Author Archive
Our Awesome World: Yellowstone National Park
One man’s account of taking on nature head-first, in a reasonable fashion of course.
Nintendo Game Boy
It was the summer 1989, and I had finished suffering through the 2nd grade. George H.W. Bush had been president for less than six months, and for the first time in my life, I knew the name of the president. I hadn’t quite turned eight yet, so although slightly embarrassing now, it was a milestone. [...]
Jolt Cola
It sounds cliché, but my first Jolt Cola was consumed at a local comic book store. It was the kind of beverage that made mothers cringe, with the catch-phrase “All the sugar and twice the caffeine” proudly emblazoned on the can. Jolt wasn’t widely available in tradition outlets like supermarkets or convenience stores, and it [...]
Bruce Campbell
I don’t really know when I first noticed Bruce Campbell. If my memory serves me correctly, it was likely during radio ads for The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., a program that was broadcast on the FOX network for a single season. I didn’t watch the show during the original airing, but did eventually get [...]
Syndicate (PC)
I’ve always been behind as far as PC gaming goes. Our first family computer was a used 286 from my uncle, and we didn’t get that until I was in the fifth grade. This is odd, considering my dad worked in IT, but in retrospect I attribute it to his desire to escape from the [...]
Lakefront Brewery – Milwaukee, WI
So here’s the setup. For the last two Octobers, around my birthday, my wife and I have quietly celebrated the occasion out of town. However, Minneapolis presents its own geographical difficulties for a quick weekend on the road. To the North, the only major city is Duluth, and since I don’t smoke meth it is [...]
Tales of a First Car
July 4th, 1998. I was sixteen, and since my birthday the preceding October, I had been relegated to borrowing my father’s Plymouth Voyager, the 1991 model. But this day was more than a national day of independence; it was a personal day as well. My family had taken the thirty minute drive to my uncle’s [...]
Clash of the Tacos
Fast food tacos. They could almost be a symbol for our nation’s weight crisis, if it wasn’t for the more media-friendly Big Mac to lampoon. The fast food taco has more or less been reduced to a flour tortilla or a corn shell, stuffed with a meat mixture that contains cumin and chili powder, pre-shredded [...]
Futurama
“Space. It seems to go on and on forever. But then you get to the end and a gorilla starts throwing barrels at you.”
Palm OS (pre-Cobalt/6.0)
As the launch of the Palm Pre nears, I felt it would be appropriate to take a look back at my love affair with the PDA. In an era before smartphones and online scheduling services, those like me required a separate method of remaining organized. I’ve probably had hundreds of paper organizers throughout my life, [...]