Personal

I was using my iPhone 12 Max and found copying and pasting difficult when I needed to use three or more items. On Android, it’s easier because I can access copy history and paste five or six items when I needed them. I’m glad I have an Android; without it, I would find it frustrating.

Wild violets taking over the yard like they own the place. That deep purple against all that green is pure Appalachian spring. The woodpile in the back just makes it feel more like home.

Studying for my driver’s permit. Hoping to take the test next week. I haven’t driven a car in 30 years. Wish me luck. The road should be nervous, not me.

I’ve been a geek my whole life. I just didn’t always have the word for it.

It started early. It survived a Tandy, MS-DOS, Windows 3.1, and decades of blogging across more platforms than I care to count. Eventually it even became the name of this blog.

Which made me start wondering where the word actually came from — because it clearly didn’t start as a compliment.

“Three central components of subjective well-being were considered: life satisfaction, positive emotional states, and negative emotional states.” - Dr. Susanne Bücker

Research points to the 70s as the happiest decade of all.

But for me, at 50 is my happiest time of my life, living in a tiny house in the Appalachian hills, working a side job on my own terms, sitting on my porch watching the mountains do nothing fast — I think I’ve already found it. Maybe happiness isn’t an age. It’s a life that fits.

But I’ll check back in at 70. Just to see.

Those sliding doors are everything. I’d love something like that in my own place — maybe it’s finally time to replace that old door I’ve been holding onto. Future project? I think yes.

If I were short, I wouldn’t mind a Hobbit-style house, but at 6'0", I’m more like Gandalf. I’d spend most of my time tilting my head just to navigate the place. 🙄

Check the video out on Facebook.

Disclaimer: I suspect it is AI-generated, but you never know if they actually did this house.

I’m enjoying my Iced Mocha latte with Almond milk—it’s so delicious! But I might be due for a new espresso machine. I’ve had this one for about 5 years now. It’s still working well, but I’d love a machine that offers more pressure to bring out a richer, more aromatic espresso flavor.

I just had sausage gravy and biscuits for breakfast, but it wasn’t homemade like my family used to make on Sundays when I was growing up. I missed that, but it was still a good breakfast!

I didn’t plan to build an AI writing stack. I just kept getting curious.

That’s usually how it starts with me. One tool, one question, and one thought that won’t leave me alone: could this actually help?

Over the past year, I’ve messed around with ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Notion AI. Not because I wanted to hand my writing off to a robot, but because I wanted to know where these things actually fit into my process. Could they help with research? Wrangle my notes? Or would everything start sounding like it came out of a corporate press release?