The last week was a blur. We drove some 1500 miles round-trip, saw some beautiful scenery, visited with family and friends, ate way too much food that's bad for us, and spent some quality time together as a family. The occasion was Christmas, of course. While it was a hectic week, I was thankful for the break from...

In his book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis explains the Christian perspective on the relationship of human individuals to one another, and two errors we are tempted to fall into. Christianity thinks of human individuals not as mere members of a group or items in a list, but as organs in a body – different from one...

A relative bought us movie tickets to see Avatar: Fire and Ash with them on Christmas Day. Since I have never seen the first two films, I thought it would be a good idea to catch up. So I subscribed to Disney+ for a month (and promptly cancelled) and finally watched Avatar and its sequel Avatar: The Way of Water...

I just left an online community I've been participating in for the last five years. It started out on Slack at the beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic in late 2020 and later moved to Discord. I've been considering leaving for quite some time, but after an unpleasant interaction this morning it felt like the right...

As part of my responsibilities as a lay minister in my church, I help lead the youth age 12 to 17. We have weekly youth activities and yesterday we went Christmas caroling in a 55+ community in our neighborhood. We split into two groups and each group had a list of elderly people to visit – mostly widows and single...

I probably spent too much on music today. I tend to do that on Bandcamp, especially when labels are having sales on their entire catalogs so I can buy multiple titles and save on shipping costs. “Hey, its supporting small and independent artists and labels,” I tell myself. I recently discovered a label called...

I never did fall back asleep last night. My soul was in too much turmoil. So I decided to watch a movie to distract me. I think there was a little divine intervention at work because the movie I picked was exactly what I needed. Of all movies on my Amazon Prime watch list, I picked The Hiding Place. It's based on...

I can’t sleep. Yesterday was rough. What was supposed to be a relaxing day off work before Thanksgiving was ruined by drama during a Twitch stream. Drama that I did not cause or invite, but that found me anyway. And the fallout from this latest drama is making me revisit the idea of just leaving Twitch altogether. I...

I don't even know who said it first, but it's a good axiom: the best things in life aren't things. In other words, there are more important things than money and possessions. I'm realizing that I've been stuck yet again in a cycle of obsessing over things like finances and gadgets and technology and collecting...

I got a haircut today at Great Clips. In my area, a standard haircut costs $21 before tip, but I had a $3-off coupon so it was $18 today. I usually tip $7 because that's the middle of the three suggested tip amounts. So today I paid $25 out the door. I tried to find Great Clips haircut pricing info from 2019 but I...

I can't believe I didn't think of it sooner, but I am now blocking ads and trackers system-wide on my iPhone via AdGuard's public DNS. And anyone can set this up for free on their phones, PCs, or even their home routers. There are several different free DNS providers who can do this, but I went with AdGuard for now....

Today I took a chance on buying a used early-1990s Pioneer HiFi system I saw listed in an online classified ad. CD player, dual cassette deck, and stereo receiver for in great cosmetic shape for $45. The seller said the CD player and cassette deck powered on, but hadn't been tested, and the receiver didn't power on....