Hobbies & Activities

Over the past few years, I’ve spent a lot of time at home, between working remotely, teaching from my home office, and, finally, wrapping up my first book-length project. Given the nature of my work, as well as long-lasting pandemics that might force us all inside for a long time, I want to take some time right now to share ten things I think you should consider improving your living space.

With the holidays coming up quickly, and birthdays being pretty constant, it can be a struggle to brainstorm what the men in your life might want for a gift. Here, I’m going to offer ten ideas that I think most men will enjoy as gifts. Generally, I like gifts that last a long time and are something that the recipient will find useful in their daily lives. Thus, a lot of the gifts here will be practical. But, with that said, I’ll also cover some ideas that are focused, purposely, on being...

Whether you got them as a gift or for yourself, a quality pair of leather shoes or boots can last a lifetime, if you take care of them. In this piece, I’ll be going through the methods that I use to keep my leather shoes and boots in the best shape that I can, even in wet and humid weather down in Florida. I can’t claim to be the expert in this, and there will be a lot of people who disagree with me. Here, all I offer is the methods that I use, and I hope you get some value from them as...

Right now, there are tens of thousands of cargo containers, filled with everything from cars to computers, sitting off of America’s coasts, and we can’t unload them fast enough to meet consumer demands. Aside from that most recent shipping debacle, the past two years have been a jarring experience for a lot of people in terms of our ability to buy the things we want and need. Store shelves are sometimes bare, and even when they’re not, we might not be able to get the things we want at...

People around the world have started to travel again after COVID slowed things down significantly in 2020. As an avid traveler myself, I thought it would be interesting to round up the ten busiest airports in the world. Some of them were obvious (looking at you, Atlanta!), but I was really surprised at just how many them are in China. It will be interesting to see what this list will look like in 2021 with travel back on the rise. Use the NEXT button below to navigate through the top 10.

With the recent release in No Time To Die, Daniel Craig’s last Bond film, I thought this would be a good time to think about men’s style. One of the things that most interested me about the movie from a style perspective is how many different outfits and settings we saw. The contemporary Bond doesn’t just do tuxedos, he dresses appropriately, and stylishly, for every occasion. Thus, instead of specific outfits, here are ten things I think can help you keep a consistently well-put-together...

In 1930, the Indiana Bell Building was rotated a full 90 degrees in order to allow for construction of a second building. Even more impressive? The building was rotated without disturbing the people working inside, allowing normal business to continue throughout the course of the rotation. The move took an entire month, and the building moved at a breakneck pace of 15 inches per hour. Since the crews didn’t have access to the technologies we have today, most of the moving power came from...

As an academic in addition to being a writer, one of my greatest pleasures is sharing books that I’ve found interesting with others. Here, I want to share ten of those with you. I don’t follow any one theme or genre, but here are some works that have been influential in how I see the world today.

An astronaut team of 4 civilians successfully touched back down in the Atlantic ocean Saturday (9/19) evening after orbiting Earth for three days. The mission, known as Inspiration 4, consisted of a data engineer, a community college professor, a physician assistant, and a billionaire that financed the operation. None of the crew members are professional astronauts, making it the first ever mission to go to orbit without a professional astronaut on board. The Crew Dragon capsule carrying...

Throughout my life, I’ve been fortunate to get to travel a fair bit. I’ve seen a dozen countries and about half of the US, and will finally see the Pacific Ocean in a few weeks with a trip to Seattle for a work conference. In those travels, I’ve experienced a lot of things I wish that I’d have known sooner. Today, I want to share ten of those with you.

COVID restrictions have made travel to and from Mexico more difficult for the average traveler, and after a recent trip I thought it would be worth noting some of things you’ll need to make the trip easier. I had a great trip, but there were significantly more hoops to jump through than my normal international travel. I compiled a list of the 10 most important items you need to ensure your trip goes as smoothly as possible.

I know it’s unbearably hot in most of the world at the moment, but, thankfully, fall is coming. With that in mind, now is the perfect time to look for some fall essentials. Men’s fashion changes slowly, so last year’s stock, which retailers are looking to sell, is pretty likely to be on sale to make room for new fall looks in just a few weeks. So, let’s take advantage of those deals and pick up some great pieces.

If the last year and a half have taught me much of anything, it’s that sometimes, to stay sane, we need hobbies that we can do by ourselves. Work-from-home can all-too-easily become a deeply unhealthy cycle of being inside all the time, simply switching from work applications to fun ones when the clock strikes the appropriate hour. Instead, I want to suggest ten hobbies that I have used to try to balance work out with healthy living and keeping my mind engaged. While not all of these...

With the world recovering from Covid, albeit slowly, international leisure travel is coming back. I, for one, welcome this return to something like normal. Here, I want to share with you ten cities that I have been lucky enough to visit, and what I like about each of them. There are hundreds of amazing places in our world, and my travels haven’t taken me to enough of them yet, but I hope this helps spark your wanderlust all the same.

During the course of a normal life, you’re likely going to face something that needs to be fixed or upgraded in some way. More commonly, that means calling someone to fix the problem you’re currently facing. And, as someone who has spent a good bit of his life in the construction field, I think most people should have a fair sense of their skills, and when they’re out of their depth, call a professional. With that caveat said, I want to offer you ten tools that I think will make you more...

Over the last two decades, I’ve been to over a dozen countries and a good few states, traveling by car, plane, foot, and train. In those travels, I’ve noticed that there seem to be some things that are constants, especially unpredictability. No matter how well you plan or prepare, there will likely be a situation that you just couldn’t predict that can make your day a little bit harder. Here, I want to share with you ten things that I keep with me whenever I travel to help offset that...

Over my lifetime, I’ve learned to love to cook. Some of my best memories come from the kitchen: cooking breakfast with grandma before anyone else was up, making dinner with a partner on a romantic evening, or just relaxing after a long day. Here, I want to share ten things that have made me a better home cook. I’m not a chef, so my advice should be taken with a pinch of salt, but I hope you can learn something from one of my favorite tips, tricks, and tools.

I don’t know about you, but in my neck of the woods it’s starting to get seriously hot. And, now with the world going back to something like normal, weddings, parties, and casual drinks with friends are starting to become possible again. When we’re out and about, sweat stains are not the look we’re going for. One way to cut down on the sweat and up the style factor on your summer outfits, one easy way to do is to experiment with new shirts. Here, I’ll recommend three that I think are not...

For most men, there has not been a great deal of change in our dress shoes for decades. If you work in an office job, go to the occasional wedding, or even just have them stashed in a closet, the standards are black or brown lace-up oxfords. But, with the weather getting warmer and different contexts for formal events coming up, now is a good time to re-evaluate those old standbys. Here, I want to talk about expanding your repertoire of summer dress shoes to give your look a more...

For much of the past century, hats have fallen out of style in menswear: long gone are the days where men wore a hat with every outfit, taking it off when they entered a building as a matter of course. Now, they’ve become something more niche in fashion. More recently, a lot of men have shied away from hats; the idea of the less than flattering fedora with a t-shirt look from about a decade ago have turned a lot of us off from headwear. But, I don’t think it has to be this way. Here, I want...