Let’s start out with “Once upon a time”, let’s say back in the 1970s, so a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. In those long ago days, let’s talk about what constituted popular cultural media. In those days the media that I cared about took roughly three Read more…
We meet here near the end of 2013 to mourn the passing of yet another technology. This one has been around for centuries and perhaps it will find a way to become something else and not die out altogether, but only time will tell. This year I ended my subscription Read more…
One of the little mental games we play sometimes is the following: Would you go back to an earlier time in your life if you could take back with you what you know now. Often this is asked in the context of high school. Certainly if I could take the Read more…
Let’s do a little mental exercise. We’re going to flip a coin. I’ll flip this coin 20 times and you’ll note whether it comes up heads or tails on a little piece of paper with a pen that I’ll lend you. Now we’re going to make it interesting and we’re Read more…
I’m terrifically late on this week’s writing. Things are really busy at work and I’ve been putting in lots of hours, so that’s been a contributor. The commute doesn’t help, leading to days where we get up at 6am (when it’s dark) and getting home at 6-6:30pm (when it’s dark). Read more…
When I was growing up there was really only one game show that I thought I’d like to be on and that was Jeopardy. That one, I thought, was entirely about what you knew and I thought I was pretty smart so I figured I’d do well. I’ve never tried Read more…
Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans. Not John Lennon As I get older it’s clear that I still struggle with one of life’s lessons and that’s that making a plan for your life is a loser’s bet. I’m sure it’s the case with many Read more…
I’ve been thinking about mortality recently. This has not been something that entered my mind for most of my life, like most I felt largely invincible and indestructible for most of my life. Then, when I turned 40, I concluded that I was probably more than half way to being Read more…
My entire professional career is based on a fact that was largely unimaginable to my parent’s generation. I get paid to create software which, outside of the storage media that hold it or its representation in computer memory as 1’s and 0’s, has no physical presence in the world. I Read more…
I don’t have many memories before, roughly, first grade or about five or six years old. More accurately, I do have a few, but they are definitely very episodic and disconnected. I don’t know if this is a characteristic of a developing long term memory or perhaps I lacked a Read more…