I think about death every day. I have constant thoughts about my wife. I dream about her several nights a week. I see pictures on my wall every day that remind me of how much I loved her. I think about my little sunshine puppy who died 18 months ago. My heart still aches for…
So A Rich Guy Bought The President
There’s been a lot of hand-wringing about Elon Musk having undo influence over the US Government because he backed Trump, donated $250M-500M to his campaign (reportedly) and is now in an unelected but quite powerful position of influence. It’s clear that many other high-dollar donors to Trump’s campaign and inauguration ceremony are buying their way…
Give It Away, Give It Away, Give It Away Now
This holiday season I updated my Will and beneficiaries. The last time I did this was in 2020 at the beginning of the Covid pandemic. That was nearly 5 years ago. Some things haven’t changed much: Other things have changed a lot: It’s kind of sad not to have my wife to leave everything to….
Closing Another Chapter
Sometimes it feels like all am I doing is closing another chapter of my life that was once brought me great joy. The chapter that closed this week is playing the drums. After suffering from a chronic foot/ankle injury for several years, I realized that the cause (or the cause of it never healing) was…
College Protest Redux
In Joan Didion’s book, The White Album, she wrote about college kids who protested and demonstrated on campuses during the late 60s. She interviewed Huey Newton, trying to get him to answer personal questions instead of spouting off well-rehearsed slogans and lines. She talked about upper class white kids from Santa Monica who proclaimed they…
AI Is Accelerating The Crappification Of The Internet
AI has taken what algorithms have done to the Internet and 10x’d it. What algorithms did by creating clickbait, listicles, repurposed text and dismal editing, AI is now doing with news, video, audio, music and all other content. I see it clearly when watching videos on YouTube and Reddit. People are using AI to copy…
One Murder Won’t Change The Medical Insurance Industry in America
A few days ago, a man shot and killed the CEO of United Healthcare in what the news calls a “targeted assassination based on dissatisfaction with the US healthcare industry”. Since then, the online world has been filled with comments from people pointing out that this CEO and United Health’s policies have injured, bankrupted and…
Say No To Everything Else
On the Solo forum a user posted a meme that said “The best advice I ever received was…Decide what kind of life you want and then say no to everything that isn’t that.” Like many memes, it sounded wise. I did this to some extent throughout my life. In school, I wanted to be a…
Spendshift
After my wife died, I intentionally chose to live frugally and simply. My initial motivation was to conserve money since I was unemployed and living off of savings at the time. I grew to appreciate and fully embrace this minimalistic, anti-consumerist way of life. I’ve grown accustomed to questioning every purchase. I watch every dollar…
Puzzle Solving
I was talking to the installer about unexpected issues he ran into when he was installing my doors and windows. I asked what he would do. He replied, “I’ll figure it out. It’s like working on a puzzle. There’s more than one way to solve every problem.” As I watched him and his assistant work…