I took about four months off of regularly reading and somewhat regularly posting to social media. I took Facebook off my phone entirely and removed all Facebook email notifications a while ago. LinkedIn followed. Then Twitter. With each step away from the incessant drone of snippets and soundbites my overall well-being improved. It felt like… Continue reading My unannounced and inconsequential break from social media
Category: Lifestyle
A new routine
By Day It starts at about 5:30am. My wife gets out of bed first, her iPhone flashlight leading her way down the hallway. I stretch and look out the window, a soft gray backdrop against the silhouettes of large oak and bay trunks. The sun won't rise for another hour. I lie awake for ten… Continue reading A new routine
A one-hour brain dump
It's almost 9:30pm on a Sunday night. I haven't posted here in about a month. Tonight, for the first time in a while, I feel like blogging. So I'm going to write for an hour, straight through with very minimal editing, and wrap up at about 10:30pm. It's now the end of September. The statewide… Continue reading A one-hour brain dump
My next 10 years
I started writing this post back in July 2019. Since 2020 is almost up, I figured now would be a good time to finish it. These past ten years have been all about myself: My education, my companies, my career, my health, and my family. The ten years before my 25th birthday I was more… Continue reading My next 10 years
The game I’m playing
Here's more mid-30s introspection about life and goals. These are things I've been thinking about as the people around me and I get older. What game am I playing? How do I know if I'm winning or at least doing above average? And why, for goodness sake, does this even matter? Like most people with… Continue reading The game I’m playing
Ode to this set of Cuisinart
To note the passage of time it’s easiest to point to a thing, like a grandfather clock or a door frame marked with heights and ages. Time moves. Things stay the same. Even though people are things, we move with time too. I look at a picture of myself from ten years ago and think,… Continue reading Ode to this set of Cuisinart
I don’t use shampoo
Many years ago, I stopped putting weird liquid soap in my hair every time I showered. The decision point happened amidst a profound and literal "shower thought." I picked up a bottle of shampoo, looked at it, and thought, “Why am I doing this, again?” And then I stopped doing it. That was a long… Continue reading I don’t use shampoo
My personal 2018 recap
In 2018 I did plenty of reading, writing, and playing (RWP). I was good about reading books; GoodReads says I knocked down exactly a dozen of them. And in April 2018 I published one of my own. I improved at both piano and guitar. RWP continues to echo through my head during the day and… Continue reading My personal 2018 recap
A day in my life
No speech was given, no money raised. No company started or sold. This is merely a day in my life, chopped up and pieced together over several sittings and written into a story. Arise, Dad It begins with a whimper or sometimes a wale. Our youngest daughter is at the age now where she’ll sleep… Continue reading A day in my life
Learning to hike
One of the many hiking trails Fall in Briones Regional Park, about 20 miles east of San Francisco. I grew up going on hikes but it wasn’t until this year, at age 35, that I learned how to hike. I have a confession to make. My relatives may be shocked. For the last 35 years… Continue reading Learning to hike