Is it so farfetched to believe cats and dogs don’t enjoy music streaming from your iPod? I hook mine up to speakers and leave it on for hours so my dog Sebastian can enjoy his favorite music. For him some classical music will rock his soul right to sleep and allows me to spend sometime outside of the house doing errands or a workout without worrying he may get bored and rip up the furniture.
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A while back I was looking for a car to buy that had great mileage looked good and was inexpensive. Two of the designers that worked for me were driving Minis and I thought that might fit the bill. So I went to the local dealership and saw one on the showroom floor with everything on it. I fell in love instantly and bought it. However I am 6″2″ and weigh 200 so I need some room to move around in a car especially with the amount of driving I do. There was lots of legroom but not enough arm room side to side for me. I found my left arm always crammed against the driver’s door. And if I shifted with a passenger in tow I would elbow them slightly. I rationalized that this was okay because I loved the car and I got good gas mileage and it was so cool to drive a mini and I could fit into the smallest parking space which in Los Angeles is a must. But, the freeway was a scary proposition, I was always lower than any other car and many couldn’t see me so I was constantly on guard. I mean one tap to a mini from a car going 60-70 miles an hour and you’re toast. So after three years I gave it up and bought a Nissan Roque which I love and I feel safe in. So, the moral is when you love a car make sure it’s right for you. Take a day or so to think about all the aspects of owning the car you’ve fallen in love with. With financing today especially on a lease you need to make sure the car is right or you could be stuck like I was dodging other cars on the freeway as you elbow your passengers into a angry frenzy.
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I guess it’s human nature to want quicker and quicker results for everything. Technology keeps changing rapidly and with it comes the expectations that the gadgets we use will be better, less costly and faster. But hold on a moment, aren’t we moving fast enough? Do we have to be on top of the news as its happening? Do we need to be fed every little morsel of news out there as quick as possible? Is it that important or is it human nature to want to gobble up information as quick as possible. After spending the last year in the mountains in California in a quasi-retreat I think some alone time is good for everyone. It gives you time to reflect, evaluate and plan instead of reacting all the time emotions ping ponging back and forth like a tournament between two asian masters. Think about it the next time you have a moment between tweets.
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I love that line. It’s the words from Craig Ferguson’s Late Night TV Show theme song. I find it intriguing and it gets me thinking about how far technology has advanced in the last twenty-five years. To illustrate this point, I had a “wow” moment one day in 1989, when I walked into Graham Nash’s home studio and saw him working on a MAC Classic with a color monitor. I felt like a caveman who just witnessed fire for the first time. I immediately put a second mortgage on my home in order to buy a fully outfitted 80 MB Mac Classic with a 20MB syquest drive, an Electrahome monitor (which weighed a ton), a black and white laser printer and an $8000 Howtek scanner. I recently saw some of those items in the Smithsonian. Within a year or so that equipment was outdated and another year or two made it worthless. But I was ahead of the curve and I was hooked for life. My next buy was much cheaper and far more effective and powerful. Now the same power can be found in a cheap phone and the screen resolution is far better. The prices have dropped to levels that anyone can afford.Today I am as comfortable using new media and the power of the internet as I am breathing. My life has been enriched beyond what I could’ve ever imagined. Anyone who hasn’t kept up with the amazing advances in technology is really missing something that’s exciting. Being a “Techie” so to speak is probably the best way to keep yourself relevant and informed. And you just might have a ball doing it.
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Remember the blue bird of happiness? Has it arrived at our doorsteps in the form of the twitter icon?
More middle-aged adults, boomers and yes seniors have now migrated along with the younger set to the twitter nest. Thirty five percent of the Fortune 500 now has a presence on Twitter, often with a focus on customer support and marketing. Several CEOs tweet — Richard Branson and Michael Hyatt are among them. It’s free, very fast and easy to use — all characteristics that make it very attractive to a wide variety of businesses and people.
You may be a dinosaur roaming through modern life refusing to accept that things have change and happy to ignore Twitter and other social media. In which case you have now become what all of us baby boomers feared….our parents or worse than that…our grandparents! Twitter is likely to grow exponentially and there are already rumors about big companies who want to buy it to get their hands on the superior search engine inherent in Twitter. The retirement time line for most Boomers has been extended as a result of the recent meltdown, so spread your wings and start flying, join twitter, facebook, myspace and any other social media you can. You don’t want to be the only bird who didn’t fly south for the winter.
How do get started? Go to www.twitter.com. There are clear instructions on the site that will quickly and easily let you establish an account. Start flapping your wings and your gums online and see what’s happening all around you!
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If you need proof that seniors and boomers have taken to online gaming like ducks to water go no further than this. The VP for AARP’s Web Strategy and Operations says: “Boomers on the Internet spend more than 100 minutes of their leisure time per week playing video or computer games online.” I couldn’t agree more. My mom and stepdad are online for hours beating each others brains out in online warfare! What a smart idea this is for AARP. Get the seniors playing games and feed them important health information, deals, discounts and other marketing messages for AARP products.
The games are mostly puzzle games and the top game currently is Mahjongg Toy Chest with over 11,890,013 game plays to-date. But, make no mistake games targeted at younger demos are equally appealing to senior gamers.
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