Hey! Thanks for stopping by. Below are my most recent posts :)
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View of Fantastic Lava Beds from Cinder Cone at Lassen Volcanic National Park
I first saw “Fantastic Lava Bed” on a map of Lassen Volcanic National Park and was like “ok, that’s a funny name” – but yeah, they totally live up to their name. They are huge, scenic, and quite fantastic!
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Sacred Places of a Lifetime by National Geographic
Sacred Places of a Lifetime by National Geographic is an excellent coffee table style reference book showcasing some of the great sacred places around the world.
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Elk Meadow at Redwood National Park
The Elk Meadow in Redwood National Park was, only a few decades ago, a giant paved lumber yard with trucks, oil spills, giant cranes, warehouses, and piles of felled old-growth Redwood trees. Now, the National Park Service has helped nature along and the land is a fully restored meadow with bubbling creeks and Elk grazing in the distance.
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Lake Delanor at FD Roosevelt State Park in Georgia
Lake Delanor is a man-made lake at the center of Roosevelt State Park’s cabin & campground area. It connects to the Pine Mountain Trail system and the picnic area. It’s lovely, peaceful, and a perfect setting for cabins & camping.
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Sunflower Farm in the Sacramento River Valley
Driving along I-5 in California, I was taken how seemingly every town was like the world’s producer of some random crop. We drove through a town that produces like 95% of the world’s apricots, another one that does rhubarb, another one that does sunflower seeds. It’s really incredible to see. Also, they all had huge bee boxes along the fields letting the bees do their thing.
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Black Bear Cub Waiting To Cross the Road in Six Rivers National Forest
I got to see a small Black Bear cub crossing State Highway 96.
On the same trip, I also had a massive male Black Bear dart across the highway in addition to weasels, birds of prey and more. The highway goes through some of the most remote areas that I’ve ever traveled through but still been on a State Highway.
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Redwood Tree on the Trillium Trail in Redwood State & National Parks
It’s really hard to over-hype Redwood trees. They are the most majestic flora on Earth. And even though they are scattered throughout Northern California, seeing them clustered together in an intact ecosystem is awe inspiring.
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The Complete Stories by Flannery O’Connor
The Complete Stories is the only collection that includes every short story Flannery O’Connor ever wrote — including “The Geranium,” which she submitted as part of her master’s thesis at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. If you’re going to read her, this is the one to get.
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Erskine Fountain in Grant Park, Atlanta
The Grant Park Conservancy has been restoring old, abandoned features of Grant Park over the past decade. The Erskine Fountain is a special addition, which really shines with all the blooming lilies (and it’s very close to Zoo Atlanta’s entrance).
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6+ Favorite Books About Trees and Forests (So Far!)
A Roundup of My Favorite Books About Trees and Forests…so far.
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Abundance by Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
I don’t usually read best-selling political books of the moment. They feel too tied to whatever news cycle is happening right now, and I’d rather read something that has aged a bit.
But it feels like we’re at a genuine inflection point in American politics. The party coalitions that formed in the late 60s and early 70s—now going on 50 years old—are breaking down.
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Consolations by David Whyte
Consolations is a collection of short essays and poems. Each entry is just a page or two—a few hundred words at most. But Whyte packs an incredible amount of meaning into that small space.
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No Nonsense Spirituality by Britt Hartley
I picked this book up after hearing the author interviewed on a podcast — and by “picked up” I mean it was on sale on Amazon and seemed worth a quick read.
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6+ Favorite Books on Religious Violence (So Far!)
A Roundup of My Favorite Books on Religious Violence…so far.
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Discourses by Epictetus
I picked up The Discourses by Epictetus from Standard Ebooks, then ended up buying the print Penguin edition as well. Stoic philosophy has had waves of popularity over the years, and I love that the most recent wave has brought a blossoming of new translations, resources, and accessible texts.
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6+ Favorite Books on Urban-Rural Divides (So Far!)
A Roundup of My Favorite Books on Urban-Rural Divides…so far.
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Useful Not True by Derek Sivers
The core premise is straightforward: humans create stories and frameworks that aren’t literally true, but are still incredibly useful. Not useful in a “white lie” kind of way. Useful in a “this is how civilization actually functions” kind of way.
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6+ Favorite Philosophical Novels (So Far!)
A Roundup of My Favorite Philosophical Novels…so far.
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DK Eyewitness Chicago (or, Why Printed Travel Guides Prevent Overtourism)
I’ve found that printed travel books do something that no algorithm can – they help you discover places you don’t know that you don’t know.
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Lassen Volcanic National Park
Definitely one of the most underrated National Parks. There is not a lot of tourist infrastructure, but my goodness, it is wild, scenic, and alive.
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Pink Azaleas
Spring in Georgia brings azalea and dogwood blooms. They never get old.
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6+ Favorite Books on Urban Wildlife (So Far!)
A Roundup of My Favorite Books on Urban Wildlife…so far.
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America’s Great Forest Trails by Tim Palmer
I picked up America’s Great Forest Trails by Tim Palmer after seeing it on a shelf at my local bookstore. It’s a coffee table reference book highlighting America’s great forest trails—of which we have thousands and thousands of miles.
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6+ Favorite Books on Modern Africa (So Far!)
A Roundup of My Favorite Books on Modern Africa…so far.
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6+ Favorite Books on Personal Identity (So Far!)
A Roundup of My Favorite Books on Personal Identity…so far.
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A Southern Magnolia Flower So Beautiful That It Looks Fake
No filters, no edits. Taken with a Pixel 7a.
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6+ Favorite Haruki Murakami Novels (So Far!)
A Roundup of My Favorite Haruki Murakami Novels…so far.
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Why Japanese companies do so many different things
Fascinating business case study -> https://davidoks.blog/p/why-japanese-companies-do-so-many
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Lassen Volcanic National Park after Dixie Fire
Lassen Volcanic National Park was hit pretty hard by the Dixie Fire of 2021. We got to visit in Summer 2025 and saw not only how the land was recovering, but also how much it still impacted the Park after 4 years.
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Cinder Cone at Lassen Volcanic National Park
Lassen Volcanic National Park has all the types of volcanoes within its boundaries. It’s really cool! And Cinder Cone is one type that’s a lot more climbable than the others. It’s tough but straightforward. The volcano is also highly symmetrical and surrounded by the Fantastic Lava Beds!
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Prairie in the Okefenokee Swamp
I always imagined the Okefenokee Swamp to be mostly dark, green, cypress forest. It’s not. It’s mostly open “prairie” covered in a couple feet of water. It’s beautiful, haunting, and full of life. But the lack of trees really gives a sense of how big the place is.
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6+ Favorite Books on Wilderness Navigation (So Far!)
A Roundup of My Favorite Books on Wilderness Navigation…so far.
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Deep Tech by Pablos Holman
Deep Tech by Pablos Holman is a book by one of the most perennial hard tech entrepreneurs in America. Holman is known for his work at Blue Origin and Intellectual Ventures, and he currently runs a venture capital firm focused on what he calls “hard tech” — using technology to solve problems in the physical world rather than in the software or digital world that has been the focus of Silicon Valley for so long.
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How To Read The Bible by Harvey Cox
How to Read the Bible by Harvey Cox is an accessible, nuanced, and genuinely creative introduction to engaging with the best-selling and most influential single book in the world.
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The Elephants Vanishes by Haruki Murakami
The Elephant Vanishes is a short story collection by Haruki Murakami, and it’s one of his best. I’m generally a…
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This Dark Road To Mercy by Wiley Cash
This Dark Road to Mercy is another memorable novel from Cash. Without getting into too many spoilers, the book follows two young sisters in 1990s North Carolina who find themselves on the run with their estranged father. It’s a tense, propulsive story that weaves together themes of family, poverty, and redemption against the backdrop of Appalachian culture.
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6+ Favorite Books on Islamic History and Culture (So Far!)
A Roundup of My Favorite Books on Islamic History and Culture…so far.
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You’re Lonely Because You Keep Your Options Open via Parlour
Very interesting take on committing to social events -> https://www.parlour.fm/issues/youre-lonely-because-you-keep-your-options-open
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6+ Favorite Books on Farming and Agriculture (So Far!)
A Roundup of My Favorite Books on Farming and Agriculture…so far.
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6+ Favorite Books on Arctic and Northern Exploration (So Far!)
A Roundup of My Favorite Books on Arctic and Northern Exploration…so far.
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Mud Boiling at Lassen Volcanic National Park
At Lassen Volcanic National Park, I was surprised by just how volcanic it was, everywhere. And yes, I know it’s in the name. But I was not expecting lava rock to be everywhere and for all the lakes & springs to have a whiff of sulfur and boiling water to them. It feels like the Earth is genuinely alive & active beneath your feet (which, in fairness, it is..). Boiling Hot Springs Lake in the Warner Valley is a little off the beaten track, but we had it all to ourselves on a summer weekend.
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The Fantastic Lava Beds at Lassen Volvanic National Park
In the Southeast corner of Lassen Volcanic National Park, there are entire square miles of lava beds. They are so perfect and so beautiful in their starkness that they were literally called the “Fantastic Lava Beds”. There’s no hiking across them, but there are several excellent trail around and through them. In fact, the original California Trail goes around it.
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Norfolk Southern Train in Middle Georgia|Norfolk Southern Freight Train in Rural Georgia
I was driving along Georgia Highway 16 in Warren County, and got stopped by a Norfolk Southern train.
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The indie web has never had more options than it does now. Short form video & big platforms might be dominant, but I absolutely love all the options now.
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6+ Favorite Books on Hiking and Outdoor Adventures (So Far!)
A Roundup of My Favorite Books on Hiking and Outdoor Adventures…so far.
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A Happy Death by Albert Camus
A Happy Death by Albert Camus is essentially a prequel to The Stranger — and it’s best understood that way.
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6+ Favorite Books on Pakistani and Indian Life (So Far!)
A Roundup of My Favorite Books on Pakistani and Indian Life…so far.
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Use it up, Make it do, Wear it out
As seen in the National Museum of American History in the World War II exhibit. But also as heard many a time from my Grandma.
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6+ Favorite Lawrence Osborne’s Asian Fiction (So Far!)
A Roundup of My Favorite Lawrence Osbornes Asian Fiction…so far.
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Courage To Be by Paul Tillich
Sometimes a name shows up everywhere in the same week. That happened to me with Paul Tillich. His name popped…
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Dynamics of Faith by Paul Tillich
I picked up Dynamics of Faith at a used bookstore along with The Courage to Be — same author, same…
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6+ Favorite Crime Fiction Set in Scandinavia (So Far!)
A Roundup of My Favorite Crime Fiction Set in Scandinavia…so far.
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Testing Post Formats
So WordPress has post formats. But I have no idea how they interact with the Kadence theme (much less the ActivityPub plugin). So I’m testing this out!
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Canyons at Crater Lake National Park
On my visit to Crater Lake National Park, I got to explore some of the Park outside of the rim & the eponymous Lake. It had never really occurred to me that…the water in Crater Lake goes somewhere. Like, it never fills up and it also never sinks down. However, it maintains its level via rain / snowfall, evaporation and some seepage into the porous rock at the top.
However, even though no water leaves the caldera, the rim is incredibly steep, incredibly high, and incredibly snowbound. So it’s the source for a lot of creeks. And these creeks all run through volcanic soil, which creates some beautiful, complex canyons all around the Park.
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Creek at Lassen Volcanic National Park
Lassen Volcanic National Park is a park of colors. Blue water cuts through layers of red, orange, and yellow volcanic rock, coursing through green pines under a blue sky.
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Ancient Rock Formation in the Cohutta Wilderness
The Cohutta Wilderness protects some of the oldest land in North America as part of the Ocoee Supergroup.
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Flowers on the Beltline
The Beltline arborteum is an underrated, but seriously appreciated part of the project. In the Spring, I love seeing all the native plants and flowers blooming along the trail. The Westside, with its larger easements, has especially large plantings.
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6+ Favorite Books on Sustainable Living and Environmentalism (So Far!)
A Roundup of My Favorite Books on Sustainable Living and Environmentalism…so far.
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The Myth of Sisyphus & Other Essays by Albert Camus
The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays by Albert Camus is one of those books I’ve read a couple of times and finally just decided to own. I picked up the Vintage Books edition specifically because it includes bonus essays — particularly “Summer in Algiers” — that I think represent some of Camus’s best work.
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Antimemetics by Nadia Asparouhova
The core premise of antimemetics is deceptively simple: we live in an age where ideas spread faster than ever, and yet some ideas don’t spread at all. Not because they’re obscure or unimportant — but because of something specific about their nature.
Asparouhova calls these antimemes.
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Camping Georgia by Jimmy Jacobs
Camping Georgia by Jimmy Jacobs is a Falcon Guide focused on finding good tent camping spots at established campgrounds throughout Georgia.
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Tribe of Mentors by Tim Ferriss
I picked up Tribe of Mentors by Tim Ferriss after getting so much value from The 4-Hour Work Week. That book did an excellent job helping me reframe and understand the world of business and productivity, so I figured this would be another solid read.
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6+ Favorite Books on The American West (So Far!)
A Roundup of My Favorite Books on The American West…so far.
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Mountain Laurel Flowering
This mountain laurel was growing on a overlook with a perfect dotted pattern on its white petals.
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Jesus and the Disinherited by Howard Thurman
I picked up Jesus and the Disinherited by Howard Thurman after a weekend that included visiting the Martin Luther King…
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6+ Favorite Books on Global Economics (So Far!)
A Roundup of My Favorite Books on Global Economics…so far.
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6+ Favorite Books on Asian Culture and History (So Far!)
A Roundup of My Favorite Books on Asian Culture and History…so far.
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Crater Lake
Crater Lake has to be one of America’s most photographed landscapes. But seeing it in person still exceeded the expectations. It has a depth of blue that I couldn’t quite capture – and I don’t think anyone can. It’s also so photogenic that I don’t think it’s possible to take a bad picture of it.
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Catawba Rhododendron Flowering
I get a lot of the rhododendrons mixed up but one easier(?) way for me to just to note when it’s flowering. This guy was a particularly hot pink along the trail.
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Roses Blooming
Roses in the neighborhood are the absolute best. Kudos to anyone who plants them along the sidewalk, just far enough to prevent thorns interactions, but close enough to appreciate the color and varietal.
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Bend on the Conasauga River
Georgia’s Conasauga River is one of the loveliest rivers I’ve ever seen.
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I Am A Strange Loop by Douglas Hofstadter
I Am a Strange Loop by Douglas Hofstadter is possibly one of the best science books I’ve ever read — even though I’m not entirely sure I understood half of it.
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The Beach at Mistletoe State Park
Mistletoe State Park is a underrated little Georgia State Park near Augusta On Clark Hill Lake. It has a nice set of walking trails, walk-in campsites, and a pretty big beach for a State Park.
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Human Condition by Hannah Arendt
I picked up The Human Condition because I thought Hannah Arendt might have something useful to say about living in…
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6+ Favorite Books on Self-Experimentation (So Far!)
A Roundup of My Favorite Books on Self-Experimentation…so far.
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Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
I picked up Oedipus Rex as part of reading through the Theban trilogy. I was browsing Standard Ebooks and the collection caught my eye. I hadn’t read it since a required literature class in college, so I figured it was time to revisit and see how it held up.
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6+ Favorite Books on Entrepreneurship and Business Strategy (So Far!)
A Roundup of My Favorite Books on Entrepreneurship and Business Strategy…so far.
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The First Man by Albert Camus
The First Man is the manuscript that was found at Albert Camus’s side after his death in a car accident in 1960. It sat unpublished for decades — held back by his estate, his daughter and granddaughter — before finally being released to the public.
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6+ Favorite Books on Media Criticism (So Far!)
A Roundup of My Favorite Books on Media Criticism…so far.
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6+ Favorite Books on Family Dynamics (So Far!)
A Roundup of My Favorite Books on Family Dynamics…so far.
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A Saddle on The Conasauga River Trail
The Conasauga River Trail is wholly within Georgia’s Cohutta Wilderness. Even though it’s mostly along the river, it also goes up onto saddles between ridgetops, especially at the end.
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Mount Shasta
Mount Shasta is a potentially active stratovolcano in Northern California. I got to see it on the drive from Crater Lake National Park to Lassen Volcanic National Park.
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American Chestnut Tree Growing at Atlanta History Center
Efforts to bring back the American Chestnut have been slow but steady. And I was surprised to find a planting at none other than the Atlanta History Center! It’s not as old or as established as the ones at Allatoona Dam, but they seem healthy and strong. They are a fun little Easter Egg tucked inconspicuously in the very back of the Center’s property near The Wood Cabin.
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A Lake in Acadia National Park
It’s always astonishing to me to see fresh water that is coming off granite in forest with no real runoff. Almost all the lakes in Acadia National Park are glacier melt and are shockingly clear.
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6+ Favorite Books on Behavioral Economics (So Far!)
A Roundup of My Favorite Books on Behavioral Economics…so far.
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Antigone by Sophocles
I read Antigone by Sophocles after finishing Oedipus Rex. Both are part of the Theban Trilogy, which I grabbed from Standard Ebooks.
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Network State by Balaji Srinavasen
The Network State by Balaji Srinivasan is a book I picked up mainly because my work is tech-adjacent, and for a while this book was everywhere among the tech elite. Even though it seemed ridiculous on the cover, I wanted to understand what my peers were paying attention to.
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Oedipus at Colonus by Sophocles
I picked up Oedipus at Colonus from Standard Ebooks as part of the Theban Trilogy, along with Antigone and Oedipus Rex.
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6+ Favorite Books on Global Travel Adventures (So Far!)
A Roundup of My Favorite Books on Global Travel Adventures…so far.
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6+ Favorite Post-Apocalyptic and Dystopian Fiction (So Far!)
A Roundup of My Favorite Post-Apocalyptic and Dystopian Fiction…so far.
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Behave by Robert Sapolsky
I picked up Behave out of frustration. The popular discourse around brain chemistry had gotten to be too much. Dopamine…
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6+ Favorite Books on Personal Finance Strategies (So Far!)
A Roundup of My Favorite Books on Personal Finance Strategies…so far.
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Adorable Little DeKay Brown Snake
There are several little DeKay’s Brown Snakes in my backyard that get all huffy after I cut the grass. They have a serious Napoleon Complex like tiny dogs that get wayyy more angry than their size belies.
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Dogwood Tree Growing on The Ground
This dogwood was pushed to the ground by a larger tree, but it stayed rooted and healthy. Now it looks like Dogwood flowers are blooming on the trail.
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The Woman Behind The New Deal by Kirstin Downey
Perkins may have had more direct impact on the everyday lives of ordinary Americans than almost anyone else in the 20th century. The 40-hour work week. The minimum wage. Social Security. Child labor laws. Unemployment insurance. These aren’t abstractions — they are the literal architecture of how Americans work, save, retire, and survive hard times. Frances Perkins built most of that architecture.
That was a serious underestimate.
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Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle
I’ve read the entire Sherlock Holmes canon. He’s my favorite mystery character, and I’ve worked my way through every story…
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Red Creek at Fort McAllister State Park
I absolutely love the marshes along the Georgia coast. It’s amazing how many small creeks and estuaries kind of feed with each other. This one ends up feeding into the Ogeechee River before heading into the Atlantic. Fort McAllister State Park is very underrated. It’s a lovely park with a great campground and lovely cabins.
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6+ Favorite Books on Internet Economics (So Far!)
A Roundup of My Favorite Books on Internet Economics…so far.
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Superbloom by Nicholas Carr
Superbloom by Nicholas Carr is the latest book from the author of The Shallows and The Glass Cage. It’s about how technologies of connection tear us apart—or more precisely, how they scale up both the best and worst of human nature to unprecedented heights.
