what did you do today? (2008-2015) (closed)

[Major Tom]

We went to see a film yesterday. One of the local cinemas has a balcony reserved seating section with full bar and grill until the film begins, and we thought we would check it out. My thinking - at least people there won't be flashing their cell phones all during the movie to check their facebook page updates.

I was wrong...

One of my pet peeves. I really misjudged the whole shift to mobile devices. As a kid in the 1970's, I was an eager ham radio operator and used to spend many of my waking hours talking to other ham operators on the radio, whether I was at home or outside. I took my radio with me everywhere. It was a real novelty. Then after my late 20's, the novelty of being able to do it anywhere wore off, and I settled into a routine of doing ham radio at home only.

When mobile phones started getting smaller, I remember Nokia being touted as a very promising stock. The predictions ran that mobile was going to be huge, and people would become inseparable from their wireless devices. I dismissed that prediction, because I thought that only radio and electronics geeks like myself would be interested in being attached to a wireless device wherever they went. The large majority of well-adjusted adults would have no interest.

How very wrong I was. I still don't quite understand why some people can't just put their darned phones down and look at the view, talk to a stranger, or just be comfortable being in the moment with themselves. It annoys me sometimes; other times I find it comic.

I'm only 48 and am far too young to feel this cranky and disconnected from popular culture, but I do.

PS - I use Facebook often, but at home only. I don't even own a cell phone.

 

[W2R]

As a kid in the 1970's, I was an eager ham radio operator and used to spend many of my waking hours talking to other ham operators on the radio, whether I was at home or outside. I took my radio with me everywhere. It was a real novelty. Then after my late 20's, the novelty of being able to do it anywhere wore off, and I settled into a routine of doing ham radio at home only.

Frank has been a ham for over 40 years and still takes a radio with him when we go on road trips. I guess the thrill never wore off for him. It doesn't do much for me, though (but then I am not a ham).

I still don't quite understand why some people can't just put their darned phones down and look at the view, talk to a stranger, or just be comfortable being in the moment with themselves. It annoys me sometimes; other times I find it comic.

I'm only 48 and am far too young to feel this cranky and disconnected from popular culture, but I do.

Believe me, you're not the only one. Nothing looks stupider to me than someone walking down the street with a phone plastered to his/her ear. I take my iPhone with me everywhere, but I don't use it all the time like younger people do. In fact, I often forget that essentially I have all the information on the internet with me always.

PS - I use Facebook often, but at home only. I don't even own a cell phone.

Now that is unusual! I didn't get a cell phone until 2000, and felt I was the last person to get one. The world has become a difficult place for those without a cell phone. It has been forever since I saw a phone booth.

Sometimes I feel like a living anachronism, too. Right now, I am in the midst of the Gigantic Scanning Project that most people finished doing years ago. A couple of days ago I got one of those new sheet-feed scanners that is much faster than my old flatbed scanner ever was. It only takes two or three seconds to scan a photo, I suppose. I have a box of thousands of family photos dating back 150+ years, since I have become the family photo repository person somehow. The scanning part is a snap with this new scanner, but it still takes time to puzzle over the who/when/where of each photo for organizational purposes. So far I have finished over 1000 and I am finally making some visible progress.

This will will make any future hurricane evacuations much easier, and I can send copies on memory cards to relatives and be done with this responsibility.

 

[MichaelB]

Believe me, you're not the only one. Nothing looks stupider to me than someone walking down the street with a phone plastered to his/her ear. I take my iPhone with me everywhere, but I don't use it all the time like younger people do. In fact, I often forget that essentially I have all the information on the internet with me always.

Regretfully, no. The last few times, including yesterday, that people nearby were compelled to check their facebook frequently during a movie, the culprits were all middle aged. A sorry sight they were.

 

[W2R]

Regretfully, no. The last few times, including yesterday, that people nearby were compelled to check their facebook frequently during a movie, the culprits were all middle aged. A sorry sight they were.

Oh! My mistake. I really don't understand why people do this. After all, they paid for the movie, too, so you'd think they would want the experience of seeing it and focusing on what they paid for.

 

[Major Tom]

Frank has been a ham for over 40 years and still takes a radio with him when we go on road trips. I guess the thrill never wore off for him. It doesn't do much for me, though (but then I am not a ham).

Although I've been licensed since the age of 15, my interest has waxed and waned on a regular basis since then, so I'm not as consistently passionate about it as many hams. Frank is the lucky one to have been constantly in the grip of such passionate interest.

In fact, I often forget that essentially I have all the information on the internet with me always

I know I'm not saying anything new, but it wasn't that long ago ago when most people felt that they would never, ever buy anything over the internet. Witnessing how we have collectively changed from that mindset to depending on it for much of our commerce and communication has been fascinating. We have seen a complete shift, and it still blows me away to think of it. Apologies for repeating something that everyone here already knows, but it has been a treat to have been witness to this technical and cultural change.

Now that is unusual! I didn't get a cell phone until 2000, and felt I was the last person to get one. The world has become a difficult place for those without a cell phone. It has been forever since I saw a phone booth.

Back in the day, I owned a pager for keeping in touch with the office. I felt like the last person on earth to ditch my pager and graduate to a cellphone. I owned it until I stopped working, and was then able to manage without. It was a move of necessity as a result of my rather restrictive budget. I rarely stray outside the metro area and if I do, am nearly always with someone who has a cell. It's one less thing to carry - and I like to carry as little as possible with me (is that a guy thing?)

However, if I ever make good on my promise to go full-time RV-ing, I'm sure that a mobile phone will be part of the package.

Right now, I am in the midst of the Gigantic Scanning Project that most people finished doing years ago. A couple of days ago I got one of those new sheet-feed scanners that is much faster than my old flatbed scanner ever was. It only takes two or three seconds to scan a photo, I suppose. I have a box of thousands of family photos dating back 150+ years, since I have become the family photo repository person somehow. The scanning part is a snap with this new scanner, but it still takes time to puzzle over the who/when/where of each photo for organizational purposes. So far I have finished over 1000 and I am finally making some visible progress.

You're not the only one left W2R - I'm right in there with you. All this stuff is great once you've got it in the digital domain, but getting it there can be very time-consuming can't it? I won't bore you with the details of my particular digitization project, but it sometimes makes me wish that I could mentally let go of all this stuff and just toss it. I have at least a few years left before I'm done.

Our family trunk of photos is in the possession of one of my brothers. He's not really a fan of spending long hours in front of the computer, so I think he's decided to put the trunk up in the attic and think about what to do with it some other time. There are some really interesting photos there, but I do wonder (as with a lot of the digitization I do) whether the results are really worth the many hours spent scanning. I may not have a smartphone, but while scanning and saving files, I'm effectively removing myself from direct interaction with the outside world in the same way that all those middle-aged FB-checkers at MichaelB's film screening were

 

[Gumby]

I have a cell phone. It doesn't text or take pictures or surf the web or do anything but make phone calls. I keep it turned off unless I want to make a call, which occurs about once per month or less. I don't usually carry it on my person and often have no idea where it is.

I do not understand people who are glued to their smart phones, and I really don't understand people (such as my young wife's high school students) who would rather send two dozen poorly worded and easily misunderstood text messages when they could clear things up in five seconds by actually speaking to each other.

 

[Major Tom]

I really don't understand people (such as my young wife's high school students) who would rather send two dozen poorly worded and easily misunderstood text messages when they could clear things up in five seconds by actually speaking to each other.

Hallelulah. I couldn't agree with you more.

 

[ksr]

I have a cell phone. It doesn't text or take pictures or surf the web or do anything but make phone calls. I keep it turned off unless I want to make a call, which occurs about once per month or less.

This describes my situation exactly. I have a pre-paid phone and only add minutes once a year to keep the phone active. I keep it turned off and don't even know how to pick up messages on it. A few people have gotten annoyed with me when I refuse to give them a cell number, even though I tell them it would be useless to them as the phone is turned off unless I make an outgoing call.

 

[Lisa99]

I do not understand people who are glued to their smart phones, and I really don't understand people (such as my young wife's high school students) who would rather send two dozen poorly worded and easily misunderstood text messages when they could clear things up in five seconds by actually speaking to each other.

This happens in the corporate world with email and IM as well. I have some employees who will email back and forth 10 times and never think to just pick up the phone and talk! And whe I get cc:ed on every one of the messages it drives me bonkers!

 

[pb4uski]

Put in the dock, boat lift and jet ski lift. Early on I discovered I had a leak in my waders, but I just grit my teeth and kept on trucking. Darn that water was cold!!! Checked the thermometer - only 44F. Burr.

Guess it is time for new waders.

 

[Dreamer]

Went to Mountain Stage with Larry Groce. Enjoyed listening to 5 musical groups. We need to go listen to live music more often!

 

[grasshopper]

Passed my Wildland Firefighter Work Capacity Test. Otherwise know as Arduous pack test.
Arduous: involves field work calling for above-average endurance and superior conditioning. All firefighters are required to perform arduous duty. This test level is required by the U.S. Forest Service and most other agencies to fight fire in the United States.
Requirements: 3-mile hike with 45 lb pack in 45 minutes. No jogging or running.

I did my 3 miles in 42:16 not to bad for a 60+ YO guy.

In the afternoon I planted my tomato's.

 

[TromboneAl]

During my bike ride i got rained on by a 10% chance of precipitation. Passed a road crew cutting and stacking logs, so I got my truck and snagged a truckload of hardwood.

 

[powerplay]

Finished my fed and state taxes today and e-filed them!

 

[bld999]

" Nothing looks stupider to me than someone walking down the street with a phone plastered to his/her ear."

I was joking with a buddy the other day about in the past, there was a portrait over the fireplace of the stern mogul-patriarch with side-whiskers; in the future there will be an electronic image there of a 26 year old tech maven looking at his/her phone.

 

[Bestwifeever]

Helped DH lift up and reinforce several sections of our fence, after four posts snapped off from a mighty powerful wind gust this morning, the tag end of the storm that spawned the tornadoes west of Illinois.

Over the weekend we went to see "Hunger Games" (enjoyed it more than I expected), where I had to keep my hand up by my face for much of the movie, to block the distracting light from the texting screen of the young man sitting next to me.

 

[TromboneAl]

... where I had to keep my hand up by my face for much of the movie, to block the distracting light from the texting screen of the young man sitting next to me.

I'm glad I will never have to experience that, since we don't go to movie theaters. Perfume, talking, bad breath, unfocussed images, bad sound, commercials, noisy eating, and chair kicking were bad enough.

But I have to admit that when watching a video I have to know where we've seen that actor before, so out comes the iPod touch and imdb.

 

[Nords]

I'm still missing a tax form (K-1) so yesterday I got as far as I can and then sent the Treasury a stack of money. I'll get the K-1 in July, finish the taxes, and then maybe get back $20 out of the stack.

I was going to tweak hard on estimated taxes, but then I realized that we'll probably be doing a Roth IRA conversion this year anyway... so I'll just end up at the same estimated tax number.

Our daughter's facing an interesting question in the next few weeks. She may have to hand a Craigslist car seller a cashier's check for $3K-$8K. If your checking accounts are with financial institutions that don't have offices in your town (NFCU, PenFed, USAA), then how do you buy a cashier's check? The answer seems to be a debit card, but not too many people carry debit cards with those kinds of limits. Another answer is a cash advance on a credit card, but that generally carries a 3% fee. It looks like I'll be contributing some labor to this research project.

I have a cell phone. It doesn't text or take pictures or surf the web or do anything but make phone calls. I keep it turned off unless I want to make a call, which occurs about once per month or less. I don't usually carry it on my person and often have no idea where it is.

Same here. Spouse and I even have the same model, but she's going to make me swap with her on our next trip to figure out if both phones suck as much as she thinks hers does.

She's been using an iPhone for the last 135 days of volunteer work, though, and she completely understands its utility for work. Of course a better answer is to not work.

I do not understand people who are glued to their smart phones, and I really don't understand people (such as my young wife's high school students) who would rather send two dozen poorly worded and easily misunderstood text messages when they could clear things up in five seconds by actually speaking to each other.

Yes, but then there would be no drama.

It's interesting how a teen will babble all day long with minimal semantic content. However when they really need to communicate clearly, effectively, and efficiently they can't seem to find the right words. Even worse, they find the wrong ones...

I'm glad I will never have to experience that, since we don't go to movie theaters. Perfume, talking, bad breath, unfocussed images, bad sound, commercials, noisy eating, and chair kicking were bad enough.

Nothing worth watching, either!

 

[harley]

I take my iPhone with me everywhere, but I don't use it all the time like younger people do.

Regretfully, no. The last few times, including yesterday, that people nearby were compelled to check their facebook frequently during a movie, the culprits were all middle aged. A sorry sight they were.

These are not mutually exclusive, since middle aged people also qualify as "younger people" to many of us.

 

[donheff]

Nice bike ride in the beautiful Santa Ynez Valley with a tasty lunch stop at the midpoint. Leisurely wine tasting at a gorgeous, remote winery To close out the afternoon. Ain't ER great!

 

[freebird5825]

I woke up to nice breezy temperatures in the 50s. Syracuse NY set a new record temperature with 91F yesterday.
We dropped off my trusty little 92 Accord to have a gas leak looked at. Mr B uses this car as his commuter vehicle to/from school, so we want to keep it roadworthy for a while longer. The mechanic seemed to think it could be a gas line, a tank filter, or the rusted fill pipe, since it was just filled and had never leaked before. It shouldn't cost too much to fix it.
I rearranged my indoor plant farm and did some topping off of a now complete set of young tomato plants. We are expected to get a freeze tonight, with a predicted low of 25F.
We are watching the Red Sox and just chilling out for the evening.
I may go up to Sacket's Harbor again this weekend, or to another retired friend's beachfront house on the far eastern end of the lake.
Mr B has to study, so he is encouraging me to go ahead and do some short distance traveling while his nose is buried in the books. I LOOOOVE going to Lake Ontario.

 

[freebird5825]

I woke up with sore back and arm muscles today.
I bought a Playstation MOVE system, kinda like the Wii FIT system. I already had the PS3, and just bought the motion tracking accessories. The Sports Champions game was bundled with the camera and motion wand. SC has ping pong, gladiator, volleyball, archery, bocce (yawn), and disc golf (bigger yawn).
The ping pong is fabulous, very realistic. I had some serious spin going on my returns. I beat the game at an entry level, 4 times in a row. The reactions of the losing avatar "Gisele" were hilarious.
However, I got my *ss kicked by "Gisele" at Gladiator. This game is very fast moving, with each armed with a sword/club and shield. I found myself lunging and swiping at my opponent, very strenuously once I got into the tempo of the game. I'm very good with the virtual shield for defensive moves.
I did pretty well at beach volley ball, since I used to play team volleyball for real. I made sure I was far away from my ceiling fan on the spike moves.
And yes, I used the wrist strap to prevent accidentally throwing the motion wand into my TV screen.
Great exercise and fun virtual competition. SC has very realistic animation and the tracking of my body and limb movements was phenomenal. It took me very little time to adapt to the visual effects and get my movement timing synched to the paddle, ball flight timing and battling moves.

Mr B is at his Legion post tonight, being elected Commander for a second year barring any last minute nominations from the floor. I can tell he is a bit tired of the j*b but is very dedicated and will do another year.
So I'm at home listening to 1970s music on the digital music channel and goofing off online.

 

[pb4uski]

Moved some wood from some trees that came down during Hurricane Irene last year. i had them cut but we need to move the chunks and then split and stack them.

Played 9 holes with a friend in the afternoon. I played ok, but he was having a real off day.

Watched AI and the Bruins game tonight.

 

[Walt34]

Went for a longish (63 miles) bike ride, then out to dinner with DW and then took a walk along the C&O Canal towpath in MD just across the Potomac River from Shepherdstown, WV.

It's nice to see green signs of spring.

 

[freebird5825]

Played some more virtual ping pong, and ordered the MOVE system accessories made explicity for the Sports Champion game. I will be needing my backhand in the ping pong game very soon...and I cannot wait to have 2 controllers to play the Gladiator game properly. Perhaps I might even be able to hit a target in archery.

Watched the rain fall...

Ate an egg salad sandwich...

Getting ready to go to a Legion installation dinner (yawn) with Mr B. He owes me one for making me [-]using guilt to convince me to[/-] go to this tremendously exciting event.