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Island Wisdom by Kainoa Danes and Annie Daly. This is a short primer on the traditional Hawaiian way of doing things. After visiting Hawai’i last month, I was struck by the sacred appreciation of nature by some of the locals I met. As someone who loves and values nature, especially the ocean, seein...

Mortal Games: The Turbulent Genius of Garry Kasparov by Fred Waitzkin. Published in 1993, this is centered around the fifth world championship match between Kasparov and Karpov (the previous champ): Garry Kasparov had been unable to overwhelm Anatoly Karpov in their previous four championship bouts...

In the past month, I read two books on shamanism: Shamanic Journeying: A Beginner’s Guide by Sandra Ingerman. The Four-Fold Way: Walking the Paths of the Warrior, Teacher, Healer, and Visionary by Angeles Arrien. About eight years ago, I participated in a shamanic journey as described in the first b...

Perpetual Chess Improvement by Ben Johnson. I hate studying chess notation (1.d4 d5, etc.) and I have no interest in competition or online play, but I’m drawn to understanding chess better for the sake of moving the pieces with harmony. This is a great book for covering all the modern forms of ches...

Seems like a clearly evil act. Designed to embolden the bloodthirsty mob to be wielded by Trump.

Thoughts?

Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. I've heard of this book for many years, but someone suggested it recently, and thus I ordered it. As an aside, 100% of the books people recommend, I either order from the library or toss in my Amazon basket. A great policy! What a beautiful book. It's an account...

E-mailed Lenny a reply. Last night, I met for drinks with the person I was jealous of. An hour or so into the conversation, I brought it up. Haha, and they seemed to assume when I admitted to jealousy, it was to be of something else. Consistently, I’ve found that surrendering the illusory image of h...

Lenny, As always, thank you for your time and sharing your expertise! Thanks to you, I've picked up multiple books, been exposed to good music, and have a metric for evaluating (and re-evaluating) how to make my activities more in alignment with what makes me happy. Thank you!! I copied your post in...

After talking with a number of people, I think the main issue isn't brainpower self-esteem. I believe it's self-esteem around discipline and hard work. Made a list of five major categories to put time and effort into. Also booked a therapy session for tomorrow to discuss it a lil' deeper. I think it...

There's a thread on Reddit, where a poster claims to be his nephew: https://www.reddit.com/r/kettlebell/comments/1i34wsy/really_bummed_to_hear_about_the_passing_of_steve/ "Correct. He had a heart attack, and his son (my cousin) was with him and started CPR. It took over an hour for an ambulance...

I'm jealous of someone, because they have a master's degree and I do not. I graduated college with honors, so it's not like I'd be fucked if I tried for one, but there's a part of me that still doesn't believe I could do it. As a result, I view myself as less-than-them. And I think I've treated them...

I googled it, heart attack. Thanks for the heads up. Steve and I went to college at the same time for exercise science. In school, he was always super friendly and known for extreme exercises—I remember hearing of guys holding him in a push-up position at shoulder height, dropping him on the ground,...

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett.

Wow! Some of the best writing I've ever encountered. The Humphrey Bogart film is outstanding in bringing this story faithfully to life, but the novel stands on it's own merit.

9.5/10

With regards to Wave Ki…. In my mind, there’s three factors in surfing technique: 1) What looks cool 2) What is effective 3) What is bio-mechanically safe For example, there's two main ways to do a carve in surfing. Both effective, one bio-mechanically safe, the other looks cool. In the first, the s...

I’ve seen Bustin’ Down the Door and liked it. They were the first to turn surfing into a career, and what a cool life to have! Haven’t watched Free Ride , but have a surf friend living with me, and we’ll give it a go. Thanks, Lenny! The surf measurement’s are confusing to me. And it’s hard to compre...

Well, I’m lazy as fuck when it comes to website design, so the bar will be either really low, or hopefully this place will continue limping along.

Good film!

Over Christmas, I spent a week with family. Each day, I noticed family members showing love in their own unique way. Paying for dinner. Making a pot of coffee to share. Giving hugs. At some point, I noticed I had my own way too. I'd make light-hearted jokes, or be thoughtful: listening attentively; ...

Dope reggae track:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SV8zrvC ... _t&index=5

That other Irongarm was a holdover until this one got back up and running. I love being able to write here. Haha, I also love that almost no one seems to read my words. It's enough accountability to not say horrible, fucked-up, things. And so little interaction that I can puzzle through thoughts, wi...

Happy New Year! Ronnie, Luke, and you post as well. Haha, a five-person website. I kind of think it's a relief. We could be on things like Facebook with a thousand people constantly posting content. If a few more people toss in their perspective (miss you Fat Cat!) that would be great, but whatever....

In 2024, I played a lot of in-person chess. My biggest impediment to playing more wasn't how well I did, it was how unhappy chess made the people I played. And it didn't matter if they won! They still seemed pissed off. After starting this thread, I realized I was putting zero energy into making che...

I googled the same thing and the first hit was a website for a crisis hotline. Maybe we’re just encountering guardrails someone programmed in to protect people? I’ve experienced googling a vacuum cleaner (or whatever) then getting inundated with ads for the same thing. Ditching Facebook and Instagra...

MJ&S,

Here’s hoping we both find thoroughly engaging books in 2025.