New (doggo) parenthood, and all it comes with

We got Radar last April, and he’s been settling in nicely. Local friends and neighbours who have dogs have been commenting lately on how much better he’s doing on walks and his behaviour as a whole — still far from perfect, mind you — which has been heartening. Validation from your peers evidently still feels … Read more

Blaugust: Let’s do this

My dearest Josephine, I write to you as we briefly break amid the surviving men of our corps pushing on toward a more advantageous location. Where that is, I of course cannot reveal, lest this letter fall into enemy hands rather than the tender care of yours. It has been a particularly gruesome stretch since … Read more

What I read this month

Due to an unexpected, and deepening, dive into some very time-consuming but long-overdue manual labour this month, I got precious little reading completed. I am on the cusp of finishing a couple of other books I couldn’t quite squeak in under the wire. But with the 1st of the month arriving in a bit over … Read more

My rules for Blaugust

I don’t have many self-imposed rules for Blaugust, but to help it from being a total freeform, chaotic mess that I wind up getting lost in and frustrated by, I figured a few proverbial lights along the path would help keep me moving forward. In no particular order: And I think that’s about it. I’ve … Read more

To Blaugust or not to Blaugust

I’ve just heard about a phenomenon that’s been happening for at least a dozen years, called Blaugust. In short, it’s an annual celebration of blogs, of website owners posting their opinions, takes, reviews, etc., of anything and everything of interest to them. Like the section of this very website you’re reading at this moment, where … Read more

Update on my 50 Books This Year challenge

Those of you who read my posts through to the end (and why wouldn’t you? It’s all gold, I tell you. Gold.) will recall that back in December I jotted a note at the end of this post that I was going to try a challenge to myself to read 50 books in 2025. Well, … Read more

Time to Linux

A definition of planned obsolescence, per a summary from Wikipedia:“In economics and industrial design, planned obsolescence (also called built-in obsolescence or premature obsolescence) is the concept of policies planning or designing a product with an artificially limited useful life or a purposely frail design, so that it becomes obsolete after a certain predetermined period of … Read more

Dear job search sites…

Why do you make it so hard for people to find the one thing they’re looking for? I’m on ZipRecruiter as I write this — perhaps the best known job site these days — looking for jobs under the category “writer”. Now yes, many jobs with that key word have come up in the results, … Read more

Delete everything? Never.

I read on Mastodon a couple of days back that someone I follow has deleted her longtime files of collected notes and reminders, and has experienced a huge weight off her shoulders as a result. And I immediately knew that I could never do that. Her points are quite sound: The ever-growing list of books … Read more

Video piracy is on the rise again

I recently checked out this article that was linked from Mastodon (my sole social media presence) and it’s a pretty quick read, if you’re interested: https://glassalmanac.com/netflix-disney-and-prime-video-are-too-expensive-and-full-of-ads-users-are-turning-back-to-illegal-methods/ Here’s my thing: For decades, I’ve been — and I’m still — not a piracy guy. To me, someone who worked on something and would like to make money … Read more