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Our little guy.
I visited the Apple site today, and where they normally have some hot product announcement prominently featured on their home page, there was only a big white empty space. Nothing new, eh?
This week's big news at Apple: nada!
My boys
I used the TypeDrawing app for iPhone to create a little Father’s Day image for myself, inspired by my twins.
The idea that the world will go on long after we’re gone can be unsettling. And yet, we never really worry that life was going on long before we ever arrived.
However, this realization — that life was going on long before I existed — has spurred my interest in home movies. Unfortunately, my family never shot any, so I find myself fascinated by the movies of others.
What happened?
Sometimes late at night, I’ll spend a few moments at The Internet Archive watching long lost family films. The older they are, the better, but it’s better still if they are in color and shot at locations I am personally familiar with. It’s like looking into a past without me in it, and a realization that there will also be a future without me in it.
In a way, it’s like seeing what death really looks like.
And yet I don’t think of it as a morbid curiosity, although certainly there is a melancholy aspect to it. On the other hand, there is something comforting in knowing that all we experience in this life is not necessarily unique, and that we are not really alone; in fact, we are surrounded on all sides of time by those with similar wants, wishes, pains, triumphs, and losses. Those who have come before — and those who will come after — are as real as we are, just in a different plane of time.
It reminds me of a quote I saw once in an Italian catacomb, posted above a display filled with hundreds of skeletons: “As you are now, we once were. As we are now, you shall be.”
I will do something with this, creatively speaking. I’m just not sure what yet.
Tonight I was reflecting on creativity (e.g., how to make time for it; how to cultivate it; what it might inspire) when I ran across these quotes from Albert Einstein:
“The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.”
“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.”
“True art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist.”
Buy. Download. Get enlightened.
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Hello? Anyone home?
The 1981 Osborne. Check out that screen real estate. Yes, I used one.
The 2010 iMac. And, yes, I use one of these, too.
Monza
Today’s 15-minute sketch was inspired by the early 70s Chevy Monza parked on Rugby Avenue near Cortelyou Road.
Image 1
Today’s 15-minute sketch took 7 minutes. On certain monitors, scrolling produces a static effect on the screen, which is an artifact of the GIF.
Ford Sync robot vs. Apple Automator robot.
Is it just me, or does the Ford Sync robot look like a cousin of the Apple Automator robot? Or maybe robots are just in the zeitgeist…
Choice is good.
The iPhone is awesome, but apparently the Droid can make reliable phone calls. How long will this go on before people who need a phone finally give up on the iPhone and make the switch? Not long, judging by my friends, a few of whom have already jumped ship.
AT&T, time to wake up and get your network working. And asking us to report on outages just ain’t the solution.
Apple, you better consider a similar switch: it may be time to abandon AT&T for Verizon. What’s that? You have a contract you can’t get out of? That’s a shame.
Who did what now?
For the nerds among us, here are some visitor stats for the past month for my sites (www.mmcwatters.com, and www.mmcwatters.com/blog/)
Browsers
Operating Systems
Screen Resolutions
Top Five Posts
Legos for rocket scientists.
Here is a lovely little animated build of the Space Station, courtesy of USA Today.