The Annual WordPress Draft Purge

Every year I start dozens of blog posts that never get finished. Sometimes I’ll start writing one and they simply don’t go anywhere. Other times I’ll start one and by the time I finish them they no longer seem relevant. According to WordPress I currently have 80 blogs in varying states of completion sitting in the draft folder. I may finish a few of them, but most of them will end up in the trash pile. Here are just a few that I’ve deleting this morning. MIKE TYSON KO’S NETFLIX, LOSES TO FATHER TIME I wrote a really long recap… (read more)

A Loophole in our (month of) No Buy Year!

We’re six full days into the first month of our No Buy Year and so far things are going great. We haven’t bought anything at a store, we haven’t visited any thrift stores, and we haven’t purchased anything from Amazon. That last one has been the hardest for me. Due to purchases made in 2024, we still had a few packages arrive after the New Year. The number has trickled down to zero. I’m pretty sure our neighborhood Amazon delivery drivers think we’re dead. And of course we’re still spending money. We’ve already been to Walgreens twice to pick up… (read more)

New Year, New Project: Ninjas and Neon

It took me a couple of days, but I figured it out. I love this little blog, and it’s not going anywhere. What I was and have been frustrated with is how my traditional posts get reads and comments, but the content that doesn’t quite fit, like my retro-related stuff, doesn’t seem to find an audience. The solution, of course, is to start a new project. Yesterday I launched NinjasAndNeon.com, a site hosted on Substack. Substack is part blog and part newsletter with a small sprinkling of social media on top. It’s a perfect place for me to write posts… (read more)

We Are (Maybe) Not Buying Anything For An Entire (At Least a Month) Year | A No Buy Year

Susan and I have agreed not to buy anything in 2025. There are so many exceptions and asterisks to our agreement that you could drive a truck through them and by the time you reach the end of this post you may wonder what we actually agreed to stop spending money on. It all started a few years ago when a high school classmate of ours, Scott Dannemiller, wrote a book titled The Year without a Purchase: One Family’s Quest to Stop Shopping and Start Connecting. In honor of my friend’s achievement of not buying anything for an entire year,… (read more)

What I Watched in 2024 (Kinda…)

Since 2016 I have been tracking all the movies, documentaries, and television shows I’ve watched. In 2023 I had a total of 85 entries. In 2021, I had a whopping 168. In 2024, my list has a paltry 22 entries. What happened? Well, two things. First, it is true that I watched significantly fewer movies, documentaries, and seasons of television shows in 2024. This past year I dove into YouTube and spent a lot of time both watching and making videos. Watching videos on YouTube isn’t the same as watching a movie, but it fills the same time slot. I… (read more)

Why My Blog is Dead

Every year, between Christmas and New Year’s, I write a series of posts reflecting on the previous year. To do this, I typically scan through my blog to jog my memory. What I found this year is that… I kind of abandoned my blog. One reason I quit writing so many blog posts is because I ran out of things to say. When I started blogging — we’re going all the way back to the late 90s, early 00s here — anything and everything qualified as a blog post. Funny exchange at the McDonald’s drive-thru? Blog post! Saw a traffic… (read more)

The Sad Tale of Ginger McHoleHead

It all started with our neighbors — and it wasn’t even a Christmas display, it was their Halloween decorations. On Halloween Susan and I like to sit on the front porch and hand out candy to trick-ot-treaters. We love seeing all the costumes and hearing the kids laugh and shout “TRICK OR TREAT!” when they run up to the porch. This year, all of our young visitors asked us the same question. “Did you see the Beetlejuice house?” We had a lot going on this year and didn’t decorate as much as usual. We put Mick Rib (my 6′ skeleton)… (read more)

My 55″ Television Moved from the Wall to the Curb

Yesterday, I placed a large flat screen television out in the trash. It is, as far as I can recall, the first time I have ever literally thrown away a flat screen television. The television was a 55″ model made by Visio — perhaps not the world’s greatest brand, but a decent brand as far as I am concerned. When Susan rented her condo space in Washington D.C. a couple of years ago she needed a television the living room and asked for some advice. I suggested going to Sam’s Club (who would deliver the television) and pick the largest… (read more)

The Best Garage Shelves I Ever Built Using Only 2x4s

I recently built a large shelving system for tubs in my garage using only 2x4s. Here is a link to my YouTube video showing exactly how it’s done, followed by a written summary of the process. This is the sturdiest and simplest method I have come up with for adding storage to your garage. If you can cut a 2×4 and use a drill, you can build these. It’s no secret that I love shelves. I love building them and I love putting stuff on them. When we moved into this house six years ago, I purchased a large amount… (read more)

A Fun Old (New) Stereo: The Looptone 9-in-1 Stereo

I own maybe fifty albums on vinyl and less than a dozen cassette tapes. I don’t buy new releases on vinyl — everything I have is either belonged to my parents, is from my own childhood, or was purchased to tickle some nostalgic sense. I don’t think I paid more than a dollar or two for any of them. Most of them pop, hiss and crackle and I like it that way. I’m less nostalgic about cassette tapes. I digitized all my childhood radio recordings years ago and only have a handful of tapes from local bands that never made… (read more)