My son is learning to write/read/spell…

May25

Calico asked his teachers how to spell “peak human strength” yesterday. This kid cracks me up :). Especially since his teachers are all Portuguese and it took them a second to understand…

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Shepherd officially launched into beta!

April19

Fun day, Shepherd is officially launched into public beta :)

A TON of data entry and editing over the last 4 to 5 weeks. 409 book lists, 2305 books along with all the data and cover images, and 2,452 author profiles.

Lots more to come :)

btw, a really nice writeup here by the awesome Marton who built this :)

And, a short interview with Phil about the project here. And, another one here too. And, a nice podcast interview here on WritersCast. Another one here much later on too in the Oxford Indie Book Fair.

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2019 Book Summary.

January1

Since 2010 I’ve taken part in a yearly challenge to read 100 books. For 2019 I read 149 books! This is my 3rd highest ever… I read a ton of fantasy this year.

88% of the books I read were fun books, and 12% were serious. This year was a little rough as I feel like I hit a bunch of duds and it was much easier to pick my top choices. I read a LOT of fantasy and historical fiction this year.

I do a big book summary each year too, if you want to take a look at past years for some reading ideas check them out here: 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018, so what are my top books of the year?

If you only read 3 fiction books this year I recommend the following:

1. The Power of the Dog is a stunning 3 book series by Don Winslow that takes you deep inside the drug trade and cartels. They are fantastically written and feel like they are pulled directly from newspaper stories about the cartels. They follow a DEA agent through his career and are amazing.

2. The Gaius Valerius Verrens series is 9 books of stunning Roman historical fiction. The character is fantastic and you follow him through an uprising in Roman Britain, Roman politics, and seeing a lot of Rome from AD 68 through AD 80. The only downside was the last 9 pages were a little off, but the rest were magnificent reading.

3. Thin Air by Richard Morgan one of my favorite authors. This is a gritty detective book set on Mars and just a great read. The main character is fantastic and the story is even better. I hit a lot of duds this year when it came to hardcore science fiction and this helped redeem a lot of those duds.

After top 3 of the year, my fav 3 Fantasy / Sci Fi / Historical Fiction:

1. It starts with the Green Count and is a 4 book Chivalry series by one of my absolute favorite authors (Christian Cameron). It is historical fiction and it follows William Gold starting with his life as a goldsmith’s apprentice in London just after the great plague of 1347 and continues through the Battle of Poitiers and the Savoyard Crusade, as well as the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381, right through to the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, covering the history of the period—military, chivalric, and literary—in England, France, Italy, and Greece. Cameron just brings everything to life and like all his books it is hard to read the last book because you don’t want to lose the characters.

2. The Raven Mark Series is the best of fantasy, characters that feel real, that you wish you knew, and a story that leaves you unable to put down the book. This one is set in a postapocalyptic frontier that is half magic and half western.

3. The two-book series the Age of Tyranny are my final pick. They throw you right into the middle of a crazy world with a hilarious dark and messed up main character. Magic, gods, and a deeply disrespectful main character. The author knows how to end a book and I was impressed that the 2nd book was even better than the first (the ending was magnificent).

After top 3 of the year, my fav 3 *Real* Books:

1. The Mastermind: Drugs. Empire. Murder. Betrayal. This is a MUST READ, and one of the most awesome and insane true books I’ve ever read. Lindsey and I heard the author on a podcast and the story is insane. Basically about a guy who started a business that was in a bit of a gray area and making hundreds of million dollars and then decided to become an arms dealer, drug smuggler, assassin, etc… insanity.

2. Free Country: A Penniless Adventure the Length of Britain. This was a hilarious travel book about two guys who decided to see how nice the people of the UK are. How did they do that? They went to the southernmost point of the UK, stripped down to their boxers and then had to make it to the most northern point in 20 days on bikes without paying for anything (including bikes). Meaning they had to ask for places to sleep, food, bikes, clothes, etc. Thanks to Tony for the recommendation!

3. The Year of Living Danishly: Uncovering the Secrets of the World’s Happiest Country. A hilarious story that is part travelogue and part cultural exploration. It had me laughing out loud constantly. Highly recommended!

Enjoy your next book! :)

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Fantastic 6 book series about Greece and the Greco-Persian wars around 500 BCE…

August24


Christian Cameron is one of my favorite authors. His “Traitor Son Series” about the Red Knight is one of my favorite book series and one where I was sad to even read the last book because I did not want to say goodbye to such amazing characters and have nothing more to read about them. I do not know why I waited so long to read more of his books and the minute I picked up Killer Of Men, the first book in the Long War series, I was thrown into an utterly amazing story. The story starts with a young farm boy named Arimnestos, Arimnestos is a historical figure who was the commander of the Plataean contingent during the Greco-Persian wars. Christian creates a 6 book fictionalized series about him and they are utterly amazing books. I will probably read them again in a few years :).

I highly recommend you read these books. Not only are they amazingly well written with characters you will fall in love with, they walk you through a really interesting period of history. You might even notice Herodutus peak his head in.

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Wow! Already at a 100 books…

July5

I just realized I hit 100 books read so far this year… and July isn’t even over. This is the fastest I’ve ever gotten to 100. It helps that I have been reading mostly fun books where the words just fly. It also helps when work is currently learning and poking around new ideas, it leaves a good chunk of time open.

I just finished a series of fantastic military/legal thrillers by Brian Haig about a JAG lawyer named Sean Drummond. I highly recommend you grab the first one, Secret Sanction.

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2017 Book Summary.

January1

Since 2010 I’ve taken part in a yearly challenge to read 100 books. I love reading so this is not too hard. For 2017 I read 157 books! This is a new record versus my all-time high of 146 in 2012, and 141 in 2015. It helps when you sell your business in the middle of the year and have time off :).

91% of the books I read were fun books, and 9% serious.

I do a big book summary each year too, if you want to take a look at past years for some reading ideas check them out here: 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017. So what are my top books of the year?

If you only read 3 books this year I recommend the following:

1. The Red Knight series. This has become one of my top 10 all-time Fantasy books. The characters are amazing are amazing. Reading the last one was hard as I did not want to say goodbye.
2. The Bobiverse series… This is the best sci-fi series I read all year. I laughed so hard reading these :). Basically, this guy signs up to be frozen when he dies, then he dies, and then wakes up in a computer and the future sends him out into the stars on a mission. Bob is hilarious.
3. The Price of Civilization: Reawakening American Virtue and Prosperity. This book really hit home this year.

After top 3 of the year, my fav 3 Scifi / Fantasy:

1. Stiger’s Tigers and the subsequent series. This is military fiction about a Roman legion in the wild… with a little fantasy thrown in.
2. The Red. A military series about small unit tactics in the future. Great narrative.
3. Books 1, 2 and 3 of the Embers of Illeniel series. Not your typical hero and pretty dark which was a nice change. Kinda like Conan meets Seven Eyes with a weird ending.

After top 3 of the year, my fav 3 *Real* Books:

1. The Chinese Dream: The Rise of the World’s Largest Middle Class and What It Means to You. Fantastic book and the author has a great story about her own life straddling China and the USA. The book weaves together the macro and the micro for a really interesting picture. I love her overall message that China’s growth is not a zero-sum game, and together with the USA and other western countries, the two can work together to build a better earth.
2. The Vanishing Middle Class: Prejudice and Power in a Dual Economy. Frustrating content, but really well put together. Illustrates the fall of the middle class in the USA and why…
3. Capital without Borders . A really interesting read on how wealth managers operate as told by someone who joined their ranks. Fascinating read on a global group of people who do nothing but help the top 1% hang onto their money and keep it out of the hands of government and other entities. So weird.

After top 3 of the year, my fav 3 Honorable Mentions:

1. The entire Harry Bosch series. I finished them all this year. I can’t wait for the next season of the Amazon tv series.
2. The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival – An insane story about a famous tiger attack in Russia. Crazy!
3. A Higher Call: An Incredible True Story of Combat and Chivalry in the War-Torn Skies of World War II. An AMAZING book about a pilot in the German air force in WW2 and an American bomber crew. This is one of the best nonfiction books I’ve read this year and incredibly moving / heartwarming story about combat.

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Calico Picks A Book!

December11

A really cool moment happened yesterday, I was reading to Calico and he stood up on the chair and choose a new book for me to read himself. At 11 months old he is starting to seem more and more like a lil person :). A few days he picked the below outfit off the couch and wore it like a cape and walked around the house being hilarious. Fun times :)

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2016 Book Summary.

January6

giphy

Since 2010 I’ve taken part in a yearly challenge to read 100 books. I love reading so this is not too hard. For 2016 I read 112 books, and they were mostly fun books given the nature of the year.

I do a big book summary each year too, if you want to take a look at past years for some reading ideas check them out here: 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015. So what are my top books of the year?

If you only read 3 books this year I recommend the following:

1. Red Phoenix is a book based at the end of the Cold War and follows a North Korean invasion of the South and our response. It has echoes of Tom Clancy and I enjoyed it immensely.

2. Dawn of Wonder is an amazing fantasy book and I can’t wait for the second one. The premise is simple, a young boy as he suffers a tragedy and then as he joins a very elite military unit. Beautifully written, great characters, and just fantastic.

3. The Wolf of the North was a fantastic book and I can’t wait for the next one. Solid fantasy and beautifully written story with viking undertones.

Top 3 Scifi / Fantasy:

1. The Lives of Tao series. This is a GREAT science fiction series and very well written. Aliens crashed into earth and have been driving our evolution in order to get to a technology level to enable them to leave. At some point the group split into a group trying to help humanity and improve them, and another that just wants off the planet no matter the cost to earth. The aliens are a symbiotic relationship, and they combine with a human and can talk to them and effectively live forever. Which makes some really interesting topics on history when an immortal alien was inside the human’s head talking to them and giving them advice. Great series, highly recommended and I can’t wait to read more by this author.

2. The Black Gate Series is awesome fantasy and huge in scope. You see the world through a variety of characters that are slowly driven toward each other. Pretty unique world too.

3. The King’s Dark Tidings series. These are not the most complex, but boy are they fun. The main character is like a fantasy James Bond but a monk who seems to kill just about everyone. Fun world and characters, good for the beach.

Top 3 *Real* Books:

1. I was interested in learning how the USA passed a recent constitutional amendment so I picked up
Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition. It was very well written and fascinating to learn about. I was also curious how it mirrored Cannabis and the path to legalization a lot of states are taking.

2. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life . This is a GREAT read and I love his website as well. I wish we passed this out to every student in high school or college.

3. The Rent Is Too Damn High: What To Do About It, And Why It Matters More Than You Think – This was a really interesting look at the cost of housing on Americans and the impact on the economy.

3 Honorable Mentions:

1. I read every book in the Gabriel Allon spy series. They are all very solid books and highly recommended.

2. The First Rule of Ten series, which is a fantastic detective series based in LA. The main character is a Buddhist monk and apart from the newest they are all amazing.

3. Waking the Kiso Road. This is a pilgrimage route in Japan I am thinking of doing and it made for a great read.

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2015 Book Summary.

January1

giphy

Since 2010 I’ve taken part in a yearly challenge to read 100 books, and I met my goal for 2015 with 141 books. I almost broke my all time record of 146 books from 2012. So what did I read? 2015 was not as stressful as 2014, but I still had a lot to shake loose in the first half of the year so I read a lot of “fun” books.

I do a big book summary each year too, if you want to take a look at past years for some reading ideas check them out here: 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014. So what are my top books of the year?

If you only read 3 books this year I recommend the following:

1. The Infinite Resource: The Power of Ideas on a Finite Planet. This is written by Ramez Naam who is a great scifi author and someone who makes a lot of interesting blog posts. This book gives an overview of where the world is, threats to it, and the progress so far on solving some of those problems (heavily focused on the environment). I highly recommend reading it.

2. The Three-Body Problem – This book is by Chinese science fiction author Cixin Liu. It is EXCELLENT, not only for the change in perspective, but the story is fantastic! Highly recommended!

3. Money Master the Game: 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom by Tony Robbins – My brother gave me this book for Christmas and I was pretty skeptical, but I am a convert :) . The majority of the advice in this book is spot on and helpful for living your life and planning your retirement. He does a great job of explaining the value of money and I highly recommend reading it.

Best Business Books Of The Year:

1. Peter Thiel’s Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future. Great read, especially about the loss of optimism and the USA and our inability to plan or attempt BIG things.

2. Clay Water Break: Finding Inspiration from Entrepreneurs Who Do the Most with the Least – A fantastic book from the co-founder of Kiva.org about her journey.

Top 3 Scifi / Fantasy

1. The Monster Hunter’s International series. Monsters are real and when they get out of control someone has to step in. I also recommend Grimnoir Chronicles by the same author.

2. The Night’s Dawn trilogy by Peter Hamilton. These are massive tomes, super detailed, and weird, but some of the best space opera I’ve ever read. Hamilton is amazing.

3. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August. One of the most original science fiction books I’ve read in awhile. It is about a group of people across time who just relive their lives again and again.

Top 3 *Real* Books

1. Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis. An amazing book that illustrates that class difference money now makes and how American is becoming two Americas.

2. The Happiness Project. I LOVED this book! She has a great sense of humor, well written, and good mix of personal narrative and scientific facts.

3. Alif the Unseen. A cool techno thriller with some mysticism thrown in. It takes place in the middle east with hackers, a dictatorship, and Jinn.

Top 2 Travel Books

1. On the Trail of Genghis Khan: An Epic Journey Through the Land of the Nomads. This was an amazing book about a dude traveling on horseback from Mongolia to Hungary just like the mongols. This was the BEST travel book I’ve read in years. Highly recommended, just beautiful, and so well written.

2. The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey. The author and his brother go by covered wagon along the Oregon trail.

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OMG I am so excited! Kindle Unlimited?!?!?!?!

July16

This could save me so much money!!!!!!

Screen Shot 2014-07-16 at 11.11.26 AM

OMG if this is so true it would be amazing!!! Here is the leaked copy of the page!

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2012 Book Summary

January5

SDIM1137

2012 was a fantastic year for reading! With all my travels I had a ton of time to read and set a new record! I read 146 books this year and you can read all the mini reviews here.

If you only read 3 books this year I recommend the following:
*All of these are incredibly well written and fascinating reads. Thanks to the Daily Show for helping me to find them!

1. The Quants – A must read for anyone who likes the modern financial system and doesn’t want to see it wrecked (esp after some of the crazy days we have had since 2008)… An investigative look into high speed stock/bond/etc trading, trading AI, and a lot more. This book and others on the same subject are a big reason I don’t trust the stock market any longer.

2. The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt. Cornelius is one of the most amazing people I’ve stumbled upon and a true American story of rags to riches. Just an amazing guy! Read the NY Times review here. At his death he possessed 1/9th of all American currency in circulation. Think about that, and he was also just a bad ass, even death couldn’t take him despite many horse racing accidents.

3. The Match King: Ivar Kreuger, The Financial Genius Behind a Century of Wall Street Scandals. An amazing amazing guy who is responsible for so many of our modern financial rules after his huge collapse :). Read the NY Times review here.

Honorable Mention (Downgraded because it is INTENSE):
What It Is Like To Go To War. One of the most powerful books I’ve ever read, I literally had to sit and just think for a few hours at a time after I finished sections. And call a friend just to talk. Should be required reading for every single person in high school and discussed.

2 Best Business Books
1. Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck–Why Some Thrive Despite Them All – I love Jim Collins and all his work, this is yet again a great read on what makes a company great.

2. Race Against The Machine: How the Digital Revolution is Accelerating Innovation, Driving Productivity, and Irreversibly Transforming Employment and the Economy. Why this book? Because I think over the next 20 years Robots are going to change the global work environment. And I’m not sure how this will affect the concept of “work” and income for so many people. Scary/Exciting stuff.

3 Best True Books
Mountains Beyond Mountains. The story of a doctor trying to make a difference, beautiful story, made me cry at a few points. Changing the world is hard.

Marry Him: The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough. A brilliant book that me and my brother read and had a fantastic time discussing. A lot of women should read this book.

Every Nation for Itself: Winners and Losers in a G-Zero World. A dense but great read if you want to understand the upcoming power dynamics in the world. Esp if you get tired of people claiming the sky is falling because the USA isn’t #1 in every category.

Best Travel Books
Weak year, have nothing I would recommend strongly :(.

Best Thrillers / Military
1. The last week of 2012 I found the best author I’ve found since Clancy. His name is Vince Flynn and I finished all his books within about a week. 12 amazing books about Mitch Rapp, an off the books CIA assassin. Fantastic, well written, awesome. Buy them all!

Best Sci Fi / Fantasy
A weak year for this category :(, the only stand out was the Repairman Jack series. Props to Laura/Karl for finding this one for me. A great read.

Best Bibliographies
Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson. Just a well done biography about an amazing man who was also an uncompromising dick hole. Love it!

All In: The Education Of General David Petraeus. A fantastic book about an amazing man, flawed like all of us, but still amazing. A great read.

Best History
1. The Most Powerful Idea in the World: A Story of Steam, Industry, and Invention. One of the best books I’ve read and a close one for best book of the year. Highly recommended if you want to learn about innovation, the patent system, and more. Check out this great Lincoln Quote that really sums the book up.

2. The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History. Just an amazing book about the epidemic and also the medical community at the time. Almost made the best books of the year category. Highly recommended if you want a better understanding of the medical community and the risk of these type of pandemics.

3. And the Money Kept Rolling In (and Out) Wall Street, the IMF, and the Bankrupting of Argentina. I love Argentina, fantastic people, amazing wine, beautiful beautiful country. And they got F’ed in the A on this one, by their bad decisions, plus the international community. A good read if you want to learn how not to govern + how not to help a country. Still causing them so many problems and it frustrates me. I hope they get better leadership in the next decade, their people deserve it.

4. The Last Days of the Incas. Great read to understand this aspect of history. The most amazing part is how a mere 60 to 200 heavily armed calvary destroyed such a vast empire, makes you realize how military technology can really do some crazy things. Very well written.

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I Still Love My Kindle!

May8

I still love love love my Kindle and I think it is the best product of this decade. In the past three years I’ve read barely any books on paper. Yesterday I started reading a paperback for the first time in 14 months and realized I was getting annoyed because I couldn’t read while eating since it required two hands part of the time in order to hold both flaps open (which is not a problem with the Kindle).

Base on my rough calculations from Amazon’s page I have bought 362 Kindle books or newspapers since I’ve had one. Plus you save money as most books are slightly cheaper!

I strongly recommend you go buy one! Here is my original Kindle review too! Batter life on the new ones is just amazing.

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Staying In Denver Another Year.

January16

I’ve decided to stay in Denver for another year, so I’ll be here through June 2011 it sounds like. We are going to find a new place to live in April/May, hopefully closer to a neighborhood we like a little better. Next week I’m heading to Vegas for a big ultimate frisbee tournament plus it is going to be Dmarsh, BBustin, and my brother’s birthday. Should be fun. And then when I get back from that Rose and Steve will be here and going to spend a lot of that week skiing with them! And hopefully I’ll be going skiing during the week a few times after that, and working on cross country skiing as I would like to be good at that.

Work is going well, and just got really busy as we took on some additional business which is quite fun!

Travel wise the year is looking awesome. In a few months I’m taking a few weeks vacation to explore Japan! Then in April I’m going to Italy for a short weekend trip as Iris got a bid to Paganello (massive ultimate beach tournament), and I’m going to play with her mixed team. Extra fun as it should be a lot of Arkansas people and hopefully Daniel and Joel go. And then me and a friend scored tickets to the World Cup in South Africa which I will be going too in early July. South Africa is being nuts on airfare pricing but its a once in a life time opportunity, so worth it.

Oh, and I’m trying to complete the 100 Book Challenge for 2010, which means I’m trying to read 100 books in 2010. So roughly 9 books a month, so far I’m almost done with my 4th and almost on track. I’m posting mini reviews as I go too.

Also, here is an interview we did a few months ago for Work, I’m pretty proud of it as we don’t sound like idiots. Although I did repeat a lot of words over and over and over, oh well, she was really nice and it was fun!

Fools Fest This Weekend! And Book Reviews

March26

Heading to Fool’s Fest this weekend to play some ultimate frissbee (Lawrence Kansas). Should be cold and wet which will suck but going to be fun to play with everyone and first time to get to play with Dmarsh in a long time :). Plus I’m hoping the Mongolian BBQ we used to go to all the time is still open as its delicious.

Been reading some good books lately, a lot of books I would have had to buy in paper format are actually being published to the Kindle at the same time which is just awesome to see! I’ve already saved enough to buy two kindles I estimate just off the savings. I read In Gallant Company last night which is volume 3 in a series of books about a boy in the British Navy as he slowly becomes a captain and all the adventures. The author is Alexander Kent and they are quick to read and very entertaining. I think there are like 20 volumes so should keep me busy for a while. I also just finished Manhunt by James Swanson a few days ago. It tracks the assassination of Lincoln by Booth day by day and was really interesting. I’m not sure in history class they fully explained that Booth and his conspirators had planned on killing the secretary of state, vice president, and president in the same night. What blows my mind even more is that the Vice President was staying with no security in a normal hotel, and they found a knife and revolver in a room nearby and the guy had just not gone through it. Very different from today and weird to think that any person could walk up to the White House and make an appointment to see the president.

Been working like crazy which isn’t a surprise, things are going very well and we are hoping over the next few months for clean up to really finish so we can push forward with growth and finishing a lot of much needed projects. I’m looking forward to around three months from now when we finish a lot of clean up on the backend and maybe I can take a short week off to travel somewhere nearby.

The Kindle Is Revolutionary – My Review

September7

Picture of Kindle I love to read and I feel the Kindle is one of the most amazing products of the last century. You have a device the size of one book that you can store your entire library on. And if that is not amazing enough you can buy books from anywhere in the world with an internet connection and save a few trees while you are doing so. Right now it costs $360 dollars but the books are all cheaper so you are slowly getting that money back as you buy books.

One of the hardest parts about being outside the United States is that books are incredibly expensive and Amazon.com is out of reach. The Kindle solves this problem as you can download books to an internet cafe computer and then transfer them to the Kindle. Plus my pack is that much lighter now that I only carry one book around. I had an ebook reader before this but the battery life was not great and the book selection wasn’t there. The amount of books Amazon has available for the Kindle is one of the most amazing parts and they have used their leverage to really push this format. Plus the books are cheaper as they are all digital. It makes sense as you are taking all the costs and risk out of the publishing system. If all book publishers had to do was to help find and develop good authors, or if all authors had to do was upload their book to Amazon and do marketing we are going to have some really amazing reading opportunities over the next decade.

I give the Kindle a 100% recommendation and I’ve already saved enough money on books to pay for the initial cost of the Kindle. There is a rumor a textbook version is coming which would be great for students!

This is bwb’s personal blog, so he can share his thoughts with the world, however scary or silly they might be. Plus family and friends can track what I am up to, and where I am in the world.

I am pretty simple. I love Mangos. I love the ocean (although mostly at sunset, as I’m a ginger). I love to travel, eat exotic food, do long bike rides, read, and use my imagination. At some point, I decided it was better to be a pirate captain than an admiral. I am a globalist and see the entire world as my responsibility and playground. And I am married to an amazing woman who makes life even more fun :)! And we are now the proud parents of Calico Jack :).


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