Living vicariously thru a friend’s international business travel

| January 24, 2024

Although the time difference makes instant text communication a little more challenging than usual in staying in touch with my buddy Jeff, I’m still enjoying the interesting business travel he is starting early in 2024.  I lost track of the number of countries will be in while making cybersecurity audits of client plants, but it […]

An ebook and two photos from my friend Jeff for #TBT

| August 17, 2023

My friend Jeff and I regularly talk about the books we are reading over lunch or on the back porch (too infrequent though) and he sent me one to read last week.  I told him I would start as soon as I finished Pappy Boyington’s “Baa Baa Black Sheep” that I’m thoroughly enjoying. “Conservatism, A […]

Obituary: Alton Gwynn Pitts (1926-2022) and finding the right words to comfort a friend on the passing of his father

| November 3, 2022

Although it was not unexpected, my long time friend Jeff‘s father passed away last week. It was the way we all would want to die … "peacefully in our sleep at home."  My memories of Alton Pitts are few since he lived in Florida, but the few I have are of kindness. I first met […]

My old bowling ball: A memory-triggering time capsule #TBT

| June 2, 2022

The “bowling” comment I made a couple weeks ago triggered me thinking about what “junk” to put back in my office storage closet and what to toss. There are “functional” but OLD computers (with hard drives and too much CPP customer data), boxes of magazines … and more to the point … my old bowling […]

Are you a Coffee or a Tea drinker? Coffee for me, please!

| June 1, 2022

Who doesn’t enjoy of teasing friends back and forth over foodie items? Here’s one that I’m going to debate with my friend Jeff … as he has always been a “Tea drinker” and I’ve been a “Coffee guy.” I’ll start with my pro-military, flag-waving “patriotic Americans drink coffee” position, and I’m sure he’ll lay out […]

Birthday Book: “The Old Man and The Boy” by Robert Ruark

| May 24, 2022

My buddy Jeff Pitts is my go-to source for interesting books to read. For my birthday this year (we had lunch last Friday … a Mexican restaurant, of course), he gave me an older 1950’s era book by Robert Ruark called “The Old Man and The Boy.” I passed on reading my other books and […]

Another Mexican dinner with my friend Jeff and some humor

| February 9, 2022

Last week I had dinner with my buddy Jeff after taking him to pick up his car from a seat repair/re-upholstering job. He previously planned it so we could go to our “old” favorite Acapulco Mexican Restaurant (which is no longer tolerated as well in my digestive track as it was 20 years ago). He […]

At what point do or can you start cutting ties with BigTech?

| March 20, 2021

A technology friend of mine, Scott Bilik (who was considered my Twitter “Godfather in 2007), has recently wiped some of the mud from his hypothetical digital footprints and is systematically freeing himself from Big Tech’s shackles. This current Silicon Valley monopoly has increased its political clout and has enticed or entrapped most of us in […]

Thankful to have a long time friend like Jeff – #TBT photo

| December 31, 2020

I had lunch “out” this week with my good friend Jeff, although this routine has become very infrequent compared to previous years. Still, we had a chance to catch up, talk about politics (Ugh), the old-days backpacking in North Carolina (an old scanned photo for Throwback Thursday #TBT) … and I opened his cool gift […]

Promotional Products from an exciting Dot-Com start-up #TBT

| December 17, 2020

For Throwback Thursday #TBT this week I’ll include a couple photos from 1998 or 1999. These Soma.com photos are items from my friend Jeff sent to me when cleaning out his apartment. He (and my wife Brenda) were hired to build out the first Dot-Com era online Pharmacy … or at least the fulfillment facility. […]

Archive: Remembering good times with my friend Jeff #TBT

| August 6, 2020

My friend Jeff has been part of my life since college and knows WAY too much about me … both good (which he conveniently forgets) and bad (which he’s remembers all too well). We’ve always have great times together, be it in Founders Hall dorm at ONU back in college or the many years after […]

Was life really simpler when backpacking? #TBT

| April 2, 2020

With “stay at home” orders issued for 3/4 of the U.S. population, my good friend Jeff Pitts has been obeying the directive and working from home. It is also giving him time to do those “I’ll get to it someday” chores like cleaning out a spare room and finally throwing stuff away. One of the […]

All things RMS Titanic … now you know the rest of the story

| March 11, 2020

My friend Jeff gave me a couple “used” books for Christmas this year after we talked last year about our favorite authors and books over the decades. Sloan Wilson, of “Man in the Gray Flannel Suit” fame, also wrote several World War II US Coast Guard and Merchant Marine novels that both of us read […]

Protecting privacy with a web browser – a BRAVE new world

| March 6, 2020

My buddy Jeff Pitts, who has recently moved from IT to  a job focused exclusively on cybersecurity for a worldwide company, tends to error on the side of caution when it comes to privacy practices. He has moved entirely to the Mac (we used to have a  fun debate when he was a 100% PC […]

Music Monday: Jackson and Buffett – It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere

| January 27, 2020

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Wishing my long time best friend Jeff Pitts, a Happy Birthday!

| November 2, 2019

As we joke every year, Jeff has finally caught up to me in age … and is now 60 years old (he is 6 months younger than me). We do enjoy kidding each other and I know my life would not be as full without him around. He has most definitely in my life for […]

Call me paranoid, but it feels impossible to secure computers

| June 16, 2019

My good friend Jeff Pitts, a network and IT expert, and most recently IT cybersecurity expert, constantly update me with the latest threats to computer servers. He manages the computers and networks for a Cincinnati-based international company that is constantly under bombardment from hackers. Most of the attacks are directly from China and according to […]

Good times and memories with a great friend for #TBT

| March 21, 2019

My friend Jeff Pitts has been my closest friend ever since our college years at Ohio Northern University (also the only guest blogger so far). Besides college, he was on my bachelor party trip, years and years of hiking and camping … including a great trip to the Canadian Rockies with my son Taylor, who has […]

Drones on boats, a good idea?

| January 29, 2018

My friend Jeff is planning on ordering a DJI Mavic Pro this weekend. I sent him a recent article that has him pondering models. Jokingly I sent him this ani.gif suggesting he let me borrow it when I head to the boat … to which he replied, “Sure, if you put down a $1000 deposit. […]

Guest post: Monitoring Remote Locations #DIY – by Jeff Pitts

| June 6, 2017

One of the fun areas of IT that has been growing in recent years is the “maker community” of products for do-it-yourselfers. These devices range from the Raspberry Pi, Pi Zero, Photon, Arduino, etc. The movement is bringing electronics to those of us that have that tinkerer mindset, but it also extends the opportunity to […]

Christmas Cotton: PressIt test post from cellphone

| December 18, 2008

Using Treo to “Press It” post a cellphone photo that only has a little personal meaning to a few of us … and my friend who sent us the cotton for our Christmas tree many years ago. EDIT: Hmm, PressIt didn’t work and will have to edit to post?

Desultory - des-uhl-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee

  1. lacking in consistency, constancy, or visible order, disconnected; fitful: desultory conversation.
  2. digressing from or unconnected with the main subject; random: a desultory remark.
My Desultory Blog