Merry Christmas!

With prayers for God's blessings!
K!Mberly, Tyler, Cameron & Jim

Fastest Growing Websites

Wow! Things can change so quickly with the state of modern technology. 2005 is the first year I've been blogging, listening to podcasts, and posting photos on the internet.

At least I thought I waskeeping up. Now I realize that I haven't even heard of the fastest-growing websites.

"Comparing all sites with at least 1 million visitors in November, the PhotoBucket photo-sharing site saw the largest growth — a 16-fold increase to 15.6 million visitors, from 983,000 last year.

Social networking sites MySpace and Facebook had the second- and third-highest growth, respectively."

Poll: Americans Need High-Tech Gadgets

Can anyone relate to this statement: "The Internet connection is my lifeline."

Haha! I feel like that! I thank God I live in an age when I can learn more about the world than anyone ever before. I can live anywhere and be a citizen of the world.

What we crave - simplicity

Anybody else think "It's about time?!" I am frustrated with increasingly bloated software programs that can do 999 things I don't know about or care about, and which make it so hard to find the way to do the 3 things I really want to do.

"Think of it as option fatigue. Why fumble with one of five remotes when you can press one button, and voil�, it works! Simplicity is the latest buzz in management and design. With the need to work faster and better, who has the time for owners’ manuals?

"Thus a new premium is being accorded to ease of use. The iPod nano nails it. Complexity has become a hazard in pushing products. The new trend is to strip things down to their basics and make products intuitive. In 2005, less was more."

Fascinating Football Facts

USC really has an incredible combination of talent in its two star players. They could accomplish something that has never been done before in college football.

"If Bush wins the award, he and Leinart will become the third set of teammates to win the award in consecutive years.

The last were Army's famous Mr. Inside and Mr. Outside, Doc Blanchard and Glenn Davis, in 1945-46.

And the two USC stars could become the first Heisman winners to play together in a college game when USC (12-0) meets No. 2 Texas (12-0) in the Rose Bowl for the national title on Jan. 4.

Or if Young wins, the national title game will be a matchup of Heisman winners for the second straight year — and the second time ever.

Last season after Leinart won the award, USC played Oklahoma and 2004 Heisman winner Jason White in the
Orange Bowl, marking the first Heisman showdown in college football."

Putting Christ back in Christmas

"For the third year in a row, Christians nationwide have mobilized to put the holy back in the holiday. And they are winning battle after battle."

And the word of the year is...

podcast, which has really come a long way during the year, from infancy to almost mainstream. I started listening to podcasts in March (my favorite is the maccast) but after Apple included it in their iTunes software, lots of more professional quality content appeared, including many network-broadcast shows.

"The term 'podcast' has been declared Word of the Year by the New Oxford American Dictionary.

The term is defined as 'a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the internet for downloading to a personal audio player'."

Fooling Ourselves

This week the USC-UCLA football game gave me a reminder of how hard it is to get an objective evaluation of ourselves.

We can take our successful results and mix them with wishful thinking and praise of fans and over-rate ourselves, ignoring our weaknesses. Lots of times we don't really want objective evaluations, because they can be painful.

In sports, blissful ignorance can't last too long, because sooner or later you will come upon a really good team. However, in other areas of life, it is easier to go on deluding ourselves.

"I remember a famous writer, I think it was Salman Rushdie, was on the David Letterman show a few years ago. When Letterman asked Rushdie what was the one thing he had learned about human existence, Rushdie said, “The extent that humans will go to fool themselves.”"

Singlish can, lah!

Here's a hilarious example of Singlish from local blogger Mr Brown:

"Aiyo! Why you say me until like that? You so clever you write yourself lah!
.
I tells you first hor, it is not 'Singlish Complain Columns'. In fact, you should say 'Colloquial Singapore English (CSE) Complaint Columns'.
.
Don't anyhowly say, wait, people say your England not powderful.
.
Anyway, you think any mother's-son can write in Singlish meh? You are very the wrong, can?
.
First you must know what is the rules of England. And then you must know what is the rules of Singlish (yes, actually Singlish is also got grammar one, ok?).
.
Then when you write that time the Singlish then got pattern."

Olson became rallying point

Quarterback Drew Olson of UCLA has been the heart and soul of a team this year that has played above expectations and above its talent level.

He has led his team to an impressive 9-1, four of them incredible come-from-behind vicotries, while playing with good but not great offensive linemen and receivers and a poor defensive line and average linebackers and secondary.

"Olson has a better completion percentage, passing-efficiency rating and touchdown-to-interception ratio than any of the past eight Heisman Trophy-winning quarterbacks"

However, he won't win the Heisman, because he is not leading a national championship team nor has he set records for total yardage or touchdowns. All he does is play the position more efficiently than anybody else and lift a mediocre team to near-greatness.

I think he's had an incredible year and deserves recognition as having the best season of any college football player in the country this year. Certainly if there was a college MVP award, he should get it.

George Washington and Thanksgiving

Author Paul Johnson, in his book on George Washington, says that Washington sanctioned the first amendment because he opposed the government setting up a national church like the Church of England.

However, he would have been horrified to know that the first amendment was used to eliminate religion, and especially Christianity, from public life. He saw the Christian religion as underpinning civilized society.

Johnson pointedly observes:

An America without religion as the strongest voluntary source of
morality was to him an impossibility.

It is significant that the day after the House of Representatives passed the
First Amendment, on September 25, 1789, it also passed, by a two-to-one
majority, a resolution calling for a day of national prayer and
thanksgiving, and asked Washington to appoint the day. The Resolution
reads: ‘We acknowledge with grateful hearts the many signal favours of
Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peacefully to
establish a constitutional government for their safety and happiness.’

Appointing the national holiday of Thanksgiving, Washington replied, in
words equally significant: ‘It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the
providence of Almighty God, to obey His Will, to be grateful for His mercy,
to implore His protection and favour... That great and glorious Being who is
the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that ever will
be, that we may then unite in rendering unto Him an sincere and humble
thanks for His kind care and protection of the people.’ (pp. 102-104)

Narnia: Up from the church basement

Columnist Cal Thomas makes a few good observations about Christians' engagement with society, particularly in the realm of the arts:

"This is an important film because it offers a better strategy for Christians and conservatives than Hollywood-bashing."

"Most conservatives and Christians, rather than advocating for better movies, have been content to boycott films, make really bad ones, or criticize what was being produced. This approach has had minimal influence on the film industry and has contributed little that was positive to the culture wars."

He applauds the new "Chronicles of Narnia" film for being a wonderful movie that appeals to the spirit without pedantically spelling out a gospel message.

Can we applaud Christians for making really good films, music, art, etc, that are not explicitly "Christian?" To skillfully portray biblical values and worldview and then leave it up to the viewer to decide what they are going to do with the message?

Absolutely! Wow, I think we need so much more of that. A subtle communication of the values we believe in and the implications for our lives. Isn't that how non-Christians have shaped culture for decades? Not with overtly anti-Christian messages, but with TV shows and advertising and movies and music that are thoroughly humanistic and hedonistic. Though churches may still be teaching orthodox doctrine, the media of our society have captured people's hearts and shaped our opinions.

Let's patronize this movie and clamor for much more entertainment like it.

Thanksgiving - the rest of the story

Chuck Colson gives us some background on the life of Squanto, who befriended the Pilgrims and paved the way for the first Thanksgiving celebration.

"Who but God could so miraculously convert a lonely Indian and then use him to save a struggling band of Englishmen? It is reminiscent of the biblical story of Joseph, who was also sold into slavery—and whom God, likewise, used as a special instrument for good."

High on Sky High

I left the movie theater with that kind of euphoria I got from the original Matrix and the older Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.

My two boys were busily repeating their favorite lines.

I was wondering if I just saw my favorite movie of the year.

The recipe for Sky High's success? It was funny, adventurous, romantic, family-oriented, and extremely likeable. With clear-cut good guys and bad guys in a teenage-drama setting, it managed to be a fantasy film that was very human and not too cartoonish.

I loved it, my family loved it. Ranks up there with 13 Going On 30 and The Incredibles.

K!Mberly stars!

My beautiful talented wife is a guest star at a special Arts Festival Gala tonight.

She is even more fun and creative and delightful today than when she captured my heart on our first date 264 months ago tonight.

By the way, that night we ate Chinese food and went to a play. The ride since then has been wonderful, and it keeps getting better...

Segregation - the rest of the story

This article points out that neither governments nor businesses are wholly good. Both need checks and balances because, ultimately, people are behind all of them and people are not always good. In fact, they are mostly good when it is in their interest to be good. Otherwise, they will tend to exploit for their own advantage unless restrained by an outside influence.

"It was politics that segregated the races because the incentives of the political process are different from the incentives of the economic process."

Pride & Prejudice - Review

We really loved the A&E miniseries version years ago with Colin Firth. Now I'm looking forward to seeing this version.

"Along the way, it serves a continuing banquet of high-end comfort food perfectly cooked and seasoned to Anglophilic tastes. In its final minutes, it makes you believe in true love, the union of soul mates, happily-ever-after and all the other stuff a romantic comedy promises but so seldom delivers. For one misty-eyed moment, order reigns in the universe."

Ahhh... I love movies like that.

Gartner: Ignore Vista until 2008

I expect I'll be ignoring Vista long after that. After migrating through every Windows itineration (except ME - was that an itineration?) from 3.1 to XP, I became a switcher this year, and am enjoying the Mac OS for several reasons, but primarily because - IT WORKS!

"The majority of improvements in Vista, the update scheduled to arrive in 2006, will be security-related and most of this functionality 'is available via third-party products today,' Gartner analysts said in a research note published on Friday."

Zorro Redux

We really loved Zorro a few years ago. Great drama, great characters, good action, good romance, a happy ending. And gorgeous actors. Very well done.

So we were disappointed after watching Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones reprise their roles in the current movie. Still very pleasant to look at, but gone were the drama and character development. The action had turned into A-Team like stunts, lots of bodies flying around in a cartoonish way without anybody ever getting hurt.

The precocious son of Zorro has become a focal point of the movie and the parents have devolved into good-natured but somewhat bumbling heroes. It reminded me a lot of another Banderas movie, Spy Kids, but not as original or endearing.

It still managed to entertain, but was not memorable.

The Case of Behe vs. Darwin

My experience has been that academics are some of the most closed-minded people I've met.

Rather than exploring for truth, they seem bent on lining up evidence to prove their conclusions. So it wouldn't surprise me if the majority of the scientific community were actually wrong, and had followed the crowd rather than actually following the evidence.

"Denton argued there was little physical proof of Darwin's evolutionary theories, despite widespread support for his conclusions. Behe began to wonder.

'I checked research papers, and I was shocked to find that none of these things had been explained,' Behe said. 'I came to realize that a pillar of my thinking [in believing Darwinism] was supported not by evidence but by sociological factors, what other people think.'"

Rocky never dies

Greg Cote of the Miami Herald, on Sylvester Stallone, 59, planning to film Rocky VI: "Historians are calling it irrefutable proof that mankind has officially run out of good ideas."

If You Play With Fire . . .

You're gonna get burned, baby! Ouch!

UCLA spotted Arizona a 31-7 halftime lead, then a 52-7 fourth quarter lead. Their miracle comeback this week mounted to only 7 points, losing badly, 52-14. Spanked! I mean totally routed! Ouch again! Mama!

In the previous three comebacks in four previous games, it seems the Bruins were getting more and more daring, falling behind by greater and greater margins. We thought no way they'd come back against Cal, then we knew they had lost to Stanford. Still, they told us to just believe.

But look at the stats. Like that '98 team that couldn't stop an opponent, every running back was having a career day against the Bruin defense this year. So it's no surprise Arizona rushed for 320 yards! Even though they had (up till now) the last-place running game in the Pac 10.

Meanwhile, the Arizona rushing defense, who was next-to-last in the Pac 10 (behind guess who?) somehow held UCLA to a measley 85 yards rushing on 35 attempts.

Man, do we need some help on the offensive and defensive lines! Let's put as much recruiting emphasis as we can there.

Turnovers and big plays had saved UCLA so far this season, but not this weekend. Arizona had a fumble recovery for a touchdown and a punt return for a touchdown, two of the staples in the Bruins perfect record up until now.

Ouch! The letdown is even more painful after you've started believing.

How Little We Know

It's fascinating to read about discoveries in science. And it's amazing the conclusions we make from our limited knowledge.

In this story, we are told "The Big Bang, the explosion believed to have created the universe, is thought to have occurred 13.7 billion years ago. About 100 million years later, hydrogen atoms began to merge and ignite, creating brightly burning stars. Just what these stars were like wasn't clear."

Then later in the article we are told "'That's why this (study) was so exciting — for the first time, we're looking at potential evidence of how the first starlight was produced and when it was formed,' Loeb said."

I'm not dissing it, but I bet that our conclusions will change in another decade after we've made more discoveries "for the first time."

Get Smarter with New Handsets

All the choices in new "smart" phones makes me feel dumber.

I like my gadgets, but differentiating the options is getting too difficult for me. It seemed like new handphones just came out last week, now there's a news release about new designs?

Yikes, they all have more and more features, so what's the difference!?

Fireworks Promised on 'West Wing' Debate

The first few season of the West Wing have been my favorite TV show. Intelligent, fast-paced dialogue on dramatic issues with great characters.

However, I tuned into one episode of this season's show and didn't like it at all. The only holdover character I saw from earlier seasons was Josh, and all the shots were on the campaign trail with the two candidates. One of my favorite aspects of the series has been the rich decor of the West Wing offices - beautiful places that would be fun to work in.

I guess the show hasn't done so well since Aaron Sorkin left two years ago, and now they are resorting to gimmicks like this live show this week. Sounds fun anyway, if not the high-quality of past seasons:

"'We could get it completely wrong. You might be able to only hear Alan Alda and not hear Jimmy because the mikes don't work (or) the camera goes out; some crazy thing happens with the equipment. Certainly, the actors can lose their way.'

'There's just nothing more fun to watch than that kind of train wreck. If I wasn't involved with the show I'd be turning it on just to see: OK, how do they screw up,' he said."

The Function of Leadership

A quote from the book "The Leadership Challenge" -

"Leadership is ultimately about creating a way for people to contribute to making something extraordinary happen." - Alan Keith

Are you focused on making something extraordinary happen? That alone is great. Are you creating ways for others to contribute? That is leadership.

Growing older

Ha! My friend shared a funny and insightful perspective on growing older today.

Neither of us had shaved, and he remarked on a column he had once read. The writer said that he knew he was getting older because when he didn't shave, his stubble no longer looked cool; he just looked like a wino.

You Are the Message

Great quote I heard at Rolling Hills Covenant Church this week:

"The best way to send an idea is to wrap it up in a person."

-Robert Oppenheimer

Bruins Evolve in Game to Beat a Better Team

Here it is again - the inner game. You can do a lot when you believe in yourself.

"'We're going to face teams that are better than us, as far as on paper,' UCLA's Justin London said. 'But nothing replaces heart — and we've got lots of heart.'"

The New Music Download Battle

Another interesting battle over music downloading - this time not about piracy, but about the pricing of Apple's popular iTunes. Record companies are putting pressure on Apple to charge more than 99cents a song.

Here's what John C. Dvorak at PC Magazine says:

"The goal is to kill iTunes and any online music service not directly owned by a label. The record companies don't like these systems for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that they work, proving that downloading music was a good idea from the beginning. I'm sure that still irks them, since it represents a decade-old 'I told you so!'"

It also reminds me of another old saying - killing the goose that laid the golden egg.

Bruins Upset Bears in Rose Bowl Brawl

I was following this by internet and it was exciting.

Down 14-0, 27-14, 40-28, somehow UCLA kept coming back and finally won.

Cal outgained them by nearly 200 yards. They ran at will and had two runners with over 100 yards rushing each. Their freshman receiver had over 150 yards.

Meanwhile, UCLA's star receiver had one catch for 6 yards and star runner had 16 rushes for 64 yards.

Yet UCLA won and beat the spread (they were a 1-1/2 point favorite)!

A weak defensive line, a suspect offensive line, yet a lot of poise and maturity and a will to win.

A timid and tepid pick by Mona Charen

Interesting statistic mentioned here for all of us who moan about partisan politics:

"I heard an NPR host a couple of weeks ago describing the nomination process as 'polarized.' Some professor agreed that liberals vote only for liberals and conservatives only for conservatives. Nope. Conservative senators have, for the most part, voted to confirm liberal justices. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was confirmed by a vote of 96-3. Justice Stephen Breyer was approved by a vote of 87-9."

Retreat by Charles Krauthammer

"For a man whose presidency is marked by a courageous willingness to think and do big things, this nomination is a sorry retreat into smallness."

Good line from an opinion piece about President Bush's nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. It is disappointing to me that he picked a political ally rather than a judicial expert. As George Will said in another opinion piece, if 100 experts were asked to choose their 10 top Supreme Court prospects, she would not be named in any of the 1,000 spots on the list.

White Sox Top Red Sox 5-3, Sweep Series

I'm a hometown fan - Dodgers and Angels all the way!

But it's hard not to cheer for such a hard-luck team as the White Sox, or the Red Sox last season.

The Angels will beat the Yankees and face the White Sox in the American League Championship Series to see who gets to the World Series. Whom to cheer for?

Ah, this is where sports becomes so fun - waiting for those magical moments when heroes emerge and legends are made.

The 400 Richest Americans

Now look at this list. 4 of the top 5 are technology fortunes, and 5 of the top 10 are from one family.

How things change and yet stay the same.

1 William H. Gates
2 Warren E. Buffett
3 Paul G. Allen
4 Michael Dell
5 Lawrence Ellison
6 Christy Walton
7 Jim C. Walton
8 S. Robson Walton
9 Alice L. Walton
10 Helen R. Walton

Top Movies

I love lists. All kinds of lists. To-do lists, popularity lists, lists of statistics.

This is a list of imdb.com's top 250 movies as voted by members.

What are your top movies? Mine (as I try to gauge their impact on my life, not necessarily the movies I would most like to watch):

1. Brother Sun, Sister Moon
2. Groundhog Day
3. It's A Wonderful Life
4. The Wizard of Oz
5. Star Wars
6. The Deer Hunter
7. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
8. The Princess Bride
9. Rocky
10. Ordinary People
11. Lawrence of Arabia
12. Young Frankenstein
13. A Shot in the Dark
14. Saving Private Ryan
15. The Incredibles
16. 2001: A Space Odyssey
17. Forrest Gump
18. Patton
19. Chariots of Fire
20. The Seven Samurai
21. To Kill A Mockingbird
22. The Bridge on the River Kwai
23. The Great Escape
24. How the West Was Won
25. Tora! Tora! Tora!
26. Terminator
27. The Matrix
28. Gone With the Wind
29. Raiders of the Lost Ark
30. The Sons of Katie Elder
31. White Christmas
32. Little Big Man
33. True Grit
34. Twelve Angry Men
35. The Godfather
36. The Sting
37. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
38. Glory
39. The Killing Fields
40. The Parent Trap

Pacific 10 Makes Grade

I love articles like this that cross disciplines - in this case, testing the intelligence of football players.

Of course, it helps that it demonstrates the superior intelligence of UCLA student-athletes.

Brilliant 'Get Smart'

Don Adams, 82; Fought Evil and Got Laughs as Agent 86 on 'Get Smart' - Los Angeles Times:

"It was the height of the Cold War and the James Bond spy craze when 'Get Smart' debuted on NBC in 1965 with Adams as Maxwell Smart, Agent 86 for CONTROL, a Washington-based counterintelligence agency."

One of the greatest satirical series on TV. When I was an undergrad student, my roommates and I would watch reruns every night at 11:30 after coming home from the library. A comedic classic!

DVD Fight Intensifies

DVD Fight Intensifies: Microsoft and Intel to Back Toshiba Format - New York Times

Yikes! Another format war!

Does this mean we'll all have to buy two formats of DVD player for the next generation of discs?

Or, like with DVD-R and DVD+R, will every machine just support two standards and we choose on which version of the disc we buy?

Is the world we live in destined to offer a confusing array of choices? A few people figure out what they like best, and the rest of us that really don't know the difference and don't care, just follow?

I guess that's the price of not having a world dictator. Wait, wasn't that supposed to be Bill Gates? Let's see if he can make everyone else to follow his lead.

How 'Bout Those Bruins?!!

After Fast Start, Future Looks Bright - Los Angeles Times:

I don't care that the three overwhelming wins came against hapless oponents. The important thing is that the team believes in itself. They're winning the "Inner Game of Football" which is really what separates champions from also-rans. So when they face some quality opponents, they'll believe in themselves and keep playing hard, and maybe good things will happen.

Plus, it's a lot more fun to watch teams that are excited and think they are going to win. That's the one wrap against Terry Donahue. Though he built a quality program that always did very well, they never made it to the pinnacle. And you got the feeling that no matter how good they were, that they were always worried...that he was always worried.

"The last time UCLA started 3-0 was 2001 and the Bruins won their first six, reaching a No. 4 national ranking, before losing four in a row and finishing 7-4"

Now the start to that season was a lot of fun. Until the wheels fell off. A few good years under Bob Toledo and Cade McNown, though hampered by a porous defense and ultimately succumbing to scandals and team bickering.

Yorkshire Tales

Last year we started making Sunday evenings a family reading time. After having our normal Sunday evening meal of leftovers, we each pick a chapter from a current book we are reading and read them to each other.

I've been reading chapters from a James Herriot book, "Dog Stories." What a great storyteller he is! His stories are charming, humorous and interesting, transporting us to a different time and place - where he served as a countryside veterinarian in northern England 50 years ago.

My wife and I got hooked on his books 20 years ago when we were newlyweds and didn't have a TV. We used to regularly read his stories to each other in bed at night. Now we are having the fun of passing on these dear stories to our two boys.

They are also very human stories, profiling human character traits in their interaction with animals, and inspiring us to be better people.

Making the World Better

An interesting observation by this columnist on differences between the "Left" and the "Right." He says the Left focuses more on making society better, while the Right focuses more on making people better.

"Because Judeo-Christian values have always understood that the world is made better by making people better. On occasion, of course, a great moral cause must be joined. For example, it was religious Christians who led the fight to abolish slavery in Europe and America. But in general, the way to a better society is through the laborious and completely non-glamorous project of making each person more honest, more courageous, more decent, more likely to commit to another person in marriage, more likely to devote more time to raising children, and so on."

If that is true, then is there any more important work than spiritual growth and character formation?

Calculate Your Life Expectancy

This will get you thinking about how long you've got, which ought to get you thinking about what you will do with it!

"Teach us to make the most of our time,
so that we may grow in wisdom."
Psalm 90:12

I Love My Gmail

This article gives some tips for how to use your gmail account as a private online journal.

I've signed up for several gmail accounts this year, and I love them for the fact that:

1. I can use separate accounts for different projects - all the email for a particular conference I'm planning is linked to one account
2. I can use accounts as online filing cabinets. They are effectively my email backups. I use a different email account, but forward a copy of every email to my gmail account, where it will be stored for a long time (currently 2.6 GB of free storage!)
3. This article suggests using your gmail account to write notes to yourself. Great idea!
4. They come with SSL connection for connecting to your computer's email client, giving more security/privacy than other email services.

writing sensible emails

Here's a helpful article on getting your emails read and answered.

Interesting observation: only 3 kinds of work email - inform, request information, or request action.

My favorite advice: state up front what the purpose is for your email.

Lots of good other tips.

Bridget Redux

I thoroughly enjoyed the original Bridget Jones movie. Charming and witty, it was a funny and touching look at the life of urban singles.

The sequel is an excuse for spending more time with Bridget, but with no compelling story or new character development. It was reminiscent of Ocean's Twelve, a movie I really disliked, as a vehicle for tagging along with the characters. I didn't dislike Bridget II, but it wasn't very meaningful or even very enjoyable.

Da Vinci Dollars

Just another reminder of how out of touch Hollywood producers can be.

This article explores how the makers of the "Da Vinci Code" movie are trying to tone down its anti-Catholic message. They even explore using the movie to attract religious attenders:

"The phrase I heard used several times was 'Passion dollars'; they want to try to get 'The Passion' dollars if they can," said Ms. Nicolosi, referring to her conversations about the film. "They're wrong," she added. "It's sacrilegious, irreligious. They're thinking they can ride the 'Passion' wave with this. And I said, 'Are you kidding me?' "

The book has been hugely popular, and I'm sure the movie will be also. But it's amazing to think the producers believe they can tap into a religious audience. And it's scary to think that people are getting their view of religion from this novel, which is ludicrous as far as its premise, and patronizingly polemic in its presentation (all the smartest people know the truth about this, it's just the simpletons who are kept ignorant by the wiles of the church).

Searching for Intimacy

Is blogging a kind of reverse-voyeurism?

Why do people want to publicize their intimate details, like their finances written about in this article on bloggers revealing their money matters?

I think it's a hunger for intimacy in a world where we've got more relationships and more communication than ever, but less-fulfilling connections with other human beings.

Top 10 Tech Products Ever

Here's CNET's list of the products that have changed our lives. #1? The iPod (2001)

Hard to believe it's only been 4 years, they seem ubiquitous!

#2 is Tivo, which will make its debut in Singapore in December - though run by the cable company and coming with a hefty premium.

What would make your list??? Wow, hard to narrow down on what doesn't qualify - TV, radio, computer, phonograph, electricity, lightbulb?

My list for the past 25 years:
(items that have most influenced our lives)

1. Personal computer (1987)
2. VCR (1981)
3. Cell phone (1999)
4. CD player (1985)
5. Digital camera (2003)
6. PDA (1999)
7. iPod (2004)
8. Camcorder (1985)
9. Playstation (2002)
10. Gameboy (1997)

Wonka Flop, Lemony Flip

There was some wonderful imagery in the movie "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." The boy playing Charlie is really endearing.

But once we meet Willy Wonka the movie really dives. We lose touch with the human stories - Charlie and his family, the other kids' character flaws, Willy's aspirations.

Johnny Depp's interpretation of Willy is just too weird and distracting, and the children and their parents are made too grotesque to be really human. In the end, we find Willy as this flawed ante-hero who needs to be saved by Charlie. The innocent child becomes the hero for the scarred adult, rescuing him from his disfunctional past.

There was a good moral that comes through in the end, but the telling was disappointing.

On the other had, "Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events" really plays the exaggeration of its characters perfectly and beautifully.

The story is caricatured in a fascinating way, and the characters display total humanness in the middle of it. The surroundings and settings are extreme, but it is a very human character story, told in an entertaining way.

Will Podcasting catch on?

One of the benefits of having an ipod is listening to books on tape and recorded programs on the go. Twenty years ago, I was a big fan of Prairie Home Companion and used to record the radio broadcasts on cassette tape.

I was excited about podcasting when I first learned about it earlier this year, hoping this would be a way to get mp3s of broadcast shows. Now it sounds like podcasts' popularity is set to take off with their inclusion in Apple's new edition of their iTunes software.

The unfortunate fact is that most of them are not that interesting. A lot of them are home-made, and the interesting shows still aren't in podcast format (I don't know why - can't they include ads in podcasts as easily as in broadcasts?) It is a great vehicle for distributing education and entertainment. I hope the quality of programming booms to take advantage of the interest in the format.

Then & Now

This is me 2 1/2 years ago when we bought our first digital camera.










Now here I am 2 weeks ago buying our second digital camera : )





Notice any difference?

Is it the light? The white balance settings? I haven't been getting much sun lately? The first salesman was clearly the superior photographer? I was happier then? I bought a crummier camera this time? Or???

Airplane movies

I was on an airplane this week and caught the last 5 minutes of "About Schmidt," which I had seen awhile ago.

You really don't have to see the rest of this movie. The first few minutes and the last few minutes are priceless. Everything in-between seems to set up the last scene after Schmidt reviews his life and has to honestly ask himself the question, has he made a difference in anybody else's life?

Good question to ask!

Similar to poignant ending of "Saving Private Ryan."

Also on the plane - a fell-good romantic comedy "The Wedding Date," which I hadn't heard of before. Totally unbelievable story, but I still like these kind of happy ending romances. In spite of, or maybe because of, some immorality, there is a good character lesson or two.

We may be off to USA without you, but...

Happy Father's Day from Tyler & Cameron

We're going to miss you JIM! Love, KC

Mr & Mrs Smith

I really DID NOT LIKE this movie.

It was a clever premise, with a plot that moved fast and two stars that are pleasant to look at.

But the violence went over the top!

It went from suspense to comedy with bullets and punches flying. Too many bullets. Too many punches. It was supposed to be fake violence, funny in its exagerration, but how funny is it when a man is kicking his wife on the ground? Hitting a guy in the head with a golf club? Throwing a guy out a minivan door under an oncoming car?

Some of this was just gratuitous, like the profiles of Angelina's body. But somehow it went farther than comic book violence to something disturbing, something that was hard to laugh at and even stomach.

And the only message seemed to be that marriage is war.

This could have been a lot better with more sublety and less brutality.

Best of Both Worlds

I'm a Mac fan from the early days. My buddy got a "Lisa" when we were in grad school, and I got my fist SE in 1987. I relucatantly switched to Windows in '97 when I moved to China, believing it would be hard to support an Apple.

I've had Windows 3.1, 95, 98, 2000, and XP (everything but ME!) And I've had fun with XP the past three years on my Fujitsu laptop. Fujitsu makes great notebooks! I've also had two crummy Compaqs - both desktop and notebook.

As much fun as I've had tweaking everything on Windows and downloading LOTS of extras from the internet, I've wanted to go back to the elegant, efficient days of my Mac experience. Ah, Macintosh . . . it just works! No more of those headaches wondering what's wrong with your machine.

So I switched to a G4 Powerbook a few months ago. It works beautifully.

But what I miss is being a part of the bigger computing world. Reading PC magazine, following the Intel roadmap, looking for Sonoma and Yonah. checking the zillions of add-on utilities and compulsively updating my antivirus definitions and running ad-aware and spybot S&D.

I've felt that Apple produces a superior Operating System, but lags behind Wintel in the hardware department.

I've enjoyed reading all the commentaries this week on Apple's switch, and their predictions of the impact. Here's a good analysis of the technical side: http://arstechnica.com/columns/mac/mac-20050608.ars

Oh yeah, one of the nifty add-ons I miss is the "blog this" button in my browser! No right-click button either : (

So the switch this week by Apple to Intel chips is not a big surprise or disappointment to me, as it was to many of the Mac faithful. I would have liked to buy a new Fujitsu S6240 notebook this year to take advantage of the new technology, but Apple came out with a brilliant new OS "Tiger" this year, while we won't see the next Windows OS "Longhorn" for at least 18 months.

I'm happily using my new powerbook and will enjoy following the news on upcoming generations of Intel chips and anticipating how Apple will put the hardware innovations to use!

1976 - They called it first!

1976 - They called it first!
Originally uploaded by K!Mberly.

Digital Audio Aims for Mass Market

My ipod has changed my life this year. It has changed the kind of music I listen to, and how often I listen to it. It is also starting me to listen to audiobooks, which I never have before.

Two years ago, we got a digital camera, and that has changed how we use our photos. This past year has been digital audio.

What next?

Ocean's Disappointment

Went to see Ocean's Twelve this week. What a letdown!

Rambling and predictable, the weak plot and weaker script wasted the considerable starpower.