I haven’t posted here since late June, so I’m overdue for a monthly roundup. The last few weeks have been a mix of client outreach, WordPress work, songwriting, workplace absurdity, classic albums, and AI-assisted social media. Here’s what’s been going down.
Ham Radio Association and the Value of Redundancy
I joined a potential new client at their monthly association breakfast. Their WordPress site has a lot of pages and content. My pitch is straightforward: unload the landing page of material that belongs elsewhere, organize what remains, and de-clutter with their permission. Nice people. They’re trying to attract younger members to the local ham radio group.
One angle that stands out is the pressure on their frequency. Corporations are offering big money, and if the FCC (I assume it’s the FCC handling the licensing) ever allows that spectrum to be sold on the open market, we lose another layer of communications redundancy. When cell networks or the internet go down—cyber attacks, war, natural disasters—ham radio still works. Highlighting that urgency on the site could help recruit the next generation to carry the torch. I finished a landing-page mockup for them this week.
Church Outreach and the Limits of Email
I also reached out to a local church about updating their Squarespace site. I built a landing-page mockup and shared it. Email alone produced weaker results than follow-up calls or in-person contact. I already knew this from a Harvard Business School book I read years ago; now I have fresh empirical confirmation. Cold emails break the ice; phone calls close the loop more effectively.
They responded with a polite variation of “Don’t call us, we’ll call you.” The tone stayed positive. Dropping the name of my old neighbor who attends the church may have helped a little. We’ll see.
WordPress, Local by Flywheel, and AI as Professor
Working on the ham radio mockup meant firing up Local by Flywheel for the first time in years. The last time I used it was around 2022, before AI, during an outdated Udemy course that felt frustrating and legacy-heavy. This time the experience was smoother. AI answered questions like a knowledgeable professor on demand. I’ve long preferred vanilla HTML/CSS/JavaScript, but WordPress opportunities are more plentiful, so I’m going where the work is. Still plenty to learn before sharing the finished mockup.
“Set the Cop Free”
On the music side I laid down half a dozen tracks for a new song called “Set the Cop Free”—two acoustic guitar tracks and four vocals. It’s wordy in the Dylan tradition, about seven verses, running over six minutes. Yes, it’s about Derek Chauvin. I believe he was scapegoated and did not receive a fair trial in Minneapolis. Activists outside the courthouse made a fair proceeding effectively impossible. The event has stewed in my mind long enough that a tune finally appeared.
It’s in E-flat major, shifting into F Dorian and G Phrygian to create the feeling of key changes that match the density of the lyrics. It ends with a count-up to “22 years for not killing a man.”
Warehouse Drama and “Turpitude”
At the production facility where I work the day shift (alongside several ex-cons and people who enjoy their chemicals—reality-TV material waiting to happen), a couple of people were terminated for fornicating in the warehouse. A co-worker delivered the news with a 1970s funk-porn music impression. That stuck with me. Why would a guy with nearly twenty years on the job risk both his employment and his marriage for a few minutes? The result is a porn-funk acoustic song currently titled “Turpitude.”
Rough lyric sketch: See Bob play Turpitude Throw away Turpitude Zee vu play Turpitude Taking out the trash with assert Certitude.
If I ever write a hit, this dumb, funky muthafluffer is the one most likely to catch on.
McCartney and Van Halen
I re-listened to Paul McCartney’s first post-Beatles solo album, McCartney. It’s a DIY indie-rock original. Even the big hit “Maybe I’m Amazed” stays minimal in production. Billy Idol and Bill Maher recently called McCartney the Beatles’ prodigy; the same can be said of Eddie Van Halen for his band.
That led me back to 1984 in full. It’s Van Halen’s best album in my view—recorded at home, the “brown sound” fully realized, all four members at the height of their powers. Eddie’s guitar work is pure mastery of expression. I saw them with my brother at the Meadowlands in April 1984. Still the best concert I’ve ever attended. The record only improves with age.
AI, Civility, and Shedooby
Finally, I’ve been using AI—especially Grok—to edit social-media posts and replies. It helps me stay civil and respectful while still expressing myself, and it lets me steer conversations toward a soft pitch for my iOS app, Shedooby. I use the app every day. The goal right now is to get ten people to try it free (I’ll supply codes). That’s a long way from the hundred or so Facebook friends I shed during COVID, George Floyd, and the lockdowns.
That’s the recent crop: client breakfasts, mockups, songs about scapegoats and warehouse turpitude, classic albums, and AI-assisted outreach. If any of it sparks a conversation—or if your site needs decluttering, a WordPress landing page, or a Squarespace refresh—reach out. I’m here in Wolfeboro and ready to help.
More soon.