Trees are Rad
Where do all of the digital photos go when you die?
Photos aren’t like they used to be. No envelopes of printed 4x6’s. No sleeves of negatives to sort through. No albums to pull off the shelves and flip through with their sticky plastic …
Why I am into Vinyl Records
Though I’m late to the party, I credit my son for getting me into vinyl records. It was timed well with my general frustration over where we are going as a society with all of this digital …
Don't be a good man, be good at being a man.
I don’t remember where I had heard this over the past month, but this resonates with me as I am both trying to be a better human and am curious what it means to be a man - which is a topic …
Finishing Maple with Tung Oil
I have a project that I’ll share next time, but it required finishing some maple. Though I like the way the wood looked raw, I figured it would be a good idea to give it some protection so it …
Garden Engineering
For Mother’s day, I decided to build fences for the three gardens we have. It used to be one garden, but last mother’s day it became three. These are standard 10 x 2’s in eight foot …
Patching an Exteriror Wall
Sicario: Day of the Soldado
Finally watched Sicario: Day of the Soldado
I thoroughly enjoyed the first Sicario movie and would consider it one of the best movies I’ve seen in the last decade. A very excellent film on …
Tour of a Whiskey & Cigar Room
I’m a sucker for a masculine space like this Whiskey/Cigar Room by Jeremy Siers. It has a very nice aesthetic with the dark colors and subtle backlighting. Who wouldn’t feel like a …
Educated by Tara Westover
Mother did her makeup every morning, but if she didn’t have time she’d apologize all day, as if by not doing it, she had inconvenienced everyone.
The other girls rarely spoke to me, but I loved being …
The Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux
“What’s a savage?” he said. “It’s someone who doesn’t bother to look around and see that he can change the world.”
Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
One of the gifts of being a writer is that it gives you an excuse to do things, to go places and explore. Another is that writing motivates you to look closely at life, at life as it lurches by and …
The Overstory by Richard Powers
The best and easiest way to get a forest to return to any plot of cleared land is to do nothing—nothing at all, and do it for less time than you might think.
What you make from a tree should be at …
Go for a Walk
https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2021/09/happiness-walking-pilgrimage/620075/
The Dalai Lama likes to say that each of us is “one of seven billion.” By this, he does not mean that you are …
Interpretations of the Term “Social Media” in 1996
https://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/interpretations-of-the-term-social-media-in-1996
Sharing your opinions with people who don’t care. In 2021, this is called “Twitter,” but, in 1996, this …
Networking Advice on How to Become Insanely Well-Connected
https://review.firstround.com/how-to-become-insanely-well-connected
a thesis on networking he’s adhered to ever since: The best way to be highly influential is to be human to everyone you meet.
Managers: Compassion and Accountability Aren’t Mutually Exclusive
https://hbr.org/2021/08/managers-compassion-and-accountability-arent-mutually-exclusive
Instead, deal with underperformance directly. If someone isn’t able to do their job according to expectations, …
Questions for Technology
https://austinkleon.com/2021/08/16/questions-for-technology/
I tend these days to err on the side of technologies that have been around for hundreds of years, technologies like paper and pencils. The …
A Carnival of Losses by Donald Hall
You are old when someone mentions an event two years in the future and looks embarrassed.
In your eighties you are invisible. Nearing ninety you hope nobody sees you. At nineteen you were six foot …
In the Distance by Hernan Diaz
Those were comfortable fires, not urgent ones.