Category Archives: Personal history

Five Years On; and, More About Morality, in a Way

Posted on Thursday 21 May 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Five years since my heart transplant; That IRS deal and presidential corruption; Paul Krugman describes this as “MAGA corruption reaches the point of no return”; Amanda Marcotte calls the White House ballroom “a symbol of Trump’s failure.” – – – … Continue reading →

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The Secret to Happiness, and How Best to Use Your Time

Posted on Tuesday 19 May 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

The secret to happiness: don’t obsess pursuing the best; How best to use your time: monitor your activities, plan wisely, plan small. – – – A couple matters of personal psychology for today. NY Times, guest essay by David Epstein, … Continue reading →

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Recalling American Life Before Vaccines, Including My Own

Posted on Monday 11 May 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

A remembrance of America before vaccines; How the DOGE-ing of the Humanities is being reversed, fortunately; Briefly noted: Trump’s intuitive thinking is wrong about vaccines and autism; a Republican who thinks racial discrimination is a thing of the past, as … Continue reading →

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Are All Weddings the Same?

Posted on Sunday 12 April 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

We attended a wedding yesterday, in Alameda, between my partner’s older son’s wife’s sister, and a man from a non-Catholic family, who had converted, and gotten baptized a year ago, in order to marry into my partner’s older son’s wife’s … Continue reading →

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Latter Day Skiffy Flix: STTNG: Encounter at Farpoint

Posted on Thursday 19 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

A couple evenings ago I rewatched the pilot episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, called “Encounter at Farpoint,” for the first time since I watched it as the series premiere back in 1987.

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The Demise of Mass Market Paperbacks

Posted on Sunday 1 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Trends in publishing can take place over decades, so they won’t be noticed by most people unless they’ve been buying (or borrowing) books for decades. Here’s a trend I’ve noticed for a while, which is now being noticed by the … Continue reading →

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Documenting My Reading; Holiday Shopping; and Tr*mp

Posted on Thursday 18 December 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Infrastructure note: I’ve updated all the pages under the “Nonfiction Books” tab in the menu above. I set up those pages a year ago, in December 2024, and updated a few of them in May 2025, and now have updated … Continue reading →

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Rituals and Routines, and Fonts

Posted on Friday 12 December 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Personal health updates; Big Think on the need for everyday rituals; Boing Boing on the origins of Calibri and Times New Roman, and stupidity; Short takes on approval ratings, European leadership, earning more, and Trump’s image. – – – It’s … Continue reading →

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Thanksgiving

Posted on Friday 28 November 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Thanksgiving with an Asian family; A Facebook graphic about hospitals and who gets the money; Carl Sagan on Who Speaks for Earth? Recalling quotes by E.O. Wilson and Robert A. Heinlein; Don D’Ammassa on humanity’s death spiral; NYT articles on … Continue reading →

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Status on a Gloomy Day; Why Anyone Should Care

Posted on Sunday 16 November 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

It’s a gloomy day in the Bay Area, with one rainy storm moving through last night, another due tonight, with clouds and patches of sunlight today. We visited the Farmers Market in Montclair Village today, bought some produce, and a … Continue reading →

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