I’m writing this post from the kitchen on a MacBook Pro. I haven’t had a laptop in many years and think I’ll enjoy having one again as it will allow me to not be stuck in my office when I want to write.
I came across this computer by complete accident. It was my mom’s computer but had a major malfunction – very rare for a Mac. Long story short I had her use one of my Dad’s and could just do a complete wipe then reinstall from Time Capsule. That didn’t work on this computer because, again, something had gone very wrong with the OS and I thought it was a hard drive fail. I had her ship it to me and I took it to the Genius Bar. As it turns out they couldn’t get it to boot either, the battery was bad but the hard drive seemed to be ok. I had them replace the battery and they did a repartition then re-installation of the OS. Mom and Dad both have their Macs and everything is going well so no need to ship this one back and have to spend another hour or so with Mom on the phone while I walk her through the setup and Time Capsule data download.
I really didn’t know what I would do with a Mac but since I’ve got it have decided to use it for Deep Web exploration using Tor as well as writing in my blog from areas outside the office. I can imagine myself sitting on the patio at sunset with a glass of wine writing a post – being in that environment might inspire me to write something interesting.
But for now, it is Saturday morning at 8:10 AM and wife is getting a well deserved sleep-in. The kids are down here with me and seem to be entertaining themselves for the most part which allows me to write a little.
There were a few topics going through my head recently and I might as well set them down here.
The first is that I’m at the age where friends are starting to get divorced. I imagine there are about 5 or 6 couples I know that split up. I guess that is better than being dead though and at my age I know about 5 or 6 that have also checked out much too early in life. One in particular – Brad who I worked with at the Golf Course – passed away and I inadvertently learned that from his Dad when I went golfing last in Ohio. I didn’t want to ask although now that I think about it he may would have wanted to talk a little about his son as he said “You knew Brad?” He didn’t recognize or remember me at first.
It is now 8:15 AM and my youngest went to the stairs and started to cry for mom. She shortly came downstairs and now the whole family is here in the main room. Wife just asked what I was doing and I told her I was writing in my blog.
The second thing that has been on my mind regarding my age is that women I know who haven’t had kids usually get a dog and dote upon it as though it were a child. I guess as human beings the need to love something is pretty strong and I imagine that feeling might be stronger in women than men.
My final thought is about virtual reality. I’ve been using my Samsung Gear VR a bit more and this virtual reality stuff is absolutely awesome. Everyone is bored with today’s technology and ready for the next thing – that thing is VR and I’m glad I’m a first adopter. It was a strange experience reading this very blog in an environment something like the movie Minority Report where Tom Cruise uses his hand to slide the screens around. I could do the same suspended in air facing four screens and shuffling them around. Future technology is going to be mind blowing and I’m looking forward to reading my own past in whatever incredible platform created in VR, or in some way that I cannot even imagine at this time.
A good portion of my blog is private posts from my journals during the turbulent time of high school and college when most of my thoughts were on girls. Reading through them I’m a bit shocked at myself sometimes at the language and negativity. The lesson I’m learning here is that it is very difficult to relate and or understand our children seeing as I’m having a hard time understanding a prior version of myself! Yes, I can remember how I felt back then but our brains tend to emphasize the good points I think and so I had blocked out or simply don’t remember much of the bad. It is not to say that I had a bad experience, most of the negative stuff was all in my head. My brain is now composed of new cells, my thought patters are different and I’ve killed off a great many braincells with incredible wine and delicious whisky.
I think one of the best ways I’ll be able to relate to my son when he is a teenager is to let him read my private journal. In this way he knows that I’m just a person too who has gone a few more times around the sun than he. I would have experienced much of what he experiences now in relation to girls, high school experiences and whatnot. The difference will be the environment which I hope his is better than mine. That is not to say my environment was poor, I just hope his is all that much better. I also spend a lot of time with my boys and will give them the tools they need to be successful, not only in class but in relationships and life in general.
Well, this has been a slice of my thought process this Saturday morning. My son’s karate class is today so we’ll go there and then hopefully for some delicious ramen. We had pizza last night and my wife sometimes gets on me if I suggest we eat out too much, so it remains to be seen if I’ll be having ramen for lunch or not.
I’m going to leave myself a little reminder for my next post. I’d like to discuss the demagogue that is Trump, the idiocy of people who would vote for him, what it means to be Christian, that Christianity is just fantasy time for adults, and the current encryption battle between Apple and the government. Apple is right, and those that disagree (and comment on the web) have a very hard time spelling “terrorist” correctly. Usually they spell it ‘teirrorist.’
