Raised By Turtles

Now without tracking!

20 Dec 2019

We are tracked too aggressively on the web. I am opting out and, while you’re on my blog, I’m opting you out too.

The Best of Our Energies

1 Dec 2019 (updated 21 Dec, 2022)

The story of a visionary president, a moonshot and the most powerful toilet bowl cleaners known to man.

If Physical Mail Were Like Email

29 Nov 2019 (updated 21 Dec, 2022)

Down at the pmail warehouse, I’m scuba diving in my Incoming bin and CCing people like a dervish. If only I could find time to do some actual work.

Friends Lie

13 Nov 2019 (updated 21 Dec, 2022)

The really good ones do anyway.

The Faithful Couple

12 Nov 2019 (updated 21 Dec, 2022)

Love. A little about us. A little about them. A little about nobody I actually know. A little about some trees I care about.

Curriculum Vitae

15 Mar 2019 (updated 21 Dec, 2022)

Some simple things are easy to learn. Some simple things are hard.

When we “improve” a road, what exactly are we improving?This is a reflection on improving roads, both actual and metaphorical, in Death Valley and Yosemite and the slow loss of “natural” places with every “improvement.”

The Last-Straw Ratchet

31 Dec 2018 (updated 16 Nov, 2019)

We have good camels in our caravan. Maybe not great, but good. But then we pile on too much, so the good camels leave and get replaced by slightly worse camels and we ratchet down, because too many camel drivers think their job is to make the camels adjust to the load, when usually their job is to adjust the load to the camels.

Farmers and Miners

17 Dec 2018 (updated 16 Nov, 2019)

A farmer works the land for generations and, if careful, the land is worth more with each passing year. A miner extracts what he can from the land and, when done, it’s worthless. Most business people are either farmers or miners and we need both. The problem is miners who mistake themselves for farmers.

Personal Favorites

Improved Roads (thoughts on the loss of wild places)
A Theory of Dryer Crimes (fiction in which Jason turns out to be an asshole)
The Forgetoir (a new literary form to replace the memoir)
The Faithful Couple (a poem about long-term love)
Curriculum Vitae (a poem about learning to live)
Best Jeremiah Johnson Quotes (the only post to appear on both the "favorites" list and the "most popular" list, because JJ is a movie to live by)
Ice Cream For Dinner (imaginary high school graduation speech; my chance to tell young people to stop listening to the lies of their elders)
The Boy Behind the Couch (reading Susan Cain and my secret life as an introvert)
How To Tell Tom from Las Vegas (my friends get this, others may not)
Sarah's Watch (fiction fragment and experiment in writing with Hemingway App)
Learning to Read (and what makes a great reader).
You Can Always Yell Later (a life lesson from my mom on getting what you want and making the world better)
I’d Like to Add You to My Network. Some of these Linked in connection options are getting scary (humor, I think).
Six Essential Skills that Marketers Can Teach Academics (for scholars who write grants and apply for fellowships, please stop aiming the gun at your foot).