kodermike

[kodermike]

So long, and thanks for all the fish!

If you’re seeing this, then you managed to hit the site in the short gap between posting and shutting down. After decades(?!?) of blogging (my first post on datanode.net was in February of 2005!), the last few years have been almost entirely a vacuum. Acknowledging that, I’ve made the decision to pull the plug on my blogs. I’m in a different place in life now than I was 19 years ago, my goals…

[kodermike]

The Project TBR Update

The Project TBR Update [blog]

Over a month ago now, I set off on what I called Project TBR – a concerted effort to work my way through my TBR pile while also avoiding adding to it. This is my long overdue status update. Let me begin by saying I am maintaining the course so far, but it’s tougher than I anticipated. Since the start of the experiment, I have finished five books, had one DNF (just wasn’t the right time to read…

[kodermike]

Where Was I?

[blog] Where Was I?

Believe it or not, my silence the last three weeks has been more about real life than a lack of wanting to blog. At best these days, I try to post something every weekend, but real life has been a bit on the busy side. Let me see if I can sum everything up. Three weeks ago, I sat down after doing some chores and checked in on Twitter only to discover someone I’ve talked to over the years was not…

[kodermike]

My Next Reading Experiment: Project TBR

[blog] My Next Reading Experiment: Project TBR

I have a book problem: I have a lot of them. I have a healthy amount of bookcases (one tall 5 shelf plus top, four 3 shelf plus tops), all of them filled, some with multiple rows. Yes, at least one bookcase (a Wayfair bookcase that was trouble when I got it and hasn’t improved any) is buckling under the weight, the joints pulling apart because apparently books and gravity exert their own forces…

[kodermike]

Yesterday Was The Last Day Of A Long Summer

[blog] Yesterday Was The Last Day Of A Long Summer

Today is the first day back to school for two of our children. It’s significant for two reasons: One of our children is starting their Freshman year of High School while the other is beginning their Senior yearIt is the first time they have been back to school in person in 18 months Internally, I’m a bit emotional. After a year and a half, I got used to working with them in the house. Sure,…

[kodermike]

A Penguin Summer

[blog] A Penguin Summer

This past summer, I tried to have a Summer of Penguin. Here’s how it went, how it failed, and I how I didn’t understand what I was taking on. A follow up post will cover the iteration it inspired by accident. When I was a teen (and, honestly, well into my 20’s), I worked for a public library system back in the Fredericksburg, Virginia area. I was fifteen when I started working in our tiny branch…

[kodermike]

The best laid plans of mice and men are drowned in summer wine

[blog] The best laid plans of mice and men are drowned in summer wine

When I set out on this weekend Friday, I had no plans. It was glorious – a weekend without commitments, without obligations, even without errands. Maybe a few chores – a body needs to bathe and wear clean clothes, after all – but nothing too demanding or distracting. Alas. First it was the middle daughter. We’ve been working on her driving (she wants to get her license in a few months when she…

[kodermike]

Breaking my blockers

Breaking my blockers [blog]

Recently, I’ve been working on breaking out of some old, bad habits – the perpetual “the problem is the tool, not the tool wielder” that seems to have become a rabid infestation in my brain the last few years. When I started writing, I had a marble notebook. That was all. But even then, I yearned for the freedom and mobility that some upgrade would give me. First it was a Palm Pilot (“To be able…

[kodermike]

Struggling with being creative

Blog post: Struggling with being creative

Do not despair, your RSS reader has not lied to you. This is indeed a new blog post. I’m making this post more for me than you, but strap in and enjoy the ride. My confession: for the last two years, I’ve really struggled to be creative, i.e., write. It certainly started with the loss of my parents, and although I didn’t realize it, it was prolonged by the pandemic. I hesitate to call it…

[kodermike]

Everything Is Cyclic

Everything Is Cyclic [blog]

How do you pick up a blog after so many long pauses and breaks along the way? I don’t have an answer. I think when future generations looks back at the end of 2019 through the end of 2021, I’m sure a lot will be made of what the forced seclusion did to us as a culture and a world. I wish I could claim the gaps on this blog are a result of The Long Silence of the Soft Apocalypse. They aren’t. My…

[kodermike]

Of Kobos and Kindles, a comparison

Of Kobos and Kindles, a comparison [blog] - where I compare the Forma and the Oasis

Over the last year I have come into possession of both the current Kobo Forma and Kindle Oasis models. If you are considering purchasing either, here are some notes I’ve made you might find useful. Technical Details Let me start by saying both devices are beautiful pieces of tech. When the Forma first arrived, it was the first time I had held a Kobo, and was awestruck by its smooth surface and…

[kodermike]

H is for both Hiatus and Halting this theme

H is for both Hiatus and Halting this theme [blog]

Like so many blogs, a post at the start of the new year? Who would have expected that plot twist??? Everyone. It’s been a while, I know, a frequent refrain on this blog. 2020, as it turned, was not the year I returned to blogging, or writing of any kind, really. I finished a few rough draft manuscripts – smoldering excrements not worth the pixels I used to form them, to be honest. I have…

[kodermike]

G is for Genre

G is for Genre [Blog post]

There is a scene in the (original, of course) Blues Brothers where the proprietor of a honkey tonk explains to the boys that they carry both kinds of music, country and western. For a long time, my reading was like that scene – I read both kinds of books, fantasy and science fiction. It wasn’t always that way – a glance at the books I read before I was (arbitrary age) 30 had some variety in it.…

[kodermike]

F is for Fourteen

F is for Fourteen [blog]

When I planned for this week, I originally thought I might do F is for Focus. Focus (with a capital F) is that name I use to describe a synergy of factors that help me be productive.

Then I looked at the calendar and realized there was a far more important thing to mention this morning. Today is my youngest child’s 14th birthday.

Being the youngest of three, you’d think I was used to this…

[kodermike]

E is for Erratic

E is for Erratic [blog]

A month ago, I set out to blog once a week. By accident, I set out with a theme of titling each blog with the next letter of the alphabet, and this week is no different. Picking what the word for E was going to be, that was the hard part.

My first choice was e-reader. Earlier this year, when my Kindle started growing long in the tooth, I decided it was time to finish my separation from an…

[kodermike]

D is for Doubt

D is for Doubt [blog]

Let’s face it, at the time of this writing, I’m an unsuccessful writer. If you are reading this blog, chances are good it’s because we know each other in some way. Maybe tangibly – you’re a friend, a coworker, or someone who’s been stuck talking to me. Maybe we just know each other online (I’m intermittently extroverted when I’m not busy clamming up and shutting down). I’ve written a few books,…

[kodermike]

C is for Contemplation

C is for Contemplation

It all began before the apocalypse.

For the first time in a decade, my little family was going to go on a vacation. And unlike anything we had done before, this was going to be an epic holiday. Our oldest was slated to go to Paris (France, if you must ask) as part of a senior French class trip. The rest of us had booked a week in Hawaii at a resort, a first for us. We were going to be pampered…