To Computer Or Not To Compute

In three days e and I will be headed off to Denver, Colorado. We are seriously considering not bringing a computer. If it was a weekend trip, I most certainly wouldn’t take anything, but this is eight days, and I’m wondering if it will be necessary to have a computer with us.

The thing is, I don’t want to be too connected. Part of being on vacation is, you know, not working. However, it’s easy to convince myself that I might need to use Photoshop, post to or edit a website, or even work on some music while I’m chilling in a cabin in the woods.

I’m going to try to take it easy and have a simple trip. However, there are a few things I simply must bring. Many of these things have limited memory, and usually I use the laptop to dump files to when I need to free up space.

So, if a laptop comes with us on vacation merely to act as data storage, will we have the will power to refrain from doing work? I really don’t want to spend a lot of money on more memory cards for all my portables. Hmm.

Filed under: Uncategorized, computers, vacation

Cars is Really Lame

I’m watching Cars for the first time. I’m about seventeen minutes into it, and I don’t think I’ll make it to the end. The animation is fine, but there’s nothing to latch onto here. The cars all look super generic and the voice acting is flat as hell.

Right now a “Life is a Highway” montage is playing, and all I can think is:

Why are there crops? There are telephone lines? Who painted the streets? Why, in a world of ONLY cars, is there only a single four lane road on the landscape? Why does nature even exist?

There is so much wrong with this one, it’s no wonder I never watched it.

And before you say, “But Josh, it’s for kids.”, yeah, I understand that most animated movies are made for kids. However, it is rather obvious that the voice talent (Paul Newman, Cheech & Chong, George Carlin) are meant to appeal to adults… all of the dialogue-based humor is clearly written for adults, and even some of the car designs could only be understood by people who regularly drive.

Also, don’t kids deserver movies that aren’t stupid? I submit that they do.

Yeah, glad I skipped this one. Time to see if there’s something better on TV. Luckily Larry the Cable Guy hasn’t shown up yet.

If I want to see animated car races, I’ll rent Speed Racer again.

Filed under: Uncategorized, cars, kids, lame

Birthdays

Today is my sister’s birthday. I assume she and my family are doing something interesting if they haven’t already. That’s always fun. I’ve never been much of a birthday person though, so whether it’s mine or someone else’s I rarely get excited for the day.

I’m not sure exactly why I have an aversion to birthdays. I guess I’m not much of a fan of celebrations as a whole, but when they are as self-centered as a birthday, it just creeps me out a bit. I’m all for people having dinner parties and being kind to each other. Almost every time I see a friend I have some small gift to give them. But to bring people together around the idea that a single person has managed to continue their existence for another year does not interest me.

A part or dinner without a specific agenda means there are no expectations. One is not required to give platitudes. There’s no obligation to give special treatment to someone.

The point is, you should treat all of your friends like it is their birthday all the time. There should be no reason to give someone a “special day”. Give your friend a book, take them out for lunch, without the burden of expectation.

Filed under: Uncategorized