N.A. Drescher

 Y e olde word processor of ancient lore. The venerable Word. The wily Docs. The inscrutable Pages. All these brave warriors of the written word now long vanquished by sleeker, smarter and better contenders. I, too, am guilty of forsaking my beloved Pages for the brute strength of Scrivener and the sleek curves of Ulysses and that slinky temptress known as iAWriter. But can you blame me? I am but a man who writes words. Simple words. And simple words need no margin settings or fancy title pages. There are no reasons for sharing my words with the clouds, as if a hundred other zealous writers will add their thoughts to my doc, live and in real time. My words need only a space to exist, and the occasional markdown so I need not lift my hands from the keyboard to navigate to a bulky options menu. Automatic saving and backup to iCloud is also helpful. Right now, I am obsessed with Ulysses. It has the markdown features I sought but could not find. When I need to italicize something, I need o

  “Enough!” I snapped and closed the lid of my MacBook with an aggressive slam. My kids stood staring at me, unsure of themselves or life or the universe at that moment. They had been monkeying around me, climbing on me and fighting with each other for the past twenty minutes. Usually this would be fine, but I was trying (and failing) to write a chapter of my current novel-in-progress. They were constantly breaking me out of that much-cherished writer’s trance, known among us writers as “the zone.” It’s tough being a parent and a writer and a journalist. Their mother works full-time on important contracts and her day is filled with Teams meetings, so it is generally left up to me to care for and entertain the kids. But I’ve got a job, as well. For starters, I’ve been offered a freelance contributor position with Android Police, for which I’m incredibly excited. I’ve also accepted a freelance contract to produce podcasts for an online learning company. I’ll be finding CPAs and lawyers a

  Nathan A. Drescher is a globe-trotting journalist and speculative fiction writer from Canada.  You can find Nathan's work in Android Police, Digital Trends, Ottawa Life Magazine, the Algonquin Times, Marketing Edge Magazine, and other publications. Nathan has lived in multiple countries as an English teacher. This includes South Korea and Russia. He also spent a year living aboard fishing boats at sea. He didn't like that, so he came back to land and settled down. Nathan loves to write about time, whether it's what our future world will resemble or how it used to look in the past. He mixes his stories with daring adventure and suspense. Also, food. Lots and lots of food.

Let's be honest. The Jetsons and Star Wars make robots a ridiculous concept. Those are characters created for pure entertainment purposes. The reality, however, is much different. The future of robots is more akin to 'Blade Runner' or 'Better Than Us.' Robot technology is advancing exponentially. But we don't have to wait that long to get there. Robots are already a reality, and you can implement them in your life today. Here are five robots you need in your life right now. Robot companions It's no secret that people today love company. Friends can help keep us grounded and provide unconditional love. However, having a friend in the age of COVID and busy lives can be downright impossible. That's why it's so important to have robots as friends. It's the perfect solution to our busy, siloed lives. In addition, some robots can be programmed to do a host of tasks, including: Feed your pet Take care of your home by cleaning up messes, cooking food, wa

Films love predicting the future. Books have been imagining the future for a hundred years. H. G. Wells and Aldous Huxley tried to envision the real world of tomorrow. So did James Cameron. Are these highly creative minds considered futurists? If not, then what is a futurist?   The answer, like most of futurism, is complex.  Let's dive right in. What Is Futurism? According to the dictionary, futurism has a couple of meanings. a) An adherence to the future; b) The study of the future and predictions about the future Both definitions are a little vague but that's the dictionary for you. They're also not entirely correct.  You see, futurism is more than movies and sci-fi books. It affects every major discipline, particularly in the sciences, but also in economics, politics, design, and even law.  Futurism is indeed the study of the future, but real futurists avoid making predictions. They look for trends and attempt to follow those trends through to their logical development. 

During a summer of intense global heatwaves, this particular day stood out.  It was hot. Really hot. Here in Ottawa, Canada's capital city of 1.1 million people, the thermometer surpassed 41 degrees centigrade with the humidex. That's hot. So it was on this scorching August day that I thought I would take my three-year-old daughter on a transit trip to the Rideau Centre. It's a large mall in the downtown core. After all, the buses, subway, and mall were all nicely air-conditioned. OC Transpo, Ottawa's transit authority, had different ideas. I quickly realized that Canada has a serious transit crisis. Because it's summer, my kids are out of school. We took my daughter out of daycare because face it, that's too expensive (a completely different issue I'll tackle another time). Thankfully we put our son in a day camp for two weeks. My wife was working full-time for the feds. It was just my daughter and I. Daddy and daughter time!  We spent the week hanging out.