The Column

Motto: Hey Google, tell me about my day I'm just going to post this as is - everything in italics is how my Posts start, before I fill them out with words. Google Home. It's really really cool and shows a lot of potential. My wife was originally pretty skeptical, but she's come around on it quickly. Black Mirror is a crazy, messed up, wonderful show. The Entire History of you is a perfect example episode - take a conceptual future, which is conceivably possible within my lifetime (and, realistically, I think very close to the direction we're heading) and show how or why we need to be responsible with it - because technology enables us to do so many great things while giving us a long enough rope to tie into a noose. Also how it explores the themes of constantly dwelling in the past or otherwise not being in the moment. About how you can sit and stew on something for forever, rather than dealing with it moving on with your life. Talk about the Google Home listenin...

Motto: I'm Here to Make a Bargain I have had a lot on my mind lately. An almost inexplicably large amount for a person whose so far into the steady-state portion of his life. I'm grown up. I'm out of college. I have a job, a wife, a house. I could justifiably continue doing exactly what I'm doing right now for the next 35 years and nobody would bat an eye.  Maybe the fact that there aren't foreboding changes coming in the future is what's on my mind. Maybe the fact that there actually is a huge, foreboding change coming at some point (but not within the next 9 months to a year). Maybe that's on my mind. My dad is a the best dad. He's there when you need him. He knows how to do stuff, and knows how to show you. He's smart, but also wise. Other kids' dads may have taken them to soccer practice, my dad was the coach. Other kids may have watched their little league games, mine was the organizer, coach, and sometimes even the pitcher. My ...

Motto: THIS IS SPARTA I've written 300 of these. That's a round number which seems significant. It's not, though. If humans had 12 fingers instead of 10, I'd likely be telling you this is post number "12C". That's a hexidecimal joke. Base 16, y'all. It's glorious outside right now. I'm probably going to go on a bike ride soon to take advantage of this wonderful fall weather. Pokemon Go is dying. I feel like conscious choices made by the developers of the application are to blame for their drop in player numbers. I still play, but likely will quit once show starts falling unless Niantic changes their minds about things. Today it occurred to me that, while I've taken a TON of data on myself by way of the Life Tracker, I had never really done any correlations between anything other than day of week, month of year, and against a simple list of day tags. Never before had I stopped to think "how does my sleep correlate to my eatin...

Motto: Upon this rock, I will build my church. If the motto is sacrilegious, I apologize. I'm not referencing Matthew 16:18, I'm referencing  Ultron . Ultron intended to use Vibranium to carry out his Sokovian meteor to end all mankind, I intend to use my new homegym setup to carry out my plan to become gigantic. This is my rock: It's not done yet, but it's done enough that I just completed a full-blown workout on it. Squats. Overhead Press. Curls. Lateral raises. I did those things in my own basement yesterday. Today I am sore from a homegym exercise. These are exciting things. Speaking of exciting - Google's big hardware announcement is tomorrow. They are unveiling the next generation of "Nexus" phone, which will take on a new branding. That I'm not so excited about - but they're going to do OTHER things which I  am  excited about. Google Home, for instance. Most importantly of all, it's rumored that they will tease "An...

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 ...