This Kevin Starr history book on California is a short overview of the state across a number of perspectives. This is in contrast to his much larger series covering the history of California. I received both for my most recent birthday. I started with this book and will intend to read the entire series in the future.

One description of California that resonated with me in the book was about how it is an emotionally empty place, “I could remember everything about California, but I couldn’t feel it. I tried to get my mind to remember something that it could feel, too, but it was of no use. It was all gone. All of it.”

Down the street stood a very tall pine tree I would always have to duck under. It was both over the sidewalk, but also pushing the sidewalk up. If I am counting correctly, this pine tree was 36 years old.

https://aphyr.com/posts/411-the-future-of-everything-is-lies-i-guess

My friends have been giving me a hard time about not having backlighting for the whiskey bottles, so I finally gave in. I had considered it when I originally put the room together. My original plans were to hard wire it into the main switch of the room. Run lines behind the walls and tie the walls together via electrical dropped from the ceiling. All in it would have been a pretty involved wiring project and I estimated it to be around $300-400. I decided to not do it at the time as the room was already a pretty heavy investment.

A retrospective on starting and running a bookstore in a small town in Texas by Ryan Holiday. Some of the advice resonates with me like being contrary to what everyone else is doing. I have been looking for opportunities at work to Zig when everyone else is Zagging.

https://ryanholiday.net/5-years-of-lessons-from-running-my-own-bookstore/

When I was a kid growing up in Seattle, Jim Whittaker was a huge deal and hero. I met him at an event when I was in scouts.

Mountaineer Jim Whittaker Dies

With so many bird feeders out, the squirrels are well fed and very daring.

I had seen Nestor make the podcast rounds in around 2021-2022. I am all about learning to breath better or at least being more informed around how this breathing business works. I found this book informative, especially in the first half, but found some of the claims a bit far fetched.

There are many interesting layers to this book. First the subject who during the late 1500’s wrote a book of essays which is a unique glimpse of his life during the time. Second is this book was written by an interesting person, Stefan Zweig who found a common spirit in Montaigne. Third, the book was written during the height of WWII, and the interesting grounding of the uncertainty and dread of the mid 1900’s with the uncertainty and dread of the late 1500’s (constant war and plague).

Poetry is not my thing, but sometimes you have to get out of your comfort zone. Poetry is meant to speak to you, not to have me speak about it to you.