RIP Uncle Buddy

If I could only share one story with you about my uncle Buddy, this would be the one. Around the time Susan and I began dating in 1993 I attempted to impress her with the fact that I visited Chicago “all the time.” What I neglected to tell her was that every time I had ever visited Chicago, I had done so while riding in the back seat of my parents’ car. Susan called my bluff and suggested the two of us should hop in her new car and visit the Windy City on our own. I panicked, and asked… (read more)

RobOHara

Now or Never

I have had many conversations with doctors in regards to my weight throughout the years. Some were lighthearted, like the short chats I used to have with my fellow morbidly-obese doctor back in the early 2000s. “You need to lose some weight,” he would say. “You first!” I would counter, and then we would both share a good belly laugh. Conversations with other doctors were more awkward. My last doctor regularly competed in Iron Man competitions. Googling his name turns up hits of marathon photos. Every conversation I had with him about my weight ended with a condescending “tsk.” Last… (read more)

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My 24 Greatest “Greatest Hits” CDs

Over the weekend my family and I drove to Denver and back to attend my friend Robb’s wedding (and did a few other things while we were in town, too). Many years ago prior to embarking on a cross-country road trip, picking out the CDs I was going to take with me was an important part of the trip-planning process. Today there is physical price to pay for cramming thousands of songs onto our phones, but back then, more CDs meant more space. Back in the 1990s, the solution to this problem was to purchase lots of “greatest hits” and… (read more)

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June 27

Rob O'Hara and Susan O'Hara

Over the years, I’ve come to appreciate June 27. My wife’s birthday is June 26. As of this year, 2017, the two of us have been married half our lives. That’s a lot of birthdays to celebrate together. June 28, two days later, is Morgan’s birthday. Today, Morgan turns twelve — a “tween” now, officially, although I feel like she’s been a tween for quite some time. I associate Susan’s birthday with good times from the past, the memories of road trips and vacations and adventures. Morgan’s birthday is more about looking forward; youth, and the road ahead that awaits… (read more)

RobOHara

Fifteen and a Half

Mason O'Hara in Subaru WRX STI

“Dad, do you need to go to 7-11?” “Dad, do you need to go to the post office?” “Dad, do you need to go to the store?” Guess who turned fifteen-and-a-half last week and got his learner’s permit? (This is a staged photo. Mason will never drive the STI.) When Mason turned fourteen he got a license to drive a motorcycle, and for roughly a year and a half he’s been riding to school and around town on two wheels. I grew up riding motorcycles, as did my dad, but that doesn’t make it any easier to watch your kid… (read more)

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Podcast News and Consolidation!

When I started my first podcast (You Don’t Know Flack) back in 2008, I envisioned it as a complete package. I stood up a separate webpage and WordPress installation for it (podcast.RobOHara.com). I also created a dedicated email address and Facebook page for the show as well. The late 2000s were all about branding. Time went on, and I launched more shows. I registered more domains like SpriteCastle.com and MultipleSadness.com, and created Facebook pages, email addresses, RSS feeds, iTunes pages, and Twitter accounts for those shows, too. This was a great idea that didn’t scale well. Each time I launched… (read more)

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Old Skool NES Raspberry Pi Case

Last year, Nintendo released the NES Classic Edition. It was a game console that looked like a tiny version of the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) from the 80s. It had 30 built-in games and cost $59.95. Nintendo woefully underestimated demand for the console. Stores couldn’t keep them in stock, and when they did hit shelves, scalpers scooped them up and resold them online for huge profits. And then, with thousands of potential customers begging Nintendo to ramp up production, the company confusingly cancelled the product instead. This led lots of techie people to roll their own solutions, the most… (read more)

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Getting Back to Work

Rob O'Hara and Howard Carey

Just when I thought I had run out of tears, as I watched Howard’s casket get lowered into the ground, I found more. Seeing co-workers and friends and Howard’s family all hurting brought everything to the surface. I wanted to be there and anywhere but there at the same time. Saturday night was different. One day after visiting him at a funeral home and only a few hours after the graveside service, I (and a couple hundred of his friends) attended a “celebration of life” gathering for Howard Carey. There were tears, but not as many as before. We ate,… (read more)

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On Twinkies and Death

As a writer, I am always thinking in transitions. I spend a lot of time on getting jokes to flow from one to the next, and making it look like I didn’t spend any time on it at all. When novel writing, I work hard to come up with hooks I can drop at the end of one chapter to ensure readers will start the next. It’s about the flow — linking words and sentences and paragraphs into bigger, cohesive movements. Before my friend Howard passed away this past weekend, I was working on a blog post about a Twinkie… (read more)

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My Howard

Because I know a few people with the same first name, at some point over the past few years I began referring to my friend Howard Carey as “my” Howard. I never realized that until Susan pointed it out last Friday. “I’m texting my Howard to see if he wants to meet us for lunch,” I told her. “Your Howard?” she replied. Yeah. Howard Carey was my Howard. I met Howard Carey when he started working as a contractor for the FAA in 1999. He worked on the help desk for a while, and did desk side support, and was… (read more)

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