There are some disappointments about growing older and one of them is losing the desire to sleep in. For the first half of my life, I wanted to sleep in late, even through I frequently couldn’t. For the first eighteen years or so that was because of school. Through junior high school I could walk…
Here is what I read this week. Some of the articles/posts may require a subscription to read them. This was a busy week with a lot going on. I did manage to finish two books, but my article reading was down from its normal levels because things were busy. Books Finished Twentieth Century Journey: The…
The woodpeckers are out in force this spring. I don’t know if they are more populous this year, or if I never noticed in the past, but on my early morning walks, they seem to be everywhere. Indeed, their pecking seems almost like a kind of Morse code communication through the treetops, with one bird…
Since graduating from college and starting my career, I have probably given around a thousand presentations in front of audiences of varying size. There are the PowerPoint presentations in front of small groups. There are lecture and how-to type presentations in front of larger groups. I’ve lost track of how many podcasts I’ve been on.…
I set a goal this year of trying to write two posts each day, thereby building up a backlog and taking the pressure off on those days when no good ideas come to mind. I’ve done a pretty good job at that. Until now, however, my threshold seems to be about a 12 day backlog.…
Thirty years ago today, April 6, Isaac Asimov died. More than any other writer, it was Asimov who influenced my own writing, and much more. He taught me nearly everything I know about science; he taught me the power of the essay; he taught me how to be a writer; he taught me the importance…
Welcome to my blog series, “Practically Paperless with Obsidian.” For an overview of this series, please see Episode 0: Series Overview. Years before I began using Obsidian, I’d wanted to consolidate all of my writing into a single format–preferably text files. I wanted all of my old writing files accessible in plain text, and wanted…
For nearly two decades, around this time each year, I had a ritual: I would re-read Isaac Asimov’s autobiography. There are three volumes to this autobiography and I always read it in a specific order. I’d start by reading the most recent volume first, I. Asimov, which was a kind of retrospective of Asimov’s entire…
Sometime in the mid-to-late 1980s I discovered KNX-1070’s Radio Drama Hour. As I’ve mentioned in the two previous posts, KNX-1070 is a news radio station in Los Angeles that I listened to now and then when I lived out there. Each night, from 9-10pm, the station would take a break from the news to play…
Here is what I read this week. Some of the articles/posts may require a subscription to read them. I also share my recommended reads on Pocket for anyone who wants to follow along there. Books Finished Twentieth Century Journey, Vol 1: The Start: 1904-1930 by William L. Shirer. As I mentioned last week, I am…