For 10 weeks, I’ve been coming here each Tuesday and offering what amounts to lessons I’ve learned the hard way. I figured that as long as I didn’t ask anyone to do anything that I hadn’t done, or a down a dose of a medicine that I hadn’t tasted tenfold, then I’d be ok; no one would get their nose out of joint. Continue reading
Haunted By Our Past
Richard Russo’s latest book, “Elsewhere,” a memoir.
My choices in reading tend towards nonfiction. Given a choice of reading a novel or a nonfiction tome on sociology, history, urban planning, et al, I’m going to choose the latter nine out of 10 times. If I want something a bit lighter, I’ll opt for essays, or even a biography.
Writers that manage to do both, especially that small group that do both well, garner my attention. Some of those writers I’ve written about here and in some other blogs of mine; David Foster Wallace, Jonathan Franzen, and Barbara Kingsolver are three that quickly come to mind. I’ll add a fourth to that list in Richard Russo, now that he’s released a memoir. Continue reading
Tweet, Tweet (up)
Logo for the Maine Tweetup
I like Maine, I really do. I enjoy the varied geography and its mix of craggy coastline and towering peaks. Sometimes, though, the state does feel like a backwater. I don’t mean that in a disparaging way, although I’m sure that’s how it looks reading it. Continue reading
Tipping Point
Changing your life’s trajectory is hard work. Countering the status quo is the equivalent of pushing your way through a crowd of people going in the opposite direction. The wave of human bodies tries to pull you into its wake. Instead, you’re desperate to make your way upstream, going against the grain. Continue reading
Times Like These
Technology and everything associated with it has exploded and gone viral. The genie has exited the bottle and there’s no way to put him back.
The recent exponential growth of tools like social media, and the transition from what began as Web 1.0, or the first generation tools beginning with the Internet, which produced a static web, has rapidly transitioned to and through Web 2.0. Web 2.0 introduced interactivity via blogging and brought us to and beyond the social networking of Facebook, which most of us are now so familiar with. With the compression of exponential change into shorter and shorter bursts, we’ve entered the next realm of growth wrought by mobile technology, mainly smartphones and Web 3.0. Continue reading
Movie Marquees and People That Matter
The Braden Theater, Preque Isle, ME
Having the right people in our lives can help enhance our journey towards success. I’ve been fortunate to find some special people along the road and they always seem to pop up at the perfect time. Continue reading
Don’t Let the Posers Win
I believe that honesty, hard work, and being genuine will ultimately win out in just about everything we do that has any lasting value. That said, there will be times when no matter how hard you try, and regardless of the efficacy of your cause, someone who doesn’t have your best interests at heart will string you along and then, squash you like a bug. What’s worse, these people have managed to dupe their little band of followers and sycophants that aren’t aware of their disingenuous qualities, or maybe they are, but for whatever reason, they continue telling the emperor that their clothes look great. Continue reading
Bye Bye BlackBerry
I’m gonna miss my BlackBerry.
We live in an age of constant and often, rapid change. Technology foists new things upon us at an ever-increasing rate. The 21st century means adapt, or become obsolete and a dinosaur.
Smartphones have changed the way that Americans access information and connect. The very first smartphone, IBM’s Simon, was rolled out in 1992. They’ve changed dramatically over that gulf of two decades. Continue reading
Baumer Rock!
You probably didn’t know that there was a band called Baumer. Now you do. They’re no longer together. Continue reading
Viva il Papa!
Newly-elected Pope Francis, with Catholic cardinals. (NYTimes photo)
I’m a lapsed Catholic. I have been since that fateful period when I left home, threw off parental shackles—and became a born-again Xian. I know, usually you leave home and get wild, right?
It’s a long story, and I won’t bore my readers with too many details. However, with a new pope on-board in Rome, I think a pope post is in order. Continue reading