Those of you that know us know that my wife has been going deaf. It started 10 years ago when her hearing level dropped suddenly. The doctor confirmed she has otosclerosis then and her hearing stabilized. Whether that was due to anything we did or just how it worked we don't know but things were mostly normal after that.

This summer her hearing again dropped to where she reported almost no hearing in one ear and significantly reduced hearing in the other. Our house was full of "huh" and "what" for several months and not a few "Did you say [enter ...<< MORE >>

There are hundreds of examples of science fiction becoming reality from submarines to moon landings to lots of more mundane examples. Star Trek communicators? Now we all have cell phones. Light sabers? Well, I'm still waiting for mine.

In the meantime, we have the increasingly popular Flashmob. I recall Larry Niven coining the phrase to describe when people would teleport to a location to see a newsworthy event, causing extra stress to local infrastructure and possibly getting themselves hurt in the process. It's the future version of 'rubbernecking' - slowing down and gawking at an accident along the side ...<< MORE >>

It has become apparent that I am not to finish the book Brisingr.

We first procured a copy from our town library less than a month after the book was published. My son devoured it in less than three days. I started reading but our copy had to return to the library before I could complete it. And I was almost done, too.

So I went on line to download the audio book version. Only problem there, or problems, were the forty other people waiting to download.  Humph. I had to wait.

Well, I finally got my email notice that ...<< MORE >>

You know you're going to have a bad hair day, or month, when your hair stylist yells "Oh NO!" when cutting your hair.

I've been using the same person for several years now and haven't had any problems. To protect the innocent all names have been changed. For example, "Melissa" has been changed to "My Rotten Wife."

My Rotten Wife began cutting my hair as usual, with the clippers on the back of my head. We have one of those clipper kits with several different attachments to obtain the desired hair length. My hair is pretty easy; she uses one ...<< MORE >>

From the "What was I thinking?" department: we have a rodent in our house.

My daughter has wanted a bunny for years and after receiving an email that someone was giving some away for free, my wife relented of her "No Pets Allowed" policy and went and picked one up.

Now, the main reason for not having a critter is that we tend to go places on the spur of the moment and having to find a critter sitter or other care just doesn't seem that easy. So we've opted not to have any extra family members. Until Now.

So ...<< MORE >>

I'm a bit late for 2009 predictions but here they are nonetheless:

Apple will continue with the ever smaller and inappropriately named iPod versions by introducing the iPod Yocto, the smallest iPod to date. It will be made of exactly five engineered molecules and forgo wired connections. Users will either use Bluetooth headphones or have the unit implanted directly into their brains. Customers will praise the five-terabytes of storage and the new user interface, although the buttons are too small for some users.

Microsoft will release a new Xbox game console, the Xbox Revolution. It will have the exact same ...<< MORE >>

I've not said much about my writing lately simply because there hasn't been much progress. I'm still working on it with a few more short stories and one longer that will likely never see publication. Why? Because I'm still learning.

Some people seem to be born great writers. That's not true, but it appears that way. They show up suddenly with thousand page novels that need very little editing and are instant successes. That is really the exception to the rule.

Most writers, at least they used to, start off with short stories submitted to magazines and other publications and ...<< MORE >>

Porn makers want a bailout.

No, really.  That's it.

In these times of government bailouts of everyone and everything, why not have nationalized smut?

Now, I'm no expert in this, but it seems to me that if you own XXX number of this type of DVD, how many more do you need? It's not like the technology changes. Are there fans, like Trekkies, that follow the story lines and really get into the characters? Maybe I'm just naive but I would think that a porn movie from 5 years ago would be just as good (bad?) as one made ...<< MORE >>

So I really am not crazy!

Last night, as part of our home schooling we were watching the original King Kong (my wife is a slave driver when it comes to home work!) when I happened to see out the window a blaze in the sky, shooting East to West just above the trees.

"Wow! What was that?" I exclaim and rush to the window.  Of course, it was gone by then but my older son claimed to have also seen it and the Little Guy ventured to look outside for the next hour, claiming to see it each time.

I ...<< MORE >>

And the lights came back on last night. Whew!  Ironically, or perhaps "logically" the power lines were fixed just moments after I acquired all the correct gage wire, conduit, plugs, and outlets to wire the generator properly into fuse box. I'll be ready next time.

I'm really amazed, as I thought we'd be out a lot longer.  The Power Company is doing a fantastic job restoring service as quickly as possible. With 320,000 households without power on Saturday the number of outages is now down to about 70,000.  That's still more than the total outages from the dreaded Ice Storm of ...<< MORE >>