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An A.I. App That Helps Detect Food Allergens. Could It Save Lives? Maybe!
5 minute read A Brush With Death His throat was closing. His breaths were audible. Oh no, he thought, I’m having an allergic reaction to something I ate. He drank…
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Tap Tap Word: a Minimal, Fun, Free Word Game
February 11, 2026 Update TapTapWord didn’t make the cut for Crazy Games metrics, so they have removed it. I expected that might happen as I did the MVP (minimum viable…
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Multi-Site Launcher: a free browser extension to make your Web browsing faster and easier!
Want to be faster, more efficient, more productive as you work or play online? Often there are certain online tasks for which you need multiple websites. For example, if you…
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Free Icon-Resizer App: Simplifying Your Design Process
Epic Remix: (Australian Battery Sales-blokes of the 80s) x (A Tool for Producing Multiple Graphic Sizes) One of my least favorite tasks when developing apps and software etc. is submitting…
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Read It Later – a free browser extension
When I browse the net, I often see tons of articles that I want to read later. This used to be handled by a wonderful browser extension called Pocket, but…
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Can Facts Be Hate Speech?
CENSORED! 2 HOT 4 LINKEDIN! A notification from LinkedIn delivered the news: “Your comment has been removed because we define it as hate speech.” I couldn’t believe it. Me? Hate…
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Micro-Upskill Your Brain with a Word Game!
Want to get smarter and have fun doing it? I like the idea of small, fun, good habits. You barely notice the time spent and before you know it, you’ve…
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Mock Fascist Liars! Wear Your ANTIFA Badge Proudly!
As I write this (2025 Mid-October), an idiotic dictatorship is attempting to ruin the USA. They are pushing the lie that there is an organized force called “ANTIFA” attempting to…
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Crimes and Good Times at the Local Big Box
When Skateboarding is in Fact, a Crime My wife Heather and I were in the local big box hardware store, looking for plants. As usual when browsing, we drifted and separated. …
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Vibe-Coding Your Daily Dose of Awe
I once read that a key piece to being happy is to experience the emotion of awe. I wondered, “How can I experience awe every day and boost my chances…
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Riddle of the Falling Tree -SOLVED!
It’s a popular riddle: If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it still make a sound? The answer is obvious! The…
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Are You Psy-Curious? Let’s Try Talk Therapy.
What kind of a complete stranger could you cry in front of? That was what I wondered when I decided to try talk therapy. I wasn’t planning on crying, but…
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How You Can Subvert a Trump-Like Boss
Surely everyone has worked for a jerk before, but I feel my travels through that universal experience contain an extra value. See, an executive that I worked for years ago (we’ll…
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Book Review: Martyr!
I’m not usually a literary genre person but I saw the hype about Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar and gave it a try. PROS: Interesting perspective of Iranian man. He comes…
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The War on Christmas Is Over! Bring on the Toilet Wars!
The Jerkiest of Jerks It’s no secret this world is full of jerks. Jerks of all kinds. At the top of the scale, the jerkiest of the jerky, are those…
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An Upgrade is Available for Your God(s)
The more I write about tech, artificial intelligence, and algorithms, the more I sound like I’m talking about religion. Humans Need to Know Why Like many folks in this era…
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A “Don’t Come Cryin’ to Me” Kind of Moment
USA Election 2024 is over. If the obvious happens, I don’t want to hear from you. Okay, friend, so you voted for Trump. This might surprise you, but I get…
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Am I a Fool for Loving Generative A.I.?
If Generative A.I. Is Wrong, I Don’t Want to be Right I don’t remember much about grade school, but I clearly recall a classmate’s kindness. In art class, this one…
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You’ve Been Drafted into the A.I. Training Corps!
Thank you for your service! You didn’t sign up to serve? Oh yes you did! You’re here, aren’t you? I found something interesting while browsing LinkedIn the other day. (I…
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Mental Model Repair Shop: Remember This Before Blaming the Messenger
Today in the mental model repair shop, we’re going to discuss how we assess hypocrisy. We’ll start with a specific anecdote and expand the lessons learned for many situations. Hating…
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How to Use Words with Maximum Impact
Word Police on Patrol There’s this interesting video where a girl asks why we call something “man-made” (here) when women were also a part of its construction. Many explode with…
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How I Defeated a Depressing Workplace With a Tricycle
Now It Can Be Told: Why I Performed For Two Minutes On a Tricycle While Wearing My Beanie Copter In Front of Hundreds of Co-Workers and the CEO at My…
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The Words I Wish I Had Said More
Personal Branding: An Annoying Exercise “What music do you like?” I asked a fellow cube-jockey. I asked this innocent question not so long ago, in the endless cubicles of The…
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Hollywood Heroics Hold Lousy Love Lessons
Well, That’s One Way to Show You Care Like a lot of American kids in the 70s I learned from the TV show The Brady Bunch. Wait. Edit. Being the…
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The Words You Need When You Need to Quit
You’re at the edge of a difficult decision. Or you’re considering a bold move. Or you threaten to quit something you’ve been doing for a while. During those times, if…
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Adding a Shot of Adventure to Every Day
Before There Was Streaming There Were Re-runs Gather round, younglings! Let me tell you of a time long ago, before streaming movies and on-demand TV shows. Back then, television was…
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Easter, American Freedom, and Trans Rights
Today is March 31, 2024. It’s an important day for Amercians and our deeply held beliefs that all should have the freedom to pursue happiness and to live as they…
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The “No Life Advantage” of a Comment Commando
Hiding from Our Beautiful World I was on a cruise in the Caribbean, enjoying a vacation many can only dream of. The sun was high, the sky so clear and…
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Helping a Depressed Friend Buy a Gun
What We Can Learn from an Appalling Lack of Situational Awareness. “I’m depressed,” my acquaintance posted on Facebook. You’ve probably seen similar testimonials. Someone shares a deep secret on social…
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Book Review: Fantasticland
Fantasticland by Mike Bockoven. Recommend this horror book (even though on the cover it says “thriller” I think it’s more horror.) See my video review on TikTok below. See the…
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Hordes of Dog-Biting Men! -or- Lessons Learned About News Bias and Disinformation From a Fight for my Honor
I was a teenager when the knock sounded. We weren’t expecting anyone. I answered. Two kids were in my front yard on their bikes. I was immediately suspicious. I knew…
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What I Learned From Catching a Foul Ball With My Butt
People go crazy to catch baseballs, but I caught one with the greatest of ease. Why is it that what you don’t want, you get easily, and what you do…
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Book Review: Excellent Sheep
As a proud college dropout, I was excited to read this. I also like the author, William Deresiewicz. I’ve enjoyed listening to him as a guest on podcasts and admired…
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Influencer Canceled in Record Time!
The Epic True Tale of How I Became an Amazon Influencer and Was Canceled In the Span of a Week. Chapter 1: A Delightful Surprise Congratulations, Amazon Reviewer! You have…
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Boring People Don’t Exist — No One Is “Basic”
“You’re boring,” he said. The comment took me by surprise. It happened decades ago. I was an intern at a chemical lab. A coworker – an adult, I was still…
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How To Use Generative AI to be More Human
Early in my writing career, I had a debate with an editor after I told him my strategy to avoid clichés. It’s a simple trick: If I’ve heard the phrase…
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Blog Rewind: Is it okay to cheer or laugh that someone died? Or, are The Darwin Awards funny?
Here’s a bit of philosophy from 28 January 2008. It’s a blog titled, in a most un-SEO-friendly way: “When is it okay to cheer or laugh that someone died? Or,…
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Blog Rewind: Hustle Culture before there was Hustle Culture
I’m Done Reading Get-Rich-Quick “I Made X Dollars Writing About Y” Articles Blog Rewind: This one was published a while back in 2022, when I got sick of these types…
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How to Be Happier
Was working some things out in my head about #gratitude and #happiness and put this together. Think of it as a micro-mini #tedtalk about #mentalhealth It helped me maybe it…
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Book Review: Dead in the Water
Just read the fascinating non-fiction book Dead in the Water. Part true crime, part behind the scenes how the world works. Review as my TikTok persona, @scooter_bae! Amazon affiliate link…
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Blog Rewind: How Hate Can Bring Us Together (Is the Path to Heaven is Paved with Evil Intentions?)
Over the years, I’ve posted several blogs all across the net on now defunct websites. Blog Rewind revisits these old posts, touched up for modern times. This one, originally published…
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I’m Depressed! I’m Here! Get Used to It!
This tale was originally published on my blog years ago, then republished again on Medium in honor of World Mental Health Day 2017. Now here it is again. It helped…
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Dangerous Doings During Design! (A Warning For Graphic Designers — and really anyone)
This is a cautionary tale for all you graphic designers out there. An anecdote and a solution. I was a graphic designer for a library. My first full-time job after…
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Maximum Returns with Minimal Investment Using This Simple Trick
Photo by Caleb Chen (@calebchen) on Unsplash (unsplash.com) I was proud of myself. I was doing a good deed. But before it was all over, there would be tears. What…
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The Second Amendment Failed Its Biggest Test on January 6, 2021
photo from Boston Public Library through Unsplash There was a moment at the start of the Ukraine war when I stumbled across a conservative U.S. website. The commenters there were…
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Sinbad the Sailor, Barbara Bush, and Life Lessons
My wife once worked at a mall where Barbara Bush was touring for a photo op. Yes, that Barbara Bush, matriarch of the American political dynasty. Wife of one president,…
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The Fight For Air Climb – Philadelphia 2023
The Fight for Air Climb 2023 was a smashing success! Thank you to everyone who donated, those who cheered us on with words of support! I enjoy these fund-raising activities.…
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Operation #AdoptAFoxViewer – Helping Fox News Viewers see facts
As enjoyable as the Fox News lawsuit loss is, I’ve seen a lot of party-poopers crying that Fox viewers won’t learn about the message. To fix that, we should Adopt…
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How To Preserve Freedom by Helping Elect a Tyrant
photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash November 3, 2020. Presidential election day during the COVID-19 quarantine. I was working as a voting machine operator at a polling station. The whole…