Photos flowing upward from a smartphone screen into an organized grid pattern, illustrating automatic cloud backup and photo organization

These days, most of us walk around with a fantastic camera in our pocket. Your smartphone has capabilities that tower over many cameras that cost thousands of dollars just a few years ago! While they may not have the ability to keep up with today’s high-end DSLRs, a smartphone is how most people document their lives these days. No matter what, the best camera on the planet is the one you have with you, so snap away with your smartphone.

Read more
Abstract geometric steps ascending forward and upward in warm natural light, with small plants growing along the platforms, leading toward a bright open space

The standard career plan of the 20th century was to work for a company for 30 years to get a gold watch and a pension. Across the board, careers were for life. However, as the economy globalizes and society shifts, the monolithic career is dying quickly. Unsurprisingly, the financial systems (compensation, pensions etc) around education have remained stagnant. This juxtaposition of reality and education leads to financial stress and hardship for a staggering number of teachers.

Read more
VLC Media Player's orange and white traffic cone icon centered on a gray surface, surrounded by a circular arrangement of media file format icons including MP4, AVI, MKV, MOV, and others

When you work with media from so many different sources on a daily basis, you see a ton of different media formats. I can’t spend time hunting for specialized players just to check a file. So my go to default media player is VLC Media Player from VideoLAN. Not only can it play pretty much anything you throw at it, the best part is that it is FREE!

Read more

My name is Mike, you can find out more about me here. I started this site as part of a grad class project but honestly, I have wanted to do this for a while. On this blog, you will find posts about a few different topics that I am interested in or am learning about. Topics will include everything from instructional technology to personal finance.

I intend for every post to have actionable, effective information that you can actually apply to your life, teaching or hobbies.

I hope I can help you earn more, use timesaving tools, and get things done.