Essays
Life and how to live it. At the intersection of Spirit, Craft, and Tools.
Être fort pour être utile
Join us. Subscribe to Friends of a Long Year
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February 2025
Review: Hilleberg Akto Tent
The best solo tent you can buy
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October 2024
Repairing the Arc of History
Thanks for keeping it going.
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September 2024
OK Computer, Goodbye
Walking away from two decades of digital tinkering.
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June 2024
We’ll Make It Work
Show some f#*%ing adaptability.
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May 2024
Simple Machines, Complex Tasks
Calmly, carefully, consciously
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April 2024
The Spirit of Craft
Losing yourself in the process.
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February 2024
Review: UG Monk Analog Notecard Productivity System
A Japanese tea ceremony for your todo list.
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February 2024
The Nothing That Is
The breath of the world
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December 2023
Developing Photos With Darktable
A brief intro to Darktable in 2025
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November 2023
Getting Things Done With Notecards
They're cheap, they're everywhere, and they work.
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March 2023
Turn Your Own Wrenches
Repair as a way of life.
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December 2022
Everything is a Practice
There is no finish line. There is no winning, no losing.
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December 2022
Sunbeams
Developing a photograph from Patrick’s Point
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December 2022
Safety Third
Life first
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November 2022
How I Work on a $75 Amazon Tablet
Turning a Fire 10 Tablet Into Something Useful
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October 2022
The Cavalry Isn’t Coming
It's just you and me and the rain.
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August 2022
Rules for Screens, Part Two
Let's talk about your phone.
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August 2022
Rules for Screens, Part One
You can have a television or you can have a life.
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November 2021
Birds, Sky
Developing a photograph from San Miguel de Allende
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November 2021
Bayside Sunset
Developing a photograph from long ago in Florida
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October 2021
Pawnee Grassland
Developing a photograph from the Colorado grasslands
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October 2021
Alborada Festival
San Miguel's best festival
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April 2021
Black and White Badlands
Toning a photograph from South Dakota
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April 2021
Lone House, Near Rutherford Beach, LA
The loneliest place in Louisiana
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April 2021
Dragoon Mountains
Black and white backlight
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March 2021
Three Quick Edits
Yes, you can process image quickly in darktable
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March 2021
Zion Canyon
An image from one of my favorite Zion hikes.
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March 2021
Trinidad Road
A storm, a road, a photograph
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February 2021
Ancestral Puebloan Dwelling
A place unlike any other
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January 2021
Is This Water?
Walking, Cleaning, Walking some more.
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January 2021
Bayou, Palmetto Island, LA
Developing a photograph from a Louisiana bayou
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January 2021
Quay Wardlaw House
Imitating Fujifilm Acros with Darktable
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November 2020
The Best Shoes I’ve Ever Worn Are Hardly Shoes at All
Let me tell you about my shoes
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August 2019
Waffle the World
A waffle iron can do a whole lot more than breakfast
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March 2019
Why Live in a Vintage 1969 RV?
The less you have, the further you can go.
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February 2019
Life in Chains: Del Taco
Written for an Eater.com series on fast food chains.
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May 2015
What’s Missing Is
A story (fictional) based on my grandparents and other bits of family history.
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September 2010
Comeback Sauce
An Ode to JB's Sausage Cart, an Athens, GA Institution
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March 2005
One Nation Under a Groove
Consider the iPod, destroyer, or perhaps protector, of worlds