For the past month I have been staying in a surprisingly noisy apartment. The neighborhood itself is very quiet, but just my luck to be staying over a night club and all-night grocery store. After this month the importance of being able to find quiet, peaceful places in a city rings all the more true […]
Next week is Halloween, which means in the U.S. the “holiday season” is officially upon us, as well as company bonuses. This is definitely the time of year to show your appreciation for someone or something, and being appreciated is a quick and fast way of feeling better or enriching someone else. This article was […]
One of the biggest pieces to having an enriching, relaxing, invigorating, or overall non-stressful space is what you put into it. There has been lots of research into creating better work spaces, medical spaces and homes, but it can be hard to quantify some of this research; after all, it’s hard to quantify “feeling better.” […]
Where I grew up and where I live now, though focusing on very different kinds of agriculture, were both very farm-focused communities, and I always encourage people to go out and see what a working farm is all about. It is a great way to learn about where your food comes from, different jobs, and […]
This call for paper submissions from the The Society for the Study of Childhood in the Past got me thinking about how actively children used to participate in the daily household and economic life of families, from general maintenance like sweeping the kitchen to vital income by helping during harvest time. Children used to have […]
I subscribe to this business blog, The 99 Percent (Success is 1% inspiration, 99% determination), that typically offers business strategies and stuff, but this article I found really interesting; the idea that having a ritual around your day actually allows your brain to focus on being creative: You follow the same routine, sipping your coffee, […]
A very nice essay about what it takes to be a happy, healthy man, woman, or general human being: Men have a certain innate restlessness. We’re always looking for a new adventure, wanting to feel like we’re progressing in life, and wondering if the grass might be greener somewhere else.Our ever-searching nature can be […]
What makes cities work? How do humans live in such HUGE tribes. More than half of us live in cities. I’m a new city transplant. I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to it, but it’s a fascinating topic to explore. There’s no scientific metric for measuring a city’s personality. But step out on the […]
As the new school year begins, I wanted to mention this article from the New York Times about how schools are discouraging kids from making best friends. Ahem. Let me repeat that. Schools are discouraging children from having a best friend. That is just stupid. Or, put more professionally… “…such an attitude worries some psychologists […]
