Its been a year!

So this last weekend janet and I celebrated our one year anniversary at Lincoln City Oregon. Looking back the year went by very quickly. We have done many fun things together and have many more planned. We have so much fun when we are together its hard to be apart. So now our next big milestone is our wedding on September 19th. Between now and then we have a whole summer of fun things planned out.

We're a mac family now!

So my friends and family know now that I'm a mac fan. I switch to Mac in June of 2008 and seem to brag about how they are fun to use and reliable. Well months of using it next to Janet and her building frustration with using her PC finally came to an end. I had done everything I could to help her computer run better and less frustrating. I put Windows 7 on it, stripped off the junk and installed a light weight virus protection ESET Nod 32. Things were a little better in the beginning but the PC frustrations came back as soon as bit rot started to set in. So she twittered about it being frustrated and I replied with time to get a mac. We met up at the apple store and got one. Actually I upgraded to the 17" and she got the 15" which worked out well for both of us.

So far she is able to do everything she use to do. The learning curve for her isn't as big as it was for her because most of her time is spent online and in itunes. There isn't much difference in the user experience in those programs. She is really enjoying the instant wake ability of it in the morning. Open the lid and 5-8 seconds later it's ready to use. She is really appreciating the quality of the computer and the polished user interface. That makes us both happy.

Kortne playing softball

This is Kortne running to second. She is playing hard.

One more converted to mac, Everyone else still to go!

Matt, my long time co worker, has a wife that uses her computer for her business. She had an old emachine that was really a turd. With the conficker virus going to do an update on April 1st she was trying to get it updated so it was protected. This computer has been a frustration for her from day one with constant fights with viruses, slow downs, issues that were unexplainable. So Matt showed up at work with the computer and asked if I could help make sure they were secure. I agreed to help because i'm the computer guy, right? I get the big ugly box and plug it in. It fires up and it sounds like a jet engine and off it goes. After it boots up I try to work with it but it is trying to load America Online and other stuff and it was pretty unresponsive for at least 5 minutes. It was very frustrating to deal with that old thing. They had 512 megs of ram and it was very under powered for Windows XP even. With all the frustration they have faced over the years with this machine and it was her business machine she used for her ebay auction site I strongly suggested it was time for a new computer. They know i'm a mac fan and after some discussion they were willing to upgrade. Obviously they didn't want to spend the money but they did anyway. Off to the Mac store for a mac mini we go.



So we get the mac employee from this commercial (Spoof)

Yes, I think the salesguy was high. So we looked at the computers and he decided on the cheapest one. I do think the base mac mini has too little ram so I wish they would have got an extra gig of ram but he didn't want to spend the money and they can alway add the memory afterwards. So we got it back and I had Matt do the hookup so that he knew how to do it when they got it home. He operated the computer for all the setup and we were up and running. You cant tell by the picture but look at the CD slot size and the whole computer isn't much bigger. He was impressed on how small this thing was. I went through some things for about an hour with him and as a non computer person he was blown away at how nice and easy it was.

So his wife came in at the end of the day after work for a quick training session to get her up and running. Mac's are a bit different and it takes some getting use to. I spent about an hour going through the same stuff as I did with Mac and she was also blown away. I researched a replacement ebay auction program for her because the one she was using isn't compatible with mac. Her old program was free but she paid .10 per listing to use it. The one I found for the Mac was $35 to purchase but there were no ongoing fees so in a couple months she'll have paid for he application "garagesale" from the savings. Before she got here I played with the app to get familiar with it and so I could show her how to get up and running. She couldn't believe how beautiful the interface and themes that it came with were. Her auctions will be so much nicer than they were. Also I went through her workflow with her and showed her some other things such as when she finds a picture on Ebay she wants to use she can just drag it off onto her desktop. With windows you have to right click and save and or screen shot. Usually the images have extra stuff around them so you end up screen capturing it. Then with windows you have lots of extra work to crop it. With mac it's three keys and you drag some cross hairs around the image and it puts a picture on your desktop in the form of a file. I also helped her get setup on iChat so that if she had problems she could ping me and I could quickly answer it. Another cool built in function of iChat is that it has remote desktop control. We set it up (checked a box for sharing) and tried it out. Very easy. It worked like a charm.

That night they got it setup at home and after a bit of using it I got an iChat message telling me thanks and that she loved the computer. The next day I think between Matt and his wife they thanked me 4-5 times. They started trumpeting what I have been saying for the last year is that people that dont have macs dont know what they are missing. I've never heard of a switcher regretting it. They are pleased and the more she uses it the more comfortable she is with it.

Baseball and Softball

Austin and Kortne are both playing organized baseball / softball this year. Austin had tryouts and started practice a couple weeks ago. Kortne was picked for a team and starts practice this Thursday. Its fun to watch them out there playing, catching, throwing and hitting. I've been able to watch Austin with all the kids and they get in the lines and groups and he mixes it up and jokes with the other kids. They let their imagination go and explore different things.

So this Thursday things get really busy with both kids practicing on the same day. Should be fun.

Special delivery

I just thought this picture was cool. Janet got us a big bag to put all our helmets, gloves, goggles, riding gear, boots, and other stuff in to keep it together and organized. When we were done with a quad riding trip it was like 20 trips back and forth to unload, now it will be one. And when they are on the shelf it will be clean and organized. We are just trying to figure out how to apply our label to the bag and have it stick? Anyway, it's a hockey bag in the spirit of Janets favorite sport and its big enough that she could crawl in and zip up.

Looking at videos of the kids growing up

I have always been a fan of taking pictures and filming the kids and the family growing up. I've done a pretty decent job taking pictures but I stopped filming a couple years ago. I got tired of dealing with the long process in pulling the video from the camera in real time speed, the files took up a lot of space, and editing a video was very very time consuming. When you were done you had to render and burn the DVD which took overnight. Also it was discouraging to see the video on a big TV and it didn't fit right. With the passing of Aunt Donna and all the gifts she left us behind in the form of memories and pictures it reminded me how important it was to record our lives. If it's not for ourselves then it's for our kids and grand kids. I gathered up all the video I had from the years and put it all on the computer. I have an external 1TB drive to hold it all and now I have it all at my fingertips. I plan on going through all the years and making DVD's for the kids and put in there memory containers for when they are older. With all the footage that I don't use the program will trash it to keep the storage to a minimum.

I thought I would share a cute clip of Kortne at 3 years old. We were watching it last night and we all really enjoyed watching this old footage. Pictures are great, but video does a much better job in truly bringing you back to that moment in time. Its so very important to preserver some memories from the younger years.

So I found a screaming deal on an HD 1080i cam corder for only $369. A canon Vixia HF 100 camera that can be purchased in the local stores for $650 or higher. It uses SD memory cards so there is no moving parts. The video will be recorded in digital form and will not deteriorate over time like tapes do. I ordered it and I plan on getting back into recording our lives. I'm very excited to finally have a camera that records high definition and the shape fits my TV now. Here is the link to the camera

Greed continued.....

Here is an example where Microsoft sent a letter to their people telling them in these hard economic times that they need to cut 5000 people. They only made 16.9 Billion dollars in the last quarter and now with the economy they have to tighten their belts. I understand that Steve Ballmer is are hired by the board of directors to make as much money as he can for the share holders but in there is no concern for the people that work there, only the bottom line. I use to be all about the bottom line but I think this is a tough time in our countries history where we need to pull together and maybe make a few billion less for a couple years to keep people working. In a couple years if it doesn't come together then start laying people off. Read Article Here.

Greed ruined the United States of America

If one looks at America from 1900 through 1990 we were the most powerful nation on earth. We had an economic structure that was filled with financial incentives for hard work and entrepreneurship. The harder one worked, the greater their rewards. There is one flaw in our system, and that is the fact that what makes people work also ruined the USA, Greed. Back in the early 1900's it was the greed of the manufacturing shops and businesses that pushed workers very hard for little pay. They fought back with Unions which was beneficial at the time, however the Unions became greedy and over time priced their personnel out of the market. Their demands and blackmails for more money and benefits pushed the workers pay beyond what it's true value was.

Time passed and the workers were making a great wage however technology and infrastructure made it possible for the world to become one big economy and now our over paid workers were forced to compete against more than their neighboring towns for the work. It was greed of the CEO's from large companies that wanted to maximize profits for themselves and their shareholders by using cheap global labor. American workers were forced to compete against the 3rd world economies work force which was pleased to work for a couple dollars per day just to have a job. This process of exporting our jobs from america to other countries has taken quite a while and is still happening. No longer is America a manufacturing country, but we are a services country. We no longer build things, we purchase, consume and repair things.

While this was going on, our government continued to help its people by creating more and more social programs. Over time we have created a society where its not a shameful thing to live on the government when you are an able bodied person. The stigma to be a teenage pregnant girl is not a big deal any longer. Its rare to find a person in this era that takes pride in completing a days hard work. We have become accustomed to letting other people pull the load for us as much as possible. We have more people riding on the raft than rowing the boat at this point.
Our government is not immune to greed either. We hand them trillions of dollars to which they reply "that isn't enough". They tell us that we are hurting our children because they can't afford good books and decent mold free buildings because we aren't paying enough in taxes. Their "Revenue" stream isn't large enough. Simple math, at $12,000 per child in Portland using the all funds budget a classroom collects 300K for 25 children. Pay the teacher an average of 80K which includes benefits for the year and that leaves 220K left to pay for books, energy, maintenance, support staff and building. The math doesn't add up. Fiscal responsibility is lacking in our country and we are all paying the price.

People have become accustomed to spending more than they make in a year. They use credit to accumulate things then use house equity to absorb their high interest credit card debt. Then they repeat the cycle. Greed from the CEO's in these lending institutions lent money to these people with the expectations that all house values would increase. Now that we have hit a recession and house values are declining, people are losing their jobs and defaulting on their loans. The banks that made loans to people they shouldn't have are on the verge of collapsing or being rescued by the government. The government steps in and spends a trillion dollars that it didn't have to keep several key companies from crashing and taking the whole economy with it.

Greed is at the core of all the decision that put us where we are today. I understand it, but dont like it. Who doesn't want to improve their position in life? Short term benefit lead to long term detriment.

Where now? We have a socialist president in office now that his basic principles is take from the rich and give to the poor. To take care of the people that choose not to take care of themselves. To provide medical coverage for every person in the US as a basic right. Oregon's unemployment just hit 9% and is climbing. Regan showed in the 80's that trickle down economics works. One stimulates the economy by allowing people to keep more of what they earn. Obama believes that the government needs more money and that people should pay more taxes. We'll economies survive on currency, currency flows and stimulates. If you remove the money at the source, strip it from the people that earn it before they can spend it then the economy slows. Less money is spread around for other people to earn and pay taxes on.

Greed is good for an economy if it is monitored and regulated. When the incentive to be greedy is stripped away by socialism then america becomes just another european union. I hope that doesn't happen, but I fear it will.

My little helper

I haven't posted in a while so I thought I would write a little post. I recently bought a used toyota tundra truck and a few things needed to be repaired on it. The tailgate stopped opening during the snow storm so I had to get a special star bit to fix it. Austin was there to help me.

I got both Kortne and Austin iPod touches for christmas and they both love them for different reasons. They both love watching movies on them. Austin loves playing games on his. He downloads games all the time, free and a couple paid ones that he is using his christmas money for. Its a great tool for them to expand their minds. Austin plays games that require thought and understanding physics to complete the game. This one game called touch physics uses crayon drawings with friction, gravity and levers to accomplish goals. He is as far as I am on the thing. Kortne loves email. She searches you tube for videos and emails them to her family. She writes short emails quite often which I love. I try to write her often to get her reading more. Over all things are going very well at the Jerome household. We are done with the school break and holidays and now its time to get back in the routine.