Mark's Musings

Mark's Musings

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  • You never know when a NPR marketplace story will be useful

    December 23, 2020
    personal

    Last month I heard a story on NPR’s marketplace show about how policies concerning bourbon illustrate the long standing urban-rural divide in our country. It was an interesting piece, but not one I expected would have any impact on my life. A month later some good friends were cleaning out their liquor cabinet and offered…

  • Gear 2021

    December 13, 2020
    other

    In have an updated list which captures what I am using now. Minimalism led me to simplify my possessions.This post is the complete list of everything I personally own. At the end of each year I review what I have used in the previous year and decide what to use, retire and add in the…

  • Family Gear 2021

    December 13, 2020
    other

    Several items on my personal gear list were used by the whole family, and thus, this page was born. I have excluded our furniture. We keep only those items that are useful and/or are enjoyed which allows our family to focus on doing things that we find rewarding rather than devoting ourselves to managing stuff.…

  • Favorite Movies

    November 5, 2020
    personal

    A friend recently asked “If you could watch only one movie, what would it be?” This is an incredibly hard question. In the end, my answer was the documentary Weapons of the Spirit, a story of the town Le Chambon that sheltered around 5,000 jews during the Nazi occupation. The cinematography isn’t amazing but the…

  • Abortion – No Easy Answers

    September 22, 2020
    spiritual

    The following was extracted from the “preserve life” section of my make a difference post because a paragraph wasn’t enough. TL;DR I believe that we should do everything possible to compassionately discourage abortions. This starts with empathy for the mother. Abortions are rarely a flip decision or a casually selected birth control method. The vast…

  • Make a Difference

    September 21, 2020
    do good, personal

    These are notes I made for myself when I was considering a career change many years ago. Last week several friends indicated an interest my notes so I am sharing them here. At some point I would like to flesh this list out with more references. NGOs and other mission driven organizations tend to focus…

  • Confirmation Bias and Shoes

    July 28, 2020
    learning, personal

    I have been reading Thinking Fast and Slow which I would highly recommend. If you have read a summary and think you know what’s in the book you are wrong. I think it takes example after example to actually internalize how easily we are influenced by things we don’t notice. I am writing up some…

  • Shopping Diet Retro June 2020

    June 29, 2020
    money, simplicity

    I strive to be grateful for my material possessions and not fall into the trap of consistent consumption. For the last several years I limit my purchases to consumables and replacing items that wore out for most of the year, aka a shopping diet. Think of this as intermittent fasting applied to purchasing. When I…

  • The Bugforce Scale

    June 10, 2020
    outdoors

    Outdoor activities often requires dealing with biting bugs such as mosquitos which are annoying, but generally not directly life threatening (though they can be a disease vector). There are also ticks, black flies, spiders, scorpions, and some ant variants. Appropriate preventative measures vary by the “Bugforce” that is expected. Qualifying Bugforce Bugforce Scale as proposed…

  • Hiking Destinations

    June 9, 2020
    outdoors, travel

    The following is a reference I use when selecting the next hiking or backpacking destination with a bias toward Northern California. I make it in 2002 and just now moving it from my old site so it is easier to fix broken links and add new places to try. Each year I say “This year…

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Mark's Musings