After writing a dozen or so blog posts starting from 2008, on January 23, 2011 I wrote a post, Why I avoid proprietary software. I hadn’t posted the day before, but the next day I wrote Crowding out beats letting go. And I kept posting without missing a day until today, ten years later. As my friend who set up my WordPress blog said, “If you miss one day you[…] Keep reading →

Today begins my tenth year of daily burpees, not one day missed. My spreadsheet says I’ve done over 163,000 of them. I have yet to spend one penny doing them. Since I consider them something I do instead of TV, I’ve saved time doing them too. The activity continues to evolve in its meaning and value to me, always increasing, but mostly I think of them, along with the rest[…] Keep reading →

I’m pleased enough with the side effect of regularly meditating that I can sit in a full lotus position for an extended time that I don’t mind posting possibly the most boring video on the internet. After first meditating at a Vipassana retreat in 2007, starting with a ten-day no reading, writing, phone, etc experiment, I practiced irregularly but deeply, doing more 10-day, 5-day, 3-day, and 1-day retreats slightly less[…] Keep reading →

I happened to check: today is my 1,300th consecutive day picking up at least one piece of litter per day. It’s my dirty sidcha. I do it to develop leadership experience and skills to hasten the day when we view single-use packaging how we now view asbestos and leaded gasoline. Yes, you too will cringe at takeout and to go, now matter how much you relish it today. One day[…] Keep reading →

I can’t believe how much today’s ride tired me out. I’ll only post the high-level details before going to sleep. I recently got a new used bike—a touring bike designed to carry enough to go bike camping. The summer between high school and college, a friend and I rode from Philadelphia to Bar Harbor, Maine and back—about 1,500 miles. For years I used bikes as my main commuting vehicles, until[…] Keep reading →

Call me vain or unprofessional if you want, but I’m sharing the results of my recent decision to reach a fitness goal I’ve meant to work on for years, maybe decades. Call me self-obsessed if you want for how many words follow, but the journey has been for more enlightening, satisfying, and delicious than I expected. For context, as a child I felt ashamed enough from being teased for excess[…] Keep reading →

I haven’t missed a post here in almost ten years. My left mouse button broke—rather the track pad, an integral part of the computer. I found a used mouse on Craig’s List I can get tomorrow I think I can use while ordering a new track pad, which I think I can install myself. In the meantime I’m seeing if I can post without a left button and keep the[…] Keep reading →

I knew my daily streaks of writing in my blog and doing burpees of nearly ten years were just starts. I like to find role models. I discovered sidcha streaks that dwarf mine, in fact that started before I was born. Two organizations—Streak Runners International and United States Running Streak Association—track people who have run at least a mile per day. Their slogan: “Through weather, injury, illness, and life events,[…] Keep reading →

Erin and Michelle host the Style Your Life podcast. They wanted to learn and share with their audience about habits, which are the foundation of a lifestyle. They can be if you choose. They led a conversation around habits and how to keep from quitting them. I talk and write a lot about habits and sidchas here. This conversation is a friendly, non-intense entry point. Few things improve a life[…] Keep reading →