. I’ll post all the guesses and we’ll use that page as a place to share photos, movies, stories, etc once the baby arrives.

Happy guessing!

I’m pretty sure that I was dreaming this morning just before I woke up that I dreamt I was dreaming. Is that possible?