📚 I read some books in January!

  • Spartacus by Howard Fast
  • Nothing Lasts Forever (Basis for the film Die Hard) by Roderick Thorp
  • Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon
  • The Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Carroll
  • You Never Forget Your First by Alexis Coe
  • The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway by Ernest Hemingway
  • The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin
  • The LEGO Story by Jens Andersen
  • Upgrade by Blake Crouch
  • Fletch by Gregory Mcdonald
  • The Iliad by Homer
  • Confess, Fletch by Gregory Mcdonald
  • Fletch’s Fortune by Gregory Mcdonald
  • Fletch and the Widow Bradley by Gregory Mcdonald

Here are some interesting currency conversions from The Iliad:

  • 1 horse > 1 tripod (to hang a cauldron over a fire)
  • 1 tripod = 12 oxen
  • 1 cauldron = 4 oxen
  • 1 woman skilled at weaving = 4 oxen
  • 2 bars gold < 1 cauldron
  • 1 ox = 1 ox

Apple Watch has a built-in workout type for “Cross Country Skiing.” Great.

It doesn’t use GPS and doesn’t record distance. ?‍♂️.

Apparently one of my neighbors got a new (unsecured) TV for Christmas and now I just have to live with this?

Incoming 79AB0A72 D04C 4923 A558 8B8CE30E759F

Just as soon as my blog started working smoothly for the first time in years, I’m completely unable to reply to other Micro.blog posts. I don’t know what could be going on here, but I’ve sent email (since I can’t reply to @help).

My web hosting service severely rate-limits requests to xmlrpc.php… which has made using MarsEdit effectively impossible for me for that past five or so years… which practically killed my sites. I went back and forth with their support on multiple occasions during that time, but the problem was never resolved to my satisfaction. Then yesterday—out of nowhere—it occurred to me they were filtering based on the file name xmlrpc.php so I renamed the file (well, first duplicated, then later symbolically linked) and now MarsEdit has no problem connecting to my site(s).

?‍♂️

📚 I started reading books for fun about 4½ years ago. I thought 2021’s total of 83 books was absurdly high. In 2022 I read 138 books.

Books

The vast majority of these have been audio books, with eBooks significantly behind, and paper books even further behind. I listen to audio books while running, walking, driving, and doing chores. Prior to books I listened to more podcasts and music (or in some cases nothing at all ?). I read eBooks and paper books before bed and on weekends. I don’t think I could possibly read more without making significant sacrifices in other areas of my life, which isn’t going to happen.

Here’s the complete 2022 list:

  • The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman
  • Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
  • You Can Buy Happiness (and It's Cheap) by Tammy Strobel
  • The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan
  • The 100 Thing Challenge by Dave Bruno
  • Money by Jacob Goldstein
  • Playing with FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) by Scott Rieckens
  • Meet the Frugalwoods by Elizabeth Willard Thames
  • The Minimalist Home by Joshua Becker
  • Gratitude by Oliver Sacks
  • Daring Greatly by Brené Brown
  • Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
  • 81 Days Below Zero by Brian Murphy
  • Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
  • The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz
  • Family Happiness by Leo Tolstoy
  • How to Argue With a Racist by Adam Rutherford
  • How to Be Perfect by Michael Schur
  • Irresistible by Adam Alter
  • Finding Everett Ruess by David Roberts
  • The Body by Stephen King
  • LaserWriter II by Tamara Shopsin
  • Blitzed by Norman Ohler
  • The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt
  • Island by Aldous Huxley
  • Gangsters of Capitalism by Jonathan M. Katz
  • Spies, Lies, and Algorithms by Amy B. Zegart
  • Thirst by Heather Anderson
  • The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning by Margareta Magnusson
  • Mud, Rocks, Blazes by Heather Anderson
  • Wild by Cheryl Strayed
  • Becoming Odyssa by Jennifer Pharr Davis
  • Stolen Focus by Johann Hari
  • Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now by Jaron Lanier
  • The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande
  • The Simple Path to Wealth: Your road map to financial independence and a rich, free life by J. L. Collins
  • A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived by Adam Rutherford & Siddhartha Mukherjee
  • Things That Matter by Joshua Becker
  • System Error by Rob Reich, Mehran Sahami & Jeremy M. Weinstein
  • Stolen Focus by Johann Hari
  • Soulful Simplicity by Courtney Carver
  • Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport
  • Alone Together by Sherry Turkle
  • Chasing the Scream by Johann Hari
  • Will by Will Smith & Mark Manson
  • The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
  • The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by John C. Bogle
  • Why Social Media is Ruining Your Life by Katherine Ormerod
  • Animal Farm by George Orwell
  • The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley
  • Children of the Fleet by Orson Scott Card
  • A Runner's High by Dean Karnazes
  • Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
  • Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby
  • The Attention Merchants by Tim Wu
  • A War of Gifts by Orson Scott Card
  • The Four by Scott Galloway
  • The Algebra of Happiness by Scott Galloway
  • Earth Unaware by Orson Scott Card & Aaron Johnston
  • Bigger than tiny, smaller than average by Sheri Koones
  • Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
  • Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics by Dan Harris, Jeffrey Warren & Carlye Adler
  • Ultramarathon Man by Dean Karnazes
  • Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life by Nir Eyal
  • Earth Afire by Orson Scott Card & Aaron Johnston
  • How to Break Up with Your Phone by Catherine Price
  • Earth Awakens by Orson Scott Card & Aaron Johnston
  • The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
  • Real Artists Don't Starve by Jeff Goins
  • Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
  • The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr
  • SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard
  • The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
  • Mating in Captivity by Esther Perel
  • The Power of Showing Up by Daniel J. Siegel & Tina Payne Bryson
  • Cues by Vanessa Van Edwards
  • The Teenage Brain by Frances E. Jensen & Amy Ellis Nutt
  • The Perfect Mile by Neal Bascomb
  • How to Focus by Thích Nhất Hạnh & Jason DeAntonis
  • Courage Is Calling by Ryan Holiday
  • Rubicon by Tom Holland
  • I, Claudius by Robert Graves
  • The Power of Fun by Catherine Price
  • Claudius the God by Robert Graves
  • How to Hide an Empire by Daniel Immerwahr
  • Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
  • Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne
  • The Fate of Rome by Kyle Harper
  • Moonraker by Ian Fleming
  • Hero of Two Worlds by Mike Duncan
  • Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell
  • The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
  • Breath by James Nestor
  • Range by David Epstein
  • Diamonds Are Forever by Ian Fleming
  • How to Relax by Thích Nhất Hạnh & Jason DeAntonis
  • Fair Play by Eve Rodsky
  • America: The Farewell Tour by Chris Hedges
  • The End Is Always Near by Dan Carlin
  • Ben-Hur by Lew Wallace
  • Doctor Zhivago by Borìs Pasternàk
  • Born to Run by Christopher McDougall
  • All Quiet on The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
  • The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
  • From Russia With Love by Ian Fleming
  • The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk, M.D.
  • Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
  • Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
  • Today We Die a Little! by Richard Askwith
  • A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
  • What We Owe the Future by William MacAskill
  • Discipline Is Destiny by Ryan Holiday
  • The Nova Incident by Dan Moren
  • How Not to Die by Michael Greger, M.D., FACLM & Gene Stone
  • The Running Man by Stephen King
  • 24/6 by Tiffany Shlain
  • Breath by James Nestor
  • The Caledonian Gambit by Dan Moren
  • The Bayern Agenda by Dan Moren
  • The Aleph Extraction by Dan Moren
  • Money by Jacob Goldstein
  • Keep the Memories, Lose the Stuff by Matt Paxton & Jordan Michael Smith
  • The Nova Incident by Dan Moren
  • Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi
  • A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
  • How to Change by Katy Milkman
  • To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway
  • Wintering by Katherine May
  • For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
  • Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
  • In God We Trust by Jean Shepherd
  • Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon
  • Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
  • The Caledonian Gambit by Dan Moren
  • Keep Going by Austin Kleon
  • Recursion by Blake Crouch
  • What If? by Randall Munroe
  • Focus by Daniel Goleman

📚 I read some books in December:

  • The Nova Incident by Dan Moren
  • Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi
  • A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
  • How to Change by Katy Milkman
  • To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway
  • Wintering by Katherine May
  • For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
  • Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
  • In God We Trust by Jean Shepherd
  • Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon
  • Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
  • The Caledonian Gambit by Dan Moren
  • Keep Going by Austin Kleon
  • Recursion by Blake Crouch
  • What If? by Randall Munroe
  • Focus by Daniel Goleman

Well, all three members of my family ran personal bests at Across The Years again this year (Rob 127 miles/24 hours, Melissa 142 miles/48 hours, Will 51 miles/24 hours). Since I ran 24 instead of 48 hours this year our family total was less than last year (by about 7 miles).