Ideas

Three examples of Internet forums that still serve up quality communities.

Learning more about your local area can help better connect you to where you live. Here are some ways to spark that.

A list of 30 items you can hunt for while exploring the local area in which you live.

Some thoughts on where you fit in your various friend groups, and whether you’re pushed to be a better person as a result.

The best way to ensure better health outcomes for my dad was to include humor in every doctor visit.

Mastodon should implement a “for this instance only” publishing privacy level to aid the formation of stronger communities.

There are so many things in life that you can simply “opt out” of. Meaning you can just decide not to do it anymore—to simply not participate. Hate it? Just stop doing it. Sure, doing so comes with consequences. But often those consequences are rather minor and inconsequential and well worth the upside.

I view books like a beer flight: little tasters to see what I want to order a full pour of.

Webnotes are manually added to the end of a post by the author after publishing as a way to provide useful info, links to other relevant posts, and comments from readers.

These custom text shortcuts can be incredibly useful in making some typing tasks easier—whether that’s routine things like your email address, or hard to type items like special characters.

Traditional web analytics emphasize the wrong things, at least for the noncommercial personal websites. Here are some ideas on what analytics for the personal web could look like.

I think that minimalism is a good, yet incomplete, frame for consumer purchases. But I also don’t believe that less stuff is inherently better. At least not for the life … Read more

Look, I own a lot of domain names. Waaaay too many. Each new project idea starts with a name, and that name is in part driven by domain availability. Don’t … Read more

I’m a big fan of travel quests—a goal of visiting a particular set of places, usually one that involves “visiting all the ________________.” ➡️ Here are some of my own … Read more

Since we tent camp regularly, whether during a road trip or just on a free weekend, we end up needing to charge some items overnight in the tent. To make … Read more

Repurpose your old computer into a functional ChromeOS computer, for free—a perfect solution for someone who primarily just needs an easy-to-use web browser.

I’ve spent the last four years managing my dad’s life after a serious of health crises. He died recently, and I’ve been trying to contact his friends and old colleagues, … Read more

What I love most about social media are the relationships you can create.  Nearly all of my most cherished friendships were first forged online. That’s not an exaggeration. I’ve always viewed social … Read more

One of the many benefits of having your own website is the ability to use email aliases associated with your domain. (You can use these with gmail, too—but you should … Read more

Most task management apps, such as the stellar Things 3 that I rely on, allow you to set reminders based on a time deadline. But the iOS Reminders app offers … Read more

There are many, many reasons why you should have you own website. Here are just a few of them: Ok, that’s enough for now. Go get yourself a website! Register … Read more

Back in the early days of blogging, launching your own website required quite a bit of knowledge and a quite long list of steps to complete. If you didn’t know … Read more

Personal websites are the best way to have a home on the internet. While every site is—and should be—a personal expression of its owner, it can also be useful to adopt some … Read more

How to build a cheap water faucet and sink system for camping.

Use this medical reference document in emergencies or to speed up check-in time at doctor offices.

Our latest road trip required a long drive across Texas, a state I repeatedly wish I didn’t have to drive across. But if you live in Phoenix and your intended … Read more

I’m in the process of substantially shifting how I use social media. I want to focus on using social media solely to connect with actual people—not to consume so-called breaking news … Read more

tl;dr: I’ve started keeping track of my travels in an interconnected system of notes. This helps me remember more, and to better connect the dots. Here’s a bit more on … Read more

Today we paid $100 for the privilege of taking our two big road trips this year. What does that mean? We are privileged to be able to travel as often … Read more

This post outlines the username, email, and password “code” system that my wife and I use to manage accounts that we both need easy access to.

This post explains how I organize my From Idea to Adventure trip planning database in Notion. Below, I give you a video tour of my own system, and a short … Read more

A quick unscripted conversation about the sacrifices made for travel—and what you don’t see on social media.

The plan was simple. With my girlfriend vacationing overseas with family, I’d hit the road and visit some places scattered around the West that I needed to mark off of my … Read more

Travel quests are among the most powerful ways to get yourself out more. My personal national parks quest—visiting all 417 national park units in the country—has been the driving force … Read more

There are dozens of ways to keep track of your hikes, from relying on your gps track history to simply writing it down in a trusty notebook. Each method has … Read more

Football season is once again upon us, but I won’t be donning my favorite jersey on Sunday mornings this season, yet again. Don’t get me wrong. I grew up a … Read more

The cheapest way to travel One of the best ways to save money while traveling is to camp instead of staying in a hotel. Some people might think that this … Read more

I believe that travel quests are one of the best ways to inspire more travel. In fact, the original name of this blog was originally going to be VisitEveryPark.com—an ode … Read more

“Wow, that sounds exhausting. I think I’d rather just spend more time at one place,” she replied after hearing my itinerary. I responded with a knowing nod. I understood why … Read more

If you’ve spent any time recreating outdoors, you’ve undoubtedly heard the phrase “leave no trace” or seen the popular acronym, LNT. But do you know what it really means? Below … Read more

This post is primarily a screencast tutorial on how to create a custom google map of places you want to visit—or what I like to call an Adventure Map. An … Read more

You know what sucks? Getting stressed out by packing for what’s supposed to be a relaxing camping trip. Yeah, that definitely sucks. Eliminate packing stress You can alleviate much of … Read more

Solo adventuring can be great—it’s easy to do exactly what you want right when you want to do it. And it’s a perfect time to dive into some introspection and … Read more

“I’m not camping, I’m just sleeping at a campsite,” I explained. They looked skeptical, trying to process what that sentence could possibly mean. To them, camping was itself a largely … Read more

Making ice last longer in a cooler requires a bit of pre-planning and following some best practices while you’re on the road. Here’s a simple guide for how to get … Read more

Sometimes, you find yourself in a really great campsite. Last weekend was one of those instances. While we often disperse camp on BLM or National Forest lands, we had decided … Read more

One of the keys to desert hiking is staying cool. The most obvious way to do this is to limit your desert hiking to the cooler months. But for some … Read more

If you’ve been to quite a few National Park units—especially the ones that don’t close at night—you may have noticed something odd about the layout of their visitor centers. In nearly all of … Read more

Travel can be very expensive. But it doesn’t have to be. There’s one simple way to save money on your trips: Camp. Yep, not an earth-shattering secret, I know. But it’s … Read more

When someone hears about my national park quest, they often ask me if I’ve visited a particular place that they have enjoyed. As often as not, the location they mention … Read more