Growing up I learned to treat books with a peculiar reverence. There were rules I picked up along the way, often from school, but sometimes from other places. Among those rules were: Do not break the spine of a paperback book. Do not dog-ear a page to mark your place. Do not write in or…

I am just back from a big family vacation. To celebrate my parent’s 50th wedding anniversary, we rented a big house in the wilds of Vermont. My brother and his family, my sister and her family, my family, and my parents all spent a week there. It was isolated. That meant no cell service, but…

When we bought our house 8 years ago the previous owner had subscribed to Verizon’s Fios services. We opted for Cox instead of Verizon. It is a decision I have never regretted. The few times we’ve had an issue with our cable or Internet over the last 8 years, Cox has always resolved the problem…

I began listening to audiobooks in 2013. I did this out of curiosity, but also as a way of trying to get more reading in each day. I wasn’t sure if this would work. After all, narrated books are slower than reading to yourself. (This assumes you don’t speed up the narration.) On the other…

Over the holiday weekend I took another look at Goodreads to see if it had improved at all in the years since I gave up using it. It hadn’t. There were a few more features, but it was still just as cumbersome to use as I remembered, and the UI is pretty awful. After playing…

My absence here has been noted, so I wanted to pop in for a moment and assure everyone that I am fine. The day job is very busy, family life is busy, and I needed some time off something in order to ease the passage of the day, so I am taking some time off…

My favorite lists are reading lists. To-do list may be a necessity for someone with a flighty memory like mine. Grocery lists help keep the fridge (and our bellies) full. Reading lists are a delight. I have kept a list of every book I’ve finished since 1996. I wish I’d started sooner. I enjoy finding…

I have had dozens of great writing teachers over the years. The best writing teachers were those that taught through example: Isaac Asimov, Stephen King, and most recently, Red Smith. The lessons I took from these three writers were more valuable than any lesson I ever saw in a how-to book on writing. I’m always…

Occasionally, while reading a really good book, I get a better offer. I have to set what I am reading aside, no matter how good it is, and start reading something else. I don’t do this lightly, and I take on quite a bit of guilt for doing it. (This post is my penance.) Such…

Way back in August 2015 I wrote about my first impressions with my Karma Go hotspot device. The service was just what I had been looking for: a no-fees, pay-as-you-go hotspot for those times when I was away from normal Internet connectivity. Last week, I canceled my Karma Go account. I used it with fair…

It happened the other day in the Yankee game. With a runner on second (and possibly third) and less than two outs, Joe Girardi signaled the home plate umpire to indicate he wanted to intentionally walk a batter. No pitches were thrown. The batter just walked to first base. Prior to the 2017 season, an…

After months of practice, the Little Miss appeared in a big dance recital held on Saturday at a local high school. In the days leading up to the event, the Little Miss was calm, collected, and completely unconcerned about performing in front of an audience of a few hundred people, and television cameras for the…