While it seems to be a thing for most people to optimize every part of their life, to make every part of their life easier, faster, better, I’ve found that it’s often best to go in the other direction and de optimize parts of my life.

This was the easiest cake request so far. So much easier than a Mario cake, a Rapunzel cake, an Ariel cake, a penguin cake, or an elephant.

This year my son wanted a Cappy cake for his birthday. Who or what is Cappy? Cappy is Mario’s hat from Super Mario Odysey.

Last year, she wanted an Ariel cake. This year? A Rapunzel cake.

Every morning, after I wake up and get out of bed, after I get dressed and herd my two kids to the breakfast table, and after I give them a plate consisting of a freshly-peeled banana and half of a Kroger Oats & Chocolate Chewy Fiber Granola Bar accompanied by a small cup of milk, I make my way over to my coffee maker.

It’s been quite a journey since my son first asked for an elephant cake for his 4th birthday.

My little girl just turned four.

Last night my wife asked me to edit some random PDF that has bunch of car logos on it. It seems she wanted to make a car logo quiz for her MOPS group.

Last year, my son wanted an elephant cake for his birthday. This year? A penguin cake.

Sometimes, you want to try something. But you’re not sure it’s going to work. You’re afraid that if you try the thing, the effects will be permanent.

Be careful when passing semis! This one’s tire blew out while I was passing it, scaring the out of me.

A few years ago I wrote about how we’ve got hard water. I thought I had fixed the issue, but our old water softener had gone kaput.

RIP Princess - October 25, 2007 to April 4, 2022

So I asked my son what kind of cake he wanted for his fourth birthday, expecting him to tell me what flavor. Like strawberry, chocolate, or vanilla.

I haven’t been able to post much lately, so I’ll quickly layout what projects I’ve been up to these past couple of months.

Every now and then, we all come across challenges at different stages and times in our lives. Challenges are meant to shape us for good and serve as a stepping stone for us to reach a greater height.

2021 is the year for the emergence of the 17-year Brood X cicadas. It was pretty loud, so my wife and I took our two kids to see them an my in-laws (my wife’s parents).

Throughout the winter (from October 31st through February 28th) I took a selfie every night before I went to bed. I also didn’t shave.

October. The first full month of Autumn. The air begins to cool. Sweaters and light jackets become necessary. At the end of the month, it’ll be Halloween, which means it’s time to carve jack-o-lanterns.

Early this year, around the start of spring, I had planned on a birthday surprise for a certain milestone birthday of my wife.

Do I wear a mask or not? Should I get a vaccine or not? Should I… or shouldn’t I? And how do I decide?

If you’re like me, most of the mail you get anymore is junk mail. One common type of junk mail is “scratch-off promotions” from car dealerships. You know, those lottery-looking pieces that seem to award everyone the top prize?

Sexual harassment is wrong. Victim blaming is wrong. Blaming someone for being harassed is wrong.

Happy Halloween! I thought today I would share a cute and funny (and maybe scary!) trick-or-treat story from when I was a little kid.

Within the past week, Dorco announced via email that they’re shutting down their website, DorcoUSA.com. The good news is that they will continue to sell Dorco razors via Amazon.

About nine months ago I wrote about how we bought a van. Well, over the weekend we bought a car.

Do you have an overall goal for your life? Maybe it’s simply to enjoy life, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Personally, I have two goals in life. The first is to be a father. The second is to make a difference in the world for the better.

It’s been nearly two weeks since I’ve posted anything. In fact, tomorrow marks two weeks since my last post. This is mostly because I’v been under the weather (idiom for being sick for my non-native English readers).

Recently we had a bit of an incident with our hot water heater… The tank began leaking. Thankfully it was still under warranty and we got another one for only the cost of labor. Afterward, we ran into another problem. Our dishes began having a cloudy white film on them, and after boiling water (say, for spaghetti) the pot would also have a line of the cloudy white film.

Recently we went out and bought a new vehicle: a 2014 Honda Odyssey minivan. I’ll get into the details in a bit, but essentially we’ve been looking for a while and just happened to come across the right one.

This past year has been quite an adventure. I got married. I just finished school yesterday. And today is my son is four months old. I’ve been chronicling what’s been going on, relying heavily on things such as medical bills and insurance explanation of benefits to fit things into a neat timeline. Hence the whopper of a title A Mostly Financial Pregnancy Timeline and The First Four Months Of Life: My Experience As A New Dad.

Hate. Anger. Jealousy. Worry. These are all negative feelings that you should avoid, right? Love, happiness, joy, hope, and other positive emotions are, well, much better, so why not choose one of those instead?

If you’re a regular reader of this blog (as if I have regular readers), you’ll notice that my last post was over two weeks ago. That’s because I’ve been dealing with a brand new family member. Yep, my wife gave birth to our first-born son.

Recently I heard the following quote often misattributed to George Bernard Shaw - "The Biggest Problem in Communication Is the Illusion That It Has Taken Place." And it made me think in what ways is communication often an illusion?

You won't believe #6! Actually, you probably will.

"Race" is more of a social construct than a biological distinction. That doesn’t mean "races" don’t exist, it just means it’s difficult, if not impossible, to label people with a distinct, finite number of races.

Jumping on the never Trump bandwagon.

I’ve been living in a pink house since 2007. Well no more! I didn’t move - I painted my house the other day. Now I live in a brown house! The awesomest part is I only spent about $40 and it only took us maybe six hours? Just the better part of the afternoon.

From NewsChicago.com: To encourage healthful eating, some Chicago schools don’t allow kids to bring lunches or certain snacks from home

From The Daily Beast: The worst of times sometimes brings out the best in people, even in Japan’s “losers” a.k.a. the Japanese mafia, the yakuza.

At the start of the quarter, I found out that instead of charging by the credit hour, my school charges the same rate for twelve to eighteen credit hours. Since I was only taking fourteen credit hours, I decided to take a hiking class. I know, I know, hiking in winter? Yes, it was cold. But I met a few people, had fun, and got some exercise.

I’ve been pretty bored this month, and have also decided to take a break from some of my gaming. So I’ve been watching the tv series Stargate: SG-1 on Netflix. Pretty good, I think. It’s surprising that it’s over ten years old (from 1997). I keep wondering to myself why the cars are so old… It’s even weirder when I realize a lot of the kids in the show are my age.

From Wikionary: discrimination (plural discriminations) 1. a distinction; discernment, the act of discriminating, discerning, distinguishing, noting or perceiving differences between things.

Ah yes, the humble hamburger, also known as the burger. A special sandwich from the far away land of Hamburg.

If you want more evidence of the stupidity of government getting involved in health care and child care, read this:

For the ultimate in foreign food and culture, go to the Dayton A World A’Fair. They do it about once a year.