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How to Listen to The Beatles: Part 1 of 2
You may be thinking just now, “I know how to listen to the Beatles, David: you type ‘the beatles’ into the search bar of the appropriate app and click on the nicest looking playlist that comes up.” Sure, wise guy. Go ahead and do that. You will almost certainly have a very nice time. But… Continue reading
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Regarding the news in 2025
I would once, just once, like to sample the news on a day when the prevailing tenor of the day’s events is not that “the world is growing more hostile to freedom, and that makes a lot of people feel better about themselves.” I could try to wax poetic about it, but that would be… Continue reading
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This bird has it too good
Consider the bird. His name is Yoshi, and he is a green-cheeked parakeet, AKA green-cheeked conure. He gets the treatment depicted in this photo nearly every day of his life. Virtually whenever he wants, he can sit in my hand—not in the way that birds typically “sit” (which is really just standing), but rather as… Continue reading
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The National Parks Conservation Association
I began supporting this organization in 2017, when I perceived an increasing danger to the safety and integrity of America’s public lands and natural environment. It’s 2025, and as you may have observed in some of my writings, I am still perceiving mightily. The policies of the present administration create too many threats to our… Continue reading
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The state of the novel
Almost twenty years ago, I had an idea about a hero who could surround himself with an impermeable shell. I tried to write about it, but I couldn’t find the focus while I was in college, so it never got beyond a short prologue. That prologue may exist somewhere, but I haven’t seen it in… Continue reading
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Sick to my stomach
The vast majority of people living under an arbitrary and authoritarian government are never disappeared from their homes, or herded into concentration camps, or stripped of their property and due process rights. If I could grant the people of the United States an understanding of anything, it is that it is still a moral and… Continue reading
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The Drawback
Before we get into a morass of negativity, I want to emphasize the positives: I had a great time in Seattle last week. To celebrate a friend’s graduation from a nursing program, Ariele and I drove up some 200 miles in our Chevy Bolt, and four days later returned home in safety and smiles. It… Continue reading
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A High School Chemistry Equation
At my tutoring job, I have an opportunity to re-familiarize myself with subjects I have not touched in a while. Certain types of questions tend to come up in waves, as groups of students encounter the same conceptual difficulties at around the same time. By the time a wave crests, I am refreshed enough to… Continue reading
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Old Things
(Note for mobile readers below*) _All my things are in the creek todayI have long since replaced them all Many new things Many more things But my things are slimy with algae Or somethingI don’t know what that pink stuff is There was a book about it on my shelfAnd you guessed it — very… Continue reading
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Living On in the Material World
Note: A version of this post appeared on a previous version of this blog on March 10th, 2023. I am reposting it here on February 27th, 2025, the third anniversary of my mother’s passing. In late December of 2021, about two months before my mom died of leukemia, my wife and I arrived at her… Continue reading
Ink Tea Stone Leaf 