I wrote up a post on MDA, so I won’t repeat it here. The gist of it is that I couldn’t think of a better day to let everyone know what was going on with Whistler. It’s a bit disappointing, but it had to be done.
In other news, Tessa and I played pogs this morning! I was going through YAB (yet another box) and found some of my old pogs. Tessa and I had a great time – anyone else pulled out their pogs recently? 
Answer: Hype some other site by giving it some link love.
Smart move on their part, that’s for sure. If you want a chance to win a Wii, go ahead and follow the link. It’s pretty simple – link to their article somewhere, then comment on their site with your link. Good luck – and invite me over if you win. I’ll kick your butt at Wii Sports (apparently not included 
).
Tessa is fine, back to her normal self though a little tired. But unfortunately she did go under anesthesia, and did not get her second CI this morning. She got sick just this week, and the doctor took the conservative and wise route of not doing surgery when she was congested.
There’s more to the story, but I won’t tell it all here. The only other major point is that her doctor is switching practices, and that leaves us without any way to even try to reschedule until the end of May. We’re trying to find a way around that right now, so please pray for that.
I need to figure out how to do this sweet magic text effect with Paint Shop Pro. Why Paint Shop Pro? It’s what I have. 
On that note, does anyone know a decent photo / paint tool on the Mac that’s also “entry” priced? Because I won’t be shelling out the big bucks for Photoshop anytime soon.
It’s been staring us in the face all along. I know I’ve seen a few people mention something here and there, but its never gotten the attention it deserved. The secret feature of Leopard, the one Apple didn’t want to announce early, is . . .
“Developers, Developers, Developers!” Yes, one of our least favorite internet videos mirrors the refrain that you now see across the Mac web. I’ll lay out my reasons for thinking so right up front, but you can decide for yourself after reading the many links this article offers:
1. Developers are excited, and several apps are coming out as Leopard only. That really should be all we need, but so that we can draw some reasonable conclusions . . .
2. Leopard is supposed to come out in “Spring 2007″, yet we still don’t have any announcements about the secret Leopard features. Barring some silly theories about a huge Apple conspiracy with most developers having a “placebo” Leopard, that means lots of developers have at least parts of the “secret” in their NDA’d little hands. This matches with a lot of developers saying ‘and that’s only the cool stuff we can tell you about’.
3. Apple stories have such a value, and there is such a large “rumor market” surrounding the company, that it’s hard to imagine major user features would be hidden in the developer previews and not disclosed. Apple’s good, but they’re not that good – and information from the developer previews does routinely leak.
“So what?” you say. “You haven’t told us anything yet. Where’d you get your headline from, Paul Thurrott?” I can hear you sneer. Ok, here’s the secret feature:
Delicious Library.
I’m only partly kidding here. I don’t really suspect that Apple is going to bundle Delicious Library (well, I don’t have really strong reason to suspect it anyways), and I don’t think that by itself is a compelling “secret feature”. What I really mean is that I suspect Steve will spend a good deal of time demoing some third-party apps with the release of Leopard, and for good reason.
I will add that the iPhone, and the obvious multiple uses of OS X in embedded situations (iPhone, Apple TV . . ), as well as the multi-touch capabilities, further strengthen my view that Leopard’s real strength is under the hood. I don’t expect other multi-touch products right away – this is too new, and Apple needs to see the success with the iPhone (as well as learn from any mistakes there). But they’ve got lots of professionals that could use a well-designed, laser-focused Apple product to help them, both in Audio and Graphic design. Multi-touch would be another tool in the toolbox for this crowd, but I don’t see that offering the wide appeal and easy marketability that Apple needs for its “secret features”.
Note: While finishing up this article, I was edged by several other articles, though luckily no one’s come out and actually said it. So now I can use them as supporting evidence for my claims also. :) I’m going to put this article out there, as I’ve been sitting on it for weeks. There may be more to come, but if you follow Apple news you can put the rest of the pieces together yourself.
We were in the drive-through at Papa John’s the other day (actually a first for us, unlike many American families we don’t eat pizza “regularly” much less weekly). They have a special if you pickup instead of getting delivery – $5 for a medium, $7 for a large, one topping only.
Now to fully appreciate this story, you should know that I like Hawaiian pizzas. Sara does not. We are also both cheap, especially right now. And of course, due to the big announcement, Sara’s usual range of acceptable pizza toppings (pepperoni, sausage, ham, or extra cheese) is currently reduced to extra cheese only.
So let’s back up about 10 minutes. I go in to the store, find out what deals they have, then order 1 extra-cheese medium and 1 pineapple pizza. Hey, Sara doesn’t mind the ham so why not get pineapple when I have the chance?
When I tell Sara what I’ve ordered, she laughs. Then she suggests we could pick up some ham to make mine a full Hawaiian. The Walmart is about 20 seconds away, and we have 10 minutes to wait, so why not? We drive over, and Sara goes in to pick up some ham for lunches and my pizza.
So far I’ve left out the kids, but they are sitting patiently in the backseat, behaving about as well as any kids possibly can. We’ve explained we’re getting pizza, and they are quite excited – well, Selah is. Tessa doesn’t like pizza, but Selah’s living it up with a rousing “Pizza! Pizza!” chant. I continue to explain that mommy is going in to get some ham for daddy’s pizza, because we’re too cheap to pay for two toppings. We talk about ham, that it’s a meat, that it comes from pig, that kind of thing. In our house, explanation and discussion rule the day (well, when mass chaos doesn’t).
So Sara gets back, and we head back over just in time to pick up our fresh Papa John pizzas. As we’re waiting at the drive-through, we’re still discussing the ham. Then, Tessa has something to say:
“What’s ham’s last name?”
Well, we’ve been talking about last names for awhile, so this isn’t completely a surprise, but we don’t really have an answer. Sara starts to explain, “ham doesn’t have a last name, Te…” when Tessa interrupts.
“Meat!” she yells out delightedly.
“is that a joke?” Sara asks as I try to stop laughing. Tessa seems puzzled by our laughter, instead of her usual extra-large grin and beaming pride. We tried a few more times, but it seems Tessa wasn’t intending to tell a joke – that or she suddenly got bored.
So remember, kids. “Ham Meat, it’s nice to meet you.” Or “Mr. Meat”, if you’re being polite.
Here’s a little life factoid for you:
Don’t wear nice shirts to the dentist. You WILL drool on them. No matter what.
So, yeah, guess what I did today?
Last night (or Friday morning for those in the U.S.) I had dinner at a Japanese Italian restaurant. It was quite an experience,though that is true of all my meals here so far. The first dish had Korean stylings, hence the title. But the part I want to share right now is something I am particularly proud of, and it starts with our second dish.
The second dish consisted of pasta – and one full-bodied large shrimp. (Ok, I’m not sure if it was shrimp, but I don’t know my seafood very well.) When I say full-bodied, I mean eyes and everything still there.
My host then explained the best part. You guessed it – bite the head off whole. He also recommended a lot of chewing immediately.Â
To be honest, I wasn’t that sure I was going to eat any of the thing, much less the head, eyes and legs and all. But the other two gentlemen at the meal with me (one Japanese, one living there but from Belgium) also tried it for the first time. I decided to give it a go – it was obviously doable. So I told my eyes and stomach to shut up and picked it up.
The shrimp was white and reddish orange. Â It looked like it had been crawling along the sea floor, got scooped up and thrown in the pot, then transferred to my bowl.
I took a bite, which can actually be described in one word: crunchy. I suppose if I had thought of it, I could have just closed my eyes and imagined I was eating chips, with a little salty dip in each bite. Savor that mental picture, while I go off to eat breakfast. Ciao!
Ok, so no posts for all of January? What gives?!
Well, let’s just say I was … occupied. Which is a nice way of saying that I slept little, saw my wife and kids less, and am generally nearing exhaustion. Januaries seem to have a way of doing that, at least in my occupation, so you would think I would learn to expect it. Anyway, a number of unusual circumstances led to last month being more brutal than normal. This month will be (slightly) better, but hopefully after that things will return to whatever normal is.
So when can you expect more of my pithiness, and what particular aspects of pith can you anticipate? Ah, good question. Unfortunately, no good answer. Could be tomorrow, could be March. Could be Jars of Clay, could be WordPress, could be Whistler, could be just about anything related to anything I’m interested in.
So what’s the good news? Well, the good news is I’m going to stop asking all these dumb questions just so I can answer them for you. The other good news is that I’ve got lots of interesting thoughts and articles in the wing, once I get back in the groove of publishing them. Plenty of technology and philosophy coming up . . . sometime.
Leave your thoughts, questions, and most desired articles. And yes, Christmas Letter: Part 3 will be one of my first posts, for those of you wondering. 
