You’d think after taking years off of writing a blog maybe the question is why is there a new post up now? Well, I think it is the increasing value of the davehovde.com brand that got me to do it.

I’ll admit I’ve been camping on this URL for years, essentially waiting for the mostly theoretical day that my TV career would wane and my multimedia empire would begin. Or maybe when all the other famous Dave Hovdes out there (and there are a few) would pay me ridiculous amounts of money (not accepting NFTs or Bitcoin anymore) for the homepage.

Alas, none of that has happened. However, someone very insistent person or persons in Japan (or I suppose using a VPN from elsewhere) has taken quite the liking to DaveHovde.com. I mean, how can you blame this person, there are fewer than 6 total posts so why not try 344 times in 2 days to crack the server? And for goodness sakes lad, just before Thanksgiving? I’m not sure which holiday is best suited to take over a website but this is likely not it. Maybe Arbor Day?

I’d like to thank whomever this is for the reminder to cycle the passwords and security and again let me appreciate the value of this budding empire.

Pretty much anywhere I have ever worked the person or people higher up the food chain have always promoted their “open door policy”.  I love it, and I take advantage of it.

That said, why do I fondly remember the days I had an office with a door or prefer doing work from home?  I know exactly why: in a world of distractions the good old fashioned door is one of the real world firewalls I want back.

Theoretically open spaces are supposed to foster collaboration and I am sure it does in places where people have similar or concurrent tasks.  But man I think the one thing we are missing dearly these days is discrete space to do really good work or at least careful work.

Now, before the protests begin, I will fully admit that the key distractions are ones we invite: social media and information.  In my case we are required to consume and produce as much social media and internet content as possible.  But think of it this way, it is like eating all the time and then asking why you are getting fat and not getting anything else done.  That is neither here nor there, I have never seen any realistic way to navigate the conflicting pulls of concentration and consumption.  I think it was Einstein who posited that if all you do is read the thoughts and theories of someone else you’d never have time to consider new ones of your own.

So, I am for a little “mind space” and literal space.

In an infinite universe you think we could find a little of either when you need it.

…just some thoughts about my trip…

I have flown enough that usually getting the window seat means the privilege of not having people trod on you during a flight in their journeys to the water closet.  I will admit flying into Seattle is different (I do look out the window), I can’t help look at Mount Rainier and think about the slope that motivated the makers of the namesake beer that I consumed quite a bit of after softball games.  Budget beers were the most commonly purchased.  My understanding is that I can never get gout because I have drank plenty of ‘vitamin R’ as we lovingly referred to it.

Outside the snowcapped peaks it is green everywhere.  Green in a way a long-time California resident simply forgets about.  They call Seattle the Emerald City for good reason, because it is knee deep in emeralds and everyone is rich but they could also say that simply due to the color.  No, it was not sunny every day I was there.  It always rains at least once on me when I visit my brother but my last day temps pushed 80 and we hit the golf course.

I was excited to meet my brother’s girlfriend Valerie.  Anyone who can tolerate a Hovde-based life form while still laughing and smiling gets points in my book and over the last few days she had to put up with several Hovdes.  We went to a place called Boathouse 19.  My brother ordered Mac and Cheese (she must like him because people who order Mac and Cheese in public places need to be scrutinized).  He ordered it specifically without bacon.  It arrived with bacon and the staff spent most of the rest of our dinner discounting our bill and giving us free desserts.  We should all be so lucky to have a mistake at our table.

My brother is a pinball machine collector.  The 25th Anniversary Star Trek machine is the one I have powered up for this picture.  The machine was purchased in some distress and has been nearly fully restored.  There are a few wear marks on the play board I would never have spotted without my eyes directed to them and there is a plan to fully fix that as well.  The other machines are Revenge from Mars and Whirlwind and they are all amazing.  New LEDs in the machines and video boards.  For a game-geek this is a little piece of heaven, not only are they pinball machines at home but nearly mint machines with unreal gameplay.  The truth of it is every time I visit I always walk away wishing I played more.  And, YES, I want one!

The trip couldn’t have been easier.  I flew in and out of San Jose.  Why?  Cheap tickets, nice airport.  I am basically over flying out of the local airports (though I like Santa Maria’s).  I really can’t stand the fretting over making connectors, if you just add up the time saved (zero) and consider the probability that a flight out or back could be cancelled or delayed you probably get to where I am on that issue.

San Jose is absolutely fascinating.  A high enough percentage of the travelers are tech industry folks and I hate to say it but I could cast HBO’s Silicon Valley every time I am thru there.  I have been within ear-shot of conversations about API’s and launches and scripts.  It is a gentle blend of geeks and hipsters and sales people all brilliantly smart with every piece of travel-tech you can imagine.  60 year old guy with skinny jeans and Ray Ban designer prescription glasses and a Super NES shirt…check.

I left on a Saturday (there was no one in the airport) and got back Wednesday night (there was no one in the airport).  It doesn’t get much easier than that.

I will say I am glad to be home.  I will take our hippies over those in the Pac NW (there are WAY more up there).  The hipster thing is alive and well, I honestly don’t get it.  If you are 35 with a skateboard I kinda want to see your driving record, but to each his own.  I like the Pac NW, but not more than California.  It’ll be green here someday, right?

 

DaveHovde.com is back!

I suppose we all have to start all over again from somewhere.  For years I had a maintained a blog, when that was the thing to do.  The blog was really just a place for me to throw my creative writing and my efforts at audio-podcasting and general observations about my life.

I made one mistake however, I used blog software that simply went out of existence.  When it went down I thought I lost everything, thankfully I got some great advice from friends on how to recover most of it.

Over time I will re-post the best bits but I will probably concentrate on new content.

What kind of content?  I really want to get the podcast rolling again, there are simply topics which require more than 140 characters and I have more than 140 characters (interesting people) to potentially talk to.

My life is about a lot more than doing weather on television, and the website will start where all that TV stuff stops.  That line gets less defined by the day.  I have two sets of social media: the personal and professional.  A few years ago the station insisted on professional fan pages and Twitter accounts.  At the time I had maintained a very large personal account (adding basically any viewer that requested) and resisted the move to professional pages mostly due to the effort to move everyone over.  In hind sight it was the best thing to separate the worlds.

On my personal page I lost the ability to say or show pretty much anything at the fear that I would hit someone’s sensitivities.  Let’s say I take a position on “deflate-gate”.. it invariably resulted in someone commenting that I should concentrate on getting the forecast wrong.  That gets old really fast, faster than Tom Brady is getting old.  Here is the problem, while I have those professional pages, I simply have not been able to re-establish ‘my place’ on the internet.

Well, this is that place.  I hope if you choose to follow along we’ll enjoy some of what I have to say, and the rest you are probably wrong about. I want to violate my own #hovderules and put a wink emoticon there.