I have a habit of clicking on Buzzfeed listicles in my newsfeed. They're generally light, vaguely amusing reading, perfect for browsing when I'm sitting down at lunch. Occasionally they're even very insightful, such as the listicle that inspired me to write The Unwritten Rules of Being Poor. But most of the time they're just vaguely insipid. Today ( Read more... )

On Saturday this past weekend we hiked the Kentucky Falls trail in Oregon. It's about 50 miles west of Eugene in the Siuslaw National Forest. It was part of our busy Saturday with visiting the Cascades Raptor Center and then going hikingKentucky Falls is in a somewhat remote area. Traffic was initially heavy on highway 126 as we drove west from ( Read more... )

San Antonio Travelog #2
Airport hotel - Sat, 27 May 2023, 10am

Last night was a late night getting into San Antonio. Our flight was scheduled to land at 1:20am. Yes, we booked that schedule on purpose! The alternative was to leave this morning and burn most of Saturday traveling out here. Even though the flight was actually a few minutes early to ( Read more... )

It's been a while since I've blogged about my Beer Tasting 2022 project. My previous entry was almost 4 months ago. Here it is 2023 already... so much for the "2022" part of that title!

Where I left off back in September was with a pair of Oktoberfest beers. (Yes, Oktoberfest happens in September. For an explainer on that and other things about ( Read more... )

Last weekend I discovered several unopened audio CDs on my bookshelf. I started listening through them and importing them to my computer and smartphone. As I described in last week's blog I'll buy a complete album/collection from an artist even if I only know a few of their songs if I think it's worth exploring deeper into their catalog ( Read more... )

There's a fascinating little bit of public health science going around the past few days, cleverly fashioned as a brightly colored animation. It's called FLATTEN THE CURVE.

If you only learn one thing about #COVID19 today make it this: everyone's job is to help FLATTEN THE CURVE. With thanks to @XTOTL & @TheSpinoffTV for the awesome GIF. Please ( Read more... )

In a recent discussion elsenet about Costco one of the participants noted that they offer a very cost-effective service for printing checks. "Checks?" I asked. "Who writes checks anymore? In quantities big enough to care about saving a cent or two each?" Does Costco also sell value-packs of buggy whipsI barely ever write checks anymore. I pay bills ( Read more... )

Wed, 17 Oct 2018, 9am.

It's slower at the trade show today than yesterday. ...Slower at the exhibit floor where our booth is, anyway. Yesterday was epically busy. Today, I figure, since it's a relatively small show (fewer than 1500 registrants) most attendees who wanted to talk to vendors did it yesterday. So maybe we'll have 1/4 the booth traffic ( Read more... )

Last week the House of Representatives approved a bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. The new measure is called the Affordable Health Care Act (AHCA) Example coverage: NY Times article, May 4 CNN.com article, May 4. The eight days since then seem like an eternity already thanks to the brouhaha over ( Read more... )

By now everybody knows that Donald J. Trump won election as the 45th President of the United States. But did you know it looks like his challenger, Hillary Clinton, actually won more votes than him? Consider the data in this graphic I adapted from a New York Times article today, "Presidential Election Results: Donald J. Trump Wins":


( Read more... )