I think we had a discounted membership through work when my wife and I were first married (over two decades ago) but we rarely, if ever used it and let it lapse. But last Saturday we got a Costco membership. The primary reason? Protein powder. When our town finally got a Costco warehouse a few years ago, everyone...

I listened to a couple episodes of the Catholic Answers Live podcast on the topic of prayer and a few things stood out to me. I should preface these notes by saying I feel I have struggled with prayer most of my life, especially as I have gotten older. Latter-day Saints believe in praying “from the heart,” as in no...

Reddit is killing RSS support. On November 13, they are going to remove the ability to subscribe to subreddits via RSS, and their stated reason is weak, at best. RSS – Really Simple Syndication – has existed since the early days of the Internet and is still supported by many websites. It's a hallmark of the open web...

I need to publish 26 more blog posts before November 11th to reach my goal of 100 posts in one year. This is my second time doing the 100 Days To Offload challenge. I've had some long dry spells in writing over the past year, but it the challenge has definitely helped motivate me to write more than I probably would...

I am aware of the very real problems with Apple as a company. Nevertheless, I find their products and services extremely helpful when used intentionally and synergistically. This is not a paid advertisement, haha. Just sharing a few thoughts about how these tools are helping me. I am working on many things all at...

In my deep study of both Catholicism and Mormonism over the past year or so, one question that seems to keep coming up is: how can I know when I have been forgiven of sins? Latter-day Saints believe that we can know we have been forgiven of our sins when we have truly repented and we feel peace and joy through the...

If you've followed my blog for a while, you know of my love-hate relationship with technology. Video games, in particular, are a good example of this. I go through stretches where I enjoy video games, and longer stretches where I say I've sworn off them forever. But maybe it doesn't have to be all or nothing for me...

I got the results of the blood labs from my annual physical and I'm doing pretty good in all areas except one: my LDL (bad) cholesterol is too high. This has been something I've struggled with for years and have managed to keep it down with diet and exercise, but it's higher now than it has been in a while. I'm...

I have gone to Mass several times with my mother and step-father. But yesterday I attended my first Catholic Mass by myself. Here are my thoughts and observations. I decided to go to the Saturday 5pm Mass. Although I am not Catholic, I have learned enough to know that Saturday evening Mass satisifes the Catholic...

I think in the next 5 years, most jobs in my field – data analysis and visualization – will be replaced by AI. So I've been thinking about different careers I could jump to that would be better “insulated” from AI replacement. It's possible that my current job will morph from designing and building interactive data...

Apple recently announced an upcoming feature for their new Apple Watches called “Audio Intelligence,” which will always be listening to and transcribing conversations in the background and summarizing them at the end of the day. While Apple have implemented some protections and safeguards to protect the privacy of...

I recently wrote a post about quitting Twitch. I still think my reasons are valid, but after taking more time to think through things, I realize that my reaction was knee-jerk and the situation is more complicated than I want it to be. I think a case can be made for staying on Twitch while being aware of its faults...