Blog

Every so often, I have the sanctifying joy of disassembling our Bosch front-loader washer. This isn’t one of those joys like building a Lego set where everything clicks into place nicely. It’s more the type of joy that involves scraped hands, craned necks, and lots of opportunities for biting my tongue instead of grumbling. Here’s the thing: it’s my family’s fault. We have a tendency to keep copious amounts of change and a large amount of lint in our pockets, which all gets rattled out in the wash and then promptly stuck in the too-small-for-change-and-homemade-lint-creatures drain pipe. The tiny pipe is a design flaw, to say the least, because you have to literally remove half of the exterior of the washer and a fair amount of the interior to extract whatever abandoned your pockets, all while contorting yourself like a Cirque du Soleil understudy. ...

The seed of passion is curiosity. The seed of perseverance is patience. – RYDER CARROLL, The Bullet Journal Method Thinking about what seeds grow into made me stop and ask: What am I planting? Which seeds are leading to good fruit—and which ones are growing weeds? In a world where we buy food in cardboard boxes wrapped in plastic, a seed feels foreign or even outdated. But aside from meat, milk, and eggs, nearly everything we eat starts as a seed. It’s hard to see how a grain seed turns into ICEE cereal (yes, that’s real), but little seeds always produce a harvest—for better or worse. ...

The Fastest Way to Transcribe Something from Your iPhone—For Free Dictating text to your iPhone is one of my favorite ways to save time and save my thoughts, especially when I’m on the go. Whether you’re sending a message, writing an email, or drafting a blog post (like this one), it’s incredibly convenient to speak and have the words just appear on screen. Unfortunately, two problems typically occur: 1. Siri doesn’t quite nail it, so words get lost, and if you live overseas like I do, Siri might struggle with foreign languages or words; or 2. The dictation times out and just stops recording the words. ...

Our family experienced a crushing loss in December, and while the pain and grief continue to weigh us down, the response of the people God has placed in our lives has astounded us—in both the best and hardest ways. Surprisingly, one of the most challenging parts of grief is the response of the people around you—some rush to your side and provide emotional CPR keeping you alive through sheer kindness. Others practically pull the plug on your life support with thoughtless comments. ...

Oprah gets to tell everyone what her favorite things are, so I thought I’d do the same. These are the things that I keep coming back to, buying in bulk (where applicable), and heartily recommend after lots of wear and tear. Darn Tough Socks At some point in a man’s life, he realizes that holes in socks are inevitable and so continuing to pay for socks that are going to get holes in them is a bit of an endless cycle of disappointment. That is, until that man discovers Darn Tough Socks. These merino wool socks aren’t cheap (around $20 a pair), but they have a lifetime warranty. I’ve gotten holes in a few pairs, I ship them back to Darn Tough and they give me a credit to get new replacement socks. You’d think you’d save money with this system, but I’ve found it’s hard to stop buying these socks because they’re just that good. They feel and look great and the merino wool keeps your feet dryer and significantly less funky smelling. ...

Online shopping is everywhere but safe online shopping isn’t. In one year, I replaced nearly every credit or debit card due to hacking. Even the most cautious internet shopper is defenseless when hackers steal information from websites that store your payment information. What if there was a way to have a unique credit card number for every website you used? Then, if (read: when) you get hacked, you only need to shut down that card number. You wouldn’t have to go through the hassle of contacting your bank and getting a new credit card, followed by the pain of re-entering your payment on every single site online. ...

I didn’t think I needed another medium to connect with my online “friends.” Between life updates on Facebook, pithy posts on Twitter, and too-good-to-be-unfiltered pictures on Instagram, I see and share more than enough of life online. But even with all of these social networks, I’ve come across a new-to-me service1 that’s quickly become my favorite: Goodreads. At its core, Goodreads is an app to manage books you’ve read, are reading, or hope to read. The premise of Goodreads is personal reading management with a twist—you can see what your friends are reading too. ...

I love apps and I love finding a good deal. When those two things intersect, I can hardly resist. Here’s a quick roundup of my favorite apps that are on sale for Black Friday first for iOS, then for the Mac. iOS Due (an alert wizard with natural language input) For tasks that have to be done at a certain time (putting out trash cans for weekly pick up, reminding someone of something at a certain date or time) and recurring reminders, there’s nothing better or simpler than Due. ...

Who are you? That’s a broad question. Perhaps a narrower but maybe not easier-to-answer question is, “Where do you primarily find your identity?” Here are some options: Spouse Parent Career Wealth Status Power Body Sibling Child Achievements Sexuality Freedom Faith Every person you know fits into one of those categories. The problem is, almost all of those identities can be taken from you. Your spouse can pass away or leave you. Your child, parents, and siblings can and most certainly will, one day die. You can lose your job and your wealth overnight. Your status is always in flux, and likely if you lose your spouse, job, or wealth, you’ll lose your status too. ...

Want to read more in 2016? Me too. One of my favorite bloggers, Tim Challies, created the 2016 Reading Challenge to give direction to people who want to tackle more books this year. Here’s a link to the 2016 Reading Challenge. He’s got plans for 13, 26, 52, and 104 books. You can click the image below for a larger view. I’m currently tackling the 52 book challenge, aiming for a book a week to keep pace. ...