I woke up sick Thursday morning — the same evening my friend Robert wanted me to go out with him so he could do a stand-up comedy set. He’s been doing comedy for a while now and was trying to pull me into it too. Not just to watch him, but to actually go on stage and do a set myself. I told him I could come support him… but getting up on stage is a whole other level of support. That’s part of why I started working on SpinR — an app I’m still building and debugging, trying to make it something real. SpinR is a project management system designed to help organize and execute creative projects with precision. I’ve been using it to work on comedy by breaking a punchline into chunks, then building supporting bits for each chunk — essentially reverse-engineering a joke. SpinR So yes, I’m working on that. It’s in beta phase now and will eventually land in the Apple and Google app stores. I guess all of this helps keep my mind busy. Comedy isn’t really what’s on my mind, b...

  I feel like death has been standing behind me lately. Not touching me. Not taking me. Just close enough that I can feel it breathing. Throughout my life, death has taken people I love — the closest people. And the strange thing is, I’ve almost always had a window before it happened. A visit. A moment. A strange, cosmic link. Like Chimmy Chanhrattana. He was my neighbor around the time my great-grandfather's house burned down. His family and mine were close. Our parents would visit each other, have dinners, take food over. He was my age. This was around junior high school. We didn’t stay close as adults, but he was always cool with me. One of those people I always appreciated. One day, years later, I was pumping gas in Ingleside and he pulled up to the stall next to mine. Out of nowhere. We caught up, talked about our families, laughed a little. It felt really good to see him after so long. Maybe a week later, he was gone. January 28, 2019. https://www.puenteandsons.com/...