After a long, refreshing four-week vacation, I am back in action! I did my best to fully unplug from all my hobbies, side hustles, and worries. And honestly, I just feel incredibly lucky to even be in a position to take a four-week vacation. It got me thinking about luck….How did I get so lucky? Do we make our own luck? Do we simply just “get lucky?” Or are we, in a sense, born with it? Read the rest of the article at Accidentally Retired ***** AR Recommends Track your net worth with Empower...
2 months ago • 1 min read
Seriously….are they? Sometimes I do wonder… Especially when I see the family down the street pack up their RV to head out for a long weekend. Seeing that always makes me a bit jealous, even though I know that owning an RV would be a headache — not to mention that my family just went on a big trip out of the country a few months back. Or what about when I log onto Facebook or Instagram and see nothing but smiley faces, epic trips to exotic locations, or so-and-so’s recent promotion? It makes...
4 months ago • 1 min read
In the last couple of years, I have gotten into hiking — as a workout, a way to clear my mind, and simply for the pure enjoyment of being in nature. I started with short and easy hikes, but gradually worked my way up to the grueling mountain peaks here in town, like Camelback Mountain. These are serious workouts—I’ll burn over 1,000 calories in an hour. And boy, do I love it! There’s just something about hiking up a small mountain that brings me to the present moment like no other. It doesn’t...
5 months ago • 1 min read
A few weeks ago, my Google account gave me the good old “Your Gmail storage is 96% full” warning. I had been toeing the line at 95% for the last year or so, but it finally crept over, and it was time to do some spring cleaning. Thankfully, Google has a good storage cleanup tool, and it was easy to figure out that the majority of the problem was coming from 15+ year-old attachments from when I was running several businesses out of that account. As I began my Gmail cleanup process, I started...
5 months ago • 1 min read
For the past year, I’ve had some form of AI chatbot open almost anytime I’m working on the computer. Whether it’s ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude, I’ve been rotating through them to help with everything from writing and coding to simulating Japanese conversations and, surprisingly, financial planning. Yep, even, financial planning. Just two years ago, AI felt hit-or-miss—sometimes helpful, sometimes hilariously wrong. But recently, the improvements have been dramatic. And in the past few weeks,...
6 months ago • 1 min read
Most of my writing starts with a simple idea—an idea swirling around in my brain that wants to be put down on paper. I had an idea for an article - but when I did a Google search on the potential title I found that there were already many, MANY, similar articles on the same concept. I don't usually pre-search my idea to see what's out there, I just write what comes to mind and the article comes to fruition. And yet today I searched. And wow - there's so much out there! My article was already...
6 months ago • 1 min read
I missed my annual reading update...so what the hell, let's do it now! To start, I've spent a lot of time in the last year and change, reading The Stormlight Archives by Brandon Sanderson. I really have enjoyed that series, but they are some loooonnnnggg books. I am currently still on Book 4. On top of diving headlong into fiction, I've also spent some time revisiting one of my favorite books, Awareness by Anthony de Mello - in fact, I've read it twice because it is so calming (AR review...
7 months ago • 1 min read
Waking up lately is getting harder and harder. And it’s not that I am sleeping any worse than before…in fact sometimes I am sleeping better, but I am just so, so, so very tired. As any parent of two elementary-age children will tell you, parenting is NEVER-ENDING exhaustion. From the neediness to the attention-craving whining, crying, shouting, and laughing. It all compounds. Yet somehow, most of us parents managed to fool ourselves into thinking that it would be easy. But raising kids to be...
8 months ago • 1 min read
I've been struggling to write lately. Heck, I've been struggling with the motivation to work on much of anything. At first, I couldn't put my finger on it. I mean, by all accounts, I AM living the dream: My kids are doing great. My wife is awesome. I work only a few hours a day on things that I have purposely chosen to work on. I am about as fit as I have ever been at 40. We've been taking amazing trips with our kids every year! By all extents and purposes, I am making the most out of most...
8 months ago • 1 min read