Sönke Ahrens
Finished reading: Eldest by Christopher Paolini
I didn’t realize until the afterword that Paolini was only 21 when Eldest was published. What a masterwork for someone so young, and yet it explains some of the inelegance of plot elements and prose. I …
Time travel accomplished! I have landed in LAX seven hours prior to taking off from HND.
I know it is routine, but it amuses me every time.
Finished reading: 1633 by David Weber.
The addition of David Weber got us even more Mary Sue/Marty Stu characteristics, but at least there’s some serious risk in this one, with some major players stuck in England under Charles II, Amsterdam under …
Finished reading: 1632, Second Edition by Eric Flint
A rollicking alternate history with a thousand characters, most of whom can do no wrong. Serious divisions between heroes and villains, and an awkward writing style to boot.
But super fun if you …
Caught up on some book posts. Probably will look like I’m cheating on my 2025 goals, but most of the recent ones I did actually finish this year. I’ve spent a lot of time on planes.
Finished reading: Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros
I almost don’t want to admit I read this book. But I did. The story is fascinating.
But the writing continues to be without expertise. Yarros forgets she’s writing fantasy, or she just didn’t build a …
Finished reading: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.
This book about a girl growing up in Nazi Germany in 1939 is hard to get into. It is absolutely worth the patience.
I don’t want to write anything else for fear I might spoil it, except it is one of …
Finished reading: Eragon by Christopher Paolini
After Fourth Wing I decided I should go back to an older and wiser dragon novel. And yep, it was fun! Less sex, but more more wisdom, and no hokey failures to remember the fantasy realm is not the …
Finished reading: Countdown 1945 by Chris Wallace.
A fascinating, if a bit too prone to run down rabbit trails, look at the 116 days between Harry Truman becoming president and the United States dropping atomic bombs on Japan.
Maybe the most …
Nice hike up Mount Takao, about ninety minutes’ train ride west of Tokyo Station. Beautiful views, shrines, a temple, and a waterfall!
Reclaiming my voice without losing my soul – joshuamcnall.com
Insightful thoughts on the challenge to be “in the world, not of it” in the age of 24-hour news cycles and The Algorithm. I feel this challenge quite deeply every time I sit down to write. …
I don’t usually eat conference food, but the opportunity to sit atop Tokyo Big Sight and eat ramen was too good to pass up.
I would like an iOS addition to Focus Modes where I could “mute the muting” for a selected event.
Example: I want to stay in Do Not Disturb, but alert me on the next text from this contact, even though they are not white listed for that focus mode. …
On the way home from Jackson Hole today, we accidentally found Grand Teton Brewing in Victor, Idaho, just over the pass from Wilson, Wyoming (where it turns out they started in 1988 as Wyoming’s first microbrewery).
As we had no schedule for the day, …
Two sort of opposite pictures from Jackson Hole today. One of a man made structure—a cute little cabin decorated with skis—on the side of a mountain; and the other a family of mule deer who decided our little townhouse complex was a good dinner spot. …
Last summer, we backpacked in Grand Teton National Park. Today is our first day skiing Jackson Hole. This is a great, and beautiful, part of the country.
I assume I will eventually stop taking pictures of the natural beauty of Salt Lake City, but I don’t predict it will be soon.
I haven’t been to Alta since the first time I came to Salt Lake City to ski several years ago. At the time, I was just re-learning how to ski 10 years after basically quitting cold turkey when I took a job in Texas after college.
We went today, …
When I was collecting data for my 2024 health and fitness review, I couldn’t figure out how to see how many times I hit my daily exercise goal.
Turns out it’s in Trends→Exercise in the Fitness app, all the way at the bottom.
Now I just …
À la @QuilledSister,
First vert of the season!
Apropos of doing better with physical health this year, I managed to get three days into 2025 without a workout, until yesterday. Here’s to way more of these this year!
After my family and my job, the thing I spent the most brainpower thinking about in 2024 was VerseNotes, which I’ve been writing since August 2018.
This year marked a huge turning point, as I published the very first VerseNotes products and …
2024 was (apparently) not a good year for physical fitness for me. We got in a lot of good skiing and one backpacking trip (to Grand Teton National Park), but otherwise I apparently didn’t do much to keep myself alive. This post is a bit …
It’s hard to talk about finances publicly, but it’s an important part of an annual review. That said, as I wrote this post, I realized I wasn’t comfortable talking about this publicly after all. But two parts I am comfortable with: …
