Everyone who knows me knows every morning I make my bed, cross the room, and turn off the alarm before it turns off, meaning within sixty seconds. I have other sidchas, like picking up litter daily, which I’ve done without fail since 2017. People ask why, which seems obvious. Doing something with a measure of quality and a time limit gives a sense of purpose. For a cash cost of[…] Keep reading →

I exercise on a five-day rotation between lifting, resting, and cardio so months with 31 days give me an extra rest day to experiment. This time I decided to try to recapture my nearly five-year-old achievement of 5,000 meters in 20 minutes on the rowing machine, which means averaging 2:00/500m for 20 minutes. A well-trained man in his 20s or 30s could do it easily. A serious competitor might not[…] Keep reading →

I collected my expenses on food for 2019 and found I spent less than the average American, despite those costs including feeding at least fifty people with my famous no-packaging vegan stews. Wait, aren’t farmers markets more expensive? Shouldn’t I have paid more? I’ll leave for another time launching into the perverse incentives in the billions of dollars subsidizing crops and factory farming, forcing me to pay for doof making[…] Keep reading →

This morning I joined my regular Sunday group organized by my City Council to pick up litter. I pick up litter daily, but Sundays connect with others and spend more time. Most days I pick up maybe a dozen pieces. Today I filled three or four bags. Today is Easter too. Raised by two biological parents and one step-parent, each raised with different traditions, I painted a few Easter eggs[…] Keep reading →

I met Etienne on a holiday conference call of Flight Free UK, which celebrates what life brings when we enjoy people, culture, cuisine, and so forth around us, not flying all over. The concept would have sounded crazy to me before trying, but the attendees had made that transition. Etienne spoke joyfully about his working with Extinction Rebellion in the UK, a wonderful contrast with two things. First, his Olympic[…] Keep reading →

I just finished watching Planet of the Humans, a documentary on people working on the environment, as well as many people claiming to, who aren’t, though many mean well. As you might expect, many people have told me about it. It was uncomfortable but I’m glad I watched it. It’s free on YouTube. Here it is to save you a click: My thoughts My mom asked me what I thought[…] Keep reading →

Why bother not flying if you’re one person out of billions? Aren’t you just missing out and suffering without meaningfully changing anything? These questions flummoxed me for a while. The longer I act, the more I realize the answer. Most people answer that little things add up or that it’s like voting. I won’t argue with those answers, but I think they’re small effects. I’ve evolved since earlier episodes and[…] Keep reading →