Reading Log 2025



“Joy Ride” by Kristen Jokinen

“Shantaram” by Gregory David Roberts

“Stuck” by Yoni Appelbaum

“How Emotionally Mature Are You?” by The School of Life

“Turning to Stone” by Marcia Bjornerud

“Greek Philosophy” by Helen Gagatsu

“Merlins Tour of the Universe” by Neil DeGrasse Tyson

“The Daily Stoic” by Ryan Holiday

“The Traveling Cat Chronicles” by Hiro Arikawa

“The Creative Act” by Rick Rubin

“The Cat Who Taught Zen” by James Norbury

“My Friends” by Fredrik Backman

“Beartown” by Fredrik Backman

“Stillness is the Key” by Ryan Holiday

“The Hollow Crown” by Eliot A. Cohen

“Walking in Wonder” by Adam Segel-Moss (Cliff Dancer)


Last Update: August 2, 2025



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Entry #1,171

Recipe - Saturday, August 2, 2025



Not Your Mother’s Rice Pudding


  • 3/4 C white rice
  • 1-1/2 C water
  • 2 C coconut milk (Unsweetened)
  • 1/3 C (or less) Muscovado brown sugar
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 egg beaten
  • 2/3 C golden raisins
  • 1 tbsp butter
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Cook rice until tender. Add 1-1/2 C coconut milk, brown sugar, and salt. Continue cooking over medium heat until thick and creamy. Remove from stove. Stir in remaining coconut milk. Temper egg and add to pudding mixture stirring constantly. Stir in butter and vanilla until combined.

The secret to this recipe is the coconut milk and the Muscovado brown sugar. Muscovado brown sugar is less refined than normal brown sugar and has more molasses in it. Along with the coconut milk, It adds a unique flavor to the pudding. These two ingredients arguably make this recipe healthier than your mother’s rice pudding.

Try not to eat it all in one sitting…



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Entry #1,319

A Year of Living Stoically - Saturday August 2, 2025



Stoic Thought of the Day — Day 2


There two things you should aways do before acting. 1) Don’t get upset, stay calm. 2) Recall what you value most, make sure the action you are about to take does not run counter to those values.



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Entry #1,318

Journal Entry - Friday, August 1, 2025



A Year of Living Stoically


Today is day one of my most recent challenge, namely, to post a stoic thought every day for the next year. If I had to choose a religion (read here a philosophy) I would choose Stoicism. Of course Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, Epicureanism, and the myriad other “isms” designed to lead us to right-living are all worthy of study, Stoicism speaks most clearly to me at this stage in my evolution.

I started this project back in May, but I have decided to restart today so that each entry will appear as its own separate post and be compiled into a separate category. This will allow for easy access in the future (as well as boosting my page count… smile). All of the entries are inspired by the book “The Daily Stoic,” by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman. I can in no way take credit for these thoughts, for that you have to look to those authors and the Stoics themselves. What I can take credit for (nominally) is the presentation. I have tried to shape each entry in my own words, and with an eye towards that portion of the teaching the speaks to me personally.


The struggle is great, the task divine—to gain mastery, freedom, happiness, and tranquility.

—Epictetus

To paraphrase: The struggle is great, the task divine—to gain happiness and mastery of a life sublime… Let the journey begin.



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Entry #1,317

A Year of Living Stoically - Friday August 1, 2025



Stoic Thought of the Day — Day 1


Little things add up. Your life is the summation of your individual choices and how you learn from them.



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Entry #1,316

Journal Entry - Thursday, July 31, 2025



In Session


If you want to hear some classic electric blues, you gotta dig into the “In Session” album. Albert King does his thing with Stevie Ray Vaughan sitting in. This is the only known recording of the two virtuosos playing together. Grab the remastered version from 2024. Every track is a classic. My two favorites are “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” and “Blues at Sunrise.” Mary is an example of a song that doesn’t need any words, or maybe better yet, a song with words that don’t make sense, but work anyway. In “Blues at Sunrise,” Albert reprises a song he did with Jimmy Hendricks and Janis Joplin at the Filmore West. Stevie sits in on Jimmy’s part. The track knocks me over. I like to put the headphones on and let myself be carried away. It’s great driving music too. It’ll make you forget how far you’ve gone and how far you have left to go.

Happy Birthday Sister!



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Entry #1,315

Journal Entry - Wednesday, July 30, 2025



Guedelon Castle


I would like to visit Guedelon Castle in France. Twenty-Five years ago, Michel Guyot decided to build an authentic 13th century medieval castle using only period tools and construction techniques. Craftsmen and volunteers from all over France have participated in the project. The project is now nearing completion.

The castle gets 300,000 visitors a year. It’s a step back in time that even Disneyland could not replicate.



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Entry #1,314

Journal Entry - Tuesday, July 29, 2025



Kingdom of God


We recently received a very nice hand-written letter addressed “Dear Neighbor.” The letter focused on all that is wrong in the world today and suggested that the solution has been written in the Bible and can be explained by visiting the jw.org website. While ultimately the second coming and establishment of a new religious order on earth led by God’s Son might be a solution (recall the argument two twins were having in the womb) I believe we have a responsibility to do more than wait for a solution that does nothing to make things better in the here and now. I believe there are things we can do to change the world. To be clear, I’m not talking about this political party or that political party, this particular religion or that particular religion. I’m not talking about violence or punishment for those you don’t agree with and I’m certainly not talking about blaming people that look different than you. I believe it comes down to how we treat each other. The answer is kindness and respect, a willingness to listen, and a willingness to compromise. These things do seem to be in short supply at times, it’s difficult to argue they don’t, but each one of us can make a difference if we take the time to ask ourselves what we can do to make things better.



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Entry #1,313

Journal Entry - Monday, July 28, 2025



Inner Compass


I remember my first year of college. I took an introductory class in geology and I found it fascinating. Indeed, I found many subjects fascinating. That did not change the fact that eventually I would have to choose one subject. When I graduated I had no idea what I was going to do next. Not surprisingly, I took a couple of jobs that had nothing to do with my studies in school. I did not seem to have any real direction. Finally on my third attempt at employment, I found work that was satisfying. I’ve asked myself how did I arrive there, the only answer I have for that is I followed my inner compass as best I could and kept trying different things until I found the answer. For those of us not born with knowledge of what we are going to do with our lives, that is probably the best approach we can take. I’m fortunate, it worked for me.



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Entry #1,312

Journal Entry - Sunday, July 27, 2025



The Quality of Your Thoughts


One of the beautiful observations I picked up from Cliff Dancer’s book is that the quality of our thought determines the quality of our life. Think about it. Always complaining? Don’t have enough? You probably aren’t happy. Self-talk that is not positive only leads to an unhappy life experience. We are in charge of our lives and we have responsibility for shaping our experience, first and foremost by whether we view it positively or negatively. Thank you Cliff Dancer for this beautiful observation. You are a Stoic Master.



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Entry #1,311

Journal Entry - Saturday, July 26, 2025



30 Years Compiling Code


I spent the better part of 30 years writing software. I’m happy to report I’m proud of that, even though it damaged me for life. The problem is, you spend that much time worrying about spelling and punctuation, you lose the ability to understand what people are saying to you. You see, no one speaks in complete sentences. At this stage in my life I find myself lost unless people are using complete sentences, including, and most importantly, a subject, a verb, and a noun. I often find myself replying to someone, “could you put that in a complete sentence for me, I have a vocationally acquired lexical disability…”



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Entry #1,310

Journal Entry - Friday, July 25, 2025



Introduction to Welding


I’ve been exploring the classes available at the Senior Center. Yesterday they were offering a watercolor card making class. That sounded interesting. I was warned that I would be the only man in the class so I was prepared. Sure enough, I arrived a few minutes early, there were several women and the instructor (also a woman) already in the room. I started looking for a place to sit down, but before I could take a seat, I was asked if I was in the right room. It just so happens the person asking me was the program director who happened to be in the room chatting with the instructor. The program director was a man. I decided that if I was going to be challenged, I might as well get some mileage out of the situation. I looked right at him and said, “this is the introduction to welding class, right?” His eyes got big and he stared back at me and said, “seriously?” After a long pause, I said, “no.” That lit up the room. I was welcomed into the watercolor class even though I forgot to bring my welding helmet.



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Entry #1,309

Journal Entry - Thursday, July 24, 2025



Walking In Wonder


A good friend completed the northern 1,000 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail last summer. (Canada to California.) When he and his hiking partner reached the Bend Oregon resupply point, we picked them up and hosted them with home cooking and a comfy bed. His trail name is Cliff Dancer and his hiking companion last summer was Raw Dog. They are fantastic people and it was a pleasure to help them along on their hiking journey. I was doubly pleased when to my surprise, Cliff Dancer wrote a book about the experience and sent me a copy. It arrived in the mail two days ago and I have already devoured it. Such an inspiration! It’s not easy to hike and write at the same time. I’ve cycled and chronicled at the same time and while that’s not easy, I think I got more out of the experience capturing it in the moment than if I had attempted to document the journey post-mortem. I will have more to say about Cliff Dancer’s wonderful work in the coming days. You can get a copy for yourself of “Walking in Wonder On The Pacific Crest Trail” from Amazon Direct Publishing. Walking In Wonder



Stoic Thought of the Day

On receiving bad news, it does no good for anyone, yourself or your listener, to complain about the news with no real purpose to your show of emotion. Your purpose should be to do something to help yourself and those that are the bearers of the bad news. If you complain, that only hurts yourself and those around you. Your first obligation in all situations is to self, then to family, then to country.

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Entry #1,308

Journal Entry - Wednesday, July 23, 2025



3.5


I got my 3.5 Pickleball rating a few days ago. That’s a significant accomplishment, but not one to get too carried away with. The 4.0 level is where good play really begins. 3.5’ers are still learning the game and still working on loosing beginner habits. Making the jump from 3.5 to 4.0 requires a lot more skill than making the jump from 3.0 to 3.5.

After the testing completed, those of us that tested were sitting around with our “play-ins” having a beer. Someone asked me if I was going to try and get to 4.0. (It’s a good question, many people that make 3.5 never get to 4.0.) My reply went something like this. I want to correct my bad habits, improve the weak points of my game, and improve in overall consistency so that I will feel comfortable playing with 4.0s. I also added that due to my advanced age, I would be very happy if I was still a solid 3.5 ten years from now. I think that is probably the best goal of all.



Stoic Thought of the Day

How should you receive an honor? How should you receive an insult? The answer to both is they should be received the same way… When you hit a home run, don’t dance all the way from third to home. When you strike out, don’t throw your bat.

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Entry #1,307

Journal Entry - Tuesday, July 22, 2025



Change The World?


You can’t change the world entirely, but you can change someone’s entire world.
—Timber Hawkeye

The message here is you can’t single-handedly change the world. Many have tried and ultimately that approach fails. You have to decide what is enough, once you figure that out, that should become your goal. There is a school of thought that says the desire to change the world only leads to emotional distress, depression, or at the very least, a warped sense of reality. In the worst case scenario, it makes the world worse, not better.



Stoic Thought of the Day

To quote Seneca, “every noble deed is voluntary.” You always have the option to do the wrong thing, the selfish thing. (We see this often in the political arena.) To quote another famous person, it’s easier to “break bad” than it is to do the noble deed. Doing the right thing comes out of wanting to do the right thing, and thinking of it as an opportunity for self-improvement.

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Entry #1,306

Journal Entry - Monday, July 21, 2025



Happy Birthday


Happy Birthday to a very special someone. I hold you dear in my heart and wish you all the best. You deserve it.



Stoic Thought of the Day

As humans, we have a higher obligation to serve one another. All true success and self-worth comes from that work. So rise from bed each morning, don’t linger there, rise confident in the knowledge that others are depending on you.

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Entry #1,305

Journal Entry - Sunday, July 20, 2025



Competitive Sycophancy


If Competitive Sycophancy (not Democracy) is what you wanted when you voted, then that’s what you are now getting.

Definition: Weak spineless people competing to win the favor of a sycophant. Look it up.



Stoic Thought of the Day

Justice is agreeing that certain things are natural and right and should be preserved and cherished. Injustice is allowing our darker nature to overwhelm our sense of what is just. We should always be mindful to support our natural sense of justice at all times.

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Entry #1,304

Journal Entry - Saturday, July 19, 2025



Teaching Myself


It just occurred to me that when I edit my blog entries before posting them I should read them for consistency with the stoic advice I have started including on these page.

It won’t do me any good to offer stoic advice on correct living if my blog posts are out of step with those messages. That said, I will try and present my posts in a manner consistent with my own advice, at least as best I can at this stage in my evolution.



Stoic Thought of the Day

People that do ill in the world do so because they are deprived of the truth. It doesn’t matter if they have chosen this path because of some fault in themselves that they can’t control or they are simply blind through lack of education or ignorance. These people can’t be brought to the truth through logic. Our only path is to be gentle and gracious toward them, allowing them to see the truth by example.

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Entry #1,303

Journal Entry - Friday, July 18, 2025



Twins


A pair of twins are holding a discussion with one another inside the womb. One fetus says to the other, do you think there is anything after this life. The other laughs and says, why would you ask that? The first replies, there must be something else after this life, this life is too perfect. The second twin sneers and says, that’s true, we have everything we need here, why are you complaining? The first says, yes, but we can’t stay here forever, there has to be more than this. The second says there is only darkness and uncertainty outside of this world. Then, one day there is a cataclysm, the second twin is freightened and looks at the first twin and asks what is happening, the first twin replies, we are evolving.



Stoic Thought of the Day

No one controls us, nor should we allow anyone else to control us. I like the saying, “in a free country, your freedom to swing your fists ends where someone else’s nose begins.” That means you have to be strong enough to live your life while also being strong enough to let everyone else live theirs. Even when you disagree with the choices someone else is making, the choices are theirs, not yours.

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Entry #1,302

Journal Entry - Thursday, July 17, 2025



Who Am I


There’s a question for you. I think the answer to that has been constantly evolving over the course of my lifetime, so all I can say is what it possibly means right now. I am a seeker of wisdom (short of that, learning). Sometimes successful, often struggling with little success. I am happy with that. After all, to quote a good friend, I’m just a hard working 81 I.Q. With that in mind, it would seem that I’m doing just fine.



Stoic Thought of the Day

Getting angry is a weakness. We should be guided by gentleness, especially for those who would otherwise make us angry. Never let the people around us determine our course.

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Entry #1,301

Journal Entry - Wednesday, July 16, 2025



Reading


I probably read a lot for someone of my advanced years. i’m actually rather proud of that. There is one problem, though, I have books on my bookshelf that I haven’t actually read. Worse, I have books on my bookshelf that I have read and I don’t remember that I’ve read them.

There’s probably a drug for that. I’m not sure I want to go there. Anyway, I pulled a book off my shelf titled Turning To Stone: Discovering The Subtle Wisdom Of Rocks, by Marcia Bjornerud. Obviously, it’s a book about geology. I’m not exactly sure what possessed me to buy it, but there it was, so I opened it up and started reading. I was blown away. It contains some of the most beautiful writing I’ve encountered in quite some time. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. There are wonders to be had all around us and sometimes they appear where we least expect them. Still, a beautifully written book about geology? I’m going to try to remember this one.



Stoic Thought of the Day

Are you committed to anything? What are you committed to? How are your values expressed by what you are doing? If all you are guided by is your ambition, you are simply wandering through life.

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Entry #1,300

Journal Entry - Tuesday, July 15, 2025



Sinking To A New Low


Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is reportedly trying to use AI to ferret out national security employees that are not deemed politically acceptable to the MAGA agenda. To do this she is trying to gain access to emails and text messages of all national security employees. Watch out. We are witnessing the birth of a new repressive era. Without a huge stretch of the imagination, this could also be used to profile every U.S. citizen.

During the McCarthy era, the stated purpose was to find communist sympathizers inside the U.S. government (with only very rare exceptions, there were none). Today is different in both scope and purpose. Today this paranoia and lust for power is being turned on law abiding U.S. citizens. We are watching first hand the death of personal and political freedom.



Stoic Thought of the Day

The answer to why you did the right thing is always, because it is the right thing. There is no need to seek credit for doing good. Doing so diminishes your soul.

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Entry #1,299

Journal Entry - Monday, July 14, 2025



Tattoo


I spent the better part of two years deciding if I should have a tattoo. After carefully considering the choice, I decided it was the right decision for me. Not just any tattoo, not art for art’s sake, I wanted something that would remind me every time I looked at it who I am and what I should be doing. I’m happy to say I fulfilled that goal.



Stoic Thought of the Day

Train your mind with humility. Assuming you have the answer and acting without study and reflection often leads to wrong choices.

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Entry #1,298

Journal Entry - Sunday, July 13, 2025



Bastrop Texas


I would like to visit Main Street in old town Bastrop Texas. There’s a little bookstore there owned by Ryan Holiday. He is one of the world’s bestselling Philosophers.



Stoic Thought of the Day

You don’t need to shout about your good deeds, just move quietly on to the next one. You are the only person that truly needs to notice your work.

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Entry #1,297

Journal Entry - Saturday, July 12, 2025



America Is Killing Itself


From almost no investment in alternative energy sources (about 10% of the world’s total investment) to climate change denial, to the food we eat, America is living for today with no care for tomorrow. We are killing ourselves and not leaving anything for our children.



Stoic Thought of the Day

Be clear in your conversations. Don’t put off the work you know you should be doing. Keep it simple and do it with passion.

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Entry #1,296