The Replacement Computer

When I went off to college, I brought with me my computer that my parents bought me in high school. Since I was majoring in computer science, having a working and good computer was pretty important. It would have been a shame if something happened to it….

The Nerf War

When I was a kid, one of the most anticipated events put on by the church youth group I attended was the somewhat-annual Nerf War. The group would rent out a gymnasium, we would set up cardboard forts, and many dozens of kids would wage war all evening. We’d spend the night in the gym, sleeping in our forts, have breakfast the next morning, and be picked up by our parents some time afterward. I assume there was some sort of Bible lesson or attempt at meaningful discourse, but if so I certainly don’t recall that part.

The Added Drama Behind the Layoff

I previously told the story of how I was laid off after eight and a half years of working for NetApp, my first job out of college. There’s…a bit more to that story though.

The Layoff

While I was living in New Zealand, I was still working remotely for my employer back in the US as a contractor.

Pens

I’m about halfway to being a pen guy. Probably most pen guys don’t think they’re all the way to being a pen guy, so it’s possible I’m deluding myself. But let me explain.

The Hopeful Wizard

Someone recently commented on Reddit that while it’s easy to assume that Gandalf the White had some sort of prescience or foreknowledge of events, that was almost certainly not Tolkien’s intent while writing The Lord of the Rings.

The Amazing Coincidence

A co-worker and I were in Serbia for work.

(No, I haven’t told any stories from the Serbia trip before…they’re on the list).

The Dream

As is true for many church-goers, my wife and I have been “attending” church virtually over the past year. Our church broadcasts its services live on both Facebook and YouTube, and we can tune in from the comfort of our own living room. To be honest, it’s been a little difficult to feel at all connected with the church as a whole while watching services on a screen every week, though we’re also part of a smaller group where we do feel much more connected.

The Musician

When I reached Fifth Grade, I had the opportunity to choose a music elective. I thought that the idea of learning to play an instrument was pretty neat, and my parents encouraged me to give it a try. Of course, renting an instrument was not entirely cheap and buying an instrument was also pretty expensive, so to start with I signed up to be a saxophonist, because we already had a saxophone.

The Phorum, Part 7: Stolen!

When we’d left off last time, I had set up a landing page for the Phorum, an online messageboard I had taken offline. I happily paid the $10 or so a year for the domain registration, and the hosting was free.