My wonderful musical collaborator (who must remain a mystery to all but my closest confidants) just sent a wonderful gift – the iPod I’ve always wanted, but always hesitated to get for myself. It’ll be a great companion for my trip to England in August, where I’ll be attending the International Council For Traditional Music conference. I put together about 20 hours worth of music and audio (such as the Pimsleur Beginning Irish course), and it still only filled up a bit over a gigabyte of the 20 gig hard drive. Wow. I need to get some Daily Source Code,…
Irish becomes official working language of EU.
EU foreign ministers confirmed Irish as the 21st official and working language of the European Union yesterday. Beginning January 1, 2007, all primary legislation will be translated into Irish and ministers and MEPs can request to use Irish during council meetings and European Parliament plenary sessions.
Congratulations to Dave for three smokeless years.
I wish my father could give it up. He’s in his mid-60s, and has been smoking since his early teens. We’re blessed that he is still with us, and it amazes me that he is in such great shape. He’s got a lot more energy than I do, that’s for sure, something that I’m hoping to rectify with the new workout regimen I started last week. It’s been challenging not to overdo it and get muscle aches. So far, so good.
Memories of Ireland and Donegal.
I tend to get a bit nostalgic this time of year as the anniversary of our trip to Ireland approaches. I would love to be able to return to Gleann Cholm Cille and Oideas Gael every year. <Sob>
I am now a happy former cell phone owner.
I signed up for Verizon Wireless a bit over two years ago in preparation for a trip to Oklahoma. My wife and I were going to attend our son’s graduation from Army boot camp, and against my better judgement, I gave it to the little voice that kept telling me “just do it!” I have to admit that there have been occasions that it came in handy, but more often than not it wasn’t worth the hassle. It barely worked at our home – I had to go outside and stand on our l?nai (porch) in order to use it.…
Wie Finishes Second at LPGA Championships.
I have to admit that I am not a golf fan in any way, shape or form, and have never developed a case of “Wie Mania” like so many others in the state. However, for a 15 year-old who has just finished 10th grade to finish second in a major championship to the woman who is probably going to go down as the greatest female golfer ever, Michelle has earned props.
NahenaheNet Podcast #001!
I just did my first official podcast on Nahenahe. I’m so happy that Manila now automatically handles the RSS and enclosure elements, and it showed up on audio.weblogs.com. Sweet! Let’s see if I have the energy and can find enough content to keep up to my desired goal of making the podcast a weekly feature.
Instant Immersion Hawaiian wins an Audie from the Audio Publishers Association.
This audio course features the voices of my friends and colleagues Kaliko Beamer-Trapp and Kiele Akana-Gooch. Bill Clinton’s memoir, “My Life,” won the coveted Audiobook of the Year award, and was narrated by Clinton himself. “Instant Immersion Hawaiian” won a special Judges’ Award for language learning titles. It is available as an Audio CD format, and a Deluxe version.
Taking the plunge into podcasting.
I’ve always prided myself on being fairly quick to adopt new technologies on the web, but have lagged behind when it comes to podcasting. While I had some doubts regarding it’s popularity and future, my main fear was that it would simply become time and resource strain. After a long period of reflection and discussion with some friends, I’ve decided to start producing a podcast covering the music and music industry of Hawai’i. The first show should hit the podosphere this Sunday.
The Intel is coming!
As always, Scott offers his unique insight into the impending violation of the Macintosh motherboard by Intel chips. I actually chatted with a buddy via iChat as he was using one of the Intel-powered Macs running at WWDC, and he was blown away by the performance. Actually, Scott’s right – it’s just a chip. All the end user cares about is cost and performance. Developers who do machine code might get religious about the chipset choice, but most who program in higher-level languages probably won’t care much one way or the other.