Meeting expectations

As a reporter, one of my jobs is to attend meetings. I have my standing county board meetings every Tuesday (except the 5th Tuesday, if there is one), in addition to meetings that pop up every so often. Public hearings, informational meetings and discussions on topics ranging from transmission lines to feedlots.

There is one thing I have found at many of these meetings: experts have a hard time understanding things at the base level. During a recent meeting that included a number of extremely technical subjects with scientific background, I was treated to explanations of things that needed explanation.

One of the most difficult things to do is express difficult things in simple terms. When you live so close to something, you don’t always see how someone else can’t understand what you’re saying.

I know I do this too. Technology isn’t an easy thing to grasp and I find myself using terms that the average person doesn’t come in contact with on a regular basis. It’s always my goal to explain things in simple terms, as a reporter it’s my job. The only problem is, I have to understand things completely as well. That isn’t always easy to do.

So next time you’re explaining something dealing with what you do, that others might not be in contact with regularly, take a step back and think about the time you first learned it. Go from there.

The Vacation: Mount Rushmore

Saturday: Wake up call comes around 6 a.m. with a bright light and some loud rustling from my Dad who woke up minutes earlier. We hit the road around 6:45 a.m. heading out to the first of only a couple stops on the route to Mount Rushmore. We find a Perkins and have breakfast. After having a big feast the night before, I opted for a lighter option with muffin.

The open road reminded me of my childhood. Many weekends as a kid I would be watching the world go by from the back seat of my parents car. Seeing the world with my head turned afforded me a lot of opportunities to see things that have shaped the person I am today.

Originally my thought was to take this trip alone, but my Dad jumped in and we ended up taking his truck. He drove the whole way out to Rushmore which let me see the landscape change, hills turn to mountains, crossing great rivers and of course the countless Wall Drug signs.

We opt to stop in Wall Drugs to see what the fuss was all about. I’ve seen Wall Drug signs for most of my adult life, one billboard was located minutes from Benson, my parents home. I didn’t know what to expect, but I have to say it really is vast. The town of Wall S.D. is engulfed by the shops and restaurants that make up Wall Drug.

We hit the road after having some ice cream and make our way to the monument, our next stop. I continue to marvel at the world as it passes me by. A landscape dotted with cows, lamas and other livestock, but for the most part a world untouched by man. It’s breath taking.

Except for the road work, there was a lot of that.

As we inched our way into the Rushmore park, you could really get the feeling of being surrounded by giants. The mountains jetted into the sky and cast shade over the road as we traveled.

I kept peering over the hood of the truck trying to get a glimpse of Rushmore as soon as it came into view. It finally did when I wasn’t expecting it. It was unmistakable, our first President made his appearance.

The monument itself is stunning. Thinking about the man hours it took and the limited tools those who did it had. It’s inspiring and filled me with the wonder that is human capabilities.

We take some time to look around the rest of the monument after admiring four great men cast in stone.

Our next stop was Deadwood, a town only a few miles away. We drove through this historic town and enjoy the sights of its restored glory.

Then there was Sturgis. I was underwhelmed, as would be expected since the rally ended a few weeks earlier. But I’ve been there. I know the green lights are short. We make it to the Harley Davidson dealership that covers the Black Hills area. We each get a jacket and hit the road.

We opt to skip our hotel room in Rapid City to get a little closer to home. We make the drive back to Sioux Falls, knowing full well we would arrive late. We each get a room and head to bed around midnight.

Sunday: I get up around 8 a.m. after getting a little more sleep than the night before. I catch up on SportsCenter and head down for breakfast around 9 a.m.

We hit the road and make it back to Marshall around noon. I make some calls to friends to let them know I made it back and see what they’re up to. I chill out for a few hours before Alex comes over for some Tiger Woods 06 and Burnout 3 crashing. We game for an hour and he heads out.

Exhausted from the weekend I crash early knowing I had to get up for work the next day.

Panda Sneezing

Steve Jobs to iPhone owners. . .

Apple head honcho Steve Jobs has addressed those upset about the $200 early adopter tax imposed on early iPhone owners. While it took less than 70 days for the price drop to hit, Jobs basically says tough noogies. I kind of don’t blame him, sure the price drop is significant and it comes only a few weeks after the phones actually release, but the success of the phone depends on its continued sales and the price putting it out of reach of 99 percent of consumers, Apple had to do something.

By dropping the price now it does a few things. It keeps the momentum of sales going, those who were holding off for a price drop have no reason not to go for it now. It also opens the market up for a 16 gig model to come in the near future, move as many 8 gigs as possible and expand the line. Finally, it keeps people talking about iPhone. As hard as it is to believe, discussion on the iPhone has gone down in recent days. Now the discussion starts at the beginning all over again.

In the end, Apple is smart. People sitting in a diner in the middle of South Dakota were discussing the iPhone price drop at 10 p.m. on a Saturday night. You can’t even get AT&T service there, but the discussion went on.

Read Jobs letter.

Home, but tired.

I am home from the trip and a bit tired. I’m currently watching the Vikings game and I don’t know that I’ll be writing my trip details today or not. I have however uploaded a handful of photos for you to check out over at Flickr.com.

Almost home

Well it’s late at night Saturday and I have finally seen Mount Rushmore. I snapped a few photos that I’ll post later. We spent the whole evening driving to Sioux Falls to make the trip back home Sunday a little shorter. I’ll have a large wrap up of the weekend up sometime Sunday or Monday with photos.

The vacation so far

I took off part of Tuesday afternoon after working the morning. The vacation begins with some down time, watching an obscene amount of The Office season 3. In all reality I focus on the special features, commentaries and deleted scenes. Good stuff to be had in them.

Wednesday was pretty much spent relaxing and avoiding doing the cleaning I told myself i was going to do. Instead I peep a movie, watch some more Office and later head over to Derek’s place for a little while. He just finished up the specials for the UK version of the Office.

Thursday I surprise my Mom who had a birthday over the previous weekend. I didn’t get to see her on her birthday due to work, so it was nice to see her for a little while. After grilling some burgers I head out to a local bar to hang out with a friend. We meet up with some of her friends and a good time is had by all.

Wake up around 8:30 a.m. on Friday, the day I’m ready to hit the road with my Dad making our way slowly to Mount Rushmore. Before leaving I head to lunch with my mom at the Whistle Stop Diner, a place we’ve frequented for years.

Currently I’m writing this blog post from the hotel room in Sioux Falls, SD. Will be heading out to Famous Dave’s for some BBQ food here shortly, watching some bad television and surfing on the hotel Internet connection.

* addition : Dinner at Famous Dave’s makes for a decent feast. *

We’ll be heading out early Saturday morning to make it out to Rushmore in the early afternoon. I plan on taking a bunch of photos during the trip, so check out my Flickr page over the next few days while I upload them.

We Can Work It Out

Ok, sure The Beatles haven’t made their way onto iTunes like we all thought they would this week. But how about this, as a concession to that, check out this amazing cover of “We Can Work It Out” by Stevie Wonder. The man is amazing, check out the whole “Greatest Hits Volume 2” because it’s all worth your dollars.

I can feel the music

For the last few months, since the iPhone came out, I’ve been saying that Apple would be insane to release an iPod with the form factor and user interface of the iPhone. It would obviously cannibalize sales of the phone and confuse the market.

Of course I’m wrong. Steve Jobs took the stage this week and introduced the world to a new product called iPod Touch. The new iPod works much like the iPhone, with the touch interface, WiFi Internet access and a few other goodies.

With 16 gigs on the high end model hitting retailers at $399 (8 gigs will set you back $299). The iPod touch is slightly shorter than the iPhone and a lot thiner. It’s not the only high end iPod either. iPod Classic, a product that is nothing more than a beefed up G5.5 iPod (new interface and bigger capacity for the same price levels), it’s an interesting time for Apple.

The iPod Touch, like the iPhone, is flash based. No moving parts. This cuts down on battery life, the hard drives can suck the battery pretty quickly, but it also means smaller capacity. Not easy to fit all those widescreen movies on there.

Oh, and they dropped the price of the 8 gig iPhone to $399. The 4 gig is currently on clearance for $299. That loud noise you heard on Wednesday was the sound of iPhone owners saying really bad words at the top of their lungs.

iPod Touch image from Apple.com.

Late summer vacation

As I’ve mentioned already, I’m officially on vacation. This is really an impromptu vacation in the end. I’ve banked up more vacation hours than I had thought so I decided to take a short little break to unwind a little bit. I’ve been saying for years that I want to see Mount Rushmore, so this weekend that is exactly what I’ll be doing.

My dad will be tagging along for the ride and right now we’re planning on seeing Deadwood while we’re at it.

Until we hit the open road I’ll be doing some relaxing. I picked up the third season of The Office. Ironically the first few hours of my vacation from work, were spent watching people “working” on The Office. I’ve made it through most of the special features, commentaries and deleted scenes. There is some amazing scenes that hit the cutting room floor.

There are also a few blog posts that I’ve been banking up, shedding a little more light on my life. You’ll hear the story about watching a tire roll down the street while two East Germans chase after it following the fall of the Berlin wall. The second installment of my history with Oasis plus a few other rants to keep you entertained.