Living Your Dream

Sometimes it's very difficult and painful to make people realize that you must follow YOUR dream, not theirs.

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Pullin' a Palin

The Urban Dictionary has just added a new phrase:

Pullin' a Palin

1. Quitting when the going gets tough; abandoning the responsibility entrusted to you by your neighbors for book advances and to make money on the lecture circuit.

2. Bizarre move that will damn ambitions for higher office.

I bet when people saw Jade they were convinced that David Caruso was pullin' a Palin.

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On The Loss Of A Tree

Bad news on the cabin property front.

On our land stands a huge, immensely tall tree that I immediately fell in love with when I first visited the property before we even bought it. It is incredibly straight and, I might say, even majestic looking. I'm not a tree-hugger type, but that tree found a place in my heart as soon as I laid eyes on it. I even joked with Cindy that, instead of calling our place "The Enchanted Forest" as we had decided upon, we might consider changing it to "The Tall Tree Compound" or "Tall Tree Estate."



As I mentioned, I'm not a tree-hugger and my knowledge of plants, flowers, fruits and vegetables is almost nil. I depend on Cindy and her father to identify plants and trees for me and sadly, she tells me, that mighty tree is a Hemlock.

The problem with Hemlock trees these days is that they are being voraciously attacked by an infestation of insects that kill them quite quickly. Ours, it turns out, is dead or almost dead and will not recover, which saddens me deeply. I had so looked forward to seeing it every day when we move there. Now, that will not be.



And so we must ask the excavation people who, at our request, have been very diligent in not knocking down any more trees than absolutely necessary to clear space for our cabin's footprint, to go ahead and cut down our poor, beautiful Hemlock tree to avoid having it either fall on our cabin at some point in the future or paying a fortune to have tree surgeons come in and do the job.

I, for one, am baffled by my deep sadness because I would never have imagined that the loss of a tree would affect me so profoundly.

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Autism-Friendly Harry Potter

This is pretty damn cool to me and might just make me forget some of the stupid things AMC Theaters have done to tick me off in the past.

Select AMC movie theaters across the US will be holding a special screening of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince for those affected by autism on July 25th.

Get all the details by clicking on the link above and check out what AnnMarie has to say about it.

This is an excellent example of the kind of spirit of inclusion this world needs, opening doors for those who have had them slammed in their faces in the past.

Thanks to AMC Theaters for stepping out and stepping up to take this first move. Now I hope to see others make whatever accommodations they can for those affected by autism, either personally or in their families.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince opens nationwide tomorrow, July 15, 2009. Cindy and I are going to catch a matinee showing this Saturday when I'm home for one day.

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The Diet Is Working!

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Buffalo Trace

Last Friday, after leaving Daniel Boone's grave site, I drove over to Buffalo Trace Distillery, one of the stops on Kentucky's Bourbon Trail. My unfamiliarity with the name Buffalo Trace was explained right at the beginning of the tour when Don, the tour guide, revealed that the distillery was bought some years ago and renamed, but that they originally produced (and still do) Ancient Age bourbon, which I did recall from my younger days.



And if, like me, you were wondering where the name "Buffalo Trace" came from, there is an interesting explanation. Located on what was once an ancient buffalo path on the banks of the Kentucky River, the distillery's namesake is a tribute to the buffalo that created paths followed by America's early pioneers. The Sazerac Company, a New Orleans, Louisiana-based producer and importer purchased the distillery in 1992 and decided to take the distillery back to its roots with the renaming. In Louisiana, they call a path a "trace" so, to honor the old buffalo path it was built on, the distillery was christened "Buffalo Trace."

Pretty cool.

The tour was interesting and the tour guide was very informative and personable. While it is true that all bourbon is whiskey but not all whiskey is bourbon, the fermenting and distilling process is much the same in general for all whiskeys. When Cindy and I and her parents were in Scotland 3 years ago we toured several Scotch distilleries and while on the Buffalo Trace tour I remembered a lot of the same information from the Scotland tours.

One of the important differences is that bourbon distilleries use their aging barrels one single time. What do they do with all those used barrels? They ship them to Scotland for them to use with their Scotch, to Mexico for them to use in making some dark Tequilas, to the Caribbean for their Rum and to Canada for their Canadian whiskey.

The one thing I wish was that they would have given us a tour of the actual distillery. We saw the storage area and the bottling area, but not the distillery itself. Again, though they are all basically the same principle and I saw several of them in Scotland, it would have been interesting to see how they do it specifically for bourbon. That lack almost made me think about going to one of the other distilleries on the trail, but it was getting late in the day and I had other things to do.



Of course the end of the tour is what everyone goes for; the samples. I tried one of their sour mash products known as "White Dog" that could have easily been called white lightning! Despite the very tiny amount in the cup, my throat burned for 20 minutes after downing it. I don't see how anyone could really drink that stuff straight or drink much of it unless they had a very high tolerance.

It was a fun tour; very interesting and enlightening. If you get the chance, I recommend you take a tour of one of the distilleries on The Bourbon Trail.

Pictures from the tour are up on my Flickr page.

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Google Vs. Bing

I have decided I still prefer Google search over Microsoft's new Bing search and it is all based on one quantifiable and totally scientific reason:

Placing the term "the word of jeff" in the search box brings up this blog in FIRST, THIRD and FOURTH place in results on Google, but only FOURTH on Bing.

Bah! Bing bad, Google good!!

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May I Take Your Picture?

Another request for use of one of my photos I posted on Flickr has come in. This one was from my time in Cedar Falls, IA last year and a website wants to use it as a header image on each page of their site when they release the re-design. I think Cindy was more excited than I was. As I said to her, "It's not a big deal to me when someone wants to use your photo for free. If they offered to pay, THAT would be a big deal for me." LOL

But I would be lying if I said it doesn't give me a good feeling. This is the third time I have had someone see my photos on Flickr and ask if they could make use of them. I always say yes, just asking for attribution and, if possible, a link to my website.

Here's the collection from Cedar Falls. See if you can figure out which photo they requested. Or if they've already used it in the design then you won't have to search, LOL.

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Touchscreen Trained

You remember my worry that I would not like or adapt very well to the touchscreen system on my new iPhone 3G S? Here's how quickly I have gotten used to it. I was using my Nuvi GPS device to find a restaurant the other day and when it displayed a list on the screen I automatically tried to scroll down by running my finger up the screen the way I do when using the iPhone. It took me a second to realize I would have to push the "down arrow" on the GPS controls to make that happen since it doesn't have a touch screen.

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The Agony Of Delete

I have been so busy here in Kentucky (and before that in Georgia) that I finally had to bite the bullet and delete folders full of e-mail and RSS feeds because I knew I would never get through the backlog. I have only had the time to keep up with personal emails and some favorite RSS feeds, while all the others have been just piling up.

Even having my Google reader available on my new iPhone (whoo hooo!) hasn't helped me as far as having time to actually read them, no matter where they are available.

I especially hated deleting the various writing emails (tips, newsletters, writer's association news, etc.) and photography RSS feeds (same mix of material) because I always feel like I may miss the one little nugget that will be the key that opens all the doors of understanding for me, lol.

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Daniel Boone's Grave

My first exposure to Daniel Boone was as a child watching the Daniel Boone TV series with Fess Parker portraying the legendary figure. I was 9 years old the first year the series appeared on television and that next summer my parents took my brother and I to some kind of western-themed attraction. In the gift shop they were selling coonskin caps and while I begged and begged my mother for one (though I wisely knew when to take her "No!" seriously enough to avoid getting smacked for continuing to ask), she felt they were grossly overpriced and refused. I may have been scarred for life...I'll double check later and let you know.

Here's the TV series theme with the lyrics below the video.






Daniel Boone, Daniel Boone
What a do-er,
What a dream come-er true-er was he!

From the coonskin cap on the top of ol' Dan
To the heel of his rawhide shoe;
The rippin'est, roarin'est, fightin'est man
The frontier ever knew!

Daniel Boone was a man,
Yes, a big man!
With an eye like an eagle
And as tall as a mountain was he!

Daniel Boone was a man. Yes a big man.
And he fought for America to make all Americans free.
Daniel Boone was a do-er,
What a dream comer truer was he.

Daniel Boone, Daniel Boone

So, when I discovered that legend was buried right in Frankfort, KY where I'm working, I drove over to the cemetery this past Friday morning when we were off for the holiday and visited the grave site. The cemetery sits atop a hill and overlooks the Commonwealth of Kentucky's capitol building; a fitting view for the pioneer who blazed a trail through Kentucky for others to follow.



You can see all the photos over at my Flickr site.

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Upcoming Schedule

I found out I'll be leaving Kentucky on Friday, July 17th. I'll get to spend Friday and Saturday night at home with Cindy before flying out Sunday to Baltimore Washington International aiport for a week of training at the super secret location I was at back in January of 2008.

At this point, I'm returning home to Orlando from there on Friday, July 24th and, as far as I know right now, there are no plans to send me anywhere. But as always, that could change at any time.

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Twitter Police! Freeze!!

This is hilarious!

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Digital Organization

I feel sorry for anyone who has to go through my laptop after I die, trying to look for all my writings. I have them spread all over the place in little snippets and larger files in so many different locations. I surprise myself sometimes when I come across a file and ask myself, "What is this?" as I'm clicking on it and then light up with recognition of some story or even piece of a story. It may even be something as small as a few words of an idea, but whatever it is I've forgotten it was there and it's like discovering something new all over again, lol.

So, if you're the person to whom the duty falls of searching my laptop for my words, be sure and look everywhere because unless I "clean up my act", so to speak, there's no telling where you might find the things I've written.

Yeah, I really need to get my digital life a bit more organized.

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"Thriller" In Lexington

Last Thursday night the Mecca Dance Studio, a 200-student dance school in Lexington, KY, performed their version of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video in Cheapside Park near downtown Lexington as a tribute to the late artist. After getting off work, I drove downtown to see what I might see. I got to take a few dozen photos (though only a handful are viewer-worthy) which you can see by going to my Flickr site here.



I also had the opportunity to use my iPhone 3G S to take some video for the first time. I've embedded it below and I didn't think it was all that bad, but I DO wish the iPhone 3G S had some zoom capability. The paper mache Michael is kind of creepy, but the performance was good and everyone on "stage" obviously had a good time. As you can see, the crowd filled the park area.

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The Horse Boy - Book Review

Most regular readers know that my beloved grandson, Mikey, was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome several years ago. Asperger's is a part of what is known as the "Autism Spectrum" and is located on the higher functioning portion of that spectrum. Mikey is extremely intelligent and unusually intuitive about certain things, but does have difficulty with social behavior and fitting in to the "norms" of social behavior as well as processing large or loud amounts of images and/or sounds, and has the tendency to become obsessive about certain subjects and actions.

Although it never seems to be enough for me, I spend a lot of time researching autism in general and Asperger's in particular, searching for knowledge to help me understand and deal with what my grandson lives with each day, and for information that may help him as he learns to cope with a world that he sees in a much different way than I do. He is 8 years old now and has begun to realize that he is "different" from other kids in his school. Knowing how unthinking and unfiltered kids can be in their words, I'm sure that he has already, along with his other "special" classmates, been subjected to comments that he and they are "stupid", "slow", "weird" and any number of other disparaging terms. I have surmised this from some recent depression he has experienced and a voicing of things about himself that he has never heard from his mom, dad or other family members.

But this post is not about Mikey, per se, but rather about a book I recently read because of him. A few months back I heard about a "therapy" for autistic, ADD and Asperger's children that involved horses. This therapy goes by several different labels such as "Equine Therapy", "Equine Facilitated Learning" and "Hippotherapy" but it all boils down to some seemingly great strides (no pun intended) that these children and their parents have seen after working with horses. In my searches for information about this therapy I came across a book, written by a father of a seriously autistic child, titled "The Horse Boy."

I happen to mention in one of my tweets on Twitter that I was looking forward to buying the book and seeing if this true story might contain something that would be helpful to Mikey. Amazingly, a few minutes after posting that Tweet, a member of the staff of Little Brown, the publisher of the book, sent me a tweet graciously asking if I would be interested in a review copy. I gratefully accepted their offer and a few days after sending them my snail mail address the copy arrived in the mail at home. Cindy included it in one of the "care packages" that she sends me when I'm on the road and a few days later it was in my hands.



"The Horse Boy" is subtitled, "A Father's Quest To Heal His Son" and I think that is the bedrock foundation of the entire story. Not that his son's autism isn't a major theme; it is, but it is more suffused with the belief of the father that he MUST make this quest to try and bring healing or what he feels would be healing to his son.

Rupert Isaacson was a writer and his wife Kristin a psychologist when their son Rowan, named after a tree in old British folktales that represented white magic, was born in Austin Texas in December of 2001. When Rowan was 18 months old, Kristin, who had training in child development, began to be a little worried when her son did not exhibit typical behaviors that most children do during that time in their development. After another year when little improvement came and instead the usual withdrawing that takes place with autistic children manifested itself, they suspected that Rowan might be autistic. Six months later, when Rowan was a little over 3 years of age, doctors completed their tests and told the Isaacson's that their son was indeed autistic.

Rupert had been an accomplished horseman when he was younger and growing up in England. In fact, one of the reasons he and Kristin had eventually settled in Austin was so that he could again enjoy horseback riding and perhaps teach Rowan as he grew, whenever Rupert was home from his travel writing career. Now, it seemed to Rupert that Rowan would never share his father's love of horses.

During an accidental meeting one day with a neighbor's horse, Rupert is astonished to see the great creature gently react to Rowan's typical hyperactive state and the possible connections begin to be made in Rupert's mind. Shortly after this, Kristin and Rowan accompany Rupert on a visit to some Kalahari Desert Bushmen who have come to visit the UN and Rowan gets his first exposure to shamans, the spiritual leaders of some of the tribes. His behavior changes radically in their presence and Rupert is genuinely intrigued.

As the story progresses Rowan displays more and more reactions to the horse, Betsy, and Rupert begins investigating a group of Mongolian shamans that his Bushmen friends have mentioned to him. Before long, despite Kristin's reluctance, Rupert has arranged to travel to Mongolia with a cameraman and sound technician to film the journey and any possible outcome, as well as for him to write about the experience. Thereafter the majority of the book is about their travel by van and then by horse across the wild, untamed land of Mongolia. Several interesting things happen along the way and at the end of their journey, carrying over to their return home to Austin.

This was a good read and I'm not just saying that because it was a review copy. Because my interests lie more in the areas of "Equine Therapy", "Equine Facilitated Learning" and "Hippotherapy", I would have wished the subject matter dealt with those therapies in greater detail. I'm not a spiritual man and do not put stock in such things, so the various rituals and trials they were instructed to endure by the shamans seemed ignorant and almost cruel to me, especially those things which made Rupert physically sick. But I can also understand a man, a father, doing everything he thinks might possibly work for his child's well-being. I cannot fault Rupert for his single-minded desire to do anything to help Rowan.



Isaacson also brings out an interesting thought. Two of them, in fact.

First, he posits that, rather than an abnormality, autism may be it's own type of personality. A running theme through the story is that the shamans all express to Rupert that, they too, once had the behavioral traits that Rowan possess. It may help explain Rowan's calmness around them and his even allowing them to touch him, something he would not allow anyone other than his mother and father to do. There did indeed seem to be some connection.

Second, he touches on the "cure" question. At the end of the book, Rupert states that despite all the improvements Rowan experienced, "...he has not been cured. Nor would I want him to be. To "cure" him, in terms of trying to tear the autism out, now seems to me completely wrong. Why can't he exist between the worlds...It is a rich place to be. Can Rowan keep learning the skills necessary to swim in our world while retaining the magic of his own? It seems a tangible dream."

I used to silently disagree with my daughter when she would say or write that she would not want to cure Mikey. I was not going to argue with her about it, he is her son after all, but from my perspective Mikey's life would be so much easier if he did not have to deal with the Asperger's. What I wanted was Mikey, and all the things that make up Mikey to remain, except for the Asperger's so that his life would be free of that particular hardship. This is difficult to even write and I have to keep getting up from the desk because my eyes are tearing up as I try to put this down in words. You just never want your loved ones to be hurt, whether by their own actions or especially by circumstances they have no control over. Mikey didn't ask for this, nor did his mom and dad. And for a guy who never looked at the world as being "fair" or "unfair", this seemed completely unfair to me.

But a few months ago, before ever reading this book and Isaacson's words above, I came to the realization that it was ridiculous to imagine a Mikey without the Asperger's. Mikey is who he is and all those things that are a part of him, even the Asperger's, are what make him Mikey. I would not love him any more without the Asperger's and I certainly do not love him any less because of it. My daughter showed much more wisdom than her old man did on this one, but I'm glad I could find my way to this truth.

But that truth does not preclude me from continuing to seek ways and means for Mikey to have tools to help him cope with this world that does not always understand him. Whatever I can do to make things easier for him, I feel like I have to do. To not do so would mean he does not mean all that he does to me.

Even if you have no connection to the subject matter, I recommend "The Horse Boy" as an excellent story of a father, faults and all just like the rest of us, taking up the quest to heal his son. And for those of you who remember the mention of the camera and sound men who accompanied them, the film is scheduled to be out in theaters in the Fall of this year.

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Happy Birthday America!!

Happy Birthday to the greatest country on the face of the earth.

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Words Of Wisdom II

"One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself." Leonardo da Vinci

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On This Date

Throughout the recorded history of mankind, some amazing, astounding and astonishing things have occurred on this most important date. For instance;

1566-French astrologer, physician, and prophet Nostradamus died. Like Elvis and now Michael Jackson, the masses have refused to let him die. You've surely seen his yearly predictions on the covers of tabloid papers in the checkout lines of grocery stores around the first of every year.

1776-The Continental Congress passed a resolution that "these United Colonies are, and of right, ought to be, Free and Independent States." Ah...America, the Beautiful.

1881-President James Garfield was shot by Charles Guiteau; he died on Sept. 19. Talk about a lingering death. And all he got out of it was having a smart ass orange cat named after him.

1932-Democrats nominated New York Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt for president at their convention in Chicago. I think, sometimes, that I would have liked to have met him.

1937-Amelia Earhart and her co-pilot Fred Noonan disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to fly around the world. Can you say, "Bermuda Triangle"?

1947-An object that the Army Air Force later said was a weather balloon crashed near Roswell, N.M. Eyewitness accounts gave rise to speculation it might have been an alien spacecraft. And that speculation was proved true in the movie, "Independence Day" starring Brent Spiner (otherwise known as Mr. Data from the Star Trek:Next Generation TV and movie series.

1961-Author Ernest Hemingway, 61, shot himself to death at his home in Ketchum, Idaho. I have to ask myself constantly, "Why are creative geniuses usually so...unbalanced?"

1964-President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law. One of the most uplifting accomplishments of the U.S. government.

1997-Actor James Stewart died in Beverly Hills, California. He was always one of my favorite actors.

2002-Steve Fossett became the first to circumnavigate the globe solo in a balloon. A modern-day Phileas Fogg.

2007-Opera singer Beverly Sills died at age 78. A great singer that I have seldom listened to during my life.

And some fairly famous, infamous and/or important people were born on this date:

1908-Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American Supreme Court justice

1922-Dan Rowan Comedian Rowan & Martin's Laugh-in

1947-Larry David Seinfeld co-creator

1957-Bret Hart "The Hitman" Professional Wrestler, actor, artist, writer

1968-Ron Goldman Murder victim in OJ Simpson trial

1983-Michelle Branch Singer/Songwriter

1986-Lindsay Lohan Actress

As well as one singularly unimportant person born this day in 1955 who shall, for my part, remain nameless.

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My iPhone

I really am stupendously pleased with my new iPhone 3G S!!

So far, I have only been in one place where I could not manage to get either a 3G, Wi-fi or Edge connection. My BlackBerry would only connect through an available Edge connection. Like my BlackBerry, the iPhone will retrieve my e-mail from up to 10 different accounts. Unlike my BB, my iPhone will display the email exactly as it normally appears on my laptop screen. Also unlike my BB, my iPhone will grant me access to GoogleReader without the use of a third-party program AND it displays just like it does on my laptop.

The camera has a 3 megapixel lens, compared to my BB with has a 1.6 megapixel lens. The difference in picture quality is tremendous. Something the iPhone has that my BB never had (and one of the main reasons I bought the iPhone) is a video camera. I have not yet explored its ability to trim videos and upload them to YouTube, but most likely I will this weekend.

Being able to have TweetDeck, which I use on my laptop, on my iPhone also is fantastic. My BB version of TwitterBerry lacked the full functionality of TweetDeck on iPhone, such as the ability to ReTweet a notable tweet. The same is true of the FaceBook application so far, though I have not completely explored all of its abilities.

One feature I HAVE been playing with a lot is the ability to download free music and podcasts from the iTunes store, right through the phone. I also bought 4 songs just to try out the process and it was so painless that I will have to restrain myself from overdoing it (since the songs cost $). I can see I will also be tempted to download missed TV shows ($2.99 each) to watch during my flights when traveling. I still haven't seen the last 3 episodes of "24" or a couple of other shows I try to watch. Yes, I know they're free on Hulu, but the viewing experience leaves a lot lacking in terms of definition and buffering issues. Plus it will make the flights somewhat more enjoyable

Which brings up another cool feature. There is a setting where you can tell the iPhone to go into "Airplane mode" which is simply the ability to turn off the phone and GPS aspects of the phone while retaining the ability to use the audio/video player without "interfering with the airplane's electronic signals." Of course you can only use that during the "turn on acceptable devices" portion of the flight, but it's better than nothing.

I also have not yet fully explored the Apps Store, other than downloading the TweetDeck and FaceBook applications because I use those so heavily. But I'm sure I will be playing with that over the weekend as well. And I still need to try the voice control for dialing other phones or playing music. There is still so much fun with my iPhone ahead of me!!

After I bought the iPhone at the A T & T store, I went around the corner to the Best Buy store and purchased a car charger ($6 cheaper than the one in the A T & T store) and a Jabra BT530 stereo Bluetooth that allows me to listen to music or podcasts (and isn't ugly looking like the dual headsets that remind me of a doctor's stethoscope). It is so cool to be listening to music or a podcast, have it paused when a call comes in, then resume after your call at exactly the point it paused at before the call. I am thinking I won't have a use any more for my MP3 player, other than as another exterior hard drive to hold files.

That is the beauty of the iPhone; it is at least ten devices in one: a phone, camera, video camera, Internet device, music player, digital voice recorder, podcast player, GPS, compass and alarm clock. It's like the Swiss Army knife of Smartphones. In fact, I would dub the iPhone a "GeniusPhone" and that is no exaggeration.

After Best Buy, my next stop was Barnes & Noble where I bought David Pogue's "iPhone-The Missing Manual" book after scanning the Table of Contents and glancing through the pages. I typically read David's columns every week and his Twitter feed every day and, based on his writing style and content, I was reasonably sure his book would be just what a newbie like me would need and I was right. I devoured his book that first night and have used it to refresh my memory several times since.

I am so glad I listened to my friends who were also former BB users when they unanimously declared the iPhone experience to be a vast improvement. Heck, I'm even getting used to the touchscreen way of using this thing, something I wasn't sure I'd ever embrace.

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