I'm a retired software developer. I hadn't really coded in like four years. But with the lockdown, and my wife in the next room sewing masks, I got the urge to craft something too.
I apologize if I'm duplicating info here because I didn't read TFA or all the comments, but the resources I've use are the offline maps in Backcountry Navigator (paid), ViewRanger (free), AllTrails (paid), Maps.me (free, no topo info, but a surprising amount of trails). If bought custom waterproof maps from mytopo.com and I've downloaded maps US topo maps from https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/topoview/viewer/ and then had them printed at Office Depot (at a readable size, but not on waterproof paper). Having multiple sources of truth helps, and also I've had glitches downloading maps offline that I didn't discover until I was on the trail, so the offline maps of apps back up each other. And also I've used Guthook for the PCT, which is wonderful.
I'll add that I carry an extra battery anyway to power not just my phone but my Kindle and my Garmin Inreach Mini.
I try to choose activities that also will increase my social circle. So, like, with learning an instrument, avoid piano, which tends to be more solitary, and go with viola, which, if you get decent, will put you in demand. Or if studying a language, pick one that people actually speak (I studied ancient Greek in college).
"Mating" by Norman Rush. Fiction. I think the Amazon review has it right: "Had Jane Austen been in the Peace Corps in Africa in the 1980s, Mating is the book she might have written."
"The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down", non-fiction, about the cultural clash of modern American medicine and Hmong immigrants. The author demonstrates an amazing amount of empathy for both sides.
I take my Kindle when I go backpacking. I like that it's light, sturdy, waterproof,and lasts many days without needing to be recharged. It doesn't compete with my phone. It competes with lugging a bunch of paperback books in my backpack, and it's so much better.
My father was a sperm donor, back in the mid-fifties. I didn't know until I was in my thirties (in the eighties). In the past few years, via 23andMe, I've discovered three living half-siblings. I think it's been totally mind-blowing fun for all involved to discover each other. We all read the nyt article today. My bio-sister commented, "Yuh think we’d all look better if we were in the NYT?"
Thank you for introducing me to smbc. I kept hitting the "RANDOM" comic button and hit this one, which is meta like the speculative one: https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2015-01-28
The people passing through Afghanistan and Pakistan back then were heading eventually to three hippie places: Katmandu, Goa, and Poona (back when Rajneesh was there). I didn't use drugs, so i didn't relate so much. I was doing the trip for the adventure. Here's a read about that era in travel: https://www.richardgregory.org.uk/history/hippie-trail-01.ht...
I wouldn't say that the feeling was that I was more FREE. I would say that the feeling I had was that I was more AWAY, remote. But even so, I remember that one of the inspirations for my trip was a pic in National Geographic, a street scene in Herat, Afghanistan. It seemed SO exotic. And then, on my trip, I came to that very spot. But somehow, by the fact of me being there, it was already not so exotic. Like, how exotic can it be if I am there?
Also, parenting and childing were different back then (the 70's). For example, I remember when I was 16 I secretly hitchhiked solo from Detroit to Washington DC and then Chicago and back to Detroit. I explained my absence to my parents by telling them that I was riding with some friends to DC, that is, it was totally okay for three 16 year old boys to take off to another city back then. Now, I think a lot more parents wouldn't allow their kids to do that.
I don't remember it being discussed. At that time, I and my parents lived in the USA, my one and only sibling in Israel. Me and my brother would exchange letters like may be twice a year. Likewise, my friends who lived in other cities, we exchanged letters just a few times a year max. So, it was normal for us not to communicate that much. It's not like we were texting each other every day and then suddenly went dark.
I wasn't making a comment about freedom to travel, just the FEEL of travel, but regarding places that are open and closed (to me, an American), right, China, Russia, Vietnam, Cuba, Eastern Europe weren't open back then. Now they are. But countries where I traveled and felt safe then, I wouldn't feel comfortable going to today: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Egypt. I guess overall, much more of the world open today.
In 1978 I went overland from Greece through Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan to India. I later learned the route was called the "Hippie Trail", but I never heard that term at the time. The route shut down just a few weeks after I passed through: Iran closed because of the Iranian revolution. Afghanistan closed because the Soviets were moving in.
The feel of travel was different then because no internet, no cell phones. I communicated with friends and family using letters, single-page blue "aerograms". When I see them now, I'm amazed how tiny my handwriting was. To receive a letter I would have people send mail to the American Express office upstream.
My trip ended when I noticed my urine was the color of Coca Cola - a sign of hepatitis. I got a flight out of Delhi the next day to London, for the free health care.
So, what actual book/tutorial would you recommend for somebody who wanted to learn web development? Regardless of the problems with Rails itself, what's a better learning path that the Rails Tutorial?
I would say yes, because I don't know of a better learning resource for "learning web develeopment", especially for somebody starting at zero, teaching oneself, than the Rails Tutorial: https://www.railstutorial.org/book.
Rails aside, what would be the best tool for "learning web development" starting from zero?
I ask because people ask me and so far I've been sending beginners to the Rails Tutorial.
"It must be remembered that the violin is a cultural icon as well as a working tool, and iconoclasts – those who smash of icons – cannot expect a warm welcome at the temple gates."
I don't know what the Japanese felt, but I think the US maybe was about as hegemonic as Japan, Britain, Russia, Germany, France. It wouldn't hurt for US citizens to know these bullet points in their history that relate to Japan's neighborhood: Perry's expedition to Japan, the Spanish American war, but especially the Phillipine Insurrection, the Anti-Imperialist League, the Boxer Rebellion, the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii, and the Yangtze Patrol, and its context.
I live one block north of the northern Evanston border. I bike through Evanston frequently to ride into Chicago. For a biker, the connections from Evanston to Chicago are not great. They feel risky, especially at busy times. Specifically, you either ride around Calvary Cemetery, https://www.google.com/maps/place/Evanston,+IL/@42.0244529,-..., on the sidewalk, along the lake. Beautiful but the sidewalk is narrow and there are pedestrians, people walking their dogs. Or you ride in the street. Too scary for me. There's no bike lane and traffic travels fast, maybe 40 mph? Or you ride on the west side of the cemetery which has a bike line that disappears and reappears, and also the traffic there too travels fast. Here, btw, is Evanston's bike plan: http://www.cityofevanston.org/assets/Evanston%20Bike%20Plan%...