On Venmo and Privacy
I’ve been using the Venmo payment service for a few years. Mostly I use it to pay my sister-in-law, who is a personal chef, for the meals she makes for us weekly. When I first signed up for the service, I thought it was strange that I could see a timeline of all the transactions of my friends who also…
Old TV + Reader’s Notebook
As I’ve documented here many times over the years, sometimes I get paralyzed by the many options I have for watching quality TV. There is a long list of shows that I need to go back and watch, but I’m always torn about where to start, whether to watch one to completion on its own or to start several at…
Weekend Wrap
It is a dreary, rainy Monday. A good day to just lie around and not do anything. Which is a good thing since about half the house is out of commission thanks to a stomach bug that is still working its way through the house. Not especially good timing for that as last weekend was a big family gathering for…
Reading for the Stars, Vol. 10
Chart Week: July 10, 1982 Song: “Play the Game Tonight” – Kansas Chart Position: #17, 10th week on the chart. Peaked at #17 for three weeks. I would guess I heard this song approximately once in a quarter century before I heard it at, of all places, a high school football game a few years back. In the hour of…
Camps and Sports
It is another camp week for us, which means the house is a little quieter. M is spending her week at CYO camp an hour south. We dropped her off Sunday. Although we drove through rain on the way there, we did not have to walk through a deluge to get to her cabin as we did with C in…
Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 9
Chart Week: June 9, 1984 Song: “Eyes Without a Face” – Billy Idol Chart Position: #18, 6th week on the chart. Peaked at #4 for two weeks in July. As I said, I’ve been sitting on a couple of these posts. And since Spotify and WordPress appear to be fighting again, I’ll knock this one out in place of a…
ASG ’18
This has been the summer of my baseball discontent. We’ll get into the reasons for that in a moment. Despite that, I still sat down for my annual viewing of the MLB All Star Game last night. Granted, because of errands, watering the grass, and kids controlling the TV, I wasn’t able to tune in until the 4th inning. Which…
Reader’s Notebook, 7/17/18
Born to Run – Bruce Springsteen I’m a Springsteen fan. But not a super fan. I like large swaths of his music, think four of his albums are pretty amazing, and appreciate his role in American rock music. But I’m not deeply aware of his story, can’t quote his lyrics beyond his biggest hits, and have never seen him live.[1]…
The New Local
Now that we’ve been in the new house for three weeks, I think I owe my readers a tour. Not of the house; that would be weird and difficult to do via text. If you want to see it, you just need to schedule a visit! Rather a tour of our area, Nora, because it is quite different than the…
Friday Playlist
https://open.spotify.com/user/224aiwksicafjldlua6nnpo4y/playlist/6Qk9crN1NzBvSQ2XaaTOfI?si=et4-XxSLTPCqemFzYg_goA “All We Got Is Time” – Eldoradio. I really can’t find much out about this band or song. It’s a good tune for the summer, which is enough to share it with you. “One Day Left” – Stars. If you’ve read my music writings over the years, you should know that I love songs and albums about breakups. This…