A friend came over for his first sampling of my famous no-packaging vegetable stew and the show that goes with it. Talking about vegetables, cooking from scratch, and maybe the daily exercise, he asked, “Do you ever feel like giving in?”, which I took to imply meaning getting take-out, eating out, or getting comfort food. The question felt weird. If I think back far enough, I can remember craving the[…] Keep reading →

I see people rewarding themselves and others with candy or other similar sources of pleasure. The idea used to make sense. For most of my like I saw baked goods and sweets as rewards. Now I see candy as punishment. Vegetables are reward. More material stuff is punishment, less is reward. Flying is punishment. Discovering the nature around you is reward. I can think of many other examples where my[…] Keep reading →

Following my post Thoughts on reading my love letters to my high school girlfriend after 30 years, I’ve gotten closer to getting rid of them. I haven’t, but I’ve gotten nearly as close as I’m willing, though I’m keeping a plan B. Since my post Less, Please, on getting rid of hundreds of books near the beginning of this blog, about ten years ago — or “putting them back into[…] Keep reading →

Following up my posts Mementos of my high school girlfriend and The Most Romantic Thing I Ever Did, I finally read the letters and cards from her to me and from me to her. We wrote them from around the summer of 1988, after graduating high school, to about a year later, the summer after our first years in college. She went to school outside Boston. I went to school[…] Keep reading →

I’ve written on the difference in sensation between something tasting good versus making you feel like you want more of it (see “Want to eat more” and “tastes good” aren’t the same feeling). I also spoke about them as a podcast guest in Tastes Good versus Want More, explored in depth. The difference, briefly: when you bite into a fruit you love, say an apple, it tastes good and you[…] Keep reading →

Part 1: College personalities not so unique In college, I remember meeting many classmates who seemed unique. I couldn’t imagine anyone else like them. Thirty years later, I’ve seen people like each. Over and over as college classes turn over every four years. I’ve also seen them grow up to become like everyone else. There’s some variation, of course, but the differences aren’t that great. Part 2: My high school[…] Keep reading →

In an online thread with people insisting that they have no choice but to fly for family and work reasons, I wrote the following, which I’m sure some will disagree with. I’m learning too, though I hope to help people looking to find joy in polluting less. One flight will brings people closer. Flying in general led them to move far apart so they felt they needed to fly to[…] Keep reading →