Todd Grooms

Finished reading: Kingdom Keepers II by Ridley Pearson 📚

🔗 Conservative White Christians Will Worship Anyone But Jesus

I am not particularly religious. What I observe out of many people that claim to be religious lines up with this observation. Not everyone is like this, but the bad apples make it difficult to enjoy the good ones.

You’ll never know what you’ll find when you pull up a thicket of petunias from a flower bed.

Finished reading: Kingdom Keepers by Ridley Pearson 📚

Finished reading: 1984 by George Orwell 📚

🛫 Preparing to depart SJC. I enjoyed a lovely week out in Cupertino, with an evening trip to Aptos.

My father, John Wyman Adams, passed away a year ago today. I knew the anniversary was approaching, but it sometimes still doesn’t feel real. In the lead up to his death, I always assumed we would have more time. More time to talk. More time to bond. More time to share. More time to laugh. Man, I miss his laugh.

A few weeks ago, it dawned on me that the anniversary would coincide with a trip out to the office. Once I realized this, I knew that I wanted to visit Aptos on this day and I wanted to sit on the beach for a bit. I wanted to feel the breeze. I wanted to feel the sun. I wanted to breathe. I wanted to reflect. I wanted to grieve.

The other morning, while somewhere in between awake and dreaming, I thought how it had been awhile since I had called my dad. I wanted to call him. I wanted to give him an update on what had been going on. I wanted to talk about Max starting sixth grade and how he is in middle school now. I wanted to talk about Adelaide’s first day of kindergarten and about how brave she was. I still want to share this with him.

I’m not sure how to describe it, but I sometimes feel him with me. I see him in the mirror. I hear his laugh when I laugh. It’s funny how similar some of our mannerisms are, even though we never lived together. There are many traits that I share with him and many that I don’t. I would have loved the opportunity to learn more ways in which we are similar.

Thanks to the fog for cooperating today. I had my time in the sun at Seacliff. I thought about walking along the beach with my dad when he visited us years ago. I thought about him walking alongside Max and my sister. I thought about him sharing an ice cream cone with Max at Marianne’s while I enjoyed an ice cream cone this evening. I thought about him.

Finished reading: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury 📚

Play the man, Master Ridley; we shall this day light such a candle, by God’s grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out.

I enjoyed it, but I also don’t get what all the fuss is about. Why is this book controversial? Would The Republic also be controversial today?

📺 Stick

I found Stick to be a lot of fun. Sad to see the season finale. If the writers have more story to tell, I really hope they can get picked up for a second season. I would definitely tune in for another season.

Absolutely incredible finish to the Brickyard 400 today. Bubba Wallace with a sensational finish. He somehow beats Larson on both Overtime restarts and somehow manages to avoid running out of gas.

Finished reading: The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton 📚

Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold.

Ashley recommended this to me for our vacation. I was able to finish it as we landed back in Nashville. I enjoyed it so much.

Finished reading: Lead Yourself First by Raymond M. Kethledge 📚

Community is a group of individuals who have made an inclusive commitment to support each other. Inclusive because they welcome others to join them. Differences are a product of ideas. Division is a product of behavior. A community means we live together with differences, but we can’t be divided.

–Chip Edens

Finished reading: Things Become Other Things by Craig Mod 📚

When I was a kid, the whole world felt preordained, immutable. Everything about the old town simply was, always had been, and always would be.

🔗 The rise of Whatever

But I like programming. I like writing. I like making things and then being able to sit back and look at them and think, holy fuck, I made that. There is no joy for me in typing a vague description into a computer and refreshing my way through a parade of Whatever until something is good enough.

This one struck a chord with me. There is so much here that I have found myself thinking and not knowing how to put into words.

via Molly White

Finished reading: Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport 📚

I enjoyed the concepts laid out in this book. I do not want to be a Luddite, but I also do not want to be beholden to every status update or breaking news alert either.

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

–Henry David Thoreau, Walden

In the utter darkness Of a moonless night, A powerful wind embraces The ancient cedar trees.

–Matsuo Bashō

I saw a recommendation for Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport. I decided to reserve a copy at my library. I think the people currently waiting on a digital copy while physical copies are ready for pickup might be missing the point.

Finished reading: A Series of Unfortunate Events #6: The Ersatz Elevator by Lemony Snicket 📚

Finished reading: A Series of Unfortunate Events #5: The Austere Academy by Lemony Snicket 📚

How does Count Olaf keep getting away with it? And what does V.F.D. mean?!

Finished reading: Make Time by Jake Knapp 📚

I don’t think there was anything revolutionary here. I feel like I inherently knew most of this, but it hits differently when it’s reinforced in an entertaining and informative manner.

Finished reading: The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery 📚

I was taken aback at how spiritual and deeply philosophical this book is. What is consciousness? Do animals experience consciousness?

Finished reading: A Series of Unfortunate Events #4: The Miserable Mill by Lemony Snicket 📚