I have so many ideas running around in my head. I've been blogging more than ever this year, and it's been my most productive stretch since I started blogging and building my own website—23 years ago. Although I don’t think I have many readers, and what I write may not be interesting enough to spark much interaction, I still enjoy doing it.

I remember when ISPs gave you what seemed like generous personal website space. My first real ISP was GTE, now Verizon. Before that, I had dial-up with AOL and those limited minutes, but I mostly used it for email and a bit of web surfing—usually hunting for information about new computer games.

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Back in March, I had my six-month checkup with my cardiologist. I told him I was feeling tired and fatigued all the time, more than usual. I thought it might be the medication. My last echocardiogram in August 2024 had shown some improvement, and my PVCs (premature ventricular contractions) were down. So I figured it was just the burden of the meds.

At the time, I was taking Metoprolol 100mg ER twice a day and Diltiazem 240mg ER once a day. My heart had been doing okay. The few times I went into AFib, the episodes were short. Sometimes just a minute or two, long enough for me to catch it with my Galaxy Watch 6 Classic or my Kardia device, and then it would stop. These episodes only happened maybe every other month.

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Lately, I’ve been listening to Ed Zitron and his podcast Better Offline. He’s not shy about his views: he believes that most AI companies are burning through cash and are likely to fail because they don’t have viable products. I respect his perspective. He clearly understands the tech industry and sees AI as mostly a kind of “magic trick”—a system that assembles words in ways that appear intelligent, but in reality don’t demonstrate real understanding. That’s my paraphrase, not his.

As for me, I don’t claim to fully understand the business models of these companies or whether they’re financially sustainable in the long term. But to be honest, I’m not especially concerned. I’m not investing in them. The only money I’ve put into this space is my $20 per month subscription to ChatGPT from OpenAI, and for that amount, I get value in return.

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I was just watching an old episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. I’ve always been into Star Trek, every series except Star Trek: The Next Generation. I’m not sure why, but I never fully got into that one. The others: The Original Series, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise, and all the movies (except the Next Generation ones), I loved and eagerly awaited. Whether it was a new film release or the next week’s episode, I was always excited. I never watched Star Trek: The Animated Series either, even though I own it on DVD.

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I’ve always wanted a telescope. Something I could use to take photos and videos of the night sky with my phone or camera. I recently came across a YouTube video about the Zwo Seestar S50, but since this is my first telescope, I decided to start with the more beginner-friendly S30 and bought it for my birthday.

I’ve owned it for a couple of months, but only recently started using it seriously. Here are some of the first photos I captured with it on July 4, 2025:

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Today, we celebrate the 249th birthday of the United States — my home country and my birth nation. Nearly two and a half centuries have passed since our founding, and in that time, we’ve experienced triumphs and trials, unity and division, progress and setbacks.

Some might say we’re not in a good place right now. And yes, it’s true — we are in a turbulent chapter. But I take comfort in history. Nations go through cycles. England, France, and the rest of Europe have weathered centuries of political and social upheaval. They have survived monarchies, revolutions, world wars, and more — and they endure. So will we.

Europe was home to many of history’s greatest empires: the Greeks, the Romans, and the vast British Empire — the largest the world has ever known. In modern times, however, the American nation was instrumental in bringing an end to both World Wars. That matters. We have never been perfect, but we have often stood firm in moments when history demanded courage, sacrifice, and leadership.

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I’ve been thinking lately about what to blog about. I’ve had several ideas. The reason I’m blogging about this is because I’ve been trying to figure out what should be a blog post. I tend to think posts should be medium to long in nature. But people aren’t reading my stuff anyway, and honestly, do I really care?

I’m blogging for myself, just to get my thoughts down and out of my head.

I use Sharkey and Micro.blog for what I call short-burst posts and reactions to things happening in the moment. Kind of like I did back in the pre-Musk Twitter days.

Back in February, I blogged about whether anybody even reads my posts. In the weeks and months that followed, I saw other people wondering the same thing. I found that kind of amusing, since I had just written about it and was thinking the exact same thing.

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