Video podcasts, the future, the past, and a whole lotta ramblingJanuary 19
Today was a little mind blowing: I feel like someone hit the fast forward button and I'm sitting here at some point in the future. (Ok, so technically every moment in time is the "future")
Let's review: Last night I was in iTunes and I came across podcasts, which I've never really explored. When they showed up on the scene a few years ago I liked the idea but I didn't find enough content to get me excited. As I came across them again last night, I was intrigued. Ok, so maybe it was the fact that it was a link to a NASA podcast and the space nerd inside of me was tickled.
This morning as I was getting ready for work, I checked out the NASA podcast, and what I saw next blew my mind: An NBC Nightly News podcast, an ABC News podcast, and a CBS News podcast. Video. Podcast. Video on demand. TV on demand! Throw a kitchen computer into the mix and you have the ability to watch the news in the evening or morning as you're sitting there enjoying your munchies. Revolutionary, really.
So tonight Meredith and I watched the news together, which we haven't done in a really long time. We cut our cable last year, and even before that, stopping what we were doing and going downstairs in time to catch the news was far too much work. It was like it became culturally passe for us to have to sit at the TV at a specific time of day. No: Not our generation; we want to watch something when we want to watch it. Or, most times, we won't be bothered to watch it at all.
And the basement, it's a nice "far off" place to watch a movie, but we live our lives on the main floor. So having the news beamed to the kitchen, on demand, to a beautiful 20" iMac screen, it's mouth watering. So video podcasts have become one of the killer apps for this concept of a "kitchen computer" being a central tool in the home.
Before I close, I wanted to touch on what made this day feel so "in the future". Beyond the video-on-demand, the actual subject matter of the news was Barack Obama's inauguration. Some of the African Americans that were interviewed talked about it being a quantum leap, and I think they're right on the money. Bono's remarks, too, were very revealing. I forget how exactly he put it, but basically he said that it changes everything, that somehow, in some mysterious way, this changes everything. I don't know whether he's right, but I feel too like we're sensing the tip of an iceberg: That this event is symbolic of something big.
Next: After watching ABC News, I was curious to find out more about this "Andrew Bird" musician that they interviewed, so I typed his name into the iTunes music store and within 30 seconds I had purchased two of his songs, which are fantastic by the way. Do you see how everything was connected? I was able to get the News when and where I wanted it, and that meant that I actually watched it, and because I'm watching it on a PC, I then immediately put into action the things that the news brought to mind, and an economic transaction happened within 1 minute. That's an economy moving at the speed of light compared with how that series of events would have unfolded 20 years ago. Pretty amazing stuff, thus the feeling that I'm sitting here in the future.
And to contrast all of these themes, the Old Testament: I've just finished first and second Kings, and the enormity of the world and its history is fresh on my mind: What a rich globe we live on, what a rich history. And in addition to the Bible being at the centre of Christian theory, it is a mind blowing (term of the day apparently) account of history. I find it breath taking that I can read intimate stories of people, families, and an entire civilization thousands of years in the past. Almost everything in this world fades to dust, but these scriptures and stories are in tact. Wow.
The future, the present, the past, if you haven't been reminded in a while, this is an amazing planet. Praise be to God!
The Afters, Future of Forestry
December 21
My dear sister Hannah gave me an iTunes gift certificate for my birthday and so it has been a good excuse to look for some music. Every now and again I stumble across a fantastic band that I've never heard of before, and here are a couple examples:
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Instead of a Show
September 28
Instead of a Show by Jon Foreman.
An interesting thesis. Thought provoking.
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