Posts

Amazon and its Great Failure: Books Prevail

Image
Amazon wanted to dominate the book industry. It did. But now, smaller bookstores are thriving, and e-reading market seems like it is a niche. Kindle could have been something, but now it is a has -been. On Tuesday, July 5, 1994, Jeff Bezos, a scrawny 30-year old electrical and computer engineer from New Mexico (via Houston, Miami, Princeton and Wall Street) filed with the State of Washington a terrible name called Cadabra, Inc. If you read it out loud, it sounds like Cadaver, which is precisely what a lawyer misheard a few months later. Bezos then changed the name to Amazon.com, Inc. The company started out of Bezos' garage in Bellevue, Washington. In 1994, Bezos wanted to name his online store Relentless.com , a site that still redirects to Amazon--a domain name that is a testament to Bezos' ambition and Amazon's dominance. Bezos started his journey in Amazon as wanting to be the biggest bookstore in the world. What started with Douglas Hofstader's Fluid Concept...

2010s

A lot has happened in the 2010s. Here are some highlights from Wikipedia's pages devoted to each year. Not comprehensive at all but it's pretty cool Powered by Time.Graphics

Shutdown Madness

Unless you've lived under a rock in the last few weeks, you probably know about the 2018-2019 Shutdown . If you're one of the thousands that planned on coming to DC during this time and are disappointed that all vacation plans are ruined, fear NOT! I've compiled the following map that you can use to find some spots. This is not a comprehensive list, but it's a start. I used the DC government's free data portal to get the information. Not everything is updated, so check for yourself as well. Good luck!

Trading Places

Image
Today something odd happened. We didn’t plan for it to happen, but it just happened. NB and I swapped spots in the kitchen. In our normal roles, NB handles all of the cooking and I handle all of the baking. I always say one of the best things I ever did was teaching NB to cook. He is a seriously amazing chef and he enjoys being creative in the kitchen, which baking doesn’t allow with it’s strict measuring and rules. However, I love baking! I enjoy taking something that looks like nothing and watching it turn into something magical and delicious. So, how did we end up switching roles? I’m still not really sure. It probably had something to do with having salmon for dinner. For some reason, I always end up cooking the salmon. Probably because it’s so easy, you just throw some seasoning on add heat and you look like a culinary pro. Today the seasoning of choice was Penzeys Spices’ “Chesapeake Bay” Seasoning (get it here ) which was an impulse buy the last time I was in Penzeys, we...

Memorial Day Weekend

Image
Today, AB and I went to Antietam and Monocacy National Battlefields. I feel like for the first time, in a long time, I've done something appropriate for Memorial Day. The Battle of Antietam , as you probably already know, is the bloodiest single-day battle in American history. General Robert E. Lee, the famed Confederate General, commanded a decisive victory at Second  Battle of Manassas. He then eyed Maryland, because it would be strategic for the Confederacy to win in enemy territory. Meanwhile, in Europe, a Confederate victory would set in motion recognition by the French and the British. Recognition meant that there would be a possibility of a truce, and potentially end the Civil War. For the Union, therefore, this battle became a do-or-die. Major General George B. McClellan was on defense behind Antietam Creek (namesake of this battle) in September of 1862. The fighting mainly was around Dunker Church, which was ironic because that was a church built by pacifist Breth...

Another new direction...

Seeking to change direction with this blog (again). I want to welcome my wife AB to the blog! Hope you enjoy our posts as we navigate life in a city (with a cat).

Favorite sale

Image
I always end up getting better candy deals after Easter rather than after Halloween. I'm fine with that.