About Friendlyskies.net & Me

Hi, I’m Marc Carson. I’m a tech consultant, trainer and coach, business owner, writer, researcher, artist, and photographer.

I live in California, in the middle of lots of Redwood trees and vineyards. I’ve been running this website, Friendlyskies.net, since about 2001.

(If you made it this far, I guess you are cool if I just keep writing. It’s always fun to reflect a bit…)

About this Website

Friendlyskies.net was originally started as a fiction-writing project. It was meant to be a fictional counter-terror zine created in the days following the attacks of September 11, 2001.

I chose the domain name, friendlyskies.net, while I was in a bit of an ironic mood, because the skies didn’t seem so friendly at that time. As time has passed though, I think it reflects more that I really like airplanes and the sky…

Soon after I bought the domain name, a lot of fun projects came to mind. So the scope of the website expanded quite a bit, and Friendlyskies.net became my personal blog & projects website.

Web Designer Note

I’m a web designer & developer by trade, and have been for decades.

So, if you are reading this, there’s a good chance it’s because I worked damn hard on the site over the years.

That trick I learned back in 2020 still works great, the one from 2010 still works, as does the one from 2001.

(I used to think it was all about using whatever software is popular and modern, but running a quality website is really an amazingly deep art…)

It’s hard to justify huge, frequent redesigns for a personal site with such a wide variety of articles and information, but I still try to keep things easy to browse and as click-worthy as possible.

More About This Website & My Interests

I enjoy a lot of interests in different areas, including the creative arts, psychology, computer- and tech-related topics, books, music, movies,

oh and chocolate, and donuts…OK I’d better stop now…

Anyway, you might find me writing about any of those topics here. You will definitely see a lot of my art and photography projects.

Here are some less-than-ordinary things about me:

• I’ve been trained to analyze personality attributes, artwork, and handwriting. This has always been a fun topic to me. People sometimes bring me samples of art or handwriting to analyze, mostly just for fun.
• After enjoying the game Battleship with my son over the holidays, I published a set of optional add-on rules for the game.
• I started an international detective society, also mostly for fun.

Other Activities

You can also visit my two work websites: Marc Carson Web Design where I offer expert web design & development consulting, and Marc Carson Coaching, where I help people make breakthroughs and achieve new things that they are interested in.

If you live near me, you may have seen me out walking, hiking, cycling, or volunteering. I have spent a lot of time picking up litter (I think a lot of the problem is wind, weather, animals, etc.—over the years I changed my view on humans and litter). I’ve helped blaze a new city hiking trail, and set up a radio station to help provide race communications for a local ultra-marathon on the coast.

I also like to volunteer for other local activities, like a yearly emergency communications exercise for area health care providers, or the random coordinated nighttime search for someone’s lost child who wandered off into the hills…you never know, I guess…

Where I’m At

I live in Mendocino County, California. The area is known for temperate weather and sandy coastal beaches, adjoining valleys with lots of orchards and vineyards. It is part of the California interior chaparral and woodlands ecoregion.

Gallery: My Mendocino County Area Photos →

I love taking photos around here. Local wildlife I’ve seen include mountain lions, black bears (always carry a laptop if there are bears around), coyote, red foxes, gray foxes, lots of deer, wild hare, raccoons, opossums, squirrels, hawks, owls, bats, wild turkeys, turkey vultures, ravens, crows, California scrub jays, mourning doves, woodpeckers, and wild canaries.

Oh! And black widow spiders…

While this area is known for Redwoods, our smooth-barked trees & chaparral can make you wonder if you’ve disembarked in Australia or the mediterranean.

To the north you’ll find California’s Lost Coast, the lovely Mt. Shasta and Crater Lake, and to the south you’ll run smack dab into San Francisco.

In terms of local UFOs I probably can’t help much, but among the most common sightings around here are what’s known as indecisive stars.

If you want to get in touch with this particular member of the human species, feel free to email: baggageclaim [a t] friendlyskies.net.