The calendar provides us with all sorts of baked-in milestone moments, and though we don’t require such moments (holidays, birthdays, etc) to pause, assess, try new things, and make changes to how we live our lives (based on those assessments…
There was an episode of Rick and Morty in which the father character is engaging in his hobby—beekeeping—and he’s being watched by his daughter’s friend who says, her interest growing as she speaks, “Look at your dad, such a dork, keeping bees.…
I’ve had reason, recently, to look over a digital archive of my older written work. This can be both a thrilling and harrowing process, as it’s wonderful to make new connections, connect a string of earlier dots and see how…
I don’t think false, unjustified optimism is productive, but I do have a bias toward reframing bad situations to focus on the (at times meager) silver-linings that will almost aways be there, if you look. This isn’t typically a pleasant…
At any given moment I have more maybe-projects at early, sapling (and seedling) stages than projects I actually work on for a living, or those I enjoy as full-blown habits and hobbies that have matured to the point that I…
All metaphors are imperfect, as a map that is a 100% accurate representation of the region it portrays would be the region itself, defeating the point of having a re-scaled, simplified version of it. The statistics-world aphorism for this reality is…
Books are just one way to consume written information. They’re wonderful in that they’re often optimized for deeper looks at things, but there are other means of achieving the same (there’s gobs of great stuff to read online, these days)…
It’s okay to not have an opinion about things. It can be awkward, though, and sometimes people will find it offensive if they share their opinion and you fail to confirm the rightness of their perspective, or if you decline…
When you consume alcohol, there’s a good chance your prime goal is not to consume alcohol: you’re looking to socialize, you’re interested in feeling altered, you’re maybe just parched and want something to drink. The same is true of many…
Years ago, I dated an Icelandic woman who—among many other accolades—was an enthusiastic linguist. She spoke a handful of languages, and was always endeavoring to further her grasp of them. Which in the context of our relationship often meant her…