Doing What Counts
In 1995, I was fourteen years old, and a magazine publisher. Together with my brothers Lauri and Jetro, we published a monthly magazine Savannin uutisia (News from the Savanna), named after the fact that we lived in Senegal, in the middle of the savanna. The magazine cost 800 FCFA (about 1.5 US dollars in today’s [...]
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Like this time every year, many of us are looking back to the work we did in 2011, asking the big questions once again: How did this year go? Did I spend my time on the things that matter, or was I just going with the flow, keeping up with my routines? Throughout history, smart [...]
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I had never heard of Danny MacAskill until two nights ago when my brother shared a link to one of his videos on Facebook. I watched that video, then another, and before I realized I had spent an hour watching a guy riding his bike. His skills touched me: it was not just a bunch [...]
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It’s the voice inside your head that tells you it’s time to quit. It’s the sudden urge to surf the web and write clever status updates to Facebook. It’s the feeling of anxiety that keeps your finished work unpublished. It’s the hopelessness that prevents you from changing the world. Its name is Resistance. We need [...]
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For the past weeks I have been immersed in a building project I had dreamed about since last summer: I am building a playhouse for my two boys — on our apartment’s balcony. I have no previous building experience but slowly and steadily the small building is getting closer to completion. I am learning as [...]
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Midday in the Kalahari Desert is not quite the time or place for a run. With heat rising from 39 to 45 degrees Celcius (about 113°F), most sane people would take cover from the sun, sitting under the lone tree they can find, drinking water and waiting for the air to cool down. Not !Nam!kabe, [...]
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After four months away from the 9 to 5 workforce, I have lost track on a lot of what is hot on the internet today and what is not. If you asked me to name the most interesting Twitter memes or most important e-books released in the past months, I would have to admit I [...]
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Back in January, inspired by this post at Think Traffic, where Everett Bogue and Pat Flynn debated over whether a blog should have comments or not, I decided to turn off commenting on this blog. Now, a couple of months later, I am turning comments back. What made me think running the blog without comments [...]
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The world is full of amazing people doing amazing things. You would be one of them if you only knew what your amazing thing is. A month ago, when I jumped to my new challenge of becoming a stay at home dad to my two boys, I created a plan full of action for every [...]
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For the past days, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about bread. That happens to me from time to time. I have a new iteration of my levain growing for some baking experiments tomorrow and the next few days thereafter, and although I could leave it still, I can’t help but go count the [...]
Hello, it's me:
I explore life with my two boys.
I create.
I live with less.
I dream big dreams.
I blog to think.
I hope to do things that matter.
If it's your first time here, check out my about page and this short list of favorite posts to read first.
To get in touch, send me a Tweet, I'm @jalaine.
I have written a free e-book on creating with small children in the house.
