Category Archives: Uncategorized

Cinequest 2024 – Tim Travers and the Time Traveler’s Paradox

Posted on March 8, 2024 by ricbret

This one of a series of reviews from this year’s Cinequest film festival in San Jose, California. Read more about the festival here, and buy tickets for showings of this and other films here. A scientist creates a time machine in order … Continue reading →

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Why I Judge Books by Their Cover

Posted on April 17, 2018 by ricbret

Book Judgement is someplace where I can review and express my love for the manufacture of books, the binding, typography… Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Design, Film, Media, Movies, Personal, Random thoughts, Review, SciFi Fantasy, Thoughts, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Cinequest 2018: Hunting Lands

Posted on March 1, 2018 by ricbret

The Hunting Lands invites us along for a hunter’s pursuit, stalking a killer of a different kind. Continue reading →

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How Many PowerPoints in the World?

Posted on August 9, 2017 by ricbret

“How much PowerPoint is there in the world?” Does it matter? Should be bother trying to figure it out? And who does it help in the end? Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Geeking around, Graphics, Media, Organizations, Personal, PowerPoint, Presentations, Presenting, Random thoughts, Software, Technology, Thoughts, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Cinequest 2016: Embers

Posted on March 3, 2016 by ricbret

It’s a quiet armageddon. Every day you wake with a limited knowledge of the world, of yourself, and of those around you. Some smaller things do stick, but the cohesiveness of what we were, of who we were, is gone. Waking experience teases some of this out to consciousness, but we still see a stranger in the mirror. Continue reading →

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Cinequest 2016: The Brainwashing of My Dad

Posted on March 1, 2016 by ricbret

A longer commute, talk radio, a loving father turns into an angry, bitter, obsessive… brainwashed by a poisonous media. Continue reading →

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Secrets the PowerPoint Developers Don’t Even Know…

Posted on October 27, 2014 by ricbret

One of my favorite things to do is to show the developer of a function or piece of software something it does that they just weren’t expecting. I know, you’re thinking bugs, and bugs are fun too. But what I’m really talking about are cool tips and tricks that can get you out of PowerPoint jams and into really cool solutions. Continue reading →

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The Beauty of Books

Posted on October 3, 2014 by ricbret

In 1981 an Italian artist, architect, and industrial designer named Luigi Serafini worked for three years crafting an alien artifact that pushed the concepts of beauty, alienation, and book craft to new dimensions. Serafini created a tome, thick and large, embellished with impenetrable glyphs and symbols that by style and repetition of forms can be nothing but a language, but one no human has ever spoken.
Continue reading →

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Just checking in…

Posted on August 19, 2014 by ricbret

Why wear two watches? And why don’t they tell the same time? A bit of a puzzle of course.

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Warning Wunderlist Users!

Posted on August 9, 2014 by ricbret

          UPDATE: Apparently @WunderlistHelp just tweeted the following. Wunderlist Support‏@WunderlistHelp If you’re missing lists, they are safe. Please sign out and back in again. So sorry for the trouble! I have not tried this, will check … Continue reading →

Posted in Geeking around, Personal, Technology, Thoughts, Uncategorized, Writing | 3 Comments

The Shiny New Blog

Posted on July 8, 2014 by ricbret

Hey! You either followed the breadcrumbs or somehow just got lucky and stumbled into the new blog location.  Congratulations either way. I’m really happy you made it here. For years I’ve used the free WordPress-hosted blogging, and I was happy. … Continue reading →

Posted in Design, Geeking around, History, Personal, PowerPoint, Presentations, Software, Technology, Uncategorized, Writing | Leave a comment

She’s Giving It Away…

Posted on November 7, 2013 by ricbret

No secret to anyone about my love of this book. So why is it news today? This morning Nancy Duarte announced that “the multimedia version of Resonate is now available on HTML5 and iTunes for FREE! You can read, learn, … Continue reading →

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Savino Wine Preservation System Unboxing

Posted on March 29, 2013 by ricbret

Sometimes we have to put the tech, and the presenting and the other stuff geeky aside and just enjoy a glass of wine. But maybe we can combine a few of these. The latest tech in wine storage. The geeky … Continue reading →

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Love of Books – An Unboxing of “The Fifty Year Sword”

Posted on December 10, 2012 by ricbret

I’m a big fan of books. Not just the stories, but the book construction as well. From bindings, paper choice, typeset, typography, layout, it’s all interesting to me. Mark Z. Danielewski is most famous for House of Leaves, an inventive … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Design, Entertainment, Geeking around, Movies, Personal, Technology, Uncategorized, Writing | 1 Comment

Colorado

Posted on July 20, 2012 by ricbret

Stunned, I have few relatively important thoughts this morning.  This is the primary one. Civilized people know they do not need “a militia.” The time for that has come and gone. The retention of this false assurance is maintained by deluded … Continue reading →

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GoPayment Vs. Square – One More Thing, One Less Thing…

Posted on March 6, 2012 by ricbret

I signed up for Intuit’s new GoPayment card system yesterday. Thought I’d share a few thoughts. GoPayment is a way for regular folks to take credit card payments from other regular folks using your cell phone or tablet.  It’s advertised … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Geeking around, Personal, Random thoughts, Software, Technology, Thoughts, Uncategorized | 17 Comments

Update: Toaster

Posted on January 21, 2012 by ricbret

Update! We replaced with the same model, this time in purple. They were out of red. Frankly, the toaster market is insane with technological innovations. There are models that slowly lower your toast into the chamber, any number of digital … Continue reading →

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QuickTechThought: Our Red Toaster

Posted on January 13, 2012 by ricbret

Our pretty red toaster died this week. Sunbeam Oster. It wasn’t even three years old.  I know, I know, they don’t make things like they used to.  But it’s just a toaster, it’s supposed to be pretty fundamentally simple.   … Continue reading →

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Nest Learning Thermostat

Posted on December 6, 2011 by ricbret

Last Friday I installed a new thermostat in the house, the first one since we moved in. Now the prior thermostat was programmable, hourly and daily you could configure it to heat and cool as you like.  It made a … Continue reading →

Posted in Design, Geeking around, Health, Home and Family, Personal, Random thoughts, Technology, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

The 300!

Posted on November 22, 2011 by ricbret

Chris Garcia did an amazing thing. He invited, then managed contributions from, over 300 people for the 300th issue of his Hugo Award Winning fanzine The Drink Tank.  James Bacon helped, and gets his share of the credits, but Chris … Continue reading →

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