Countdown to change

Here is something nifty:

A milestone: 1024×768

I am not an early technology adopter. The reason I am slow to adapt is sometimes due to cost and laziness. If something is working fine for me why change.

Usually it takes force to make me change. I didn’t get Windows XP until there was little to no software for Windows 98 and some software either stopped including Windows 98 or couldn’t.

I didn’t get a cell phone until I had to get one for work purposes. My job had me at different sites without access to a landline. Although I am not dependent on my cell phone, I have one.

This week I finally was forced to change the screen resolution on my monitor from 800×600 to 1024×768. The change has been creeping up to me for some time. Many websites and some programs I use are only usable at a higher resolutions. It does become a chore to scroll the screen or not being able to access a button on a program that is hidden below the edge of my screen.

I am going to miss 800×600. Everything looks so small now with the higher resolution and it seems to be missing some detail. It is probably my monitor because I use higher resolutions at work and on my laptop and it doesn’t look bad.

Oh well life is full of changes, I guess.

Tooting my own horn

I wanted to post about updates to two of my blogs.

iHumanism – narrowly focused on Humanism. Available since 1999, it was previously a standard HTML based site but has now been converted to a blog using WordPress. Content includes articles, essays, and commentary on Humanism, which is my life stance.

Most recent post talks about something called “vague theism” that is causing issues within the Humanist movement.

The Review Geek – basically a review style blog. It offers commentary on media offerings from TV to music to film and culture. I use the new Movable Type version 4.

Most recent post talks about the show “Feasting on Asphalt 2: The River Run” showing on the Food Network.

I really have no social life and am quite pale, so check them out if you have time.

I’ve won a prize

A few months back I entered the Humanist Vision contest sponsored by the American Humanist Association. The challenge was to create a “commercial” about Humanism and post it on YouTube. There was prize money involved and the goodwill of the Humanist movement.

My entry was based on a slideshow I am working on for my local Humanist group.

I didn’t win the top prizes but my entry did get Honorable Mention. That meant that not only was my entry shown at the AHA Conference in Portland, back in June, but that I also got a book from Humanist Press. The book I got was “Freethought Across the Centuries: Toward a New Age of Enlightenment” by Gerald A Larue.

I haven’t agreed with everything Larue has written in the past but the book is an interesting look at the history of Freethought.

So here is my winning entry as posted on YouTube: