Life-ish Now-ish

I cringe every time I see one of my children hunting and pecking at the keyboard. Perhaps this cringe is because I learned to type in school, and have found it to be a most valuable skill for my entire life. Or, perhaps, just perhaps, it is because I taught typing skills to youngsters for over a decade. Either way, when they "type"... tap... tap... tap... I cringe, and typically, look away. So, I determined that it was time that they learned how to touch type, how to use the keyboard correctly. First, I set up a space in our family room / finished basement for them to type.  I pulled out a couple very old laptops (Windows XP or Vista machines), plugged in real keyboards and real mice, and made sure they could connect to my phone's wireless hotspot.  I made user accounts on Typing.com, and turned off all Typing.com features I found annoying or pointless.  Next, I grabbed a cardboard box and cut it in such a way that it would cover their hands while typin...

You are here, now. No matter where you are, no matter what you might sense... hear, see, smell, feel, taste... you are here, now, at this moment. And, more likely than not, you are a part of civilization. Why are you here? You are here because of a series of events, from the beginning of time until now, or at least, so it seems.  You were inevitable.  Now, your history is something different.  It is not the reason you are here, rather, it is the story of how you got here.  For example, at some point, your biological mother became pregnant, and this is often considered the beginning of the story.  But, you are not just any human, you are you, and what made you who you are is really two parts: the contents of that single sperm and single ova, and after they combined, everything that surrounded you, and how you responded and were changed by it. And, now you are here, reading, or maybe listening, to this.  And I, of course, the result of a ...