You can find out what I’m up to in near real-time via BlueSky (@sdholden.bsky.social). Also on Facebook (sholden) & Instagram (@sholden). Significantly less on X/Twitter (@sholden).
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My current daily routine will include reading and journaling from:
- Walking in Grace 2026: Daily Devotions to Draw You Closer to God Kindle Edition by Guideposts
- “The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living by Ryan Holiday & Stephen Hanselman
And I will also be listening and journalling to:
This will be my sixth year going thourgh the Daily Stoic meditations. I has not gotten old yet, and I find the wisdom/best practices to be timeless.
You can find my 2025 plan here (along with links to previous posts on previous year posts).
I am reading these books on my Kindle Paperwhite (which I also recommend if you want a dedicated ebook reader). When I am listening it will be on my Google Pixel Pro 10. This is my current journal – Moleskine Cahier Journal, Soft Cover Large.
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I was recently doing some research on a future post about New Order / Joy Division and I found this concert filer for my first concert at the start of my Junior Year of High School.
Thompson Twins plus A Flock Of Seagulls and special guest (no idea who this was) on Monday, September 24, 1984 at UC Davis.
One of my key memories of that day was A Flock Of Seagulls was out on a field outside the venue tossing a ball (or maybe playing soccer), and we walked by them without recognizing them. They said something like they were the opening band, but the group just ignored them. When they started playing, I instantly regretted not being more friendly to them.
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One of my favorite podcasts – Freakanomics Radio – recently completed a three part series with a extra bonus episode on Handel’s Messiah:
- The Greatest Piece of Participatory Art Ever Created (Part 1)
- How Handel Got His Mojo Back (Part 2)
- Whose Messiah Is It Anyway? (Part 3)
- Who Pays for Messiah? (Extra)
It is really well done and tremendously interesting as Messiah is one of my favorite things to listen to during the Holiday Season.
It was also very familiar because I had previously listened to “Exalting Every Valley with Charles King” from Christianity Today. Charles King wrote this book “Every Valley: The Desperate Lives and Troubled Times That Made Handel’s Messiah” which is on my Someday/Maybe Reading List. Mr. King is key player in the Freakanomics podcasts.
Another thing that is on my now current list of things to listen to is this podcast “Handel’s Messiah the Advent Calendar” by Katrine Nyland Sorensen.
My current favorite recording to listen to is the 2007 album by the London Symphony Orchestra with Sir Colin Davis.
You can also watch some enjoyable performances from Trinity Church NYC’s YouTube Music Channel.
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I recently finished this new book called “The Unexpected Journey: Finding strength, hope, and yourself on the caregiving path” written by Emma Heming Willis the wife and primary “care partner” for actor Bruce Willis.
Some personal take-aways:
- I was not aware of all the different types of dementia.
- The resources shared on Emma’s website are potentially very helpful.
- I liked her reframing of “care giver” to “care partner.”
- I have even greater appreciation and admiration for all the things my Mom did all on her own for my Dad.
- This is an excellent book for anyone in the care partner role. And there are very good practical recommendations on how you can better support the care partners in our lives.
- Bruce was dedicated family man.
- Bruce was deaf in one ear from shooting a pistol without ear protection in the 1st Die Hard movie. It was the scene where he was on the floor and had to shoot his pistol up through the table to get one of the “terrorists.”
I also found this recent interview by Diane Sawyer very moving (that you can watch on Hulu and some parts are on YouTube):
One other resource I recommend is this group: https://parentingagingparents.com/.
#human_generated_content
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I recently upgraded to the latest Amazon Kindle Paperwhite for my daily digital reading (devotions, prayers, & books).
The newer model is definitely larger:
With a 7-inch display, higher contrast ratio (I can read smaller fonts better), and page turns are supposed to be 25% faster. It also comes with a USB-C port so one less cable type to carry around.
The display also has a glare-free display, adjustable warm light, and darkmode.
I also got the version “Without Lockscreen Ads” which is $20 more and well worth it.
So far it has been a great upgrade!
If you want to get your own content on a Kindle here is a tip I wrote up recently.
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I am really enjoying getting news analysis from Christianity Today’s The Bulletin Podcast (Apple Podcasts, Substack Updates). There recent coverage of the big news stories has been very helpful in understanding these events, and they also cover many pressing less covered news events and issues.
The Russell Moore Show is also thoughtful and challenging.
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I have been thinking of doing some pivoting related to domains and archive sites, and where things end up with the Typepad to WordPress transition.
I did create a The Podcraft Archive site but you can also get to them via: https://stevendholden.com/?s=podcraft. The MP3 links are all dead though, but the graphics should be good. The YouTube links all work, so you can still listen to those either via YouTube application or on in any browser.
I also created a Veteran Stories Archive but graphics aren’t going to work until I update them. So I’d rather update them once and have them live in my main blog. At some point I will add the category “VeteranStories” as a category for them for quick find.
Any “podcast” link https://stevendholden.com/?s=podcast will get you a ton of content as a worst case scenario in finding a previously published podcast.
Also I logged into Hover.com and tried to setup domain forwarding to the right location. It might take 24 hours to work itself out.
The big bummer I think is that most of the Google Search Engine links are going to be dying soon and will need to be “re-indexed” (however that works).
Also any RSS link is going to die, a well as any legacy podcast subscribe link. Bummer!
If you ended up here and struggling to find something previously published then just let me know (email/Bluesky).
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I have been able to verify that https://savemyblog.com/ was able to export my Typepad.com blogs with graphics, files, etc. into WordPress.com import file.
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Steve Holden's Blog 