Mike Williams Club – The Blog – Page 109 – Weirder words were never written!

I’ve had my iMac about 8 months now. With a 21″ screen, Core i3 processor (duo), and 8 gigs of RAM what is not to love? It was my first brand new iMac and the first Mac that I actually custom ordered.

8 months have gone by and now we have Thunderbolt (formally codenamed Light Peak) and I couldn’t wait any longer. I ordered another Mac. Why? Thunderbolt is a new kind of interface unlike USB or even firewire. Thunderbolt taps directly into the backbone of your computer making it “super” fast. What’s more interesting is the fact that this interface can be used by virtually any kind of peripheral you have. Printers, flat screens, external hard drives, and even controls for your home can all be used by the same interface.

No more searching around for the “right” cable. You have a Thunderbolt cable and it will work. Sweet.

The new iMac arrived this past weekend and it IS awesome! This time I opted for the 27″ model. Core i7 (quad 3.4 Gigahertz processors). 8 Gigs of RAM (the sweet spot). The speed of this thing is absolutely incredible.

As with USB when it was first introduced, I’ll have to wait for the Thunderbolt accessories. Not a problem. At the end of this month, we’ll be getting a RAID-5 cage which we’ll use to backup the Mac Server and our massive movie library and my Take That! Media files. I keep every show I’ve ever produced. Not sure if that’s a good thing…

The Day Job Chronicles

Last November, we lost an employee in one of our facilities and I was asked to assume that position. The problem had always been distance. I currently live 3 miles from our corporate office and this other facility is about 15 miles away. I haven’t been able to mountain bike in because of the distance and the fact that it’s a bit dangerous.

Well, it looks like I’ll be moving back to the corporate office in a few weeks. The mountain biking can continue and that makes me extremely happy.

In Conclusion…

As always, I search for ways to make the best use of my time and am continuing to utilize my Franklin Planner. I have backed away from producing podcasts over the weekend. After several years, I have come to realize that I seem to be the only one working 6 or 7 days a week on podcasting. My writing “to-do” list isn’t getting any smaller and I write my best stuff over the weekend. Therefore, I have made the command decision to spend my weekends on other things. Oh, yeah. There is the “spending time with the kids” thing too.

My current project list…

1. Day Job
2. Podcast Production (Take That! Media)
3. Radio Production (Premiere Radio Networks)
4. Writing Screenplay (about a year off and on to write this movie)
5. Writing Short Stories (I have about 10 really good stories to tell when I get the time)
6. Writing Novel (Sci-Fi, of course. Is there any other?)

Final Political Thought

As far as 2012 goes, my prediction is that Obama will win a second term. Why? Is it because he is soooo great and wonderful? Is it because he commands respect? Is it because he is sooo much smarter than you or I?

No.

The reason the Obama will get re-elected is because the opposition is a complete and total cluster fuck. Another military term that might also apply would be “goat fuck.” If there has ever been a time in history when the GOP is running around flailing its arms, this would be it.

You cannot win simply claiming that you should lead because of your moral superiority. That is pretty much all the Republicans have right now. In the last presidential election, John McCain was afraid to confront Obama on issues of his citizenship and it took Donald Trump to finally resolve the issue. The Republican leadership is either unable or unwilling to tackle the big things. Don’t try to play the game on the left’s terms. You define the terms. It’s time the GOP started putting the left up on the ropes. Make them define who they are and keep doing it so much that they don’t have time for anything else but defense. Pretty much what they are doing to the right as we speak (or type).

Thanks all I have right now.

June 5, 2011 by Mike Williams General Musings

Latest Audiobook & iBook

Two recommended books…

Lies That Chelsea Handler Told Me has got to be one of the funniest books I’ve ever read. I didn’t see an audio version but it is available in the iBook store. It’s the first full book I’ve read on the iPad.

I have to admit, I’ve never even heard of Chelsea Handler before I read this book.

Live Free or Die: Troy Rising by John Ringo is available at audible.com and has to be one of the best thought out sci-fi books I’ve listened to in a long time.

May 22, 2011 by Mike Williams General Musings

Someone has a Birthday This Week

Kathleen

This is a friend of mine. The first conservative female I ever had a crush on.

Happy Birthday Kathleen!

May 22, 2011 by Mike Williams General Musings

More from the Fringe…

It’s been a little while since I’ve posted something here on my older blog.

I find myself writing on my official “writer” blog more often these days. Perhaps, we are heading into the most optimum writing season?

The latest audible book is called “Primary Inversion” by Catherine Asaro. A very interesting read and a bit more technical than most things I listen to.

Writing software has hit a fever pitch as we attempt to create some cool new iPad apps. I find writing Apple software to be a bunch of fun and having said that, it certainly doesn’t feel like work.

This week, a few friends of mine have birthdays. Paul Croteau of FTR Radio, Karen Walker, and Amy Ross.

My ex-wife also has a birthday this week so a big “Happy Happy” to her.

Work has been a bit out of control lately with more on the way. Two full time jobs with a 3rd part time gig thrown in for good measure leaves me with about 30 minutes a day of just enough time to do the things I want to do.

I have the core podcasting group that I think I’ll have for a while and I’m grateful for that. It’s hard to find good people that you enjoy working with but I’m really blessed in that regard.

That’s all I can think of for now.

I’ll “check” in a bit later…

May 16, 2011 by Mike Williams General Musings

Picture of the Month

T70v

No further explanation is necessary.

May 5, 2011 by Mike Williams General Musings

iPad App Review: Blogsy

This review is written in Blogsy. How appropriate?

Blogsy is from Fomola and available in the App store for $2.99 As you may surmise from the name, it is software for writing your blog posts on the iPad.

So far, I’ve found the interface to be a bit cumbersome compared to the WordPress app. The major problem I had with the WordPress app was links and using pictures inside of your posts.

Blogsy makes this process a bit easier although I’m still not very happy with the way you create links in your posts. I think this process could be done much easier.

Overall, it’s not a bad app for the price and worth a look if you have an iPad.

April 30, 2011 by Mike Williams iPad Apps iPad News

A.D.H.D. and Bringing Up Baby

Warning: This post is just a vain attempt of venting on my part. I personally am sick and tired of this “pussy” culture I find myself living in. I may just call the string of these writings “The Pussy Chronicles” because there are just so many examples of how “pussified” our society has become that I could be adding to this series many times daily. My qualification for using the term “pussy” is my military background. That means that if I say you are a pussy you indeed are a pussy. Now, on with my rant…

A.D.H.D. (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) is not a medical condition.

It is an environmental condition.

Your child isn’t suffering from A.D.H.D. you just feed them too much sugar. Now they are bouncing off of the walls and you don’t quite know why? You want to blame this on a non-existent disease designed and conceived to prevent Pediatric professionals from being sued because you are an extremely bad parent. A.D.H.D. is also a big business now. People make money from telling you that your child has it. You or your insurance company pay the doctor who diagnoses it and the pharmaceutical companies make money from the medication that the doctor you just saw will prescribe to treat the symptoms of it.

A.D.H.D. can’t be “cured” because it’s not a real disease. The medication they prescribe for this is a legal version of what the sixties crowd used to call “downers.”

People who medicate their children because they believe they have A.D.H.D. need to take a good hard look at themselves. Those folks created the problem and should probably sterilize themselves immediately.

I remember thinking as a kid that those folks who beat their kids or at least gave them a smack on the ass every now and then were bad parents. They were not. Before it was called A.D.H.D. it was called a “failure to pay attention.” A smack on the ass, a ruler across the fingers, or perhaps a strong comment designed to embarrass you in front of your classmates was enough to “cure” this affliction.

It is about controlling your child’s environment. When I was a kid we played outside. We played outside everyday and for as long as we could get away with (which was typically about dinner time). We ate candy throughout the day as well. That was the extent of it. Yes, we took in a fair amount of sugar but we were also burning it off by running around and playing outside. Being sent to your room was considered serious punishment and something that we as kids seriously tried to avoid.

Today, kids sit in front of their computers for fun. Being sent to their room is welcomed. Why? All of their stuff is there. Television, computer and internet, game consoles, and cell phones (in a lot of cases smartphones) are also a part of the modern child’s environs. They watch enormous amounts of television and they eat very badly because parents just don’t seem to give a shit about that sort of thing anymore. They are driven to the bus stop or even back and forth to school. Those kids aren’t even being given the opportunity to get exercise by moving themselves around. Of course, the parents will say that it’s a safety issue, they are worried about predators, or they just can’t stand the thought of their child standing out in the rain waiting for the bus. Instead of teaching kids about what they should do in a worse case scenario, modern parents think it’s much easier to just shuttle their children around. This is a short term solution for the parents that causes long term damages to the kid.

I remember my father telling me to stop doing something. He only ever gave me one chance to actually stop. It was usually a better situation if I stopped rather than having him do it for me. It also usually ended painfully for me when he made me stop. What I see these days in the grocery store is some out of control kid with a parent standing there trying to “reason” with them. “Oh, Jeffrey please stop doing that. Now, I’m going to count to ten…” The worst thing the kid has to put up with is listening to his parent drone on and on.

Parents these days want to be their children’s friend. You can’t. Sure, when you kids have grown into adulthood you can be “friends” with them. Just imagine what kind of Army we’d have if all of the drill instructors wanted make nice and be friends with the recruits. The same goes for child rearing. Growing up in a home with “rules” is a boot camp of sorts for life. The tougher the boot camp the more likely it will be that your child will succeed. Incidentally, this also includes a regiment of exercise. Our children are fat and overweight because we’re making them that way.

See? It’s not really a disease unless you consider the parents to be the disease.

I do.

April 30, 2011 by Mike Williams Common Sense Filter