why
brain the size of a planet?

“Here I am, brain the size of a planet and they ask me to take you down to the bridge. Call that job satisfaction? ’Cause I don’t.” — Marvin (Douglas Adams)

Back in the 1980s, my mom handed me a copy of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and after reading it — like millions of other people — my brain was never the same again. I know people say “it changed my life” a lot — but in this case, it really did.

I would love to talk at length about the humor, wit, intelligence, and incredible creativity of Douglas Adams, and what a special part of our world he was (and thankfully continues to be, posthumously), but I’m actually trying to explain the name of this website. So!

In the Hitchhiker’s series, there’s a robot named Marvin. Marvin the Paranoid Android, created by the Sirius Cybernetic Corporation. I’m already laughing out loud writing this… Marvin is this terribly manically depressed robot. His comments are hilariously arrogant and sad, and my friends and I often quoted him growing up.

Okay — we still do.

As a writer myself (and of course a fan), I don’t know how to express how much I miss Douglas Adams, and I’ll likely always grieve the loss of the books he never got to write — and we never got to read.

He also loved Apple products and technology — probably as much as I do, maybe even more — and he was once quoted as saying, “We are stuck with technology when what we really want is just stuff that works.”

When it came time to design this website, I wanted to combine my first loves — writing and creativity — with my passion for technology and teaching. As a nod to Douglas Adams, I named it after Marvin’s most famous quote. The logo? That’s me and my robot — who just happens to be Marvin’s cousin (only he’s had therapy and runs on a low dose of lithium. Haha!).

So there you go. The more you know! (Cue star wipe.)