May 2, 2022

Chris Brooks Newsletter 001

The leading zeros in the subject line are aspirational. Let’s say I have 45 years left on this planet. If I do a monthly newsletter until that endpoint, I will write just over 500 of them. At a minimum, I need to write enough to fill all three digits with nonzeros.

I’ve felt more stress drafting and sending this newsletter than I should. I keep thinking about structure, length, and preachiness. I think this is partly due to the wide range of initial subscribers – friends, family, former students, and former co-workers. In the end, I have to treat this like I have treated my blog for the past almost–20 years: just write what I want to write and enjoy the process.

All that said, I want feedback so hit that reply button and let me know what you think. Especially if you have suggestions like “more of this, less of that”.

One note about my blog: the image quality is below my standards on many of the posts I link to below. Since I moved to Jekyll for my site, probably 95% of my posts are made on my iPhone using a Shortcuts automation. I keep tweaking the automated JPG conversion size and quality to find the proper balance between image quality and page load time. Still, I’m seeing dramatic differences in quality between what I can produce on my MacBook with stock conversion vs. what Apple Shortcuts is doing with their automation. Further research is required.

Where We’ve Been Traveling

We started the month of April in Napa, having helped son Jacob and daughter-in-law Kaitlin move into their new home. We played some games and helped with some gardening.

In the past, we would have bolted to NY in 5 or 6 days, but we’ve learned to slow our driving down and spend time exploring. Thanks to a Nevada State Parks pass we purchased back in February we were motivated to visit as many of their parks as possible. After some drive-by visits in the central and northwestern parts of the state, we settled on the central eastern portion (near Cedar City and St. George Utah). We visited Cathedral Gorge where we also camped for 4 or 5 nights, exploring Spring Valley and a few other local options.

We had some final van service due in Flagstaff, so we crossed into Arizona on the north rim plateau of the Grand Canyon, stopping at Page for some nice vistas and golf.

Julie had Wupatki National Monument on her must-visit list near Flagstaff, and I couldn’t resist overnighting in some BLM land near Grand Canyon’s south rim for some sunset views and a brief hike into the canyon.

Family and friends awaited us in the greater midwest, and I worked in a visit to the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum and the Cahokia Mounds. We enjoy looking for amazing Harvest Hosts and found one of the best so far at Bernard Family Farm in southern Illinois. Our last hurrah was a meetup with fellow van lifers Jim and Jill at Lincoln State Park in Indiana and Miamisburg, OH.

Now, we are back at Keuka Lake where we’ll reside until around Labor Day.

What I’ve Been Reading

I’m always reading one non-fiction book (usually in the morning) and one fiction book (usually at bedtime). Bedtime reading means slow reading, and I’m about 75% of the way through Anna Karenina[1]. The book is not a difficult read, I’m just slow. In the summer I usually spend more time reading during the daytime so my pace should pick up.

I’m currently reading Summer in a Glass[2] by Evan Dawson. A gift in paperback form from one of our lake friends, this book covers the emergence of the Finger Lakes region in the wine-making world. Even though Julie and I are hardly drinking alcohol this year, we’ll make an exception for the occasional tasting room tour and we are building an itinerary right now.

Earlier in the month, I read Poland 1939 - The Outbreak of WWII by Roger Moorhouse. There aren’t many accounts of this opening to WWII and this is a good one. It properly addresses many of the myths of feeble Polish defiance to the Germans and Soviets.

The month started with a read of 1491 - New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann. This is a good supplement to our wanderings around the USA and Mexico seeking rock art and ancient dwellings. Good to remember that, early on, European conquering parties were no match for established native settlements. Sadly, the native settlements were no match for smallpox. In a tie-in to our explorations last month, the settlement at Cahokia Mound likely peaked at around 15,000 inhabitants in the 11th and 12th centuries, making it larger than Paris was at the time.

What I’ve Been Watching

Well, let’s just say Julie and I have a regular viewing habit. Even though we often take a walk or hike after dinner while living in the van, we always set aside an hour or two for watching TV shows or movies.

On the TV front, we just finished a rewatch of Foyle’s War season 1. I think I first watched this about 10 years ago but never finished the entire series. Each episode is about 90 minutes long so it is like watching a set of serialized movies. It is hard to do better than this if you like British period drama.

Speaking of British period drama (dramedy?), we enjoyed season 1 of Bridgerton. We knew what we were getting into (sex, intrigue, fashion, basically a soap opera) but the acting and writing make it worthwhile. We also watched Death and Nightingales (only OK), The Book of Boba Fett (fun fun!), and Better Call Saul season 4.

On the movie front we went into a theater to see Everything Everywhere All at Once (that’s all I will say about that). This month we also watched Listening to Kenny G (strange dude but I love documentaries about successful folks), Dune (the new one, and the best so far), The Adam Project (escapism but only average), The Power of the Dog (I can appreciate the love for it but still think it was overrated), and The Batman. A word about the new Batman: I love gritty 1970s crime dramas (The French Connection, Chinatown) and this movie is closer to that than it is a superhero movie. I think I liked it a lot more than Julie did. Oh, it is very long.

What I’ve Been Playing

The short answer: not a lot! On my computer, I’ve been playing some play-by-email Advanced Squad Leader as well as some SASL. On my Switch, I’m enjoying The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, on loan from my brother-in-law Dave.

Not a lot of in-person gaming last month:

• I played Wingspan with my Kansas City family.
• Same with Terraforming Mars, though Mike and I only got through about 6 generations before aborting to watch The Batman.
• Dave and I played Undaunted: Normandy, an impulse purchase at a local game store in KC. I’d played it back in 2020 but thought it would be a good intro wargame for friends and family and it didn’t disappoint.

Oh, I’m also trying some of the solo play options on BoardGameArena, with the best so far A Feast for Odin.

The Sermon

You’ve made it this far, thank you! This is where I’ll chat (or rant) about something of interest to me.

Like many folks, I grow weary of the news cycle and escalating polarity in our country. Remember that Fox News, CNN, NY Times, Wa Post, etc. do better when you are outraged! The last thing I want to do is create a false equivalence between Fox News and the others I listed (Fox News is objectively terrible and Sean Hannity is guilty of sedition IMO), but I think we can all benefit from avoiding the whipsaw of the daily news cycle. I try to limit myself to a small number of newsletters that show up in my feed, and non-fiction reading to help me learn more about some topic of interest.

One topic I’d like to explore more is Effective Altruism, self-described as:

Most of us want to make a difference. We see suffering, injustice and death, and are moved to do something about them. But working out what that ‘something’ is, let alone actually doing it, can be a difficult and disheartening challenge.

Effective altruism is a response to this challenge. It is a research field which uses high-quality evidence and careful reasoning to work out how to help others as much as possible. It is also a community of people taking these answers seriously, by focusing their efforts on the most promising solutions to the world’s most pressing problems.

This is interesting to me as I:

1. Seek to get better at understanding public policy and avoiding the political tropes involved.
2. Consider ways to focus my time and financial resources on “doing good”. I’ve been extremely involved in non-profit and volunteer activities in the past; less so in the past 5 years.

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That’s it for this month. See you next time!

-Chris