Michael Ponders

After Friday’s good news from my cardiologist, I’m celebrating by cooking dinner for my parents and me: Chef Jean-Pierre’s pot roast recipe👨‍🍳🥩🥕🧅🥔. The house already smells amazing 😌🍽️ It’s in the oven and cooking 🔥⏲️. Photos may come later 📸.

Saw my cardiologist today 🩺 (visit 2 of 3, monthly echocardiograms). EF is up: 51% in May → 74% in July → 77% today 📈. Gradient keeps improving. I feel better and mostly symptom-free 😊. Looks like Camzyos is working for me 💊❤️ #HCM #Camzyos #HeartHealth #Cardiology

Lately, especially in the heart of summer, I’ve been thinking about air conditioning and the inventions I’m most grateful for that have matured over my lifetime. I don’t think I could have lived in Florida back in the day without air conditioning. You really notice it when it’s gone. Last year, after Hurricane Milton, we lost power for four days. I couldn’t sleep, not only because the A/C was off but also because my CPAP had no power. That got me thinking about the top five inventions I’m grateful for: Air conditioning Television Personal computer Internet Indoor bathroom A quick story about number five. My grandmother had a cabin in rural Florida with an outhouse until she brought in a trailer with an indoor bathroom. I hated having to go outside to that outhouse, especially at night. You never knew what might have made its way in. Each of these is pretty self-explanatory, but in Florida I’ve always said the state would be a ghost town without air conditioning. That’s why it...

We may be about to repeat history in ways that will not be obvious tomorrow, next week, or even next year. This post discusses politics and history; if you prefer to avoid that, stop reading here. Russia's war against Ukraine echoes the mistakes of appeasement made by the United Kingdom and France toward Nazi Germany. In 1938, the Munich Agreement ceded the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia to Germany 1 . Hitler then demanded more and invaded Poland in 1939, which led Britain and France to declare war two days later 2 . Appeasement gave the aggressor what he wanted and helped set the world on a path to a catastrophic conflict. Appeasement of Russia is not the answer. What should be done is not clear, and I will wait to see what diplomats propose. One point is clear: a formal U.S. guarantee to defend Ukraine would require a Senate-ratified treaty or a law passed by Congress 3 4 . The 1994 Budapest Memorandum, which accompanied Ukraine's decision to give up the nuclear weapons i...

From Paramount+: 🎬 Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Season 3, Episodes 3–5 ⭐⭐⭐½ No spoilers! Continues to be a solid contender and, for me, the best of the Star Trek series on Paramount+ in this “new era.” 🎬 From Prime Video: 🎬 On Call – Season 1, Episodes 1–8 ⭐⭐⭐ Spoilers This one was okay. I didn’t expect it to be renewed. I watched the whole season; it had moments where it could have been brilliant, but overall it was just okay. I mostly had it on in the background, though a couple of episodes were really good. 🎬 # tv # ParamountPlus # PrimeVideo # Entertainment # Reviews

This review is not about C.S. Lewis himself or his books, but about the movie. The actor was fine for the part, but his dialect threw me off. It kept shifting, and at times it sounded like he was aiming for an English accent, but to my ears it often came across more American. The way the film told C.S. Lewis’s story in the first person, mostly by having him walk around town and narrate, didn’t quite land with me either.

I was reading Jack Baty’s blog the other day via RSS and saw his post, “25 years of blogging” . That was three years before I started on Blogger, in the pre-Google days. I had a website before blogging: an about page, photo galleries, a guestbook, and a reading page, hosted by my ISP (GTE) around 1998. I really loved Microsoft FrontPage. I would change the theme and galleries and update the book page at least once a month, but it wasn’t a blog. The year after Mr. Baty started blogging (in the same month, just a couple of days before his first anniversary), I started on Pyra Labs’ Blogger, pre-Google. As I read his post, it struck a nerve: how he sees his blog, the platforms, and how he works. I don’t get all philosophical about blogs or blogging. My blog has become a simple journal. It doesn’t mean anything. I write about what I’m thinking or what I feel like sharing. That’s it. I never worry about posting frequently enough or writing about the right things. There is no lane to st...

Reviewing the long list—trimming expenses brings a mix of relief and challenge. I figured I’d give an update on my ongoing battle with subscription fatigue. This is a mid-year check-in, and I might start doing these quarterly just to keep myself accountable. Over the past few months, I’ve whittled down my subscription list by several more services. Most were dropped by choice because of price or lack of use, while one disappeared on its own when my cell phone plan changed. Gone by choice are Netflix, SiriusXM, Yahoo! Mail Plus, Mail.com, Pocket, Peacock, and Protopage. The only one I lost due to my Verizon Wireless legacy plan was Google Play Pass. Why these services? Mostly, they became too expensive or the promotional deals ended. For example, I had the Netflix/Peacock bundle through Verizon Play+. I not only let it lapse, but Verizon also shut down the entire service. It was a good idea to have everything in one place, and it could have been even better if Verizon ha...

I was just watching our local news on fox13tampabay.com , and they had a story on a ConsumerAffairs report about which cities have the worst traffic. The city I have to travel to for work (Tampa) was ranked 13th worst in the nation and number 3 in the state, behind Miami and Orlando. I will say I don't know much about Miami. I’ve only been there once for a few hours before leaving. Orlando, though, is definitely worse than Tampa. I've lived in the City of Tampa proper and now live in the suburbs, Brandon, and the traffic has always been bad in both places. But over the last couple of years, since everyone returned to the office, it has been the worst I’ve ever seen. The only time I saw traffic improve around here was during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. I drive from Brandon to the USF area of Tampa for work. It used to take me about 30 to 35 minutes. Nowadays, no matter what time I leave, it takes me 40 to 45 minutes if I have to be at work at 9 AM. On Mondays,...

It’s pouring outside right now 🌧️. This has been happening a lot this rainy season. Late-night showers, sometimes mid to late afternoon ☔. It’s helping with the heat at night 🌡️. Now there’s low, rolling, window-shaking thunder too ⛈️. #Florida #rainyseason #weather

This was fun and felt more like an action comedy than a straight action movie 🎬. Some parts were a bit unbelievable, but overall it was enjoyable 👍. This is one of the better movies Amazon’s Prime Video has made ⭐. I’d watch it again if there was nothing else on 🍿.

Just found out it’s National Watermelon Day! 🍉 Not an official holiday, but definitely a day worth celebrating. I love watermelon, so eat some today!

Vintage beachside desk with Blogger on screen and ocean view. I have so many ideas running around in my head. I've been blogging more than ever this year, and it's been my most productive stretch since I started blogging and building my own website—23 years ago. Although I don’t think I have many readers, and what I write may not be interesting enough to spark much interaction, I still enjoy doing it. I remember when ISPs gave you what seemed like generous personal website space. My first real ISP was GTE, now Verizon. Before that, I had dial-up with AOL and those limited minutes, but I mostly used it for email and a bit of web surfing—usually hunting for information about new computer games. Getting DSL from GTE was a game changer. That’s when I really got into building my own website. It was rudimentary back then, and I probably overloaded it with information while trying to figure out how FTP worked. Funny side story about GTE DSL: they were supposed to in...

Back in March, I had my six-month checkup with my cardiologist. I told him I was feeling tired and fatigued all the time, more than usual. I thought it might be the medication. My last echocardiogram in August 2024 had shown some improvement, and my PVCs (premature ventricular contractions) were down. So I figured it was just the burden of the meds. At the time, I was taking Metoprolol 100mg ER twice a day and Diltiazem 240mg ER once a day. My heart had been doing okay. The few times I went into AFib, the episodes were short. Sometimes just a minute or two, long enough for me to catch it with my Galaxy Watch 6 Classic or my Kardia device, and then it would stop. These episodes only happened maybe every other month. Still, the fatigue concerned both my doctor and his resident. They recommended I see a specialist at Tampa General Hospital, which USF Health is now integrated with. I made the appointment and went in on May 30, 2025. At that visit, the specialist said I was a good cand...

From Paramount+: 🎬 Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Season 3, Episodes 1–2 ⭐⭐⭐½ No spoilers! I liked it overall, but I wasn’t thrilled that Season 2 ended on a two-part episode. 🎬 🎬 Tracker – Season 1, Episode 12 ⭐⭐⭐½ No spoilers! This continues to be a solid series with a compelling storyline. Justin does a great job, along with his co-stars. 🎬 From Amazon Prime: 🎬 The Chosen – Season 5, Episodes 6–8 (Season Finale) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “No spoilers” doesn’t quite apply here—it’s based on the Bible. This show continues to amaze me. The acting is phenomenal, and what a way to end the season. I can’t wait for the next—but I’m glad I already know how it ends. 🎬 # tv # ParamountPlus # PrimeVideo # Entertainment # Reviews

AI at your side—just another tool on the desk. Lately, I’ve been listening to Ed Zitron and his podcast Better Offline . He’s not shy about his views: he believes that most AI companies are burning through cash and are likely to fail because they don’t have viable products. I respect his perspective. He clearly understands the tech industry and sees AI as mostly a kind of “magic trick”—a system that assembles words in ways that appear intelligent, but in reality don’t demonstrate real understanding. That’s my paraphrase, not his. As for me, I don’t claim to fully understand the business models of these companies or whether they’re financially sustainable in the long term. But to be honest, I’m not especially concerned. I’m not investing in them. The only money I’ve put into this space is my $20 per month subscription to ChatGPT from OpenAI, and for that amount, I get value in return. For me, AI is a tool. I use it to proofread my blog posts, do light research, genera...

I was just watching an old episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine . I’ve always been into Star Trek, every series except Star Trek: The Next Generation . I’m not sure why, but I never fully got into that one. The others: The Original Series , Deep Space Nine , Voyager , Enterprise , and all the movies (except the Next Generation ones), I loved and eagerly awaited. Whether it was a new film release or the next week’s episode, I was always excited. I never watched Star Trek: The Animated Series either, even though I own it on DVD. Then Paramount+/CBS introduced new series: Discovery , Picard , Strange New Worlds , Prodigy , and Lower Decks . I enjoyed those too, though I hated waiting a week between episodes. I think Netflix got it right: if a show isn’t airing on linear TV, just drop the whole season at once. Why am I even writing this post? Because I think they need to keep a Star Trek series running constantly. And if there’s no show currently airing, there should be a movie in de...

From Paramount+: 🎬 Matlock – Season 1, Episodes 11–19 ⭐⭐⭐⭐ No spoilers! I just finished the first season. What a different take on the original Matlock . Overall, I liked it and was really pleased that CBS decided to renew it for a second season. You might remember I canceled my subscription to this service. Well, that’s true, but they offered me two months for 99 cents to come back. I figured, why not take Paramount+ up on the deal and finish the seasons I didn’t get to complete, including this show and the one below. 🎬 🎬 Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage – Season 1, Episodes 14–22 ⭐⭐⭐ No spoilers! I finished the first season of this one too. I liked it. It fits nicely into the Big Bang Theory universe and is pretty enjoyable. I’m glad it got picked up for a second season as well. Nothing much more to say. It’s just a good show when you want something light and funny. 🎬 # tv # ParamountPlus # entertainment # reviews

Just finished watching The Ballad of Willis Island. It was... fine. Not terrible, but nothing that really stood out either. The story didn’t quite pull me in, and while the setting had potential, it felt underused. This won’t be making my buy list. One viewing was enough.