Heat Weirdlastname June 15, 2000 Dear 35-year-old Heat, I’ve finally admitted to myself something that I’ve been denying or avoiding for a long time: I’m fat, and I’m rapidly getting fatter. I’m 70 pounds heavier than I was when I graduated high school just 7 years ago. I could blame it on genetics, Heat. Mom is fat. … Read more
We might agree on talent: does it exist? What are the circumstances? And so on. Regardless, no one—talented or not—makes it in a skill-based pursuit without hard work. A lot of hard work. And then more hard work. Topped off with a bit more hard work. Discipline. Focus. Pushing through “I don’t feel like it.” … Read more
There are a lot of recipes circulating that claim to be healthy “treat” food. (If we’d stop using language like that, it would take away some of their power.) Unfortunately, all of the ones I’ve seen and/or tried are either not actually healthy or not actually tasty. Sure, I can make cookies out of oats … Read more
The Kid has been very interested in astronomy off and on. He’s “on” right now, wants to be an astronaut engineer when he grows up (his definition of that varies), reads about space, watches videos about space. Right now, space is where it’s at. Coincidentally, right now, Jupiter is visible to the naked eye. And … Read more
A few years ago, I bought a course by Brené Brown through Udemy. The course is no longer available for purchase, but I still have access to it and go through part or all of it from time to time. At one point, she said (paraphrased), “85% of adults interviewed remember something so shaming from … Read more
In blog writing, I have a few rules I’ve set for myself. Always proofread at least twice (once immediately and once after walking away, ideally for a day, but an hour will do in a pinch). Don’t share identifying information about people or share other people’s stories that aren’t mine to tell (unless I have … Read more
Via recommendation, I I have now listened to my first episode of Finding Mastery: Conversations with Michael Gervais. It was a good one. (Obviously I can’t speak to the podcast on the whole.) He was interviewing Abby Wambach, a former professional soccer player (highest all-time scorer, regardless of gender) and Olympian. Many pieces of the … Read more
“You can’t judge someone’s health by their weight.” This is mostly true. Super-skinny people sometimes just have high metabolism. I know a handful of people who eat well and are very slender. (There is at least as much vitriol towards the very slender as there is towards the obese.) Sometimes slightly chunky people are just … Read more
What if we respected aging instead of dreading and denigrating it? (I believe we only denigrate it because we fear it.) What if being in one place for 30 or 40 or 50 (or more!) years meant you were a source of history and information? A wealth of knowledge? What if grey was just another … Read more
…know the quirks of the area. I will never forget the diatribe of a woman I worked with years ago. We were in a training (no idea what the training was actually for) and we were debating pros and cons of putting in a light rail system in Phoenix. Her argument was that they should … Read more