I can’t imagine celebrating my birthday without birthday cake. Preferably moist vanilla sponge topped with buttercream frosting and some decorations on top made of blobs of more buttercream frosting. Vanilla ice cream is optional. I don’t know what it is, but that is hands down my favorite kind of celebration cake. Perhaps that makes me a vanilla kind of guy, …

It took me a lot of years to view what I do as a craft and not just another task. Craftsmanship is not something you hear people talk about a lot these days, but you certainly know it when you see it. In fact, we all instinctively do business with people who have a high opinion of what they do. …

Never, ever doubt the power saying “Thank You.” It always a good time to remind ourselves it costs us nothing to be grateful and it often pays dividends we cannot measure. I feel a lightness in my spirit when I hear someone say “Thank You” and I go out of my way to do so whenever I can. Whether it …

Between asleep and awake is where I have found a happy place. Unfettered by natural rules such as gravity, time and space, my imagination runs free in this place. Sometimes, my thoughts take flight and I visit strange and wondrous sites. Sometimes, I visit the past and just occasionally, I get veiled glimpses of what I believe the future may …

In 1949, J.B. Priestley published a book of essays called Delight which contained over 100 short pieces each of which captured the essence of something he found delightful in his life. Today, we might say he was counting his blessings, but I think he was also pointing out the good found in the world around us and reminding his readers …

Even if my parents could have afforded to purchase a motorcycle, motorized scooter or anything with wheels and a motor prior to me getting a driver’s license, it still would have been hard to convince my mother to let me have one because she was fearful that I would crash and hurt myself. To her credit, she had good reason …

Everyone knows that one of the most common sense things you can do to make your home secure is to lock your doors and windows before you go to bed or when you are away from home. But surprisingly, many people fail to lock the front door securely when it comes to their email accounts. I previously discussed making your …

The Friday Night Musical Interlude is an experiment to determine whether it is possible to use Facebook as an entertainment medium. It is also one of my favorite hobbies. It started innocently enough when I was bored after posting another series of political articles on a popular local Facebook fan page. I have always loved 70’s rock and consider myself …

When I was a kid, one of my favorite shows was ADAM-12. I’m sure it had something to do with the car chases, foot chases and the gun-fire. But recently, with the dearth of quality television shows, I took the opportunity with my NetFlix subscription to revisit ADAM-12 as a trip down memory lane. I was primarily interested watching the show …

I fear sometimes that I will end up sounding like some old guy yelling at kids to “Get Off My Lawn!” when I write opinion pieces like this, but sometimes I just can’t help myself. For example, in 2008, I wrote an article called “Spots In My Eyes & Ringing In My Ears” which was a rant about the lack …