You made it! Thanks for visiting.
It has been way too long since I added an article and upgraded my site. On the heels of returning from Drupalcon Chicago, I'm looking forward to trying to keep up with the latest and greatest options in Drupal these days. I have been rapidly building new sites at my new gig over at the University of Maryland. At least one of my daughters has taken a mild interest in programming, so maybe I can eventually get her to add some items on the site!
This year, 2024, marks the 42nd year (should be 43 years in a row since the tournament was canceled in 2020 due to COVID) that I have picked at least one NCAA men’s basketball bracket. I have copies of many of them, including the one from 1981, when I picked my Louisville Cardinals to win the championship. That was the year they lost their first game on a halfcourt shot. Some people might be deterred after that jarring experience, but not me! Then again, I was only 5 when it happened.
It is really remarkable that after writing online stories for 25 years, I have a topic today that I’ve both never written about and something I know more about than almost anything else.
That thing is figs.
How did we get to this point? My uncle had a fig tree in his backyard, and we lived at his house 16 years ago. Coincidentally, my father-in-law also had fig trees, so when we bought a new house 14 years ago, we accepted a gift of a fig cutting and planted it in an auspicious backyard location.
Great book that runs the gamut of synthetic biology
The term "natural" used to be substantially easier to apply to basic items like fruit and animals. It is both exhilarating and frightening to consider "improving" genetic material, but humans have a knack for putting their marks on everything imaginable.
During high school and college, I worked at Kentucky Kingdom amusement park in Louisville, Ky. Besides battling racuous crowds and the blazing heat, one thing that was interesting to me was trying to keep track of the different people I was seeing throughout the day. As a games attendant (a.k.a. carnival barker), I would attempt to personally say things to people that I saw multiple times, whether at different games or at different parts of the park. This was mostly just a sales tactic, and I think the customers likely thought I was training to have my own magic show.
I may have been the last person on earth to pick up any of the "Harry Potter" books, but I'm pretty certain I wasn't the last one finished. It's amazing to me the number of people who have at least read book one, let alone the number who have actually finished the series.
QUESTION
Would you meet someone you met or chatted with online, even if you had never seen a picture of the person?
BEN: NO
Do you have a great idea for a new invention? Do you have the perfect business plan to make millions? Do you have the means to bring peace to the world and bring a fortune to yourself?
At this very moment, someone could be watching your every move, directly through your computer.
PEEK-A-BOO! No, it's not me. I have much, much better things to do, like collecting the Iowa quarter and playing Monopoly at McDonald's.
Unfortunately for you, other people not only have that extra time to hack into your machine, they enjoy doing so. Yes, I realize it's hard to believe someone would rather attempt to ruin all your useless files rather than collect the four railroads off fast food soft drink cups, but it's true.
While it's doubtful Richard Simmons has already finished reading my book, "The Developers," it is worth noting that he already has good things to say about it.
Simmons, who is constantly referenced in the book as a lookalike of one of the characters, Rex Burns, recently responded to the book copy I sent him at his Burbank location.
"Thank you for your kind words and sense of humor," Simmons wrote on an autographed photo. "You are a gifted man!"