Roland Smith’s Weblog

Here it is another night when I’ll be up until the last dog howls. Fortunately, the Beijing Olympics will be over in a five more days and life can return to a more normal pace. This has been a fantastic Olympics. For the first time ever, just about every event in the Olympics is available online. Microsoft’s Silverlight video player has worked very well, even on my Macbook laptop. Considering that the first time the Olympics were on TV was in 1960, where over a two week period fewer than 20 hours were broadcast, we’ve sure come a long ways. Some analysts have been predicted that the viewership will tail off this second week with Michael Phelps no longer dominating the screen. I certainly hope not. I’d like for NBC to finish up the series feeling very good about what they’ve produced.

Meanwhile, both Nina and I are really enjoying our iPhones. The capability is simply amazing. We were in a (incredibly dirty) Wendy’s Hamburger Joint in Idaho Falls yesterday, surfing the net, watching Associated Press videos, and checking out different iPhone applications. The phone has a GPS with Google Maps as a standard application. I’ve also installed an application called “gpsCompass” which provides a nice readout of the data available from the phone’s GPS data. It also has the ability to email my current location. So, while we were driving to Idaho Falls, I emailed my current location to my blog (it’s in the entry before this). Unfortunately, it doesn’t come through as a link (you have to cut and paste into the browser). I’ll try to work on that as it’d be fun to be able to click on the link and get a Google map with my precise location.

Another capability is to take a photo and send it directly to Flickr. I’m using an application called “AirMe” which tags the photo with excellent location data from the GPS and sends it to Flickr. I took four pictures at the mall in Idaho Falls while Nina was shopping for shoes.

I’m watching the women’s individual balance beam medal award ceremony where the US took Gold and Silver. The US women have done incredibly well in gymnastics. Visa has been one of the sponsors of the games with a lot of very good commercials. For instance, within minutes of Michael Phelps winning his eighth gold medal, Visa showed a commercial congratulating him on eight wins. They must have put a couple dozen versions of these commercials in their pocket for the games and they’re worth watching. One talks about going into the family business … winning gold medals in the Olympics, referring specifically to Nastia Liukin, whose father was an Olympic gymnastic medal winner for the Soviet Union. In the individual balance beam, Nastia took the Silver and surpassed her father in Olympic medals. She’s done well in the family business … particularly considering that her father, after immigrating to the United States, built a gymnasium so his daughter had a place to prepare.

Oh, I love the Olympics!

Where I am http://maps.google.com/maps?q=43.223616,-112.341685

Sent from my iPhone

The Olympics have definitely taken over my life in the evening. So far I’ve been really happy with NBC’s coverage, but more particularly with all of the video that they’ve put on their website. For instance, yesterday an American medaled in judo and the match won’t be shown on regular TV. But, it’s on the NBC Olympics website and it was great to watch her toss around her opponent, then talk about it, and finally talk about her family and mother. The evening coverage is on again this evening, meaning that this blog entry will take quite a while to get written, proofed, and finally published.

Sony DSC-T20

Speaking of video, I have a little Sony DSC-T20 point-and-shoot camera that has the capability of taking video clips. I’m not particularly happy with the video that it produces … it’s very difficult to edit and combine with other video clips as it’s in an unusual format with interlaced audio. However, YouTube knows how to process the video. I haven’t done much with YouTube for quite a while, so while watching the Olympics tonight I uploaded four short videos to YouTube.

My new iPhone doesn’t take video, but it does have the ability to upload pictures directly to one of the photo sites on the Internet. Since I have a Flickr account, I’ve taken a couple of pictures and put them onto my Flickr account. The capability works reasonably well, but I’ve had to fuss a bit with settings to get the pictures to be in the right orientation when they get uploaded. I think there’s an change to the picture album software coming up. Flickr has an interesting computer interface (called an API … meaning application programming interface) and I think it might be possible to link the picture album with photos on Flickr. The pictures would be on Flickr and the photo album would have the text and put the pictures into the desired sequence.

Hummingbirds at Sunset

It’s also possible to link to pictures in my blog from Flickr, as I’ve done with the hummingbird picture. I’m sure it’s possible to do the same from Webshots, SmugMug, and others. That opens up the possibility of not having to resize pictures before putting them on the blog. However, it also means the pictures are on some other server and it’s possible that sometime in the future the link may disappear (such as if I don’t renew my annual subscription to Flickr?)…

So, on this Friday evening, I’m enjoying the track 1500 meter heats, men’s beach volleyball, and swimming (meaning Michael Phelps) is coming up soon. I love the Olympics … as does Heather as evidenced by her blog post!

Danielle At Church

We have had a delightfully busy week last week. Our granddaughter Danielle came on Monday to spend the week with us. Monday evening we went letterboxing (pictures in the Picture Album). Tuesday evening after I finished with Rotary we left for Yellowstone National Park (pictures in the Picture Album) where we spent Wednesday and a bit of Thursday morning sightseeing before returning to Pocatello.

Thursday evening while Nina was at the Women’s Prison, Danielle and I went to see Swing Vote at the movie theater. We devoured a lot of popcorn and had a good time. The movie was just “OK”.

Friday was a stay pretty much home day and catch up on things needing to get done. A blog post was on my list, but time ran out before that could occur. The Beijing Olympics stunning opening ceremony blew everything else out of the way and consumed our attention. I love the Olympics and have really enjoyed the events we’ve been able to watch.

Saturday was the biannual Gillette Family get together. On odd-numbered years there’s a full-fledged reunion held in Hanna, Utah. On even-numbered years, there’s a get together for a potluck lunch and catch up conversation at a local park. This year we met in Bountiful and about twenty folks were in attendance. I picked up mother and dad at 9 a.m. We left Bountiful about 3:30 p.m. to come back home.

A week ago we had a Big Yard Sale to sell off dad’s tools. After we left Bountiful he insisted that we stop at Harbor Freight in Ogden because “he needed to replace some of the tools that had been sold.” He bought a new pressure washer and some 18v batteries for hand tools. Since then he and mother have had some “discussion” about the tools and I expect the purchases will be returned tomorrow when they come to Pocatello for dad’s eye appointment and shot in the right eye.

Then yesterday I had mistakenly thought I was scheduled to speak in the Arbon Branch. So while Nina went up to the prison, Danielle and I drove out to Arbon for their Sacrament Meeting. Turns out I’m scheduled to speak there next week, so I’ll make the trip then as well. Nina had next week written on her calendar. My Google Calendar had next week on it. But, my ancient Treo (which is now retired) had the 10th scheduled. Good thing it wasn’t the other way around and I showed up next week when I was scheduled for this week!

After I got home from Arbon and we had lunch, I spent a couple of hours getting all the calendars consolidated into one calendar and sync’d with my iPhone. Now I’ll have to find some other way to mess up my schedule!

This morning Nina is going through some of our “treasures” downstairs. I’ve been putting up pictures in the picture album and writing this blog post. There’s a trip up town to get gas so I can mow the lawn on the plan. Who knows what else will come up! This will be a “whatever gets done is done” day for me.

Each year in July the Pocatello Parks and Recreation Department sponsors a series of concerts in Ross Park featuring the city municipal band and other local musicians. Tonight a brother-sister fife and drum duet are featured. Their father died last Friday and this is an unplanned tribute to him.

This is the last concert of the season, so there’s quite a crowd. It’s a very pleasant evening with a light breeze. A few cloud in an otherwide sunny sky. We’re currently in the shade but that won’t last long as the sun gets lower in the sky.

All the benches are full, lots of people (like us) bring their lawn chairs. Some also do a picnic while waiting. There’s quite a number of folks standing who’ll soon be looking for spot of grass.

What a fun traditional evening in the park with the city band. Thanks, Pocatello Parks and Recreation and the Pocatello Municipal Band.

Blowing Out the Candles

August 1st was mother’s 84th birthday, and what’s a birthday without presents and a birthday cake? My sister-in-law Chris baked a butter-pecan cake with butter-pecan frosting, a delightfully delicious combination. As tired as she was after a very busy day, the cake and the candles brought a nice smile. She’s looking pretty good for eighty-four years old!

My sister Eileen and my favorite brother Perry along with his wife Chris joined Nina and me in singing happy birthday, ending with a wish “and forty more….” She laughed at that and said she wasn’t interested in forty more years!

It wasn’t hard blowing out the candles, though. The overhead fan quickly took care of that duty. It had been a long, hot day outside and the cool air from the swamp cooler was definitely welcome.

Why had it been a long day, you ask?

Yard Sale Underway!

Friday was the first day of the Big Workshop Yard Sale. We’d been preparing for this sale for a couple of weeks after dad decided that his vision was becoming such that he was ready to sell his workshop full of tools. Mother ran an ad in the local newspaper that my sister-in-law Chris put together. We made up garage sale signs as well as some posters listing the major items on sale. Mother put up the signs earlier this week. On Thursday my favorite brother and his wife Chris (the newspaper ad writer) joined me in Soda Springs as we set up tables and tarps and moved everything we thought was sellable out of the shop and out into the yard to be sold.

The hardest job was actually pricing the items for sale. Fortunately, it’s easier to sell someone else’s stuff. We didn’t have nearly the emotional attachment or the vivid memories of how much was paid for these items. Finally on Friday morning about 9 a.m. the sale was ready to go.

We were immediately mobbed. By 10:30 more than a thousand dollars of tools had been sold. The two-day sale netted more than $2,200. Dad had said he was hoping for about a thousand dollars. The sale far exceeded his expectations! There are only a couple of items left of any worth that didn’t sell.

Throw Away?

What didn’t get tossed into the trash on Saturday afternoon will be taken to Pocatello to the auction in a couple of weeks to be sold for whatever the auctioneer can get for them.

I was kind of surprised at some of the items that sold very quickly and some other items that either didn’t sell, or sold quite late. For instance, there was a brand new, still in the box drill that never sold even though it would have sold for half of the new price. On the other hand, some very old Christmas tree lights were among the early items to be sold. It’s definitely true that one man’s trash is another’s treasure.

There were a couple of fellows who came back three times, buying stuff on each visit. Another fellow came and looked over a jointer very carefully and for quite a while. He left without buying it, coming back later to find that it had been sold.

This was definitely a man’s yard sale. A couple of women came, looked quickly, and left calling their husbands on the phone to tell them to get over to the sale.

One interesting part for me was learning from some of the guys what some of the tools were and what they would be used for. It was a couple of long, hot, tiring days, but well worth the time and effort for mother and dad.

Ted and Robert Larsen

Mid-morning on Friday, my cousin Ted Larson (I knew him as Barry, his middle name, as he was growing up) and his son Robert came by. Ted and Robert live in Carlsbad, New Mexico and Ted recently retired as a school teacher. They’ve been making a circuit through Colorado, Utah, and Idaho visiting friends and relatives. The last time I saw them was when we were in Las Cruces, New Mexico for my uncle Delon’s funeral. While he was visiting, we talked about blogs and blogging and he’s ready to have a blog set up for him. So, in the next couple of days, he’ll appear on the blogging scene as well. Ted, it was fun to visit with you and Robert and I’m looking forward to reading your stuff!

So, it’s been a busy and fun week. The sale went well. Mother had a nice birthday. Dad’s shop looks woefully empty (and hopefully will stay that way!!). We’re home on a Saturday evening and both Nina and I are very tired. We’ve both got things to prepare for Church tomorrow. Danielle comes on Monday for a week. We will remain busy for the foreseeable future, it seems.

Apple iPhone

Yesterday Nina and I went over to the AT&T store in Pocatello and placed two iPhones on order, a white 16gb model for her and a black 16gb model for me (so we can tell them apart!). According to the clerk, had we come in the day previously, the wait would have been three days for the black phone. However, that opportunity had passed. Nevertheless, we placed the order and bought two car chargers for the phones as well.

The quoted delivery time is 10 to 21 working days. The whispered time was “faster than that.” We did get an email with a link to see what the current order status is.

Once the phones arrive, we go back to the store, activate the phones (for a fee, of course), and transfer our phone numbers from Sprint to AT&T. That will close out our Sprint contract. The new monthly cost will be about the same as we were paying for Sprint with a whole bunch more capability because of the iPhone itself.

As we were heading for bed last night, Nina asked if I was “excited for the new iPhone?” I was/am and it’s clear that she is also.

The next ten days are pretty booked. Today through Saturday is consumed with dad’s yard sale. Sunday I’m teaching in Priesthood meeting and Nina is speaking at the prison. Monday our granddaughter Danielle comes for a week’s visit. Tuesday evening we’re headed to Yellowstone (we’ll be in the campground in Madison). Back to Pocatello sometime on Thursday and doing stuff with Dani the rest of the week. Sunday she and I are going to Arbon Valley as I’m speaking in Sacrament Meeting there. Then we’ll take her home after a event-filled week with her grandparents.

When the grandkids turn twelve we invite them to stay a week with us as a way for us to become much better acquainted. This year four grandkids reach that magical birthday. In June we had our granddaughter Madison, next week is Dani, and then in October we’ll have James and Steven. Maybe by then the iPhones will have arrived?

Really Frustrated

On this mid-morning Thursday I’ve been working with a new program called Drupal to see if I can make it work for some of my websites. While it is very capable, I’m having trouble making it do (what I consider to be) the most basic tasks. So, rather than beat my head against the desk for a while, I’ll write a blog entry instead while my subconscious tries to figure out my problem.

The major activity this week is dad’s yard sale, selling off all the tools in his workshop (or at least some of them … he keeps changing his mind about what tools he wants to keep). I’ll be driving over to Soda Springs this afternoon to start getting things set up for the yard sale. Pricing the stuff for sale and packaging things together for sale will be very difficult, I think. I’m hoping to have a number of pictures.

Speaking of pictures, I’m working on a new release for the picture album system. The idea is to load the pictures to Flickr and give them a picture set name. Then in the picture album, reference the picture set name for the new album and it’ll automatically generate links for all the pictures and then allow you to add text and modify the sequence, if necessary. That way the pictures don’t have to be sized before loading because Flickr will do it all. We’ll see how that works. It’ll be about a month before this capability is ready for release.

Hot, hot, hot is the description for the days recently. I’m about ready to close up the house and turn on the air conditioning once again. The mornings are cool, but by the time the sun gets onto the back of the house, it has become very hot inside and it takes the AC a long time to catch up. Better to start when the house is already about at the temp the AC is supposed to hold.

Well, I’m no closer to an answer to my dilemma. Time to go get something (soft) to drink. I’m probably missing some very basic step that is intuitively obvious to everyone except me!