I'm lonely tonight. But then again, I'm not really, thanks to technology...
Lisa and Natalie are in Iowa tonight for the Odyssey of the Mind World Finals, and they'll be there for the rest of the week, getting home late Sunday night. Meredith and I would have liked to have gone, but Meredith's absences would have been unexcused since she's not on the team, so she and I are home tonight. And after I put her to bed at 8 o'clock, as Glenn Frey said way back when, this big old house gets lonely. And my wife and daughter are 500 miles away.
Except it didn't feel like it. Lisa called on her cell phone to tell me that the Opening Ceremonies of the World Finals were being broadcast live over the Internet, so at 8:30 PM I went to the Odyssey of the Mind website and (after downloading Real Player*) I logged onto the live broadcast and watched the Opening Ceremonies as if I were there. Lisa and I texted back and forth throughout the ceremony, and during a lull she called me. As we talked I could hear in the background what was happening live, and I discovered that my stream was about 12 seconds behind real time, which isn't bad. Lisa would say, "The parade is going past me right now" and in twelve seconds I could look and there she was on the front row. It was really nice.
The Opening Ceremonies are just like the Olympics. First all of the international (Non-U.S.) teams marched into the stadium, followed by each of the participating U.S. state teams. Only one team member from each school was allowed to parade, and Natalie was not that person for her school. But like I said above, that was okay...she and Lisa had front row seats.
The photo above is a screenshot of what I was watching, in actual size. The screenshot is the moment that the Kentucky paraders entered the stadium.
As I've mentioned in previous posts, this whole Odyssey of the Mind thing is new to this family, but we've been assured that Lisa and Natalie will have the time of their lives. I'll write more about it later. And if you're interested, the Awards Show this Saturday from 8:30 until 10:30 (EST) will also be streamed live at the Odyssey of the Mind website above.
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*Who, other than Odyssey of the Mind, uses the Real Player anymore? I didn't even know that software was still around!
3 comments:
I confess I am using Real Player. Maybe it is Odyssey of MY mind!
And I have to confess that after I downloaded it last night I found that my opinion of Real Player changed quite a bit. Thanks to Youtube and itunes the need for Real Player has gone way down, but they've drastically improved their software! The ability to capture and save video as it's streaming, as well as the ability to download video in other formats and convert them, is really, really cool! So I need to revise my opinion about RealPlayer and give it another chance.
And I know, you weren't REALLY looking for a conversation about RealPlayer. You were making a joke. But I felt I ought to say that after taking a rip at the product.
I didn't know any better, I had RP for a long time, probably too long.
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