My craft foam sun visor for ultralight backpacking

In the desert, with my sun umbrella and sun visor

I get big kick out of making my own backpacking equipment, and this was a fun little experiment which turned out well.

Before I went on a desert backpacking trip to Joshua Tree with my friends Jean and Kelly, I made this sun visor, which weighs in at 8 grams. It's made of craft foam, which you can buy at Michael's or Walmart for about 15 cents a sheet (which is enough for one visor). Here's a template that you can use to cut it out.

Once I had it cut out, I poked a hole in the ends, and strung some elastic through, so it would fit on my head properly. It worked really well, and was much sturdier than I thought it would be. Another part of my defense against the sun (very important in the desert!) was a very lightweight umbrella, which I just held in my hand as I hiked.

One thing to consider when using this is that it doesn't protect the top of your head, in case you sometimes get a sunburn on your part. That wasn't a problem for me because I was also using the umbrella, and this visor was just a backup.

Me with my ultralight visor

Just started podcasts - loving them!

I'm late in arriving at this party, I know, but I've just in the past months started listening to podcasts. And...I love them! Mainly what I love is that it's a different - much, much slower - way of getting information, that doesn't require me to stare into my laptop. Which I do far too much of.

I started listening to podcasts because I was intrigued by some of the subjects on The Voluntary Life - but it turns out it's only available in podcast format, there is no transcript or blog. I played around with a few podcast apps, and ended up using Podcast Republic, which seems adequate.

The main reason I'm enjoying podcasts so much is that it's a way of dealing with my information/screen addiction (I surf the web far too much) that allows me to be doing something else at the same time - cooking, cleaning, playing K'nex with the kids, etc.

Also, interestingly enough, I treat the information I get from listening to podcasts differently from what I get reading an article or blog post. It takes so much longer to listen to a podcast that I actually absorb much more information, and take it more seriously.

One more bonus with podcasts is that the kids are exposed to new ideas as well. They hear what I'm interested in if we're all hanging out in the kitchen and I'm listening to a podcast. Good extra!