[I] awoke last Thursday morning to the sound of bird song. It was the first bird song of the season, at least at that dark hour of the morning. It was a sure sign of spring. I’ve written before about the telltale signs of spring that I look for. You’d think that the bird song…

[M]y office building is across the river from Washington, D.C., and has a good view of the D.C. skyline. Everywhere I look, cranes have sprung up like weeds. This isn’t anything particularly new. I’ve noticed these massive cranes for a decade or more now. They stand like upright T-squares scattered about the city. It’s not…

[T]here are times when the Little Man and the Little Miss say things that other people say all the time, but which sound surprising coming from them. Recently, it has been their colloquial use of the words, “Technically” and “Literally.” The Little Man might be describing something he built in Minecraft. “And then,” he’ll say…

[I] forgot to bring my lunch to work last Wednesday morning. The reason I forgot was due to a seminar I attended 20 years ago this May in Santa Monica, California. The seminar was a customer service training that my department had arranged for us. The company that they brought in to do the training…

[T]he longer I’ve been driving, the more it seems that people obey traffic rules only when it is convenient for them to do so. I was reminded if this the other day, when I followed several cars to a quiet intersection in our neighborhood. A stop sign faced us, but not the cross-traffic. There was…

[I] listen to a lot of audiobooks, mostly because it is the only way I can manage to squeeze more reading time into my day. The more I listen to audiobooks, the more I am amazed at the power of the written word. Every now and then I have the opportunity to read a paper…

[M]y post on favorites yesterday put me in mind of my favorite books, and how they have changed over the years. That in turn led to wonder what books I absolutely must have for a reading emergency. And that led me to reconsider my answer to the question, “What books would you want with you…

[F]avorites are big with my kids right now. “What’s your favorite, Pokémon?” the Little Man asks me. “What’s your favorite Star Wars character?” “What’s your favorite video game?” It is amusing to hear them ask, but it is more interesting when I turn the question back on them. “What is your favorite TV show?” “What…

[N]ewspapers are where I get most of my news. Most larger papers still have print editions, but I suspect that they will be in the minority by the time my kids are grown up. We’ll still call the digital equivalents “newspapers”, although they will not contain any actual paper. In fifth grade, we learned how…

[I]t is a law of nature that the more you want something, the more difficult it is to come by. I have been after a recent copy of my local White Pages for some time now. The White Pages, along with the larger Yellow Pages, used to be delivered to our door step once or…

[S]ince rekindling things here on the blog back on November 1, 2016, I’ve been enjoy myself immensely writing about whatever I want. Rather than stick to one general theme (writing, technology, paperless) I’ve been trying my hand at anything that interests me. I’m not sure readers enjoy it as much as topical posts about writing,…

[A]s a writer, I take pleasure in my reference books. If I need a piece of information, it is at my fingertips within a few seconds. I imagine that all of the information contained in my reference books is easily accessible online. But I don’t derive the same pleasure typing a search into Google that…