I started this blog on January 1, 2015 (here's that first post), and haven't missed a day since. The original intent was to see if I was up to the challenge of posting every day for 31 days. When I got to 31 days I said to myself why not try for 50 days, which … Continue reading A Look Back at My First Attempts at Blogging
The Wall Street Journal recently had a story about how more and more companies are using software to monitor its workers' habits. ActivTrak software can track "every little thing that happens on the computer from the time it’s fired up.". If you're on ESPN for five minutes it knows. It knows how much time you … Continue reading Uh-oh. It May be Time for Me to Stop Using the Company Laptop.
I'll get right to the video, and add my thoughts below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UNuqYFP-pM Besides all these great songs, the thing that impressed me the most was this guy's ability to play all these songs off the top off his head. I don't know much about playing the guitar (I tried to teach myself a few years … Continue reading Music Monday: The Top 20 Acoustic Guitar Intros of All Time
I n the July 2009 issue of Reader's Digest, Beth Catlin was named "Best Birthday Wisher" in RD's "Best of America" feature. Back then, Beth was sending birthday cards each year to 3,834 people. Today, that number is greater than 5,000. Beth's extraordinary mission began sometime in 1972: She sends hand-made birthday greetings to every … Continue reading Birthday Savant Sends 5,000 Birthday Cards Every Year, Using Just Her Memory
I've been writing this daily blog for over four and a half years, and I have not done much to promote it during that time After I publish my post, I add a link to it on Facebook and Twitter, and that's about it. I had also assumed that since I used WordPress, I was … Continue reading WordPress Notifications 1, Jim Borden 0
This post was triggered by an essay in the Wall Street Journal by author Ann Patchett in which she notes that as children, many of us were forced to consume books over school break; as adults, we can enjoy those assigned classics without the academic burden. Here is the paragraph that resonated with me the … Continue reading Some Thoughts on Summer Reading Lists for High School Students
As I've gotten older, crankier, and hopefully a bit wiser, these stop signs have gotten more and more annoying. Imagine coming to an intersection where you want to make a left turn, and you have a stop sign. There is a car coming in the opposite direction, and you notice that they also have a … Continue reading Where Does Stop Not Mean Stop? In Pennsylvania, Apparently.
I've previously written about the potential beauty and simplicity (and challenge) of writing a six-word story, and today I discovered, thanks to WordPress Discover, a fun, but challenging twist to the genre - the five random emojis story. Friends James Hannaham and John W. Bateman created a game where one of them texts five random emoji … Continue reading Forget about the Six-Word Story, How about the Five Emoji Story?
"How are you doing, sir? Are you having a good day?" That, along with a handshake, was how I was greeted as I entered the Walmart in King of Prussia today. I then proceeded to have a five-minute chat with John, the customer host/greeter. Most of our conversation was centered around the 50th anniversary of … Continue reading Now This Is How to Greet a Customer
I am in the midst of reading a fascinating book - Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein - and I thought one of the stories he shares would fit in nicely with my Music Monday posts. Epstein tells the story of the figlie del coro, which means "daughters of the … Continue reading Music Monday: the Figlie del Coro
Borden's Blather 