My 12 Favorite Problems

My 12 Favorite Problems, updated regularly.

Cats Through the Ages

A collection of primary source details document cat-human relationships into the past.

Comfort, Discomfort, & The Aperture of Awareness

Coleridge's closeness to nature

What could be healthier than knowing the critters and beings I see, hear and smell every day? 

What is Beloved Experimentation and How Do I Do It?

What happens if I give every day a purpose?

Over the winter holidays I noticed I was wasting lots of time. I designed a experiment that I thought would help me align my values and priorities with my actions. Here's what I did and how it worked.

Walking in the shadows of giants: logging on the West Coast

What would've it have felt like to land on the Western shores of North America with the first settler-colonists? Working as a tree-planter in old-growth forests of British Columbia has given some perspective on this question.

What does Pan's Labyrinth teach us about memory?

Guillermo del Toro's brilliant 2006 film, Pan's Labyrinth, explores questions of memory and temporality. How do our memories persist through time? Do they? Using evidence from the plot and the film's score, I argue the film portrays a complicated vision of memory.

What if we could scroll through the past like a YouTube timeline?

Some random thoughts about geology, time, and Youtube. Recorded on a flight from Vegas to Vancouver.

Grand Canyon Metaphors

I wrote this brief reflection when I ended a 25-day wilderness adventure by partying it up in Las Vegas.

What is an article? What is an essay?

Join me for a brief exploration of the etymologies of the words "article" and "essay" as I discern how to refer to my own writing.

My 12 Lifelong Questions - where it began

My first attempt at identifying the 12 problems or questions I can use to frame my thinking long into the future.