Meet George Jetson and his Iced Tea

I was always a big fan of the Jetsons as a kid.  I loved to see the new technology that they imagined.  It was always fun looking to the future and imagining what our life would be like.  Looking back, it's funny that it seems science fiction never really imagined the cell phone.

Technology always made the Jetsons lives better.  Arguably, perhaps "too better".  Since it is, of course, only a cartoon, everyone always looks happy and healthy.  The reality is that people of that world, or at least those in the US of that time, would probably be like those people floating in the chairs in Wall-E.

I'm a fan of technology that makes our lives better.  I know that there are some scary things about technology as well.  Facebook knows a great deal of personal information about us.  (Never mind that we willingly volunteered that information).  The big Google "boogey man" knows what city I live in and what web sites I might go to.  (I'm comforted by the fact that I'm not so interesting that anyone gives a rip about what I do).  Robots are being developed to mimic natural behavior, like the BigDog Beta.  SkyNet is a near reality, as evidenced by these freaky things that are completely autonomous.


But there are some technological that make our lives better.  The internet, for one.  Believing that it doesn't is like "guns kill people" and "credit cards get you into trouble".  It's people that make the bad decisions, and we always have.  (Of course, those with that belief are probably not online reading this anyway).  Cell phones have become an integral part of everyone's ensemble.  Yes, they can be a distraction but again, it's all in how you use it.  BluRay and HD TV makes us wonder how we did so long without them.  Watching 2001 on Blu-Ray and having the surround sound shake my windows during "Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite" is probably the closest I'll ever get to experiencing seeing that movie for the first time.  And, most especially, Single Cup Coffee Makers.  These things are amazing.  I have a Keurig  and there are many others like Tassimo and many of the major appliance makers have their versions of those.

I love the concept.  You simply place a single serve cup in the machine, push a button, and viola, hot coffee.  Just like on the Jetsons.  I like coffee, but I don't need a lot.  I drink a cup and it's usually on my way out the door.  I usually only drink a cup in a day.  My wife doesn't like coffee.  With the Keurig, we don't have to make a full pot.  Every morning it turns on automatically, I push a button, and we're in business.  My wife occasionally drinks a cup of tea and she doesn't have to boil whole pot.  Nor does she have to wait for water to boil since it brews in a couple of minutes.

This concept has now been taken to a whole new level.  It now goes to 11!  My single cup coffee maker now makes single serve sweet iced tea.  This is earth shattering for me.  I may only drink a cup of coffee in a day, but I drink a lot of iced tea.  Sweet tea, at that.  And I try to be pure about it by sweetening my tea with  all natural evaporated cane juice rather than artificial sweeteners.  I thought that I would be severely disappointed with the K-Cup sweet tea.  Surely it's high-fructose corn syrup, saccharin, or some other cancer-causing-terrible-for-you chemical.  It's bad enough I'm consuming all of that caffeine, I don't need to add to it.  To my elation, Celestial Seasonings Southern Sweet Perfect Iced Tea is sweetened with evaporated cane juice and stevia.

This truly is technology that makes our lives better.  Or, it makes mine better anyway.  Now, we're not quite to the level of Capt. Picard just stating "Earl Grey, hot!" and out slides a hot cuppa tea.  However, considering I can talk to my phone and tell it to get me "un-lost" or find a dry cleaners we can't be that far off.  And to you my new friend Celestial Seasonings Southern Sweet Perfect Iced Tea, I can only say "Eep Opp Ork Ah-ah"!

Dustin' Off the Bike

Now that I've concluded a rich food, beer, and laziness infused football watching season, I've started ramping up my cycling training.  By ramping up, I mean finally hitting it hard and heavy.  I've been in my routine of 5:30 AM spin class three times a week for a good while.  Now it's time to move from washing lettuce up to fries.  After all, I am training for a number of organized rides over the next few months leading up to the BP MS150.

This past weekend, I decided to dust off the bike and take it out on my first outdoor ride of the season.  Getting the bike out of the garage, I discovered that it's still in pretty good shape.  The tires inflate easily and seem to be holding air pretty well and don't have any bubbles or worn spots. Both wheels seem to be relatively true.  After lubing the chain, I discover the derailleurs are shifting with ease.  Other than the dust that covers the bike, everything seems to be in the same working order as when I last rode.  Which is outstanding since the last time I rode was much longer ago than I care to admit.

After a good cleaning, I put everything back together and it seems like everything is set to go.  It's then that I discover that my cycling computer has been wiped clean.  Damn.  Not only was I look forward to getting inspired by seeing that  my last ride was a good 80+ miles, knowing that was preceded the day before by a century.  I've had this as long as I've had the bike and I've loved the fact that I can see the odometer increasing year after year.  Now I'm starting over.  Oh well.  Time to gather the rest of my gear like my helmet, gloves, glasses, etc. and get out on the ride.

Several months ago, I had a "clean out and organize the garage" bender.  I purged a lot of junk.  I gathered up and organized the fishing gear, the camping gear, tools, and of course the cycling gear.  Knowing year after year I go through these episodes where I just can't seem to find what I'm looking for.  On my cleaning bender, I was determined not only to organize everything but also to have everything easily accessible and in obvious places.  Somewhere, something has gone wrong.  It was much more difficult and took way too long to find my stuff.  The same stuff I knew I would need and account for that when I organized it.  The same stuff I have trouble finding every year.  This wasn't doing anything for reducing my stress and frustration.

After let's call it "aggressive" rearranging of items in the garage and finally finding everything I was going to need on my  ride.  After winning the debate with my inner apathetic negotiator and not allowing myself to be talked out of my ride, I was finally ready to go.  So off I went, heading down to the Veloway near my house.  The Veloway is a 3 mile, paved looped that is only accessible to roller-bladers and cyclists.

I got the bike together.  Got all geared up.  I then decided I would take quick spin down the road before getting on the Veloway.  I knew that either something was going to need adjustment or, more likely, after being off the bike for so long I would do something to embarrass myself.  I thought it better that either, or both, of these things happen away from the masses of serious and semi-serious riders.As I'm cruising down the road, I realized two things: 1) I seriously underestimated how much I missed being on the bike.  It felt really great to finally be riding again.  2) I seriously underestimated the wind chill.  Despite the fact that the Veloway is less than 5 miles from my house, there was a noticeable difference between my shorts and short-sleeved jersey being adequate at the house and on the bike, not so much.

After some gritting of the teeth, I screwed my courage to the sticking post and headed off.  As this was my first actual ride of the season I wasn't sure how far I would be able to ride, what sort of average speed I'd be able to maintain, and just how far out of shape I was.  In the end, it was a fantastic ride.  My distance was in between my lofty, high-end goal and my minimally-acceptable-if-I-can't-ride-this-far-at-this-point-I've-got-problems distance.  I was able to maintain the average speed I had targeted, which means I might be able to increase it.  And, much to my surprise, I learned that after all the food, beer, and couch surfing, I wasn't in as bad of shape as I thought.  So, I've got that going for me.  Onwards and upwards!

Post Ride!

So long Gowalla, it's been real!

Not too long ago, I added a blogpost about Gowalla, essentially asking whey they changed their popular app and wondering what they were thinking.  Well, I guess today we got our answer.  Facebook has now purchased Gowalla and will be shutting the application down and folding it in to it's offering.  It appears, according to most reports, that neither Gowalla's application nor (more importantly) user data will be going in to Facebook.  Seems like you'll have to export your data before it's gone forever.  Pete Cashmore of Mashable provides some insight and shares some thoughts on what Facebook buying Gowalla means for users.

It's kind of a shame, I guess.  I liked Gowalla's previous incarnation when it was a simple, social check-in app.  I really liked the fact that I could check in without cluttering up my Facebook timeline with posts that I don't think people really cared about by being able to selectively post my check-ins to Facebook.  The fact that I'm arriving at Reliant Stadium about to watch a Texans game or getting on Space Mountain are cool check-ins that I think are worth sharing.  The fact that I'm getting bagels on Sunday morning, not so much.

I started using Gowalla originally because it was a new, social technology that had a lot of buzz around it and that they were a local (Austin, TX) company.  I guess I can now start using Foursquare since Gowalla is now no longer either of those.  Oh yeah, I guess you can also add the reason that they no longer exist.  So long Gowalla, it's been real!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Remember Alice?  This is a song about Alice and a great Thanksgiving tradition.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

One Final Longhorn/Aggie Showdown

It was first played in 1894. It's been played every year since 1915. It's been played a total of 117 times. It's been a Thanksgiving tradition and and a central component to my favorite holiday for my entire life. The 2011 meeting of Texas and Texas A&M will be the 118th and the final. At least for a while.

The game has a deep and rich history. It's given rise to name of the Longhorn mascot, verses to the A&M fight song (which apparently will be replaced with others when they move the SEC), many traditions, a deep seeded school rivalry, and an even deeper seeded camaraderie and kinship in the face of horrific tragedy.

Chalk it up to greed, over-inflated egos, hurt feelings, or whatever cause you want to put behind it. The fact that one of the most historic, long standing, and exciting rivalries is coming to an end is a travesty. No one is blameless and all should be held accountable for letting this happen. Thanksgivings will never be the same for me. UT playing Texas Tech is not something you really plan your dinner around. Nor is, I'm assuming, whatever SEC team is going to be slugging it out with A&M. Not even the mythical, red herring, never-going-to-happen-but-we'll-keep-talking-about-it-to-placate-you UT vs. Notre Dame matchup generates the type of excitement that watching the Longhorns and Aggies does. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see burnt orange in South Bend and the golden-domers here ever other year. I'd just want to see that in addition to gathering around a television with my family, all decked out in burnt orange, in a food coma, swigging a beer and watching the Longhorns stomp the Aggies.

These games and the traditions behind them are what make college football great. They are one of the things that makes bearable the fact we have to watch a biased "beauty contest" to crown a national champion rather than the play-off that everyone except those making money from the bowl games wants to see. These games are the type of unscripted drama that makes sports so much fun. And it's all going away. Just sad and really unbelievable. I don't think it will fully sink in until a year from now when this game, for the first time, will not be part of our Thanksgiving holiday.

So this year, we'll enjoy all of our family being together, eat too much of an outstanding meal, get in a quick nap, crack open a cold beer, and gather around to sing "Texas Fight" and cheer on the Longhorns over the Aggies one last time. Thanks for the memories. This is a void that won't be filled for a long time, if at all. Oh, about the Longhorns stomping the Aggies. Realistically, the chances of that happening this year are not that great. But that's why they play the games. Hey, it's a rivalry. You can and should expect anything to happen in a rivalry game. Except perhaps being able to fathom it actually coming to an end. Hook 'Em!

Why Gowalla, Why?

One need only read the reviews of Gowalla on the Android market to see the most users are, to put it mildly, "upset" about the changes and the new direction. And while they explain their rationale in this blog post, I have to say I'm in agreement with the majority of other users/former users/soon to be former users.

My issue is not so much the changes in the interface but rather the change to the overall nature of the app. It went from being an interesting social app to something that is really neither. I think Zuckerberg's insightful observation that the the internet is more of a linking of people than computers was right on. When we talk about social, we're really talking about more than just sharing a funny video, an interesting link, or letting the world know what's for dinner. Rather, it's connecting with others on a different level and in a different way. One the doesn't replace human interaction but rather enhances it.

This is where, to me, Gowalla is now failing. It's main purpose now, it seems, is to be a city guide book. To allow you explore new cities and discover new places. That's all great and good if you're new to a city or traveling. However, that's not what the user base originally signed on for. The first line of their description is "Gowalla is the easiest way to share places you go with friends." Now, this is not completely untrue. You can still share places with your friends. It's not the easiest by far and it's not the main function of the app anymore. This is what has people so up in arms.

Previously the app enabled you to check-in to places at your current location and share that with those that follow you as well as other outlets (Twitter, Facebook, Foresquare). Now, you essentially have to tell Gowalla that you aren't traveling, you're not in a new city, you're not exploring the city you're in and looking for a place to go, that you want to bypass the majority of the functionality of the application and simply "check-in". It's like your comfy commuter bike that you cruise around town in has been taken away and replaced with those bikes you see on the Tour de France time trials. Sure, it will still get you to the grocery store. But it's now a hassle to get on and maneuver, it adds unneeded complexity to a simple commute, and it's complete overkill for what you're using it for.

Perhaps this was the intention of the application all along. Perhaps this is their ultimate revenue strategy. (It is, after all, still a free app.) Who knows? I can't even say with certainty why it's still on my phone. Perhaps I'm hopeful that it will return to it's former (and proper) form. With full disclosure, I can't even really explain why I started using it in the first place. My wife would often asked what I got out of checking in to the places I would go. I never really had an answer and still don't. It was fun, interesting, and a little addictive I guess. Now, well... If I wanted/needed a city guide or something to find places or discover new ones, I can think of a number of other applications (Urbanspoon, Yellowbook, Where, or even Google Maps) that seem a bit better suited for this. Through all of the negative reviews and the nearly two months since it was last updated, it doesn't seem likely it will change anytime soon. Too bad Gowalla, I thought we were going places and checking in when we got there.

New Bits

Now that I have successfully migrated all of project management and other business related blog posts to my website, I've decided to make this blog more general musings, anecdotes, random issues, and not-so-deep thoughts. I am sure that won't be a problem seeing as no one reads either. Anyway it will give me an outlet to share all the random thoughts, ideas, and observations that seem to constantly fill my head. Perhaps it will be daft. Perhaps it will be profound. Hopefully it will be entertaining, though perhaps only to me.