Before I was a programmer I worked in the Entertainment Industry.  Before that, I was a programmer.   So the arc of my business career might be viewed as; programmer (medical type stuff), made rubber monsters, programmer again (manufacturing type stuff).  It really was rather odd how experiences in one industry provided useful experience during unusual […]

Back when I first heard the term ‘Mission Statement’ it was described as a “very broad, over all, strategic plan.”  I think programmers first started discussing Mission Statements round about the time Microsoft announced their new MS as “A PC on Every Desktop by 1990”  Not sure about the year, but I remember everyone being […]

More time has passed and there seems to have been another complete replacement of the staff at the local sandwich shop. The staff used to be Hispanic. Now they appear to be from the Indian subcontinent. I suspect that the franchisee/owner, who is from India, was compelled to trim costs by firing his staff and […]

With the Fourth of July approaching patriotic stuff has begun arriving on my front porch, and sometimes in the middle of my garden.  Every year one of the local Real Estate agents pays someone to stick American flags – cheap, plastic, made in China American flags – in the middle of everyone’s lawn throughout my […]

Took my aged mother and ‘the fluffy little white dust mop dog’ for a car ride today. There are, apparently, too many red cars out on the road in Los Angeles. This is, apparently, my fault.  Because I have, apparently, not done enough to prevent my fellow motorists from making this poor choice of automobile […]

For some time there have been no barber shops. Now everyone goes to exciting, unisex, Mac Donald’s style franchise, hair salons. A programmer sits down for a haircut at ‘Freddie’s Happy Scissors’ (or some such name). Stylist: Hi! How are you? How’s your day going. Programmer: Fine. How about you? Stylist: Good. Programmer: Anything planned […]

Signs change over time. The nature of a business might change, or maybe not, but the signs always seem to change. Of course we’re talking about a pretty broad time window, but I’ll provide an example. Last week I’d finished my marketing and was leaving the local Trader Joe’s Market. Now I’ve lived in my […]

A programmer is drinking a diet coke. His aged mother looks up from her bowl of vanilla ice cream smothered in maple syrup. Aged Mother: You know, you look pretty good for your age. Programmer: Huh? Why thank you. Aged Mother: So how old are you now? Programmer: Umm, how old do you think? Aged […]

Many, many, years ago no one had Personal Computers. Actually, for a while even those people who had computers at home didn’t have Personal Computers. Before IBM introduced the PC Apple made things that it called Home Computers. I’m sure that IBM spent a fortune in man hours determining that ‘Home Computers’ wouldn’t be taken […]

I was watching TV the other night. Actually, I was watching Late Night TV. Well, really, Late Night TV was on, but I wasn’t really paying a great deal of attention. So I missed the intro before the actor came out. But I did look up from my new book on the History of ‘sin’ […]