A different look on life

For the past year I've been part of a small group working on a project for the Down syndrome community to more accurately portray the capabilities of children and adults living with Down syndrome. By and large, the medical community views Down syndrome as a 'negative outcome' that can be avoided and, for the most part, one that is. Estimates put the U.S. abortion rate around 90%. Birth avoidance by some affects society's outlook on those who do live. For my son Andy's sake, a more accurate depiction than 'negative' needs to be shown.

I have observed in general, photographs of people with Down syndrome go one of two ways: either they are amateur shots of smiling kids' faces or they are professional shots of kids' faces. We set out to show more accurate images: kids and adults in their own element, and thriving.

We created some games for the kids so we could get them in a group every so often, but none of the pictures shown are fabricated or overtly staged. We had the kids and adults doing what they naturally do, with their own group of friends; we arranged our schedule around theirs and went to their locations. To this end, all environments, bikes, books, hills, and so forth are real. The peers are their regular peers that attend church, school, ballet, and so forth every week. Interactions between peers are genuine. Here is a sample of what we captured.

Best-In-Snow

3. Range Rover Sport. After a massive snow flurry that left a good dusting on the streets of Atlanta's northern suburbs, the counties promptly canceled school for the day and proclaimed a snow day. Unfortunate for all the little children who eagerly bundled up to make morning snowmen, the temperature never dropped below freezing, the snow turned to rain, and the snow was gone by morning. It was more of a 'snow evening' than a 'snow day.'

All this excitement did remind me of one of my favorite vehicles that is impractical enough to be on the wish list as a 'probably won't ever happen unless I move somewhere that actually snows.' The Range Rover Sport makes the list on account of my brief but very impressive encounter of New York roads impassable by anything else but the truly capable. Like a sports car that shows its true capability when outmaneuvering normal cars, the Range Rover really impresses when everything else gets stuck. It is expensive, has questionable reliability, gets terrible gas mileage, and is the antithesis of my MINI. But it makes this list because it is just gorgeous, really great in rough weather, and nicely imposing in fair weather.

Brick advertising

I'm in the middle of looking for new digs for work. I'm looking for something open, light, and historical. Unfortunately, historic buildings are in short supply; they aren't making them anymore. So, I'm driving all over. In Acworth I found a building with a restored flour advertisement; the Coca Cola ad is painted over the top and just as authentic.





In historic downtown Cartersville I found an original Coca Cola ad with a plaque stating "The first painted wall sign to advertise Coca-Cola was placed on this wall for the Coca-Cola Company in 1894. The sign was restored in 1989. Coca-Cola is a trademark of the Coca-Cola Company." It's a good thing they noted the trademark; people may think someone else owns a one-hundred-year-old ad.

Sporty C

I've never actually owned a Volvo. Okay, I've never come close, but it's not because I don't enjoy them; the Germans just happen to make cars a little more skewed to my liking. In the cycles wherein I've bought a new car, I test drive a whole slew of vehicles just to make sure I'm still on the right track. At least one Volvo has been included in each cycle. The styling has always been controversial, but I loved the V70 the first time I saw it (the boxy one, before they rounded the edges). It remains the best looking Volvo I know. And then I walked out the door of my office the other day and saw the C30.



Kyality is right, there is something appealing about it. I haven't had a chance to drive one, so I don't know how it stacks up or if it will make the wish list. But the advantage I have leaving the office so late is that no one was around and as I circled the C, I peeked in the windows and passed some judgements. It's bigger than my MINI, which is of course no real feat. But the thing about it is, it's much bigger; the wheels are more aggressive to hide the taller stance. And it looks like I could fit some actual stuff back there, not just a couple of grocery bags. It also looked good from most angles. They got the separated-twin tailpipes right. The headlights and hood shape are balanced. I typically don't like to congratulate Ford by proxy, but if nothing else good comes out of further research, the C30 is sure fun to look at.

Beneath perfect lines lie a sleeper

2. E39 5-series. From model years 1996-2003, BMW produced one of the most perfectly penned sedans in the world. I've always had a super soft-spot for this perfectly sized and balanced sleeper. Although it was possible to get with an underpowered engine, the same skin could hold a mighty 8 that would roar into play upon command. BMW knew this, too. Unlike most sedans where more money buys more luxury, the highest packages and models of the 5 series focused on sport. They were the 540 6-speed and the M5, both with sport packages and manual transmissions. I haven't driven an M5 much, but what I did I relished. It's instantly understandable and it's possible to be newly introduced yet get its real performance out. BMW nailed the target on this one.



An example of the 5 in the flesh, I parked next to this Dinan 5 at lunch today.

List of wishes

I had a conversation recently that centered around buying new cars. The others were leaning toward the optimum vehicle, and whatever that entails, while I was thinking that there really isn't a perfect vehicle for me. There are just too many great cars out there to live with just one or two over a ten-year period. Within reason, and if I had the means, I'm going to post a running list of what I'd love to lease (or buy) for 12 months.



1. Porsche Boxster S. From its inception, the Boxster has been a fantastic reincarnation of open tops from Porsche in years past. This is a beautifully balanced, amply powered, gorgeous sports car. It's not practical enough to live with it for years on end, but for a short year I would drive this like mad. National parks, parkways, and the occasional oceanside drive are entirely different experiences with the full wind blowing by. There are faster cars and there are more luxurious cars, but the Boxster is one that's unique, true to the Porsche heritage, and extremely satisfying to drive.

Embracing digital

The march toward digital is an inevitable one. I usually find myself split between the analog (physical) formats of last year and the digital ones of today. For example, this month marks the second anniversary of turning off our television reception: no over-the-air, cable, satellite, or anything else. Nothing. Instead we've bought movies, tv shows, and music from iTunes. And it has been really nice.

I'm not advocating a full switch to digital formats in an instant because, frankly, I don't see how it is financially viable. CD and DVD sales are declining while digital sales are increasing, however, the financial picture is not one that leaves the music or movie industry with as much revenue as they have now. In short, I think they're going to make less per unit in the future and they need to figure out how to make up the difference otherwise.



Which brings me to last week. I received a gift card to Blockbuster over the holidays and decided to redeem it this week buying a new Borne Ultimatum DVD, but alas, they had sold the few new copies they had. I left empty handed.

A few days later I decided I'd buy the copy of Casino Royale that I saw while browsing the new DVDs and returned to the store. Alas, they had sold the copy of that DVD as well. I left empty handed again.

This is the problem with physical copies. I wanted to spend money and was ready to buy at least one, if not both movies. But instead I have neither solely because there was not a physical copy at the same time and place as my physical money.

Digital doesn't have this problem. Sure you have to worry about unauthorized duplication, but beyond that, it has an astronomical advantage over physical distribution. Any time or place (proximate to an internet connection, of course) a customer has money, the digital copy is available. Figure this out and the movie industry will make up their shortfall.