I wasn’t much of a reader during my high school and college years, but if I was, Infinite Powers by Steven Strogatz is a book that should have been at the top of my reading list. It would have made it a lot easier to get through my advanced math and science classes in high school, and it would have given me a solid foundation for what was to come while studying for my engineering degree in college.
Continue readingI’ve gotten into the habit of building a reading list at the beginning of the year. It’s a good way to document my reading goals for the year, track my reading, see progress year-over-year, and collect any suggestions or recommendations based on the types of books that I like to read. This is the 13th edition of my annual reading list(s).
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“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you might miss it.”
Ferris Bueller, 1986
When you are in the midst of raising four kids, the chaos feels like it will never end. The incessant noise around the house, sports practices, school events, taxiing kids around town. It’s easy to lose sight of the big picture, because just like that, one by one, they go off to college. And before you know it, then there is none. Nearly forty years after the movie was released, those words uttered by Ferris himself have never rung more true for me.
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As an avid reader of science fiction, it should come as no surprise that books about the colonization of other planets, especially Mars, regularly show up in my Amazon recommendations. These recommendations led me to the Colony Mars Series by Gerald M. Kilby. The description looked interesting, so I decided to give it a go.
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Brad and I recently returned from our annual destination golf trip. This year we went to Pinehurst, referred to as ‘The Cradle’ of American golf. With ten courses, a nine hole Par 3, and an 18 hole putting green, there are a lot of choices when it comes to golf. In fact, there are so many choices it can make it hard to decide which courses you should play. Since I caught some grief for not reviewing the courses from our last trip to Phoenix promptly (yes, I’m looking at you Connor), here are my thoughts on the courses at Pinehurst while the trip is fresh in my mind.
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While there’s an allure to the bright lights of the big city, there’s no place like home. Or is there?
That’s the philosophical question that Matt Dunn explores in the novel Home. For anyone, like me, who left a small town for the big city, it makes you wonder what it would be like if you returned to your roots.
Continue readingNeedless to say, 2024 has gotten off to a slow start for the blog. There’s multiple reasons (aka excuses) this has happened, but I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to update and reorganize the website to get me focused on more regular posting.
Those were the words I used what I made the plans for the blog in 2024 – August of 2024 to be exact. If you don’t be believe me, you don’t have to scroll down the front page of the blog that far to read the entire article. It more or less sums up what happened in 2024 because that slow start extended through the end of the year.
Normally, I do a review of my blogging from the previous year and post plans for the coming year. I’m going to keep it simple this year.
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While I don’t read as many business books as I used to, I’m always on the lookout for books that can help me grow my knowledge to run a successful business. As a solo-preneur, it’s critical to always be learning, especially given how fast the business environment is changing these days. So when Priyesh Dhorajiwala reached out to me to review his book, The Power of Marketing Channels: A Comprehensive Guide to Growing Your Results, I accepted the offer.
Continue readingOn January 1st, 2014, I published my first set of fitness goals. While a lot has changed over the years, my focus on health and fitness hasn’t. As I’ve done each year since those first fitness goals were published, here’s the plan for 2025.
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My typical reading routine involves reading a short story between titles on my reading list. Sometimes the story will come from a collection, such as Stories of Your Life and Others (Ted Chiang) or Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick. Other times, interesting stand-alone titles appear.
Such was the case with The Scenic Route by Christina Baker Kline. An email from Amazon alerted me that it was available for free as an Amazon Original. Since I had really enjoyed Kline’s Orphan Train, it was an easy decision to make this one of my short story readings.
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