Author and avid reader. I love sharing interesting research and promoting other authors.
My favorite guy in all of NASA history is someone you've likely never heard of - John Aaron, the engineer they called the "Steely-Eyed Missile Man." I've been crazy about the space program since I was a kid, but oddly it has never been the astronauts that captured my fancy. I love the guys like... Continue Reading →
I've always loved foggy afternoons - the way everything in the distance seems to not matter anymore, the feeling of seclusion in open spaces. Everything looks like one of those Gothic British novels that everybody knows but no one has read. Once, in my college days, I was hanging out with friends on such an... Continue Reading →
I've always thought of myself as a writer. Unfortunately, that means people expect you to write. It isn't that I don't enjoy the process of writing, but it's hard to stay motivated enough to keep at the same novel for months and years at a time. Every published novelist I know gives the same advice:... Continue Reading →
Schrodinger was a sick puppy. If you really look at his experiment, it's very disturbing. In fact, if you stop to look at it in detail, you'll find a number of things that the common public gets wrong about it. 1. That cat's gonna die. There's no getting around it, the cat is going to... Continue Reading →
Growing up in the women's lib 70s, my female teachers would constantly ask us kids whether we thought there were any girls in TV or movies that were positive role models. I never had a good answer for that. It took me a long time to realize that's because I never thought of Princess Leia... Continue Reading →
Twenty-six years ago today, a crazy thing happened. My dad won the lottery. Yep, no kidding. The real deal. All six numbers. Jackpot. I can still picture the scene: I was standing behind him, peeking over his shoulder as he compared the official numbers to his list. He got to the matching numbers before I... Continue Reading →
As an IT manager, I'm constantly summoned to coworkers' desks when things unexpectedly go wrong. Roughly 90% of the time, their saga begins with, "I was just sitting there and all of a sudden it did this ..." I usually sigh, give them a long look, and remind myself that they believe this is true.... Continue Reading →
Why are we all convinced that subliminal advertising works?
Which websites should you trust with your credit card info?
Growing up in the 70s, my generation never had to use seatbelts, so we love freaking out our kids (and harassing our moms) about it. I have one buddy who tells about a four-hour drive his family took with a car so full that he and his little brother had to squish into the passenger... Continue Reading →
In one week, Marty McFly is going to visit from 1985. Hill Valley, wherever it is, will get a quick touch-down from him and the Doc. They'll snag a sports almanac, and -- whoosh -- they'll be off again. The last chapter (chronologically) in the trilogy will be finished. That's a rather melancholy thought until... Continue Reading →
Whenever I visit my hometown, I like to stop by the school, just to see the grounds. Which school? The school. There was only one in my little town, a complex of buildings that housed all of grades kindergarten through 12th. My kids have a hard time conceptualizing that I only had 60-some kids in... Continue Reading →
Tim Curry has the perfect voice for evil. The other day, someone in my family posed the question of whether he ever plays anything except the villain. It seemed like a joke at first, but when I looked him up on IMDB, I was aghast at his resume. If you're not familiar with IMDB.com, it's... Continue Reading →
Whenever I read a book that I fall in love with, it becomes my goal to pass it along. I look for just one person in my life who enjoys that type of book, and I insist that he/she read it. If that person loves it to, it becomes a shared experience that makes me... Continue Reading →
I'm going to lose my cool the next time someone in a meeting tells me, "We need more out of the box thinking." Look, that phrase was innovative once upon a time. It was a new way of saying that you should strive to be original, go against the flow, look at things a different... Continue Reading →
All world explorers have great stories to tell - of braving the unknown, facing incredible odds, possibly never to return. Even the preparation for these journeys amazes me; I simply can't fathom how you even begin to pack for a trip that doesn't allow for stopping at a Wal-Mart when you realize you've forgotten something... Continue Reading →
Astronauts are boring. There, I said it. The real reason that nobody cares about the space program these days isn't just the lame-sounding studies they are always doing; it's that we no longer have people to root for. Back in the 60s you had the Right Stuff team, the boys of legend, the guys we still... Continue Reading →
My brother won so many blue ribbons from swimming that my folks had to keep buying new bulletin boards for him to pin them on. I, meanwhile, despite eight years of mandatory swim classes in school, managed exactly one feat: not drowning. If I ever commit treason and get set to Gitmo, you can tell... Continue Reading →
One misstep of modern feminism is that we keep trying to make women choose between being smart and being pretty; we've all but stopped acknowledging that someone can be both. I'd like to present a new role model for today's young ladies: Hedy Lamarr. If you're under 50, you've probably never heard of her, but... Continue Reading →
Tonight we're getting a leap second, though nobody will much notice it. Leap days are boring. But once upon a time there was a leap month ... England clung to the Julian calendar until 1752, when George II finally realized it made no sense to be on a completely different time scheme than all its... Continue Reading →
Few inventions have ever been as appropriately named as The Enigma, the message-encoding machine created by the Nazis in WWII. Clunky, heavy, and ridiculous-looking, it was also amazingly advanced for its time. This analog, typewriter-driven machine was the closest thing to a computer that had ever been created. Picture a wooden box full of heavy metal... Continue Reading →
Remember when all the bananas got wiped out? Neither do I, but apparently it happened.
I like to tell people that I'm semi-fluent in several languages (Hang on, don't be too impressed - the sentence isn't finished yet), if you count computer codes. I lost you there, didn't I? I've never been able to convince anyone that "speaking" a computer language is the same as any other. My Spanish IV... Continue Reading →
Long after all the other 80s phrases (your "gag me"s, your "tubular"s) have faded from my vernacular, there is one innately 80s saying that I still try to inject into conversation: "I've got my quarter up." Guys within 5 years above or below my age will give me a sly grin of recognition; from everyone... Continue Reading →
Big city people won't ever believe you when you say that small-town folk are nicer, but it's true. It isn't that they aren't worldly enough to be savvy, it's that they spend a bit more time looking at people and getting to know them than most of the world does. When I lived in Southeast... Continue Reading →
My sister had a book on handwriting analysis that I stumbled across in 4th grade. Being a gullible kid, I believed every word -- that my aggressively-crossed t's indicated that I was a braggart, while the backward slant of my l's said I was introverted and shy. I'm not denying that I was all those... Continue Reading →
Monty Python doesn't get much credit for their contribution to technology, but geeks have always loved the Flying Circus. Beyond their help in christening e-mail spam, they (or, rather, the game developers who adored them) also took the first steps to anti-pirating software. Today when you buy a new game (assuming you're still purchasing DVDs... Continue Reading →
I often hear people ask why unwanted e-mail is called spam. Nobody ever gives the right answer to this. How do I know? Because I was there, kiddies. I remember. Pull up a chair and I'll tell you a story ... a story of a lamer time, when many of us had heard of this... Continue Reading →
When I was in junior high, my school unveiled this state-of-the-art program to help us determine what career paths we were suited for. This being the mid-80s, what they gave us was an MS-DOS program that asked 50 questions, each of which we had to answer on a scale of 1-5. Bo-ring! We all dreaded... Continue Reading →
Tycho Brahe has to be the most baller astronomer in history!
The Dark Ages weren't really dark ... or were they?
Swordfish was never clever. Nor was "ABC123" or "LetMeIn." I've talked about the common pitfalls most people fall into when making passwords, and the need to keep just a few distinct passwords going at any time. Now let's talk about creativity. With the need for stronger passwords, we are now forced to use combinations of... Continue Reading →
Another myth we need to stop spreading: Women who live together eventually have their menstrual cycles synch up. Of course they don't! Think about it. Have you ever lived with even two women who were perfectly aligned? If this myth were true, wouldn't we all have at least one instance of witnessing this happen? I'd... Continue Reading →
I live for April Fool's Day. I make a vow each and every year to find a new way to mess with my coworkers. Sometimes it's way too easy. This isn't strictly an April Fool's prank, but I thought I'd share it. Remember how I told you not to trust IT people? I've known some... Continue Reading →
I collect passwords. After 20-some years in IT, I am fascinated by the passwords people choose. Contrary to most mystery novels who use this device, people almost never have the password written on their desk. But if you know a few details about them, it's not a leap to figure out what they've used. A... Continue Reading →
I give the same simple advice to anyone wanting to build a new website.
Turns out, I'm not overweight; Omaha is. Recently, Omaha made the list of Top 25 Most Obese cities in America. Naturally, we attributed it to the fact that Nebraskans find a way to shove bacon into everything (seriously -- ice cream sundaes, beer, cupcakes, salads -- it's insane!) ... but maybe it's the Earth's fault,... Continue Reading →
What happened to Pluto? And where is Planet Ceres?
Steven King's The Gunslinger series has roots even farther back than King may realize.
Before I start ranting, let me say that I consider "Back to the Future" a nearly perfect movie, and the entire series gets an "A" from me. But then, I'm a sucker for time-travel stories. I don't even mind the number of times that Doc killed Jennifer. The crux of a good time-travel piece is... Continue Reading →
If you read how-to books on improving your writing, one trendy idea you'll encounter again and again is to "engage all 5 senses," meaning that you should include details in your descriptions for: looks, sounds, touch, taste, and smell. Smell is the killer. It's so hard to work in descriptions of smells. Jasper Fforde, in... Continue Reading →
When I was young, the legend of Roanoke captured my imagination. They spoke about it in school, in kids' history books, on shows like "Ripley's Believe It or Not." And there was such an air of mystery! If you need a refresher, Roanoke was Sir Walter Raleigh's first attempt to colonize the New World, and... Continue Reading →
To me, writing is like throwing cats at trees – you send a lot of random thoughts flying through the air to see what sticks.
To me, writing is like throwing cats at trees - you send a lot of random thoughts flying through the air to see what sticks. And, to be honest, most of it is pretty pointless. I think that's what holds so many of us back, in writing and in life. We try to find that... Continue Reading →
Kimberly Van Ginkel 