My favorite eight pictures from 2024.

A collage of images highlighting 2024's best photos.

Tracking down a copy of my thesis from 1997

I want to find a copy of my 1997 honors thesis.1 I wrote it on a Power Mac 7500 in Word Perfect 3.5 on the classic Mac OS 8. It probably fit on a floppy drive, but I know I saved a backup copy of it on a Zip drive. At some point, I decided that I needed to move things off the Zip disks and consolidated all of my old files from college onto DVDs.

Continue reading →

Listening to a podcast this week and I realized that my 1997 honors thesis about media branding in the age of cable TV and the internet is actually relevant as media branding continues to change. I might dust it off and turn it into a history of media branding instead.

You say “Bless you” when someone sneezes. My son wanted to come up with something to say when someone coughs. We’ve settled on “May God have mercy on your soul.” 🤣

I started watching F1 this season with the Canadian Grand Prix and adopted McLaren as my team. So cool to see them win the Constructors’ Championship. And overall, such a great season for me to start with… so much fun to watch.

Subscribed to The Verge’s new subscription plan. I think $7/month is a reasonable price for everything that the site offers and I’m happy that I can support quality tech journalism.

Enjoyed Skeleton Crew last night. It does feel like a Goonies + Star Wars mash up. They’ve built an interesting premise and there seem to be some interesting avenues for them to explore. Looking forward to rewatching it with my son.

I think professional wrestling might have more consistent rules than Formula 1.

Then: Reflections from 12.01.24

Posts in the “Then” category were originally shared on my “Now” page. Thanksgiving week was busy. I worked Monday and Tuesday, took Wednesday off and the university was closed for Thursday and Friday. It was a much needed rest. We had Norah home from college so it was nice to have all of Team Wertz under the same roof for the first time for a while. Hard to believe it’s December.

Continue reading →

Hey Siri. Play Sandstorm.

Down goes Clemson. South Carolina’s offense isn’t always pretty, but they fight to the end. LaNorris Sellers is a winner. 🐓🏈

As a McLaren fan, it was a fun F1 Sprint Race this morning. I imagine it was boring for everyone else though.

Post Thanksgiving date night at Craft and Draft Irmo.

Two drinks sit on a table marked with a table number 50, near arcade machines including one themed after Iron Man.Bob and Liz are sitting together in front of a colorful wall mural.A pretzel sprinkled with salt is served on a black plate alongside two small dishes of mustard and beer cheese.

Excited to see the first two episodes of Star Wars: Skeleton Crew on Monday. I’m interested in seeing this interpretation of the Star Wars universe and glad they are releasing it early.

I added the “Quiet Posters” feed on Bluesky. It shows people you follow, but who don’t post very much. It’s amazing, because in most cases, it surfaces the stuff I want to see. This type of smart feed could be really powerful.

Random thought for my Columbia SC creative friends… what if I resurrected InShow? I miss it.

Dear Rick Wertz of Indiana,

Please stop giving people my email address when you mean to give them yours. Also, your AAA membership is about to expire. They keep sending me reminders. You might want to take care of that.

Thanks, “Not Rick”

Reflections from 11.24.24

Posts in the “Then” category were originally shared on my “Now” page. So I accidentally skipped last week. I wrote the post, but never actually uploaded it. So I’m incorporating some of what I wrote last week to cover the last two weeks. Happy birthday to my youngest, Ryan. He turns 13 today. For another three weeks, I have three teenagers. Time flies. Feels Grateful. On Ryan’s birthday, I’ve got to reflect on just how amazing and wonderful my kiddos are.

Continue reading →

Just saw a headline that SMU is going be in the ACC Championship. I’ll be honest. I completely forgot SMU was in the ACC.

Tomorrow, our youngest turns 13. Which means that until December when Norah turns 20, we will have three teenagers in the family: 13, 17 and 19. Pray for us. 🤣

Refining my social media approach

The last two weeks has seen a surge in Bluesky usage. I’ve been on Bluesky a little since the early days. I liked the service, but I didn’t know any one there. That’s changed now and lots of friends are posting. That’s added a touch more complexity, so I figured I’d share how I’m handling my personal social media right now. I post everything to Micro.Blog. It shows up on bobwertz.

Continue reading →