Testing…testing…1…2…3.
Is this thing on?
Hello? [hello…ello…lo]
Is anybody still out there?
[Looks
at the pulpit…runs a finger along the edge of the lectern …blows the dust off
the top]
It's been a while since I stood here in
the pulpit with anything important to say. The last time was to update you all
on the failed attempt to adopt M&M 2.0.
That whole situation really took its
toll on The Queen and I. It's taken a long time to really feel any desire to
sit down and write anything substantive. There are still stories that I want to
tell, and there are still things in the world around me that I want to comment
on. But, it's been difficult to work up any kind of motivation and energy here
lately.
So, I thought I would try something new.
As most of you know, smart phones these days have nifty voice recognition built
into them to ease email and word processing functions. So, I'm actually “writing”
this to you by dictating it to my phone as I drive to work.
This will obviously require some later
editing at a real computer as this “dictation” will be mostly stream of
consciousness. But, hopefully I can use this windshield time that usually just gets
devoted to listening to talk radio, music or an audio version of the Bible to
actually put down some coherent thoughts.
As I said, there are still stories that
I would like to record for M&M's sake. There is the chocolate chip cookie
dough story, learning to fly, my crazy grandfather, memories of my
grandmother's.
There is the story of Mimi going toe to
toe with several people, sometimes verbally, sometimes not. There are my
thoughts on the current election cycle. There is a whole series of posts I
would like to do on the Constitution and the first 10 amendments.
Then, there are the book ideas. I've had
at least two book ideas swirling around in my head for a long time. I just need
to have time to start writing. If this experiment in dictation works, this may
be the solution to getting those books out of my head and into print. I may
share an excerpt that is the basis for the book soon and see what you think.
Or, I may not. We'll just have to see.
For now, let's just leave it that I
haven't forgotten about the friends and connections I've made on the blog. And
I'm looking forward to hearing what you all had to say in response to what I
had to share.
I like the windshield dialogue. When I next see some guy talking to his windshield, I will not call the people with the butterfly nets.
ReplyDeleteJPD, there are some many of us talking to our windshields these days, I'm not sure you could get the butterfly net people to be interested.
DeleteSounds like an efficient way to get things done. Just make sure to focus on the driving not the thoughts.
ReplyDeleteK, no worries. I drive first. Thinking comes automatically whether I like it or not. It's the talking to the phone that's a little strange, but I make sure to check around me before hitting the record button.
DeleteWell keep us in the loop as best you can, we don't demand content but I for one always welcome it.
ReplyDeleteOdy, the blog has suffered for too long due to various things. It's time to start writing again.
DeleteDH, what are you using for the windshield blogging? I might like to try that. Rather than just swearing at the other drivers.
ReplyDeleteHhmm, maybe having my phone record all that which could later be used in a court of law? I might need to rethink this.
Hang in there brother.
Sarge, I don't know what it's called exactly, but Androids and iPhones both have a talk to text function built into the OS. My iPhone has a microphone next to the space bar. Click it, speak and magic happens making words appear. You do have to remember to speak your punctuation and it doesn't always translate accents very well. It transcribed some stuff yesterday that made no sense whatsoever. I noticed this morning that it also picked up background chatter from the talk radio station depending on volume.
Delete