So long and thanks for all the fish!

I've closed my Facebook and Twitter accounts. There are lots of reasons. Mostly, it's a time sink and I'd rather spend my time coding, blogging, reading, exploring the coast, cooking and woodworking.

Those who know me, know how to get in touch with me using Skype, google chat, phone or email.  I'm still on tumblr, YouTube and (for the moment) Flickr. I will probably can Flickr and, eventually, YouTube by moving everything to the Internet Archive and this blog.

Just finished a few books this week: First was Pop. 1280 by Jim Thompson and the other was Darker Than Amber by John D. MacDonald.  I enjoyed both.  Nothing special, just good, fun reads.

Took a short drive into Palacios today with Alicia and stopped at a little burger dive. Nice spot, but nothing special. Alicia had the chicken-fried steak, which was good, but had a rather smokey gravy that we don't really care for. I had a decent burger and fries, but nothing to write home about. Mainly it was just a beautiful day and nice to get out and explore.

Hopefully, I'll be blogging more here from time to time.

Reading Books Again

I've been an avid reader all my life, but almost completely stopped reading novels, sci-fi, literature and philosophy books a long time ago. In the 70's and 80's, almost all my reading was either mathematics, computer science or tech manuals (plus a healthy does of reading and grading student papers). Since the 90's, it has been mainly tech, history, economics, politics and more tech. To a great degree, this has been a "book vs. web" thing, but also somewhat related to diminishing eyesight.

I have spent a lot of time at the computer over the last 30 years and grown accustomed to reading screens where I can adjust the text size as I like. To some degree, this has also been an attention related issue as I like to constantly switch between many different topics when on the computer (or computers; I'm one of those people that tend to have dozens of browser tabs open at once). It's also a hypertext and yak combing issue.

The notion of curling up ...with a good book was something I used to enjoy very much, but had lost it's appeal over time. I thought I no longer had the patience for spending the better part of a day with just one book, especially without my youthful eyes that could handle the fine print and various lighting conditions.

But things may be changing, in part due to our travels. First, I started to read a few books on my iPhone and that got me back into the habit of reading novels (and still quite a bit of history).

More recently, I discovered a small library of books here in our quaint little hotel on the beach and am enjoying them as much as ever. In fact, I think I like them far more than using any kind of device. There are lots of reasons for this, but mainly a book (especially an old paperback) is, still, just so much simpler to use than any device. Plus I don't worry about losing it, running out of power or being diverted by something else.

I just read my first Earl Stanly Gardner (not a Perry Mason, but one of the Cool and Lam series he wrote under the name A. A. Fair). Fun LA detective stuff for Noir fans. Pure escapism. Can't wait to find some more of these; there are over two dozen in the series.

My good friend Jay Dedman planted some seeds a few years back and I think they have sprouted. I've starting to think about finding some library book sales and flea markets where I can browse for some cheap reads. Thanks Jay.