utechblog

This morning as I was driving in to work I was behind a hearse for about a mile. I noticed the top of the casket in the back was covered with an American Flag, whoever this person had been they were a veterin. Thank you God for this person, who ever they were.
As I drove behind the hearse I got into a contemplative mode. What is it like to work in the Industry of Death? As I thought this it struck me that this was actually more of a job of service. You are helping people, typically through one of their darkest days – the survivors that is.
Hey did you know that hearses are made by Cadillac. Actually the call them “Funeral Coaches”. Would that make an ambulance an “Emergency Coach”?
I think the entire job would be one of service and reverance. I have meet a couple of funeral directors and they have all been very humble and graceous people. Maybe that was their job face, but I think someone in that line of work would have to be of great character.

Any way it is a lot later than I thought it was, so I am off to bed! good night all

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

PC World’s 50 Greatest Gadgets
Saw this on Randy’s blog.
…mine are in bold, and for the record I am counting stuff my parents owned while I lived with them.
12 isn’t too bad, and I didn’t count items on the list that I got years later like those old cell phones. talk about a paper weight. I do remember the Phonemate and the little box that my dad had to retreive his messages remotely.

1954 Regency TR-1 (10)
1956 Zenith Space Command (21)
1963 Kodak Instamatic 100 (23)
1965 Learjet Stereo-8 (46), Polaroid Swinger (43)
1969 Motorola Handie Talkie HT-220 Slimline (42)
1971 Phonemate Model 400 (15)
1972 Hamilton Pulsar (22), Polaroid SX-70 Land Camera (8)
1973 Texas Instruments SR-10 (17)
1975 MITS Altair 8800 (24), Sony Betamax (29)
1977 Atari Video Computer System (7)
1978 Magnavox Magnavision Model 8000 DiscoVision Videodisc Player (37), Milton Bradley Simon (38), Texas Instruments Speak & Spell (16)
1979 Sony Walkman TPS-L2 (1)
1982 Commodore 64 (27), Sony CDP-101 (5), Timex/Sinclair 1000 (47)
1983 Motorola DynaTAC 8000X (35), Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 100 (25)
1989 Nintendo Game Boy (26), Sharp Wizard OZ-7000 (48)
1990 Poqet PC Model PQ-0164 (50)
1993 BellSouth/IBM Simon Personal Communicator (41)
1994 Apple Newton MessagePad (28), Connectix QuickCam (40)
1995 Iomega Zip Drive (36), Sony Handycam DCR-VX1000 (19)
1996 Motorola PageWriter (13), Motorola StarTAC (6), PalmPilot 1000 (4), Play, Inc. Snappy Video Snapshot (39)
1997 Franklin Rolodex Electronics REX PC Companion (33), Sony Mavica MVC-FD5 (45)
1998 BlackBerry 850 Wireless Handheld (14), Diamond Multimedia Rio PMP300 (18), Lego Mindstorms Robotics Invention System 1.0 (34)
1999 Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer (32), ReplayTV RTV2001 and TiVo HDR110 (3, tie), Sony Aibo ERS-110 (44)
2000 M-Systems DiskOnKey (9), Sony PlayStation 2 (11)
2001 Apple iPod (2)
2002 iRobot Roomba Intelligent Floorvac (31), Jakks Pacific TV Games (49), Sanyo SCP-5300 (30)
2003 Handspring Treo 600 (20)
2004 Motorola Razr V3 (12)

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“Sky marshal shoots dead man claiming to have bomb on US jet“

uhh, why did they shoot a dead man?

The most popular question right now seems to be, “What do you want for Christmas?”
The kids ask, the parents ask, even the extended family asks. We have created a list of things to get for each of the kids and are working our way though the lists. One of the children poses a challenge as we try to figure out what to get her that 1) she will like 2) is appropriate (She asks for things like laptops and cell phones) and 3) we can afford.
Janet and I have both talked about not getting anything for each other and I will probably stick with that. My number one thing that I want for Christmas this year is – no plastic! I don’t care if I get something or not but one thing that I definitely don’t want is more debt. So this year the #1 rule for Christmas is cash only. That does mean that Christmas will be pretty low key compared to previous years, but since we are still trying to pay for all those previous years….
The biggest problem we all face, I think, is our greed. Are there things that I would like to have, you betcha! (And if anyone would like to get me a Panasonic PV-GS150 I would be very greatful! butterflyphoto.com has a really good price on it btw) But we have to remember what this season is really about, birth – innocence – a promise fulfilled…
The one thing that I sincerely look forward to every year is the gifts that the kids get us from the “Santa Shop” at school. We send them in with a couple of bucks and they bring home little packages for each family member. I love opening those little gifts, that are just items from the dollar store, because it is just fun to have an insight into the thinking of the kids and the gifts that they choose. I still have (and actually use) a small screw driver set that I got from one of the girls a few years ago.
So what do you want for Christmas?

And you ask me what I want this year
And I try to make this kind and clear
Just a chance that maybe we’ll find better days
Cuz I don’t need boxes wrapped in strings
And desire and love and empty things
Just a chance that maybe we’ll find better days

Better Days – Goo Goo Dolls