Category Archives: Uncategorized

It’s been quite some time since I last wrote anything, even though I promised myself I’d do it a lot more.

Since the last post here, Seven and I got married and moved 560 miles from our apartment in Indiana to a new apartment in Gaithersburg, MD so she could start a new job. I suppose most people who would read this already know these things, but I guess it’s good to have just in case anyone else out there wants to know.

It’s been just over a month since I drove that 17-foot U-Haul through the hills of Appalachia and it’s been interesting since then. There are up sides and down sides to being here, I’m trying to focus on the former instead of the latter. Included in those up sides would be a whole lot of really cool things to see and do, including some fantastic county, state, and national parks. We’re allowed to have a grill, so we bought a 22.5″ Weber, which has seen plenty of use.

Overall, it’s been an excuse to try many new things and try to work toward building the life that we both want to live, which is what I’ve always been about. Sometimes, we get distracted from what we want.

It’s good to get a reminder and a chance to refresh those goals from time to time.

Alright, so not everything is always great and wonderful. That’s not a surprise, anyone who is always doing well is either lying or on something. We all have ups and downs. Lately, I’ve felt stagnant. I think it’s the extended winter and the wild weather swings we’ve had that are screwing me up. 

It happens from time to time. When it does happen, I usually go back to the well. Strip out all the extra crap, take it all back to basics, and figure out how to get back on track. This time is a little different though. Time just keeps flying away and there isn’t that much to show for it. Continue reading →

This is the third part in this series. Read part 2 here.

Last time, we looked at the specific crime information by not only weapon but by time. This time, we’re going to explore the crime data a little closer. A lot of people are pushing gun control as a matter of public safety, saying that fewer guns will equal less crime and fewer deaths. As we saw before, the crime part isn’t really right. As you’ll see, the part about fewer deaths isn’t really right either.

Continue reading →

This is a continuation of my previous post on a discussion on guns and violence in the United States. Read Part 1 here. As I mentioned there, I used to be for gun control legislation. A lot of this is the data that convinced me it was not a viable solution to the problem of violence.

This second part will be more about crime. Because they have no stake in influencing public policy (making them as unbiased as possible), I will be using primarily (but not only) data from the FBI’s Universal Crime Reporting system, the CDC, and the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Because both organizations do have a stake in policy, I will not be including anything from either the NRA or the Brady Campaign. There will be no sarcasm, scare tactics, or hyperbole. These are things I believe are having a negative effect on the ability of Americans to have an honest political discussion in general. Continue reading →

I wasn’t ever intending to do this kind of thing for a few reasons. Mainly, it isn’t what this blog is about. However, the topic of gun control does bring up many decisions that people need to make for themselves, which IS a big part of what this blog is about. The biggest issue that faces a lot of people, whether they recognize it or not, is information vs. emotion. Though I’m going to break this into multiple parts, this is still going to be a fairly long post with plenty of links and citations. Continue reading →

So I’ve changed some things. This used to be the home of what was supposed to be a photoblog. Then I started another one on WordPress that was supposed to be a sort of documentary and commentary on my quest to achieve some personal goals.

Since both things relate to personal interests of mine, it seems stupid and inefficient to maintain more than one, especially since neither one got used as much as I wanted them to. I’ve decided to open it all up to be whatever I want it to be, more a personal interests blog instead of something subject specific.

I pay for this website and the hosting, I might as well get use out of it, right?

It’s been a while since the last post but that isn’t because there aren’t things happening!

I’ve spent a bit of time working on tightening up a few areas that could use some improvement. As I talked about in Finding Balance, attention needs to be given to many different facets of everyone’s lives in order to give us all the best chance of real fulfillment. However, priorities can change pretty easily if you’re not careful (and even if you are, sometimes) and you just have to manage it as best you can.

Continue reading →