Michael's pondering thoughts

This has been some week for hardware and appliance problems in my household. Thursday, I had a silent hard drive crash. It could have happened before then, but I didn't notice it until Thursday. The drive was there last week, but Windows 11 would not recognize it. I tried it in two different computers to rule out bad cables or a motherboard issue. I didn't realize the drive was 10 years and 3 months old until I removed it and looked at it. It is kind of like a washer, you don't think about how old it is until something happens. I had a stale backup, so I probably lost 5 to 10 percent of the stuff that was not backed up. Then, to add salt to the wound, I got a message from someone on social media. It didn't really bother me, but it kind of did. It seemed like a gentle, polite, maybe funny attempt to sympathize and lighten the situation. At the same time, it was basically saying this is what you get with a 10-year-old drive and that I had it coming. due to its ag...

Read on ign.com · View original Mastodon post Here is another example of what I was talking about in a recent blog post TV Isn't What It Used to Be . According to IGN, the first season came out 3.5 years ago. That is a long time to wait for a second season. I will watch it because the first season was good. But if I miss it, I won't really care. By this point, I would have to rewatch Season 1 just to remember what happened before starting Season 2. You're telling me it took them 3.5 years to make a second season, and it will probably only have 10 episodes? Even though they already knew the first season had done so well? If this is the new trend, television execs need to be fired. Hire unknown actors and make series faster. If the series does well, the actors will become known. This line in the article stood out to me: Disney has scaled back its live-action Star Wars show production over the past couple of years, following a splurge on limited series suc...

⚠️ SPOILER WARNING: FULL SPOILERS My Rating: ⭐ (1/5 stars) Not worth watching there were several times I wondered why I was watching this. Plot was kind of a mix of Giver, Enders Game, The Allegiant and Hunger Games all in one but not done very well. But I was tired and lazy so let it go on. Please don't buy this free is how this one should be. This product uses the TMDb API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDb .

Celebrating 10 years of exploration, discovery, and adventure in the vast, ever-expanding universe of No Man's Sky. Happy Anniversary to Hello Games , No Man's Sky . It is 10 years, and hopefully another 10. A sequel would be great. Thanks, Sean Murray, for a great game that started rough but has grown into a masterpiece, and all free after initial purchase. I don't play as much as I used to. When I do jump back in, I am there just to explore. I don't really care if I never reach the center of the universe. Game companies can take lessons from you, the bad and the good. The good has outweighed all the bad. Look at all the free DLC content over 10 years: For a more in depth review and history of this game see this post I made No Man’s Sky – Nearly 10 Years Later

Read on ign.com · View original Mastodon post I don't watch this series, though it has interested me. Still, its general theme fits what I want to talk about here. People wonder why TV viewing and TV series are dying. Well, when you have to wait a couple of years for 8 to 10 episodes, maybe 12 if you are really lucky, that is ridiculous. From an outsider's point of view, something is clearly wrong with the TV industry. I have said this a hundred times, and I will keep saying it: when I was growing up, TV had an actual season. You knew roughly when it would start and end, within plus or minus a week or two. There were holiday specials, and every "TV season" usually had anywhere from 18 to 30 episodes. Of course, there were exceptions, like first seasons with fewer episodes to test interest and ratings. Now, there is no set schedule. You get 8 to 10 episodes every couple of years, and by the time a new season finally comes out, you have already lost inter...

Celebrating 25 years of blogging with gratitude, reflection, and a sweet slice of success surrounded by creativity and joy. August 6, 2001, 25 years ago. I started blogging. I had a website made by Microsoft FrontPage and hosted on GTE (now Verizon) in the homepages they offered back in those days for residential customers. In fact, your ISP provided everything for you. You had so much website space and an ISP-provided email, which you lost if you changed providers. That's foreign today. But I started on Blogger before it was owned by Google on this date in 2001. Hard to believe it's been 25 years since I started blogging. Here is my first post ever . It's even harder to imagine I've been doing this for that long. I think blogging helps me get stuff off my chest, though very, very few people read it. I like to vent, review, or just get my thoughts down about different subjects. I like to think not only have my website and my blogging improved, but my knowledge h...

I saw the title of Antonio’s post the other day on bubbles.town, “I Couldn’t Live Without My Glasses” , and it intrigued me. The first thing I do when I wake up isn’t checking my phone or making coffee. It’s putting on my glasses. This was never me. I was the opposite. I could see my phone and other things up close, such as the alarm clock. Putting on my glasses was usually the second or third thing I did because I needed them to see at a distance. Before cataract surgery, I was nearsighted and also had astigmatism. I could see things up close without glasses, but I needed my glasses to see clearly at a distance and for almost everything else. What Antonio wrote still struck a chord with me because I could relate to nearly every word in his post. Cataract surgery completely changed that. My new intraocular lenses (IOLs) were set for distance, so I can now see far away without glasses. However, they cannot focus up close the way my natural lenses once could, which means I now...

Do you ever have a bunch of blog post ideas bouncing around in your head but no idea where to start, what would actually be interesting, or how to flesh them out? That's been me lately. My vision is improving, but my eyes aren't fully healed. My right eye, the first to be operated on, just hit the one-month mark. The left is about two weeks behind. I have one more doctor visit to get a prescription for reading glasses and maybe fine-tune my distance vision. Distance seems okay, but reading and intermediate vision are tricky. The intermediate could use some fine tuning, and my short-distance vision is definitely worse and needs more correction. With this better vision, I'm trying to blog more, get more done, and make progress before the next hurdle. Catching up feels overwhelming. I keep trying to do five things at once, so I need to slow down and focus. On top of everything else, I have a backlog of podcasts to listen to or watch and a pile of unread items in my RSS r...

I just wanted to say I saw the news of John C. Dvorak passing yesterday. I hadn't heard much from him in years and often assumed he had retired. I was first introduced to him by watching Leo LaPorte and TechTV back in the day. I remember being introduced to Google Voice when Mr. Dvorak and Leo talked about it on a show. I can't recall the exact show or episode, but Mr. Dvorak talked about how he and his son used it to save on phone costs. If I remember correctly, it helped with long-distance charges, though I'm not certain. I also remember reading the articles he wrote for PC Magazine. What I didn't know until he passed was that he came from a semi-famous family, the inventor of the Dvorak Keyboard (never used one). It's getting to the point where some of the pioneers from the internet era are starting to pass, and that's a sad reality. I knew of John C. Dvorak more than Om Malik, even though Mr. Malik and I were closer in age. These losses feel like th...

A thoughtful couple contemplates the evolving intersection of creativity and technology, symbolized by a brain merging artistic tools with digital circuitry under a spotlight. I was browsing topics and titles on bubbles.town when I came across a post by Panagiotis Vryonis, AI-generated blog post images are not cool any more . It reminded me of another post I read a few months ago, On AI Images and Feature Images in General by Kev Quirk. I have been meaning to respond to his piece. Last year, I wrote a post about using featured images called To Feature Image or Not . That post surprised me by getting a couple of responses. I usually get almost no feedback, so the email replies were unexpected. The readers who responded basically said the same thing: It is your blog. You can use featured images if you want. When I first started using Blogger back in 2001, finding images for posts was a real chore. You had to search for them manually while being careful not to use someone el...

Celebrating 100 years of Moody Radio, connecting generations through timeless broadcasts and iconic moments captured in history. This is a year of anniversaries. Moody Bible Institute turns 140 and Moody Radio turns 100. I listen to Moody Radio almost daily. I think Moody Church and Moody Bible Institute are the premier Evangelical Christian sword in today's world. You can find a great timeline with historical pictures here . Happy 140 years, Moody Bible Institute, keep turning out those Christian men and women. Happy 100 years to Moody Radio. Here's to another 100 years, unless the Lord tarries. Links may be shortened via mtribe.link for cleaner formatting. All links redirect to their original destinations.

Me with my glasses for the last time full time pre-surgery. I just shared good news about my heart journey, and now I can finally share another medical milestone for 2026: my cataract surgeries are done and my vision is back. For the last couple of years, my sight kept slipping, no matter how many times I got new prescriptions from the ophthalmologist or optometrist. A new prescription might clear things up for a few months, then the blurriness would come back. I found myself contorting my face and doing all kinds of facial tricks just to see. It was soul-sapping. Anyone who knows me knows I don't get depressed easily. At 57, I've had low moments before, but nothing like this. The vision loss pushed me into a prolonged low spell. I stopped wanting to read and lost enthusiasm for work, except as a way to pay bills. Even blogging suffered. After my most prolific year in 2025, I barely posted because I literally couldn't see well enough. My glaucoma doctor mostly sa...

A man reflects with quiet satisfaction as he reviews positive echo results, surrounded by reminders of gratitude, strength, and progress in a warm, sunlit room. I wanted to share a long-overdue health update about what has happened this year and why I can finally talk about it. I recently had my second Camzyos cardiology echo and doctor’s visit of the year. I normally go every six months, and this visit gave me my best numbers yet. On Camzyos, my obstruction is much better controlled. My echo looked fantastic, so I included a table below comparing my results before and after starting Camzyos. When I first started Camzyos, I was not getting my refills consistently because of REMS requirements and the timing of my echoes and doctor’s visits. This created gaps in treatment. Once my refills became consistent and those delays stopped, the treatment began working much better. Time point Camzyos status Ejection fraction LVOT gradient at rest LVOT gradient with Valsalva / prov...

⚠️ SPOILER WARNING: FULL SPOILERS In "Project Hail Mary" (2026), a lone astronaut awakens to an uncertain mission, fighting for humanity's survival amid the vastness of space and the unknown. My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐½ (3.5/5 stars) Okay, first thing: overall, it wasn't a bad movie. The pacing drags at the beginning, and several scenes could have been explained more clearly or cut shorter. The second half and the ending are much stronger. The first half felt slow, and the premise is kind of stupid, but the story between the two main characters at the end is the best part. Ryan Gosling was okay in this movie. The film was definitely too long. It's a so-so movie and not worth buying, but I'm glad it's included with my Prime subscription since it gave me something different to watch. This product uses the TMDb API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDb .

Celebrating 250 years of freedom and unity with fireworks lighting up the night sky above the U.S. Capitol, as the American flag proudly waves in honor of the nation’s milestone birthday. Happy 250th birthday, United States of America! What a strange moment to mark a birthday, given everything going on in the world. Even so, I believe the U.S. has done enormous good and has served as a beacon for the world since at least World War I, if not sooner. I remember being about 7 years old in 1976, during the last major milestone, America’s 200th birthday. My aunt, uncle, and cousins lived in Lakeland. I was staying with them, and we went to the train yard in Lakeland to see the Freedom Train. It did not stop in Lakeland until December 1976, but I still remember it. Now it is the 250th anniversary, and this year just feels different. It should be a big celebration, and I hope it is. For all our problems, this is still one of the best countries in the world, and possibly the best. ...

Celebrating 70 years of USF's rich history and vibrant campus life, where tradition meets innovation under the open skies. As you get older, anniversaries and milestones hit you differently. I don't know why. I don't regret anything in my life, but I do feel nostalgic sometimes. The other day, driving to work, I learned that the University of South Florida is celebrating 70 years this year. That surprised me, because the first founding class attended in 1960, so the 70th anniversary is actually a few years off. I attended USF from 1987 to 1990. I didn't graduate; I would have had about two years left. 1991 would have been my graduation year, but I was taking it nice and slow. Most people were taking five years, so 1992 would have been my year if I had stayed on track. What would have been my degree? Hold your chair and keep seated, but it would have been Music Education with a minor in Florida History. Money ran out, I was loaned out, and I decided to join the...

Star Trek: Outposts Unknown - Official Announcement Trailer - IGN To boldly go… and build in Star Trek: Outposts Unknown. Check out the Star Trek: Outposts Unknown announcement trailer for this upcoming narrative-driven outpost builder game set in the Star Trek universe. Build complex research facilities through the mysterious X’Lehari System. Explore strange new worlds, guide your crew through dangerous encounters, and uncover a cosmic force threatening all life in the system. Set alongside the era of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, your journey will take you across hostile environments, abandoned ships, ancient ruins, and a fragile civilization in desperate need of aid. Star Trek: Outposts Unknown will be available on PC. A demo is out now on Steam. — @video-game-and-movie-trailers-ign on mastodon via Video Game and Movie Trailers This looks very interesting. I will be following this closely.

⚠️ SPOILER WARNING: MILD SPOILERS Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan: Ghost War (2026) brings intense espionage and action as Jack Ryan and his team navigate a deadly covert conflict in a high-stakes battle for global security. My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐½ (3.5/5 stars) I agree with the other reviews. I loved the whole cast. John Krasinski does a fantastic job as the lead, and he works well as a replacement for Harrison Ford in this whole new series. The problem was the format: as a movie it felt rushed and the story couldn’t properly develop. This would have benefited from another season or at least a limited one-season run so the characters and plot had time to breathe. The cast gave you everything, they just needed more room to do it. This product uses the TMDb API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDb .

Why Gen X is the real loser generation Don’t cry for millennials or Gen Z. Save your pity for those in their 50s — @daily-reads-TheEconomist on mastodon via Daily Reads I am a Gen Xer, and I do not consider myself part of a loser generation. I do think my generation came up during a time when the family was under assault from companies, the economy, and a culture that made it harder and harder for one parent to stay home. I know my mother and father resisted that pressure for as long as they could. My mother was a stay-at-home mother for most of my childhood, and I am grateful for that. I also get to spend time with her now in her 70s, and I appreciate every bit of that time. My father worked and was the primary breadwinner for our household. But after I graduated, my parents took on two more mouths to feed. My aunt on my mom’s side died young, and her two kids, my cousins, were being raised by my maternal grandmother. When my grandmother died, my parents took over raising...