Sunday, December 8, 2024
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Off Kilter

World travels

I’ve been fortunate enough to have traveled all over the world for my computer business. Here are a few stories about those travels. Who is the Duke of Edinburgh? I was walking down a …

How hard life was a few hundred years ago

In March 2018, I wrote about theoretical physicists’ view of time relative to our Universe (Stephen Hawking’s “A Brief History of Time"). This week I decided to write about time …

Bugs

We are quite fortunate here in the Pacific Northwest in that we don’t have as many problematic bugs as say the Northeast or the Southeast. Mosquitos: While we do have them in our region, …

Politicians and what we really think of them

Most of us are glad the election is over. I know over 50 million people didn’t like the outcome, while about 75 million did like the outcome. Rather than taking sides (and telling you who …

Leadership

In over 40 years of high-tech work, I’ve watched some great leaders and some not so great. Here are some observations of what I’ve seen. You have to be willing to do it all: …

Eagles, animals, and nobility

We have a small family of eagles living in the woods behind our house. Almost every day they come down to the pilings on the water in front of us to fish. I thought about life by watching these …

There’s nothing to be afraid of

I was watching a 1978 Warren Beatty movie called “Heaven Can Wait.” He plays a man who is taken to heaven by mistake before he was actually due to die. And the rest of the movie is …

Boeing and the Pacific Northwest

OK, we’ve all read just about enough on Boeing. Frankly, as a student of business, I can’t open up the newspaper without reading yet another damaging article about Boeing’s …

The capitalist system

Let’s start with a 10,000-foot look at our capitalist system. Clearly, the U.S. economy is considered the best in the world. It is twice as large as any other country (it’s China!) …

Things about songs you probably didn’t know

If you’ve read any of my previous columns, then you probably recall my strong interest in music. I find it one of the things that really makes life truly wonderful. Music, as an art form, …

Flyover country

I am a relatively recent transplant to the West Coast. I was born and raised in the northeastern U.S. So these observations are based on living the dream in the Pacific Northwest. Most East …

Macro economics

I’ve been trying to figure out how the world’s economic system works. Nothing too strenuous! Here’s what I’ve come up with so far. Quantitative easing (when central …

Tennis versus golf

As I have not offended a sufficient number of people this week, I thought I’d write about two sports, both of which I play badly: tennis and golf. Tennis: I occasionally played tennis as a …

Flying the not-so friendly skies

Let me start right off by saying I’m no longer a fan of air travel. Why? Simply because in the past 15 years or so, they’ve managed to dehumanize the entire experience. Let’s …

We’re entering the silly season

I define the silly season as the time between about now and the election this November. Why silly season? Because if you actually parse the words coming from candidates in both parties, you will see …

Snow

Now is not something I would normally write about in midsummer. We occasionally get lowland snow in our area. If it happens I get up early to shovel our driveway. We happen to live on a private …

Looking back

I was watching “Field of Dreams” the other day. For those of you who might not have ever seen this Capra-esque film, I find among the best moments are when Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner), …

Winning through persistence

There is a word I really like. It is tenacity. I’m sure most of you already know what this word means but in essence, it means “don’t give up.” I genuinely think this …

The things we actually say

We all get tongue-tied every so often. I’ve looked into some of the worst examples of this. My neighbor was changing the oil in his car, and he would just dump the used oil down the rain …

The price of everything

"A cynic knows the price of everything but the value of nothing.” – Oscar Wilde (Noted Irish playwright – " The Picture of Dorian Gray " ) What was Wilde talking …

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