Beaucoup Boku

The Year of the Little, Brown and Company All-You-Can-Read Subscription Service

Mon, 09 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Late last year I joined a literature club at work. The first book we read was 1984 by George Orwell. One of the members mentioned that he loved Orwell and was reading everything of his during the year (2025). When New Year’s Resolutions time rolled around, I happened to watch an uncut interview with David Foster Wallace. I really enjoyed the interview, in large part because it was uncut and you could really get a sense of his personality, but also because it touched on a lot of things that I had been thinking about and continue to think about.

Busy is as busy does

Sun, 25 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The following is a decent approximation of how I feel about this blog:

I believe that someone who has been well-educated will think of something worth writing at least once a week.

—Gwern Branwen

Since I haven’t been writing every week that must mean that

I’m not intelligent (unthinkable)
I’m not educated (I do only have one Ph.D. …)
I’m not motivated to write (that doesn’t quite feel true)
I’m too busy to write (bingo)

That last one certainly feels true. When during the week do I have time think about, let alone write about, something? But, every business book I’ve ever read says that you are never too busy, you are just bad at managing priorities. In my case, I do think that’s true: I’m horrible at making and managing priorities. And that’s why I chose to memorize this quote from Thomas Merton, a Trappist Monk¹:

The Dispossessed

Fri, 19 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve always liked Ursula K. Le Guin, though I haven’t actually read much of her work. Mostly just The Earthsea Cycle and The Left Hand of Darkness. A few other short stories and maybe some books I have forgotten (I read a lot as a kid and don’t remember most of it I’m sure).

Shower Thoughts

Sat, 13 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Until recently, our shower had 3 problems of which I was dimly aware and had mostly compensated for by changing my habits.

The first was that the diverter on the tub spout sometimes gets stuck in the “shower” position. Once the water is turned off, it’s supposed to fall back down in the tub position. That way, when you turn the water on the next time the (invariably) cold water with flow into the tub. However, if it’s stuck in the shower position, then when you turn it on, you get a face full of cold water. So, I’ve gotten in the habit of checking both when turning off the water and when turning it on, that the diverter is in the rest position.

First Post

Fri, 08 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Here is a first post, because everybody needs one these days.