Updated: December 23, 2024
What I’m Up To
- These last few weeks, I’ve been focusing on writing and publishing two blog posts a week. That’s become more difficult since I started working two days a week as a park ranger at the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site, but not impossible. I have a backlog of blog post ideas (typically with Readwise highlights to be used for the featured image for the post) and continue to generate more each week.
- When I’m ready to start developing a new post, I typically look over my list of topics in Craft. If one piques my interest, I’ll click on it to link to my notes and review what few thoughts I’ve written about it. If I choose to write about it, the next step is to open a new MindNode mind map. I’ll copy and paste my notes into the outline view, then switch to the mind map view and start arranging thoughts into a structure that makes sense to me. The graphical nature of the mind map helps me to think though what I need to write about on this topic, and it also helps me to see gaps that need further research. I’ll often return to the mind map multiple times over a few days to rearrange things, add material and references, etc. When the mind map is ready, I’ll dictate a very rough draft in Whisper Memos and transfer that to Ulysses, where I do the real work of extensive editing. When I’m done, I’ll publish the blog post directy to WordPress from Ulysses. I’ll do formatting in WordPress and publish the post when I’m ready to do so.
- Over the past two weeks I’ve been reading another nonfiction book, _The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness, by Jonathan Haidt. It explains and documents the negative results many of us have been observing in our grandchildren. It’s a great book, but can sometimes feel a bit plodding reading through all the research. I’m mainly skimming the book and slowing down when I encounter something I want to spend more time on.
Adventures
- For the most part I’m enjoying my two days a week as a National Park Service Ranger at the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site. The biggest negative is that it takes me about an hour and a half to drive to the site (near Badlands National Park) and drive home. I fill the time by listening to podcasts. During the winter it can get pretty cold in South Dakota, and out on the prairie the wind chill can be numbing. Last week I closed one of our sites in the late afternoon; the temperature was 20 degrees but the wind chill was about 0. Even with four layers on I was cold! 🥶
- Last week, my wife Lanette and I drove the Wildlife Loop in Custer State Park, South Dakota. We saw prairie dogs, antelope, deer, wild donkeys, and bighorn sheep. As we drove along one section we came up to a scene where a large group of Bison were on the road surroudning a pickup. They were all busy licking the sides, back and front for the salt from the roads. A couple starting looking our direction and I backed up a bit. Then the whole group started walking down the road. They surrounded our RAV4 and began licking it. It’s amazing being that close (right next to the windows) of huge bison, but man do they make a mess, leaving buffalo tongue-tracks all over the car. The next day I got a car wash. Oh well, it needed one anyway.
Media
Two years ago on his weekly podcast and report to MacSparky Labs members, David Sparks made a media recommendation — the movie “Spirited” on Apple TV+.
We watched it then and have included it in our “Christmas movie must-see” list for the last two years. I don’t want to tell you too much about it because it might ruin it for you, but be sure to watch it if you haven’t before (or if you have!).
It’s uplifting, serious and funny, and has a great lesson for all of us.
Thank you to David Sparks for recommending this. It will put a smile on your face, a song in your heart, and maybe even a dance in your step.
Happy holidays to everyone.
I got the idea for this page from David Sparks, aka MacSparky, who got it from Derek Sivers. I don’t like using social media for updates, so on this page I can update you as to what I’ve been doing lately