Back To The Future II was my favorite movie in that trilogy. When I was younger, I loved how they depicted the future. It made me excited for how the world may look in 2015.
Now that it’s 2010, I have growing skepticism on many of the things I expected to see. However, one artist is getting the ball rolling with a replica of the Hoverboard. Check out the video:
It is obscene to think of how many pictures I take of Leo, my eight-weeker. And I am saying this as a very judicious picture taker and editor. I post many photos on the Internet, but if they don’t fit a certain set of rules, they don’t make the cut. Here are some examples:
Formal “say cheese”-type poses
Blurriness (if used unartistically)
Funny faces (if exhibited unintentionally)
Take multiple pictures of a scene, use the best version
There are more, but I won’t bore you with those right now. What matters is that my tried and true ‘photo laws’ are being tested by parenthood. Even the blurriest picture sometimes makes the cut if there’s a smiling baby in the frame. Breaking another rule, I will take essentially the same picture 10 times but post all of them because Leo has a slightly different facial expression or pose in each one.
I am a conflicted man.
Maybe my cold, (amateur) photographer’s heart has softened with the arrival of my son. Editing down a batch of photos for the day used to be easy. I just applied the rules and posted the best stuff. Now I’m having a crisis when choosing between a shot of a smirking baby or a smiling baby.
Thank God for grandmas. I know I can count on them to look at every photo.
Every year, countless brackets are filled out for the NCAA tournament. But what are the odds of predicting the outcome of every game?
In short, staggeringly impossible.
From a purely mathmatical standpoint, you would find this answer by taking 2 to the 63rd power, because there are 63 games in the tournament, and only two outcomes in each game. To even come close to a perfect bracket, you’d have to fill out more than 9.2 quintillion brackets. That’s a 9 followed by 18 zeros. It’s a staggering number. Just look at it:
9,200,000,000,000,000,000
It doesn’t take a mathematician to know that the actual odds are smaller. However, that magic number is difficult to pinpoint. For example, a #1 seed will almost always beat a #16 seed, and same with the #2 and #15 seed games, giving you a sure bet most of the time, but only a few games in the first round are really lopsided. Plus, upsets happen every year, so even if you factor the seeding and rank of a team, we would still be looking at one very large digit.
Last summer, my wife and I learned that we would be having a child. It wasn’t exactly how we planned things, but sometimes that’s how life works out. That child is now here, and we are happy that he joined us. Meet Leo, everyone. He’s 34 days old.
I have a couple small bins that hold CD cases under my coffee table, and it’s where I keep all the new albums I purchase. Once or twice a year, I fill these trays up, and I have to weed through the “older” CDs and find a place to store them. In the meantime, I’ve already ripped them to my computer, and maybe only used the actual disc a handful of times. Sooner or later, the CDs find their way to these bins, and beyond that, into a larger, more unaccessible bin.
Each time, I wonder why I continue to buy CDs. It should come as no surprise to us that CDs are on the way out. Just look at the predecessors of the CD. Vinyl, 8-track, and cassettes all had their time in the sun, and although vinyl (and even cassettes to a degree) are seeing a resurgence, they are by no means the main form of distribution that they used to be. CDs soon will join these ranks. Everything will soon be digital.
Could digital be the last format in this evolution? It’s hard to imagine what may lie beyond that. Perhaps we’ll get the music injected directly–electronically–into our brains?
I love the ease, affordability, and immediate satisfaction of digital. But the music fan in me wants to continue to have a physical artifact associated with the music I love. Still the practical side of me knows that I will just rip the album to my computer, add it to my iPod, and listen to it digitally 95% of the time. Meanwhile, I’ll be adding another CD to my ever-growing pile.
Because of this, I started a policy two years ago. I would continue to buy CDs for my favorite artists and anticipated albums, while buying digital on impulse buys and newer bands I want to just check out. Going digital was an easy and affordable way to check out new music.
I officially changed this policy last month, based on a trip to the record store.
Easy Street Records was having a $1 sale on old vinyl. I picked up a lot of old favorites and took a chance on some random stuff. After all, they were only $1 a piece. I came home with a dozen LPs.
I had an LP player, but it was relegated to my chilly, windowless garage, where it was unlikely that I would hang out and listen to much music. I cleared some space upstairs in the living room and my LP player had newer, friendlier home. That’s when I saw my policy changing.
Many new artists are still putting out vinyl records, but they are also including digital downloads with your purchase. This entices to now buy vinyl from my favorite artists and for anticipated albums, allowing me the best of both worlds. A convenient digital copy, and a physical copy in a format that I’m more likely to appreciate and enjoy. Furthermore, I can now buy old records on their original format at a discounted price, rather than pay full price for a digital copy. If I do want a digital copy, I can rip the record from the LP player to my computer with one of many software programs available (or just find a free copy online). There was a time where kids would record a vinyl record to a cassette for their friends or for their cars.
If I want to make an impulse buy or check out something new, I’ll continue to buy digital. If I become a fan, I can support them down the line with my next purchase. I just hope they offer vinyl (with downloads).
I don’t think I was alone in 2009 feeling some disillusionment with our country and our leaders. After 2008’s unprecedented election and 2009’s emotional inauguration of Obama, I felt like we would finally see some progress in Washington DC. As the year played out, it seemed like we were in a stalemate like never before.
After last week’s eloquent and hopeful State of the Union, I was reminded that maybe things CAN change. Last Friday, two days after the STOU, Obama addressed the GOP members of the House, and it seemed like we may be headed toward some sort of reasonable agreement that both sides will have to work together to make things happen. This was the most refreshing thing I’ve seen happen since Obama took office. Kudos to both sides.
