"No matter how cynical I get, I can’t keep up.” — Lily Tomlin
It’s all stuff
My old PC started to die a couple of months ago. As time went on the process accelerated. I decided it was time for a new difference engine, so I made a fresh backup and went shopping. While looking at new PCs and trying to sort out what kind of core to order, how much […]
My computer’s back from the shop, and what a pleasure it is to work on it again. Yesterday I typed a post on the other computer at Donna’s desk, where everything is six inches lower. I couldn’t get through a single sentence without making multiple typos. It didn’t help that she has her keyboard on […]
I finished my first real ebook yesterday. Wait a minute, I hear you saying, you’ve been using an electronic reader for more than a year now and must have read a lot of ebooks. True, but this time I’m talking about a dedicated ebook, published through Amazon and offered as a $2.99 Kindle download. The […]
What, another gearhead post? Sure, why the hell not? Every January the Santa Cruz Valley Car Nuts put on a car show at the golf course in Tubac, Arizona. Classics, collector cars, muscle cars, sports cars, trucks, exotics … it’s a nice show, and I found it much easier to take in than the enormous […]
Three years ago I visited the Barrett-Jackson auto auction in Scottsdale, Arizona. I figured it’s been long enough, so yesterday I drove up again, this time with my friend Ed. It was a long day: two-and-a-half-hours on the freeway going and coming; another four or five hours tramping around the tent city at Barrett-Jackson, ogling […]
My experience with new year’s resolutions has been generally unsatisfactory. With me … and with almost everyone I know … resolutions are prescriptions for self-induced stress, ultimate failure, and consequent depression. They suck. That’s not to say I haven’t made deals with myself and stuck to them: I successfully quit smoking years ago and more […]
The year, that would be. Out with a bang. Shot right through the brain. This Christmas we added a compact 9mm pistol to our arsenal, so Polly and I took it and its big brother (a .357 revolver) to an indoor range this morning. I wanted to get the feel of the new pistol, and […]
The outside lights are up, strung along the eaves on the front of our house. Polly and I put them up two weeks ago. But the tree? That’s a different story. Our old Martha Stewart Omniliving Holiday Tree® has become a Ghost of Christmas Past: threadbare (yes, artificial trees shed too), one entire section of […]