The Dark Knight & Hancock

This weekend I saw "The Dark Knight" as well as "Hancock". DK was, in a word, awesome! Christian Bale is the definitive Batman and Heath Ledger is hands-down the best Joker. Bale easily portrays Bruce Wayne in a way that Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, and George Clooney (was that even worthy of 'Batman' status?) never could. Let's hope he continues the Batman saga and doesn't disappoint with Terminator 4. Ledger's performance as The Joker was evil, dark, unyielding and overall stellar. It's a shame he will no longer be able to give another powerful performance. Dark Knight's two and half hours didn't feel that long thanks to the intense action and steady plot. No spoilers here but one question for my audience -- where can I get one of those Batmobiles?

"Hancock" was a decent movie and worth seeing in the theater (compared to the wasted $17 dropped on "The Happening"). Will Smith was good in this movie and the one-liners were hilarious! Jason Bateman's role was nondescript basically serving as a cast filler to make the story work with Smith and Charlize Theron bringing the brawn and beauty, respectively.

Wow! That's-a-lot-o-dirt!

Having owned my car for just over a year now I thought it would be a good time to change the cabin air filter. If you don't know, many cars built since 2000 have cabin air filtration systems. Want to know if yours does? Check out a site like Google or check in with AutoZone.

Don't try and clean it, just replace it. They average $20-30 at AutoZone and three cars that I've changed the filter on took no more than 15 minutes each. Most manufacturers recommend changing them annually, or 15K miles. It does make a difference! See for yourself (obviously, new filter on the left)...

Independence Day

232 years of freedom. Happy 4th of July to all Americans!

Michael & Sarah Bradley

Today's post is a heart-felt congratulations to Michael and Sarah. God put two great people together and we wish you both all the love, health, and happiness in the world.
Photos by Bob Miller.

LiveSTRONG Day, May 13, 2008

Friends and Family,

TOMORROW, May 13th, 2008, is LiveSTRONG Day where you can show your support of cancer survivors everywhere by wearing YELLOW.

I'm sorry for the short notice, but would really appreciate it if you show your support to me and all of the Survivors out there! In fact, if you wear yellow tomorrow, snap a pic of yourself wearing yellow (or get someone to) and send me the pic! I'm collecting them this year! Send it by email, cell phone, Facebook, or pigeon!

Thanks!!!

Today's Student, Tomorrow's Worker

As many of you know, I work in the IT field. Last year I searched Google 5,617 times, composed over 5,000 emails, and read 3 printed books. This is interesting to me, because though I'm not yet a father, I wonder about the quality of the education my future children, and your children, will receive. Many classes today still teach the same way I learned -- I sat in a class of 20-30 students, with a printed textbook, and listened to my teacher speak or show me transparency slides. Today, the textbook is outdated the day it is printed and those static slides won't keep any child's attention. So, how are you kids being challenged and engaged to learn in the 21st century? Have you spoken to the teachers yourself and made them answer the question?

Please take 15 minutes to watch the two videos below. It's not about how they will learn in the future. I think they do an outstanding job of opening your mind to what your children face TODAY.

Watch: Did You Know? 2.0

Watch: A Vision of Students Today

Have a thought? Comment below. /jab

Weather in Tennessee

I know many of my readers are outside of Tennessee... just 2 days ago it was almost 75. They say if you don't like the weather, wait a minute...(yeah, taken with iPhone)

Lifehouse's Everything Skit

My brother recently shared this video with me and it is truly one of the most amazing skits I've seen performed. I hope you all enjoy it!

4 years, but who's counting?

Two posts in one day? Yeah, I need to thank people as I celebrate my 4th anniversary (I know I'll leave someone out, I'm sorry, I don't mean to. So, THANK YOU, too!)

THANK YOU...

• God, for opening my eyes, for the best doctors, medicine (though they can use a little more work) -- something with that Dimetapp grapey goodness would be great -- and for Your love.
• Stephanie -- for never leaving my side, for your tireless care, attention and love. I love you.
• Mom and Dad -- for always being there, for loaning me the brown leather couch in the bonus room with the brown blanket for hours of sleep, for the countless calls at all hours, for helping Stephanie. You guys are the best.
• Michael -- for your countless prayers and endless brotherly love. Sarah's getting a great one.
• My grandparents, Pa, Granny, and Babi -- for your prayers, love, and comforting words of encouragement.
• Chris -- you've been my best friend for half my life. Now that's either because you couldn't find anyone else to put up with you, or you're actually a good guy. :) Thanks for the hundreds of Pez.
  
• Doctor's Shipley, Guha, Conner, and Roberts -- for your care and your devotion to your work, which you do so incredibly well
• Oncology nurses of Tennessee Oncology -- angels on earth. Every single one of you. Thank you.
• ICU Nurses at Centennial -- for your limitless attention to patient needs, comfort, and well-being. You're amazing individuals.
• To countless friends, extended family, and complete strangers for all of your prayers and wonderful words of encouragement.

/JB

Faith

Having just celebrated four years of being cancer free I couldn't be more happy. As time has passed it has become easier for me to talk about what my family and I went through. Recently, I've shared the story I originally wrote in 2004 -- "Six Months in Heaven" -- with several friends that didn't even know me at the time. I have been asked a question by several people which they probably thought would be a tough one to answer.

The question, in a nutshell, is "How can you believe in [or love] God when faced with having cancer?"
The simple answer to this seemingly tough question lies in a single word -- Faith.

My copy of Webster's defines 'faith' as [1] allegiance to duty or a person, and [2] something that is believed with especially strong conviction. For many, seeing is believing. For me, Faith in God is believing even when you can't see.

Cancer was not punishment. It was a fierce, violent, physically damaging storm that I knew would end, but the end was never in sight. I had Faith then as I have it now, my friends, and every day since the sunsets are more and more beautiful.

Microsoft Home and CIW of the Future

Earlier this month I enjoyed another great trip to Seattle (pics) for Microsoft Sharepoint Conference 2008. The conference was really beneficial to our progress at work in leveraging Sharepoint for our intranet, collaboration, and data management to the extent possible. After the conference we were privileged to visit Redmond, Washington, at Microsoft's headquarters. There, in Building 33 -- better known as the Microsoft Executive Briefing Center -- Chris and I were invited to visit the Microsoft Home of the Future and the Center for Information Work.

Microsoft Home of the Future
I enjoyed this tour more than the CIW, personally. It starts in an Asian-style entry way where when the doorbell rings the homeowner's cell phone chirps with an image of the visitor. The owner can then choose options to ask the visitor to leave a message or even unlock the door remotely. Once inside, the house -- "Grace" -- tells where the members of the family are, the weather and a few reminders. "Grace" presents herself visually using OLED technology, hidden behind the painted wall. We saw pervasive use of RFID tags in place of today's more common UPC labels. The RFID technology allows for items -- decorations, greeting cards, anything -- to be tagged with meta-data. The house 'knows' what items are on the kitchen counter, what ingredients are missing from the recipe that's being projected onto the counter. The dining room can be redecorated on the fly for the child's party -- changing wall projections, and even projecting interactive placemats on the table that the kids can play with. There's way too much to mention here, but wildly entertaining.

Microsoft Center for Information Work
Still impressive was the CIW. In this room there were a multitude of workstations. Some had what appeared to be three 20" projection screens, some were tablets, many flat panels, and even haptic-based input panels (aka multi-touch). We saw voicemails converted to text on the fly and placed into your Inbox with emails, meetings, and more -- with the system able to filter out what you don't want or what is lower priority. Advanced videoconferencing was shown with Microsoft's Roundtable device, along with Office Communication Server to demonstrate the ability to be "seated" across from a panel of speakers even in a standard office environment setting.

"Across the Universe"

This week I had the pleasure of watching (in Blu-ray goodness) one of the past year's greatest movies -- "Across the Universe".

This movie tells a story of love, war, hope and peace told through the music of the Beatles. Nearly 20 Beatle hits, sung in a myriad of ways, provide one of the most amazing soundtracks I've heard. One scene in particular, centered around 'Let It Be' is one of the most heart-wrenching scenes, depicting the Detroit riots in the early 60's.

I encourage you to make this one of the next movies you see.

...and we're back!

Hey, friends! Sorry about the hiatus. Work and life got a bit hectic in January. Coming soon... more witty banter. :)

2007: A Year in Review

On New Year's Eve I like to take a moment to look back on the year that is soon coming to an end. This year Stephanie and I welcome new children into our extended families:

• Jacob Pawlowski - our nephew, joined the family in January
• Maya Grace Clay - a cousin born to Paige Lemons and Jordan Clay in August
• Molly Jewel Biggs - a cousin born to Duane and Beth Biggs in October

Our new[er] Acura TL, which we joyously acquired this year, was able to stretch it's legs on the road with travels to Asheville, North Carolina, to see the Biltmore Estate, multiple trips to Cincinnati to visit family and participate in the year's Heartwalk, and to Fort Walton Beach, Florida. In Florida we attended the wedding of Stephanie's brother Greg to his new wife, Laura. Her daughter Lauren also joins our ever-growing family.

This fall Stephanie began a new job with HCA as a Primary Therapist and I was appointed Director of Information Technology at Vanderbilt University Law School.

Overall, our entire family was blessed this year with good health and wellness. Steph and I celebrated a wonderful 3.5 years of my being cancer free!

I'm looking forward to a wonderful 2008, which as of now, we know will bring the marriage of my brother to his fiance, Sarah Miller, as well as more family additions as Andy & Stephanie Biggs grow their family one more time. Thank you all for being a part of our lives this year, whether we see you daily, weekly, ocassionally, or just via this blog.

Jason Bradley KIA

Jason Bradley KIA

My brother being the genius he is decided to give me a nerf LongShot (read: sniper rifle) for Christmas. The gun splits into two weapons. Epic battles were fought between Michael and I on Christmas Eve night... some were won, others were lost (shown here). Yes, I "died" while changing the clip.

Story of Stuff

Today a relative shared a video with me that I agree to be a great message about the importance of voting and taking action in our own lives. You'll need 10 minutes or so to watch, but it's well worth the time.

James Andrew Hutzel

This weekend's trip to Cincinnati for an early Thanksgiving gathering turned tragic. Stephanie's grandfather, Mr. James A. Hutzel, passed away Saturday morning due to declining health. He was 87. We obviously didn't live close to Steph's grandparents, but I did have the pleasure of meeting them and spending time with them nearly a dozen times. Grandpa Hutzel was a man with a good sense of humor, loved his family dearly, and will truly be missed.

3.5 Years

The news is in. Cancer Free for 3.5 years. Amen.

Leopard + Parallels + Vista = Awesome

This week we received our new 24" iMac at work that we will use to test various services across multiple platforms and browsers. It arrived with the Leopard DVD in the box -- which was promptly installed. Leopard is nice. CoverFlow is handy and the new dock is awesome. We installed Parallels 3.0 on the iMac (and the Leopard update for Parallels) and promptly began installing Vista Ultimate into a virtual machine. Once Vista was installed and running we turned on Coherence Mode in Parallels and WOW -- incredibly nice. Peep the screenshot below. You'll see an IE window from Vista, a Finder window from Leopard (showing CoverFlow view of fonts), and the OS X and Start menus along the top. The best of both worlds? I think so.

GOOG411 - it's free, use it

I get the frequent occasional call from a friend or family member which starts with "are you near a computer" and generally, quickly followed by "I need you to look up a number for me." It's almost always for a business/company listing. While I'm generally one to help out where I can, I also feel it can be discourteous at times.

That said, allow me to repeat share with you a very important number:

1-800-GOOG411

(1-800-466-4411)

I beg you. I implore you. Put this number in your mobile phone's speed dial. Put this number by the phones in your house. This number will find any non-residential listing that you want, using only your voice, and will not cost you a dime. You will not hear any advertisements.

Embrace Google, for it is good. See how it works.