For most of my adult life, I’ve been a pretty rational guy. I’ve prided myself in a scientific mind, one unclouded by spirituality and mysticism. Yet as I’ve experienced profound personal changes over the past few years, I’ve found myself more and more fascinated by abstract (or “spiritual”) questions, the likes of which I haven’t …

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Because I love The Cinnamon Bear so much, I post this same article every year. This year is no different, except that I’m posting it here instead of at Get Rich Slowly. If you have young children — and even if you don’t — I encourage you to listen to these old radio broadcasts with …

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I’m the kind of guy who likes traditions. I like familiarity and routine. Despite having made many major changes in my life over the past few years, I still find myself drawn to certain rituals, especially around the holidays. For me, Thanksgiving Day is especially full of meaning. It’s my favorite holiday. I think it’s …

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Famous First Lines

On Saturday, our book group met to discuss Ernest Hemingway’s 1941 classic For Whom the Bell Tolls. Most of us thought it was great. I loved the language in the book; I hadn’t read Hemingway since high school, and I’d forgotten that he used to be one of my favorite authors. Here’s how he opens …

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It’s been a year since Kris and I began the divorce process. For most of that time, I’ve been living alone in a 700-square-foot apartment in northeast Portland. It’s not a bad place, but it’s never felt like home. Plus, it’s noisy. It’s noisy from the neighbors (and their dogs!), but it’s also noisy from …

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“The path to a passionate life is often way more complex than the simple advice ‘follow your passion’ would suggest.” — Cal Newport As one of my tasks for World Domination Summit, I recently rewatched recordings of every main-stage speaker. Though all of the speakers were great, Cal Newport’s talk has been most on my …

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Cute Airline Safety Videos

My friend Jen (well, one of my friends Jen — I have three…or more) sent me this video, which you’ve probably already seen. It’s a New Zealand Airline safety briefing with hobbits and elves and orcs. And Gollum. Cute. (And, in one place, with double entendre!) But I’ll tell you what. Nothing beats the safety …

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Escape from Freedom

“We cannot solve life’s problems except by solving them.” — M. Scott Peck One reason I enjoy dating Kim is that although superficially we’re unalike, and although we’ve had vastly different life experiences, deep down we have similar values and life philosophies. This means we have some interesting conversations about the way the world works, …

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Election Night

This morning, I drove half an hour from Portland to Canby to run a bunch of errands. I stopped by the family box factory to do some computer programming (paper prices have risen), had lunch with my accountant (who is also a close friend), and had my girlfriend clean my teeth (she’s a dental hygienist). …

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We Are What We Think

Today, while sorting notes for a big project I have planned for 2013 (my biggest project for 2013, actually), I found a scrap of paper on which I’d copied three excerpts of a buddhist poem. (Well, not a poem precisely, but close enough.) Each of these three verses comes from a different place in a …

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