After my first year of college, I spent 18 months living in Houston trying to save money. What became painfully clear is that people with important skills have much more earning potential than those who do not (which is the primary reason why I returned to college, studied computer science, and worked extremely hard). My earning potential during that time was laughably low, and it…
I have worked my entire life, starting with a paper route at age 10. I could not imagine what retirement would be like – what would I do? I don’t have a lot of hobbies. On Jan 28, 2025 I was unexpectedly laid off from my job at Nuna (my first lay off) and that started my experiment with retirement. After a month of not…
Countries have several tools to expand their influence: The first two approaches fall under “hard power,” while the third approach falls under “soft power” (a term coined by political scientist Joseph Nye Jr.in the 1980s). This article does a good job of explaining soft power and its limits. To put it simply: hard power relies on coercion and soft power relies on seduction. Both are…
There is enough going on around immigration policy that it warrants its own entry. As a step to making America great again, we have decided to crack down on illegal immigrants, which can include: Trump has increased ICE’s budget between 400% and 1,000%, making it more funded than both the FBI and the DEA. The new enforcement behaviors damage the rule of law for the…
In theory, everybody is equal under the law. In practice, that has rarely been the case – the rich and influential are much less likely to be held accountable, while the poor and minorities are much more likely to be arrested and convicted. But what we are seeing right now has gone beyond that. President Trump is setting new precedents every day. It has little…
When my wife worked as an ICU nurse, she once had a patient who had a really bad toothache. He took some Tylenol, but it didn’t help much, so he took some more Tylenol. Since he was an alcoholic, he washed it all down with beer. After a few days of this, he started experiencing abdominal pain, which resulted in my wife caring for him…
On May 28th I tried my second attempt at Milky Way photography. I took these pictures of Mt. Hood from Laurence Lake. Here’s a bonus picture that I took of the Columbia River. If you are curious how to take such a photo, read on. Preparation The hardest part of photographing the Milky Way is preparation. Apart from the equipment, you need three things: Choosing…
Yesterday I read this article in the Atlantic by David Brooks describing why half of the country not only tolerates Trump (and what he is doing), but actually see him as heroic and a good person. The article relies heavily on the thoughts of the late moral philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre. I am not qualified to refute these men (who are both much smarter than I),…
A former co-worker (and friend) recently had a family tragedy that left his partner in the ICU for several weeks and a young daughter and an infant to care for all by himself. Two former co-workers each spent a week in Tucson helping out, so I was happy to take my own two-week turn. While the vast majority of my time was spent caring for…
Humans are tribal creatures and we are all members of various “tribes”. I found this series of essays on the topic to be very enlightening. Tribalism is not inherently bad Tribalism is a double edge sword. I will describe all of the pitfalls of tribalism later, but first I want to stress that tribalism can be a net good that brings out the best parts…
