The Column

Motto: Short and Sweet. The last summer of my life is coming to a close. I know this because the lease on the apartment I'm in is about up. We are moving out next weekend. 7 days from now. From now until retirement, I'm just going to be working. I hope vacation time is like summer time. Maybe I hope to make a career in something that naturally gives me a couple weeks off here or there. Maybe something with lots of travel for the next few years. Maybe. Today I spent a bit of quality time with some friends that, in all likelihood, I will only see once more, if ever again. It was good times. I am glad I got to have them. Also today - I realized that I had no "goal" in mind with my desire to get in (better) shape. I have never really stopped and thought, "what super-tall guy would I want to be like". This lead me on a thought tangent that ended up down a line of Google searches I never thought I would ever make. I winded up with a few aspirations. If I could...

Motto: Knowledge comes from experience. Experience comes from doing things. You like that motto? I thought of it myself. It actually has  been my motto over the past couple months or so. This marks the first time I put a real motto in the spot where I put my "motto". My new motto: That won't happen again. Motto. Motto. Muh auto. If you say a word too much, it stops sounding real. The motto is a reference to my desire to be a great writer. One who could write down his thoughts and have them read by people, even if they weren't good thoughts. I can't become a great writer without writing great things. In order to write great things, you have to write a lot of bad things first. It's kind of like how when you go to a new place you have to be lost for a little bit before you can know where you are. That's the driving force behind this column. Writing for writing. Writing about writing. Metawriting. The kind of writing that is fun to read. The kind that ...

Motto: Corn is Always Interesting Two big things since my last update: 1. My Nexus 7 arrived, straight from Google 2. I went to Kearney, Nebraska to visit my sister and her still-new husband 1 - The Nexus 7 I got my second Android tablet and second Nexus device, the Nexus 7. For those of you who don't know, it is a 7-inch Android tablet that has all top-of-the-line specifications and doesn't break the bank. The thing cost $200, and runs faster both my phone and my old Asus Transformer 10-inch Android tablet. I sold the Transformer (not because it was bad, it was actually quite good... I just didn't use it as much as I would a 7-inch tablet) and I don't think I'm going to regret it. The 7-inch form factor fits in to my system so much nicer than the full 10-inch tablet did. It feels more personal. It feels more like an extension of my being (I've regarded my phone in this manner for some time now) than did the Transformer. The root and general hackery o...

Motto: What Would Clint Eastwood Do? Randall Munroe is the newest addition to my list of heroes. He is a former roboticist for NASA and programmer. More notably, he is the soul creator and writer of the webcomic XKCD. The comic frequently focuses on math, science, engineering, language, and general nerdiness. He puts out three new comics a week, every week, and has done so for almost 7 years. I have been a huge fan since I stumbled across XKCD three years ago. He is brilliant. If I could have any job in the world, I'd pick MythBusting. But if I got stuck writing my own webcomic like him, I'd consider that a solid second place finish. I doodle. I make jokes. They are even funny sometimes. I should give it a shot. One tiny tiny tiny example of his insight I just stumbled across: back when the original Droid came out, he made THIS comic. It's a criticism of gadget obsession on the surface, but that's not the part that intrigues me. The part that intrigues me i...

Motto: Upping the Entertainment Value for My Lovely Audience As per usual. I have all of the rest of this column done already (the motto, top 5, and quote are all already filled out), but I am stuck with writer's block for the main body. Go figure. July 7th my little big sister got married to a big goofball. How big? Almost as tall as me... but with another 20 to 30 pounds of meat distributed throughout mostly his upper body. How goofy? He makes me look like Larry King (Larry King was the most serious person I could think of off the top of my head). I was an usher in their wedding. I ushed. The wedding ceremony was good. Very weddingy. Next came the party bus... complete with more booze than 14 people should drink in a night and a time limit to drink it all before we got to the reception. I didn't help meet the goal (I still can't drink, doctor's orders). A party bus full of drunken people isn't the most fun place for a sober fellow, but it was a good enough t...

Motto: Thunder Buddies for Life First off, I feel its necessary to give you an idea of what is going on right now: I'm not doing anything. Now that you're up to speed, I would like to get started. I hung out with my cousins this weekend. We have grown up together, as evidenced by the following (awesome) picture. For those who don't know, the picture above depicts, from left to right, a future medical doctor, professional engineer, and police officer. It also depicts three very white guys. I like the show "Holmes Inspection" on HGTV. The fact that I like any show on HGTV means I'm getting older. I think that other signs of my aging would make a wonderful top 5. Look forward to that. I am switching my EDC tablet from my Transformer to a Nexus 7 tablet. The Nexus 7 is a seven inch tablet, purely Google. It is lighter and smaller than the Transformer. It won't take up as much space in the bag (I love that bag) and won't fatigue the s...