While listening to one of my favorite podcasts, I heard a recommendation for the album The Race for Space by the British band Public Service Broadcasting. Now I'm not a huge electronic music fan, but this is a good album. I have to admit, I may enjoy it a wee bit more because of the extra-geeky history portrayed through the songs.
While listening to this album the other day, my four-year-old daughter asked me about the music. I told her what the songs were about, and like the good daughter of a nerd, she asked for more information. We were soon looking up and drawing pictures of Sputnik, Yuri Gagarin’s Vostok 1, Apollo 8, and the Eagle (LM of Apollo 11).
Clearly this is Yuri Gagarin on his way to Space,
The only downside to this whole activity is that my daughter loves the song "The Other Side," and asks for it to play repeatedly.
There is a point in the song where Ground Control in Houston finally regains contact with Apollo 8 as she clears the backside of the Moon. For some reason, the emotion of that moment gets to me, and I actually well up a little ... each and every time my daughter requests the song. I can't play it off as something else; it's not even dusty in my house.
So let this be a lesson to you: beware of recommendations from podcasts. Thank you, Brady Haran, for all of the unnecessarily expended emotions these past few days.
A nearly photorealistic rendition of Apollo 8 going behind the Moon.
I miss my father. I am hit by waves of sorrow and nostalgia at the strangest of times. Just the other day, I was reading a book to one of my daughters, and a part of the story brought forward such powerful memories that I had trouble getting through the final few pages. Other times, however, I am reminded of such great memories that I have to smile and even chuckle to myself.
I was out for a walk with the girls this morning. We went to go play in the gym for a while. It is really nice to have a big empty space to let them run around and climb to their hearts' content. On the way, we passed the rink. All weekend, there has been a hockey tournament for girls' travel teams. My little ones have liked to peek in on the skating and hopefully get a chance of seeing the Zamboni in action.
Today I was brought back to post-game conversations with my father. Regardless the sport, my father was an expert. He would enthusiastically show my sister how to follow through on her backhand while standing in our livingroom. One brother was shown how to properly apply pressure on the outside edge of his skis while carving up his bedroom floor. Another brother was shown the proper approach angle while high jumping an imaginary bar on our patio. My lessons usually involved posting up our high backed dining room chairs. My dad had an answer for everything, and after a great number of athletic outings, my siblings and I were put through his lessons.
Today while by the rink, I was transfixed by this very earnest mother recording her daughter's goaltending efforts.
It is hard for me to describe what captivated me by this scene. I watched this for at least fifteen minutes. At first, the mother was holding the iPad while recording from the stands. If you are a parent and attending a child's performance, do not do this. The mother then moved of to the side in what I thought was an act of courtesy. In fact, she was just moving closer to her daughter and looking for a place to prop up her iPad so she would not have to hold it any longer. As you can see from the image above, she rather precariously perched the iPad on the supports of the glass, held in place by the ropes that tie down the netting. I may have audibly prayed for a player to crash into the boards and put an end to this whole exercise. My daughters looked at me inquisitively.
A closer look at the image may reveal what really irked me.
If you are unfamiliar with Vertical Video Syndrome, then stop reading and watch this:
or this:
So if Vertical Video Syndrome is not enough of a concern, the mother did not even bother to level the camera. Look again at the horizon line created by the opposite boards in comparison to the iPad.
Imagine trying to watch that video! No wonder there are no offensive players to be seen, they have had to skate uphill the entire period.
Several, and I mean several, minutes later, the mother was struck by the need to correct her camera work.
Hooray, no more V.V.S. and it could actually be close to level. You will note, however, that there are still no other players in the picture aside from the much videoed goalie. That is because the white team was crushing their opponents. In the whole time I was there, the only time I saw the puck within twenty feet of this goal keeper was when the opponents finally got possession and dumped the puck to do a shift change. The rest of the time, the white team was controlling the puck and peppering the other goalie (and goal).
So why have I written this snarky post about a very well-intentioned mother trying to capture her daughter having fun and eventually share those moments, perhaps, with some family members unable to attend.
Here are my reasons, increasing in importance:
4 - Vertical Video Syndrome must be stopped.
3 - I hate watching parents use their iPads to record their children's performances and/or games.
2 - I miss my dad.
1 - I thank God that my father did not have a video recorder. His post-game lessons would have been completely intolerable if he had any actual evidence to support his points.
For years I have been given Visa or Amex gift cards during the holidays. (I have never been given a MasterCard gift card. They must exist. No?) I think we all agree that cash is easier to use, and if you search the Interwebs, you will find masses of people that prefer gifts of cash over a gift card. I do like that a gift card forces you to spend it, however. Cash gets deposited into a bank account and then siphoned out to pay for such exciting things as groceries and gas. Gift cards tend to go towards special purchases or dinners out. When spending the gift card, you remember the person that gave it to you. When spending cash, it's hard to delineate your twenty dollar bill from the one Aunt Edna gave you.
There are some annoying things, however, that go into using a gift card. For some reason, it's a pain to spend the entire value advertised on the card. If you have a $120 tab at a restaurant, for example, and you hand the server a $100 Visa gift card along with your bank card to cover the balance, the gift card will often be rejected if the full $100 is applied to it. If the server puts $99 on the gift card and $21 on the bank card, then all is well. Likewise, I have used a $50 gift card to pay for a $47 dollar item, leaving me, in effect, with a $3 gift card in my pocket. The odds of me using the remaining money on that gift card for another purchase are pretty long.
So here is what I stumbled upon this week.
I have been using Google Wallet for a while, both for online purchases and for NFC payments with my phone. Recently, Google has been shipping physical cards to users whom have requested them. It's basically a prepaid debit card, very similar to what PayPal offers its users.
I did not know what I would do with this card, but being the Google fanboy, I got one. Heck, it was free. Shortly after receiving the Google Wallet card, I received my first gift card of the season. (The Visa gift card pictured above.) So I performed a little experiment. I added the gift card as a payment source in Google Wallet. I then tried to transfer the $100 from the gift card to my Google Wallet balance, but was denied. I then tried transferring $99, and it worked! So now I had a balance on my Google Wallet card and could toss the gift card.
Today, I went into a store and made a purchase with my Google Wallet card for the first time. The vendor had never seen one before, but when he swiped the card, it worked, and that was the end of his questioning (it functions as a MasterCard debit card would). I then had a balance left on my card, but when I went into the phone app, I saw the option to transfer the balance into the checking account that I already had associated with my Google Wallet account. That was easy.
One caveat ... Google withheld $60 for my $50 purchase, until the payment goes through. I'm not sure how long it will take for me to see that $10 again. I imagine in a day or two everything will clear.
So if you want the forced experience that is intended by the gift card, then go out on the town or buy yourself something nice. If you actually want the cash, then you can funnel (launder?) the monetary value of a Visa or Amex gift card into Google Wallet, and then send it to your bank account.
Your choice. Oh, and thanks Aunt Edna! I write your name on every bill you give me.
