The Snail Shell

(A shame-free and hopefully patronization-free education zone) My post yesterday got a lot of good conversation going about men telling w...

- The incredible power of sexism. Hillary vs the worst man I've ever seen run for president, and here we go. - Well... maybe the repub...

Q. Why are you writing this post? A. Mostly, to suggest that maybe you should go knock on doors too. Also (as usual) because I had a few i...

Tati and I planned a wedding this past summer. It went great! As a result, I want to tell you all about how to do it. However, I don't ...

A friend recently posted about Michael Crichton and how he's great. He's pretty great: he wrote a bunch of super cool books, all pr...

EDIT: scroll to the bottom, I posted a fuller list of who I voted for. This is a thing! You gotta seriously bone up to vote right here. (...

Been struggling with a couple of interrelated questions: 1. can we just discuss every issue calmly and rationally? 2. can we be frien...

It's easiest to get along with someone when you're going through the same challenges. I guess this is just a rephrasing of "th...

Some things that are on my mind: Chris Arnade's tweets - I don't know who this guy is, just stumbled on his posts, and couldn...

1. Listen to the "autism isn't what I signed up for" episode if Death, Sex, and Money podcast. Oh god! That's the most ter...

Over the past 5 years, I've been lucky enough to take 3 more-than-a-month trips to some pretty neat parts of the world. 2011-2012, whi...

Another half formed post, but if I wait until everything is perfect I will never blog. If we talk a lot, you probably know that the dysto...

Parked my bike outside Equator Coffee by 5th and Market. Locked it and got a seat looking out the window so I could watch it in case someon...

Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn, is this book where a telepathic gorilla (Ishmael) explains the history of humanity. One crucial point happens arou...

Costs of some things: A double hotel room, not fancy but clean, usually with bathroom, in a not-dumb location: $20 (small towns) to $40 (bi...

Someone asked me "what's your favorite Chinese food" and I was really kind of puzzled. What IS it? Like, maybe baozi (steamed ...

Xining is neat. It's ~2 million people, putting it on par with Pittsburgh or Cleveland (metro). So, tiny by Chinese standards. Here...

(Particularly Kham and Amdo, where we've spent most of our time, aka parts of Yunnan Sichuan Gansu and Qinghai) (also feedback is welco...

I had another post entitled this, but Blogger's Android app, which is hot garbage, ate it. Seriously; it's 2016 and we're making...

If you find yourself in Xining and looking for an adventure, skip Qinghai Lake and go to Kanbula Forest Park. (I mean, or go to Qinghai La...