Where I'm blogging about technology...Simplicity²

So I started a new blog related to technology and simplifying your life and work. It's called Simplicity² and the idea is that things are never simple enough, and more often than not it's that little extra that makes the simplicity exponentially better. It's what we in I.T. should be striving for.

Please check it out (and comment like crazy) at www.simplicitysquared.com

Thanks.

Are we turning to go home or are we going to do something fun?

Sweet words, and arguably what you don't want to here when you are out on a jog and your kids are on their bicycles. But a good reminder that while in theory jogging with your kids is a good idea, and represents some "bonding", if they are just following along it's somewhat less-so...

So I didn't turn home, although it was one of my first runs with my new running shoes and my legs were sore (not to mention I haven't really run in a long, long time). We instead went to the park where there is a ramp that they like to go up and down on their bikes. I sprinted across the field, beating them, and then they went up and down a few times. All-in-all a nice way to spend 30 minutes. And at least I got some real exercise....

This blog is switching to a different theme...

Wow it's been a long time.

And I never finished updating my Peru trip log. Suffice to say it was a great, great trip. I still have some photos to go through; that's that paradox of going digital...you are less discretionary with the number of pictures you take. So you have more to process after the fact. I think it's because:

1. It's easy to just hold the button down.

2. You "feel" more professional when you shoot a few in a row

3. You turn on bracketing arbitrarily so then you must take lots of shots. You justify it by saying you want to HDR everything, but you don't.

4. You are fearful of not getting that perfect smile or having somebody's eyes closed on your shot.

So you take too many shots, which means there are more to go through and edit or delete. And you haven't started deleting photographs until recently because you have pack-rat syndrome. There's a pattern here.

In any case, I'm working towards real-time management of my photos (of everything in my life frankly), but I'm starting to digress. Those thoughts are for another blog (coming soon).

Which is the whole point of this posting. I've hesitated to post certain things because I didn't want to co-mingle tech with productivity with fatherhood, so everything has suffered.

So this blog is going to focus exclusively on parenthood and its [mostly] joys. That way I'll have a safe place to capture everything (and safe means strictly technical, I know enough to know that there is really no "safe" place on the Internet). I will add one or two more postings here to point to a company I've started and consequently some new blogs...

Onwards...

At 4910 meters above sea level

That's 16,109 feet, higher than any mountain in the contiguous 48 states (the highest is Mt. Whitney at 14,494). It's also the highest point on our tour, and since it's late and I haven't had any connectivity for a few days, I'll do a quick catch-up now and then when I get some time (which may be after the trip), I'll post some more.

Quick highlights: Sand surfing; Pisco tasting and winery tour; Watching a world cup match in a country that is *really* into soccer. How into it? TVs are set up on the street with speakers blaring the match. Nearly everything just stops. OK, continuing...flying over the Nazca Lines. That was amazing and I'll post the pictures that the natives used to communicate with the aliens; Touring the cemetary of the Nazca indians, who used to strap blocks on to the heads of children to shape their skulls so they were elongated; An overnight bus-ride with wifi on the bus (I would have posted something, but actually just checked e-mail and went to sleep); My 4 Soles haircut (Which is about $1.41, and the haircut looks like it, but it'll grow back); Visiting Colca Canyon (our tour guide said "If you are a vegetarian, welcome to the hell", but it wasn't actually so bad); Staying at La Casa Mamayacchi; Hiking at 4100m; Petting llamas and alpacas; Drinking coco tea; visiting the condor sanctuary (great pictures coming soon); horseback riding at the same altitude and actually being pretty good at handling the horse...and, believe it or not, managing through some very long bus rides (several ~7-hour rides or longer). My iPad is coming in very, very handy for this trip.

Cities visited: Lima, Paracas, Arequipa, Chivay (Colca Canyon); and now in Puno, on the coast of Lake Titicaca. I may have forgotten a city; I'll update later.

Seriously? The Parque del Amor - The Love Park

What more is there to say? A giant sculpture of two people making out in a park. This was part of our bike tour, and apparently (obviously?) this is the place where Peruvians go to do just that. Or to take pictures of the statue, like us.

A purple drink that isn't grape

Ahhhh, a new country, a new cuisine, and a yearning to not have diarrhea. I hope I don't jinx it, but so far so good. The spinach quiche you may recognize, but the drink is something entirely new, called Chicha Morada, which is prepared from purple corn. It's served cold, and was really quite refreshing.

Today started with a taxi ride to our new hotel, then a quick walkabout through the city. We did what you're never supposed to do, which is eat from a street vendor. It was only sliced pineapple, and it was worth it. And, as I write this days later, it didn't disagree with me at all.

We then took the top-rated tourist attraction on tripadvisor, which was a bicycle tour of Lima, led by Franco. Imagine riding a bicycle in a city where stop signs are regularly ignored and then going AGAINST TRAFFIC in a traffic circle. It was, in a word, perilous, but at the end of it we seemed no worse for wear, got a bit of exercise, and saw some pretty parts of Lima. The day ended with a briefing from our tour leader, Daniel, for all of us on the tour. Two Americans (Paul-Marcel and myself), 3 Irish, 2 Danes, 1 French. A few of us then went out for dinner, and then back to the hotel to get some sleep before the next day's activities...

Bienvenidos a Peru! (Did I spell that right?)

The water bottles are enormous here! And of course, in a daze, I used the tap water to brush my teeth this morning. So I'll know later today just what an effect it has on me.

Flew from Phoenix to Houston to Lima. Quick taxi ride to the Manhatten Inn Hotel. A simple place close to the airport. The thinking was to arrive and get to sleep so we could start today.

The front desk advised against drinking the water, and sold us the colossal 2.5L bottle on the left, which was bigger than the television in the room. The wake up call, which I am sure I successfully negotiated in Spanish, never came, so we're the last people in the breakfast room, which is perfectly fine for Day 1 after a very late arrival.

Breakfast did the trick, OJ, rolls, some huevos and jam (of course made with sugar and not HFCS). Off to freshen up and hit a bike tour...

-David

What is this "Save" icon?

My children don't know what this is.

It is, of course, the Save icon from Google Docs, one of my favorite products. And my children, the oldest of whom is almost 9, have learned that this is Save, only because Daddy said so.

Why? Because until recently they never actually saw a 3.5" floppy disk. And why should they have? They save everything either in the cloud, or on their computer. I opened a box of 5.25" disks to show them, and have an 8" disk around to show them, and still a bunch of 3.5" disks, but I don't own any of the disk drives to read the aforementioned sizes. Maybe I have a USB 3.5" drive in a drawer somewhere, but haven't taken it out in years.

Anyway, point being, is it time for a new icon? Microsoft Word has the same icons. My kids have seen a USB stick, and some camera media. What is the graphical representation for "save this in the cloud". Do we need it? Isn't Google Docs autosaving all of the time anyway? :)

Bronchitis

I'm sick as a dog.

And on my fourth antibiotic

Started with a Z-Pak, that was wimpy.

Then moved to Avelox, didn't do the trick.

Then got an unnamed shot in my behind, I don't know if that helped.

Now I'm on Levaquin, which seems to be helping.

Added to that I'm on a steroid - Methypresdnisolone, and using an Advair Diskus, with a Ventolin inhaler as needed, not to mention the Promethazine w/codeine syrup. Plus I'm supposed to use the nebulizer with Albuterol.

Either I'll be better soon, or dead.

Broken left-turn arrow

Sometimes life stares you in the face like a broken left-turn arrow.

You have a green light. But not necessarily an arrow.

This makes you think that oncoming traffic also has a green light, but they aren't going.

So you wait.

For how long?

Then it occurs to you. Maybe my left-turn green is broken. The light's out. Not my blinker, of course, but the one on the traffic light.

And you look at oncoming traffic again. They aren't moving, but you aren't sure if they are waiting for you to go first so they might hit you.

So I went.

And the oncoming traffic didn't move.

And I went through the intersection successfully.

It was, dare I say, slightly surreal, like the rest of the world was in slow-motion or something.

And maybe my green arrow wasn't in fact broken, but the people across the intersection were too busy checking their e-mail or texting or simply not paying attention...

It doesn't matter though.