David Calhoun's blog

Chilly snowy winter scene seen from Mono Lake Vista Point (California, February 2025) 2025 was a crazy year for the world, but since we already know that, I’m not going to focus on that here.

Is it possible that our upbringing could lock us into a path that will strongly influence all future choices, beliefs, and desires?

Another year over… I wasn’t very active with my photography this year so this one’s quite sparse.

2023 has been a stressful and hard year, and I have a sneaking suspicion this is a preview of even harder years on my path ahead.

Another year, another year in photos!

Just expanding on a little silly idea I had.

Intro Despite the continuing COVID-19 pandemic this year, I am grateful I was able to travel a bit.

We all have times in life when we were forced to learn lessons the hard way, often in situations where we were absolutely humbled.

Intro 2020 is a year that had a nice ring to it, conjuring up images of “20/20 vision” and whatnot, but it turned out to be a bit misleading… And for some of us it has been much harder.

Huge stone German Swastika at the top of the Tribune building at Zeppelinfeld in Nurnberg, Germany, just seconds before demolition charges blew it up.

Dead tired, but not dead yet: resting my feet at Peter's Mountain Shelter in Pennsylvania.

HAL 9000 computer interface from Stanley Kubrick's 2001 Summary Partial application and currying often get muddled; they are related but not the same.

Original entry Misty trees along the Appalachian Trail near Biglerville, Pennsylvania Yesterday was a little bit rainy and very muddy all through the day.

Original entry: Are you afraid of the dark?

Original entry Appalachian Trail sign along a road near Waynesboro, Pennslyvania (written the morning of 4/13 inside the Tumbling Run shelter)

Original entry.

(Bear with me!

Original entry from April 9, 2019 A pedestrian walkway taking hikers safely over I-70 (the same I-70 which will take you west all the way to Utah) I can see how folks end up injured when they push themselves to go harder than they should.

My original entry Second night Dahlgren backpacker’s campsite was amazing!

The Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) takes photos of all hikers passing through Harper's Ferry, including folks like me who just started.

Black and white view of a bog boardwalk leading into a misty forest, along the Mahoosec Trail in New Hampshire.

Line chart showing Disneyland one-day ticket price vs annual passport price (1981-2019, adjusted for inflation), showing linear growth for one-day ticket prices and exponential growth for annual passport prices.

A while back I posted an old video I made of Spring in Kyoto, but the audio track was removed by YouTube.

The roof of the main shrine (拝殿) at Kitano Tenmangu.

The time has finally come for me to ditch Disqus for comments.

In many ways this has been a strange and wonderful year, probably my most favorite year of my life to date.

The problem: accented characters versus user input I’ve really been enjoying (wait for it, unpaid endorsement) The Criterion Channel since it launched earlier this year.

Mt Katahdin at the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail in Maine (note: all photos shot on my older iPhone 7) Thank you!

The Godfather opening logo Intro It’s been a while, but I’m still at it!

When the year’s days shorten and their number dwindles, I have liked to sometimes take the initiative to sort through all the photos I’ve taken (with my “big” camera).

Perhaps you’ve been programming for a while, and you’re pretty comfortable using for loops to traverse Arrays.

From Soren Kierkegaard’s “Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits” (this excerpt is from Provocations, excerpts from Kierkegaard, Plough) Once upon a time there was a wood dove.

New Cultures The first days of traveling usually involves laughing at the quaint and unusual customs of another culture.

Hello friends!

The idea of a trip across the United States has become somewhat of an American institution.

A few years back I put together my favorite photos of the year (see it: part one and part two).

A few years back I had the opportunity to visit New Orleans in the spring with my friend.

Many folks, including yours truly, have had an unpleasant night, and this morning a bitter awakening at the announcement that our new President will be Trump.

Earlier this year I had the opportunity to attend my first philosophy class in about a decade.

We Americans believe we have a right to be the way we want to be, which includes being lazy physically and intellectually.

Maple leaves at Tofukuji Temple, Kyoto It’s autumn again.

This is a movie in the same spirit as the Marx Brothers’ Duck Soup: essentially a string of crazy anarchic skits held together weakly by some central theme.

Before setting off on my current trip, I wanted to give myself at least one “photo assignment”: some goal I could aim to accomplish by pretending like I’d been given an assignment by some employer.

The biggest culture shock of Indonesia had to be the bathroom facilities, but that’s best saved for another post.

Rinku town and Kansai Airport at night (I wrote this one a few weeks back but didn’t post the pics until now, so here it is in its complete form!).

From April 25, 2016.

I’ve been in Japan for the past few weeks, and have been lazy about updating my blog, which I promised to do!

GPS track log See the interactive GPS track log here.