Have you ever heard about Imelda Marcos and her shoes? Truth be told, I'm a bit like that with audio headphones. OK, not a bit: more like eerily similar. While I don't have 3,000, I do have - um - more than most. I don't care: I must be able to reproduce music, on my own terms, in every circumstance, at all times. Obsessive? YOU BETCHA...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS (Editor's Note: as always when I write posts like this, I note important points with links that will take you to an objective arbiter of truth. Like AP Fact Check, Snopes, Politifact, and Factcheck.org. I sincerely challenge anyone that reads this to cite different, equally reputable sources if you disagree with my fa...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS As I listen to my new obsession, Santana’s “Waves Within “ I'm also marveling at the same without on our last morning here in the only-in-California-Mendocino. It was quite a party at the Killer Glendeven Inn: Husky trainer George Valiant Walker and his drastically better half, Sherry Pace. Sherry's sister, the gifted...

You may not know this, but a scant 3 hours north of SF, there is actually an answer to my question about where else you might point someone to explain California in one shot, other than Montecito and Santa Barbara. That somewhere is the not-quite-real little coastal town of Mendocino, and just to its south, the verdant, unspoiled, and ...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS Lucky you, because today's post is mercifully shorter than many, because lucky us, we're driving to Mendocino today. I've put together a new website that is an extension of sorts from this blog. There, you'll see some of the same material, but also some new/different stuff. For example, at my website, I have a number ...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS Time to hightail it out of here before I grow too weary of the gratitude I'm receiving from most here at The Villa regarding the work Dr. Murphy and I did. Since last Friday, we: • Completely replaced the Ubiquiti Unifi WiFi system I had installed in 2013 (!) with 4 Eero Pro 6 access points. These are great and the Wi...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS I can assure you this blog won't devolve into just another partisan piss-up. In fact, I hope you've noticed in my posts that I've tried to present reasoned, fact-based positions. But today, I'd like to share something I witnessed personally and directly - right here at The Villa. This past Monday, the good Dr. Shelly ...

Like my Travel Guides, I will occasionally be doing special posts on Gear. Topics might be headphones, clothes, shoes, networking equipment, whatever. And like the Travel Guides, there is no Unwashed Masses nor KLUF sections (normally). I'm going to (naturally) kick it off with music and specifically, vinyl records. But a warning: This...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS I'm sure everyone is just dying for more photos of the Murphy Villa. You're welcome and yesterday my weather mojo returned in force: mid 70's with crystal clear skies and perfectly cloudy weissbier. Yep, it tastes as good poolside here as it does in the desert. So please - please - don't worry about me. I had the plac...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS My streak of glorious weather on visits to the posh-ish Bellaire district of Houston and Fave cousin Dr. Shelly Murphy's Villa grinds to a halt. Yesterday, Thursday, it was windy and quite cool outside upon my arrival (sidebar: I was impressed by United's Polaris Class seating on the narrow-body 757 which I took here ...

Phew - somewhat like the last election, I feel America had a near-death experience re: the Chauvin trial. Hard to imagine what our country would look like this morning if the jury had gone all Simi Valley on us. I am hopeful The Blue Line has finally been broken and this is the start, however tiny, of true accountability for the action...

While there is plenty to be said for Santa Barbara proper, we really have come to prefer staying in a town just a few miles south, Montecito. Benignly notorious for its hands-off approach towards the rich and/or famous, Montecito offers the ultimate combo of weather, mountains, trees/greenery, city, beach and ocean. If someone said "Sh...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS First, some travel trivia (mixed with my own opinion - shocker): name the 4 world capitals. And by "capital", I don't mean in a governmental sense. Rather, what 4 cities are the premiere hubs of business, culture, food, etc.? My answer - and of course there is no "right" answer - is below. Today we head home to SF fro...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS As I occasionally do, I'm going to turn the reigns of this part of the blog over to someone much smarter than I. In this case, it's the 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush. This past Friday, The Washington Post published an excellent editorial by 43 on his recommendations for a reasonable immigration p...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS It's Friday afternoon, and we're poolside after another wonderful sunrise visit to Joshua Tree National Park. We're reminiscing. • I give a whole-hearted Textbook assessment to the wonderful Jake's Palm Springs. It is where we celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary, with dinner there on April 13. What a great dinner ...

As you'd imagine, it is extremely gratifying (not to mention humbling) when something you write motivates someone to thoughtfully respond. And when that someone is as brilliant as the young man that wrote this is, well, let's just say I'm very happy this morning. But also smarter, from having read his reply to my Calling on Republicans...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS Apologies in advance for this one. It's political and there's no way around it. But it's also a call for help. Albeit from poolside in Palm Springs. America desperately needs a functioning federal government, consisting of at least 2 fact- and reason-based political parties. Today, we barely have one. Consider each of...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS Today is our 30th wedding anniversary. On April 13, 1991 a small group of friends and family gathered in Boulder at The Hotel Boulderado for our marriage. That's us with our mothers on this very day 30 years ago. The rest has been sheer bliss. Right? Julie, right? And here's a bit later, in the Dolomites. The fact is,...

Note: there are quite a lot of photos in this blog post - if this doesn't load properly, try this link to view the post online. If you'll recall, the tagline to this blog is "Plans to Enjoy Life". So here's a plan for visiting Joshua Tree National Park when staying in greater Palm Springs. We've enjoyed roughly this same approx. 6 hour...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS About a year ago, the cloud software company Basecamp, started an email service called Hey. (The company's founders also wrote my biz book fave, It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work, and the equally influential Rework) Hey is part of a nascent but growing movement of companies attempting to counter the civically corros...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS As I will occasionally do, I am going to try and make a point via the brilliance of others. And they don't get much more brilliant than John McWhorter. Some call it "cancel culture", but I do prefer "consequence culture", for many of the reasons Professor McWhorter cites in this podcast. I've read his insightful book ...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS Disclaimer: I do what I'm faulting others for in the rant that follows. With that said: enough with the overwrought thank you's to wait staff. To baristas. To the people that wash your car. To any server or laborer that's directly doing something for you. Friends, they're doing their jobs, and our virtue signaling via...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS After a harrowing drive down a typically treacherous I-5, and an almost as harrowing meal at a "steakhouse" in the perfectly awful "Town Center" (at least it wasn't "Centre") in Santa Clarita on Friday night, we arrive at the very special Cove House in Palm Springs Saturday afternoon. Will we get over having it only t...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS This is the third installment of an occasional ongoing series where I'll try to pass on knowledge, etc. that I've found useful and helpful. Here are the first and second in the series. My decision to move on from my own show at Casa Integration led to me being a big consumer of business-oriented self-help and/or impro...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS The last few days in Tupper Lake and The Adirondacks were warm and sunny, in the upper 50's most days. I had a great last dinner in town with Bulleit Bob and his lovely wife Betty at the Tupper Lake stalwart Little Italy. Great way to wrap up a great trip. The food was actually quite impressive - I'd say Textbook, but...

It's awful that the next sentence is a cliché' now. In the wake of yet another tragic mass shooting in the United States . . . I decided to post something that I've mentioned to some of you over the years. It is my proposal for somehow getting a grip on the gun plague in America. 1. Guns are dangerous - even the most ardent gun enthusi...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS I'd like to share with you some of the podcasts to which I listen regularly. These brilliant people make me a bit smarter and/or less crazy (or at least I like to tell myself) with every listen. And they make my exercise routine (daily 4-5 mile walks) much more enjoyable. Here they are. Kara Swisher and her influentia...

Warning: this may offend some viewers, or at least those with ears. Live Concert Footage from Murphy Manor

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS Well, you can't say this blog is pointless. In fact, due to these very ramblings, I had the honor of hosting on Saturday the elder of the Darwin family, cherished first cousin and spiritual wunderkind Lally Darwin Heinz Esq. and her uniquely delightful husband, the storied jurist Harrison Heinz, for lunch Saturday her...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS It was just a beautiful St. Patrick's Day here yesterday. Warm and sunny, as you can see below. While I mostly respect and support the regulatory regime in place for decades to keep the Adirondack State Park primarily a wilderness area, and avoid tourist fiascos like Lake George Village, I just do not understand how a...