“Smartwatches are just ugly bracelets for the sort of people who wear their earbuds everywhere, rather than have thoughts." — What Is Wrong with You? by Paul Rudnick
Just had a visit from Jake Green. Jake is the manager of the local UPS office and, although today is his day off, he drove out to our house to verify someone at this address had ordered an iPad.
UPS had been calling my office number and got no answer. So Jake was just checking. Seems UPS has an elaborate security protocol for iPad deliveries. A few mistakenly got on trucks for delivery and frantic calls went out to drivers instructing them NOT to deliver.
The Jefferson City UPS office is delivering 20 iPads today. Mine is on a truck with 14 others. UPS is taking this as seriously as Apple. Very impressive.
Sarah Palin has another book signing at noon today at the Barnes & Noble in Sioux City, Iowa. Supporters spent the night in the parking lot in hopes of getting their book signed. My friend Kay drove up from Des Moines to cover the event and took some photos. The wind chill was about 9 degrees.
Her story and photos got me thinking about things about which I care enough to wait in line, in the cold (I hate both). I couldn’t come up with much.
There was the time George (pictured), David and I waited in bitter cold weather to attend a taping of Digg Nation in St. Louis.
I had not idea San Francisco could be so cold at 4:30 a.m. or I would not have waited in line to see Steve Jobs give a keynote at MacWorld.
But the coldest of the cold will always be (I hope) the inauguration. My hands are shaking just typeing these words.
For whom/what have you/are you willing to wait all night in the freezing cold?
I jammed my way into some very crowded Metro cars to make my way down to M Street where Paul Roe [Fez #30], the owner of British Ink was taking part in an art exhibition called Artomatic. Paul was doing pre-session consultations while his colleague, Cynthia, hummed away on a guy’s right bicep. He squeezed me in for a chat and I even got to sit in the tattoo chair. The interview ran just under 12 minutes.
Forget for a moment that I have the iPhone in portrait orientation, and check out the quality of this brief walk through the newsroom. I’ve uploaded videos to YouTube from all kinds of cameras: Sony Camcorder; Flips; my beloved Casios; the MacBook iSight.
But I don’t think I’ve ever ended up with a clip that looked and sounded this good. I know, could be some Cupertino Mind Trick but I think I’m correct on this point. And the iPhone has YouTube option built right in.
I took the dogs out to do their business earlier today and, on the way back, I happened to look up in the tree we walk under a dozen times a day. I saw what I thought was a black piece of plastic until it moved in an unmistakably serpentine way. It was a big-ass snake, about 15 feet off the ground.
As I looked closer I saw the snake was wrapped around a bird nest, which explained the frantic activity of some robins. They were darting in for a peck at the snake, trying to scare it off. With no luck at all. (I found it interesting that they were getting help from cardinals and other birds) The snake looked like he might be digesting something.
If you are a snake lover or naturalist or one of those guys who pick up snakes, you can skip the rest of this post. It’s just gonna piss you off. Let’s go to the video [CAUTION: Adult language]:
Even if I’d been willing to get on a ladder and grab the snake, it would probably have brought down the nest. But friends, that was never a consideration.
And even as I fired little steel balls into the tree, the adult birds didn’t flinch or move away. They stayed right by the nest. I kept thinking I’d hit and kill one of them but I didn’t.
If this black snake had stayed out in the woods, stuffing himself with rodents and moles, he’d still be alive. But he decided to climb up my tree and eat some defenseless baby robins.
I love grabbing snippets from old movies or TV shows and sharing them here. The process goes something like this: I hit the record button on the DVR. Then I hook up my old Sony camcorder and pull the video off the DVR. Next, I import the video from the camera to the MacBook. Now, thanks to a new little video capture widget from Elgato, the drill got much easier. (Mac only, sorry)
One end plugs into the video/audio out of any device and the other is a USB connection to the MacBook. And the software is simplicity itself. If you need to get video from your TV or DVR over to your computer, the Elgato Video Capture is a near perfect solution.
My test clip is from Captain Blood, starring Errol Flynn.
Tessie Hubbard (aka Panty Mython) has produced more than 80 videos that have been viewed more than 34,000 times by a thousand YouTube subscribers. Along the way she managed to watch some 25,000 videos.
We bumped into each other online and she was kind enough to meet me at the Coffee Zone this morning to talk about her work/play/art. For someone who is so comfortable in front of the camera, she seemed a little shy but that’s common with most of the people I stalk. It is my fondest desire to someday collaborate with her on a project. And for goodness sake, watch some of her videos.
