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Do you remember

when

walking the quiet halls

we stood

and saw what was

written on the board

the chalk rising in plumes from the board

as the scratching noise

rose

and fell with the

speed of the person

writing the message

on the wall

the chalkboard

we turned for a moment

stopped for a second

breathed in

the chalky essence

a smoky flavor

of talc

mixed with

the smell that

filling the air around us

left the message

on the wall clear

and we all knew

we all knew

as we shuffled out the door.

Sandler Boggs

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I am still chasing the perfect cloud drive solution. I really love the amazon cloud drive so far, but skydrive and gdrive (not yet avialable) both have that magic pricing number (FREE) that makes me want to make them work.

Gladinet makes skydrive more useful and with OneNote you can have Skydrive available on multiple devices. Icloud does the same within the ios and Macintosh systems.

The quest continues – I suspect a review is bubbling up inside me, but not yet.

The whiteboard in my office fell off the wall for the second time. I had a bunch of folks in my office fixing it yesterday. I ended up running out for coffee, to much noise to work.

Barb and I swapped cars for the near term. I had been driving the cooper, but I drive a lot less than she does so I am now driving the Highlander. It’s a different driving experience. I had a little trouble this morning as I parked in my usual spot. I have been running late all day long so as I slid into the parking space I realized I had parked the highlander like the cooper, too close on one side and too far on the other. Oh well.

Just another day in parking paradise.

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The answer isn’t 42. (Reference to the incredible door opening novel “A Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.) I find myself struggling with things that I can’t control and I am not sure why I am struggling.

Partly it is because I’ve been talking to some old friends and listening to the things they are struggling with. Some of the things they are fighting through are the things I was dealing with 8-16 months ago. So I feel bad, bad that I didn’t talk more about the things that were bothering me with my friends so that they would be prepared rather than facing the same struggles.

Its the same struggle I see technology companies going through.

Monday’s are reflective days as you consider the balls you have in the air and prepare for the rest of the week. I suspect there is a valuable lesson in paying attention to those balls in the air.

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Did you ever wonder? I loved Andy Rooney, and was sad late last year when he passed away. He was both an iconic visionary and an iconic voice. His catch phrase was oft imitated but seldom done with the same level of intensity that Andy had. Not sure why I thought about that this morning, nor why his voice suddenly popped into my head but it did.

I read an essay once about the concept of a “life well lived.”  It fits well into the concept of the movie “pay it forward.” The concept revolves around doing the right thing, not because of some greater reward or extrinsic value but instead simply because it makes you feel better.

It comes to mind today because I watched someone live a life well lived yesterday. There was a man at pet smart who was waiting for his ride. The clerk who could have simply helped him out the door of the store (the man waiting was in a wheel chair) instead stood there and checked on the man. It was cold outside and there was no car waiting so the clerk asked the man “Are you sure he is going to be here soon?” The man looked at him for a moment and said “I think so.” In many cases that would have been enough, I know at times that has been enough for me but the clerk continued “what color car does your son drive?” “It’s a blue van.” the man answered. The young clerk said “why don’t you wait inside and I will wait out here until you son gets here.”

He went the extra mile. He rolled the man back into the store and waited outside for the entire time we were in the store (the van arriving just as we were walking away). I hope the Petsmart recognizes the young man (perhaps I should go back and do so). He paid it forward.

Sometimes we are in such a rush to get to the places we are destined for that we forget the journey tells as much about us as the destination ever will.

Petsmart gained a customer in this area by simply having someone pay it forward. I hope that young man realizes that what he did was exceptional. I watched it and found his actions well beyond the norm.  He paid it forward.

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The shortest distance between any two points is a straight line. We’ve been told that ever since we were in grade school. The reality is that assuming you cannot bend the space between the two points in fact the straight line is the shortest distance. If you can however bend the space/time continuum between the two physical spots then all bets are off.

As a human being of course we see other alternatives. Sometimes taking a slightly longer route is the better way to go (avoiding a left turn across non-stopped traffic is always a good reason to drive an extra mile). In fact the straight line is only the best route if as a parent you factor in safety. Yesterday as I was walking I saw the result of the rainy weather we were having. A horrible accident. The thing was, it actually blocked the entire left side of the road. Which meant the rescue, police and other vehicles even blocked the sidewalk (I am not complaining simply stating a fact). The accident looked horrible. So I waited until I was allowed to walk around.

I prayed that the mini-van that was well no longer a mini-van was full of children on their way home from school or some social event.

I have been playing with cloud storage drives for the last few weeks. Evaluating them on performance and capacity etc. I found a great program (well I was told about it a long time ago but just got around to playing with it at full capacity) Gladinet. Right now I am playing with 3 different cloud drives. Looking at different ways to keeping various devices in sync.

Overall I have to say the Amazon Cloud Drive is the easiest to use (although I would really love it if they had an Ios component). The Icloud comes in next with the most integrated approach (for ios devices) with the SkyDrive from Microsoft coming in with the largest free drive, but the least useful other htan its fantastic integration with OneNote. I will post a longer review at some point in the future.

 

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Started this morning listening to CNN. When I get to work I am going to turn on Charlie “Bird” Parker and enjoy some Jazz. Today is finish some documents day so the jazz should get me in the right mood for editing.

I was playing with photography software last night. I have all the family photos (digital) organized into folders that denote the type of photo, location and date the photo group was taken. I am not a good photographer like my daughter is, so I have to take lots of pictures to make up for it.  The value of digital pictures is the overall savings you have over developing and getting prints back from the old days. Film photography limited you to the 35 moments you thought were good. Digital photography allows you to flow in and out of good moments and frankly just shoot them all!

What I realized was however that I have too many pictures. I need to figure out a way to archive some. I am loathe to delete them but I probably do need to find a long term storage solution.

Short blog as I get ready for the weekend.

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Sometimes my mind just wanders. I focus usually on a specific set of potential things and then my mind is off an running. I don’t really solve any problems just come up with lots of variables.

Today I was half listening to CNN as I thought about this blog. I was listening as the Arizona debate came up as the news story of the moment. I listened partially to the attack dogs realizing that it scares me what American politics has come to.

I started thinking about a world without politics.

First off in a non-political world the skills and attributes of any one person would be the determining factor in their value to any one solution.  It wouldn’t matter what their fiscal ideology was, only what they actually accomplished.

Which leads me to the following random political thoughts:

• When did we lose the concept of of the people, by the people, for the people?
• Can someone with more than 2 houses represent me?
• Can anyone who pays a tax rate of less than 25% represent me?
• What is the modern American dream? Horatio Alger created the original rags to riches dream. Is that still the American dream or have we moved past that to a more egalitarian – let’s take care of everyone first, then allow some to exceed.
• Is it a dream if it wakes you up at night?

Just my current state with the political mess we seem to be in right now.

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Yesterday I took my 3 millionth step since the end of June 2011. It is a milestone that means something to me but I doubt to many other people. However, my blog so I am sharing .

Posted two new podcasts over the weekend. A new cloud whisperer episode and one that talks through a current problem I see in the world of software architecture (nothing new).

So I have a question. It is not a question of earth shaking significance or mind altering impact. It is simply a question borne of years of travel and well I suspect a level of paranoia. How low does your cellular phone battery get?

1. I have nerves of steel my battery routinely gets to less than 10% available.
2. I am somewhat concerned when my battery hits 40% remaining charge
3. I am concerned when my battery hits less than 60% remaining charge
4. I am very concerned when my phone battery hits less than 80% remaining charge.

Are any of these statements true about you?

• I have multiple batteries for my phone.
• I have multiple external chargers for my phone.

Ok it was really two questions. I can’t tell you where I fall on the spectrum as I have to go charge my phone.

 

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The concept of upgrades.

When I was 26 years old (newly married the first time) I had a car I loved. It was a diesel ford escort. It could go three weeks between fill-ups even driving 200 miles a week. I loved that car but it was a stick shift and my wife (at that time) couldn’t drive stick. The reality was (that I found out later) she couldn’t drive at all but that was a different issue.

We traded that car for a family sedan. Then 15 months later we separated and later divorced but I was stuck with that car. I in fact kept that car into my next marriage and even moved with it from Bloomington Indiana to Cincinnati Ohio. We traded it in Ohio for a car that better fit our new lifestyle (a convertible). (I bear no ill will against my ex-wife we were both young and it just wasn’t right for either of us at that time or probably any other time).

The convertible was my wife’s car (well it was our car but I only got to drive it when it was cold, snowing or raining). That was fine with me as we also had the greatest car of all time a Subaru Station wagon.

We’ve had a number of cars since then (that was 21 years ago when we moved to Ohio).  I have moved on as far as my favorite car (its now the Mini-Cooper). The reason for this post however was thinking about the cars we’ve bought over the years. The things that we’ve added as the must haves in the past ten years makes for an interesting list so, in that spirit here is the list of must have’s we use when buying a car now (for us).

1. Satellite radio
2. Heated Seats
3. 5 or more airbags
4. 5 star safety rating
5. Rear Seat Entertainment (although this one which once was number one is now number 5 and sliding)
6. Enough room for everyone to sit, although comfort now is an issue.

There are a couple of things that have fallen off the list – CD player is one of them. Interesting how your list changes over the years. I suspect 21 years ago we were simply looking for a car we could afford.

So to anyone reading – what is your car must-have list like now?

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I am trapped in a series of literary quotes and I cannot get out. Please send help!

From the time I was 13 years old I have wanted to be a writer. I don’t know why I just started feeling that and it never went away. The thinking creation process of writing has always intrigued me.

I love quotes because of that. I have over the years stored quotes for the various things that come up in life. A few of them I have blogged as Sandler Boggs because they fit so perfectly but I couldn’t use them as a quote because no one had said them yet. Someone has to come up with the pity statements that leap from greeting cards to common vernacular.

The other side of being a writer is that language is your tool. As such you (ok I) can be a stickler for the meanings of words.

We went to the Pacifica Grill Saturday night. In every city Barb and I have lived we have always had a favorite Chinese restaurant. It is kind of a tradition of ours that we have a favorite place close by. In fact I think the only time we didn’t really have a favorite was when we lived in Maineville Ohio. But I was working two jobs then and poor Barb was pregnant with “the bean.” We had one in Western Hills, we had one in Mount Airy, we had one in Greenwood and now I think we have one in Maryland.

Not sure why that was relevant to share, but too late now.

.doc