I’ve been using Linux Mint on my new (used) laptop for the past week, and I have to say, I’m pretty happy with it. Desktop tooling and options have expanded dramatically over the past five to seven years, or maybe Mint was always this customizable and I didn’t know because I was using Ubuntu in […]
Supporting Businesses vs. Wasting Your Money
One of the arguments against the FIRE community and seemingly radical savings is that if everyone stopped spending money, the economy would collapse. It’s an interesting argument, but it’s not showing the whole picture, and while it’s not wrong for this reason alone, it’s an argument often presented by people who are terrible with money […]
Brief Thoughts on Voting
I’m trying to do my civic duty and fill out my ballot for this year’s Colorado election, but it’s a royal pain in the ass, even after dragging my feet for a solid week or so. Some elections only have one or two items, but this year it’s a laundry list of drugs, alcohol, and […]
Escape Velocity: Getting Your Savings to Actually Work for You
When I was in high school and college, I was “good” with money. I spent very little on myself, never bought things like DVDs or other entertainment media, and rarely bought expensive things. But strangely, this was never enough. Despite saving most of my birthday and Christmas money, my first semester of college wiped out […]
Brief Thoughts on Engine Rebuilds
I would love to learn how to rebuild an engine. I think it would be an excellent educational experience. But it’s also not to be taken lightly, as it requires space and several very specialized tools, such as an engine stand and a valve spring compressor, to name just a few. It has occurred to […]
Return of the Linux Box
Corporations are not your friends. You are a number to them, with potential dollar signs. And I don’t personally care that we no longer walk to the bakery and talk to Bertha and ask how the kids are doing – I often prefer the cold system of exchange we have, because I usually just want […]
Schadenfreude and Expectations
On my second to last day in Nepal, I was reluctantly ferried to a restaurant with a large group of white people and basically trapped in a large room where we waited 2.5 hours for the main meal to be served while generally being sold alcohol and goaded for donations by actors who half-assedly performed […]
Fruit Vendors
I should have been trekking today, but thanks to the ridiculous weather Nepal has been experiencing, I’m sitting in a hotel reflecting on life and stuff (and reading memes). The other day, in Kathmandu, I was hanging out with my porter from the trip I took earlier this year, and as we were browsing around, […]
Downsizing the Lego Collection
I think this is a good case study in downsizing. I told myself this past year that I’d like to do one or two Lego projects, somewhere along the lines of finishing a mech I started building years ago and maybe building a house or two based on designs from the 1920s. Neither has happened. […]
Brief Thoughts on Busyness
Busyness is rarely just caused by our immediate necessary actions – busyness, I think, has an awful lot to do with the cognitive load that we place on ourselves. Having quit my job early this year, it’s never ceased to amaze me how I still feel busy on a regular basis, even though I have […]