Bits and Pieces - September 18, 2013

Let me start by mentioning that Mike Rayburn is one of my favorite guitar players, right next to my buddy Andrew Bateman (Andrew went to Africa on the same mission trip I did). Mike's wife, Tara, has a book called 100 Easy Healthy Habits. Well, I like the title, but a lot of books are called "Easy." Now there are a lot of simple things in life, but not too many that are truly easy. What caught my eye was that she says the solution must be tailored to each family. I bought her book and I'll let you know in a future post. If you want to buy it, here's the link to her book on Amazon.

A few months ago Rick Warren's son killed himself. (Rick Warren is Pastor of Saddleback Church in CA and author of The Purpose Driven Life.) He and his wife just had a heart-rending interview with Piers Morgan.

When my wife and I wrote Preparing for the Fiscal Cliff we suspected the government would push off as many major decisions as they could. They did. Now those decisions are coming due, and the government faces a shutdown. Seriously. From Fiscal Cliff to Fiscal Chasm. That should be our next book on the subject, actually.

If you need a little extra cash, NASA is paying people ten grand to lie in bed for seventy days. There are stringent requirements, though, so get your application in early.

The numbers published by the CDC in their new report about antibiotic resistance threats in the USA scare me. They should scare anyone.

Liv Tyler is coming to an HBO series. Okay, she's a footnote about the new Damon Lindelof series The Leftovers. Think of the Christian Rapture, except the people who vanished from the Earth are random, not devout Christians. The series is based on a book by Tom Perrotta. I don't usually pay much attention to writers and producers, but Lindelof was co-creator of Lost and produced Prometheus and Star Trek Into Darkness. Just that last one would have me checking out the series - if I had HBO (which I don't).

There's a new player in town for creating, editing and managing documents. Well, apparently they aren't new, but they are new to me. Box.com is building the "Document Engine of the Future" which sounds very cool. Box has one of the creators of Google Docs as a VP and input from one of the creators of the Microsoft Office Suite. Box Notes allows completely collaborative editing. It's something to keep an eye on, but it's currently only available to a limited set of people (in CA, of course). I don't know if it's news, but I thought it was.

Much as I love the construction of Apple™ devices, other computer companies are stepping up and providing the same excellent build quality. Dell just introduced a series of laptop computers to compete with the Macbook Pro and Air. Wow. I went to the Dell site and cannot find the ones mentioned in the article, but I'll keep looking.

Based in Boulder, CO and San Francisco, CA, Occipital has a new project in the works - a 3D scanner that attaches to your iPad. With a bit over a month to go they are almost halfway to their $100,000 goal to produce these items. You can think about jumping in, but the lowest pledge to actually receive hardware is $329. That's not too bad for a 3D scanner, though, but I don't know what I'd do with it. Scan the cat? I could scan the cat!

Lifting the cruise ship from the sea bed was an astounding engineering feat, and kudos to the people who pulled it off. I've read many of the stories, but I liked the one with the pictures best of all.

Here's a picture that should make you smile. It sure made me grin! Not only can this guy surf - the dolphin thinks so too!

Other thoughts

If you made it this far, I congratulate you and appreciate that you read my blog. 

A couple things. My phone contract is complete (finally) at the end of October. I hate phone contracts, so I'm switching to a plan with no contract, for sure. However, I am also pondering whether I should switch to a dumb phone from my smart phone and blog how I do with that. Call it Untethered or something. Just to be clear, that's just my phone I'm disconnecting, not myself, though I might consider that in the future (and how would I blog that, I wonder?).

Also, I notice I don't do much personal blogging any more. I guess that's the nature of a blog - I really don't lead an interesting enough life to keep a long-term blog going, I guess. Should I switch the Bits and Pieces to a blog site of its own? I might be able to call it Bits and Pieces. What do y'all think?

I'm really only expecting one response to that last question, so thanks in advance, Mary!

On the personal side, today is my Darling Daughter's 22nd birthday! Happy Birthday, little girl! She's a professor now at ACU and too busy to read my blog, so she probably won't see this. She's now at that age where she will start having birthdays without family, unless she ever moves back into town. Early adulthood. Those were some tough times...

I also sent my DNA in to Ancestry to get it tested. I've wanted to do that for a few years, but never got around to it. When Ancestry had a sale (and sent me an email) I decided I'd go ahead. I'm not sure what it will tell me, but I'll keep you posted on that, too. 

This guy bought his own island (with some friends). Very cool. AND cold.

I think that's all. God bless you all, and my heart goes out to the murdered people at the Naval Shipyard, as well as to all the people affected.