Yesterday began month 9 with my apartment disconnect from the electric grid. Today begins year 13 posting daily to my blog. Which seems more challenging? Which has taught me more about myself, humanity, and nature? Tough call. They seem even. I’m continuing both so I’ll keep learning from both. The off-grid in Manhattan seems more rare, a bigger disconnect from my ambient culture. Earth also passed a month after the[…] Keep reading →

Today begins month 8 of my apartment disconnected from the electric grid. I’d wondered what I’d do as the weather got colder and days shortened. Now I passed the winter solstice so days will lengthen. The weather will still cool for another few weeks, but I may have passed the hardest part. It occurred to me I might just have to keep going for the year. We’ll see. It can[…] Keep reading →

Regular readers know one of my sidchas is meditating, which I’ve done for over a decade and regularly for years. I’ve posted about it lately. I’ve used a few different techniques over the years. Sometimes I use koans. One is Who am I? sometimes What am I? I also often examine consciousness, which is oddly both all of what we experience and slippery to get a hold of. Asking who[…] Keep reading →

It’s easy to track how many burpees I do as part of my twice-daily burpee-based calisthenics. I know how many I do per day and I don’t miss days, so I just update the date in my spreadsheet and it tells me. More accurately, the spreadsheet tells me a minimum since now and then I do burpees for other reasons, but I haven’t missed and, so I’ve done more than[…] Keep reading →

The cops have cleaned Washington Square Park somewhat of its heavier drug use and dealing. I’ve talked to a few of the cops and they aren’t all from the local precinct. Some came from elsewhere in the city. I talked to one from the Bronx. It sounds like word got around the city that it was worth it to act on the lawlessness, though I’ve heard there’s plenty extra lawlessness[…] Keep reading →

Different people define middle age differently, but having just turned 51 I think I’m in it by all definitions. Physical My first sense of my body physically declining came in my early thirties, when my potential to compete in ultimate began to decline. Before then, I always felt motivation to practice since I knew the next year my potential would be higher. After then, no matter how much I practiced,[…] Keep reading →

I’ve been avoiding things I devalue lately. After writing about the day after Thanksgiving, also known as Buy Nothing Day, I decided to strive to buy nothing but food that month and succeeded, if you don’t disallow that I bought two things that I later returned. I’ll write more about it when I eventually do buy something, as I’m still going. Next, I decided to avoid social media and news[…] Keep reading →