ainslies.org

I heard a podcaster say, “Show me a pie chart with the top five categories of how you spend your time and I’ll tell you what’s important to you.” She then did a back of the napkin analysis of cohost’s pie chart. It was a simple, highly effective exercise. Although he has professed for years…

Except for food (from Harris Teeter) and building supplies (from Home Depot), I do 95% of my shopping on Amazon. The other 5% of my shopping is directly from manufacturer’s websites for closeout sales, specialty products, REI, and for items not available on Amazon. Amazon excels at the logistics for online shopping: I make 100s…

After listening to a number of podcasts hosted by pundits or rich people, I think most of them are too online (just like media people). It struck me how pervasive this is regardless of the person’s expertise, political leanings, podcast content, upbringing, etc. I listened to Joe Rogan, Scott Galloway, the guests on Left Right…

This week I heard Scott Galloway (net worth $100M+) say he spends about 2 hours each night on social media. I was curious what could capture his attention so much time so I checked out his “Threads” feed. Mostly what I saw was him commenting or reposting memes, videos and tweets that I had already…

I am overwhelmed. Despite my attempts to minimize my interactions with internet trolls, avoid most news and modulate my exposure to Trump and his cohorts, whenever I’m online or listening to podcasts, I am barraged with bad news, doom predictions, and dystopian forecasts. I’d blame Trump & team for at least 75% of it. The…

My neighbor was going out of town for a few days and asked if I could keep an eye out for a package that might be delivered while she was away. Of course, I said yes. When it arrived a few days later, I sent her a text to let her know I had it…

I’ve noticed that there are reviews for nearly everything online: restaurants, retail stores, cars, food, services and anything else you could imagine spending money on. I also notice on Reddit, that more the half the posts are requests for opinions of restaurants, best pizza, hair dressers, doctors, contractors, gyms, daycares, etc. it’s a bit much….

Temperatures dropped his week into the 40s in the wee hours of the morning when I walk the dogs. Despite putting on my cold weather gear, I was still shivering both inside the house and outside. After being here for 6 years, you’d think I’d be used to it. Apparently I’m not. Instead, I rationalize…

I had several ideas for posts swirling around in my head recently that were on my list to write. They covered: long term “illegal” residents of the US who were detained, lifestyle/financial coach hucksters, and a couple of deeply personal subjects about marriage and family. As I started writing, I realized that I have already…

As I’ve noted before, I wake up in the early hours of the morning and take the dogs for their first walk several hours before the sun rises. It’s on one my favorite times of the day. It is dark. It’s quiet. There’s very few other people outside other than my 4:30 AM girlfriend, an…