Recommendations

Father’s Day is around the corner, so I thought I’d share some of my wish list, as well as tools I highly recommend. First, at the top of my personal Father’s Day wishlist: If you’ve got knives or tools that need sharpened: Work Sharp Benchstone Knife Sharpener, which pairs nicely with their smaller Work Sharp Guided Field Sharpener If you’ve got some tough wood to split: Fiskars 8 lb. Pro IsoCore Splitting Maul, which pairs nicely with their smaller Fiskars x27 Super Splitting Axe I own the Work Sharp Field Sharpener and the Fiskars x27 already. Highly recommend both! ...

I’ve been playing some co-ed rec soccer recently. It’s been a lot of fun, and also a reminder that I’ve gotten out of shape and I’m getting older (I’m now 34, and everyone else on my team is in their 20s). But I’m enjoying it nonetheless. Anyways, I thought I’d share my current soccer kit — the gear I use when I play soccer. My Cardio Workout First, I have to call out the “John Terry Treadmill Workout”, because it’s what’s been most helpful in (slowly) getting me back into soccer shape. It’s brutal, but effective. As this Reddit post clarifies: ...

It’s that time of year again! All the best people were born in October! :) As my birthday approaches, I’ve put together a wishlist of items that I’ve been eyeing. If you’re looking for gift ideas (or if you just want to snag some cool tools for yourself!), here’s what I’m hoping for this year: Tools Affordable Tools WORKPRO 8-Inch Long Nose Slip Joint Pliers: Really excited to try these affordable pliers. I love my longer slip joint long nose pliers, and I think the 8-inch size will be perfect. Fiskars PowerArc Utility Snips, 8-Inch: These scissors look like they can handle anything, and I like that it keeps your hand out of the way in case you’re cutting something with a sharp edge. Morakniv Chisel Knife, 3-Inch: Great, affordable chisel knife. I’ve been wanting one of these for a while. Milescraft Exactor Multifunction Measuring and Marking Tool: I love how many different features this thing packs into a small package. Will definitely earn a spot in my grab-and-go tool bag. Also worth mentioning are these two Knipex clones from WORKPRO that I’ve been wanting to try out: ...

In November 2024, I bought a 55-inch Hisense U6 4K Smart TV on sale for $350. It’s been great so far! Definitely an upgrade over our old Samsung. I’m not a TV expert, but I did a fair bit of research and the consensus seems to be that the Hisense U6 series is a great deal for the money. Here are some of the online reviews I found helpful: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-4k-tv/ https://www.tomsguide.com/best-picks/best-budget-tvs https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/best/budget (Linked from my Questions page, where I keep track of questions I’m asking and answering.)

I’ve been on a lifelong journey to find hats that will fit my big ol’ head. Now that I’m bald, and the summer months are approaching, I figured it would be good to find one or two more hats to add to my rotation. I’ve narrowed this round down to trying the following hats, in case you’re interested (Amazon affiliate links below): TOO SMALL FOR ME Carhartt Men’s Rugged Professional Series Canvas Mesh-Back Cap (Shadow, One Size) Carhartt Men’s 100289 Odessa Ball Cap (Carhartt Brown, One Size) I’m a sucker for Carhartt and Carhartt brown! This hat is comfortable I like that it looks different than my other hats, which tend to be black, gray, etc. Ankor Ultra Performance Water-Resistant UPF 50 Baseball Hat (Charcoal Gray, One Size) Charcoal gray is my favorite color (not sure what that says about me…) I really like the look and fit of this one Flexfit Men’s Delta Seamless Cap (Dark Grey, XX-Large) Love the look and color of this Very comfortable! I wonder if it’s a tad *too* big for my head, though Flexfit Mens Cool & Dry Sport (Grey, X-Large-XX-Large) This hat gets here in the mail today! I’m excited to try it out ...

General / Thinking Untools: https://untools.co/ James Clear: https://jamesclear.com/ Farnam Street: https://fs.blog/ Your Logical Fallacy Is: https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/ Your Bias Is: https://yourbias.is/ Fitness / Health Darebee: https://darebee.com/ Reading / Writing QuillBot: https://quillbot.com/ 12ft Ladder: https://12ft.io/ Open Library: https://openlibrary.org/ Design PDF24 Tools: https://tools.pdf24.org/en/ Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/ The Noun Project: https://thenounproject.com/ Software Development Stack Overflow: https://stackoverflow.com/ O’Reilly: https://learning.oreilly.com/ roadmap.sh: https://roadmap.sh/ cheat.sh: https://cheat.sh/ DevHints.io: https://devhints.io/ Learn X in Y minutes: https://learnxinyminutes.com/ Baeldung (for Java/Spring): https://www.baeldung.com/ What would you add to this list? Let me know!

It just happened again. I had to consult “BDAG,” A Greek–English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (3rd ed.). I don’t own a copy, so every time I have to consult BDAG I think “I really should buy this.” But for the past decade or so, primarily because of BDAG’s cost ($150 on Logos, $130 used on Amazon, $165 new on Amazon) I’ve held off. Nevertheless, I’m seeking to build my “must-have” personal reference library to sustain a ministry as a pastor theologian. So, I think I need to buy BDAG sometime soon. While I’m at it, I might as well get HALOT, the Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament… Logos sells them as a bundle. ...

Podcasts: An Introduction Although podcasts (think “iPod” + “broadcast”) have been around for over a decade, we’re living in a bit of a golden age – or a least a Rennaissance – of the medium. For the uninitiated, here’s a nice video about what podcasts are: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oerm5Q_9u2A Currently, podcasts are one of my very favorite ways to consume information about a wide variety of topics. Sure, gun to my head, I’ll choose books over podcasts as a way to learn. However, unlike books (or videos), you can easily listen to podcasts while doing other things – whether folding laundry, washing dishes, or going for a run/walk. ...

Have you ever had a problem finding a reliable resource for recommendations? I have. Certain Google searches are a piece of cake, but the “best resources for ______” ones can be hit-or-miss. And don’t even get me started on the decision fatigue. As a serial over-thinker, I start to hate myself a little bit after reading through the upteenth list of “5 Best ____s.” It makes it so hard to make a decision! Then, when you pick something, you end up doubting your decision. Not fun. ...

Black Friday proves that the progress of (post)modernity has failed to eradicate the ills of idolatry. Lest we denizens of the “highly-developed” world think that we have left the primitive vestiges of wood, rock, and gold idolatry behind, our shopping patterns (and indeed our shopping identities as consumers) should remind us of our consumerism’s dark side — a lethal one. As I’ve put in “Reconciliation and the Lack Thereof”: “Although physical idols may not be as universally common today as they once were, invisible idols are as prevalent as ever, especially within the context of Western materialism, where money, possessions, influence, and power are the modern-day Baal.” ...