Feeling that grinding, soul-crushing sensation that comes with holiday rerun music about 30 days into the shopping season? Wish Christmas music could be new and joyful again, like it used to be? I’m a strong believer that knowing how to […]
Social media is so often full of stress, trolls, self-aggrandizement, and comparison. If you’re the kind of person who reads this blog, you probably agree. Maybe like me you’ve mostly let your social media accounts lie, or killed your newsfeed, […]
Have you ever been wowed by a Christmas (or birthday or wedding) gift you’ve received? If you’re in touch with your gratitude, you probably realize that you’re lucky to get gifts at all. But there have probably been one or two […]
Today I went to a warehouse after work to help sort toys from a charitable toy drive. It was a fun afternoon challenge – I got to help a good cause, spend time with coworkers, and learn a lot about […]
Envy sucks as an emotion. It typically makes us miserable, and it can also make us want to make others miserable. But envy can also be used for good, particularly if we struggle to make changes, to face fears, or […]
Thank God for karaoke rock bands. Last night the excellent players and supporting crew of Metalsome brought the house down at my company’s Christmas party, backing me and my nerdy coworkers on everything from The Black Crowes’ “Hard to Handle” […]
The empty dancefloor. The waiting mic at the start of karaoke. The waitful audience. Few things can strike more terror into the heart. But few things give us more opportunity to help our neighbors. You see, almost all humans *want* […]
Is your software cumbersome and complicated? Does it require months of training to use and years of experience to master? Make the challenges into an adventure. Salesforce does. If you’re not a sales or marketing person, you should know that Salesforce is the […]
I was driving along a beautiful sunlit, golden leaf-gilded neighborhood road the other morning on my way to work. I see this same road every morning, but today I noticed its beauty. When you notice something beautiful on the way to […]
Want to travel? Have time to train? Here are a few habits I’ve tried practicing at home (from time to time) that I’m hoping will come in handy when I travel abroad: Sleep uncomfortably. Try sleeping with less privacy, or on more uncomfortable […]
“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to […]
Every month or so some friends and I have been playing Dungeons and Dragons, a role-playing game which turns out to be as complicated as modern finance, a religious text, and an assemble-it-yourself furniture order. With a large variety of spells, abilities, […]
Today I went to a paintball course for what must have been the first time since my elementary or middle school days. I found myself just as fired up as I’m sure I was back then (if not more so), […]
Vests are the quiet heroes of the male wardrobe. Shoes and jackets may get all the attention, but a good vest goes a long way toward style and functionality for men. Functionally? Vests keep your torso warm while freeing your […]
“Shooting down ideas” gets a bad rap. There’s an idea out there that all ideas should get their time in the sun. So naturally too-early critique (or any critique at all) can sometimes get tagged as anti-creative or even a […]
Just like strong people don’t defend themselves, or make excuses, they also don’t say “I told you so.” It is a constant temptation (especially in the workplace), but pointing out in the wake of a mishap that you warned against […]
There has been a trend I’ve noticed lately in the (largely healthy) world of American literature on self-compassion/self-knowledge/self-care. We are told that our culture by and large ignores the needs of the body, and that we need to “listen to […]
Despite writing daily for over a year now (minus one missed day), I still hardly ever plan out posts more than a few days in advance. More often than not, I find my daily writing idea late at night when […]
My grandfather has become a stronger presence in my life since he passed away last year. It’s not just that I reminisce more (I do) or look back at pictures or keepsakes (I do that, too). I find myself striving to be […]
Ah, the holidays – the times of year when your family gets together and tells embarrassing stories about you. Uncle Jim remembers when you wrecked the family car. Aunt Yulia remembers when you wet your pants in public. Uncle Timmy remembers […]
This Thanksgiving has gone off without hardly a hitch. It’s been a thing of beauty – all the traditions we follow each year have just been better this year than last: Thanksgiving dinner, Black Friday pancake breakfast, the gift exchange, the skeet […]
This year at the Walpole farm Thanksgiving was full of educational moments. We taught our cousin’s new fiancee how to shoot skeet. I showed jiu jitsu to my cousin and learned some wrestling moves in return. And my physical therapist uncle […]
There are enough sappy greeting cards out in the world, so it’s important you know how to do birthday and sympathy wishes right. Writing out “happy birthday” may be better than nothing, but it doesn’t do much or say much […]
In fairy/fantasy stories and ancient myths the ideas of warding spells abound. In fact and fiction, magical men and women routinely spells cast upon people, places, and things to keep away evil. These spells can even grant new power […]
“Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot, But he’ll remember with advantages What feats he did that day” – William Shakespeare, Henry V Have you stopped lately to consider what stories you’ll be telling your children when you’re 40? […]
One of the healthiest feelings in the world is the feeling you get when you are growing toward a goal, toward unity, toward integrity, toward excellence, truth, and beauty. One of the most satisfying feelings in the world is the feeling of […]
Every year about this time we get treated to the newest batch of Christmas albums from artists across the spectrum. These Christmas albums are often the low points of artists’ careers, money-making schemes that seem foisted on them by record labels. But […]
I have a friend who is a computer science expert of sorts. But he wasn’t always that way. When he was young, the people around him threw up their hands when they encountered computer problems. They looked for someone to fix […]
Getting an email inbox under control is a daunting task. It’s worse when you have no easy way to prioritize and batch the email answers that master most. For a long time I’ve labored through inboxes newest to oldest (while […]
I was never really an athlete in my younger days. Sure, I played some flag football, played some pickup games, and the rest. But dedicated, hard-going, competitive and cooperative training? Not so much. The shame is that I missed something […]