By Pat Orr
Apple Valley Review
It didn’t take long for the first of my predictions from last week’s column to be threatened. I was thinking without a big “name” in the race for the 21st State Senate District that if the Victor Valley pulled together, local voters could put Hesperia Mayor Eric Schmidt in that office.
Apparently the Los Angeles side of the district saw the same future and now, like magic, former Assemblywoman and State Senator Sharon Runner is back on the scene and ready to resume public office.
You may recall she was forced to resign her Senate seat because of serious illness. Subsequently she underwent a very unusual double lung transplant. It’s fair to say that many a politico in the Antelope Valley owe their careers to George and Sharon Runner who together have dominated the Senate and Assembly seats in our area for a decade or more.
Steve Knight wouldn’t be in Congress today if he hadn’t followed a Runner into the Assembly and then State Senate.
My question, really, is whether Mrs. Runner is actually eager and able to resume office or is it just that the “powers that be” in L.A. County can’t face losing this seat to a Victor Valley based candidate? I like both Runners and voted for them multiple times — George just was re-elected as our District Board of Equalization Member — but perhaps it’s time for new faces and new energy in local Republican politics.
I are a tweeter
I received a short book for Christmas written by Steve Martin which consists of his funny tweets and some clever responses from folks who follow him. This inspired me to enter the Twitterverse (loud fanfare insert here).
I decided I will use this communication device for short but brilliant commentary on everything that ticks me off or makes me chuckle. It’s cheaper than psychoanalysis and may relieve some of the pressure on my wife of having to hear me verbalize this stuff.
I may not tweet daily or I may tweet every 30 seconds if I’m sitting at a standstill on the freeway to blow off steam.
Be forewarned — my editor at the newspaper won’t get a look at my tweets before they launch and trust me when I tell you no one will be responsible for their content but me, and even I may deny a few.
With all the new gadgets that are being released to us daily I have to at least try to stay a few years behind in the social media world or I may never be able to communicate with my grandson when he’s able to sit upright and reach a keyboard.
If you’re tired of waiting for the next Kardashian tweet, you can follow me at @OrrOrrAV. If that address doesn’t work, I have no idea what to tell you. I’m new at this. And yes, as you’ll see on my Twitter profile, Dennis is my “real” first name.
Big Brother makes sci-fi tech its tool
At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week the big “buzz” was about all the wearable devices hitting the market to help you live better and longer lives. These new gadgets measure your exercise activity, your sleep patterns, your heart and pulse rate and can monitor and track diet and any number of human activities while receiving email and text messages.
Less conspicuous was a report in the Wall Street Journal about a group who have developed a mobile phone application (app) to help identify post-partum depression in new mothers. How, you ask, can a phone app do this?
Through intense studies the app can track how long a mommy spends on the phone, her breathing and tone of voice and compare it to before the birth and after the baby comes. They have data that shows that women with depression have more and longer phone conversations, tend not to leave the house as much — don’t forget, your phone can track your location — and other key indicators that can alert the user they may have depression issues.
If you combine this technology with the “activity tracker” programs and throw in a few voice recognition programs that can gauge whether or not the speaker is telling the truth, the phone of the future could be a virtual lie detector and diagnostician on the go. Think what this will mean for cheating husbands who can no longer call home with the “I will be late at the office tonight” excuse, or the high school kid who swears to Mom and Dad who are on their anniversary overnight trip that, “No, there is no party going on at the house.”
The new Tell The Truth Phone App will nail them while the words are still tumbling out of their mouths.
No more lies? Talk about a changing world.
Pat Orr is a local business owner, community volunteer and political junkie. Follow him on Twitter @OrrOrrAV