Lifestyle Integrity

Lake Austin is rapidly becoming my happy place. More days than not I find myself up at dawn and out on a paddle board for an hour watching the sun rise and getting to know the turtles, ducks, fish, and birds.

Yes, Austin in August is HOT, but at 6:30am its 78° and having a house with access to our neighborhood lake park is something i have immense gratitude for!

LONESOME DOVE: So good. Totally convinced me that I now know what it was like to be a cattle rancher in the Wild West.

PROOF OF HEAVEN: A Harvard neurosurgeon's tale of being 'brain dead' for days and somehow still being conscious. It changed his mind on consciousness being tied to the body and it just might change yours as well.

15 COMMITMENTS OF CONSCIOUS LEADERSHIP: a classic for a reason. Worth a read for the Above the Line / Below the Line concept alone.

STRANGERS IN A STRANGE LAND: Fun Sci-Fi that challenges cultural norms around free love, ownership, and psychic powers.

THE JOURNEY OF SOUL INITIATION: Plotkin's decades of hands on experience leading people through not only Rites of Passage, but the later transition he calls Soul Initiation is unparalleled. A Rite of Passage helps you find your place in society. A Soul Initiation helps you become a wise elder who can lead society.

THE ORIGIN OF CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE BREAKDOWN OF THE BICAMERAL MIND: Is it probable that before humans developed the capacity to witness our own thoughts as such we heard the voices in our heads as the voices of their gods? Full of conjecture based on scant evidence, but a fascinating theory nonetheless.

EDUCATION IN A TIME BETWEEN WORLDS: Clearly the world is evolving faster than our educational systems. How are we to train children for a world we don't understand?

RESISTANCE MONEY: Is Bitcoin good or bad?

THE CONTEMPLATIVE LEADER: A collection of best practices from leading thinkers.

THE FUND: is Ray dalio a genius? A megalomaniac? Both? According to this telling Bridgewater has focusedg more energy into building an app that bolsters Dalio's ego than it has investing it's clients money.

THE SOJOURN: Read The Bear

THE BEAR: The Bear inspired in me a strange mixture of longing and dread. I found something primal in me longing for a simple life lived closer to survival and the wilderness. At the same time I felt haunted by the tragedy that stands between civilization today and the simplicity of the future portrayed. The story is beautifully told; both simple and deep.

THE SURRENDER EXPERIMENT: What happens if you stop listening to your thoughts and start listening to the world instead? Success and happiness seem to be highly correlated with being in sync with our environment. SYNCHRONICITIES is one way to describe what happens when we stop swimming against the current and allow the universe to work with us. SURRENDER is another.

NORWEGIAN WOOD: I enjoy Murakami, but be warned, this is mostly just sad :(

THE STARBOARD SEA: Beautifully told. Someone should make this into a film......

THE BILLIONAIRE WHO WASN'T: Many have signed the billionaire pledge to give all of their money away. Chuck Feeney not only inspired them, he gave it all away in his lifetime.

PROMETHEUS RISING: Intermittently brilliant and off the rails.

THE COURAGE TO BE DISLIKED: A solid introduction to Adlerian psychology that is significantly more readable than Adler's own books.

THE UNTETHERED SOUL: Read the Surrender Experiment :)

THE PSYCHEDELIC EXPLORER'S GUIDE: A great resource from one of the giants in the field.

Thank you Jason and Jessica for throwing an EPIC party to renew your vows after 20 years! We had a blast in Mexico celebrating you. You are an amazing couple. So good to have some time parting on the beach (kid free!) with friends both old an new. Worked out well that we could borrow your huppa for a photo as we celebrated 10 years married ourselves!

Scrap wood 'chaos' cutting board #2

We have been trying to make the most of this dead space next to the washer/dryer in our garage entry mudroom since we moved in. I finally built a wall covering up all of the ugly plumbing and electrical. After living with it for a while we decided that we needed more boot storage, more hanging space, and a couple of big drawers. Thinking I will add some shelves with storage containers above the clothes.

Finally made my first scrap wood cutting board. Feels like a rite of passage for the garage woodworker. I'm actually kind of excited to play with the format. Made with Sapele, White Oak, and Maple.

AN HONEST WOMAN: did you know that there is a website like Yelp, but for s*x workers?

FIRST PRINCIPLES & FIRST VALUES: The most important book I have read on navigating the meta crisis thus far.

REAL MAGIC: How certain are you that psychic phenomenon is either real, or not? Is this belief based on personal experience? Science? Or ideas about what is possible?

YES YES HELL NO! Some good points on decision making.

THE WAY OUT: After chest surgery I suffered from neuroplastic pain for years. I had never heard of such a thing, but the way I found relief is remarkably similar to what this book prescribes.

PATTERN BREAKERS: You may be able to found a successful company based on one insight, but a book of this length should have a lot more to offer. They took a Twitter thread and beat it to death for 265 pages.

NEVER ENOUGH: I appreciate the general arc of his journey, from insecurity and superficiality to basic self reflection and a hint of morality, but mostly it is an ego stroking humble brag.

BAD THERAPY: Kids aren't fragile, but antifragile. Emotions matter, but we have over corrected, giving them too much attention & patholigizing healthy struggles. Coddling makes children weak. Permissive parenting creates anxious monsters. A lack of strong boundaries leads to overly medicated kids. Loses me denying the long term impacts of trauma.

ALL FOURS: The writing and insights are so good they make up for being a postmodern novel with no plot. Reminds me of an oft dormant part of me.

GOOD ENERGY: One of the most important topics of our time. I recommend watching their long form interviews more than reading this book though.

Great family weekend in Bethel