Coming home this evening, I noticed a window of the apartment a few floors directly below mine was open, I estimated by 8 to 10 inches. The light was on and someone was home. The temperature outdoors was about 30 F (-1 C). I presume the person wasn’t freezing, which meant they probably blasted the heat. (EDIT: I later learned from my doorman that that neighbor smokes and may have[…] Keep reading →

The library near me displays books, changing them every day or week or so. Today they had Roots by Alex Haley. I read the book in college, I think in my first year, which would mean 1988-89. It wasn’t for class and it’s a long book so I don’t know how I found time for it. I don’t remember much of it, but there are a few words in it[…] Keep reading →

Doing things consistently and daily for a long time enables you to notice nuances, which increases self-awareness. Since I have a six-day exercise cycle that I begin on the first of each month, in months with 31 days, I like to vary what I do with the extra day. In December I did two things. Sorry for the long post, but what I describe below felt like a meaningful experience[…] Keep reading →

I’ve been posting my usual posts on Christmas Pagan trees. Here’s a picture of my alternative and the story behind it. In conversation with alumni from my workshops (which I recommend you take), one mentioned all you need to do to grow garlic is stick a clove in the dirt and water it. Could it be that easy? It wasn’t hard to try. I did it the other day and[…] Keep reading →

Regular readers know I volunteer once or twice a week to deliver food from stores that were going to throw it away to community fridges, shelters, and other places for people to get it for free. I wasn’t scheduled to volunteer yesterday (Christmas Eve day), but the person who was reported so much overstock that we needed three people to clear it all. Not many other volunteers were around so[…] Keep reading →

Last night I dreamed people actually wanted to act, themselves, personally, not just talk. Memories of dreams fade fast, so I don’t remember the details, but I remember people asking, “What should I do?” with interest and curiosity instead of, with cynicism and incredulity, “What should I do?”, as if there was no answer. I dreamed that people realized they had to change their lives and wanted to. I woke[…] Keep reading →

Saturday I posted about a joke I did in a college math class. That math class did witness a great joke, but not by me, and it may only make sense to people who have done advanced math. The professor was going to prove that a certain group, which is a precise mathematical concept, had a certain property. The group is the set of symmetries of an icosahedron. The property[…] Keep reading →

I walked past this fire truck the other day. It was bright daylight, not nighttime, like when I took this picture. I saw a guy standing about where the “18” is on the truck’s bumper, facing toward the truck, doing something with some stuff on the bumper, keeping it hidden, looking at himself in the reflection on the chrome on the grill. He was focused on what he was doing[…] Keep reading →

I don’t usually remember dreams, but I half woke up before the alarm this morning. I was half in the dream and half awake. In the dream I was playing with a dog like in this picture. I’ve never owned a brown lab, but that’s the dog in my dream. I remember being about the size of the dog in the dream and the dog wasn’t particularly big, so I[…] Keep reading →