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Josh Knox

Hi! I am Josh Knox. Read more of me here: 👇

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Just Joshin' #101 (Disappointment)

1 Family Photo: Disappointment The SLO Railroad Museum is only open on Saturdays. Calvin knows it is only open in Saturdays. His first question when he wakes up in the morning is often, "Is today a Saturday?" by which he really means "Is the train museum open today? Can we go to the train museum today?" He's often disappointed to find out today is in fact not a Saturday, or even a weekend. We sometimes still go to the train museum when it is closed. A couple weeks ago, due to a few wrong...

about 3 hours ago • 4 min read

1 Family Photo: Endurance "I'm tired," said Calvin. "I know you're tired, but if you can still put one foot in front of the other then you can keep going. Don't worry about anything else. Don't worry about how far we've gone or have to go — let's just try to keep putting one foot in front of the other. Does that make sense?" "Yeah Dad," Responded Calvin. "But I'm still tired."—"Will you carry me?" And that's how our family walked/scootered/carried almost a fifth of the Bob Jones Trail. --- As...

7 days ago • 3 min read

1 Family Photo: Humor Why did Joshua have no parents?Because he was the son of Nun. This joke is not funny. Its premise describes some sad orphan situation. Its punchline relies on bible trivia. It was also my favorite joke when I was 6. This is worse when I think about confused strangers assuming the setup was autobiographical. I'm lucky we didn't send kids to therapy back then. It reminds me of another piece of poorly constructed humor. In Albert Brooks' Looking for Comedy in the Muslim...

14 days ago • 3 min read

1 Family Photo: Pleasure On the first day of college, my economics professor lied to me. He said economics is a positive science—it describes the world as it is rather than how it ought to be. Then he explained utility—valuing all the pleasure and future pleasure in a thing. He said we can't see inside people's heads to sum up all that pleasure, so instead economists assume people are rational, count the dollars they're willing to pay for things, and approximate value that way. Then I spent...

21 days ago • 5 min read

1 Family Photo: Happiness Building Art in New Orleans I traveled for work this week. I used to travel for work all the time—not so much since Calvin was born. When you travel for work all the time, you get status with your preferred airline. Status comes with extra conveniences. Silver: your checked bags are free. Gold: you can choose any seat on the plane and sometimes get bumped to first class. Platinum: you get even more benefits. Then there's a tier above Platinum where they let you board...

28 days ago • 2 min read

1 Family Photo: Joy Polaroids of Calvin and Lawrence from SLOMAchildren's art day in the style of a current exhibition. What's the Venn diagram of Joy, Happiness, and Pleasure? I interrogated ChatGPT. It gave me this list. Is there a better way to study deep human emotions than through the eyes of a robot? Is there a better way to use seeing robots than to study deep human emotions? My conclusions from the chart: Pleasure takes place in the skin, Happiness takes place in the mind, Joy takes...

about 1 month ago • 2 min read

1 Family Photo: Rainbows I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.– Gen 9:13 One time – I was maybe 10 – we went to the beach, and I was playing in the water, and past the undertow I got caught in a riptide. Suddenly, my feet couldn't touch the bottom. Suddenly, my family was getting smaller and smaller. The shore was escaping farther and farther. I tried swimming back, but I couldn't get there - riptide. I fought to keep my head above...

about 1 month ago • 4 min read

1 Family Photo: Technology Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. – Arthur C. Clarke The Apple Vision Pro came out last week. I don't have one. I don't know if it will become the next big thing everyone has - like headphones that don't have wires, or phones that don't have a place to connect headphones that do have wires. I don't know if it will flop - like glasses that don't have lenses but do project a tiny computer screen into your eyeball. I look forward to...

about 2 months ago • 3 min read

1 Family Photo: Toy Guns Lawrence's Fireball Thrower vs Calvin's Fireball Extinguisher Guns. I think I need to talk to the kids about guns. Calvin and Lawrence started watching this YouTube show called Blaze and AJ. It's not the worst kid thing on YouTube - I'm still deciding where I draw my lines on content standards and what battles I want to fight. Blaze and AJ are monster trucks, and also superheroes, and also sometimes educational, but also sometimes they shoot fireballs or lasers for...

about 2 months ago • 6 min read

1 Family Photo: Elephant Seals We saw elephant seals last week. While not quite as big as an elephant, adult male elephant seals grow 4-5 meters long, weighing 1,500-2,300 kilograms — or, if you use American, weigh in somewhere between a Ford Focus and a Cadillac Escalade. Apparently elephant seals can dive 1 mile deep - Scientists have used them to map the ocean - I've only seen them on land. Each year, the come ashore to give birth and breed. They do this by beaching themselves in...

2 months ago • 5 min read
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