The "Passive Income" trap ate a generation of entrepreneurs I had coffee last year with a guy - I won't use his real name - who told me he was "building a business." I asked what it did. Dropshipping jade face rollers. I made him say it twice. Jade face rollers. He'd found them on Alibaba for $1.20

The “Passive Income” trap ate a generation of entrepreneurs:

"an enormous machine converting human ambition into noise"

Lately

Lately: https://ross.karchner.com/2026/04/02/lately.html

Finished reading: The Absinthe Forger by Evan Rail 📚

Not quite a “whodunit”– the forger in question is known right from the beginning. Rail spends the book exploring Absinthe’s history and present day makers and collectors, trying to understand the how and why the forger did what they did.

Currently reading: The Absinthe Forger by Evan Rail 📚

welcome home dctechevents dot com: ross.karchner.com/2026/03/18/welcome-home-...

Finished Listening: Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood by Mark Harris 📚

I really enjoyed this combined history of The Graduate, Bonnie & Clyde, In The Heat of The Night, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, and Dr. Doolittle.

Rex Harrison, though. What an asshole!

DC Tech Events for the week of 3/16/26: dctech.events/week/2026…

Miami Lice: Season Four, by Lice (Aesop Rock & Homeboy Sandman) 8 track album

My day is always improved by Lice.

DC Tech Events for the week of 3/9/26: dctech.events/week/2026…

The Mystery of Rennes-le-Château, Part 1: The Priest’s Treasure

I’m a sucker for “Holy Blood, Holy Grail”-style lore. This makes me think I should check out Gabriel Knight 3.

DC Tech Events for the week of 3/2/26: dctech.events/week/2026…

My first run at Becoming Saint did not go well…

Finished Listening: Apple in China: The Capture of the World’s Greatest Company by Patrick McGee 📚

Ross Karchner

Repairing our microwave by replacing the fuse? Failure. Replacing the CMOS battery on my laptop seems to have gone OK, so I feel a little bit redeemed.

quarterly AI post

quarterly AI post: ross.karchner.com/2026/02/19/quarterly-ai-...

From the Smithsonian American History museum

Brian Bolland

Finished reading: Criminal: The Deluxe Edition, Vol. 3 by Ed Brubaker 📚

Some SpinDoc progress

Some SpinDoc progress: ross.karchner.com/2026/02/12/some-spindoc-...

Finished reading: Criminal Deluxe Edition Volume 2 by Ed Brubaker 📚

Finished Listening: Box Office Poison by Tim Robey 📚

Moderately satisfying: fixing a home appliance

Supremely unsatisfying: attempting to fix a home appliance, and failing

3 new events added on February 5th 2026: updates.dctech.events/2026/02/05/new-events-ad...

Level editor for my Spin Doctor/ClockWerx-inspred game. #screenshotsaturday

Finished reading: Criminal Deluxe Edition Volume 1 by Ed Brubaker 📚

Dr. Gladys West, Mathematician Whose Work Made GPS Possible, Dies at 95 ALEXANDRIA, VA — Dr. Gladys West, the pioneering mathematician whose work laid the foundation for modern GPS technology, has died. She passed away

Dr. Gladys West, the pioneering mathematician whose work laid the foundation for modern GPS technology, has died. She was 95.

I’ve been working through Complete Blender Creator 3: Learn 3D Modelling for Beginners , and the first project was this lighthouse scene. I think I pretty much understood what was happening. I’m a little fuzzy on sculpting, but I can loop cut and extrude shit all day.

Ross Karchner

Bird Bonkers ranked 234 out of 699 (that received ratings) in the GitHub Game-off. That puts it just on the edge of the top and middle third. I’m OK with that. I did basically ignore the theme, and I could have used my time more wisely during that month. Congrats to the folks that did well!

Which games?: https://ross.karchner.com/2026/01/07/which-games.html