West St. Paul Reader is expanding. We’re moving beyond the borders and reporting local news from the surrounding communities of Inver Grove Heights, Mendota Heights, South St. Paul, and the West Side.
And before you ask, no, we’re not changing the name.
That’s a lot of work and expense before we’ve even proven it will work. Plus, plenty of newspapers have a city in their name but report beyond that city.
Continue reading Expanding Local NewsThis morning I took my last first day of school photo. Milo heads off to his senior year, and thus begins the year of final moments.
Here’s the requisite kindergarten to senior year comparison:
I think my favorite part of that kindergarten photo is Milo’s hands—constant motion. That’s how excited he was (and always, I guess).
Senior year? I’m just lucky he humored me and posed for the photo.
I started blogging nearly 28 years ago. Inspired by a friend, I launched a glorified online journal to force myself into a regular writing rhythm. It worked, and for years I poured my thoughts and imaginings into this online space.
A lot has changed since then. The purpose has long since shifted. When my day job requires hours and hours of writing, I no longer need the outlet for dreams and ideas. Social media has consumed the space and likely corrupted it. Now our dreams and ideas go to those digital spaces to be monetized by corporate behemoths (and quickly forgotten and forsaken).
Yet I stubbornly cling to the form, mainly because I’m not a fan of change. Despite a grand total of three gaps, I’ve managed to blog at least once a month going back to December 1998. I like a good streak.
But sometimes I wonder.
Continue reading The Future of BloggingIs there a trend of artificial intelligence (AI) in science fiction going from super-intelligent to bland slop? I think there might be.
Continue reading Rising Trend of Stupid AI in Sci-Fi?A couple weeks ago we hosted our sixth annual West St. Paul Rider community bike ride. It’s a family-friendly, 7-mile ride around our community, highlighting the local trails so people can get out more.
It’s a fun time. We’ve got pics (courtesy of Jeannine Pohl of Block Portrait Studios).
Continue reading Let’s Ride BikesT-Mobile offers artificial intelligence (AI) support for their cell phone plans, and yes, it’s as awful as you might expect.
Continue reading T-Mobile’s AI Support Cost Me $90It’s been nine years since new U2 music, and then we get two EPs only 40 days apart, with Days of Ash and now Easter Lily.
I’m not going to go song by song, but it is quintessentially U2, from Bono’s soaring lyrics to that signature guitar. There’s even a song with Edge on vocals that sounds so much like Bono you might not notice at first. It’s unabashedly religious (I mean, with that title, duh).
“In a Life,” “Scars,” and “Resurrection Song” jump out at me as the best songs, though “COEXIST (I Will Bless The Lord at All Times?) is a beautifully eerie dirge.
But my fear is they all sound like U2 songs we’ve heard before, and not the great ones. I love to be wrong when I write these initial reactions. But that’s my sense. Even in my half a dozen listens, I have trouble distinguishing those three songs I said might be the best. Even on Days of Ash the songs had more variation. (Don’t get me wrong, I like it—they just sound the same.)
Continue reading Easter Lily EPRecently I’ve been reading about Civil Rights hero John Lewis. I read his weighty biography, Walking With the Wind, as well as a couple shorter, kind of “rah-rah” books that collected some of his inspiring wisdom. It felt timely on the heels of the ICE surge in Minnesota.
Continue reading John Lewis, Civil Rights, & Operation Metro SurgeU2 surprised everyone with new music this week. They released a six-track EP (five songs and one poem) called Days of Ash on Ash Wednesday.
I didn’t even hear about it until Thursday morning.
And even then, I didn’t believe it. I saw a photo post on social media set to music, with the name “American Obituary” by U2. I thought, that’s odd, I don’t know of any U2 song by that name. Often social media sites license music so people can add it to their posts, so I thought this must be some relic U2 song, maybe a Joshua Tree outtake? I unmuted the post so I could hear the song, listened to a bit of it, and moved on.
It wasn’t until another friend posted about actual new U2 music that I realized what it was.
Continue reading Days of Ash by U2I hesitate to post this, but I want to give people around the country a glimpse of what Minnesota is going through right now in the midst of an ICE surge and after the killing of Renee Good. I’m a middle-aged white guy who lives in a first-ring suburb of 20,000 people. Minneapolis is miles away and we don’t go there often. My family is not suffering like some are, but it’s far from normal.
Here’s what I’ve experienced:
Continue reading What It’s Like in Minnesota Right Now
