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Return to Technology
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I’m glad this Google Drive opened up for me because it feels like an opportunity to refocus on my technology skills—the ones I developed and relied on for years back in college. The challenge is that I stepped away from those skills for more than eleven years after earning my IT degree, mainly because I had to focus on making a living. I eventually built a career in healthcare and have now retired from that field.
Now, I feel a strong pull to return to programming and working on computer-based projects—but this time with a calmer, more grounded mindset. Not the same intense excitement as before, but something steadier and more intentional.
This shift started just a couple of days ago when my iPhone became locked after I spent too much time experimenting with different apps, gadgets, cloud services, and device integrations. I was trying to make everything work together seamlessly, and apparently, Apple flagged the activity as suspicious. As a result, I lost access to my phone.
Oddly enough, that setback triggered something positive.
I found myself revisiting the gadgets I had once been excited about—tools for video recording and editing that I had gradually abandoned because smartphones made everything so easy. Back when I was working and had more disposable income, I invested in devices like action cameras, a MacBook Air, a mini PC, and a Canon camera. My goal at the time was to explore content creation and participate in the growing world of social media.
I’m grateful now that I made those purchases, because I wouldn’t be able to afford them as easily in retirement.
However, despite that initial enthusiasm, I eventually became complacent. The convenience of the iPhone—and the powerful editing apps available on it—led me to rely almost entirely on one device. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course, and I’m proud of what I’ve created so far. But in doing so, I unintentionally limited my growth. My broader skill set remained underdeveloped because I stayed within the comfort zone of smartphone-based tools.
Being locked out of my iPhone forced me to confront that limitation.
It reminded me why I invested in those other devices in the first place—not to collect them, but to grow and challenge myself. I realized I may have been drifting toward a habit of acquiring tools without fully using them for self-development. That realization was important.
Now, I feel ready—truly ready—to return to learning and creating with intention. In a way, I even feel grateful for the lockout. It feels like a reset, maybe even a form of guidance—something that nudged me back toward what genuinely brings me joy.
This doesn’t replace the other areas of my life that I value, like gardening, exercise, and learning about health. Instead, it complements them. It’s about finally adding back a piece of myself that I had set aside for far too long.
Yesterday, I took a concrete step in that direction by working on content creation using desktop applications instead of relying on my smartphone. It was a deliberate shift—choosing a more hands-on, structured process rather than the convenience I had grown used to.
This time, I approached video creation more methodically. I developed a step-by-step workflow for converting an impromptu video with voiceover into a cleaner, more polished final product.
In the past, I would manually cut out pauses (silence) and filler words. That process still works, but it often results in speech that sounds fragmented or grammatically off. That might be acceptable for casual content, but for presentations or instructional videos, it’s not ideal.
A better approach is to script your presentation in advance and use a teleprompter. Many modern editing apps—like CapCut and others—offer built-in teleprompter features, especially on smartphones. These tools make it easy to produce smooth, professional-sounding content, and they’ve been my go-to for a while.
However, I’ve started to recognize the importance of flexibility.
There are situations where you want to use video formats or camera setups that aren’t automatically optimized for platforms like Facebook or Instagram. For example, footage captured on an action camera or DSLR might not match the standard vertical (9:16) format. While smartphone apps can usually adjust these formats easily, relying solely on one device becomes a limitation—especially in situations like mine, where access to that device is suddenly lost.
So, I began rebuilding my workflow across multiple tools.
Here are the steps I took:
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I recorded video using an action camera.
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I transferred the footage to my computer and imported it into Clipchamp to remove silence and filler words.
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I then exported that edited file and opened it in CapCut.
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In CapCut, I adjusted the aspect ratio to 9:16 to make it suitable for platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. (While these platforms support multiple formats, vertical video remains the most widely used and visually optimized.)
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For YouTube, I kept in mind that a 16:9 horizontal format is generally more appropriate, especially for educational or instructional content.
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Finally, I used CapCut to generate captions (closed captions), which not only improved accessibility but also helped me refine the video further by identifying and removing unnecessary segments.
Through this process, I was able to shorten the video from 3:42 to 3:19—a small but meaningful improvement in pacing and clarity.
More importantly, I reconnected with the process.
This experience reminded me that content creation isn’t just about convenience—it’s about craftsmanship, adaptability, and continuous learning. Moving forward, I want to keep building on this foundation, using all the tools available to me—not just the easiest ones.
On the Road Review — Living Another Life Vicariously
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Yesterday I passed the 90-percent mark in On the Road, and I realized I was doing something I rarely do: willingly living a life I would never choose for myself. The novel offers the thrill of experience without the wreckage of consequence. It isn’t the kind of life I’ve ever aspired to, but inhabiting it through fiction is exhilarating. There’s something uniquely powerful about living vicariously through a voice as urgent and alive as Kerouac’s.
The book brought back flashes of my own youthful attempts at rebellion—small, controlled bursts of wildness. But On the Road is wildness without an off switch. It’s 24/7 motion. Thankfully, Kerouac—writing through his alter ego, Sal Paradise—allows moments of sobriety and reflection. And what a writer he was. His prose can swing from breathless, jazz-like improvisation to quiet, almost mystical introspection in a single page.
Sal’s restless energy is fueled by his friend Dean Moriarty—based on Neal Cassady—along with Carlo Marx, modeled after Allen Ginsberg. (Contrary to a common assumption, the name “Carlo Marx” is a playful invention, not a direct lift from political theory.) Together, they plunge headfirst into risk, excess, and a kind of ecstatic self-destruction. Their lives teeter on the edge—high-speed car rides across the country, nights that blur into mornings, an endless cycle of bars, jazz clubs, fleeting romances, and abandoned responsibilities.
The cross-country trips—from New York to San Francisco and Los Angeles, through Denver, Chicago, and the wide-open stretches of Texas—feel less like travel and more like a fever dream of American motion. You don’t just observe the journey; you feel crammed into the back seat, hurtling through darkness at 100 miles per hour while Dean barrels ahead, barely watching the road. It’s chaotic, reckless, and oddly hypnotic.
Although much of the novel is set in the late 1940s (the book was published in 1957), it feels startlingly immediate. The mania, the depressive crashes, the craving for constant stimulation, the near-fatal accidents, the obsession with “the next thing”—the next drink, the next lover, the next town—make the story feel contemporary. When the action subsides, Kerouac pivots inward. Sal wandering alone on a quiet street, questioning the meaning of it all, delivers some of the novel’s most powerful passages. As Kerouac famously wrote, “The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live…” That line alone captures the book’s electric pulse.
The novel helped define the Beat Generation, a movement that later influenced the 1960s counterculture. I used to think “Beat” simply meant exhausted—tired of conformity and postwar conservatism. Kerouac himself clarified that he meant “beatific,” suggesting a kind of battered spirituality, a search for transcendent meaning beneath the chaos. And at times, the book feels almost religious in its longing.
Could someone live this way today? Perhaps. America still has its drifters and wanderers. I’ve encountered people who echo Kerouac’s characters—in parks where I trained for races, in gas stations late at night, in small towns where stories hang heavy in the air. But the modern version often looks harsher. Today’s road can lead not just to freedom, but to addiction, untreated mental illness, or violence. The romanticism is harder to sustain when reality intrudes.
That said, I’ve also met people down on their luck who were decent, determined, and working to rebuild their lives. Many carry painful histories that would humble anyone. Kerouac’s characters, for all their recklessness, are not caricatures; they are seekers—sometimes foolish, sometimes destructive, but undeniably alive.
On the Road isn’t a blueprint for living. It’s a testament to yearning—to motion, to friendship, to the relentless search for meaning across the vast American landscape. I would never want to live that life outright. But through Kerouac’s words, I’m grateful to have ridden shotgun.
- Revisiting the Gym: Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness (DOMs)
- A Day of Adjustments, Distractions, and Mindful Choices
- Reflection: Living Within Means
- Ramon and Diabetes
- Self-Graded, Individualized Exercise: A Practical and Evidence-Based Approach for Aging Bodies
- Exercise Progression for Adults
- Cortisol: A Senior’s Trusted Helper—and a Hormone to Handle With Care
- ANY MOVEMENT WILL DO: Rethinking Exercise, Aging, and Quality of Life
- Reflection Tuesday Morning
- The Gradual Shift
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