Fall 2015 December 14 Monda

40 degrees this morning (30 WC), Walk 38:11 minutes

Start of the last full work week of the year!  Overall good weekend, busy Saturday, relaxed some yesterday.  

Surprised by the drop in temperature and cold rain yesterday.  Not really that bad, and not near as bad as the snow and ice they are having in other areas.  It even got nice enough I was able to ride my bike.

In the book I am listening to while I walk, Wilson is now President and the fist phases of WWI are just starting.  Sometimes a book amazes you about just how little I know about history!  While for some reason I knew very little about Wilson or even his Presidency, I thought I knew more than I did!  

It is strange to read about how some of the Presidents became President, considering the procedure now.  Most of the past Presidents probably would not have been electable today, or at least wouldn’t have been elected.  

I enjoy learning about Presidents and their leadership highs and lows, how they also sometimes trust the wrong person etc.  In a very minor way, I can relate from my past experience.  

I still feel Lincoln was the greatest President, as will as a person who truly cared and personally felt the effects of every decision he made.  Also, as I previously mentioned, he was aware of the need to invest in the infrastructure of the country for future generations.

I think spellcheck is affecting my spelling.  Probably 20 years of having your spelling automatically corrected (at least somewhat, sometimes changed to a disastrous meaning!) I think I have lost some of my spelling ability.  

On the positive side, it may be that I am attempting to describe feelings or situations  etc. more explicitly. On he negative side, I may just be getting old and forgetful.  

At least it is relatively easy to check on the spelling of a word now, although it can be frustrating to not be able to find the correct spelling of a word.  

With all of the electronic dictionaries etc. it seems it easy to find the correction spelling of a word or find the right word, but it isn’t.  

Playing around with my iPhone 6S Plus, I feel a real advance is the “push and hold” feature (it is officially called something else, but I can’t think of it).  

While the feature will only save several seconds, it will add up during the day, plus it is much easier.

I especially like the feature where I can press and hold an app, and the 4 most used actions just pop up.  I saw that and thought “wow!”.

Of course, I also like the “Hey Siri” feature where I can send e-mails, texts, make notes etc. without touching the phone.  

I haven’t used the “press and hold” feature with e-mail much (junk e-mail is junk e-mail!), but it could be useful.

Now on tune 370 of 6544 tunes on my “original iPod”.  I wonder how the algorithm actually decides which song to play.

In a way I find it kind of scary that algorithms are being used to make investments and major decisions.  I think if it is used as a labor saving device, or even to automate  tasks to make better decisions, that is great.  Giving up our right to make the final decision is another matter.

That’s it for now, Monday, December 14, 2015.