I’ve been mostly offline today due to my migration from Outlook 2003 to 2007; more on that later. While I had downtime in between .OST and .PST file movement, I realized I’m not getting any younger. Dare I say it: am I reaching that mid-life point and can expect the standard crisis? I think so because my mobile tech needs have changed. I used to crave run-time over performance, but the pendulum has swung back. I need power and speed in my mobile technology. Run-time can be extended but performance? Well, you typically need to buy that right from the beginning. Sure, you can tune up and tweak, but how far will it get you?

Yup, my needs are definitely changing and it’s evident by the latest potential acquisition. What is that I’m considering? It’s not what you think…in fact, I’d give every reader three guesses and I still think nobody would figure it out…

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Just a quick off-topic post to pay respects to a peer in the blogosphere: Adam Finley. Although I didn’t meet him personally, I knew Adam through blogging at AOL / Weblogs; he blogged over at TV Squad. He was hit by a bus while riding his bicycle, tragically ending life at an all-too-short 30 years. For the better part of two days, authorities were unable to identify Adam and ended up working with Apple to help determine his identity: with keys and his iPod in possession at the accident, Apple traced the iPod to Adam via the registered serial number.

Thank you for indulging me during this short post. Warm thoughts to Adam, his friends and family.

Long-time readers of jkOnTheRun probably get tired of seeing posts like this one today marking my sixth anniversary of open-heart surgery.  It seems like yesterday that I went through that life-changing ordeal and like I do every year I am linking to my personal chronicle of it.  If you haven’t read "from the heart" you might find it interesting, if not just skip over it and there will be more mobile tech news to come.  Here’s a brief excerpt of "from the heart".

"Mr. Kendrick, can you hear me? I’m Mrs. Reinhard, the patient carefacilitator here at Methodist hospital. Are you comfortable? I’ll bemaking sure your wife and family are OK while you’re in surgery asyou’ll be there for a while. Do you want to tell me anything beforethey take you back?"

I have to think about that one. I’m so cold, it’s so cold in here.How should I respond that won’t conflict with my Southern upbringing.You must be stoic when confronted with the most terrifying thing inyour entire life. Scared beyond words that you will never wake up.Scared that they won’t be able to fix your problem. Scared that you’llnever, ever see your beautiful wife and wonderful children again.Terrified that you’ll be an invalid after the surgery.

"Thank you but I’m fine."

"You understand the procedure you’re about to undergo, right Mr.Kendrick? Would you like to talk about it or ask me any questions?"

"No, I’m fine. Tell my wife that I love her and I’ll see her shortly. She doesn’t handle upsetting things very well."

"Well, OK, Mr. Kendrick. Don’t you worry- Dr. Lawrie is one of thebest surgeons in the world and you’ll be just fine. I’ll sit with yourwife for a while and make sure she knows what’s going on with yourprocedure. They’ll be coming to take you into surgery in a few minutes.I’ll see you in the recovery room." (What I didn’t know then is that Dr. Lawrie worked for 20 years on the personal surgical team of Dr. DeBakey, the pioneer of cardiac surgery. Sometimes you just get lucky.)

As she walked away I hoped that Sheri would be OK. A single teartrickled involuntarily down my cheek. I suppose it was still there whenthe doctors and nurses started their work.

Continue reading from the heart.

On this Fathers Day we wish all of you Dads out there a very happy day!  May you spend it with family and friends.  My father is no longer with us and I will spend this day reflecting on what he meant to me and the impact he had on my Life.

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Maybe the title should be "Will blog for coffee" since I’ve got the mobile office visiting a brand new Starbucks today; I’m at the Lansdale, PA coffeehouse testing the WiFi. Unlike James’ recent experience, no salsa music here. I’d call it some type of world-beat music but I listen to Country and New Age, so what would I know?

I suppose it’s time to come clean as I’ve received a number of e-mails asking what I’m up to. Some recent reader comments asking about my mobile movement have elicited nothing but pithy responses from me, but I strongly believe in transparency, so let me explain the post title and get you all up to date.

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Everybody needs a place to go for relaxing, perhaps with a good book, but mainly to get a way from it all for a short while.  It recharges the spirit and is good for you.  If you’re fortunate enough to have your retreat in your own home so much the better.  We are fortunate enough here at Mobile Tech Manor to have a long balcony outside the master bedroom.  We were at a loss what to do with it until recently.  My beautiful wife Sheri decided to do something about it while I was away in Seattle and she single-handedly turned it into an oasis of calm in our crazy bustling house. 

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If it wasn’t the very first, I’m sure it was among the first! Pardon the off-topic post, but I wanted to share some personal news that my Twitter friends already saw. I’m getting married! Actually, this news isn’t really that off-topic: if it wasn’t for Barb’s never-ending support, I wouldn’t be blogging or podcasting. She knows that my ultimate goal is to leave the full-time corporate world behind in favor of working on mobile tech writing, videos and podcasts. She’s rarely complained about my daily grind of working a full-time job and blogging part-time (OK, full time on some days!). In fact, she used to participate in a podcast with me that actually got us featured on the 11pm news here in Philly (16 MB WMV file) almost two years ago.

I’m very lucky since she’s an amazingly beautiful and intelligent person in her own right; what more could one ask for in a life partner? This will be a second marriage for each of us, so we may not be completely traditional. In fact, we started breaking tradition with a Palladium engagement ring (after the jump) since Barb has a degree in fashion design and has her own great sense of style. Instead of a solitaire diamond, we opted for something that fits her style every day: intricate design in the middle and diamond chips on the edges. Thanks for all of the warm wishes on Twitter and remember when you read a post by me here, you wouldn’t be able to read it if I didn’t have Barb’s support.

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You may have wondered where I was yesterday, I know Kevin sure must have.  Truth is my daughter, son-in-law and Grandbaby Grady arrived in Houston yesterday for a short visit and needless to say I have been enjoying the visit.  They live up north and I don’t get to see them very often, certainly not often enough, and I have to take advantage of the visits when they happen.  This visit made me realize something about the Internet, now we’re not restricted to just annoying friends and family by pulling out pics of the grandkids.  Now we can annoy thousands of people by doing the same thing:

What a face! 

Normally we keep all of the posts related directly or indirectly to mobile tech, but I wanted to pass along some personal info. I’ll be on the road and mostly off-line today through the weekend. Unfortunately, Barbara’s father passed about two weeks ago, so we’re heading down to Florida morning. Her dad wishes to have his remains scattered out to sea and we’ll be honoring that wish.

Of course, Sammy will be accompanying us as always, but I’ve already scouted the locations we’ll be in; while on the East Coast of the Panhandle, we’ll have EV-DO, but not while on the West Coast, which is where we’ll be a majority of the time. I know I have some e-mail questions that deserve answers from some readers and I’ll tackle them along the way as connectivity and time allow.

In the meantime, enjoy drooling over the newest UMPC from TabletKiosk, download the latest mobile tech podcast, and be sure to backup your valuable data. Most of all, take a few minutes out of your busy mobile lifestyle and sit down with your family. You don’t even need to DO anything, just sit together in a quiet setting with no computer, TV, iPod or video games. Enjoy the moment and see what happens.

-kct

-jk