This weekend I discovered that Jenny Dog had figured out a new way to manipulate me. She is very clever. Sometimes I'm a little slow. Just being honest.
She knows that when she goes over to the back door and acts like she wants to go out, that I'll get up out of my chair and open the door for her. She had put that together with the knowledge that when I get up, that I may go and get her a rawhide -- her favorite joy on earth. And she knows that if I don't get up out of the chair, that she's not getting a rawhide. So lately, she has been working overtime to get me to get up and let her outside, with the knowledge that when she comes back in that I am already up and may make the trip to the kitchen to get her a rawhide. Last night it reached the point where I finally understood. Every few minutes she wanted to go outside. Sometimes she would even go to the edge of the porch before coming back in and heading for the kitchen.
Her new game obviously worked well enough for her to think she had it figured out. So when I would just go back and sit down instead of going to the kitchen, she would just go back to the door to go outside again. She must have thought that I had forgotten the new trick she had taught me. So last night was an interesting time of letting Jenny out and then back in and me sitting down in the chair over and over again. I'm not sure she's figured it out yet, but we'll see.
It makes me wonder -- if it's that easy for Jenny Dog to figure out how to manipulate me to get what she wants, then how susceptible am I to being manipulated by others?
Monday, June 13, 2005
Sunday, June 12, 2005
Giving Bad News
Last week was one of those weeks when Sara was involved again and again in giving bad news to patients. Several new people had come in for consultations in her clinic, and they had no hope to offer. I guess it's just one of those statistical things -- during some periods of time, it seems that everyone that comes looking for help is someone you can't help. Of course, that is balanced by those periods when people come in who have been given no hope by others, and other eyes and experience are able to offer hope, even healing. That's just the reality of working in a cancer center.
Weeks like this last one are hard on Sara. Giving people bad news can never be easy. Many of us would find it impossible to do on a regular basis. But it occurs to me that it's the price for being able to deliver incredibly good news to someone who's been told there is no hope, which Sara also gets to do. Those of us who don't know the depths of having to deliver bad news can't know the heights of being able to deliver amazingly good news.
For Sara and her colleagues, I hope that this is a week where the statistics play catch up, and that the news they have to deliver is good.
Weeks like this last one are hard on Sara. Giving people bad news can never be easy. Many of us would find it impossible to do on a regular basis. But it occurs to me that it's the price for being able to deliver incredibly good news to someone who's been told there is no hope, which Sara also gets to do. Those of us who don't know the depths of having to deliver bad news can't know the heights of being able to deliver amazingly good news.
For Sara and her colleagues, I hope that this is a week where the statistics play catch up, and that the news they have to deliver is good.
Saturday, June 11, 2005
Apple To Make Subscribing to Podcasts Easier
Having recently started producing a couple of podcasts (Drawn2Jesus and Retire2Serve), the announcement this week by Apple that they are building podcast subscription into iTunes is exciting news. The details are in Steve Jobs' keynote which is available at developers.apple.com.
The new release of iTunes coming out at the end of July will allow you to find podcasts of interest and subscribe to them directly in iTunes, all in a very transparent way. By subscribing, you will automatically have new programs downloaded into iTunes and then loaded on your iPod to listen to whenever you want. Basically, it lowers the barrier to listening by not having to use another program to do that for you.
The other thing that is exciting is that Apple appears to be adding functionality that will allow the inclusion of art with the podcasts, and allow that art to change during the podcast. Exactly how that works is yet to be released.
There are currently about 8000 podcasts. Over 6000 of these are produced by amateurs like me, and the rest are being done by radio stations and commercial enterprises. Some estimate that a year from now there will be 80,000 podcasts available.
The new iTunes functionality will go a long way toward moving podcasting into the mainstream.
The new release of iTunes coming out at the end of July will allow you to find podcasts of interest and subscribe to them directly in iTunes, all in a very transparent way. By subscribing, you will automatically have new programs downloaded into iTunes and then loaded on your iPod to listen to whenever you want. Basically, it lowers the barrier to listening by not having to use another program to do that for you.
The other thing that is exciting is that Apple appears to be adding functionality that will allow the inclusion of art with the podcasts, and allow that art to change during the podcast. Exactly how that works is yet to be released.
There are currently about 8000 podcasts. Over 6000 of these are produced by amateurs like me, and the rest are being done by radio stations and commercial enterprises. Some estimate that a year from now there will be 80,000 podcasts available.
The new iTunes functionality will go a long way toward moving podcasting into the mainstream.
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Increasing My Memory
You're probably hoping that I've found a way to increase my personal memory. Sorry.
But I did have to find a solution to the memory crunch on my laptop. It's a several-year old ThinkPad T30 with a 20 Gbyte Hard Drive. And it was down to only a little over 1 Gbyte of free space. Needless to say, it wasn't running very well.
So I ended up picking up a WD Passport portable hard drive with 40 Gbytes of storage that plugs into a USB port. And then I had to buy a PCMCIA USB 2.o card so that I could get the higher transfer rate, because the ThinkPad is old enough to only have USB 1.1 (40 times slower than USB 2.0). And of course, I bought one of the cheaper cards and then had to return it and get an expensive one that would actually work with the WD.
After I moved some stuff to the WD Passport, I decided to defragment the hard drive. Guess it hadn't been done before, because nearly all of the files on the drive were fragmented. Needless to say, it had to run nearly all night to get the job done, but the result was more free space. So now the machine runs a lot better.
Just relating all of this to let others know that there are solutions other than buying a new machine. And that cleaning up the hard drive occasionally is a good idea.
Now if there were just something as straightforward that I could do about my brain...
But I did have to find a solution to the memory crunch on my laptop. It's a several-year old ThinkPad T30 with a 20 Gbyte Hard Drive. And it was down to only a little over 1 Gbyte of free space. Needless to say, it wasn't running very well.
So I ended up picking up a WD Passport portable hard drive with 40 Gbytes of storage that plugs into a USB port. And then I had to buy a PCMCIA USB 2.o card so that I could get the higher transfer rate, because the ThinkPad is old enough to only have USB 1.1 (40 times slower than USB 2.0). And of course, I bought one of the cheaper cards and then had to return it and get an expensive one that would actually work with the WD.
After I moved some stuff to the WD Passport, I decided to defragment the hard drive. Guess it hadn't been done before, because nearly all of the files on the drive were fragmented. Needless to say, it had to run nearly all night to get the job done, but the result was more free space. So now the machine runs a lot better.
Just relating all of this to let others know that there are solutions other than buying a new machine. And that cleaning up the hard drive occasionally is a good idea.
Now if there were just something as straightforward that I could do about my brain...
Sunday, June 05, 2005
A Celebration Feast
Last night we enjoyed a celebration feast with our friends Lewis and Elaine. Lewis, one of the BMC layoff casualties of a month ago, begins his new job Wednesday. His story about the steps involved in getting this new job is one that those of us who are believers easily see the hand of God in. So it was only fitting that we spend time in celebrating.
The venue for the feast was the Swinging Door -- a pecan-smoked barbecue place you have to plan on visiting because it's out in the country. But when you walk through the door, you know you've made a good decision -- the aroma is amazing.
Since it was a feast, we had the family style all you can eat dinner. Beef, ribs, links, turkey, chicken, along with beans, potato salad, cole slaw, and bread. I knew immediately that I would overeat, and be sorry later. But maybe that's what a feast is about. And to top it off, there was blackberry (and a bite or two of peach) cobbler covered in ice cream.
While the food is hard to forget, the highlight of the feast was Lewis telling the story, and the big smile on his face and the sparkle in his eyes as he told it. It's good to celebrate what God has done!
The venue for the feast was the Swinging Door -- a pecan-smoked barbecue place you have to plan on visiting because it's out in the country. But when you walk through the door, you know you've made a good decision -- the aroma is amazing.
Since it was a feast, we had the family style all you can eat dinner. Beef, ribs, links, turkey, chicken, along with beans, potato salad, cole slaw, and bread. I knew immediately that I would overeat, and be sorry later. But maybe that's what a feast is about. And to top it off, there was blackberry (and a bite or two of peach) cobbler covered in ice cream.
While the food is hard to forget, the highlight of the feast was Lewis telling the story, and the big smile on his face and the sparkle in his eyes as he told it. It's good to celebrate what God has done!
Saturday, June 04, 2005
Podcast Results to Date
I've been interested to see what results I'm getting from the two podcasts I started a few weeks ago -- Drawn2Jesus and Retire2Serve.
I have two ways to look at how many people are listening.
And the really interesting thing is that Google and other search engines picked up on the site and on the podcasts quickly. Because the podcasts are listed on a number of podcast directories, and because Google hits them regularly, Google tends to draw a lot of attention to a website.
So, from an early perspective, it appears that some folks have found the podcasts and are listening, and that the website is getting quite a bit of traffic. We'll see how that works out over time.
I have two ways to look at how many people are listening.
- Feedburner provides some statistics. Feedburner is the web service that converts the feeds to RSS so that people can subscribe. It tracks the total hits to the RSS feed, and it also tracks requests for the feed, which converts into downloads. So it gives an idea of how many people are subscribing. It also counts click-throughs to the blog if someone goes to find more information or a link. From Feedburner, it appears that about 30 folks have so far subscribed to each. One episode of retire2serve had 16 clickthroughs.
- The website I use to host the mp3 audio files also provides statistics, including the number of times the mp3's have been downloaded. The most popular one has been downloaded nearly 200 times.
And the really interesting thing is that Google and other search engines picked up on the site and on the podcasts quickly. Because the podcasts are listed on a number of podcast directories, and because Google hits them regularly, Google tends to draw a lot of attention to a website.
So, from an early perspective, it appears that some folks have found the podcasts and are listening, and that the website is getting quite a bit of traffic. We'll see how that works out over time.
Thursday, June 02, 2005
The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency
I've now joined Eloise and Sara as fans of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series of novels. I just finished In the Company of Cheerful Ladies, sixth in the series of novels by Alexander McCall Smith.
All are set in Africa, and do a wonderful job of giving a flavor of the culture and civilization. Smith is good at creating likable characters and sucking you into their lives so that you keep turning pages. Part of the allure of his characters is their strong morality and their kindness toward others. Novels that have great stories and a moral to go with them.
Makes me regret not having picked up on the series before the first five went to Uganda with the missionaries! Now I may have to go the library and check them out.
Here's a link to the book at Amazon:
All are set in Africa, and do a wonderful job of giving a flavor of the culture and civilization. Smith is good at creating likable characters and sucking you into their lives so that you keep turning pages. Part of the allure of his characters is their strong morality and their kindness toward others. Novels that have great stories and a moral to go with them.
Makes me regret not having picked up on the series before the first five went to Uganda with the missionaries! Now I may have to go the library and check them out.
Here's a link to the book at Amazon:
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