Author: Steve Ainslie

While I don’t enjoy being rejected, I have had enough of it throughout my life that I’ve learned how to handle it without getting bent out of shape. A few big ones hit me quite hard and changed the trajectory of my life – my father disappearing from my life when I was 5, my…

I knew that the Obama’s became wealthy after he was president. This came as no surprise. Both Barack and Michelle landed lucrative book deals during the presidency and afterward (reportedly $60M +). They also signed a huge deal with Netflix (reportedly $80M?). I’ imagine’m sure they made a bunch of money being paid for speaking…

The pandemic is clearly over in my neighborhood. Houses are selling – but not at the same pace or above list prices they were during the pandemic induced buying frenzy. Judging from the traffic, people have returned to working from the office. I see dozens of new cars with temporary license plates in driveways that…

I enjoy being a decent neighbor, a good friend and a helpful stranger. When I see someone struggling to move a piece of furniture from their car to their house, I’ll offer to help. If some @sshole leaves their dog poop in a neighbor’s yard, I’ll bag it up. When my neighbor asks if I…

During brain numbing dives of browsing YouTube & Reddit Idiocracy, I am often fed video shorts of people filming themselves at the gym, on the beach, in dance clubs, doing stunts, or dancing in public spaces when someone walks past their camera disrupting the video. The person creating the video of himself or herself, gets…

I listened to a “Hot Ones interview” with Henry Rollins yesterday while I mowed the lawn. I really like Henry Rollins. The first time I ever heard Rollins speak was in the early 90s. He had been hired by MTV to report on Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign. I vaguely knew of him as the lead…

I was introduced to AITA this year when browsing reddit and listening to podcasts. It stands for “Am I The @sshole?” and precedes someone’s rant about a situation where they had a conflict with another person. AITAs are quite popular online and in user submissions to podcasts. They follow a standard format. The writer explains…

We have all been subject to more “firewalls” from newspapers, media sites, TV stations and apps as they use paywalls to force us to subscribe, disable ad blockers and/or register to see content. It’s everywhere now: The Wall Street journal, the Atlantic, the New York Times, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, local TV stations, local newspapers…

Recently, the US Supreme Court ruled on a case from a Web Design Company that refused to create a website for a gay marriage – in theory. Because, actually, nobody had approached the web design company to request this service. It was a “hypothetical case”. WTF? How did this make it all the way to…

Last month marked 4 years since I settled into my current home in Raleigh. This is the longest I ever lived in one place in my entire life. Which is ironic, because for the first time in my life, I could live absolutely anywhere I wanted to. There are some practical explanations for why I…