Life is a journey and I'd like to share mine with you. We'll travel back in time and round the world to the Great Wall of China. Then we'll come forward again to the present moment — the only place where real life exists. Everything that's happened our lives has taken place in a particular moment, at that specific time. We'll explore this more.

We'll also check out Florida and my family roots there. We'll look at life, politics, spirituality.  We'll look at things good, bad, funny and serious. Nothing is more important than family and friends, both new and old. This website will celebrate this and our collective journey together.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you'll find this website interesting, informative, entertaining — and even inspiring.

Welcome to my corner of the Internet.

Dr. William Edgar Geil &

the Great Wall of China

My grandfather, Dr. William Edgar Geil, is the first person of any race or nationality documented to have walked the entire length of the Great Wall of China. He did this in the summer of 1908. Most likely you've never heard of him, but if my family and friends in the United States and China have our way, everyone soon will. The whole thing is an amazing story, and it's all here.

Life 2.0

Most people die without ever having lived. As life unfolds before us, we're distracted rehashing the past or anticipating the future. And once that future arrives, we're looking ahead to the next.

Life 2.0 looks at Meditation and Mindfulness as explained by distinguished teachers and practitioners.

LGBTQ+ Community

Barbara Giddings, LGBTQ+ activist from the mid-1950s until her death in 2007, said that “Equality means more than passing laws. The struggle is really won in the hearts and minds of the community, where it really counts.”

Winning the hearts and minds of the community has been my goal since I came out in 1975 at age 22 and began years of gay activism. Here at my website and blog I seek to inform and entertain with information on the issues, current events, history, artistry and culture of the LGBTQ+ community.

© 2014-2025 Robert C. Laycock

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This website was launched on Saturday, November 5, 2016.
Previous versions of BobLaycock.com were online between 2000 and 2012.

 

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The Fine Print

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BobLaycock.com

A Website for Family, Friends & You

BLcom540

Typewriter courtesy of Alan Seaver /
machinesoflovinggrace.com

I fell in love with keyboards as a child long before computers, starting with an Olivetti-Underwood typewriter like the one pictured here. Yep! I was a nerdy kid! I can still smell the oil and the typewriter ribbon — with black and red, of course! I loved writing with it. It never froze, crashed or needed a reboot. Just a little Wite-Out now and again.

Today I write digitally sharing recollections, musings and pontifications at my blog Just Sayin' Now hosted on the WordPress platform.

The Brevard Hotel

My Dad's father, Hartley C. Laycock, Sr., was President and Chairman of the Board at the People's Bank in Chicago when the market crashed and the economy collapsed with the Depression. He was a man of high moral and ethical standards, ensuring that depositors recovered as much of their money as possible. When the process was done there was little left.

Dad's family sold the house they had just recently built and moved south to Florida. What followed was a remarkable story.

A Blog for This, That &

the Other