Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs 1955-2001

I woke up about a half an hour ago.  I couldn't go back to sleep.  It is now 2:50 am in the morning.  I normally get up at 6 am.  Today is different.

Last night as I turned on the Lawrence O'Donnell Show on MSNBC, a news bulletin flashed across the bottom of the TV screen.  It said "Steve Jobs Dead at 56 years old."  Immediately a wave of sadness washed over me.  I knew then that this would one of those days that I would remember where I was when I heard the news that a very public figure has died.

In the future I will always remember that I was in my bedroom at 8 pm in the evening of a fall day, preparing to listen to the latest analysis of the political news that is consuming this country.  The date and time I heard of Steve Jobs death will be added to the time and place where I first heard of the deaths of Marilyn Monroe, John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, John Lennon and Princess Diana.  Now a new name has been added to this sad roster of larger than life figures who are no longer among us.

Perhaps why Steve Jobs passing has affected me so deeply is because this is one man who has made my life and millions of others so much easier.  Until I switched to Apple products last year, I struggled like millions of others to harness the new technology of computers.  Up until Steve Jobs, computers were designed and built for techies, normal people need not apply.

After years of frustration dealing with Windows based computers and thousands of dollars paid to a "computer guy" to fix the glitches, and hours on the phone for tech help with people who didn't even have English as their first language, I finally switched to Apple products last year at the urging of a friend and my life has been made immensely easier and more pleasant.

So much in todays world is unpleasant, and frustrating.  From our government that doesn't work for the common man to Wall Street which has systematically robbed the dismantled the middle class of this country, to today's version of the Republican Party whose goal it is to destroy the president and further enrich the top 1% of the rich of this country, a flag waving Republican Party that boos a soldier serving in Iraq after that soldier declares that he is gay; this ugly world in which we live in today a person like Steve Jobs was a shining beacon of USER FRIENDLY.

I am under additional stress today because today is the day I meet with the owner of the hotel where I work about the way disrespectful way he treats me and the fact that I haven't had a raise in pay in over four years despite the fact that I am on call 24/7 and go above and beyond what is called for as my job as a part-time front desk clerk.  I am a professional man who is about to turn 70 but I am treated with contempt and talked down to like a child.  That is today's business environment in which so many of us tolerate because we need the job to pay our bills.  I doubt if I will be working after my meeting today to air my grievances.

Thus it was appropriate that I heard a quote from Steve Jobs last night that is exactly applicable to my situation today:

'Your Time Is Limited, So Don't Waste It Living Someone Else's Life'

 Thank you Steve Jobs for all that you did to make the lives of millions of your fellow human beings more tolerable.  Rest in peace dear man.

FaceTime

Brother John on FaceTime this afternoon

Check out these two old dudes will you!  This is me (the tired looking dude with the beard in the smaller picture lower left) and my 'little brother" John who lives in Greenville, South Carolina.  We were talking today on Apple's great new....what do you call it?....'feature' FaceTime.  I love it!  John loves it!  His wife Barbara loves it!  Oh, the reason we look so tired is that I just got up from my afternoon nap (I'm 69 years old) and John needed his afternoon nap (he is 67 years old.)  


John has lived in Greenville for about 35 years now.  The only time I could see and talk to him face to face was when he would come up and visit us (and our Mom) in Pennsylvania about once every five years.  All the other times we talked was on the phone which was always frustrating because he has a bad connection in his home.  The past several years we have been talking on our cell phones but you know how that goes...scratchy and hit or miss.  Now that I have been introduced to FaceTime by a friend, I can talk to my brother just like he was right here.  Again, Apple has vastly improved my life.  


I also have an iPhone (which has FaceTime) and the iPad2 with also has FaceTime.  So as I waltz into my Golden Years, my life is made immensely easier and more comfortable by Steve Jobs and his wonderful Apple company.  


I thank my friend Don V. for giving me the final push to go 'all the way' with Apple.  Thanks Don!

My longtime friend Larry of Claymont, DE on FaceTime yesterday.

Now if I can just talk some of my other brother Isaac and my other longtime friends  to go 'all the way' and get an iMac, iPad or iPhone.  You hear that Bill B., Bill P. and Don McK.?  Let's go guys!  Be cool!  Don't be afraid of the new technology.  You can do it!

Having Fun With My New iPhone

A Toon Picture Don took of me yesterday with my iPhone

I'm having a LOT of fun with my new toy, my iPhone.  Oh I know one of my regular blog readers left a comment saying "enough with the i whatever."   I'm sorry folks, I can't help myself.  I'm fascinated with this new technology.  


Tonight I took my iPhone to work and tried the FaceTime function with my friend Don V. and Larry M.  How cool!  It worked both times.  I tried it with Bill but all I saw was black.  He could see me but I couldn't see him.  I think he had his thumb over the camera portion of his iPhone.  Bill has a lot to learn.  He thinks the iPhone takes pictures like magic.  Well, it does in a way.  Remember the Dick Tracy comic strips of the 50's where he could ACTUALLY talk into his wrist watch?  That seems so quaint now doesn't it?


Well, I'm glad I got the iPhone, iMac and iPad.  Now I can synchronize all my information together and have fun doing it.  For too long I kept my contacts in a little black book in my shirt pocket.  My calendar reminders were on a calendar in my kitchen.  I financial information required multiple sign ons.  Now I do all this through one portal.  My life has just been made much more efficient.  Which is just in time because I'm starting to get more forgetful.  I keep telling myself that I'm not getting dementia but that fear lurks within me.  My Mother's last years were progressively worse with her dementia.  Both of her older sisters had dementia.  My father didn't.  Maybe there is hope for me.  I hope I don't have it.


But in the meantime I'm going to make my life much easier with all this new technology.  I am so thankful to my friend Don V. for pushing me in this direction.  


Now if I can only get TracFone to assign me new numbers.  I've been working on them for two days now to do the simple function of assigning new numbers to my old TracFones, which I am going to keep as backups in our vehicles.  I don't see any reason for throwing them out.  


It always amazes me that as far as technology has come, there are still pockets of our modern world that finds the simplest function so difficult to accomplish.  

Dog Tired

Simca - a Tired Pitbull
Cousin Janet's "puppy"

I know I'm tired when my friend Lar tells me that my last blog read like it was written by a tired old man. 


That would be me.  Guilty as charged.


I've been on an intensive Mac Roller Coaster Ride the past week. My friend Don V. has been patiently instructing me of all the cool things my iPad and iMac can do.  I ordered my iPhone (one for Bill too) this week after having got up at 2:30 am on Wednesday morning to do so.  I'm afraid that impulsive action put be behind my sleep eight ball all week even to this day as I type this little missive on my blog.


I'm here to tell you folks I am dog tired!  I was even going to use that polar bear picture that Spo posted on his blog representing how tired he is right before he and his Someone takes off to their yearly jaunt for their holiday with friends.  But that wouldn't be right, and besides I HAVE to do something original or else why even have a blog.  Right?


So I scrolled through some of my thousands of pictures this morning and came across my cousin Janet's little dog (a pit bull mix of all things but gentle as a kitten) named Simca.  


Simca, this is exactly how I feel today.  


Well, I'm off for a light lunch folks, then a nap.  I'm going out with friends tonight for dinner and a show and I want to be at my sparkliest.  No Droopy Ron tonight!

iHappy

Today I am on brain overload.  


Yesterday my new friend Don V. was over for dinner.  After dinner Don, who has been a happy and faithful user of Mac computers for the last twenty years or so, showed me some cool things to do with my recently purchased iPad.  WOW!  To say I am impressed is an understatement.  I am literally blown away!


For too many years I was a user of Windows based computers.  And of course for too many years I went through the usual nerve wracking inevitability of wondering when my computer would crash.  And crash they did, with regular basis.


After my year old Dell computer crashed last year, I gave in and brought an iMac computer with all the bells and whistles. I haven't looked back since.  


I am sitting before my 27 inch screen iMac computer as I happily type this blog post.  I don't worry about my Mac freezing up.  I don't worry about viruses.  I don't worry about registry problems.  I don't worry.


Now that I have a new found comfort level I decided to dip my toes into some of these other Mac products I've been hearing so much about.  A few months ago I purchased an iPad.  I love it!  


I take it to work with me to access my e-mail, blog, Facebook - all functions that I am unable to do on work computer.  Those functions are blocked to prevent a virus or maleware to infect the work computers, which has happened in the past.  So I was quite happy doing these few functions on my handy, little iPad notebook.

Then last night Don opened up my eyes to the whole new world of apps (short for applications) for Mac. Wow!  I'm not a game player or one of those virtual reality guys but he had me driving a car through the city streets of Chicago, my hands gripping the sides of my iMac as a steering wheel.  I was a little kid again!  That was fun! 

So here are just some of the apps: 

• Beautiful Planet - gorgeous pictures of this planet
• Weather Channel - yes, just like on TV!
• Eyewitness Guardian News - current photo coverage of news events around the planet
• White and Yellow Pages - a must for me who is always looking up this information
• Ebay - yes!  I am an eBay customer
• iFishpond - not quite the same as my ponds in PA but close
• NFS Shift - the aforementioned auto racing - FUN!
• X-Plane-9 - flying an airplane - more FUN!  I crashed and burned first time up!
• Pandora - music all kinds all the time - LOVE IT!
• Angry Birds - need I say more?  Just the most popular game on the planet
• E*Trade - easy access to my millions
• Mint.com - my favorite!  All my financial records at the touch of my fingertips
• Rehomobeach - an awkward name for all the gay places in the Rehoboth Beach area
• This Day in History - a must for this information hog

This probably sounds like a promo for Mac products.  Well, maybe it is! 

I showed Bill (my 82 year old stick in the mud partner) and even he was impressed.  He has finally agreed to replace his twelve year old Toshiba Satellite lap top computer (with one gigabyte memory that runs slow as molasses) for the iPad we have now.  I'm going to buy the new iPad that is scheduled to come out this June with a camera so I can use their FaceTime function, which is another great application.

Next up,  I'm placing my order for my first ever iPhone through Verizon.  

Just yesterday I was slipping into the doldrums because of an offhand remark about my sexual identity.  Perhaps I was a little too defensive.  Perhaps I should just let insignificant "things" like that pass me by.  

It seems just when I'm down someone comes along and through their kindness and generosity, they renew my faith in the goodness of most people.

Thank you my new friend Don.  You have made me iHappy!

Don V. - my iPad mentor