On Black Friday while sitting in the Best Buy parking lot, a guy hit my car. This past weekend, we were finally able to get it in for repairs. It all started because of a TV. As you may recall, a couple of months ago my 55″ television died. If there was any silver lining to that cloud it was that the television had the courtesy to end itself just a few weeks before Black Friday. I asked Susan to keep an eye out for a good sale on televisions, and she found one — another 55″, for less than… (read more)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)