Monthly Archives: November 2013

Things I Love: Pendleton Wool Shirts

My Pendleton Shirts

The Season Of Stuff draws near. Far be it from me to discourage you from participating. After all, I will both give and receive plenty of stuff just like everyone else. It’s just that, if you are going to be giving stuff anyway, why not give something that will last a lifetime, always be in style, and be easily passed on for years more use?

That’s why I love the three Pendleton wool shirts I own. They are dependable, sturdy, and warm. Of these, two are vintage and were purchased used — yet they look brand new. That is because these things were built to last. Here in Minnesota, where the value of a time-tested wool shirt in winter is not lost, you can find them easily and inexpensively in just about any thrift or vintage store — still as stylish and often in as good of shape as the day they were new. In fact, I recommend buying them used as it is better for the planet and this is a rare case where the quality is so consistent that the difference between use and new is negligible. But, even brand new, it is an investment well made. They make a great gift that anyone could, if properly maintained and treasured, provide a lifetime of purpose.

In fact, everything Pendleton makes is outstanding. I have a sweater from them as well and it fits all of the criteria mentioned above.

Random Notes and Recent Thoughts #2

I’m suffering from a horrible cold virus. My third or fourth in as many weeks (I’ve lost count). My thinking, during such times, is both hazy and exausting. Therefore, please accept some of these brief and imperfect ideas that warrant more expounding than I have the energy for right now.

  • We all write our own eulogies. We write them with the way we live in each moment. By our acts of kindness or the things we do that delight others. Those things that make an impression on those closest to us. For, if we were to pass tomorrow, it is these things they will stand in front of others to share and remember.

  • Those that claim to have no choice always do. What they don’t have is a choice they want. And those that are doing something they don’t want because they feel they have no choice have, in fact, chosen.

  • There is no such thing as good debt. No matter how many financial advisors will tell you otherwise. I wish I had learned this before the age of 35. For instance, believing that a mortgage that was less than the value of the home was an investment — "good debt". Or, that a student loan is somehow good debt because it sets you up for the possibility of higher pay or a better career (when the first 10-20 years of said job is spent paying back that debt). Does no one do the math and figure out the only ones making money from this equation are the people that write the paychecks and the people who service the debt? I think if the past several years have revealed anything it is this fundemental fact and the lies that prop it up.

  • On every task list should exist the following: One thing that makes your life better. One thing that makes the life of someone else better.

  • The more complex your tool, the more likely it is to fail you in some way eventually. And, said failure likelihood will scale in parallel to the added complexity. And, because one’s expectations for said tool also scale in the same parallel, the disappointment from the failure is compounded.

  • People who love what they do for a living don’t ever dream of retirement — early or otherwise. Why wait to start the life you want when you can build it now? And, those that call bullshit on this are either a) happy and don’t want others to be so they can feel even more superior or b) as unhappy as the rest and looking for people to share in their sorrow. The truth is that you build the life you wish to have by the choices you make and, if you build a life that makes you happy, you can do it until you die.

  • This guy gets up and does the work he loves every morning. So, your excuses are invalid.

Items Of Interest #10

I really like the looks of the new Doxie Flip scanner. My friend Mike Rohde posted a great review and video of it in action. That said, I’ve been using TurboScan for iPhone for a couple of years now to use the camera for essentially the same thing for a couple of years now. It’s not the prettiest app out there but it works really well and gets the job done.

With the recent end of the Enough Podcast, it was really nice of Robert Wall of Untitled Minimalism to put together an archive and torrent of all 225 episodes and make it publicly available. I’m seeding it as are many others. Grab it and listen to any you have missed

Designer and consultant Josh Gross exploring a really interesting idea he’s calling One Hour: "I’m making myself available for consulting one hour at a time, starting at $1. Each time someone purchases an hour, the price goes up $1."

The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith, the pseudonym under which J.K. Rowling wrote the book, is one of the finest whodunits I have ever read. I was engaged and locked in pretty much as soon as I started it. She has an amazing ability to sketch characters quickly and such confidence in her subject matter that you might swear she has written a hundred of these before. In fact, I would argue that the writing here is stronger than many of her Harry Potter books. Highly recommended.

Speaking of books, I’m really excited for Kevin Kelly’s Catalog of Possibilities: Cool Tools. As a fellow fan of the late, great, Whole Earth Catalog and a long time reader of his Cool Tools site, I can’t imagine not having such a valuable resource in my arsenal.

C.J. Chilvers reminds us of the many reasons why paper still matters. My favorite: "The benefits of holding your work in your hand is a pleasure digital workers are too often deprived of."

Mike Vardy reminds us of how much we can get done in only 7 minutes. Try sitting and doing absolutely nothing for even 5 minutes and see how long it feels when you are not regularly accustomed to doing so. I think we would all do a bit better if we had a better sense of the passage of time and the ways we can choose to fill it.

Finally, I really, really, enjoyed this piece by Jack Cheng on living for a time in a yurt and the insight it gives on the many lives we live.