Lifespring

I just discovered this week a great application and feature of an iPhone app called Recorder (99 cents, Version 10). I've had the Recorder (not Apple's) on the iPhone for some time but haven't really used it. This past week a monk friend and public figure was hospitalized. The monastery is issuing daily medical status updates on their voice message phone system.
 
I thought:  what if I could record the updates without resort to rigging-up an external recorder and then share the recordings with others, on Twitter, Facebook, et al., that might have interest in knowing the friend's condition? I looked in the Recorder app and it had such a feature and it worked seemlessly with iPhone's phone (US only).

You buy recording minutes (I bought 1 hr. for $2) from within the app from Apple's app store. After you make the recording you can trim front and end of the recording and then email it. Recorder returns a link to the recording for on-line listening and/or download. Pretty neat. If you're interested here is today's medical update on the friend http://bit.ly/j54ep.

Each year the Montgomery County indoor pool in Germantown MD closes for 2 weeks for cleaning and during the closure I swim early mornings at this outdoor pool. The pool (pix 1) is nearer to my home, has cooler water temperature, is 25 meters vs. 25 yards in length, affords a nice view of the sunrise (8), and provides a change of scenery in the workout routine.

There was a good turnout the first morning with all lanes full and a few lanes had two swimmers. I always enjoy seeing who shows during this two-week period from the indoor pool and the local college pool, which also closes during the same period. Below we see Gary (2, 3) and Nelly (4, 5) from the college, and from the indoor pool Chris-L and Curtis-R (6), David-L and Greg-R (7) and Howard (9).

These snaps, from thoughout the week, were taken with the new Posterous iPhone app and were snapped and posted here over several days. All I needed to do was to send them to Posterous from the iPhone app upon taking them each day and Posterous collated them here in one place. There was no need to to come to this website to fiddle around - nice.

Postscript: The temperatures turned very cool during the second week. One morning there were no women swimming just guys and I asked the yound female lifeguard who was all bundled-up but still looked cold if any women had been swimming earlier in the morning. She said "no." I said "too cold for women." She said, "I'm a woman." Love it - touche.

This sign in Germantown, MD alerts drivers to an upcoming series of speed bumps. I've never seen this particular message on signage before - I like it, "traffic calming." Its novel, functional and evocative of peacefulness.

Others thought I had gone over to the geek side some time back though I always resisted the adoption of a geek identity. But now I give-up, I've no more strength to resist (indeed "resistance is futile" - The Borg). "Hello, my name is Ron Barnett and I'm a geek." Let me explain. 

Last night on the way home from work I stopped by Target and picked-up a Smartpen. Inside the "pen" is a camera, a microphone, an audio speaker and 2 GB of memory. One uses it as a pen and as one writes all text, drawings, doodles, etc. are recorded by the cam and concurrently the mic records any sound in your environment, such as a lecturer or discussion at a staff meeting. All of this can then be transferred to computer for processing, e.g. search, conversion to a Word document, uploaded to the cloud, e-mailed to others, etc.

Moreover, what's amazing is the pen talks! For example, if I wanted to return to hear what Jane said in a staff meeting about xyz I just touch the tip of the pen on the notes that are on paper about Jane and the genius pen plays that segment of the staff meeting recording where Jane is speaking! I don't have to listen through the recording searching for her words.

I've just been playing with the genius pen so far but I can't wait to try it in the real-world. Truly your geek friend now -

Posterous released their app for the iPhone today to make posting pics and videos easier. So, I'm trying it today by taking photos throughout the day. Once the first photo (or video) is taken subsequent photos are posted to the same post (this one) in a gallery, so the gallery expands as the day, event, etc. goes on - now that's nice. No need to wait until the end of the event or day to post your photos and videos.

Here are a couple of videos and pics taken during the day. In order are: 1) video outside my home; 2) video inside my home; 3) monitor showing PicPosterous; 4) how to process your inbox the GTD way; 5) entrance to my office; 6) dual monitors at work; and 7) garden outside of my work office building.

I serve on the Board of Contemplative Outreach, a non-profit that shares within the contemplative Christian tradition the method of centering prayer and its immediate conceptual background. The Board met in New Jersey over the weekend and was led by 86 year old Fr. Thomas Keating, Roman Catholic priest, author and Trappist monk. In this brief video Fr. Thomas appears to receive the most "applause," even though one cannot hear it (the "sound of one hand clapping").

Sent from Ron's iPhone