Category: Uncategorized
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Learning How To Learn
One of the most useful skills we can build is to learn how to learn. I think it should be the foundation of elementary school. Maybe middle school and high school also. Everything we will need to do as an adult is something that we will need to learn. But parents, friends, and school can’t…
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Past April’s Fools
In 2009, I had my one and only good April Fool’s Day prank. There were some minor ones on our wedding day (also April 1), but my mother-in-law warned us all. That’s a story for another time. This story starts with the building of a former employer. It was a long 4-story building with a…
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Barnes & Noble, Brookfield, WI
When I go into bookstores, I look for where my books would be shelved.
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A Really Good Stick
This one hits close to home. I enjoy all the new stuff, but there are simpler things in life that are just as enjoyable. https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/yeep
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Downtown Milwaukee
“Afternoon drinking” sounds better than “Day drinking”
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Roadtrip!
Went on a road trip with a couple of high school friends. We have stayed connected over the years, the frequency of communication ebbing and flowing like the tides. The thing is, our conversations get fairly deep pretty quickly. We’ve been able to talk about important stuff since high school when our lives stretched out…
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Sorting and choosing
Sorting and choosing I think this makes a lot of sense. Figuring out which options are good enough is an important step to reducing option overload.
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Rephrasing
I’ve been trying to break some bad habits. When someone tells me that they have done some cool, I want to stop saying “I could never have done that!”. Instead, I want to say “That’s amazing, tell me about it!” When I learn that someone hasn’t seen a movie, gone somewhere, or heard music I…
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Purses Curses
Research Results*: When women move from their normal purse to a small purse (for example, to go to the state fair, sporting event, or concert where purse size is limited), the definition of the phrase “the absolute minimum” becomes somewhat fluid. As in “I only need to put the bare minimum in here.” Men related…
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2026 Goals
So this is a little late to post. I set these goals in Jan/Feb, but didn’t think to post them. I assume like other years it will change as the year goes by.
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Career Path: Ending
When our full-time career ends, there are three possibilities. Those are the only three choices. The chance of the first one is very low. We have some influence over where we end up, but we don’t control the opportunity part of things We do, however, have total control over how we react to it.
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Dear Mrs. V
Dear Mrs. V, After 40+ years, this thank you letter is long overdue. I recently started writing fiction and was chatting about it with a good friend at happy hour. When I mentioned your name as a major influence, he interrupted me. “Have you told her?” I just stared at him — the only answer…
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Sometimes you have to go analog
The are some chapters near the end of my first novel. There are three story lines and I was struggling to interleave them properly using cut&paste. Printing it out allowed me to snip scenes where I wanted and piece them together as needed.
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Largest Cities
https://kottke.org/24/03/the-most-populous-cities-in-the-world-from-3000-bce-to-today This is a fun little video that shows the top ten populous cities in the world over the last couple of thousand years. Excellent visuals, easy to understand. I’ve watched it a couple of times and learn something each time.
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Luna’s kill count
A few years ago, we had just come back from a camping trip. We had been gone for a couple of weeks. This is springtime. Grass is turning green, trees are leading out. Rabbits are being born. But we didn’t know this. The rabbits were hidden in their little hidey holes. We didn’t even see…