Author Archives: Dave

Author, blogger, thinker, developer, and all-around digital creative. Applied theatre professional. Mac enthusiast. Coffee fanatic.

Please Don’t Automate That…

While Karen oftentimes shakes her head at how quickly I adopt new features and new toys, in my defense, there are many from which I opt out.  I was thinking about that this morning as I pondered how to spend the rest of an iTunes gift card that’s burning a proverbial hole in my digital wallet. Those thoughts sort of collided with recent reticence about a re-design of  iTunes of which I’ve heard mixed reactions (and haven’t quite gotten around to installing myself), and I remembered that nifty little functionality built into iTunes called Genius.

I’ve never used that.

It’s not that I’m not used to recommendations generated by some sort of computer algorithm, and I suspect that neither are you, that is if you’ve ever received one of those emails from Amazon recommending stuff based upon your previous purchases. Perhaps its because these algorithms fail miserably in their attempt to mathematically predict human behavior (which I like the sound of), or perhaps its just because my tastes in reading and music are so eclectic, but these recommendations never hit the mark for me. The books and music and even the applications that I purchase are almost always the result of a recommendation from a friend, acquaintance, or, at the very least, listening to someone talk about it on a show or podcast somewhere. I don’t buy things based off of “recommended for you” sorts of automated emails because they’re almost never interesting to me.

That said, can anyone recommend some good music? Thanks.

Air Waves

Karen and I typically find ourselves travelling by air about once every year, on average. That has gotten quite interesting since our daughter joined us, but it is still my preferred way to travel. Even though our travelling is not for business, I’ve still found myself, especially during the rush of holiday travelling, trying to get out a last-minute communication or squeezing in one last phone call just as we take our seats and have to turn everything off. I’ve been quite annoyed on several flights when I have to stop the movie I’m watching 20 minutes before seemingly necessary because the flight has technically began its final descent. I don’t get the whole “no electronic devices” rule during that time period.

Apparently, there’s discrepancy about the entire concept of not using mobile communication devices on flights altogether, and, if we’re to believe this article, it’s gaining traction as officials call into question the fact that our “increasingly mobile society” can’t use our phones and tablets while in the air for data transmissions.

I’m going to be honest, though…I sort of enjoy the fact that I can’t take calls and swap emails while in the air. I like the opportunity to let calls go to voicemail and my inbox fill up a bit. While I don’t see the validity of not being able to keep reading an ebook or watching a movie just because we’re taking off or landing, I really don’t want everyone on their phones in that confined space. I’m not even thrilled about the idea of in-flight wi-fi. There are few places in which our bodies get a break from those flying radio signals, in any case.

In short, there’s something nice about quiet.

In a perfect world (well, a perfect world for me), I hope that some flexibility comes from these studies without full permissiveness of mobile phone use being adopted during flights. Having some peace and quiet is nice, and, while I may feel differently about some loss of productivity were I to travel more for business, I understand that a lot of business travelers enjoy the chance to disconnect for a change, as well.

I haven’t really had the opportunity over the past couple of years, but I used to carve out time to unplug every summer. The best times were at the beach with Karen. Even a couple of days disconnected from the Internet is quite refreshing. I’m looking forward to my next chance to do that.

Connectedness is amazing, but there can be too much of a good thing. I hope that we can keep what peace and quiet we have during air travel, because we honestly need whatever peace and quiet we can find.

You’re now free to move about the cabin.

Hopeful Minimalism

I’ve noticed a trend in my blogging over recent years: it seems that, each year, I write a post right around now about how Christmas just doesn’t feel like Christmas.

Well, far be it from me to break tradition, so here it is.

Christmas decorations are basically non-existent for us this year, because, as I am a full-time student for a few more months, most of our  Christmas stuff is in storage. I’m contenting myself with the annual re-syncing of my phone’s music library to contain my Christmas music (there’s a lot), and a single Charlie Brown Christmas tree. Granted, Charlie Brown’s Christmas seems to have an especially important, even theological, role to play in my Christmas each year, so I’m not really complaining.

Advent? That’s in progress, but I’m missing it. There’s simply no time to make time.

In fact, anything other than school, family, or the sporadic writing binge essentially isn’t happening right now. In fact, I’m doing well to manage the first two, forget the third in that list. So, there’s some disappointment in me that’s driving the beginning of (my recognition of) the Christmas season this year. Disappointment because I will have no time for my hobbies or the the things with which I unwind for the next few months. Disappointment because school is to effect a career change, and the stress that goes along with that is crushing at times. Disappointment because, while I don’t miss where we used to live, I do miss our friends. Disappointment because I had always wanted to move on in an academic career, do another degree, maybe even be a professor, but I’ve given up on that dream, because being a student again at this point in my life…even for just a few months for a quick, non-degree certification…is more than I can effectively manage with a family, so I see no way that we could make it for two years or more if I completed another degree. I mourn the loss of that dream in a very pronounced way.

Yet, Christmas isn’t about disappointment, it’s about hope. And, perhaps there’s a built-in Advent experience in the fact that the dusk I’ve described above must necessarily lead to a dawn in the near future. The season lends itself to hope, hope for positive changes that could be just around the corner, hope that  political and national differences could be set aside in the name of peace for this most holy of seasons, and that we might spend more time finding what unites us rather than what divides us.

Hope for civility.

Hope for miracles, or rather my ability to see them as they already occur.

(Perhaps I should mention hope that I learn to live with real winters, again.)

Hope that, on the other side of this Christmas season, we find ourselves not necessarily more prosperous, but more grateful, more loved, more connected with what is outside of ourselves.

May your days be merry and bright…

Crazy Talk

I came home really tired one afternoon recently after staring at a computer monitor for several hours and having had one of “those” days. Karen attempted to engage me in conversation a couple of times over the course of the next hour while I basically stared blankly out into space for a bit. Then, fully decompressed, I was able to re-engage with family life and be active for the rest of the evening. I told her that I had needed time to “re-boot.”

It’s interesting, isn’t it, how we apply technological terms to our biological and social functions? There are several geeky tech references that our family members tend to make to each other in moments like that: how not being able to grasp something means you need a software update, or how not paying attention during what someone else was saying means that you had logged off. These are terms with which we have all become very familiar because of the tools that drive our daily lives, and so we apply them to moments that we have during those daily lives as a sort of common vernacular to explain things that are otherwise difficult to explain.

We are, after all, proud of our technology. We conceived of it, designed it, and built it. Well, not us specifically, but we feel that we all have bragging rights because our culture did this…sort of how we say that “we” put a man on the moon. It’s not difficult to see that we are so proud of it…choices of tablet devices and smartphones are elevated to news-worthy discussion, and we make personality judgements about people based upon whether they use, for example, an iPhone, Android or Windows phone. Different types of personalities have structured these different devices and types of operating systems, and so similar personality types tend to gravitate toward one or the other (something that Karen and I immediately had in common, for example, was that we are both Mac users…and this actually gave us important hints about each other’s personalities).

So, after necessarily crafting this technical jargon to accompany the innovations that we’ve created, we then integrated those innovations so completely into our lives that we have found ourselves borrowing the jargon and generalizing it to other areas of life, as well. We are, after all, created as creators, and thus we endear ourselves to our creations.

This isn’t a surprise. Language is our primary means of communicating, and we adapt our language to accommodate what is most important to us. The things we’ve built…or created…are important. Ask any painter, writer, or musician…that stuff comes from your soul, and you’re proud of it. Likewise with our amazing and progressive innovations. When we say that we need a “re-boot” because we’re tired, that’s only reflecting the brave new world that we’ve raised around ourselves.

Something that is as exciting as it is occasionally disconcerting.