My wife and I went half and half and bought a 2005 Honda Pilot SUV this last weekend. We bought a "Desert Rock" (metallic gold) colored EX-L with DVD for the kids. We plan to keep it for weekend and holiday trips mostly. I already have an itch to go buy a tent and take the kids camping, but it will have to wait til next Spring.

7:07:53 PM      comment

Today, a different point: What's so great about computers, besides the obvious? Obvious: email, instant message, web, games - all great.

Less Obvious: The computer is an extension of you. Your computer can remember things you don't. It does the math you can't or don't want to do (making you equal to precomputer mathematicians.) With a little savvy statistical analysis over time, the computer can tell us things about ourself and the world that were not apparent.

It is nothing new to recognize that computers are doing something like thinking. In Chinese, the word for computer translates as "electric brain."

It is also not my original idea that the computer is an extension of self, or that computers make us smarter. I'm just relaying the meme.

When I say computer, I mean more than computer - I mean your cell phone, your digital camera, in fact almost any tool is an extension of self. These things are not separate from us. Rather they are detachable pieces of something that is made when we combine them and us.

Another Less Obvious: Computers allow us to accumulate resources, and build on previous accomplishments. Every message sent, every note typed in, every weblog entry, every picture saved - these are resources. It is easy to lose these things in a crash, or an upgrade. If you are careful, and you save and manage them, you will be richer for it. (But you have to be a good picker and discarder so you don't get buried in trash.)
6:04:40 PM      comment