Geeks...

DW has been limping along with an old Titanium Powerbook that she got from her past job about 7 years ago. The hinges were broken and it has been lobotomized with a new hard drive and a new optical drive that were installed about 2 years ago by yours truly. I've gotta say that dis-assembling a laptop and getting it back together are not the easiest tasks, but the folks at Other World Computing have some excellent tutorials on how to do the installations.

At any rate, she ordered herself a new 21" iMac that arrived by slow goat from Shenzen, China (sorry - inside joke) and the free iPod Touch that comes with the computer when you are employed in education. She customized both the iMac and the iPod to meet her needs and the iPod arrived first. Even though she previously pronounced me to be a geek when I was enjoying the iPod which came with my new iBook, she has been spending her time enjoying her new iPod.

The iMac arrived today. I'm dying to see if she spends more time with the iMac or the iPod.

Turn-Off Week

No, I'm not talking about things that you don't like, I'm talking about TV Turn Off Week which is from April 20th to the 26th. I was sitting in bed upstairs working on another blog post on my computer (...for tomorrow - I think you'll like it...) with the TV on as sort of background noise. My DW comes up from working at her computer downstairs and tells me that it is TV Turn Off Week.

I thought of reaching for the remote, but just looked at her while I tried to absorb the significance of what she'd just told me. So I'm working on my computer - that's not TV. Being the wise guy that I am, I was thinking like the chimp on the right.

Well, a little bit of research has shown me that it isn't just TV Turnoff Week any more, it's now just Turn-Off Week or Mental Detox Week - depends on where you look . The idea is to get you to be aware of how much screen-time on video and digital devices we all have.

We all probably have too much time in front of these things, but it's also really important to realize how important these devices are to our daily life, too. At work, I can really no longer do what I do without a computer and the many other digital devices that we use. Even in my boat-building endeavors, I use the computer for design, drafting, research and problem-solving. Without this machine, I couldn't share the things that I do in the way that I do.

But the "off" time is equally important - to spend time with people and grow relationships at home and at work. It also is important so that I can spend time working on all the projects that I've got going on!