We had a baby 8 months ago and were finishing up the rehab on the house but I plan on moving this site from Movable Type to Wordpress, B2evolution, or Joomla. I just need to get the strategy for the site refigured.

I also, apparently, need to make sure that the new site is SPAM-FREE. I swear, you go off and rehab a house and have a kid and look what happens! The neighborhood goes to hell.

But what about the Founding Fathers of the American Revolution? How would Benjamin Franklin leverage Microsofts Outlook Calendar to schedule his time? He is famous for having kept a schedule for himself and living by it. Would he have used Project to set timelines and manage his underlings to deal with the French during the Revoluionary war? The blogospere would certainly have found a worthwhile denizen in the form of Thomas Paine! John Adams would certainly have been an avid user of email technology and IM. And, of course, there is certainly the romantic notion of Paul Revere using a cell phone to warn of the Red Coats.

I think it is important to reframe the notion of technology in the context of different eras. People of former times accomplished so much with so little in comparison to today’s modern conveniences and communications technologies. How can we elevate ourselves by reconsidering and revisiting our predecessors? Millions of emails are sent daily, thousands of text messages on cell phones, but what are they really saying? How can technology assist in actualizing greatness?

Just a thought I had.

Cheers!

Bigger news is that my fiancee and I are in the process of buying a house AND it looks like were going to have a baby. It’s been quite a week!! I am very excited about both these occurences, but my mind, naturally, is the child my best friend and lover and I are going to have a child (sounds like 3 people are involved :). Consequently, my thoughts are frequently focused on what this child will need, what it will be, who it will become, and how I will be responsible for an incredible obligation and blessed with the privelege of being part of nurturing and shaping the development of a person. Considering myself a rather literate person with enough culture to bore, I really look forward to the opportunity to provide a solid intellectual basis for my child. Ultimately, I know, the person he or she will be will decide whether they value such things. They might be a jock! In that case, I hope they are approach it with a sense of classic athleticism, sportsmanship, and above all else…vigor. Most of all, I want my child to possess a sense of LIFE. I want them to be excited, engaged, lustful of sheer existence and the multitude of wonders life presents. I know my fiancee (soon to be wife) will be instrumental in providing our bambino with such an outlook. She herself has retained a childlike wonder that compels and informs her worldview like no one else I’ve ever encountered, part of why I love her so, while I’ve developed a rather epicurian approach and appreciation for life.

Now, I’m just blathering. Suffice it to say, it’s been a rather interesting month.

With the improved integration and newly added versioning system in Adobes Creative Suite, it will be difficult for Creative Directors and IT managers to not consider a migration from Quark to InDesign (something I’ve reccomended for quite some time to a number of orgs). With the Version Cue system not being reliant on a server-based architeture, end-users can create ad-hoc workgroups based on project needs rather than having to rely on a sometimes clueless or overworked IT department to set up a new project.

I can’t wait to take a look at this product. If they haven’t I hope they do eventually provide a mechanism to maintain a file-naming convention. So many creative companies I’ve worked for have had issues with file names, folder continuity and versioning. This is definitely a step in the right direction.

After my interview, I stop in and see my girl friend at work, and she informs me that Johnny Cash is dead. Now this was a real downer. I’ve loved JC since I was a kid. His music was so different, so dark, so Johnny. First Excitable boy, now the Man in Black. What a horrible week for music. Here is to two true individuals this world is not likely to see the likes of again. I salute your work and triumphant lives gentleman. You will be missed.

Then I get home to my house which has no power because the main circuit breaker went kablooey. It took the repair guys 4 hours to get it fixed. So now I’m being a big loser at home since I felt web-starved all day. Oh, and John Ritter is dead too! Like I said, weird, disturbing day. Excuse while I go lay down.

I once thought that immortality would be a desirable state. At the age of 30, I’m not so sure. It would invalidate a lot of the passion and intensity of youth if you knew you could always be young. How would anyone mature if they were certain that you were practically indestructible?

When people are in their teens and twenties, they feel invincible. They haven’t experienced, generally speaking, serious illness, infirmness, detioration. These, I think, are some of the elements that inform and shapes our personalities as we get older. The burgeoning realization that you are not invincible and that ineed you will die is humbling and quite a motivator.

Humanity might beat the Grim Reaper some day. It won’t be soon, politics and other arrayed forces will hinder such attempts. Until then, I think we can read and absorb works like this and develop an appreciation for our own mode of living.

Neither Noel Coward or Laurence Olivere made it. Ahnuld made it but not Richard Harris?? Where is Peter O’Toole? Johnny Depp(22) and Brad Pitt(15) (who I think are both very good actors) are well ahead of Daniel Day Lewis(85) which just isn’t right. As I write this, I’m beginning to notice I’m mentioning Irish actors a lot.

Predictably, Al Pacino(1) and Robert De Niro(2) top the list. Oddly enough, Harvey Keitel is down at 53 rounding out the Italian Trinity. And as much as I love Robin Williams, it’s a travesty that he makes it to the list and Spencer Tracy doesn’t. I mean really, Jackie Chan made it!!

Or, he says, it could be something quite different: All women may be naturally bisexual, and society shapes most of them into heterosexuals. He says this could be an evolutionary trait, because women didn’t have to develop a sexual orientation when men, as the historically dominant species, were the ones always seeking out mates.

So, in a roundabout way, it confirms what some people have felt for quite some time, that men and women are different species!!