It’s been a hectic year.
It started with some long-haul travel, lectures & skiing in Europe then back to NZ via the folks in ZA. A few months later it was trips to Melbourne to speak at the SRC and then Sydney for meetings, CLIC & ODMA. See the CLIC presentations here. Video, sound and presentations have been well integrated.
Technology can be pretty cool.
Bangkok followed in August and now it’s off to lecture in Shanghai and Hong Kong followed by presentations at the BCLA Pioneers day and Scottish CL Society in November. In January I contribute to a ski conference in Japan and at the GSLS in Vegas in the New Year.
Whew!
Although it’s great to see the world and exciting new places it’s always great to get back to NZ. Even though there’s no Utopia, we have a lot to be thankful for in Aotearoa.
Although technology is great, one can live without it, if you so desire.
Many do a brave job trying but most still use technology in some small way. Do we comprehend where we are technologically and the fine tightrope we tread?
In the early 1990s mobile phones were rare. When I left ZA in late ‘93, I knew a few (wealthy) people with car phones. They cost forty grand back then, with old fashioned handsets connected by wire to a box between the seats the size of a six-pack.
In January 1994 ROCOM, a local cell phone retailer, offered a one-off deal I couldn’t ignore: “Be the first in store and get a FREE Ultra Sleek 9660 Motorola cell phone” The second person paid $100, the third got one for $200 and so on. They cost two grand then. As a poor new immigrant it seemed like a good idea.
I duly arrived at ROCOM to stake out my spot, just before midnight. I was relieved to see I was first. The relief was less profound when I noted I was next door to the Auckland City Mission in Hobson Street. I had an interesting evening.
At around 1.00AM, two of the largest Pacific Islanders I’d ever seen arrived. “Are you first bro?” they asked, towering over me as I sat in the doorway. “Yep” I replied nervously. “In that case I’m second, and my bro is third” replied the larger of the two. No one hassled me that night. By 8.00AM there was quite a crowd.
I got my free phone.
Some months later I phoned the folks back home from the top of a crest on Black Magic, out West at Whakapapa, on my birthday. They were duly impressed with the technology. Minutes later I skied off a ledge only to find a steep rock face below. It was nearly my last phone call. I somehow managed to land on a ledge of snow and extricate myself unharmed but shaken. My guardian Angel must have been working overtime.
That was exactly fifteen years ago.
This birthday the Boks delivered me an even better present in Hamilton on 12/9, which per chance happens to coincide with 9/11 in the USA. Per chance I watched the original 911 unfold on my birthday, live on TV in Hamilton. I was there to lecture at a contact lens meeting. After lectures we played pool and had a few Tequilas. As you do. Around 1.00am I was back at the motel watching TV as I got ready for bed. As one does. I saw the BBC breaking news of 911 and called my wife in Auckland. She asked why I would wake her to watch the movie ‘Towering Inferno’ at 1.00AM, happy birthday, am I drunk or what? At that point the second plane exploded into the 2nd tower. That got her attention. Unbelievable.
By comparison this relatively trivial hat trick of wins by the Boks cements the fact they are unquestionably the best. No arguments. It’s the first time since 1949 the ABs have lost three in a row to the Boks. The Boks have all the cups. History has been made.
Roll on 2011.
I went to a Boks vs ABs game in Hamilton fifteen years ago on the Mooloo train. The Boks won. It was a different mood on the way back to Auckland, compared to the journey down. I did however survive the trip. To their credit rugby fans are pretty good. I would have been dead if it was a UK soccer game and a lippy Jaapie like me was in an opposition train. I guess that’s one reason why I always respected the NZ fans as good sports. One reason I find the bad sportsmanship so evident since the last world cup disappointing. I guess it harps back to the old divisions of the 1981 rugby tour. Kiwis were torn. As were South Africans.
It gets taken seriously.
Only a game?
Thankfully there are of course still good sports around. As to the rest I suggest they get a good dose of good humour or else as hosts of the 2011 RWC they will not make a positive impression of NZ, rugby or its fans…
Only those with psychotic delusions of grandeur continue to hang on to the misconception that the formerly mighty All Blacks are still the greatest. They will of course be great again. When I got here it was the heady days of Fitzy and Zinny, the Jones brothers, Goldie, Mehrts et al. Legendary.
Every dog has his day.
An Ultra Sleek 9660 Motorola does not measure up to a modern interpretation of sleek. They were affectionately known as bricks. TXT was not yet invented.
I turned my phone off in 1995 when I got back into optometry full time. I didn’t need one. I didn’t like cell phones much (nor microwaves) and have managed to be mobile-free since. I said I’d get one when they did everything. Video, stills, GPS, web etc.
That time has come. I’ve finally succumbed and scored an amazing iPhone. A full house 32GB 3GS. Pretty Sleek! Pretty impressive.
I’m a convert.
It’s arguably the best technological innovation I have ever owned. I’ve had many.
It does way better than what a suitcase of equipment couldn’t do when I was an optometry student. Full web access and almost unlimited libraries of information at my literal fingertips. It does what buildings full of equipment and information couldn’t do when I was born and then some. It does stuff they only dreamed about throughout the 1900s and indeed all of history. It does stuff no one imagined was possible. Incredible.
I’ve downloaded some amazing apps that are great with my travels and various other interests. I’m already a gun on ‘Need for speed undercover’ [NFSU] cracking all the levels in the first few days. The only downside? Hours of intense concentration on NFSU has pushed me over the presbyopic edge.
iPhone ruined my eyes?
Or do I sound too much like those forty-something patients who blame their presbyopia on computers?
I’m not far off having my arm twisted just a little more and dumping Microsoft & VISTA and getting an Apple. A full house MacBook Pro with a fast Intel chip sounds good. It will integrate nicely with my new 3GS. It will do multimedia better and that suits me too. I’ve used Apples before when I helped publish NZ AutoNews in ’94 and in my late teens Apple IIs were cool. They were all okay I guess; good at what they did, in their day.
Contact Lenses and eyecare technology in general follow a similar pattern to other technologies like mobile and computing technology, albeit not as spectacularly. Today cool as Apples run the same chips as Windoze machines one can run Windows concurrently on an Apple machine. You don’t have to divorce Bill completely. The biggest stumbling block with Apple is price. They control sale tightly and everything is linked and usually costs like iTunes and App Store for starters.
Apples also seem to be less buggy and relatively virus free, but never immune.
That may change as they get a bigger slice of the pie.
If you commune with society you will get viruses, no matter what you do. Virtually, figuratively or literally.
Eyes get viruses too. Bacteria and other nasties as well. We still strive to get MK rates down. We will likely be seeing some novel technologies down the track. The single use market will continue to grow. High Dk is now at last pretty much available across the board. Now we need something even better. Something gentler, wetter, softer, clearer, biocompatible and microbe resistant.
Will we see reductions in MK and other complications?
Unfortunately there are always risks. Be it Stocks or Property, Contact Lenses or Refractive Surgery.
All things carry risk.
Spring is sprung. As usual I planted my first crops by 1st September. My first hot house reared tomato has been outdoors for over two weeks. It already has a few plum sized fruit. Not bad by mid September! Each year I break my previous record. Or is it global warming?
I received some sage gardening advice from an Ouma: If you want to grow cuttings get a few Aspirin, crush them up with a few teaspoons of water. Dip the cuttings and plant. I didn’t believe it so tried it. Most if not all the cuttings took. Previous attempts with the same plants without Aspirin over the years only provided maybe 20% success.
No wonder so many older guys take Aspirin.
It makes for good wood and roots?
Another thing some of you may appreciate is that with spring comes the end of the F1 and Rugby seasons so much less about all that. Next month we’ll take a look at some cases, new products, journal articles and wrap the year up in December with the annual best of the web feature.