Recently I came across the thought, “In a society driven by innovation, challenges would be seen as opportunities.” From this perspective, it’s not difficult to believe that we live in one of the most opportunity rich times in our history. No matter where you turn, it seems that another obstacle has been placed in the path to our own personal utopia.
It’s easy to whine about it. But other than keeping Austin on the radio, what does whining really accomplish? The more challenging path, the road less travelled, is to start turning all the crap that’s going on in the world into the possibility of doing better.
The secret is innovation. Innovation is about creation… the creation of new ideas, of new ways of doing things, of new ways of looking at the same tired old stuff. If we can’t create something new or envision taking a different path from time to time, we’re destined never to accomplish a thing. Innovation and creation both have their roots in imagination and in being able to think outside the box. Imagination is being able to step outside of your current life and say, “What if?”
Fortunately for Augusta, we do have a group of people within our town who are masters of asking “What if?” and, with a single-minded determination, they are pulling Augusta into the world of “What Could Be.” If you count yourself among the creative, please block out November 3 for the CSRA Innovation Festival. The application of innovation and creativity greatly impact our lives. One of the primary goals of the CSRA Innovation Festival is to showcase success stories in Augusta. Events at the festival will include,
- Innovation Competition — build something around the concept of improving mobility.
- Hackathon — Hack for Education (November 2 at 6 p.m. to November 3rd at noon).
- Innovation Business Showcase — display of innovations by organizations in the CSRA.
- Innovation Academic Fair — display of innovations by students in the CSRA.
- Coding Day Camp — learn to program simple code; an event for all ages.
- Deconstruction Derby — take apart devices to see how they work.
- Live Entertainment.
Making a List — Retailers have started putting Christmas decorations out, so it must be time to start making your Christmas list. If you know my wife, please pass along that I want the new G-Drive Slim external hard drive. This external drive is the latest in a trend of ultrathin USB 3.0 portable drives. While you can use this with any computer (you just need to reformat NTFS for Windows), this 500GB drive complements the Mac in form and function. Plug into any Mac running OS 10.4 or later, and the drive just works. The drive supports Time Machine, and the USB 3.0 performance via the Micro-USB 3.0 port was comparable or better than competing drives. That’s all fine and dandy, but I want it because it just looks cool sitting next to my MacBook Air!
Uhhgg… Uhhgg… — Just in time for Halloween, “The Walking Dead” season premiere is this Sunday! (Finally!) Check out their website for Season 3 webisodes. Happy Haunting!
Until next time, I’m off the grid @gregory_a_baker.You Might Also Like:
