The influence of decades

I was thinking, yes we know John you think a lot but be brief please, in terms of decades & how the main issues of the time affect/affected society.

60's - Viet Nam, hippies, peace & love, psychedelia, & such, and all men elligible for the draft fearing their number would be picked. A challenged generation for sure.

70's - Nam recovery & fallout throughout the nation, I guess Disco music was the main thing I remember as I was 3 to 13 in that decade so I don't know much else than that. I deny all knowlege senator.

80's - The decade that hi-tech began & gizmoids & gadgets at home were becomming the norm, Disco being the norm & then dying to punk & new Wave music, & the Madonna & Divas & rap music mixed with the start of hard rock/metal fronted by Eddie Van Halen restoring the guitar to it's place in rock music in our side of the world. Music videos birthed.

90's - More & more high tech, Metal music & big & even bigger hair peaked & swiftly melted away to hip-hop, gangsta rap, boy/girl groups, & grunge, and even more tech gadgets, birth of cell phones. The generation of "push a button get a response & get angry when the response takes too long." The birth of CGI animation to contribute to the movie experience. The start of email as the norm of communication, thereby speeding up company productivity & helping people be a bit more connected, but at the same time email becomming the only way some communicated & so people started to become disconnected.

2000 - 9/11 & the world stopped for a moment to try & see what is important, and our nation was brought a bit closer together, Iraq's 1st chance at freedom from the unjust & dishonest dictator began but with that birth comes a lot of growing pains that nobody is able to stick around for as our soldiers are there in harm's way to serve our country & to protect the Iragi people who cannot do so for themselves. Reality shows. Hi-tech having a hangover from 20 years of partying & silicon valley going bust, the generation of Instant/text messaging, of DVDs, flat & plasma t.v.s, cell phones & personal portable gadgets that must be had by all, birth of digital media in portable formats, thereby leading society to beginning to become more isoloated & disconnected like never before & everyone fending for themselves. The very gizmoids & gadgets all are seeking contributing to global warming & the call to go green now. Green cars. Reunion tours of bands from the 80's. Paris Hilton being the spokesperson & example that all girls want to be & follow. If we don't live like we first did after 9/11 realizing what is important & that all the other stuff & the so & so who's hot in Hollywood or which celebrity has messed themselves up today, or what's the #1 anything on any chart doesn't matter.

Terra was profound in helping me learn that at about the same time the world was watching Princess Diana having her funeral and the media broadcasting it in celebrity style, the simple woman of love who gave her life to the poor & sick, Mother Theresa was having her funeral with a poor quality broadcast & most people not even aware of it.

In the golf world Tiger Woods is gifted & amazing & is watched & is the one who is hard to beat. The day after losing the U.S. Open, his baby was born. How many are going to talk just about that Tiger should've done this or that differently & he could've of won it with this shot or putt. And behind closed doors away from the media, I'm sure becomming acquainted with new angel & connecting deeply with his wife far outweigh being 2nd in the tournament. The business of golf for him has it place & time of course....just not now.

I find it interesting that two celebrities whom millions have watched, heard, & talked about have undergone life & perspective changing events...

1) Edward Van Halen - Guitar legend, Alcoholic & drug addict, all songs put out since '78 were about sex, drugs, or rock 'n roll maybe with some love schmooze ballad thrown, divorced, father of overweight teen, wanted to go out on the road with original singer with teen son as the bass player. So going out & once again spewing forth the not so great lyrics upon millions, the planned reunion summer tour is cancelled & he checks himself into rehab & comes out looking better & happy. He probably learned that he needed to become the father his son never had. Will his change for the better change anything about any future music or tours? Don't know, but I would hope so & millions would benefit from hearing from him. Doesn't matter if he ever plays live, records, or tours again. What he does with his time with his son & himself does matter.

2) Paris Hilton - Somehow became celebrity & just played & acted stoopid & was the model for fashion, selfishness, greed, etc. Forced into jail for her stuff, & supposedly has changed. Somehow I think her whiny snibbly whatever ways will take longer than a week in jail to make that a lasting positive change.

9/11 was an instant & put the system into shock & was a wakeup call. Perhaps celebrities who undergo such a transformation will somehow have a more lasting & positive influence & impact on society.

I lived in a yellow submarine for a moment

We were at the beach on Saturday hoping the sun would join us there. Brought the life vests for the boys & myself to possibly go out in me kayak providing wind & wave conditions were not too harsh. So after sitting in me chair for a bit & watching the surf it seemed to be kind of small & non-threatening. So I got the yak pumped up & ready to go but I went by myself for the first tour. I stood in the nice cold water watching the set of waves trying to time when to dart out past the surfline so I could just float around. I saw a lull & so I went for it. I have done this kind of entry before at the beach & I know that once you commit to getting out, you go for it as hard as you can until past the waves. I did paddle hard while watching the little bumps of already broken waves coming along that I breezed right through with no concern. Then I saw it. A lump appeared out of nowhere unexpectedly & I knew that I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The lump got bigger & I paddled harder staring it down. Kind of like the attitude of you won't get me without a fight bucko! As I approached the wave that was forming I realized that no matter how hard I try & no matter what I'm a gonna do, this wave is going to break right on my bow & cause a lot of havoc upon my whole being. I haven't been in such a situation before & all I knew was paddle as hard as I could. I paddled hard & the wave broke just as I had expected on my bow & I sure helped it by leaning backwards, and it just smacked the yak, got it all topsy turvy, & going sideways. And as good as the yak is, it's not built for being pushed sideways by a wave & over it turns in the whitewater. I'm smacked down ma'an! Dude game over. I'm tumbling under water, & tumbling, which is not a big deal as I had my life vest on & such. The wave finally & graciously lets go of me, I get up & grab my soaking wet hat that rose to the surface & put it on my head anyway. I weighed about 20 pounds heavier as my sweatshirt is now soaked. I saunter over to the overturned yak, turned it right side up, grabbed one of it's rope things on the bow & out of breath & wiped out, I put my tail between my legs, my pride crushed, & I wander back to our spot on the beach. I must have swallowed a gallon of saltwater in the wipeout as my stomach was just going yuck for a bit afterwards. My arms were shaking from the unexpected 100 yard dash to compete with el bumpo wave that couldn't have been more than 3 feet in height that couldn't have waited about 5 more seconds to break. I was there ma'an. I had it made. And the wave said NO, you shall not pass. It would have been a hilarious video if Terra had taken one to post up on Stupid Videos.

Where's John? Oh he's enjoying his yellow submarine. ha.

Until later comes turn it up to ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha wipeout.

Don't miss out, Free upgrade...

So the PC world is a buzz about Microsoft Vista operating system. All computer makers are only focussing on Vista ready or capable systems now. That's nice...yawn. Don't need a new computer anytime soon. I have XP with service pack 2 at home & at work. Usually no problems & it's pretty stable. You'd think that would be the case with XP being out for the time it has been.

I did have to venture into the realm of testing something in Vista through VMWare. I just think & go ugh. They've done it again. UI totally revamped & changed. I thought the jump from Windows 2000 to XP was odd & hard to get used to at first. Then I tried to do the testing in Vista & to do anything you were used to doing in XP, such as configuring network settings & such, became a very foreign land. Then I had to do the same in testing using a Japanese version of Vista...that was fun trying to guess which icon or button to push. I think I melted in that journey.

So what I'm first getting at is that if I were to buy a new computer today, I would be forced to use Vista because that's all that computer manufacturers are putting on their systems. They are bowing down to Big Brother Gates, controller of Windows. It's the in thing to do & consumers don't get any say in it. And ya probably wouldn't find it easy to find a valid Windows XP installation disk to redo the system to be what you want it to be. I guess you could go the Linux route but no thanks.

The trigger to write this was that a friend bought her daughter a computer that was Vista capable but that was before Vista upgrades for Windows XP were available so HP included that once the Vista upgrade was available it would be sent to them for free. My friend is able to get around computers fairly well & she ventured into the upgrade process & did everything very well in terms of creating recovery disks & such before upgrading. I was impressed. She applied the upgrade which took something like 2 hours to do. Thanks Microsoft. I'm sure your customers really appreciate that. I got a call from her the other day saying that her computer won't start anymore & gets a cryptic message saying Operating system missing. She told me that she had applied the upgrade & soon after this problem appeared. I went over last night to help her with it & I first got the recovery disks to recover the XP that was there & intact prior to the upgrade. Got it all recovered & working fine or even better than fine 'cause I'm good.

In the process it hit me. Hmmm...XP on system for daughter who mainly does some things on the internet, sends emails, & maybe plays some games. I then asked myself "Why upgrade to Vista? What is the motivating factor to do so besides that it was there for free to do?" I couldn't think of any good reason. I asked friend if she did the upgrade based solely on that it was there for free to do. So the outcome was, leave the system as XP & forget Vista upgrade. First time around the upgrade didn't do so well with this particular computer so first impressions aren't that great for a process that takes over 2 hours to complete.

So I queried a couple of co-workers & asked basically what does upgrading to 32 bit Vista from XP gain someone? Basically the answer was, not a whole lot & there's no good motivating factor to do so unless you have 2 GB of memory or something crazy like that. And their responses did include comments about how the UI keeps getting mucked with with each new Windows release.

I can't imagine how many people try to do the upgrade just because their system is Vista capable & the upgrade came for free. What's even more scary is that the instructions that come with the upgrade don't really make it obvious that if you go through a recovery disk creation process, that process does NOT include backing up personal files & data. Step 1 does say "Go backup your stuff first." I guess one would have to know that the term & paradigm of an OS recovery disk does not include backing up your stuff you don't want lost.

I'm wondering how many people do the upgrade without first backing up their own data & personal files because they think the recovery process will do that for them or they don't understand the process enough. I can just hear the thousands of digital photo files disappearing for forever from people's computers. But then it's commonly known that ya should have a backup process planned out on an ongoing basis. And with USB drives getting smaller & with more capacity, backing up is a breeze. I get to enjoy a work provided 160 GB Western Digital USB drive that Costco has been carrying. I like it a lot.

So in regards to upgrading to a major OS revision, what does this new widget give you that you don't have in your stable XP operating system? If the answer doesn't include some major compelling reason, then stick with the motto "If it ain't broke, don't try to fix or upgrade it to a new OS." If it is broke, call your nearest me & I can try to help you take it outside & smash it up. ha.

For those about to endure Vista, may success be with thee but proceed at your own risk & be prepared for the time it will take afterwards no matter the result.

Until later comes, just say no to Vista all you XP users.