Author: Steve Ainslie

The daughter of a friend just completed her first year of college and is in danger of losing her scholarship. She apparently missed her GPA requirements two semesters in a row so she is now on academic probation. If she loses her scholarship, her tuition will increase significantly. After my second year of college, I…

Last night Ellen visited me in my dreams and I told her about having to let Snickers go. I somehow knew that Ellen was there with me, yet I knew she was dead too. I asked her if I could hold her in my arms and she said yes. I held her while I cried…

Anytime a podcaster, singer, celebrity or influencer proclaims how much they “love” you, don’t believe it. They don’t love you. Not according to my definition of love. They like that you are an audience member. They appreciate the clicks, views and purchases you make that drive advertising sponsorships. They enjoy the money they make from…

What passes as part of the news today are reports about viral videos, TikTok stars and instagram influencers. It’s like celebrity reporting, minus real celebrities. Occasionally I get suckered into clicking on one of these “stories”. I’ve noticed a trend. The woman who star in them are attractive, wearing skimpy outfits to display their bodies…

Although I don’t suffer from a fear of conflict and have a long track record of facing problems directly, my preferred choice is to avoid confrontation when possible. Instead of striking out, verbally or physically, if someone doesn’t deserve my attention, I will purposely ignore them. I’m good at this. I’ve been doing it my…

My neighbor and I have nearly identical houses built by the same builder, the same year, with the same floor plan – except for a few minor details. I was dog-sitting for him this week so I made a dozen visits to his home and spent several hours there. The feeling of being in my…

For my entire life I have professed to be a dog lover. There’s a picture of me taking my first steps as a toddler on the beach with the sweetest smile on my face, as I reached out to pet a giant golden retriever. I had dogs when I was little. My grandparents had dogs….

When I was younger, people used to pray for things all the time. They prayed for money. They prayed for money, love, happiness and health. They prayed for good things to happen and bad things to not happen. They (me, for sure) prayed for good weather, better Christmas presents, and my parents to not get…

Kevin Kelly’s, “Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I’d Known Earlier”, is a book of aphorisms that he wrote for his adult children. I used to love reading aphorisms and famous quotations. They inspire me. They sound so wise. They usually come from someone, like Kelly, who has been successful. The problem for me…

So Reddit just made a major change to its API access. Beginning next month, they are charging 3rd party developers for access to its APIs that had previously been free. Over the past 8 (?) years, 3rd party developers have created software to make Reddit better. This included reading apps that added functionality and blocked…