Diet Religions

Food used to be food, and I’m not sure people spent much time worrying whether it was “healthy” or not, but in a world full of diseases specifically caused by diet, people have attempted to ease their existential understanding of food by subscribing to various diet religions, accompanied by their own prophets, rituals, and dogma. […]

Identity, Community, and the Desire to Fit In

I’ve meant to write this for some time, but I’ve continually put it off. It is, first and foremost, a story, but it is a story with a deeper message that I think can be valuable to others. I have always gotten along well with people. In grade school, I was something of a chameleon […]

A Slow Transition Toward Healthier Foods

It’s been a little over a month since I started ditching some of my favorite unhealthy foods in exchange for much healthier foods, but it’s been a tough trip, and there’s still more progress to be made. I don’t mean to start out on a negative note, but I think it’s important for setting up […]

Even More Thoughts on Books

After giving away a great many books a few months ago, I’ve had the chance to stem the tide, reflect on what information is actually valuable to read, and take something of a break from buying so many books. Overall, I think this has worked, and I’m finally reaching the point at which I really […]

Facebook Friends

I have under 100 friends on Facebook, and have for some time, but the interesting thing about having so few friends is that it’s very easy to tell when somebody has removed you, since your friend count will go down quite visibly. Recently, somebody removed me, but for the life of me, I don’t know […]

The Resolution of Inner Torment

The season I’m in is very unusual. On its surface, it’s a time for study and a time to prepare for a major career shift that could steer the course of the rest of my life. But under the surface, something much deeper is happening. Several times this past year, my jaw became sore during […]

Meta-Politics: Lifting Others Up

The other day, a friend made a long post on Facebook regarding women’s rights and and how trans rights have skewed several important issues regarding women. I was inclined to agree with what was being said, and was going to “like” it, but I was also too lazy to read the whole thing and as […]

Life and Money: More Reflections

In an effort to organize my thoughts, I’ll break this down into three categories: updated thoughts about my mom’s condition, reflections from the job search, and other. Updated thoughts about my mom’s condition I don’t think it would be wise for me to cash out my 401k to pay off my mom’s medical debt. This […]

Reflections from a Rough Patch

Things haven’t been great lately, but while talking some of this out with friends can be helpful, some things are simply easier to write. I’m going to try to organize these thoughts, but they could still be scattered. The day before my first certification test in December, less than a week before Christmas, I got […]

Contributions to History

Over the past few years, I’ve managed to scan several dozen old mining catalogs, bulletins, and pamphlets and have uploaded them to the Internet Archive. But the thought of doing more makes me sick. It started with trying to build a PVC scanning rig in a manner made popular by David Landin, known frequently as […]