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I’ll never forget my first love; her pale beige skin nearly glowed and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on her full-sized keyboard.  More than anything, I wanted her to be mine.

The relationship lasted about a year before I was bored and ready to move on.  Like most guys, I’m fickle and faithless when it comes to technology.

It starts – at least it started for me – in high school.  I used to hang out with my geek friends reading magazines.  You know the kind…”industry publications”; their pages filled with provocative full-color photos of circuit boards and interfaces.  We told everybody we bought them for the articles, but in truth we were after the hardware pictures. (Full Text)

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It’s summer and for a lot of you that means exploring the great outdoors on foot.  You’ve probably already planned the routes you want to hike and the wondrous destinations you want to see.  Right this moment you’re probably heading out the door with your gear.

Let me give you a word of advice.

Don’t.

It’s crazy.

Hiking is what our ancestors did in the days before motorized transportation.  When the pioneers trekking westward got up in the morning do you think they said, “Gee, what a beautiful day to spend walking several miles through desolate wilderness.  And tomorrow we can do it all again?” (Full Text)

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Special thanks go out to Tim King for his review of Happily Domesticated.  You can find the review (and information about Tim’s books) at http://ebook.jtimothyking.com/2010/04/26/happily-domesticated-kevin-cummings

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I see fat people.  They’re everywhere.  They don’t even know they’re fat.  And the worst part is…I used to be one of them.

A year ago I was surprised to discover I was fat. Middle-age spread had widened me so much I had a coastline instead of a waistline.  I knew I was in trouble when I saw a picture of myself and thought, “Whoa!  What was Marlon Brando doing in my living room?”

Thus motivated (and following the example of my loving wife who started her diet about two months earlier than mine) I found an on-line diet site and seriously contemplated losing weight.  For two solid months I contemplated it.  That didn’t seem to be doing any good.  So I stopped contemplating and started dieting.

Which, when you think about it, is a weird concept.  You don’t start a diet.  You STOP eating.  I think they call it “starting a diet” because calling nobody would do it if they called it what it really is….starving yourself. (Full text.)

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Ah the glorious colors of spring; the green grass, the red and yellow flowers, the blue streak as I swear at my dysfunctional lawn mower.

After hibernating in an aluminum shed all winter, my mower is reluctant to awake and resume its normal duties of mutilating my lawn and mangling my sprinkling system.  Every spring I enter into protracted negotiations with this “labor saving” device.

To begin, I check the gas and oil and press the engine primer exactly three times.  These actions don’t do any real good, but like the tea ceremonies of feudal Japan, it’s important to follow all of the parts of the ritual.  Assured that the engine has what it needs, I grasp the pull starter and the negotiations begin. (Full Text)

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