Disregard for the present

Recently, I was reading an interview with Jerry Seinfeld. He mentioned that he’s big on civility and the interviewer asked him what his top three incivilities are and one of them struck a chord with me: total disregard for the present moment.

We’ve fallen into a trap of ever widening orbits on contact and there is a total disregard for the present moment. I recently sat down for a breakfast and asked a friend about a trip she’d taken. Eventually, she looked up from texting someone and said, “You mean me?” I said, “No, I’m talking to the stack of logs behind you”

I’ve been guilty for pulling out my phone during a conversation with Kim or my kids. I’ve taken calls and sent texts as well. The same skill I’m praised for at work, the ability to “multi-task” is a double-edged sword when it comes to friends and family. My phone and access to email has allowed me to work from home and spend more time with my family. But if those times are constantly interrupted, then I’m better off just going into work until I’m able to give them my full attention.

Have you ever been invited to someone’s home and the host insists on answering the phone even in the middle of a meal? The message this sends is “Stop talking to me because this other person might have something more important than you do“. Whenever this happens there’s that awkward moment where the person left standing wonders if he/she should just leave. How about taking the dang phone off the hook when you have visitors over or turn off the ringer and let voicemail do its thing?

People who put others on “call waiting” are no better. My friends no longer even ask if I’ll hold because they know I’ll just hang up.

How many times have you been talking to a friend, spouse or boss who keeps looking at his Blackberry? Have you been in a meeting where it seems like everyone there is messaging and doing email? Why do these people even show up to the meeting if this other chatter is so important?

I never take my laptop into meetings today, but going forward I’m going to leave my Motorola Q in my office as well. Calls and email can wait. If I feel I must stay connected I’ll consider declining the meeting request.

Multi-tasking has its place. But it shouldn’t shove family, friends and coworkers to the background. One trait my grandma has is the ability to give you her full attention. When I’m with her, I feel like the most important person in her world. I don’t think it has anything to do with technology either. It’s about giving people your undivided attention. It’s courteous. It’s respectful. And it’s a rare trait today.

Technorati Tags: Seinfeld, Cell Phones, Call Waiting, Texting

When is it ok to run a red light?

When it won’t change to green, that’s when. There’s a light just a few blocks from our house that works during the day but not at night. Best I can tell it stops turning green for traffic coming off Lea Hill around 11 pm each night. The problem, besides not turning green, is that it’s located in a dangerous area for a light not to work properly. It’s not far from Green River Community College (where students tend to speed in beater Sentras and Civics) and the line of sight is quite limited coming up the hill where the speed limit is 35, but it’s not uncommon for cars to travel 45-50 MPH coming off the hill.

I noticed the light didn’t work about 6 months ago when I sat at the light and listened to Cat Steven’s, “The Wind” in it’s entirety. It’s not a lengthy song but the light should change within two minutes.

Tonight I approached the light and didn’t realize it was 11 pm. I sat there for maybe a minute before realizing the light wasn’t going to change. I watched a few cars pass before pulling out slowly to make sure no cars were coming up the hill. It’s difficult to see much further than about 20 yard as the street winds behind a hill. I looked to my right leading up the hill to make sure no cars were coming down the street. I coasted a bit, dropped the Bimmer into 2nd gear and floored it as I made a hard left off the hill.

It was fun but I wish the city would just fix the dang light.

Technorati Tags: Auburn, Broken stop light

Father and Daughter

I found this video at Haha and enjoyed it a lot. The music fits a very touching story. From Michael Dudok De Wit.

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Technorati Tags: Father & Daugher, Michael Dudok De Wit

Pickup at Walgreens

We’ve picked up a number of prescription medications at Walgreens lately. We’ve used Walgreens for several years because they are located close to our home, have a drive-thru, and are open late.

Kim dropped off several prescriptions yesterday morning and I picked them up in the evening. When I arrived home I handed two bags of meds to Kim. She said there should have been three to pickup. I was about to put my shoes on and head back to Walgreens when Kim noticed something. One of the prescriptions that was filled had a piece of paper stapled to the outside. The paper was the prescription that Kim’s doctor gave her to take to the pharmacy.

But there was one difference: On the paper, someone at the pharmacy wrote, “OTC” in the upper left-hand corner.

Kim and I both wondered why, when I stopped to pickup the meds, the pharmacist didn’t tell us that we could buy the stuff Over The Counter? Taking it one step further, what if the pharmacist had not only told us that but also grabbed the meds for us so I could purchase them at the same time I picked up the other drugs? It wouldn’t have taken much time to do that.

A small detail, no doubt. But it left a bad taste in our mouth, especially since we’ve been loyal Walgreens customers for several years. Now I have to make another trip to the store. But this time, I won’t be making that purchase at Walgreens.

Technorati Tags: Walgreens, Customer Service

First Grade field trip to the farm

I had the day off work today so I decided to join Luca and her first grade class on a field trip to a local farm here in Auburn. The family owned farm is over 100 years old and is situated on a large piece of land not far from the Auburn city golf course.

About 50 first grade students along with a few parents and teachers arrived by bus at the farm and were separated into four groups. Each group went to a station at the farm. The stations were:

The Barn
The Hen House
The Orchard
The Garden

At each station we met a guide who explained the area and had the kids do an activity or two. At the barn the kids turned the handle on an old fashioned churn filled with cream. As the kids took turns at the churn the cream slowly turned to butter. At the hen house the kids learned that each hen can lay up to one egg a day. They also went on a hunt for eggs which the kids enjoyed. At the orchard the kids learned about apples and took turns at the apple press to extract apple juice. Luca enjoyed the garden area the most. The kids learned what it takes to plant vegetables and were given tools to till the soil and plant a seed of their own. Luca chose to plant a pumpkin seed.

Everyone at the farm was so kind and accommodating. I could tell they were happy to help the kids learn what it takes to work on a farm. When one women told the kids that farmers have to work every day of the year, even Christmas, one little boy said, “I guess I won’t be a farmer”.

I learned that first grade children are very curious, have lots of energy and have a zest for life. They are learning to read and write and you see their little minds soaking up chunks of knowledge.

After we finished our project at the last station we boarded the big yellow bus for the return trip to the school. I forgot how high up a school bus sits as I watched the kids look down on the passing cars. I sat by Luca who had called “window seat” in advance. She was wearing her yellow rain coat and pink rain boots. She was excited to tell me what she’d learned at the farm and couldn’t wait to tell mom and her brother and sister what she’d done. She held my hand and thought it was funny that her hands were cold and mine were warm.

As we got close to the school she turned to me and said, “Dad, I’m glad you came with me today”.

Technorati Tags: First Grade, Farm, School Bus

Some days I feel like George

From Gaping Void.

Technorati Tags: Gaping Void, Hugh MacLeod

Someone has my license plate

Well, it’s not really mine but it should be. An alert former coworker snapped this shot of what should be my license plate.

This video sums up my experience with Vista

A friend sent me this great link that really nails my experience with Vista.

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Technorati Tags: Windows Vista Sucks

Goodbye Newspapers

As I kid I looked forward to the time between 3 and 4 pm each afternoon when the Standard Examiner paper would land on our porch. The Standard was and still is the local newspaper for Northern Utah including Ogden. If I could beat my dad to the porch, I’d take the paper into our living room and lay it out on the carpet. I’d start with the comics section. Frank and Ernest and Born Loser were my two favorites. I’d move on to the sports section and finish up with the ads. Sunday’s edition was my favorite of the week because it included “The Parade” insert. I always made sure to fold the paper back just right for my dad. Sometimes one of our cats would run across the stretched out paper and wrinkle it.

Even during the years I was a poor college student, I made sure to budget enough money to subscribe to the Salt Lake Tribune. When I moved to Seattle I took the Seattle Times and the Wall Street Journal for a while. But as I began to spend more time on the internet I found unread papers stacking up outside my door. It wasn’t long before I decided to cancel our paper subscriptions.

That was about eight years ago. On two separate occasions we’ve tried subscribing to only the Sunday edition of the Seattle Times but that was primarily for Kim to peruse the ads. It never lasted more than a few months.

I can’t imagine ever subscribing to another newspaper again. MSNBC, Digg, Fark, Twitter and RSS feeds are now my sources of news for better and for worse. When big news breaks today I’m far more likely to hear about it on Twitter than on CNN or the radio. The thought of waiting for the paper the next morning never crosses my mind anymore. And have you seen the local news lately? It’s so embarrassingly terrible it’s not even worth tuning in for the weather. I now get my weather through a Google Desktop Gadget which sure beats the phoney banter between the weatherman and anchor.

I suspect that one day I’ll receive a lot of my news through my phone. I’m starting to get more of it that way mostly through RSS as the web on my Motorola Q isn’t a great experience. But it’s weird to think that my kids may never know what a newspaper is. I guess they will miss out on some good comics.

Technorati Tags: Newspapers, RSS, MSNBC, CNN, News, Digg

Musicovery

Although Slacker is still my favorite web radio station, I’ve been trying out Musicovery this weekend. I like how I can skip to whatever song is shown on the screen. I wish it would keep track of my favorite songs, but it’s kind of fun. Several of my friends still swear by Pandora so I might have to check it out again.

Technorati Tags: Slacker, Pandora, Musicovery