Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on June 28th, 2017 in Main 
Over the years, I’ve come to appreciate June 27. My wife’s birthday is June 26. As of this year, 2017, the two of us have been married half our lives. That’s a lot of birthdays to celebrate together. June 28, two days later, is Morgan’s birthday. Today, Morgan turns twelve — a “tween” now, officially, although I feel like she’s been a tween for quite some time. I associate Susan’s birthday with good times from the past, the memories of road trips and vacations and adventures. Morgan’s birthday is more about looking forward; youth, and the road ahead that awaits… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on June 23rd, 2017 in Main, Mason and Morgan 
“Dad, do you need to go to 7-11?” “Dad, do you need to go to the post office?” “Dad, do you need to go to the store?” Guess who turned fifteen-and-a-half last week and got his learner’s permit? (This is a staged photo. Mason will never drive the STI.) When Mason turned fourteen he got a license to drive a motorcycle, and for roughly a year and a half he’s been riding to school and around town on two wheels. I grew up riding motorcycles, as did my dad, but that doesn’t make it any easier to watch your kid… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on June 19th, 2017 in Podcast 
When I started my first podcast (You Don’t Know Flack) back in 2008, I envisioned it as a complete package. I stood up a separate webpage and WordPress installation for it (podcast.RobOHara.com). I also created a dedicated email address and Facebook page for the show as well. The late 2000s were all about branding. Time went on, and I launched more shows. I registered more domains like SpriteCastle.com and MultipleSadness.com, and created Facebook pages, email addresses, RSS feeds, iTunes pages, and Twitter accounts for those shows, too. This was a great idea that didn’t scale well. Each time I launched… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on June 14th, 2017 in Console Video Games, Raspberry Pi 
Last year, Nintendo released the NES Classic Edition. It was a game console that looked like a tiny version of the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) from the 80s. It had 30 built-in games and cost $59.95. Nintendo woefully underestimated demand for the console. Stores couldn’t keep them in stock, and when they did hit shelves, scalpers scooped them up and resold them online for huge profits. And then, with thousands of potential customers begging Nintendo to ramp up production, the company confusingly cancelled the product instead. This led lots of techie people to roll their own solutions, the most… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on June 12th, 2017 in Main 
Just when I thought I had run out of tears, as I watched Howard’s casket get lowered into the ground, I found more. Seeing co-workers and friends and Howard’s family all hurting brought everything to the surface. I wanted to be there and anywhere but there at the same time. Saturday night was different. One day after visiting him at a funeral home and only a few hours after the graveside service, I (and a couple hundred of his friends) attended a “celebration of life” gathering for Howard Carey. There were tears, but not as many as before. We ate,… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on June 8th, 2017 in Main 
As a writer, I am always thinking in transitions. I spend a lot of time on getting jokes to flow from one to the next, and making it look like I didn’t spend any time on it at all. When novel writing, I work hard to come up with hooks I can drop at the end of one chapter to ensure readers will start the next. It’s about the flow — linking words and sentences and paragraphs into bigger, cohesive movements. Before my friend Howard passed away this past weekend, I was working on a blog post about a Twinkie… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on June 5th, 2017 in Main 
Because I know a few people with the same first name, at some point over the past few years I began referring to my friend Howard Carey as “my” Howard. I never realized that until Susan pointed it out last Friday. “I’m texting my Howard to see if he wants to meet us for lunch,” I told her. “Your Howard?” she replied. Yeah. Howard Carey was my Howard. I met Howard Carey when he started working as a contractor for the FAA in 1999. He worked on the help desk for a while, and did desk side support, and was… (read more)
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