Christmas with Nana
I genuinely don’t know the last time we had Christmas with my mom. The closest we’ve come is when we went to New York City back in 2008. Prior to that? Maybe 2004. It’s been a while. Of course, Mom …
2023rd
2023s
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39 items
Passing by FOMO
Last night was Believeco (Calgary)’s annual Holiday Party (though “Christmas” was more generally used, we acknowledge the more non-denominational intent). And has nearly every corporate (and more …
Big Wreck
Jeremy takes me to the best concerts. You’ve already heard about some of the others. This one was one that I hadn’t been really prepared for. The last time I’d been at the Palace, I’d had to leave …
The Famous Lethal Weapon Quote
Several times in the Lethal Weapon movie series, Roger Murtaugh (played by Danny Glover) says: “I’m getting too old for this shit.” I’ve joked about that line on several occasions, especially when …
I Mother Earth and The Tea Party at Grey Eagle
Jeremy and I have talked about music pretty much as long as I’ve know him. As a former member of a rock band, Jeremy knows a lot, and his passion for music (and especially equipment) always reminds me of how much I …
World Leaders Must Remember
Today, more than perhaps in any year previous during my life, we need to encourage our political leaders (if indeed we can consider them to be leading) to remember the errors of the past. Lest We Forget. Not everywhere …
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The Trouble with Passion
I have a problem with being passionate: it gets me upset more often than not. I admit, it’s a problem with me, not the organization, not anyone else … even if the problem does exist there, I recognize that …
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Thank you, Neil Randall
Tonight, I met up with a very old friend, Duncan. He and I lived together in the basement of a house shared with 4 other students (including my friend Mike, another denizen of the basement) on Albert Street in Waterloo. …
The Problem with RTO
1,285 days ago, many of us were sent home to face an unknown future. Most of us had no idea that a couple of weeks would turn into over two years, that thousands of people in Alberta alone would die, and the long-term …
Still waiting for fall
It’s mid-September here in Alberta, which means one of two things: it’s either fall, or we’ve had an epic snowstorm. And since we haven’t had the latter, it must mean the former. Or rather, it …
Living with a hernia ... again
Second verse! Living with a hernia, ow All the time, such aggravation Living with a hernia Gonna be my ruination Living with a hernia Got to have an operation Feel so old –“Living with a Hernia”, Weird Al …
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Happy 16th Birthday, Monkey!
Years ago, at the height of your time in the Spanish program, Mommy and I thought you might want a Quinceañera. That never happened, we didn’t press for it, and you certainly didn’t ask for it. And I imagine …
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AI Will Not Replace Writers
I suspect that in the decades to come, 2023 will be noted as the year that AI started to take over the world, and humanity both embraced and recoiled in horror at the possibilities. It was no longer science fiction that …
A Visit with Back to the Future
Today, I visited with an old friend and they showed me something wonderful. And while the “thing” could easily be construed as a place or an object, I look at it a bit differently. I was shown trust, given a …
Driving the Crowsnest Highway
I’ve driven part of Highway 3 – the Crowsnest Highway – between Cranbrook, British Columbia and Fort MacLeod, Alberta. I’ve driven it enough that I know the general map. What I haven’t done, …
Driving an Electric Car from Calgary to Fairmont Hot Springs
For the record, Alex drove the electric car. I was her support, in case something went wrong. A couple of years ago, we decided it was time to ditch our diesel Jetta. It was gathering too many repairs and VW’s …
The First Time I Had THC
First point of note: I’m now 51, thank you very much. Happy birthday to me! And, as usual, this is the weekend that “DI Weekend” falls, so my birthday is celebrated amongst Alex’s coworkers and …
My First Query Letter
I’ve been writing this blog for years, there’s well over 1.3 million words of my idle rambling. Stories? A few dozen shorter ones (some are on this site). I’m now three novels written (two completed) …
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Apple Vision Pro is a Disaster
I don’t think it’s too over-the-top to suggest that Apple has jumped the shark. I am actually, genuinely disappointed that they’ve attempted to dive into the same murky waters of VR that sank Meta a few …
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Goodbye Asia, 2004-2023
Today we had to say goodbye to our beloved cat, Asia, aged about 19 years … and probably 11 of her 9 lives. I’ve never been comfortable with euthanasia, not even the concept of it. The idea that we can take …
Photo Sharing, Version 4
Tired of these yet? So I ran into a weird problem with my V3 site. I decided I had too many pages with no introductory text and it was proving to be awkward to use. Because of the way I had set up the Hugo site, I also …
Mother's Day with my Mom
I’ve been struggling with this memory all day. I think the last time I celebrated Mother’s Day in the presence of my mother, I think I was 18, still in high school. There might have been one, maybe two years …
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Adobe Lightroom's Denoise is Magic
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Arthur C. Clarke Holy cow, Artie couldn’t have been more right. So last night, whilst gathering together more pictures to populate my new and …
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Another Site, Another Hugo
You might recall that I tried to make a simple photo sharing site. It worked, but … it wasn’t enough. When you’ve built as many websites as I have, you recognize features almost at a genetic level and …
Mom Moves to Calgary
A couple of years ago, just as COVID hit, my mom decided it was time to move into a “home”. She’d lived on her own for nearly 20 years at that point and her condo was no longer as fun as when she moved …
Starship goes BOOM!
The news today was pretty full of SpaceX getting Starship off the ground, finally, after years of hard work. The news seems to be somewhat split, however – while most seem to be pretty up about the whole thing, …
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I've left my internet presence untended
I’m not an egomaniac, let’s just get that clear. I don’t google myself regularly. In fact, I’m not even sure when I last googled myself … it’s been years. Yes, I actually did used to …
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Building Better Image Sharing
A few lifetimes ago, I had a rather sizeable Flickr library. It grew over many years, from many vacations, many photos of my growing kids and extended family, and more than a few company events. I liked what Flickr did …
Happy 13th Birthday, Choo Choo!
I no longer have any children. I only have teenagers. Actually, to be fair, I seem to have a teenager and a vastly underaged adult. And Choo Choo, you already know which one you truly are. There have been so many times …
The Importance of Technical Writing
I started my career as a technical writer. I wrote manuals. I was fairly decent at it, though more than one of my editors would tell you that I was a bit too verbose (yes, I know, shocker). I gave up on technical writing …
Marketing Clients Need to be Collaborative
I’ve had a lot of clients in my career. I’ve actually tried to count them out; I’m almost 100 and I know I’m missing some. And not to brag, but quite a few of them are Fortune 500, which gives me …
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Generative AI is at the Jurassic Park Moment
A lot of people are concerned about Generative AI right now. We’re looking at a very wide swatch of “intelligent” tools that are taking people’s jobs away. Or at least that’s what …
Marketing Never Has All The Answers
I had one of “those” meetings with one of our clients today. If you’re in marketing, you know what I mean. We were called out for non-performance: lots of money spent, very little result. The client …
Return to the United Kingdom
Last year, when we were trying to determine if were going to go somewhere for Spring Break, we make jokes about going to England. And then we did. It was, easily, one of the best trips. It had it’s harrowing …
The Problem with Infinity
About a year ago, I started listening to podcasts. (I know, I’m late to the game. Moving on…) While there are so, so many to choose from, I’ve found myself very much gravitated towards BBC …
Morality in the Marketing World
I’ve been in marketing since the mid-ish 1990s, in one form or another, and done actual agency marketing for about 20 years in that time. I’m not going to say “been there, done that, seen it all”, …
2022, a Year in Review
So far, the 2020s are gaining a reputation for being difficult. Heck, even the memes have starting latching onto this, where kids in the future will spend months trying to even understand the year 2020, never mind when …
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Go Hugo!
A few years back, this website ran on WordPress. I genuinely like WordPress, not just for blogging but also for some general (simple) content needs. What I don’t like about WordPress? The size of the server …
New Year's Tea, 2023
Traditions are just meaningful habits. - Me Another year, another tea. I mean, that could be the post, but there’s a few things worth mentioning… First, Anarchy and Chaos – sorry, I mean Monkey and …