Technically inclined ~

I have been technically inclined for most of my life.

I have done sound in different churches on soundboards from 16 tracks up to 64 tracks. I have done recordings on reel-to-reel tapes, cassette tapes, videotapes, compact discs, DVD digital video discs, hard drives, SSD and microSD drives, and several other types of media. I still have 5 1/4 and 3.5 inch floppy drives in my basement (now some of the most secure storage there is since nobody can read them :-)

I have used computers since the 1980s. I programmed my Commodore 64 to use POKE and PEEK commands to sing three-part harmony before the Internet existed in a way to tell me how to do it.

I could listen to music while I worked in the yard when I was younger. I progressed up from a Walkman cassette tape player that only played one side of the tape to a portable compact disc player that read ahead on the drive so that it wouldn't skip to early MP3 players that were amazing! I had an iPod and iPod apps and other devices to capture my voice. I tend to carry a pocket voice recorder to capture my thoughts for later editing.

I've edited videos in three-minute segments for church announcements. I've even used green screen replacement skills to put dragons landing in baseball fields and other amazing things.

I don't miss the stress of the live performances or the hours of editing it takes to generate a three-minute video. But I do miss using the technology.

Fun memories!

Relaxing videos ~

One of the things that I have done in the past few years to help reduce my stress levels and increase my coolness factor is playing ambient videos on my TV screen.

It started with aquarium videos. I love aquariums and looking at them but I hate cleaning them. The anger, the water, the idea that I'm scooping poop and dead fish out just is not appealing to me.

I found a couple of aquarium screensavers that were awesome but they were only on my computer. As televisions got bigger and became more and more big computer monitors I tried to run my computer on them but found that having the screensaver blink off as soon as anybody touched anything on the computer was frustrating.

As YouTube became more and more available on bigger screen TVs just as a streaming thing and then also with the Chromecast and other things I started showing aquarium videos on my TV in my living room. But I was stuck and left at the whim of the Internet connection. So I found a way to download YouTube videos I started downloading aquarium videos and putting them on thumb drives and plugging them in the back of the TV and playing them.

It was amazing! Relaxing, we had our on the big screen instead of just having a big dark screen in the living room unless you are watching something, it was less distracting but more relaxing all at the same time. I loved it!

I started watching beach scenes and mountain stream scenes and other relaxing ambient videos. They're all a lot of fun and I really enjoy them.

I tried to get into some of the random window sites that have popped up over the years. While they were good they weren't as relaxing as I thought they might be. They were good for a few minutes but then would jump to a different window and the view wouldn't be that good or it wouldn't be something that I want to watch. So I really didn't get into them.

I did find a couple of videos of outdoor caf�s and Sweden or Denmark that had an electric cable car that came by like a bus every few minutes. That was actually cool because you saw actual people doing real things and that was fun. They made me want to go visit those places!

I tried the train videos and the view out of the train window. Some of those are okay but I get tired of looking at train tracks.

I did find a couple of virtual tours of Venice that my wife and I really enjoyed. Sitting there watching because it was so beautiful and so different from our cities.

But the videos were always at my house. I now have them on my home office 48 inch monitor and I play them in my work office on my 40+ inch monitor that just got mounted to the wall.

I have playlists of videos that you might enjoy on YouTube. You can find them at https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVqI204q3ewk3SQ7Uj5DXRq97hSCwQs0B&si=aZSs5GRjX5PV4VUC and https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVqI204q3ewkHCrd-lO9xG3C-9X7P22t7&si=XFPnXK_flSxeL8JS.

I hope you find a way to use your technology to decrease your stress levels rather than be driven by the dings and the notifications that keep us on edge. Enjoy!

Apps vs websites ~

Recently there was a story about how Apple was changing policies so e-books from other companies could no longer be bought on Apple devices. Amazon Kindle user anger was expressed in article after article on the web. Tech savvy writers typed or dictated lots of text about how awful this was and what an infringement on their ability use established apps by Apple competitors.

As an avid reader who uses a Kindle device and the Kindle app to read I had to check it out for myself. I went to buy a book in my Kindle app on my phone like I had done in the past and an alert popped up saying "purchases via this device are no longer supported" or something like that.

So it was true! They had tied off the ability to purchase ebooks on my iPad.

Having grown up before personal computers were hot and after using the pre-Internet things like America Online and CompuServe I opened up the browser on my mobile device and browsed to the Amazon website. I searched for the book that I wanted to purchase, found the Kindle format button and made sure I was logged into my Amazon account in my browser. And I purchased the book with no issues. I then switched over to the Kindle, downloaded my newly purchased book, and commenced to reading it.

"Apps" make things very convenient at times, but they have become herding devices. By that I mean they heard us into a sales funnel where the app or service progressively moves us closer to the point at which we part with money. Apps also tend to soak up the data all around them and sometimes even that they have no right to be accessing unless we allow it. I tend to shy away from apps because I just don't trust the company or I just live without whatever it is that the app is providing.

That's not to say I don't have a lot of apps on my mobile device. I do! But I don't let what happens get in the way of what I'm trying to do. If silly stuff like this battle between the giant companies gets in the way I tend to go to the source of what the app is doing, the website, and just keep going. So many times I've found that an app is just a quick exoskeleton that is actually running a browser and browsing the website anyways but with extra overlays and limits put on you so that they can control what you're doing.

I guess the moral of the story is don't lead the battles between the tech giants stand in the way of what I'm trying to accomplish. You shouldn't either!

Seasons ~

It's funny how seasons work in my head. I enjoy the passing of seasons and I actually enjoy all of them (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter). I think my favorite is summer although I love cold dark winter days. I enjoy the fall days with the leaves blowing and cool crisp nights but also enjoy spring when everything is bursting forth and turning yellow from pollen where I live.

One of the things that I notice and myself though is a tendency to think about the opposite of the season that I'm in. It's summer as I capture this and so it's usually a warm day with an okay evening but typically not cool. It's been summer for some time and so I'm finding myself this week thinking about winter and cold weather and wearing a jacket all the time and breaking out my warm shirts instead of wearing thin moisture wicking shirts all the time. Although I tend to wear them all the time anyways.

But I've always noticed in the deepest part of winter after Christmas when people are talking about skiing trips and all that I start thinking about summer heat and how nice it is to take my shirt off and soak in some sun. Although not too much for me since I really don't want to get skin cancer anymore.

But it's funny how I am in the moment enjoying what God has given us but still thinking about the opposite and looking forward to the upcoming season changes.

Weird.