Time You Enjoy Wasting Is Not Wasted Time

The other day Erin was singing to herself and I stopped to listen. At one point she merged Hot Chelle Rae and Miley Cyrus and was singing “Tonight, tonight, there’s a party in the U.S.A.” I thought that was pretty darn cute.

RIP Steve Jobs

While I may not have agreed with his labor practices or his refusal to consider the enterprise market, there is no doubt that Steve Jobs was a creative genius. His obsession with form over function has led to some of the most significant advances in consumer electronics. Without him MP3 players might still be the size of an old school Walkman, phones would be bulkier than they are today, and tablet computing would not be in the mainstream at all. Thank you Steve for all of the innovations you have brought to the industry.

The Google Docs app for Android tablets has been updated.

This is a good thing because honestly, using Google Docs on a tablet has been a bit of a letdown. I use my tablet more and more, and this addition makes it one step easier for making a tablet a second instead of third device. In other words, needing a laptop for mobile computing is becoming less of a necessity for me as I can do just about everything I need to do on a tablet when I am not at my desk.

This edition of Tuesday Tunes I thought I’d again mention the seemingly random way one of the local radio stations in my area censors songs. For example, in Bruno Mars’ “Lazy Song” they bleep out the word “sex” the one time it is in the song. However, they have no problem playing Marcy Playground’s “Sex and Candy” without beeping out anything.

“As for the future, your task is not to foresee it but to enable it.”
~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Here is a great article from the UU World Archives: Claiming and reclaiming Universalism

When we claim our full name, we reclaim our best selves and vow to follow the Bodhisattva path of Universalism (or if we are persuaded to become eco-feminist, the Gaia dharma, whereby we work for the salvation of the planet.) Belief in Universalism enables relation and genuine, tender contact, for to believe in universal salvation is to affirm the worth and dignity of every person—a radical principle undergirding Universalist theologies all the way from the gracious God of John and Judith Sargent Murray to the bold vision declared 50 years ago by Robert Cummins, then general superintendent of the Universalist Church of America, when he said,

Universalism cannot be limited to either Protestantism or to Christianity, not without denying its very name. Ours is a world fellowship, not just a Christian sect. For so long as Universalism is universalism and not partialism, the fellowship bearing its name must succeed in making it unmistakably clear that all are welcome: theist and humanist, unitarian and trinitarian, colored and color-less. A circumscribed Universalism is unthinkable.

I have been a fan of the Amazon Kindle since I got one for my birthday a few years back. It is simply the best way to read a book in my opinion. Of course, I am thinking of novels. There are other books and magazines that a more multimedia rich environment would benefit. To that end, the new media consumption tablet, the Kindle Fire has been announced with a release date of November 15.

This looks like a great device, especially if you plan to take advantage of Amazon’s digital and cloud offerings. We have been buying TV shows and movies on Amazon Instant Video for a while now and have been quite happy with that. The Fire would be another option for watching those shows.

Of course, the big thing seems to be comparing it to an iPad or calling this an iPad killer. CNN even has an article about this: Kindle Fire vs. iPad: Which is right for you? I don’t think this is quite an iPad killer, but it is certainly an attractive alternative. I think this will bring tablets into the mainstream. $199 is a lot easier to drop than $499 on a tablet, and if you don’t need any of the extra features then why pay for them. But if you plan on using  a variety of apps then the iPad may still be more your style since (unreasonably in my opinion) developers tend to write apps for the iPad before they do an Android version.

In light of recent tragic events, I am focusing some posts on bullying.

There are many resources online about cyberbullying.

The National Crime Prevention Council has resources at:

http://www.ncpc.org/topics/cyberbullying