Rumor has it...this is the last birthday you're allowed to have.
PDA under-utilization
The insides/guts of the PDA. Hm?
I'm not sure how I functioned before the days of my PDA -- I mean, I know how...it was called a Franklin Planner: bulky, writing implement driven, paper ripping out of 3 ring binder, heavy, non-updating nor interfacing with any other application...I could go on. I don't miss the FP.
Today however, I've come to understand that I'm under utilizing my PDA.
A BBC article in Technology tells of a group of Arctic wilderness adventurers who are racing to the magnetic North Pole who email home via their PDA. Well. "They found that the handheld computers fared much better in the extreme cold than other equipment. "It was our link to civilisation," said Paul "Seamus" Hogan, a member of Team Fujitsu." The MP3 players tend to seize in the cold, but the PDA functions fine in the extreme cold even without having to carry it in one's BVDs (true...read the article!) I could be doing that. Too bad I'm already committed to the Chicago event in August.
Then, the Chicago Tribune mentions a White Sox season ticket holder who keeps score for every game on his personal digital assistant and saves them electronically, just as his father has done for years with paper scorecards. I could do that.
Remember, in 1997 the IBM computer known as Deep Blue defeated Garry Kasparov to win a six-game chess match between man and machine in New York. Could my PDA do that??? Could be. I own 1 of over 9 million of those little handheld computers!
The PDA has revolutionized the way I take notes, record appointments, keep phone numbers and addresses, write email away from my computer, remember tasks/TO DO LISTS, play chess, record GDG playing Christmas carols on the piano and more...but an Artic adventure, a baseball game, and who knows what else!
I'm under utilizing my PDA. If only I were a techno-geek. Sigh.
May Day
The Old Farmer's Almanac records May 1 as a Red Letter Day as today is May Day. Ancient spring rites that related human fertility to crop fertility gave birth to most modern May Day festivities. May 1 is the traditional day to crown the May queen, dance around the maypole, perform mummers' plays, and generally celebrate the return of spring. Although our Pilgrim fathers were horrified by these reminders of a pagan past and outlawed all such activities, the maypole dance remains an enduring event. In Great Britain, the custom of "bringing in the May" involves gathering "knots," or branches with buds, on the eve or early morning of May 1. In England, a favorite branch is hawthorn. In Scotland and Wales, people choose the rowan, or mountain ash. In the United States, we often select forsythia, lilac, or pussy willow branches to bring spring and the prospect of new life into our homes.
These lilacs adorn the edge of the garage apron.
Each time the breeze passes the spicy scent fills the air.
Escargot
This morning's The Chicago Tribune had a short article entitled "Health Officials Seize Illegal Snails". Let's talk snails! Not little snails, not garden slugs, but SNAILS, great big Giant African snails transported to the US many years ago by an unsuspecting child. Eventually the snails were turned loose in the garden where they grew and reproduced.
Bring on the puff pastry! Can you imagine what a pound of butter and a head of garlic could do for these creatures?
Tax Day and The Post Office
CNN reports that around the country tax payers and post offices create a festive atmosphere as 44 million tax returns were sent out yesterday and many, many more today.
'Mindful of how onerous the task is, and how cantankerous the taxpayers can be, the U.S. Postal Service responded to this annual convulsion by keeping its offices open late and greeting patrons with a variety of diversions.
The main post office in Boise, Idaho -- in concert with radio stations -- offered tax help, free massages and music from the Boise Philharmonic.'A post office in Corpus Christi, Texas, gave away candy kisses to help people kiss their money goodbye.
The main post office in Glens Falls, New York, gave out free crying towels.
In Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the post office took IRS checks and the Blood Bank took blood.
A blues band serenaded patrons at an Arlington, Virginia, post office.
In California, a post office offered taxpayers a chance to dunk volunteer IRS officials in water.
In Louisiana, the American Heart Association and a nursing school offered free checkups.
MY BLUE RIBBON AWARD goes to: Baltimore, Maryland, where tax returns were accepted at the Baltimore Orioles baseball game in Camden Yards.
On my way home from a meeting that lasted until about 8:15 p.m. I stopped to drop off a handful of NON-tax envelopes. As I pulled into the drive-through drop off (a line of half a dozen mail boxes in front of the downtown post office) I saw that the car ahead of me hand the postal worker a standard size IRS envelope -- taxes??? As I pulled ahead and rolled down my window, a couple of postal workers greeted me, "Just a couple of 'regular' pieces of mail." He smiled, "We'll take those, too." LOL They'll be there until midnight meeting and greeting people who bring along their taxes.
Interestingly. right before the turn into the drive-through drop off area, there were 5 or 6 protestors with large signs: "Bring home our troops" "Don't let your tax dollars pay for Iraq war" "Bush ... taxes... ??" and one with a blurry photo that I couldn't make out (a bombed out building or tank or something, perhaps). At first thought the protestors surprised me, but in retrospect I'm surprised there weren't more. What a good method of 'advertising' on a very busy night on Michigan Ave.
What a hoot!
Volvo YCC
BBC News reports the launch of a new Volvo concept car made with women in mind by a team of women engineers.
Innovations include: Seat pads, attached with magnets, can be removed to be cleaned. Gas caps that do not need to be unscrewed. Windshield wiper fluid resevoir at the side of the car (a smaller version of the gas tank). A cut out in the headrest for a pony tail. Storage, storage, storage, storage.
