Index of posts for Halfhaven Treading Water, Oct 1 Introducing Halfhaven, Oct 3 Some Nonsense For My Third Halfhaven Post, Oct 5 You Are Good, Oct 8 SlutCon Vignettes: Day 1, Oct 11 More About Slutcon, Oct 16 Good Grief, Oct 20 Letter To My Past, Oct 23 Free Writing, Oct 24 Lighthaven, my favorite place in the world, will be running Inkhaven, a month-long residency in November aimed at growing people into great writers. Apart from support in the form of advisors running workshops, Inkhaven provides a commitment mechanism: publish every day, or be kicked out of the program. I won’t be participating in Inkhaven. The price is beyond my means these days, and I’m not so committed to writing that I want it to be my main focus for a month. However, I do want to write more, or at least to have written more. So, when my friend keltan told me about Halfhaven, a less-intense and free version of Inkhaven’s peer group and commitment mechanism, I decided to give it a try. ...

I signed up for a membership at my local YMCA a couple days ago, inspired by this post. The YMCA is full-featured, and remarkably cheap remarkably cheap by Bay Area standards, as far as I can tell. My plan is to start a strength training habit of some sort, but I haven’t done so yet. Instead, today I took advantage of the pool. I was low on energy today, due most likely to some mix of poor sleep habits and the drain of ongoing emotional processing. Whatever the cause, with the clock approaching 7 p.m., I found myself lying in bed, ruminating on some issues in my life and staring at the overdue “Exercise” on my to-do list. Luckily, when the inspiration struck that I could solve both problems in one fell swoop, I still had enough motivation to get up and give it a shot. I grabbed my bathing suit and a towel, and walked down to the gym. ...

The world has a shortage of people doing things. I think one reason for this is that people are afraid the things they do won’t be “good enough”. Something is better than nothing; don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Lower the bar for ideas As I’ve previously discussed on the blog, it’s possible to write more by writing worse. I’m publishing this rough collection of tidbits and references, rather than publish nothing because I haven’t written “enough”. ...

I thought I hated mushrooms, but yours are making me reconsider. – My brother Mushrooms are one of my favorite ingredients to cook with, bringing rich umami flavor and a delightfully meaty texture to dishes. Because they can be so delicious, it makes me sad that so few people seem to get them right. I’ve seen even nice restaurants serve pale, watery mushrooms, which is a travesty, especially when the fix is so simple. ...

I want to share some communication advice my dad gave me recently. I had been telling him about some uncertainties I had around a work situation and a dating situation, and the advice was relevant to both. Really, it’s a general technique to help resolve any interpersonal uncertainty. The communication technique consists of a few components: Ask questions. Share information. Use simple sentences. Ask Questions In an uncertain situation, you’re missing information about the other person’s internal state. You want to know what they’re thinking and feeling. Instead of wondering and guessing, you can just ask! The other person has more insight than you into their experience, and will often be happy to tell you about it. ...

This is a guest post by my friend Cynthia. If you’d also like to host your writing here, reach out! Feeling overwhelmed by endless beauty advice? Confused by 12-step skincare routines and wondering if you really need to contour your way to attractiveness? You don’t. This guide cuts through the noise to give you the essentials - the 20% of effort that delivers 80% of the results. Whether you’re a complete beginner or just want to streamline your routine, these fundamentals will have you looking and feeling great without the overwhelm. ...

It’s halfway through Quiethaven at LessOnline, an hour where conversation is forbidden to encourage writing. I’ve been meaning to publish more content here, but often find myself bottlenecked on writing speed. The ideas bounce around my head, but it’s daunting to sit down and write a whole post, so the posts don’t get written and the blog stays more barren than I’d like. I’ve been thinking and talking about how to publish more, and this post will both describe and apply my conclusions. I intend to occasionally read this post as a reminder to myself, and if you enjoy it as well, so much the better. Here’s how I’ll publish more content on my blog: ...

I brewed a Historic deck recently that I call Ritual of Change. It’s a lot of fun to play, and it’s taken me to Diamond in Best-of-1 Ranked! In this post, I’ll share the decklist and some notes on building/playing the deck. The Decklist Creatures (32) 4 Birds of Paradise 4 Burning‑Tree Emissary 2 Charming Prince 4 Fear of Change 4 Prosperous Innkeeper 2 Abhorrent Oculus 4 Extraction Specialist 4 Renegade Rallier 4 Skyclave Apparition Enchantments (4) 4 Birthing Ritual Instants (4) 4 Collected Company Lands (20) 1 Boseiju, Who Endures 2 Botanical Sanctum 2 Breeding Pool 4 Brushland 1 Forest 1 Island 1 Mana Confluence 1 Plains 1 Prismatic Vista 1 Razorverge Thicket 3 Temple Garden 2 Yavimaya Coast The Design This deck is originally based on a Pioneer deck by my friend Josh, but it’s gone through several iterations from that starting point. Since I’m playing Historic rather than Pioneer, I have access to a couple of key cards that pushed the deck in a different direction (and gave the deck its name): Birthing Ritual and Fear of Change. ...

Edit 2025-06-16: When I wrote this post, I was still only considering work in software engineering, where I have professional experience. The discussion of my values still very much holds, but that clarity has led me to broaden my horizons. For instance, after finding it very rewarding to volunteer for community events, I’ve been considering a pivot to generalist ops work. To me, the core message of this post is that I should seek work where I feel alive, wherever that ends up taking me. ...

Why you might live forever, and what to do about it.