Words On Wednesday

Peanut butter whiskey is delicious, but it serves as a case study on too much of a good thing when you buy a whole handle of it. I picked up a bottle of Skrewball one day when I hit Costco Liquor for the standard options that I always keep on hand. Of course, I had to grab my spiced rum and American vodka , but I also make a quick pass around the store to see if anything else catches my eye. On this particular visit, I noticed an unfamiliar bottle and my curiosity was piqued. Peanut butter is delicious. It’s good on crackers, it’s good on apple slices, I’ll mix it into my overnight oats occasionally. George Washington Carver was my hero, to the degree that I actually won a prize in primary school for knowing that he was credited with the invention of peanut butter. So peanut butter whiskey was an OBVIOUS try. I wasn’t worried about Costco only selling handles, I’d be back for more soon enough anyway. As soon as I got the bottle home, I had to give it a sip. The first thing you’ll noti...

In order to keep myself current on trends in the technology space, I want to start regularly blogging about various things going on in the field. Call it “Talking Tech.” This isn’t going to be a regular monthly segment. Book Report and Thirsty Thursday Eve chew up enough of the month as is. And maybe most months end up having a Talking Tech post in them anyway, but I don’t want to be beholden to it. I don’t know quite yet what this is going to look like, so it’s partially experimental. There are a few ideas floating around that I want to discuss and would fit well with the Talking Tech moniker. First post is most likely going to be an article spin on the no-code solution talk I suggested for the Carolina Code Conference and briefly discussed on the Carolina Code Cast. I’ve already created a short video presentation on it, but it makes sense to have that tied in with Words on Wednesday as well. Beyond that, the Raspberry Pi 5 came out, so that’s a pretty cool piece of hardware. If I’m a...

I was big on murder mystery novels a couple years back, and I have a hard time leaving a series unfinished unless I just truly hate one of the books. Hence, I decided to revisit the Hawthorne series for the third book that had since been released after I read the first two. The one thing I can tell you is that I would be an awful detective. Up until the very end, I don’t have a clue who committed the crime. Sure, I’ll throw out theories while I’m reading. Occasionally, one of those theories does coincide with the final resolution, but nothing makes it any more special than the dozen or so theories I floated around. When the big reveal comes, I am consistently surprised. Great for the satisfaction of reading, but don’t expect me to solve any crimes for you. Given that disclaimer, I can’t tell you how easily this mystery would have been solved by someone with a more keen eye for detail. The clues make sense when they’re finally laid out clearly and directly at the end, but I wouldn’t hav...

I started replaying The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim again recently and I forgot just how much I enjoyed the game. In the past few years, I’ve been fairly… disconnected with gaming. Sure, I was an avid gamer in my teens and early 20s. I had kids and that occupied a lot of my time. I switched jobs a couple times, started school again, gaming just fell to the wayside. Gaming is a passtime rather than a way of life for me, but I didn’t have much extraneous time to pass. Runescape and Rollercoaster Tycoon were about the only recurring games I played, and only because they could be played in short sessions on my phone, so the barrier for entry was pretty low. Having recently finished school, I’ve found substantially more free time. Not to say that I have as much free time as I did in high school, but I do have a few spare moments here and there to explore some old passions. I played through Super Mario Wonder with the kids and really enjoyed that. We try to get in a few sessions of Mario Kart 8 ...

While it’s still cold, I wanted to take the opportunity to rave about spiced buttered rum for a moment and how it is the ideal way to stay warm. For the longest time, I heard about spiced buttered rum at Christmas parties and other such gatherings. Growing up, my family were teetotalers, so there wasn’t any alcohol anywhere. When we were old enough to buy our own alcohol, my cousins and I would just bring our own alcohol to Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc, and sneak it into red solo cups outside. Having a pitcher of alcohol actually featured in the party was unspeakable. Eventually, I just decided to make some for myself. It was cold and I wanted to try it, so I looked up a recipe  and made some of the butter mix. Fortunately, the process is that you make a batch of the butter and just cut off a pat, add rum, and top it with hot water to melt the butter down. This would be a huge pain if you made the mix per drink, but you can make enough per batch to get probably 20 or more servings....

In the years since COVID-19 forced us all home for a while, remote work has been a hot topic. There are compelling arguments for and against remote work, and I think a nuanced approach is critical. However, many people fall to one extreme or the other, and I really think the industry needs an honest conversation about the merits and limitations of a hybrid or remote schedule. To confess any bias at the very beginning, I am heavily in favor of remote work. I said to a recruiter once that the only way I would take an in-office job again is if I were unemployed and needed the money. There are extremely few benefits that would be compelling enough to entice me into taking a hybrid or fully in-office job, and I would probably need double my current salary if it were a monetary decision. Furthermore, I planted roots when I built my house here. A relocation bonus is irrelevant, I’m not leaving upstate SC. BUT, that’s just my personal opinion on the matter. There are other points to consider. ...

I am finished with my Master of Science degree in Information Technology from Southern New Hampshire University as of December 1, 2023. Thank goodness. This has been a very roundabout journey. I first started seriously entertaining the idea of a master’s degree back in 2017. I was becoming eligible for my employer’s tuition reimbursement policy and I wanted to take advantage of it as quickly as possible. The longer you wait to start, the longer until you’re able to finish. I didn’t want to wait another year, two, or even longer before I got started. My uncle has a philosophy that it never gets easier, so you may as well do it now. Figured I had better get the ball rolling. As of October 2017, I was finishing my first term . I was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and much less weathered than I am now. Things looked positive, and I was pretty confident about my ability to finish on schedule and with little difficulty. Things got rocky with that employer and I went on an indefinite...