Category: Status

You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.

-Ray Bradbury

buy the stupid thing

In the context of notebooks (also my favorite being Field Notes that I use almost religiously… and I don’t take that adjective lightly), but also my experience as a 47-year-old rounding the bases…

You should absolutely buy that stupid thing:

Let this be a lesson: you should absolutely buy that stupid thing you want to buy on a whim. It will totally work out.

Importance of Independence

I’ve been beating this drum for a couple of decades now, but you shouldn’t rely on corporate entities for your personal expression. Get a blog (on a hosted server) and make your own thing on a reputable server where you can express yourself. Happy Constitution Day.

Trying out GPT-5 for the first time while doing some work on a paper about AI and integal ecologies… I’m blown away. This is transformative and exciting and scary all at the same time. Talk about ontological shock 👊

Happy 2nd Birthday, Lily!

Time indeed does “fly” when it comes to your children. I can’t believe we’ve already had two years to celebrate Lily’s life and adventures and can’t wait to see where the next few decades take her.

GMail

I was cleaning up my inbox this morning and realized that I had built up about 21 years of muscle memory working in GMail (was an ardent Eudora fan before that) since 2004. Amazing to me how quickly that span happened.

Not to brag, but…

… new personal best. Such an addictive game!

Coffee Golf – July 2
9 Strokes – Top 1% 🏆

🟪🟦🟨🟥🟩
2️⃣1️⃣2️⃣2️⃣2️⃣

Lincoln Memorial and Mall Barriers

Lily was cracking everyone up with her “device” and saying “CHEESE!” to fellow tourists (and ducks in the Reflecting Pool)

We made it to the Lincoln Memorial as well as the Vietnam and Korean War Memorials last night for our first evening here in the D.C. area.

I was particularly struck by the number of barriers and fencing that has been “deployed” all over the National Mall (I’m guessing in preparation for the “parade” on June 14). I’m sad that even getting a glimpse of our White House is buried behind rows of police and security lines like something out of a dystopian future-movie (compared to just a decade ago).

We’re heading off to the Smithsonian Museums and then the Capitol this morning. I’m hoping that I the barriers we’ve erected don’t just strike me as something that we should strive to have no need for in our Nation’s capitol in the very near future, but something we resolve to do in our collective consciousness.

The more I read Plotinus as a 46-year-old PhD student, the more I want to focus on Plotinus and spiritual ecology (and meld in some Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Edith Stein).