Over three years of high school French class, I spent a lot of time learning conjugations and tenses. I memorized how to combine aller (to go) with I, you (informal), and so forth. I memorized the same for the past tense and so forth. And I forgot a lot of it, and by the time […]
One fun part about renting a vacation home for a weekend is discovering the amenities. What’s left in the spice cabinet? How many channels do they have on cable? What’s the wifi password? Many are also stocked with games. Sometimes they have a ping pong or pool tables. Usually they have board games (though only […]
After Julie and I finished traveling through the big cities in Italy, we met up with my mom and sister in Central Europe. I covered my big thoughts on Italy in my last blog post on Venice, but for completeness, I’ll provide two paragraphs on Rome and Venice, too. Rome is big and full of […]
A week before our scheduled visit, we heard that Venice had record flooding up to six feet deep. Three days before, we called our hotel, and they reassured us that the water had receded, and our accommodations and sightseeing would be just fine. Skeptical of their motives, I asked locals in Florence, and they also […]
Since I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, one might presume that I have seen what the future looks like. With so many startups, venture capital, tech company headquarters, shouldn’t we be living like the Jetsons? I sometimes fool myself into thinking that this is truly the best that technology and society can provide.
In 2019, I tried to slow down. I meditated, learned, cooked, and played without rushing to the next thing. Although I assemble my backpack in the morning while brushing my teeth, I have single-tasked and de-optimized other parts of my life just to remind myself that those seconds aren’t so precious to go crazy over. […]
(Be warned that there are spoilers ahead) I was a Star Wars fan before I had even watched the movies. When I was six, I picked up a Star Wars extended universe book at the library. I pronounced “Jedi” incorrectly and didn’t know who Luke was, but laser swords were cool. Soon after, my parents […]
2019 has been a very different year of likes from 2018. In 2018, I had a pile of video and tabletop games that I had to debate amongst to fit in. This year, I’m grasping at games. In 2018, I wasn’t totally happy with my book choices. Yes I liked Crucial Conversations, but it isn’t […]
And we have arrived at the last blog post reviewing my 2019 New Year’s Goals. Although some people save the best for last, I procrastinated and thus saved the hardest for last. The short answer is that I guess I meditated maybe 4 out of every 5 days this year. Let’s see how I can […]
In my last two posts, I reviewed how I did on my hobby goals of tabletop gaming and cooking. Now I’m left with my two less leisurely goals. Retain More of What I Learn When I wrote this goal, I didn’t know how I was going to accomplish it. I felt like I had sought […]