Today, I’m coming off one of my “juice fasts” that I undertake a few times each year.  For 3 days, I only drink vegetable juices, water and teas.  By the end of the first day, I feel more continuously awake and alive than any period during any “normal” day.  By the end of the second day I feel, well, more of myself… nerves, muscles, skin all seem more connected, integral to each other and to me.  Discomfort from changes in ambient temperature decreases.  Little annoyances flow past me without... Read Full Story

I spent several weekends over the last six weeks building, tuning and playing African Djembe drums.  Now, when I say building, that really just entails putting the drum head on, but believe me, this is no simple task.  It’s a series of many tasks, and each one has its own challenges and ways to mess up.  I’ve only got 2 drums but I’ve put heads on 5 times and will probably do one more re-heading on one of the drums. During this, I had great guidance from Kevin Brown of Rhythm House Drums in M... Read Full Story

Holy shinola, did I write all that crap below?  Why would I spend that much effort on such meaningless drivel?  Who knows.  Like anyone’s reading this anyway.  Well, approach life as if… I’ve actually been writing quite a bit these past few months IN PAPER NOTEBOOKS WITH PENCILS.  Imagine that.  It’s very satisfying.  Doodles, boxes, shadows, little drawings, and the feel of the paper are all so much nicer. Writing about what?  Erm, there’s got to be a better word than spirituality, I hope. ... Read Full Story

Just now leaving a day trip to Walden Pond with my daughter's youth group. The pond, which some communities would even call a lake, is still a scene of natural beauty, albeit preserved for the tourist trade. It's still possible to feel a reverent peace and nourishing stillness at the site of Thoreau's cabin.Yet the distance from his quest to distill life to the essence was only magnified by my intrusive modern habits. While I hiked to the memorial on the other side of the pond,... Read Full Story

Why do I, and apparently so many others, find social networking sites and technologies so damned compelling? What is it about Web 2.0 that makes the internet seem more vital and even fun again? How do hours pass when making a quick check on one's alerts?I'm fascinated with connecting all these services to make my information accessible and useful. I SMS to Twitter; it becomes my FaceBook status and FriendFeed post for commentary. I email photos to Flicker; they alert my contacts ... Read Full Story

The Zune Home Kit is excellent... charge while listening or viewing your content on the TV!  Comes with another remote control--like I need one of those--but it looks and works like a little mini-Zune.  I like it because I don't have a music system in my bedroom, but of course there's a TV, and it has decent stereo sound.  Finally, acceptable tunage in the boudoir!  (DirectTV's music channels up in the 800's are as insipid and underwhelming as commercial radio).  Now to make a... Read Full Story

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Bill Gates published an article about a week after I joined Microsoft, back at the close of the last century: Everyone, Anytime, Anywhere The next step for technology is universal access.  He mentions convergence in the opening sentence.  But that's not why I searched for this article... I searched for "Anywhere, Anytime" because I wanted to follow-up on the Zen comment in my convergence post.  Hmm, getting a little dizzy here. Proposition: I think "Anytime, Anywhere" ... Read Full Story

Bad is more interesting than Good.  This is an idea I came up with to highlight an apparently fundamental flaw of human nature: we seem more interested in learning about bad behavior than good.  As a canonical example, and a pun on “The Peter Principle,” I use the story of Peter Rabbit.  Why does this beloved children’s story focus almost exclusively on the the bad boy?Peter’s mother gives him the ultimate warning: “you may go into the fields or do... Read Full Story