Here’s the California Avenue train station mentioned in that article: https://maps.app.goo.gl/2eMQc3EPPJiGzaMR8

Look at the Street View, and there is nothing but sparse, two-story buildings right near the station. If they let 5-story buildings be built, that station and the shops nearby would get a lot more use.

Fine, we get it. We’re old. Way to rub it in.

Whippersnappers today.

A few suggestions:

Create a portfolio site. Pictures, logos, and a little text. If you have the skills, install Wordpress and set it up with a portfolio theme. Each entry shows off something you did. Built an app that saved $10K. Put that in. Screenshots if you have them. Opensource code, college projects. If you don’t have a good screenshot, get a semi-relevant image from freebie image sites like unsplash.com (with credit). Not too wordy. Nobidy likes reading a short story. Punchy two liner. Also, make your PDF resume available from the site.

If you don’t want to deal with Wordpress, create a static HTML site using Jekyll (with a theme) and host it on github pages or Cloudflare for free. Vibecode it if you don’t know how. set it up with an easy, memorable domain name related to your name.

Next, write some short articles on things people in the same background as you might be interested in. You mentioned Python, SQL, and AWS. All are good. Post them to Medium or Substack. Cross link them on social media.

If you have the skills, make a video screencast covering the same topic as the blog post, and post it up on your own Youtube channel. Do one per week (or more often) while you wait. Put a link in your portfolio. Link from video description back to your portfolio.

If you have the energy, start a related podcast. Start with a survey of the latest news in areas you’re interested in. Just need a cheap USB mic. Post once a week. Again, cross-link with your portfolio or other channels.

Join local Meetups and show up. If one doesn’t exist, consider starting one. Host it at a local bar. People will show up just to chat and grab a drink. Invite someone interesting to give a short talk. Post links everywhere. Expect a lot of no-shows. Don’t take it personally.

Volunteer to help a local non-profit. Help them put up a website, clean up a database, or run some reports. Maybe a stretch project. Use it all in your portfolio. It’ll help you learn new things and stay uptodate.

Ask on Nextdoor or some other local site if people need in-person IT help. Setting up computers, fixing networks, or cleaning up phone problems. Charge a modest fee for individuals. Slightly higher for small businesses. Insta-print business cards with your contact info at Kinkos or Office Depot for $15. Leave 2-3 everywhere you do a job, so they can hand them to a friend, especially if they’re elderly. Pin them up in the local senior center and laundromat.

And lastly, consider getting a teaching cert and teaching high school, or going back and getting a graduate degree. Will likely have to borrow money, and it will take a year or two. But by then, job market might have turned around and with a graduate degree, you’ll be worth more.

If hard up for cash, pick up gig work, but leave time for doing these other things.

Best of luck!

When approaching a light or stop sign, smoothly press down the clutch and break pedal together. If it’s a red light where you might be for a while, pop the gear into neutral and let go of the clutch.

I was taught (rightfully or not) that holding down the clutch too long can damage it.

Invite a judgemental friend or relative over for dinner. Best way to force you to clean and declutter your space.

I have friends working on ways for content providers to charge AI training models. But I have a feeling that’s not enough.

The future will have to be where creators have an incentive to consistently create, and consumers pay for what they like, or services to keep them informed and entertained without them having to do much.

In between will sit middlemen and aggregators to enable a smooth flow. Who that will be and what they do in this next phase is the big question.

Under the current method, Google’s search and ads groups are competing against each other. Don’t see that going well for anyone.

TV show idea for bottom panel: see how many toilets each contestsnt can hit in 60 sec. Have funny animal mascots randomly jump out of stalls.

Winner wins a high-tech bidet seat and a lifetime supply of adult diapers.

Running from large predators will definitely help with the dementia.

I’ve had good luck with Jekyll, saving the source on github, and setting it up so pushing to main auto-deploys to a Cloudflare site. Using Markdown and for larger media, uploading to S3.

Much easier to set up and maintain than github pages. Since it’s static output, pretty snappy. Also includes RSS feeds and permanent URLs.

Have also set up several Wordpress sites. Slower, but if you want wysiwyg editing, user comments, or there are several contributors, would work better.

Have also heard good things about ghost, but haven’t actually deployed one yet.

I watched as our little, barely walking toddler walked away from us in a busy department store. I followed behind, hiding behind racks, to see if he would get scared and turn around. Nope. Did not turn once. Just waddled away. I had to race and grab him from behind once he stepped onto the escalator.

It was then that I really understood the need for those leashes. Had a talk with the wife and we decided against it, but it was close.

Second the pickling idea. Read a similar story that a food bank had a lot of excess fresh material. Thry had set up production through a commercial food processing site, had put labels on them, and were selling them online and at farmer’s markets. The proceeds were going back to the food bank. Zero wastage. They were also making things like sauerkraut, kimchee, and kombucha. Watermelon can also be juiced and the rinds pickled.

I imagine for food safety and liability reasons, you wouldn’t want to do it in someone’s kitchen. Plus, licensing fees. But you have a great story to tell (good health, zero waste, help food bank).

Quick search since you mentioned NM: https://www.newmexicofma.org/food_processing_permits.php

Once these AI companies go belly-up, those people with critical thinking and research skills will be able to name their price.

Those abilities have been in high demand for millenia. Focus on the basics.

3rd grade. Teacher sent me and my best friend to the office with a note for being too disruptive (we were snickering a lot). I was used to getting into trouble, but he was petrified and shaking. I felt bad for him, so I told him I would take care of it.

I tossed the note over the wall, then we went off and played in the yard for the rest of the morning.

In the afternoon, there was school assembly. The two of us were called out by name and were told our parents would be called to come collect us. My mother showed up and couldn’t stop laughing at the silliness of it all.

My friend, he never talked to me again.

May want to consider going the DIY route: https://plushthis.com/blogs/how-to/how-to-make-weighted-stuffed-animals

My kids had a lot of fun with stuffed bears and dogs from Ikea. On several occasions, I had to re-stuff them (to comedic swole effect) with fill from craft stores. Pretty easy.

Love it. Lots of good ideas there. They really need to simplify their pitch, though. First thing would be to use a simpler logo. Just go and own 🔥

A couple years ago, I would have agreed. Most of our email is junk. But nowadays, you can have an LLM digest and summarize it for you. That could also be a service the legacy system offers. Grandkids can just ask for a free-form search term without having to wade through everything.

A long time ago, I had the idea for a startup to keep digital material, including accounts, passwords, old documents, etc. ina digital vault that would be released to the next-of-kin when someone dies. It would also convert documents to newer formats so your old unpublished WordPerfect novel could be opened and read by the grandkids (should they choose).

Problem is, nobody would (or should) trust a startup with that material. This is stuff that should be around for many decades and most startups go out of business.