Is anybody surprised by what’s going on right now? The most “alpha male” that I know is a short, soft-spoken man in his 70s. Most people can take him in a fight, but nobody would ever try – he has too many friends! Everybody loves him, and when he speaks, everybody listens and respects every word. He is incredibly smart, shows tremendous insight, and has…
My daughter’s (and her new husband’s) house has a breakfast nook, and my sister-in-law (who has an amazing eye for decorating) suggested that I build a banquette for it. Within a week of finishing the pantry, I started designing and building it. I had no written plans and they weren’t certain what they wanted, but I figured that a basic L shape would fit nicely…
My daughter’s new house had a great kitchen, but it didn’t really have a pantry. They did have space for a pantry behind their back door, but the space was non-standard and the pantries that we looked at didn’t fit well. So I volunteered to build one. I should note that while I’m pretty handy and I love building things, I’m not really a furniture…
A few months ago my daughter and her fiancée bought a house in Mountlake Terrace, a suburb north of Seattle. It is only 9, minutes from our own house, so we are very excited. Houses in Seattle are very expensive, so what they bought was a small, one-story house built in 1962 that needs a lot of work. At least the kitchen is in pretty…
After my first year of college, I spent 18 months living in Houston trying to save money. What became painfully clear is that people with important skills have much more earning potential than those who do not (which is the primary reason why I returned to college, studied computer science, and worked extremely hard). My earning potential during that time was laughably low, and it…
I have worked my entire life, starting with a paper route at age 10. I could not imagine what retirement would be like – what would I do? I don’t have a lot of hobbies. On Jan 28, 2025 I was unexpectedly laid off from my job at Nuna (my first lay off) and that started my experiment with retirement. After a month of not…
Countries have several tools to expand their influence: The first two approaches fall under “hard power,” while the third approach falls under “soft power” (a term coined by political scientist Joseph Nye Jr.in the 1980s). This article does a good job of explaining soft power and its limits. To put it simply: hard power relies on coercion and soft power relies on seduction. Both are…
There is enough going on around immigration policy that it warrants its own entry. As a step to making America great again, we have decided to crack down on illegal immigrants, which can include: Trump has increased ICE’s budget between 400% and 1,000%, making it more funded than both the FBI and the DEA. The new enforcement behaviors damage the rule of law for the…
In theory, everybody is equal under the law. In practice, that has rarely been the case – the rich and influential are much less likely to be held accountable, while the poor and minorities are much more likely to be arrested and convicted. But what we are seeing right now has gone beyond that. President Trump is setting new precedents every day. It has little…
When my wife worked as an ICU nurse, she once had a patient who had a really bad toothache. He took some Tylenol, but it didn’t help much, so he took some more Tylenol. Since he was an alcoholic, he washed it all down with beer. After a few days of this, he started experiencing abdominal pain, which resulted in my wife caring for him…
