Personal

I don’t have much time to write anything substantial this week; I had visitors all weekend, and have other visitors coming soon to prepare for. So, this is a sorry excuse for a post just for the sake of keeping my weekly streak alive. To that end, on the side menu of the site I’ve finally added a feedback email address. I’ve had the email available for use for quite a while now, but only just figured out how to easily set-up my email clients to allow it to actually be usable by me. So, if you happen to read this blog and have ever wanted to voice strong opinions to me, emailing feedback@markrichard.org is the way to go. I believe there’s also a comment system (that has been used about once in total), but that seems much less likely to be utilized.

A few weeks ago I decided to get a membership to the San Diego Zoo. I’d only been once before, back when I was an intern, and had an amazing time. After talking with a few people, I discovered the a membership for the entire year is about the cost of two tickets. So, I decided to give it a whirl. I’ve already gone twice, so everything from now is a bonus. ...

I’m pretty aware of the idea of transition costs, and I’ve experienced them first-hand quite a lot throughout college. Moving into a new apartment comes with many potential transition costs. So does getting a new computer, or changing operating systems. These are all costs that I have some practice handling, and they don’t tend to bother me. In fact, the prospect of handling them can be exciting. But recently, I’ve been dealing with mental transition costs. ...

I never actually thought this would happen to me. Despite years not regularly going to coffee shops, and never drinking coffee, I finally came to terms with the fact that I have a drink of choice at Starbucks. It comes with the realization that I go to Starbucks enough to justify having a go-to order. ...

I decided to rearrange my room this past weekend. part of it was for convenience, and part of it was just to switch things up. It also gave me the opportunity to go through my things and reorganize. ...

I’ve been thinking about the experience of attending a movie in a theater, and how it compares to staying in to watch a film. I often feel conflicted, with my current opinion being adjusted based on the most recent experience I’ve had in a theater. ...

Due to travel and being home in Minnesota all last week, this post is coming late today. This past weekend, my girlfriend graduated from college. It was an exciting time, and she officially finished up this chapter of her life and began to look forward to the PhD program she begins in the fall. Going to commencement was exciting, having this official moment to mark the occasion. This is what I appreciate about commencement, is its role as the milestone. ...

I’ve been sitting around, trying to determine what I wanted to write for this week. I’ve had a few underwhelming posts over the past month, due to some time constraints and missed deadlines, so I’m really aiming for ideas with a bit more substance. I try to make note of some ideas I have, whether that is quotes from books I read, ideas from podcasts, little pictures, or just something that pops into my head that I want to save for later. I was going through those notes and determined this is the right time to get to something I heard a high school girl say at a Starbucks a few months ago. ...

I missed my first self-imposed Monday deadline in a while. I’ve actually been on Spring Break, in a sense. My girlfriend is in town visiting, and we’ve been staying pretty busy. Tomorrow we’re on our way to Universal Studios Hollywood. We both went to the Orlando location back in high school, so we’re somewhat familiar with what it has to offer. But it will be an excellent time. I just wanted to write this brief post as a marker of my failed deadline, but to keep the number of posts per week consistent enough. ...

The other day, I finally finished making my room fairly clean and I tidy. I put together a bookshelf to house some odds and ends, removed the final cardboard boxes still hanging around since I moved in, and sorted my papers. I felt good. But something was still missing. This week’s Comical Start episode featured me discussing my desire for a Roomba “just to have something that seems like it’s alive in my apartment.” However, a Roomba is not in my future. After a healthy discussion of why an actual pet is not a possibility right now, Grant and I decided I would get a plant. As a result, I went out Saturday morning and got myself a little succulent. My new pal, Calvin (naturally named after the spiky-haired first-grader Calvin) ...