Current Thoughts archive entries:
- The Indie Author Social Contract
- The eBook Companion Video
- My First eBook
- Move Twitter Content Pane Left
- Canadian Subsidy Directory Spam
- What Should I Be Preparing For?
- Girl Power
- Remember The Orthodontist
- The Girl With Thirteen Fingers
- Saskatoon Housing Prices Are Speculative
- My Adventures With Domain Estate
- Made In China
- The Cannibalistic Pumpkin
- A New Advertising Low
- It's a Snap!
- False Friends
- Are We Really Getting Smarter?
June 09, 2012
The Indie Author Social Contract
Growing up (yes, decades ago now) I knew some people who called themselves writers. I somehow did not connect those people with the mainstream published authors who wrote the books I was reading on a daily basis.
Continue reading "The Indie Author Social Contract"
Posted by Hammer at 12:45 AM | Comments (3)
May 10, 2012
The eBook Companion Video
Remember my first eBook from yesterday? Of course you do. So it turns out that reaction to the eBook was overwhelmingly positive! One of my friends even suggested that I follow up with a video.
Continue reading "The eBook Companion Video"
Posted by Hammer at 11:58 PM
May 08, 2012
My First eBook
Here it is! Free of charge, and free of DRM. Download and enjoy my first eBook: How To Be Good At (almost) Everything.
Comments? :)
Posted by Hammer at 11:47 PM | Comments (2)
February 13, 2012
Move Twitter Content Pane Left
I have been using Twitter for a while, and each time they change their site design it takes a bit of time to get used to it again. However, their last change (which I only recently inherited) didn't sit well with me; I don't like the content pane on the right. Here's a way to move it back to the left...
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Posted by Hammer at 09:37 AM
April 24, 2011
Canadian Subsidy Directory Spam
Some spammers will just never die, sadly. Incredibly, I've been receiving roughly the same spam email from this company yearly since about 2005, as far as I can recall. I say that because I've deleted email from then long ago. The first year or two I tried to contact the company to be removed from their mailing list, but it never worked. So here's what I'm going to do this year...
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Posted by Hammer at 08:42 PM | Comments (3)
May 12, 2010
What Should I Be Preparing For?
Here's a fun way to pass the time: go to Google and type in a phrase, and then wait to see what it brings back in it's auto-suggest feature...
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Posted by Hammer at 12:35 PM
November 26, 2009
Girl Power
This morning over breakfast, my youngest daughter (who is now 7) asked if I thought that boys were tougher than girls. I paused before answering, wondering where this was going...
Posted by Hammer at 03:50 PM | Comments (1)
March 26, 2009
Remember The Orthodontist
I was driving my youngest daughter to music class last week when we drove past the orthodontist's office...
Continue reading "Remember The Orthodontist"
Posted by Hammer at 10:40 AM
June 14, 2008
The Girl With Thirteen Fingers
My youngest daughter is almost finished Kindergarten - they have a couple of weeks left in the school year. I was home with her today when I overheard her counting to herself...
Continue reading "The Girl With Thirteen Fingers"
Posted by Hammer at 01:16 AM
May 07, 2007
Saskatoon Housing Prices Are Speculative
In the past, it seemed that Saskatoon was largely immune to booms in housing markets. We weren't Calgary, Vancouver or Toronto. We didn't see large influxes of people as other cities did when particular industries boomed (and thankfully, because we didn't get any large booms, we also didn't see any large busts). So what's up with the prices now in 2007?
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Posted by Hammer at 03:00 PM | Comments (1)
May 03, 2007
My Adventures With Domain Estate
I purchased a domain name a few years ago transfercredit.com that was for a specific software project dealing with the transfer of learning credits between various academic institutions. Unfortunately, the project fell through and never was awarded. So what to do with the domain name? Really, it's a good domain name for refinancing credit or consolidation loans. :)
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Posted by Hammer at 03:43 PM
March 01, 2007
Made In China
My oldest daughter came back from a birthday party this past weekend, and noticed that the rubber ball she got in her take-home goodie bag was stamped "Made In China". She asked me why it said that...
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Posted by Hammer at 10:39 PM | Comments (1)
October 31, 2006
The Cannibalistic Pumpkin
My oldest daughter took a departure from standard pumpkin carving techniques when she told me that the mouth on hers had to be in the shape of an "O", as if the pumpkin were surprised. I was to learn the extent of her plan when I came home from work the next day...
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Posted by Hammer at 12:29 AM
August 30, 2006
A New Advertising Low
I was driving home from work yesterday and was a little disturbed to discover advertising in a place that I did not expect to see it...
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Posted by Hammer at 10:36 AM
August 04, 2006
It's a Snap!
If we pay attention, some times we see that kids are amazing in subtle ways. One day they're asking how something is done, and the next time you look over they're putting their new-found knowledge to use.
Here's a short example...
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Posted by Hammer at 12:21 PM
January 16, 2006
False Friends
I was in the Calgary airport this morning, waiting for the plane that would take me back home, and I witnessed a poor display of social interaction. It was kind of like an accident scene, where you don't really want to look, but it's so captivating that you can't avert your eyes...
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Posted by Hammer at 07:38 PM
January 03, 2006
Are We Really Getting Smarter?
I've been wondering this for a while. Even though it's apparent that our body of knowledge is expanding rapidly in certain directions (generally "high tech" directions), how much knowledge are we losing each year? And although society as a whole is gaining this knowledge, how much of that filters down to the individual?
While I was working as an apprentice sheet metal worker in the summer of 1987, an almost-retired journeyman remarked to me, "I've already forgotten more about this trade than you'll ever learn". We laughed at his joke at the time, but that sentence stayed in my head for years to come. And now, years later, I think that we was right - although on a larger scale than we was imagining.
Continue reading "Are We Really Getting Smarter?"
Posted by Hammer at 11:52 PM