The sense of smell.

Not sure why but my mind was wondering a little here at work and I got to thinking which of my five sense's would I miss the most?

I know I would miss sight because I would no longer get to see my wife or daughters lovely face's. I would no longer get to see pure beauty in the form of  a picture or painting, movie or one of God's sunset's or sunrise's. I would miss not having sight but I don't think I would miss it most.

I would miss hearing. I would miss the conversations I have with my daughters when they tell me about their day. I would miss hearing my wife tell me about here joy's and trials that are daily life. I would miss hearing the roar of the crowd at a Nebraska home football game. I would miss the sounds of birds as daylight breaks and they start to sing. I would miss the sound of good music or the cinema. Again I don't think I would miss this most though.

I would miss feeling. The touch of a loved one, the feel of a bear hug embrace from a family member or close friend. The simple act of petting my dog or daughters cat. The comfort of new or freshly washed flannel sheets on a cool autumn day. These two would be missed but not most.

Taste I would miss also but not the most. A great steak grilled to perfection. My wife's homemade apple pie for my birthday. My step mom's macaroni salad. The interesting deserts my oldest comes up with (the latest was peanut butter, chocolate and Nerds candy made into a Reese's type cup). A stadium dog at a football or baseball game. A fresh pizza pie from our local establishment. All these would be missed.

The sense I would miss most though I believe would be smell. The smell of a new born child. The familiar sent of my family. The sent of rain in the spring time, freshly cut alfalfa in the summer, leaves in autumn that are starting to just slightly decompose, the first time the furnace kicks on in the fall. The smell of someone grilling in the evening, the flowers my daughters pick to give to their mother. I really think I would miss smell the most. Scent can bring back memories so vivid that you can almost taste, feel, see or hear the event again in your head. When a scent triggers one of these moments it is as if the moment never ended.

I realize this is not going to be the same for everyone and I never thought it would. For me the loss of scent would be hardest. Don't get me wrong I am truly blessed to have all my sense's, exception of course is common, and would miss all the others but for me not being able to smell would be terrible.

Time to think.

As I pause from work and take my daily walk to clear my mind and leave the stress there I look up at the almost starless sky, most of them being drowned out by the city lights. The nearly full moon is so bright now it cast slight shadows.

The cool temperature on my face makes me realize how blessed I am to have a good job, a roof over my head and a family to share it with. My mind wonders off while listening to the music from my ear buds. I think of my cousin who passed last week at the age of 41; he was much too young. I think of how I let our relationship get weaker and wonder how one does that? How do you let family become so distant? I will be attending the funeral early this next week but feel ashamed, should I go even though I didn't take the time to visit when he was still with us? I am going to go and pay respects because no matter how distant one becomes he was still family and I loved him.

I think of two dear friends. One is struggling with the trials and tribulations that life presents. This economy has been kind to very few and this person is feeling the affects and needs to make some difficult choices. The other friend on my mind is struggling with an illness that is unexplained. The doctors are finding nothing and my friend is concerned and scared at the same time. I pray for both that they will find answers and comfort with the difficult decisions that need to be made.

Lunch is over, time to get back to work. Answers will come and I will not search for them, I will have faith and let things happen as they will.

The current political and financial climate is unsustainable. We are not Democrats and Republicans or liberal or conservative. We are Americans and we all should want the same thing, a strong, healthy government that is run for the people by the people with as little affect on the people as possible. Our government should not mettle in our everyday lives but help to keep us safe, National Defense, make our education system strong, better schools, and make the playing field as level as possible.

Do people really think congress will repeal Bush era tax cuts for the wealthy? The bastards we have in congress are the wealthy who make more then $250,000.00 a year. And before you say their salary is less $200,000.00 a year remember that is only what the government pays them. Why would they ever vote to repeal these cuts when it hurts them? Will they continue to cut support for the middle class, aka you and me, and tax us more? The answers are no and yes in that order.

The Republican plan does not get rid of Medicare like the ads are saying, it just privatizes it with government oversight and rules. How this makes it any cheaper is beyond me though because we all know how well the government does when they try and regulate private industry.

Corporations are suppose to pay taxes to help the country yet congress gives them large tax breaks to keep jobs and business here. In reality they are receiving taxes breaks while moving more and more work overseas or south of the border. NAFTA which was a Democratic lead initiative has moved thousands of jobs south into Mexico. The republican law that allowed companies that aren't U.S. based, i.e. make there headquarters here, pay less in taxes has seen many companies move their headquarters off shore in name only to avoid taxes. The CEO's and Chairman still live and work in America just the company address has changed.

While we all bitch and moan about the Democrats this and the Republicans that and the Tea Party that and the Green party this it all falls back on us for not taking responsibility. You cannot stand for a platform and not care about your fellow American. There is no middle class in America anymore, there is rich and poor. The rich look out for themselves and the poor fight among themselves.

Thanks!

This past week our family had quite a scare. Our youngest daughter told my wife she was dizzy and didn't feel well after Sunday school. My wife took her home and made her as comfortable as possible. By that afternoon she was feeling worse so my wife got her in to see our pediatrician. I want to thank our daughter's god-mother, she made herself available to our family and took care of our oldest daughter so my wife could take our youngest to the pediatrician. I also need to thank our pediatrician, his office has Sunday hours just for these situations. It is such a blessing to have the ability to get your child in to see someone she is comfortable with when she is scared and someone we trust. The pediatrician gave her a thorough exam and told us we need to get her to Children's Hospital in Omaha as soon as possible. Along with her dizziness she had nystagmus, which is involuntary, rapid eye movement.

We got our oldest daughter situated with some close family friends from church who love our daughters like they are family and started on our trip to Omaha. I want to thank the staff of Children's Hospital in Omaha, the staff made us comfortable, told us what they were going to do for our daughter and put us at ease as much as possible. As a parent so many things are running thru your head. You're thinking could it be a tumor, is it a brain bleed, could it be meningitis or so many other serious condition? Waiting until the doctors can do the tests was the hardest part. You want them to start checking everything right away but you have to be understanding and patient. The doctors and nurses have other patients they are taking care of, precautions they have to take and just make sure your child is stable enough for the tests.

I am thankful everyday that we had such a good facility so close to take care of our daughter and my wife and I. When you are put in a situation like this, when you cannot help your child, you are at a complete loss. As parents all you want is the best for them, to be able to "fix" everything. And when it is a situation like this you just have to trust in God, the doctors and nurses, family and friends to take care of your children and you. You have to give it over completely to others at this point.

So I say thank you to God, family and friends and doctors and nurses who took such good care of  our little girl. We truly are blessed.

Snow Day, Woohoo!!! Not so much.

Snow day for eastern Nebraska. Kids these days have it easy. Shoot I remember walking 3 miles up hill to school, both ways, on my hands so I wouldn't get my feet wet and in -30 degree F wind chills. :)

All kidding aside the reason they declared a snow day wasn't so much for the snow or even the cold. The fact is children in our school districted are unprepared to be out in it.

Here is a quote from the district superintendent on the reason they will call snow days more often then in the past. "These days it is also important to remember the changing demographics of our community. Currently about 50 percent of our students, preschool through fifth grade, live in poverty (qualify for free and reduced lunch)—45 percent of our total LPS student enrollment. That means we can no longer assume that children walking to school have warm mittens and adequate coats.  Nor can we assume that if and when blizzard conditions arrive at the close of a school day, parents will be waiting outside school doors with a warm car. Yes, many students in Lincoln can bundle up, but many do not have the resources, the parental supervision or knowledge to prepare properly."

This is sad, the state of our world that is. If things are this bad where I live I cannot imagine what it is like on either coast where poverty and unemployment are much higher. We in Nebraska are supposed to have a good standard of living compared to much of the country. I don't want this to be a political post or a blame this person or that person or this party or that party. I guess I want people to understand how bad things have gotten for the innocent bystanders in this game of political and corporate corruption. This didn't happen the last two years or 10, it started much longer ago.

I hope and pray at some point we will see that passing debt on to the future, downsizing employees, corporate greed and political infighting are getting us no where and hurting those, the youth, who have no say. WE are all to blame and until we all start to make a change it isn't going to get better.

Chrome OS/CR-48 Initial Review.

My review of the CR-48 Google Notebook

I received my Google OS notebook on Monday December 20 but do to some obligations at work and some family miscommunication I did not actually see it until Tuesday. I have been playing with it for just a few hours and would like to share my initial thoughts with you. 

First I would like to point out,  you must understand this is a Beta unit and will be no where near what the production unit will be. Second being this is the first release of the Chrome OS also there are many improvements that will be made by the beta testers.

I am going to start with hardware then move to software.

So far I am impressed with the unit itself. The battery life, screen, keyboard and mouse are all user friendly, at least to me.  The battery life is the biggest surprise so far. The unit comes with the instructions to just put the battery in and start using the notebook. The battery was half charged when I put it in and I messed around with it for about 2 hours and it was still over a quarter charged. 

The keyboard has taken a little time to get used to since a lot of the buttons (alt/ctrl are there but the F keys are not) I am used to using on a Windows based system are gone. I love using keyboard shortcuts and Google OS has them I just need to get used to the changes. 

I do prefer using a pointer stick mouse over a mouse pad but again this is only a personal preference. The mouse pad that comes with the unit is easy to use and quite large, a plus when you have sausage fingers like I do.

The screen is pleasant surprise. It is not what I have seen on some machines that were meant for media centers or gaming but is very nice. Pictures and video show up crisp and clear.

The on-board video camera takes nice pictures and video, not the highest quality but very good. When I tried to use the microphone, only once so far, there were some issues. My wife said it sounded choppy or as if it was breaking up. I am not sure this is a microphone issue though, internet has been a little slow in the neighborhood lately, some new lines are being installed.

The overall weight of the unit is nice, coming it at just 3.8 pounds.

Now my wish list for changes. I would like to see a cd/dvd drive on board. I hope this happens but with Google moving toward everything in the cloud they may not add it. As addressed earlier I would like to see a pointer stick mouse also. The speakers are adequate but could be better. 

No for the software. Please remember I have been using the unit for less then a day so these are my initial observations.

I have not had time to look at a lot of the items available at the Chrome Web Store but there is quite a bit there. Many of the free apps I tried just direct you to the host's website and you go from there. 

Using Chrome OS is much or almost exactly like using the Chrome browser. As soon as I signed in all of my extension/themes/setting/bookmarks were automatically updated. I have the sync feature enabled on my Dell Windows unit so this may have made it much faster. There is no desktop since you won't be storing anything on the unit. You can download stuff but it goes directly to a download queue that just pops up when select it. There is no "My Computer," "My Documents" or any of the other items you may look for. There is no start menu, no task bar or anything else you would look for. The time/date, WiFi and battery symbol are in the top right corner of the screen. The "control panel" as it is is the wrench you are used to using in the Chrome Browser. I will write new post after I have had time to mess with the Chrome Web Store more. 

No Netflix is huge miss so far for me but I am sure Google and Netflix will have this ready to go before production units hit the web/stores. 

My initial review is very positive. The hardware for a beta unit is impressive and functional. The software is easy to use if you have ever used the Chrome Browser. To grade the unit after such a short time is not fair of me but life isn't fair so here it is. I give the unit a solid B right now. With feedback from beta testers and software improvements I expect this grade to rise rather quickly. 

Familiarity

The saying goes Familiarity Breeds Contempt (Aesop's Fables) but I disagree. The fable is about a fox who is first scared of a lion then after several meetings shows him no concern. This may be true with casual acquaintance's but with people and things you truly care about I don't believe it ever becomes the case. We may not always treat the people we love the way we should but I hope never with contempt. Everyone has a bad day or gets frustrated with family and friends but in the end you always cherish your time together. I think this is because we know it may be over all too soon.

Autumn is coming on quickly, this is my favorite season of the year. Seeing an old friend, talking about and going to college football games, seeing that first tree change colors or planning weekend trips with the family are truly special and something I look forward too. How could I have contempt for the things that make me feel something special like nothing else does? I recently saw a video of friends talking/playing with their child. I have not seen these friends in quite awhile, we are separated by a long distance, and just to hear them and their daughter on the video made me smile. I have missed the get together's we have here in the Midwest during football season. The harvest is coming on, high school football takes center stage and kids are back in school excited to show off all there new clothes, bags and supplies. It is by far the best time of year.

I hope I tell those people closest to me how much I care and value their love, support and friendship. I hope even though at times it seems I take these things for granted I truly value them. This post did not take me where I was going with it in my head but I am happy with where it took me. So family and friends thanks for being there, for making familiarity a good thing and for making my life so fulfilling.

New Job?

I interviewed for a different position at work this week. Right now I am in engineering but according to the plant manager, HR manager and my direct manager I need to have supervisory experience to advance. So I applied for an open supervisor position and had three hours worth of interviews on Monday.


Like everything else in life this is both exciting and scary all at the same time. I like the engineering side and doing technical work. Some programming of robots, process improvements and new design work is exciting. Its also exciting when your boss asks you if you are going to apply for the open position though. To me it means he sees something in me and I have a future here so I better get this on my resume. Its scary because if I get the job I would be responsible for vacation request, discipline, time clock issues, overtime staffing and many other tasks. It is a completely different aspect of the job that I have never done before.

My manager told me today that they have one more candidate to interview and should make a decision in the next week. If you are a reader/friend any positive thoughts you could send my way would be appreciated.

Struggles

Struggles, we all have them and deal with them in different ways. We have daily struggles, relationship struggles, family struggles and lifetime struggles. Some are seen on the outside like a physical disability or scar from an accident from days gone by. Some are never seen but by those who truly love us. Others yet we never show to anyone and choose to struggle with on our own. Some people deal with their struggles and become violent or aggressive towards others. Others keep it all bottled up and don't let on to anyone how much they are struggling. Some may choose to deal by letting others learn from their struggles and how they either cope or overcome them. There is no tried and true, one size fits all way to deal or not to deal with your struggles. My personal struggles have been getting me down lately but it is how life is I guess. Just wish there truly were and 'easy' button sometimes.

We all do stupid things, right?

Not sure what I was thinking when I did it but I did it anyway. What was it you ask? I got a tattoo. Now before you go and cuss me out or think less of me know I already have done this to myself. It wasn't a drunken moment with friends or something done on a whim, it is something I have been thinking about for quite some time. I am happy with what I got, all of verse 1 of Psalm 23 and part of verse 4. This is my favorite verse of the Bible and means a great deal to me. I knew it would be permanent so I didn't want to get something I would ashamed to have on my body. I got it in an inconspicuous spot that most people will ever see.

I have heard from friends and family "why would you want to do that?" I just laugh and say it is cheaper then a new truck and way better for me and my family then an affair. I don't know the truthful answer to why I wanted one or went thru with it. I could call it a midlife crisis or just a bad judgement call, I don't know why. All I can say is it is a decision I made and I have to live with. There will be no pictures here sorry, here is what I got though.

Psalm 23:1 - The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
23:4 - Yea though I walk through the valley of the of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil;