This young man and his cheerful attitude amaze me. So, he enters this contest a few months back from a local Honda dealer in Southern California… Simple, 200-word essay… Out of over 800 entries, who do they pick? That’s right… COLE!

But wait, there’s more! Guess what? After seeing Cole’s story, the dealers decide it was not a Honda Element Cole needed but a FULLY ACCESSIBLE TOTALLY ADAPTED ODYSSEY MINI-VAN! As Cole says HOLY FRIGGIN’ COW!

Now mom and dad won’t have to lift Cole to get him in and out of the car, he can roll him self, and use a lift, and mom and dad can roll in a nice new van.

Way to go Cole, YOU ROCK! I can’t think of a more deserving person!

To check out the video here’s what to do:
Visit http://www.socalhonda.com
Click on “Free Honda“… Then click on Massie Family…
You can also try this direct link from Yahoo Video

Do check it out, it’s a very nice video.

For Cole’s actual post on his own blog visit here.

Cole YOU ROCK!

Well as I visit Apple’s web site, today I see they’ve made some new additions. Most notably High-quality, DRM-free music to iTunes, AND at different price points. How ever I must admit, I’ve never bought music from the iTunes Store, most of my music is digitalized from my own CD’s I have on hand.

But with DRM Free MP3’s it’s possible to copy your songs now to any system, any iPod, any CD, you buy it YOU own it, with no restrictions. As it should be. So now I may decide to get some stuff; who knows?

“Now, you can choose from millions of iTunes Plus songs from all four major music labels and thousands of independents. With iTunes Plus, you get high-quality, 256-Kbps AAC encoding. All free of burn limits and digital rights management (DRM).” ~ Apple

iWork and iLife have also been updated. I don’t really care. I’ve never used either program. Though if I ever do get into Pod Casting or Audio Blogging, it’s a thought.

The biggest news that makes me VERY HAPPY… Is the release of the new Apple MacBook Pro 17″. It has a new faster CPU, can use up to 8GB of RAM (though very costly from Apple!, I suggest like others you buy 3rd party RAM from Crucial.com), – but most of all it’s 17″ AND Apple seems to have listened to the FLOOD of complaints to bring back an Anti-glair screen choice! This is what will sell me on the MBP 17″!

Apple MacBook Pro 17" Laptop

A few months back I did try the new MBP 15″ with glossy screen, despite the thoughts of me being able to possibly use a 15″ screen the glair from the very shiny very reflective glossy screen was a real pain. I much prefer matt screen, my 23″ Apple HD Display is matt and I have really gotten use to it. Reflections are minimal to almost none, and working with photos is easy. My 23″ is a hardware calibrated monitor set up for photography.

Among other things the new MBP 17″ now has the large glass 1-button track pad with “Multi Touch” (very cool)… and a very improved 8-hour (according to Apple) battery life. That is VERY impressive.

Though, I’m a little worried simply because the new battery is built into the system and is not user replaceable like other laptops. By doing this Apple could make it bigger, but you now have to go to Apple to get it replaced. But on the flip side, they say it should last for 1000 charges and about 5 years. You can watch the Apple Battery Video for a better understanding.

In all I must say I am impressed. I’ll have to head to the local Apple Store and check it out (in about a month or so when they come in). I think a laptop could be very useful for my photography, and I hope my upcoming travel. After all, getting out in the world is something this blog is about!

Well tonight was another outstanding judo class. Judo what? OK let me explain.

I have been in the martial art of Kodokan Judo for over 15 years now. I’ve been assisting with our kids class at Pottstown Judo since 1999 and the rank of Sankyu (3rd Level Brown Belt, judos student ranks go backwards 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1)… I received my Shodan (1st Degree Black Belt) in 2007.

Judo (translated “Gentle Way”) though not really “Gentle” at all… Is the modern form of Japanese Ju-jitsu (Not that Brazilian stuff). Japanese Ju-Jitsu, is one of the oldest forms practiced by the Samurai. To this day JUDO is one of the most practiced martial arts on the global scale; and is second only to soccer as a world sport. Judo is both an Olympic AND Paralympic (for the blind) sport…

[googlevideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2284338885668404790[/googlevideo]

Judo Promotional Video by the Kyoto Judo Team, Japan.

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