Clutter makes me feel antsy. It makes it difficult for me to accomplish things efficiently. It overwhelms my mind. I used to think that clutter was about stuff. But even before I embraced minimalism, I detested clutter. As a child: I kept my bedroom neat I folded my clothes. I organized homework, my locker and…
Bye Bye Google
I have been a Google fan since they released their first search engine around 1999. It blew every other search engine out of the water (AltaVista, Lycos, AskJeeves, etc.). I never jumped on the Gmail bandwagon, but when Google Apps came out in 2006 with support for private domain email, I jumped right in as…
18,000 Emails
Yesterday, after much consideration, I migrated my email service from Google Apps to Apple. I would have done this earlier, but Apple one recently offered the ability to use a personal domain (instead of @mac.com or at icloud.com). I did this because I want to simplify my digital infrastructure. I host my blog at BlueHost,…
Father’s Day
Father’s Day is this weekend. It’s one of my least favorite of all the “Hallmark Holidays” that were created to to “celebrate” with the purchase of a cheesy overpriced card and an unwanted gift. When my step kids were living with me, they’d make me cards for Father’s Day that said sweet things. When they…
The World We’re In
Today I listened to a Jocko Willink podcast where he talked about the disastrous police response to the Uvalde school shooting. Jocko is a former Navy Seal who was an operator and later a Navy Seal instructor. Given his background, he’s an expert on tactical assaults, armed intruder response and security. Jocko didn’t discuss gun…
Wide Open Spaces
I was dog sitting again for neighbor this week so I got to hang out in his house which is an “identical twin” to my house – except it’s across the street and it’s full of stuff that I don’t have. Like before, as soon as I opened his front door I felt claustrophobic. It…
Dirtbag Chic
When I was a little kid child, I had a hard time getting dressed for school. I remember being upset when I was told I couldn’t wear my purple shirt with my orange pants to school because they didn’t match. I thought, “What is ‘matching’? I didn’t learn what “matched” meant until my wife taught…
TV Watching Failure
Yesterday, I was dog sitting for my neighbor. I wanted to hang out for a while to keep the dogs company while they chilled out and laid around. So I tried to watch TV. My neighbor has all streaming channels. Netflix, Roku, Amazon, etc. I tried a few but couldn’t get past his parental controls…
Childfree
The older I get, the less I want to be around kids. I wrote about how grateful I am that I don’t have kids because of the commitment in terms of time, money and emotional capital to raise them. How do I know this? Because I helped raise 2 step kids. I was actively involved…
Dating Like A Married Guy
I was listening to a dating advice podcast recently when the host commented that the caller dated “like a married guy”. The host was making fun of the caller because the caller’s dates included evening walks, dinners at home, Netflix and hanging out with his girlfriend. The host said, “Where’s the excitement? Where’s the fun?…