A regular part of my workday routine is watching the gyrations of the stock market on CNBC. While the pundits screech about the value or lack thereof of various stocks, I twitch right along with the beat — Buy or sell? What and how much? I can either do something or do nothing, and either way I’m already too late to profit on whatever recent convulsion has hit the markets.

While rummaging through the closet searching for an Exacto knife to perform some minor self-inflicted surgery (splinter removal) I was confronted with another of my half-baked projects that never was completed.

As much as I dislike the idea of turning into an extra cranky version of the late Andy Rooney, as time goes on, I truly believe that in many ways the devices and technologies we used in years past were better than what we have today. Or, at least they were easier for me to understand and use.

Although I spent part of my career in the fire alarm industry, I was never really impressed with the types of technologies available in fire control panels. After the advent of point-addressing and remote detector diagnostics, it seemed that fire panel innovations had slowed sometime in the mid-1990s. As IP continues its march into the technologies of our industry, it was only a matter of time before fire alarm control panels would harness the power of networks for the good of both installation companies and their clients.

Fishing on the lake at our southwestern Michigan vacation home takes on greater importance with each passing year. We never seem to have a problem catching the little ones, but the big bass we’ve seen caught by other boats continue to elude us. While I change rods, baits and boat position in a frenzy, my daughter is asking when we can head back to the dock and her Nintendo DS.

When asked by the SDM editors to write a column highlighting “green” concepts, it started me thinking about environmental impact. The more we as an industry can reuse existing cabling the less earthly resources are needed, not to mention that dealers can provide clients with upgraded systems at very competitive costs. What about those millions of feet of coax we have collectively installed in the past 40 years?

For whatever reason — perhaps from growing up during the social revolution of the 1960s — I am a fairly consistent user of the seven words you can’t say on network TV. Whenever I’m cut off in traffic or a piece of equipment fails to perform exactly right, out comes a virtual waterfall of curse words.

As technology marches on, one of the “new normal” rules of the game is that while a product/device/software set might be cool today, pretty soon it is either obsolete or has died.

In some ways, things were better in the old days. Once I was young, working on the Illinois Tollway for $6 an hour (in 1972 that was really good money), gas was $0.39 a gallon, and I received retroactive back pay as a loyal member of Teamsters Local #705.