When friends learn that my mom was raised Amish, deciding to leave the church and her family when she was 17, I usually get a few strange looks. People want to know more about the conservative Old Order Amish Mennonite Church and why they shun electricity and modern technology. They usually have questions too about... Continue Reading →
The lessons I’ve learned from ‘opening a vein’
(A version of this story ran in February 2016.) When I first started writing this blog in 2015, I learned that it was different from anything else I had tried in the past. I jotted down a few of those lessons in 2016 and they still hold true today. Let me know what you think.... Continue Reading →
Tripping on the career ladder
Early in my career, I would pack up my laptop, grab my coat, get up from my desk, and quietly leave work with my head down. I’d nod to a few people, but I wouldn’t say much. It didn’t matter that I had gotten to work at the crack of dawn, hours before anyone else,... Continue Reading →
A life full of paradoxes
We live in an "all or nothing, I'm right and I need to be heard" society. However, some of the most important truths in life are contradictory. They seem like impossibilities, yet experience proves them to be obvious over and over again. Of course, I have to point to the George Carlin’s treatise on The Modern... Continue Reading →
Barbie girl in a Barbie world
When I read through the list of the 2023 Oscar nominations on Tuesday and saw that Barbie, the highest grossing movie of the year, was nominated for several awards — including Best Supporting Actor nomination for Ryan Gosling — but Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig were snubbed for the Best Actress and Best Director awards,... Continue Reading →
Back to vinyl
My son got a record player last year and it’s been fun talking with him about music across the decades and albums he should collect. There’s been talk of classic must-have albums like Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd and new ones like The Weekend. (Over his break, he didn’t really care for my wife’s suggestion... Continue Reading →
Turning back time
Let’s talk about Daylight Savings Time. Daylight Saving Time is the changing of the clocks that typically begins in spring in early-to-mid March and ends in fall, near the beginning of November, in what is often referred to as "spring forward" and "fall back. DST is observed in most of Europe, North America and parts... Continue Reading →
Curious about life
I have a curious brain, which can be good, especially when it comes to useless trivia, but also sometimes gets me in trouble. In the age of the Internet, I find that I'm curious about life. Here's what I mean: Do Pen Pals still exist? Back in the day, pen pals were people who regularly... Continue Reading →
When DIY goes bad
When I was a kid, I loved magazines like National Geographic, Popular Mechanics, Boys Life, and a few others. I loved the images from around the world and stories about how to build your own go-kart or start a fire with nothing but sticks and some string. Now the devil was in the details. Have... Continue Reading →

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