I Hope You Like Mountains I’m walking my kid to the library in Chamonix, holding hands, or rather, he’s holding my middle finger in his hand. I get a tug on my finger every few steps, because he’s looking down as he jumps from seam to seam on the sidewalk, and I am looking up at the Aiguille du Dru, one of the six classic north faces of the Alps, 850 meters of steep granite, trying to remember the history of climbing routes on it. It’s almost a mile and a half straight up from where we’re...
7 days ago • 4 min read
Friday Inspiration 499 I kind of think this idea—having kids dream up fairytale characters and then having those characters professionally designed—should happen more often? (video) We are hopefully getting toward the end of fire season here soon-ish in the western U.S., but I thought it might be useful to share the app I use to track wildfires around Missoula during the summer and early fall. I’m sure many people have heard of it, but Watch Duty is a free app (which you can support for...
13 days ago • 2 min read
Friday Inspiration 498 I saw this video somewhere on Reddit a few weeks ago and would have shared it here but I couldn’t verify that these folks actually went and retrieved the tire afterward—but it appears they answered that question in the comments on YouTube, so please enjoy this very satisfying three minutes. (thanks, Hannah and Dan) (video) Hilary is a huge fan of Blackbird Spyplane, and I am a fan of the writing voice and general presence, although I am not as regular a reader as she is...
20 days ago • 2 min read
The Usual -- If you enjoyed this piece, please consider helping keep the lights on around here by supporting my work.
21 days ago • 1 min read
Friday Inspiration 497 I had a lot of fun figuring out how to make this 2-minute YouTube video about "the creative process," which involved a) digging an actual hole, b) rigging a ring light in our shower just to shoot 10-seconds of GoPro footage of my feet, and c) spending way too long hand-writing all the subtitles. But I hope it hits home. (video) I was talking to a friend the other day about writers who can create great writing out of the smallest events. I was thinking of Bill Bryson, in...
27 days ago • 3 min read
Friday Inspiration 496 Today is the last day to sign up for my How To Tell One Story online writing course! As of my typing this (Thursday afternoon), we still had eight spots available. Since I kind of messed up a funny video promotion I did for it on Instagram that had a discount code on it (long story), it’s $199 for everyone instead of $249. But, again, today is the last day to sign up, and the spots are filling. Here’s the link for more info. (We’ll open up another 25 spots the week of...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
When We Finish This photo of me, running to the finish line of a race with my toddler, Jay, was about 45 seconds away from not happening at all: Hilary had woken Jay up from his nap, driven an hour and a half from Lake Hawea to the finish line parking area, scooped Jay out of the car, hustled him and his strider bike to the finishing corral, and gotten there just in time to see me about 150 feet away, jogging toward the finish alongside a guy named Kyle, scanning the fence line for her and...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Friday Inspiration 495 NEWS FROM ME: As of today, August 1, we are opening up 25 more spots for the next session of my How To Tell One Story online writing course. So far, 180+ people have taken the course, and I’ve gotten tons of positive feedback from them. It’s six weeks, two emails per week (Mondays and Thursdays), each email containing a lesson, short video, and writing exercise that takes between five and 30 minutes. You complete the lessons at your own pace, and you have access to the...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Friday Inspiration 494 Wow did I love this 15-minute film about three L.A. cyclists who come from diverse cycling backgrounds and found each other to enjoy, as Dante Young puts it, “riding around in tight-ass clothes all day.” (video) (thanks, Brody) This one-minute video was simply titled “Researchers react to first-ever photos” on the youseeingthisshit subreddit, and I watched it three or four times before I poked around to try to find more info on why these guys were so excited about this...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
