I love California, my home and native state. I love flags. I’ve combined both of those to create what I call the “I Love You California” flag. It blends two iconic images for my state, our flag and the hugging bear image associated with our state song, into a design I hope shows some love […]
Waiting on the Fisker Ocean, my virtual road trip of delay and uncertainty
NOTE: This was originally written on June 29, 2023. I added updates to the end, as noted, on Dec. 30 2023. The Fisker Ocean seemed like the perfect vehicle for me. A great looking SUV that’s all EV, at a great price and plenty of range? Sign me up! And so I did, back in […]
Some thoughts about The Verge article on SEO
I found myself part of The Verge’s article about SEO today, and I wanted to address some of the things that are specific to me. For background, this is my personal blog. What I’m writing here in this post isn’t officially from Google. No one at Google has reviewed it. These are my personal thoughts. […]
Review: Life with the Vestaboard split-flap display
What’s it like owning a Vestaboard split-flap display? Wonderful! This post shares my experience after a year of ownership.
Mad About You – The “Giblets for Murray” Thanksgiving Day episode
One of our favorite Thanksgiving traditions is watching the classic Mad About You episode, “Giblets for Murray.” It’s the one where Jaime & Paul Buckman host Thanksgiving dinner for their family and friends. We love it. I highly encourage everyone to watch it (it was episode 8 of season 3). Below — and spoiler alert […]
How to make a For All Mankind duct tape space suit costume
Hi Bob. So it’s Halloween, and you want to go dressed as someone from the Apple TV show For All Mankind? Or maybe you fancy some For All Mankind cosplay for an event? How about making your own iconic duct tape space suit? It’s easy and cheap. Here’s how I made ours that we wore […]
My quest to find the best air quality monitors, both outdoors and indoors
With wildfire smoke causing so much unhealthful air, I found myself wanting my own air quality monitors. I wanted an outdoors one both to better understand what’s happening in our immediate area and to help contribute insight to others. I wanted an indoors one to better understand what the air quality was like in our […]
My new chapter: joining Google to better explain search & help bridge the gap
When I retired from search journalism in June, I had no idea what I would be doing next. I just knew I was ready for a break and something different from what I had been doing for so long. That something different has arrived: I’m joining Google as of Monday. My title is still being […]
Star Wars Is Out In Digital HD — How To Make The Right Choice On Where To Buy
Finally, you can buy the Star Wars films in digital format — digital streaming, that is. Technically, we’ve had Star Wars in digital format via DVD and Blu-ray for ages. But if you wanted to stream Star Wars digitally from the cloud, you couldn’t until today. There seems to be no lack of providers offering […]
My Fall Of The Berlin Wall Story
Growing up as a Cold War kid in the 1970s, I was fascinated by Berlin. I’d read of the airlift, the city being divided then the construction of the Berlin Wall. I always wanted to visit the city. Little did I realize in the year that I did, the wall would actually come down. In […]