"Couldn't reach you." not much of an excuse anymore.

In today's modern world can we really use the excuse "I couldn't reach you"?

I recently read " over 70% of the worlds population now have a mobile phone, that’s over 5 billion mobile subscribers, and in places like the US, it’s 9 in 10 people. " in an article about the growth of mobile phones. So pretty much everyone has a cell phone. About 1/2 of those are some form of smartphone, Iphone/Android/BlackBerry etc...

I haven't bothered to look up the stats on e-mail/facebook/twitter, but I am sure that pretty much everyone in the US has at least one account of this type.

Lets not forget the IM services out there, Google Talk/Yahoo Messenger/AOL etc..

Personally I have Android smartphone. I have accounts on Facebook and Twitter. I have e-mail accounts with Google, AOL, Yahoo,my personal domain. Because of my e-mail accounts I also have Google Talk,Yahoo Messenger and AOL IM accounts.

Oh and I almost forgot I have a Google voice account and all of my work related phone numbers and e-mails. Pretty much all of those accounts and services are available on my phone.

I am a huge gadget geek. My phone is never more then a few feet away from me. The only time I am away from it, is when I choose to be on purpose. Date nights, family time, vacation etc... Unless I have a reason to avoid it, I am available through my cell phone. For those times when I do choose to be incommunicado, voicemail / text / e-mail pick up the slack. I reply to everything, because I think it is rude not to.

Which leads me to my point.. Unless I don't want to be reached, there is no excuse for someone not being able to reach me.

I know everyone is not like this, but in today's world how many are just like me. How many can claim "There is no excuse to not reach me" ?

Is letter writing a lost art?

My oldest Son has joined the Marines. One of the, if not the proudest times of my life.

I have started writing letters to him. This is bringing something to light that I hadn't realized. I have forgotten how to write a letter!

Now I don't mean I have forgotten how to write or spell. I have lost the subtle skill of communicating in written form. The immediate nature of e-mail or text messaging, has removed the need to be thorough when writing. You have to be clear and concise when writing a letter that may take a week to get to it's recipient , and another week to get back to you.

I find myself writing, and re-writing sections of the letter. I don't want to leave anything hanging were Chris might have question or worry. If I do, it will be 2 weeks before I can clarify it.

I guess this is just another example of technology doing away with the need for an elegant skill. For now I am going to try and revive this need and keep it alive. :)

Interesting Diet Tips

How to laugh yourself slim: The 50 very unlikely - but medically proven - diet tips

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1294170/How-laugh-slim-The-50-unlikely--medically-proven--diet-tips.html#ixzz0tgjgITba

Restarting blog

Been helping the Wife setup a blog for her to use as a classroom website. http://mrswardskindergarten.blogger.com/
Which made me realize I have pretty much ignored my personal blog.

So I installed Blogger-droid on my Droid so I can update my blog from where ever.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.4.5

Facebook addiction

I have been accused of being addicted to facebook. Well in some ways I agree..

I access FaceBook multiple times a day, but if I find myself without internet access it doesn't bother me.

It does bother me to be without e-mail access, but FaceBook can wait a day or 2.

So I would say I am addicted to checking my e-mail, but not FaceBook.

Well it's about time..

The fact that I haven't posted anything to my blog is a testiment to how much time I waste on Twitter and Facebook..

I started this blog to have a place to rant/bitch/moan etc, but I have just ignored it.

Now is the time....

Rant, Bitch, Moan, Rant, Bitch, Moan.. There now that I have that done, I can start posting.

Eureka

I watched the first half of Eureka, it was a little slow so I decided to catch the rest on PVR later.

The show so far is ok, the actors seem well picked, but something is missing. Again I have only seen half of it.

Hopefully the 2nd half will be better.

CYA

Late night.. Gaming

I guess you never get to old to game.

A couple of friends and I played BattleField 2 for about 3 1/2 hours last night. Nothing like throwing rockets from your helicoptor at your buddies.

Free or almost -- Web services

I recently decided to try and move all of my web services, E-mail, webserver, etc... to virtual services instead of keeping a physical server up and running.

So far so good:

• E-mail = Gmail for Domains
  
• Web = Google page creator
• Blog = Blogger
• DNS = GoDaddy includes this.
  

Coming soon :

• Picture hosting
• Projects -- Get PHPBackPage back out there.

E-mail : I applied for the beta of Gmail for Domains and was lucky enough to be chosen, the setup was very easy and gmail's interface just rocks!!
Cost = FREE

Web : I forwarded my domain db94.org to my Google pages website. Simple but it works..
Cost = FREE

Blog : I started this so I could use Picasa to post pictures, but I will probably use it for posting other stuff also. Obiviously so, I am posting this.
Cost = FREE

DNS : GoDaddy offers free DNS service with their domain registration. Interface isn't great, but it works.
Cost = 16.95 for 2 years.

Picture hosting : Just haven't spent the time to pick the one I want. I am not sure I want to post a bunch of personal pictures on the free sites. I might just have to pay for that.

Projects : Probably look into Sourceforge or something like that.

Enough for now.

My family.......



















Brittany, Chris, Nick, Sara and my Mother. 

My wife ( the one of the left ) at her graduation.



















My late Sister and Sara



















Sara and Nick my youngest Son.

First post

Well I finally got around to starting a blog....

I will probably just use it for pictures and the random thought here or there.

We will see.