My annual reading goal over the last handful of years has been set at 30 books. Not overly ambitious, but enough to require me to pick up books consistently. Unfortunately, when 2021 was said and done, I ended up falling a bit short of my 30 book goal. The first…

I don’t like admitting this to anyone (not even myself), but I am naturally a lazy person. If I’m not careful, I’ll end up spending entire days on the couch — playing video games, scrolling Reddit, staring at the ceiling, and other similarly productive and fulfilling hobbies. To counteract this…

Counting down the days until Christmas with five cheap cans of wine (and one nice bottle) — My wife Jill and I enjoy wine. For whatever reason, we also enjoy torturing ourselves with silly ongoing projects. No surprise, then, that every year we talk about hunting down one of those wine advent calendars from somewhere like Aldi or Costco. Unfortunately(?) for us, our FOMO is never powerful…

A life lesson that starts on the top of your head — As long as I can remember, I was always very particular about my hair. Even at a young age I feared getting it snipped. Would they cut it too short? Or lop-sided? Would they mess something up and everyone would notice and make fun of me? …

A few years ago, I found myself regularly saying something to the effect of, “If I wasn’t a hypocrite, I wouldn’t eat meat” when the topic of diets came up. I love animals and knew I could never slaughter one myself for a meal (unless I was in a life…

This is my fourth end of year reading reflection I’ve posted on Medium, and it ended up being both the easiest and most difficult one I’ve done. Easy because I read so many great books this year, even if I did read a little less this year than last. …

I discovered Brian Eno’s ambient music around fifteen years ago — sometime near the end of my high school years and the beginning of my college ones. It’s a bummer I don’t remember the exact moment, because that discovery marked the start of a fixation (or obsession if you want…

I lived in Oregon for about a year, but didn’t develop an interest in wine until some time after I moved away. Ever since, I’ve wanted to return and explore some of what I missed out on. …

Occasionally, a major life event has forced me to dispose of a significant portion of my belongings. A hurricane, house fire, and major moves have all put me in such a position at one point or another. But a few things always managed to survive these involuntary junk purges: an…