Last night, I saw one of the most disappointing rock concerts I have ever attended: Death Cab for Cutie (DCFC) touring in support of their new album “Thank You For Today” at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. Some of the problems had to do with Ben Gibbard, the brains behind the band. Other problems were created by…
Bought three smallish pocket knives to test and then send at least one back to Amazon. My mini Swiss Army Knife is generally useful and I love it but I’m always apprehensive I’ll cut myself with the non-locking blade when I’m opening boxes and such. I have a Buck knife given to me by a…
In September, Lovely Spouse and I visited Portland, Oregon. During the flight there, I found myself reading over my traveling companion’s shoulder. She was whipping through Cheryl Strayed’s 2012 memoir Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail. She’d been advised by a friend to read the book because we were visiting Strayed’s…
I just wanted to acknowledge that my initial blog post about my Movie Literacy Project went up about a year ago. I’ve watched 52 movies since I started in June 2014. This is amazing for me, since in my life up to that point, I averaged five films per year on video or in the…
These are the main Facebook rules I began using when I starting thinking of it as a platform for growing my writing career. There are probably some I’ve omitted by accident, but I think I got most of the key ones. Some of these are basic Internet etiquette and therefore kind of obvious. Others are…
If my informal polling of friends and coworkers is any indication, the odds are good that you either have no backup system for your computer or your backup system is woefully inadequate. Remember that “data” doesn’t just mean spreadsheets, databases, PowerPoint presentations, and word processor documents; I’m also talking about your vacation pictures, your music…
For reasons I don’t understand myself, I’ve never taken the time to watch many movies. Until a few months ago, it was remarkable for me to see four movies in one year, either in the theater or on video. The practical upshot of this is that I don’t understand a lot of movie references that…
I struggle with distraction when I try to do pretty much anything that takes more than five minutes. In the case of writing, it’s wonderful that modern computers are capable of accessing so much useful and interesting information relative to my projects on the Internet; however, those same resources can turn into a neverending parade…
One of the more awkward kinds of language misuse I run across on a regular basis is the way people put the word “My” in places it shouldn’t ought to be. I first noticed this years ago when Microsoft started sticking “My” in front of the names of the assortment of prefab special folders that…
I like to keep up with developments in culture, technology and various hobbies while avoiding news per se. For several years, I used Google Reader to organize my collection of RSS feeds. When Google killed off Google Reader, like a lot of RSS fans I switched to using Feedly. I’ve been happy with Feedly. It…