Recent Blog Posts

I Failed

Back at the beginning of this year, I set a goal.  I wanted to write a thousand words per week for the year, much as I did back in 2013.  That was a fun project back then.  I thought it’d be a good challenge and give me a chance to […]

Write: Cirque!

I loved the circus growing up.  This was before we were really cognizant of the abuse of the animals.  This was probably the Shriner’s Circus and Barnum and Bailey’s Traveling Circus, but it usually meant some lions and some tigers, some horses, a few elephants and some other odds and […]

So, This is 58

I turned 58 this year and as is the case sometimes, it seems like an opportunity for reflection.  So, reflect I will. I was born in June of the year of our Lord 1965, which sounds like it’s quite a while ago, even for me!  A few things about the […]

Fortune

Once upon a time, in the Before Times (call it the 1990s), software engineers would add to an otherwise boring login by displaying additional things like time, date or weather. Another was to display a random fortune. Some are movie quotes, some are literary quotes and some are just fortunes. Some are profane and some are a little profound. This bit of code accesses an online API to generate a fortune and display it.

Credit to HelloACM, which provides and hosts the API for this and many other cool things.

Staff Spotlight

This is our Staff Spotlight where we focus on some of the folks who help make us who we are!

Carla Stevens

Appointment Getter

Quote: "For everything that lives is holy, life delights in life." - William Blake.
Home Town: Seattle, WA.

Noelle Tran

Chief Operating Officer

Quote: "I'm not interested in age. People who tell me their age are silly. You're as old as you feel." - Elizabeth Arden.
Home Town: Coward, SC.

Janelle Hancock

Marketing Brand Manager

Quote: "Logic is the beginning of wisdom, not the end." - Leonard Nimoy.
Home Town: Raleigh, NC.

Mara Gonzales

Lead Door Knocker

Quote: "A good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers." - Plato.
Home Town: Ames, IA.

Credit to HelloACM for the random identity generator, Generated.photos for the AI generated headshots and Pixabay for the random backgrounds and api.quoteable.io for the quotes api.

Random Colors of the Day

Find some inspiration to brighten your colorspace! The three options below are based on trying to assign names to colors as they are represented on a computer screen, typically via a hex value like this: "#546789". Each pair represents the strength of the Red, Green and Blue value. Back in the day, the X11 Consortium declared that colors would be stored in a file called "rgb.txt" and many had names associated with them. Additionally, I found a list of colors and names based on Resene colors. The third one is what happens if you pick a random value and call it a random name. Very useful and highly scientific.

Mistyrose1

#FFE4E1

From the classic X11 file rgb.txt

aquamarine

#014B43

From the set of Resene colors.

Seb

#519599

A unique color and name, created just for you!

About

This is a place where I keep my stuff on the web. The contents and appearance change with time, but tend to reflect my interests. Those interests include: writing, technology, computers, software (both as a user and a developer), 3D printing, crafting, role playing games, computer games, music, art and woodworking to name a few. I do a variety of things that change often and sometimes without warning and typically reflect things I'm curious about.

Darrin Mossor

Human In Training

“Quotation, n: The act of repeating erroneously the words of another."

"Ambrose Bierce, The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary"