Speech to text...

In the amazing advancement of technology, there comes another breakthrough. With the popularity of text messaging, making it easier and faster seems to be the next logical step. So now instead of fumbling with a small keypad, or worse yet a tiny number pad, you can now write your text on a screen with a stylus and text your friends with your written word. Yes you will need a fancy new PDA style phone, but what a great step forward that is!

So it would seem the next logical step after that would be to just eliminate the stylus, and turn the sender's spoken word into a text message. So there would be no typing, no writing with a stylus. Your spoken word would be instantly transmitted as a text message for your desired recipient to read on his phone.

And maybe to avoid the inconvenience of the recipient to have to look at his phone screen to read the message, maybe they will soon invent a program that will turn the text message back into spoken word and the output would then be an audible text message for the listener. It would kind of be like just talking to each other...

Growing up too early..

I am no expert in the field, but I have made an observation that effects kids growing up these days. When I was younger, I used to "go out and play" until I was probably 13 or 14. My brother Jerry and I would pretend we were International Government Agents and make our way stealthily to the neighborhood grocery store. (The IGA of course). We would role play and make life altering decisions in our play. We also would go to the "sandpile" and make golf ball tracks out of dirt. It would start out as a pile of dirt about 3-4 feet high that we could roll a golf ball down and around through tunnels etc. It required more important decisions like engineering and time management.

My point here is these days we expect our kids to grow up way too fast. Pier pressure and the internet don't allow a child to let their guard down and just have some old fashioned fun. By the time a kid is 10 or 11, they have to make decisions that really do effect their lives forever, not like our pretend decisions made during our play. They are worried about boyfriends and girlfriends, texting, Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and countless other things I can't keep up with. They are computer experts and can download a song from Limewire to the computer and have it on the mp3 player quicker than I can get out the Scrabble board.

I guess the old days are gone forever. The kids these days will never experience the 101 fun things you can do with a stick. You have to admit there was a benefit to being able to fail during playtime and not during real life where it may leave a scar that will last forever. I know parents have good intentions signing a child up for piano lessons, dance class, soccer and then running around every evening and weekend to get them there. It just seems to me that some of life's loudest lessons are completely silent..

Witness A Miracle..

I don't know where this took place, but it obviously went way over their heads. Sadly at the end not many applause. I would have gave a standing ovation. You go girl!

Truth In Advertising...

You know what burns me up? How fast food is advertised to look like a work of art, and the actual product is a bit less spectacular. For example, the Burger King Whopper. The photo to the right was taken straight from the Burger King website. It looks like the most appetizing burger ever made! Don't get me wrong. I love the whopper. I just don't understand how a company can advertise a product, and when you get to the location, you receive (technically) a completely different product. What if General Motors advertised the 2010 Camaro with a photo of the car in immaculate condition, made you pay for it before you saw it, then delivered to you a slightly less desirable looking car? And what gets me is this practice by fast food restaurants is accepted by almost everyone. When I bring it up, people say "well you just can't expect it to look like the picture." I don't accept that. The photo to the left is of an actual Whopper received by a customer. I would still eat it and enjoy it. I just resent the fact that the company can insult my intellect, and do it with a smile.

The same is true at McDonald's. And yes, I love McDonald's, but the Big Mac has the same attributes that can not be delivered as promised. The photo to the right is straight from the McDonald's website. I think years ago, when I was a kid, the Big Mac actually looked like the photo. Or maybe it is just a glitch in my memory. Most kids at that time held McDonald's in high regard. Get an "A" on your report card, and you got a free cheeseburger! I think my brother Jerry and I walked nearly 3 miles to redeem our report cards for 1 cheeseburger each. Once again, the actual product received by a McDonald's customer is shown below. I still eat them, but I am disappointed.

Not to be outdone, Long John Silver's seafood restaurants piss me off too. Not because of the quality of the end product, but the deceptive practice of making look like the meals will feed (and satisfy) a hungry adult. I ordered some type of combo meal a while ago, I received my food and stood there waiting for the employee to serve up the rest of the meal. When the server pointed out that that was the entire meal, I pointed out that I was a grown man and $5 should at least put a dent in my appetite. He didn't get it, he just looked at me like I was minutes from being on CNN.

Oh well, I am sure nothing can be done and I will continue to eat at all of the above fine food establishments. I just wanted to air my beef...

Sungha Jung Plays Jason Mraz I'm Yours Acoustic

Sungha Jung Plays Jason Mraz I'm Yours Acoustic Cover