I have wholly embraced the eBook revolution. As a long time traveler, and SciFi aficionado, I have assembled a large collection of books that I continue to read to mark them off my to do list. Being a fan of science fiction, I have been forced to acquire some of my books by extra-legal means. Since many of the classic tomes of the golden era of SciFi are out of print, and have no official ebook...
As a road warrior, I spend a lot of time on the road, sleeping in hotel rooms. I have learned to deal with loud ice machines, obnoxious families with kids tearing up and down the hallways at all hours, lumpy beds, and loud air conditioners. Doesn’t matter if it is a $90 La Quinta, or a $300 Hilton room, they all have warts. Usually the one thing that grinds my gears is the bed in the room...
I am back in the south bay for my high school reunion, and I visited two places that I have always loved. The good: Guitar Showcase Way back when I first started playing guitar, I was introduced to the legendary Guitar Showcase in Campbell. It is an iconic music store, and naturally has a wide selection of guitars (as well as other instruments). They have greatly expanded the store, and added a...
I had read it a long time ago. I think I bought a used copy at one of my trips to Powells in Portland, but a recent re-run of a South Park episode, “Scrotty McBoogerballs” caused me to pick it up again. I am talking of course about Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger. A story told from the eyes of the main protagonist, it is alive with the references and language that a troubled...
I manage a couple of facebook pages, one for my employer, and one for a non-profit that I work with (Southern Arizona Greyhound Adoption). I am constantly barraged by Facebook to “promote” a post to extend its reach, and get more responses. We recently took in a hound who had an injury on the racetrack, and we are doing some fundraising to cover the not insignificant vet costs. Our...
I have long been a religious user of ad blocking software. Since the first plugin for Firefox back in the day, and now I use adblock across the board (chrome, firefox, and safari). I particularly hate ads on sites that I pay for (NY Times, I am looking at you), or where my information is the principal value to the company behind that site (Google and Facebook fall into this category). But...
When I first started making money, my goals were to be able to buy LP’s of music I liked. I put together stereo from old components, an old heathkit amp and tuner, some hand built (not great) speakers, and I splurged on a decent Technics turntable. What music did I buy? Well, bands like Kiss and Cheap Trick were all the rage, but I had more eclectic tastes, and veered more towards what I...
The foot injury is getting better, but alas it is still pretty painful. I am pretty sure that it is a pulled or torn ligament in the top (the one for the big toe). I am cutting back on the vitamin I, and still resting and icing it. But I know that I am going to be going easy on it for the foreseeable future. Thus, no exercise, and that makes for a sad panda. My goals for the next two weeks are...