The Nothing Box

A girl I was dating a few years ago shared with me this concept of how a man's brain and a women's brain are different.  It is summarized in this YouTube video.  

Men's brain is segmented into little boxes, and can only pull out one box at a time (ie we don't multitask).  We have a box for the job, a box for the family, a box for the play, etc.  Men also have a "nothing" box, where they think about absolutely nothing.  

That's actually my favorite box towards the end of the day.  I just want to go home, veg, and think about absolutely nothing.  

I'm thankful that I have that nothing box.  

High Definition TV

Today, after a few years of AT&T U-verse, I switched back to DirecTV.  Regardless, it's electronic bliss.

I remembered back in the early 2000's when the concept of High Definition TV was coming to fruiting and by 2009, standard TV was going to go bye bye and if you still had an old standard TV, you had to buy a converter.

In terms of sports, I think a lot of people would rather tune in to the TV, because the picture is so lifelike, and with all of the different camera angles, you have a better view of the game at home.

I bought my first and only LCD TV in 2007, a 42" Sharp Aquos.  I remember it clearly because concurrent to the purchase, I had to go through an unfortunate experience of having to put one of my brother's dogs to sleep.  I couldn't really feel excited about our new toy when we just lost a pet's life.  Interesting thought process that puts things into perspective.

But nonetheless, HDTV brought home entertainment to another level, from sports games, to movies and shows, and even the game systems that utilize the sharp resolution.

Thank you to those smart engineers that have enhanced our viewing pleasure.

Wait for it....

Today I am thankful for sarcasm.  It's a type of humor that is really based on the skill of delivery.

I'm not sure what other cultures foster this type of personality trait, but I'm glad it's prominent in the United States.  Even in my own heritage, my Filipino friends and relatives, sometimes do not get my sarcasm.

Facebook has proven that most people are really sarcastic at heart.  And that's what I love about people.

Piano Lessons

Today I gave two daughters their first piano lesson.  It was part of a Christmas gift for a family that goes to my church.

And as an aside...just teaching them made me want to have daughters.  They are soooo adorable.  But on the flip side, I'd probably have to purchase a shotgun too, for when they start dating.

I thoroughly enjoyed teaching them very basic piano skills.  I was only five when I started taking my first lessons.  The daughters I taught were 8 and 9.  The older daughter picked up things just a little faster.

For the first lesson, I showed them where middle C was on the piano.  They also had a refresher on the white keys.  I taught them that their fingers actually had numbers associated with them.  I felt bad when I asked them to show me the #3 finger...in front of their dad.  But innocence is bliss.

And using their right hand at the home position, we read from the piano book the note and fingering sequence.

3212333...222...355...3212333...22321.

Can you guess the song?  I'll give the answer later, but I'm sure most of you will get it.

I'm thankful I had the opportunity to teach these girls today.  Made a great ending to a busy day.

Shutterbug (Saturday, Feb 11)

Today I had a chance to break out my Big Camera.  I have a Nikon D300 camera, along with a wide-zoom f/2.8 lens (let's a lot of light in, for those of you that do not know camera lingo).  I was at the Orlando Temple today and took some pictures outside.  It's been awhile since I took out the Big Camera, but I do appreciate that I've have it.

I've been a shutterbug since the 5th grade.  I think the first camera I owned came free with a subscription to Time magazine, or something like that.  It was a long time ago.  The camera was a fixed lens basic 35mm camera.  Took crappy pictures, but boy was I hooked.  Too bad the cost of purchasing/developing film limited the number of snaps I could take.

In the 7th grade, I acquired a disc camera.  I remember taking pictures at EPCOT.

On my mission, I had more advanced automatic 35mm camera.

In grad school, I got the advanced film camera.

Then finally I ventured into the digital world, buying my first digital camera, the Canon Elph 400, and then migrating to the Elph SD300.

I also purchased my first DSLR camera, the Nikon D60.  I upgraded to the D200 and finally to my current D300.  It's been photography bliss since then.

Parents (Friday, Feb10)

I was listening on the radio about a father who found out that his daughter posted mean things her parents on Facebook.  He decided to take things into his own hands, posting a video on YouTube and posting it on her wall.  The video went viral.  To some it was spot-on.  To others it was a little extreme.  For me, I liked it, because it seems like he's getting hard-nosed on a teenager that is perceived to be lazy, but we don't really know the entire dynamics of the family unit.

But nonetheless, I'm thankful for my parents, because of their tough love way that they raised me.  There was structure, and for the most part it was enforced.  They demanded the best in us.  Education was very important.     They taught me to respect the law, to respect adults, to treat people right.  They taught us about working hard. They gave us limits on playing, making sure we did our homework.

I'm not a parent, but that doesn't preclude me from making an observation that children aren't being taught these basic truths.  And the way of our society is declining because of it.  There are more people that feel entitled to things that they didn't work hard for.  More people graduate from high school that do not have the necessary skills to make a decent living.  There's less respect for authority or adults.

Sometimes it feel like a losing battle, but I vow to do my part to make sure that these children are raised right, because my parents did that for me.

Printers...through the years.

My all-in-one laser jet printer/scanner/copier, just ran out of toner.  I was caught unprepared.  I didn't have a replacement, so now I'm waiting for the toner to arrive in the mail.

I bought this printer back in 2005, and it's been a main staple in my daily life, and such a very useful tool.  At first, I thought I bought too much printer, but my needs for it has grown through the years, and I marvel at how much easier this printer has made my life.

I also have a color-inkjet printer, that does wonderful photo prints.  The printer can also print CD/DVD labels directly on the media.  How cool is that?

I think back to my first printer.  It was an Okidata thermal ink printer used in conjunction with my Commodore 64 computer.  The printer used heat to melt ink on a ribbon to the paper, but it was painstakingly slow, since it was a color printer, and it had to cycle through the different ribbons to print ink...come to think of it, I think there was a separate plain black ribbon that you can use if you didn't need color.  Nonetheless, it was still a slow printer.

Somewhere along the way, I acquired a dot-matrix printer.  And then transitioned to an ink-jet printer, then a laser-jet printer, and finally my all-in-one laser jet printer.

Ahhhh, the wonders of technology, and for which (as a former engineer) I am thankful for, this time specifically to my printer.