Barry Hess
Barry Hess
Barry Hess
I run the blogging service, Pika, and I have been blogging since 2004. My blog is mostly personal in nature, touching on technical, pop culture, and other things along the way.
Latest Posts
This past week was filled with July 4th, a lovely visit from family, and lots of music. The music in this case took the form of drum and bugle corps, of which me and my family are big fans. To the outsider, it’s like paying money to go...
We have collectively been recovering from a physically and emotionally draining two weeks of marching band. We all were caught napping at some point throughout the early days of this week! It’s been nice to have activities wind down this...
The past two weeks have been full of marching band. We’ve been following our kids attending parades for eight or nine years now, chaperoning for most of those. It’s a fast and furious summer competitive parade season, and they’ve had a...
A significant portion of the population in the USA still thinks of Reaganomics as certified fact rather than a largely discredited theory. By this mindset the engine of our economy requires people to strive for a ton of money. A rising...
It’s our 26th anniversary today. We had a nice lunch at Jesse's favorite restaurant. Very nice meal. I've never had a banana split and have been trying to get Jesse to share one with me for a couple of years. So we walked to the ice...
The biggest event of the past week? Ava’s college graduation! Truth be told, she graduated last December, but the ceremony was last weekend and it was a great time. Quite a few family were able to make it to Des Moines to spend a fun...
Sometimes the national anthem at high school track meets can be a bit painful to listen to, but we were fortunate to hear a fantastic one by a high school junior this week. I must say the effects at Harry Potter and the Cursed Child were...
Why am I thinking about dipping back into Mastodon and Bluesky? I’ve been away for six or seven (!) months and it’s been good. I feel a bit like I’d like I’m curious if I could do it in a way that would only be a fifteen-minute...
Spent this morning at Minnebar. This year was the 20th anniversary. I’ve had several posts about Minnebar on this blog through the years. I’ve only been able to go a couple times over the past ten years and it was good to see many...
This is a fun brainstorm about snail mail sign-ups. I’ve been trying some snail mail things to thank a handful of Pika customers. Unfortunately it hasn’t been very effective. There’s been almost a complete lack of response. I’m not even...
Since building Pika I’ve wanted to incorporate a “now and then” sort of now page with dynamic history. With the recent flurry of updates to Pika variables, I realized that my dream could now be made reality. It turns out that my recent...
Did you know that the Apple HomePod can recognize alarms in your home and alert you about them? We discovered this a few weeks ago while we were vacationing in Phoenix. While relaxing in the sun, every member of our household received an...
It’s a weird state to be in with my work feeling like a vocation. I love doing it, I love making progress on Pika, and I’m super grateful to be in this position. Yet there are some things I enjoy in life that I can’t seem to find time to...
I did a telehealth call this week about some third-party blood test results. As with most things in your forties, the cure is to lose some weight, exercise, and get better sleep. For whatever reason I feel like this might be the year I...
Short, and late, rendition of Friday this week as I’m traveling. We took a spring break to Phoenix and were able to fit in a Project Hail Mary IMAX screening. It was excellent! Two of us have read the book, and we enjoyed both versions...