Can You Go Back? A Look at the THEC64 Maxi

Late last week my newest computer, THEC64, arrived. I’m not in the business of buying things for myself this close to Christmas, but this was a computer I pre-ordered back in August. After multiple production and shipping delays, the machine finally found its way to me the first week of December. Most people know I’ve been a fan of Commodore computers, and specifically the Commodore 64, since the mid-1980s. I’m still a fan of the computer today; I’ve written two books about my experiences with the computer (Commodork and Commodorkier), and record a podcast called Sprite Castle where I play,… (read more)

RobOHara

We Visited a 50′ Tall Leg Lamp in Chickasha, Oklahoma

I was ten years old — just about Ralphie’s age, in fact — when A Christmas Story was released in 1983. Every so often, a Christmas movie comes along that connects with an entire generation (sometimes more than one) and encompasses the spirit of the holidays. Previous generations had A Miracle on 34th Street, It’s a Wonderful Life, and Meet me in St. Louis. When I was little, I looked forward to watching the Rankin/Bass stop-motion specials Santa Claus is Coming to Town and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, which were almost always followed by How the Grinch Stole Christmas… (read more)

RobOHara1 Comment

Pat Deckard (1943-2020)

My earliest memory of Pat Deckard involves eating French toast in her kitchen. I was seven, maybe eight years old at the time, and it must have been the morning after a sleepover. The Deckards had a back garage separate from their house where anywhere from three to eight boys from the neighborhood would have slumber parties. We slept on old mattresses with metal coils exposed, too dirty for dogs to lie on, and huddled around space heaters to keep us from freezing to death when the temperature dropped. The following morning, cold and hungry, we would go inside the… (read more)

RobOHara3 Comments

A Rough Week / Early Voting

Several years ago I transitioned to posting stories here on RobOHara.com instead of simple blog entries. Blog entries are much simpler to write, mostly because they don’t require a beginning or an ending. They’re like five paragraph themes, without the first or last paragraphs. Story-based articles take longer to write and require more work — not just because they need a beginning and ending, but because, sometimes, you have to figure out exactly where the beginning and the ending are. On Saturday, October 31, Susan and I decided to beat the rush and vote early, in person. Due to the… (read more)

RobOHara1 Comment

Power Restored!

“I’m getting a generator today,” Susan announced Thursday morning. “Baby, there’s not a generator for sale within a hundred miles,” I replied. We were both right. As I was gathering all our dead electronics into a single pile to take to work so I could recharge them, Susan was searching for generators online. As the stack of drained laptops, phones, flashlights, and other devices grew, I could tell they wouldn’t all fit in my backpack. Instead, I grabbed a suitcase from under the bed and began stacking the devices neatly inside. “I found a generator,” said Susan. “And paid for… (read more)

RobOHara

A Winter Pity Party

Sunday night, central Oklahoma got hit with a major ice storm. By Monday, several areas of town began losing power. I don’t understand why, but there’s a line between my house and my next door neighbor’s — my power stays on when his goes out, and vice versa. He was without power all day Monday, and so Monday evening we ran an extension cord from my workshop to his house to get heat for his family. That worked until Tuesday around 1 p.m., when I lost power as well. I can’t say there weren’t signs. Monday morning, our power went… (read more)

RobOHara1 Comment

Ultimate 64 Assembled

Ultimate 64 with clear case, clear monitor, Commodore

After an extroidinarily long period of procrastination, I got my Ultimate 64 up and running over the weekend. The Ultimate 64 is a drop-in motherboard replacement for the original Commodore 64. Not only does it retain most of the original’s ports (joystick, cartridge, video, and serial) but it adds USB, ethernet, and HDMI output to a nearly 40-year-old computer. The USB ports allow modern joysticks to be used and games to be loaded directly from a USB stick, eliminating the need for a physical disk drive. The ethernet port can be used to connect to BBSes hosted on the internet,… (read more)

RobOHara4 Comments

Pushing Projects Forward

I can’t remember if I mentioned this or not — I can’t remember anything, anymore — but my 3D printer wasn’t working properly for a while. It was working okay, but not great. Everything I printed was coming out with a weird, rough finish. For the longest time I thought there was something wrong with my printer, but after doing a bunch of online research I narrowed the issue down to a single software setting. Literally, checking a single box in the software fixed the issue. I bought an Ultimate 64 over a year ago. The Ultimate 64 is a… (read more)

RobOHara

New Episodes of Unsolved Mysteries Released

I can’t believe it has only been three months since Netflix began releasing new episodes of Unsolved Mysteries. Last July, Netflix released six new episodes of the classic show so many of my friends and I grew up watching. Earlier this week, Netflix released another six episodes, completing the 2020 season. Everything I said in my review about the first half of the season applies to the second half. Five of the first six episodes dealt with unsolved murders, with only one dedicated to a paranormal event. The second half of the season follows the same pattern, with five new… (read more)

RobOHara1 Comment

Home Office Coming Together

Slowly, one piece at a time, my home office is coming together. When I first moved into my new office, I lined the walls with white plastic indoor/outdoor tables. It wasn’t what I wanted, but it’s what I had on hand at the time. Susan suggested I buy some white table tops and matching legs from Ikea, but I didn’t want to do that. I wanted to make my own tables out of plywood… and then didn’t do it. Two months later, Susan wanted to make a trip to Ikea for her own office needs, and while we were there… (read more)

RobOHara1 Comment