E.J. Svoboda

Every Generation eventually comes to a point when they feel that the world is passing them by. That society moves at a too rapid pace that they can no longer comprehend. Some people feel an intense need to not be left behind by the ever changing and growing “advances” that happen every generation. Yet some people are best and at their highest level of function when they use the level of technology that is most comfortable for them. For some this may mean the author who types his stories on a manual typewriter. For others this may mean using what most people would consider to be an outdated word processing system that lacks any available technical support and has been relegated to the annuals of forgotten quaint technology.When did it become a sin to use paper and a pencil to write out notes instead of using a tablet PC? How well does any of this technology work when the power is out. Are you outdated because you can’t edit DV formated video on your PC?  Great works of literature from Tolostoy to Twain were written out long hand on parchment paper with a fountain pen by illumination provided by the flicker of a candle. What is the purpose of technology and why should some people not ever bother employing it in their everyday lives? Is it truly necessary that a seventy year old Grandfather learn how to use a computer or any other advanced technological device? As I type all of this on my PC . . .

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Over the last year I’ve adopted the habit of using a variety of notebooks (Moleskine and others) to keep track of the various things that I need to write down (tasks, notes, meeting notes, ideas). The problem has become that they breed like rabbits and I now have too many. As a result I have broken out that old standby – The Franklin Planner.As a technology geek it would beg the question about why I just don’t use my Pocket PC for all of this. The Pocket PC is a fine format for reading ebooks, playing games, looking up contacts, and recording a short task but it doesn’t work well for me when I need to take notes in a meeting. Paper is the better technology.The big problem I’ve had with my Franklin Planner is that I never really bought into the whole Franklin-Covey way of doing things. I’ve found that what I really need is a place to keep meeting notes but I don’t use the bulk of their “system”. Recently, I was turned on to the David Allen book “Getting Things Done” which is a more useful system for what I need.My general setup involves using the GTD outlook plugin for e-mail to keep that under control and then to record on paper any of the various Actions I need to complete. I can input those into Outlook and get print outs of my daily meetings, actions, and any notes.So far so good but I wonder if I’ll just move towards a paper only solution at some point.

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The Secretary of State of California, Bruce McPherson-R has recertified the Diebold voting machines after proclaiming that they were “not good enough for California voters and not good enough for me.”There’s a host of problems with their voting machines. The biggest of which is that they are easily hacked. Elections should be fair and we should have a reasonable assumption that they were conducted according to the law. The Diebold system doesn’t create an adequate paper trail for a true recount of the ballots. Their system is too reliant upon a single point of failure (their machine).The best electronic system I have seen for counting ballots utilizes an opscan form that is scanned and counted by the scanning machine. The original ballots remain viable for a recount.

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On Fox. Don’t expect hard hitting questions.One other thing. On the way into work this morning I heard a Republican pundit say that the reason the media is covering the Vice-President shooting story is that they are angry that a Texas newspaper got the story first and not them. Hogwash. The reason they are reporting the story is that The Vice-President shot a man while hunting and the administration has yet to be forthright about the situation. The administration has also failed to make the Vice-President available to the press to answer questions. Finally, the Vice-President hasn’t publically apologized to the guy or the American people to say that he should have been forthcoming about it all.

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I could tell you that I get asked a lot of times how I can change the world and I also have been asked a lot of times how I can be a rock and roll singer. And do you see what’s on the end of my fingers? Calluses. And what that means is that if you’re willing to play the guitar night in and night out for audiences of three people when you are coming up and finding that even your mother says tpppth it doesn’t sound very good. The point is very simply that if you care enough you can have an impact. Because in the long run we are not sure of a prior life or an after life � we’re all hoping for that. But what we can do is maximize what we have in this brief flicker of time in the infinity and try to milk that. And be hunger in a different in a different kind of way. Hungry for experience, hungry for meaning, and you can be terribly terribly effective if you want to be.Harry Chapin

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Thankfully the person that The Vice-President shot will apparently recover. I’m not sure why the event wasn’t reported to authorities and I hope that the local folks investigate this shooting and the lack of reporting. I’m not well versed in Texas law as I only lived there for a short time as a very young child. Thankfully, my parents had the good sense to return to Illinois although I don’t believe there was ever any discussion of staying in Texas longer than was dictated by my father’s assignment and training.Tip to any potential Republican donors who want to go hunting with the Vice-President – DON’T!

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NPR has a great segment called “this I believe” and today’s was simply fantastic. It was an essary by Harold Koh who is Dean of Yale Law School. He teaches human rights and international law.This excerpt gives a flavor of the essay:My father savored freedom like he savored fresh air. He loved the freedom to follow his passions: for John F. Kennedy, for Fred Astaire, for Ted Williams. Driving down the road, he would turn and exclaim: “This is a great, great country. Here, we can do what we want.”Check out the whole thing here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=519902

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