[O]n Saturday, on a whim, we drove down to Monticello to visit the home of Thomas Jefferson. One of the many things I like about living in this area is the rich history. We can drive north to battlefields at Gettysburg, or we can drive south and visit the unique home of Thomas Jefferson. So…
[I] lived in L.A. from 1983 – 2002–almost 20 years. I come back to L.A. for work every now and then, and it is always an interesting experience, one that fills me with mixed feelings. A lot of things have changed about L.A., but a lot of things have remained the same. Cities evolve. Santa…
[M]y pal, Fred Kiesche (@FredKiesche) made the following remark on Twitter this morning, @jamietr Figured you were, but you’ve been so quiet in your Sekrit Writing Room I couldn’t be sure. — Fred Kiesche (@FredKiesche) July 17, 2015 and at once I felt guilty for neglecting to post here more frequently. So I figured the…
[A]lmost exactly 36 years ago, Voyager 2 made its closest approach to Jupiter. I was 7 years old, and the recent acquisition of a telescope that allowed me to see the moon, and other planets up close thrilled me. I spent what seemed like days clipping photos of Jupiter out of the local newspaper and…
[I] realize it’s been a little while since I last posted. I’ve been on vacation, but we arrived home yesterday, and I’m taking today to take care of odds and ends before heading back into the office tomorrow. Expect things to resume here as normal in the next day or two. In the meantime, here…
[W]hile in the car driving home after picking up the Little Man from school yesterday, the following conversation took place between the Little Man and Kelly: Little Man: What are we having for dinner? Kelly: Chicken and broccoli. LM: No broccoli. K: You need to eat broccoli if you want to have a treat after.…
[T]wenty-six years ago today–May 26, 1989–was a bittersweet day for me and my friends. It was the last day of an extraordinary nine days in May when the teachers union of the Los Angeles Unified School District went on strike. I was in 11th grade at Cleveland Humanities Magnet High School in Reseda, California, and…
[W]e spent the long Memorial Day weekend up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania with my sister and her family, and my mom. The kids got to spend most of the time at Dutch Wonderland, and we spent the weekend trying to keep up with them. We also took a horse and buggy ride through an Amish farm,…
[I] came home from work tonight feeling the way I used to feel 36 hours into an all-nighter back in college. Except that I slept for 8 hours or so last night. My brain is completely drained. I am not normally a project manager, my title at the day job being a senior application developer.…
[O]n Saturday, I took the Little Man to an exhibition game between the New York Yankees and the Washington Nationals. We took the Metro over to Nationals Park, and found our way to our seats, where my friend, and fellow writer Michael J. Sullivan was waiting for us. I think that Michael told me this…
[W]hen it comes to quantified self, one question I frequently hear is “how can this data really help me”? It is a good question, especially since there are huge volumes of data about ourselves available, and it may not be obvious how to put it to use. I have used quantified self data to improve…
[L]ast week, I sat down with Patrick Hester and John Anealio, hosts of the Functional Nerds podcast. It was a blast. We talked books, baseball, writing, productivity, and music. If you are interested, have a listen over at the Functional Nerds. And a big thank you to John and Patrick for having me on the…