I’ve been to 88% of the states.
(http://www.world66.com/myworld66/visitedStates)
Time to get to those little buggers on the east coast. I’ll just hope fate takes me to Alaska and Mississippi.
We won’t mention that I’ve only been to two provinces (Upper and Lower Canada), and that I’ve never left North America.
The consumer buzz in Canada regarding the popular new smart phone from Apple has been nothing short of remarkable. It is poised to take the nation by storm. Why I wouldn’t be surprised if the other handset makers just throw in the towel and pull out of the market altogether. Another huge win for Mr. Jobs and his remarkable design, engineering, and marketing teams. Eh? There appears to be no time line at all for introduction of the iPhone in Canada? Rogers has the only GSM network that is compatible with the Apple device, and they are about as likely to agree to the all-you-can-eat data plan as the Waste Management drivers are to drive by a Tim’s. But it’s OK because we have RIM….
Canadians have no need for the iPhone. We are the home of RIM, Research In Motion, #2 provider of smart phones in the world (behind Nokia). And here on their home turf, nobody touches RIM and the ubiquitous Blackberry. Why, we have first crack at all their telecomm goodness. In fact the cutting-edge Blackberry Curve 8320 offers Canadians an array of options on a handset that is available nowhere else; GPS, camera, MP3 and video playback, wi-fi connectivity, the ability to edit Microsoft Office documents, and, of course, the industry leading email functionality. All of this on a form factor that is both stylish, functional, has an actual keyboard, and….eh? Not available in Canada? But it’s RIM. None of the Canadian wireless companies carry the 8320?
Phones are overrated and overpriced anyway. I, for one, will be sticking with a $45 flip phone from Virgin Wireless. The real action is on the Internet anyway. The entertainment industry is undergoing a revolution on-line. And Canadians have embraced the delivery of Internet radio with many turning to the revolutionary service provided by Pandora. At this site, you enter the name of a band or song that you like, and the site provides music that matches…eh? Pandora was cut off from Canadians in May 2007?
It’s OK. We didn’t really go for streaming music anyway. We want our music to be portable. I couldn’t listen to Pandora in the ice fishing shack anyway. Which brings us to amazonmp3! People are raving about this new service from Amazon.com that offers high bit-rate 
(256kbps) mp3’s at $.89-$.99 per song with no DRM. You can even….eh? No? Doesn’t matter, I don’t buy downloaded music anyway. Didn’t you know that BitTorrenting music is legal here? Seriously, why would any major corporation want to provide us with a simple, affordable, ethically embraceable method of downloading music tracks? At least we can get first crack at the new Kindle e-reader from Amazon. Word of mouth has been really good, and I plan to….oh. Well, haven’t you heard, Steve Jobs says no one reads anymore anyway.
And since no one is reading, then we’re all watching TV. Thank heavens the television content producers have embraced the Internet. With young kids in the house, I frequently miss the shows I would really like to see. Corporations like NBC have really seen the light. I can go to their website to watch episodes I might have missed. It’s free so I don’t mind watching commercials that are …..oh. Licensing deals? So then the Canadian network (Global) can stream the episode of “Friday Night Lights” that I missed? No?
We all have iPods anyway. We’ll just buy TV episodes from the iTunes store. It’ll be great having “Friday Night Lights” to watch on the bus! None of the major TV networks are selling shows in Canada?
Bet I can buy hockey.
So, I’ve recently finished reading “Getting Things Done” by David Allen. Spend more than 10 minutes drifting through the business blogosphere and you’ll trip over this one. He’s the guru on personal productivity and organization. I won’t waste any of your my time describing the whole thing. That cake’s been baked.
Here’s my deal. I can’t do it. Every time I walk into my home office to start tearing up files and reorganizing I get an upset stomach, spots in my eyes, tachycardia, and weak knees. Typically I leave 30 seconds later and go play MaterNational on Gabe’s DS.
I have to get a real job, and soon. Deadlines and deliverables force organization and efficiency. Free time makes me shiftless and hazy.
Bobby Knight has lived a lifetime of hypocrisy. The General represented everything that he despised in a player, and now he quits on his team during the stretch run. Pat Forde has a great write-up on him over at ESPN.com.
Knight has always been a putative disciplinarian who lacked self-discipline.
I suspect Bobby won’t handle retirement well at all. He won’t be the center of attention, and he won’t be surrounded by people who will tolerate his abuse to keep a job.
And one more time for old times’ sake. I never get tired of this; remember it like it was yesterday. And just so no one forgets, that was a Purdue beat down that brought about his antics!
I am giving all these nifty new web2.0 gadgets a whirl over the next few weeks. Seems that the blog is one that I haven’t fooled with yet. Think any will stick to the wall?
I already find facebook boring.
I don’t really “get” twitter. I suppose the key is finding people to follow who have lives far more stimulating than my own. Does the world really care how many diapers I change per day?
Fooled with tumblr some. It’s ok for quick dumps of flotsam.
Linkedin has become a pseudofacebook for me. Good for keeping up with my “connections”, but precious little actual “business” taking place. Perhaps that will change when I have an actual “job”.
I love del.icio.us. It’s probably the most useful search engine one can use.
What else? Mahalo? Perhaps. Not enough exposure yet.
Flickr? Yes, I know. I need to get my photos up there just so they’re backed up offsite. I wonder though…my ISP has upload limits. Am I going to get blackballed because I dumped a boatload of pics to flickr? Even though I have a flickr pro account via my ISP? hmmm….
Pownce? Twitter with some actual usefulness. Not a soul there that I know or care about.
Myspace? Please. I’m over 17 and I have a college degree.
I may come back if I can think of anything useful to contribute.
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