Stymie Money Boys
Great time today playing a putting game called Stymie, introduced to us by Russ. It’s all about placing and controling your putts to avoid the pitfalls of too many putts or hitting another player’s ball (+2 strokes).
I had a small mishap with two other rules of the game that inflicts penalty strokes: 1) rolling your “drop” into a hole (+1 stroke), and 2) rolling your dropped ball outside two putter lengths (+1 stroke).
Congrats to Lael, winner ($70); David, silver medal ($40); and Brad, taking last money slot ($20).
Green Springs Golf Course. Washington, Utah.
My scorecard from today’s golf. Not the best, but not too bad. Except for a train wreck on the par 3 5th, I kept the ball in play. Second day with my Callaway X-Tour irons. Hit them about 80%. Still moving off the club head a bit off to the right–probably an issue squaring up a new club head that’s a bit more offset than my old Precept Tour Premium irons.
| Hole | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Out | Total |
| Blue | 401 | 207 | 398 | 493 | 173 | 449 | 508 | 456 | 434 | 3519 | |
| Par | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 36 | |
| Handicap | 11 | 17 | 5 | 9 | 15 | 1 | 7 | 3 | 13 | ||
| Score | 4 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 41 | |
| + / – | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | -1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | |
| Hole | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | In | Total |
| Blue | 402 | 391 | 311 | 417 | 442 | 164 | 510 | 172 | 502 | 3311 | 6830 |
| Par | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 36 | 72 |
| Handicap | 12 | 4 | 14 | 6 | 10 | 18 | 2 | 16 | 8 | ||
| Score | 5 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 40 | 81 |
| + / – | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 9 |
Entrada, 10th tee looking to the South
Desert golf requires you to pick your target, committ to it, and execute the shot. As seen from the 10th tee at Entrada, a desert carry over open wasteland is part of the game. To some, this can be intimidating. To others, thrilling. Personally, I dig it.
The only side effect of being at Entrada today: massive homesickness for Scottsdale, Arizona. I did find a bit of comfort and relief from winning the $20 for long drive on the 11th and an additional $20 for closest to the pin on the 12th. There are lots of stories of why Russ or Lee should have been longer or closer … if only “blah, blah, blah.” Reality: long drive must be a) in the fairway and b) be hitting your “drive,” not a third shot for the ball that went OB from the tee; closest to the tee…must be on the green .
Boy’s of Winter Golf Trip 2006 : Group Shot
Great day hanging with the gang at Entrada at Snow Canyon outside St. George, Utah. Entrada is a Johnny Miller design golf club managed by Troon North Golf. Entrada meanders through red rock and lava beds. Tough, but playable, Entrada serves up golf in desert style similiar to high-end courses in Scottsdale or Palm Springs but at affordable rates.
Apple store experience
If you haven’t been to an Apple retail store, you’re missing out. I recently visited the store at The Gateway in downtown Salt Lake City. Here are a few reasons it left an impact on me.
- The team was helpful and friendly. Great customer service and passionate people.
- Cool retail experience. Lots of technology to touch and play with. Groovy lighting and fixtures. Clean layout and brightness. Warm tones from hardwood.
- I felt at home. As a marketing guy, most of my energy is spent in creative thinking. I loved the atmosphere in the Apple store. I had a hard time leaving. It was like being at a great restaurant and not wanting to leave because of the great smell, ambience, and service.
- Education value. I sat in on two educational sessions on using a Mac and various Mac software. I was blown away. It was fun. It was creative. It made me think differently about how I interact with my computer.
My wife has a Mac that we purchased for video editing. I love to sit down and enjoy the experience of using her computer. The problem is that it’s nearly impossible to get a time slice because my wife’s always there. And I don’t blame her.
I’ve come up with the solution: I’m getting my own. Apple, as soon as you have that 12″ MacBook Pro, I’m there.
Would the iPod have prevented John Lennon from creating music?
My wife is reading The Beatles : The Biography by Bob Spitz. It’s been fun to talk with her about what she’s learning. We’re big Beatles fans around the House of Baldwin. Our children would rather listen to Abby Road over anything available from “their” generation.
As we talked about the music revolution that started in Liverpool in the late 50s and early 60s, I couldn’t help but think of the difference between kids then and kids now. To listen to music, you had to make it yourself, see a live show, of tune into just a few radio stations. I believe the lack of music availability was a driving force to the creativity of the day.
Today, we have iPods, XM Radio, MTV, digital music from DirecTV, etc. We have access to millions of songs from thousands of artists–all for $0.99 per download (or despite the RIAA’s efforts, for free from our friends). To experience the joy of music, we don’t have to wait for Friday or Saturday night to go to the pub. And the genres are endless. Indie, metal, classic, electronic, hip-hop, whatever.
I don’t play an instrument but wish I did; I’d like to sit down and make my own music. Until I learn to play, I will have to settle for my iPod.
But I frequently ask myself these questions:
- Is the reason I don’t learn to play because I have so much access to music?
- Is the reason that I find new music today so “bad” because the number of people making music is limited because of easy access?
- Would The Beatles or U2 or R.E.M. or Radiohead or Mozart have created the music that delivered joy and lasting impressions?
My son Dallen (on the far left) dressed up with his friends as The Beatles.
PalmSource migration to Linux
I was happy to read the PalmSource announcement that Linux will be the next platform for Palm OS-based smartphones. I think this is a good thing. It should attract a huge audience of developers who have been struggling to find sanity and direction in Palm OS land. Hopefully the manufacturers and carriers can come together with device that takes the smartphone to the next level. Hopefully, PalmOne will not let the Treo go off to Windows Mobile land.
Personally, I’d love to see an Apple iPhone with a variant of the OS that brings all the benefits of sleek design and consumer-friendly user experience that Apple does better than anyone.
A Brief walk down Smartphone memory lane
For me, it all started off when Kevin Myers, the former VP of Sales at SalesLogix and friend, talked about a new phone coming from Qualcomm. The Qualcomm pdQ would to be a phone and a Palm (which we were all carrying anyway) in the same device. The thought of a phone, contacts, appointments, tasks, and email was just too killer to pass up. Kevin was the first to have one. I remember Kevin taking grief because everyone called his phone “The Brick” because it was so big.
When Kyocera took over the device from Qualcomm and released the much anticipated QCP 6035 Smartphone, I was in the Kyocera booth at CES wearing my ACT!/SalesLogix sales and marketing hat sharing glowing predictions of how this device would change the world.
Since I was on the BizDev team at SalesLogix and always playing with th latest gadgets to help salespeople, I jumped into the Samsung SPH-1300, at the time a sleek candybar phone w/ the Palm OS. That one didn’t last too long–hot Arizona days made for frequent sweaty face marks on the screen.
Then Handspring jumped in the mix with the Treo 180. I purchased one of the first ones available in the Phoenix metro. From there I upgraded to the Treo 270 (unlocked version) as soon as it was available.
My Handspring Treo 600 GSM (unlock version) came next. To be honest, I really missed the flip phone. Guess after two in a row, I liked how the keys were protected. However, the 600’s keyboard and screen were so much better. And the heft just felt like the device was a “quality” piece.
I was happy to upgrade to the Treo 650. However, Handspring had been acquired by PalmOne, and now I was tormented by PalmOne’s working with carriers. Sprint was first out. I wanted GSM, so I had to wait and wait and wait and wait for the phone to be launched on GSM. I called Tmobile and Cingular nonstop. Finally Cingular launched, and I switched carriers to have the Treo 650 in late 2004. Still using it–last month had 35 MB of data transfer.
I doubt I’ll ever go back to a regular cell “phone” as I’ve tasted the sweetness of having everything in one device.
Opening the Door to the House
Tonight, I started. First steps:
- added PHP support to my site
- added mySQL database support
- created a mySQL database
- added a user to the database
- configured WordPress to work with my site
- uploaded WordPress to the site
- monkeyed around with WordPress settings, creating users and other things
- added Scott Lemon’s Inevitable.Org/anism site as a link
- posted this message