Steel Kaleidoscopes

Retro

The little person who lives in our house is always asking me about what it was like when I was in first grade.

She wants to know the name of kids in my class, what they looked like, what kind of people they were.

So I go through the names with her. Funny, but I remember quite a few of them.

Curious, once she's asleep, I find a few minutes and do a few Facebook searches. And some of those faces from first grade, faces I haven't seen since elementary school, come to life.

Kind of scary.

Bye, Bye TV

 
All electronics eventually die.

Like my beloved first-edition iPod, the 13-year-old big-screen TV finally checked out.

After discovering it would cost us more than $100 to have someone pick it up and haul it away, we decided to wheel it to the bottom of the driveway with a "free" sign and a note that said it would need repair.

Within an hour, someone hauled it away.

Onward.

RIP, iPod

My iPod died this week.

After five wonderful years together, it's over.

It had been acting funky lately, a little sick and tired, freezing up, constantly needing a reboot.

I thought it simply needed a new battery, and I watched a cool online video on how to replace it. I bought the battery, made the switch, but the functionality just wasn't there. No reaction to touch. No tunes. Sixty gigs of music with no sound.

It's been a good five years.

My iPod, a first-generation model the size of a deck of cards, accompanied me on many flights — to London, San Francisco, New Orleans, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Naples (Fla.) — entertaining me with the likes of Deep Purple, Aimee Mann, Hell Toupee, Jefferson Airplane and the Who.

My iPod was a two-year traveling companion on the dreaded MBTA commuter rail, serenading me on the 6:20 a.m. train into Boston with the Moody Blues, Anandi and Pink Floyd.

Lots of Pink Floyd.

My iPod fueled numerous Burning Sessions and, with the touch of a button, powered the 10-hour soundtrack to our annual summer party through our backyard Bose system.

It powered ghost stories for the little person who lives in our house during summer campouts.

Now it's over.

So, after five wonderful years, I'll buy a slimmer iPod at half the price of the original, with three times the storage space.

That's technology for you.

And it's good.

Thanks for the memories.

Damn, we played hard.

RIP. 

Reincarnation Online

Whether or not you believe in reincarnation, there's a Web site to provide some insight into where you've been.

Me?

I was allegedly female in my last earthly incarnation, born somewhere in the territory of modern Iran around the year 1325. My profession was that of a leader, major or captain.

Thanks (I think) for the link, Cyn.

The Wacky World of Wikipedia

~~~~~

Are you a human?

Koko Crispie  and Mean as Custard.

{{ Please don't delete this}}

{{Hang on}}

This is written like an advertisement.

Please consider rewriting.

Buzz words.

{{Hang on}}

~~~~~

I'll move out of my parents' basement someday.

{{ Please don't delete this}}

{{Hang on}}

Facebook's Real Metrics

 
Thought this was clever.

Social Media Quagmire

Has social media made us more productive or more distracted?

Ten years ago, you checked your email when you got home from work to make sure nothing imploded back at the office.

Now, there are so many more plugs in the outlets.

There are three more friend requests on Facebook. And, if you're like me, you don't just allow someone to friend you haphazardly. If he or she is truly a friend (or, at a minimum, someone you once worked with), I write a little note asking how they're doing. If they don't have time to respond to a simple "what's up," are they really a friend?

Another LinkedIn request. Someone else asks for a recommendation. Someone is looking for a marketing director. Do I know anyone?

What's so-and-so tweeting about? Is it worth a retweet? Now I have something to say.

Back to email. My work account. My personal account. My other personal account.

What the hell is this Google Buzz? More commentary.

Oh, and now to check out those videos that were sent around the office today. Over to YouTube.

Damn, I haven't blogged in two days. What can I write about? What's on my mind?

I look at the clock and an hour has passed.

So much for just checking my email.

Volume

My in-box just exceeded 1,000 emails.

What's up with that?

At what point does an in-box implode?

Healthetreatment

Paying it forward is a time-tested philosophy where everyone wins.

Healthetreatment is a brand new web site that has paying it forward as the crux of its mission. And it's paying it forward in the ultimate way — with your health.

How many times have you Googled the aches and pains you feel, trying to get an answer, but instead stumbling across obnoxious advertisements for pain-relief medication, links to useless doctor profiles and unorganized message boards that leave you more confused and alone after reading a few threads?

Imagine going to an online health resource that is actually helpful?

Healthetreatment's goal is to enable individuals to share health and wellness knowledge so that others diagnosed with the same or similar conditions can learn from their experiences.

Simply put, Healthetreatment is creating a catalog of health conditions, symptoms, and treatments compiled by real people. And with each experience shared, the site will be more valuable to the next visitor.

The site is fully confidential,  and information you share on your symptoms, condition, diagnosis and treatment is displayed in the aggregate to help others who are going through the same pain.

"The wisdom of the crowd" is truly the means to an answer here, with user-generated content (that's you!) paying it forward in a way to help others.

If you or someone you know has been diagnosed with a condition, check out Healthetreatment.

Your contribution is a building block that will provide the foundation for this innovative web site, whose goal is simple, but grand — to create the largest library of health information on the planet.

Tech Support

"I can't open my browser."

"Hit shift F-9."

"Is the network down?"

"Reboot."

"The 7-11 is out of Diet Coke."

"Argh!"