The Column

Motto: WHOA IS ME! This Column will have some of the same old stuff I usually talk about presented in the same old ways. It will also have some different new stuff that I'll be saying about the same old stuff. Be prepared to hear about Google, GoPros, and Marvel - along with maybe some other stuff along the way. This first part is a bit of a downer - fair warning. Overall I'm not impressed with consumer tech any more. I'm not saying I think it's "for granted" that we carry around this amazing device in our pockets that is capable of doing more than the collective capabilities of a nerd from the early-90's entire electronics collection. I'm saying that we reached "peak phone" somewhere around 2014. The first time someone made a phone that had a screen that was bigger than 4.5 inches, with a decent camera. Ever since then each successive phone has been a minor iteration of the already amazing foundation laid by its predecessors. Th

Motto: Mr. Handy Man Can My grandpa was a carpenter. My dad builds stuff. It turns out I build some stuff too. Am I great?  No. Am I capable? Arguably. My whole life dad took me out to the barn to fix things, build things, and perform various types of maintenance. I don't think he thought I really learned all that much. I did, though. Possibly from his training - or, possibly just through exposure & osmosis. I learned some things you should do, some things you shouldn't do, and how to appreciate what you've done when you're done. I used some of those things I learned to turn this desk I'm sitting at from a thing that was absolutely perfect for the circumstances which I used to have into something that is absolutely perfect for the circumstances I have now. This is the desk I'm writing at right now: This is that same desk four years ago: It was perfect for me. Huge. Spartan. No annoying drawers to bump my knees on. This desk was my desk,

Motto: Labor Day = Don't  Go to Work? What? Last Column was very... focused. This time the glasses are coming off. Things are going to be nice and out-of-focus. I'm going to hit up the many things I've made not to write about since the two Columns ago. Idea for a novel: There's a large facility for cryogenically freezing people with terminal illnesses that has a few hundred of people on ice, including the protagonist. One day, the facility loses power & these hundreds of terminally ill people are unfrozen. They find the facility empty, but in tact. The nearby town is much the same. No damage, just no people. The book tells the story of these few hundred people as they try to figure out what happened, if they are the only humans left, and if they can even repopulate the earth before each of them goes from their own terminal condition. I'm aiming for post-apocalyptic without the apocalypse. Sort of an "I Am Legend" without the vampires & where