Hello, welcome to Looking for the Fig Tree.

Missives from the Here and Now and the Not Yet. Blogs and newsletters from the JR Houn & family.

Introducing MovieRanker.win 🎞️🎉

My new passion project is officially in open beta! Pit your favorite films head-to-head to build an accurate personal ranking.

life

Family Update - August 2026

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society

Whose Children Are They?

The other day I was watching comedian, Hasan Minhaj, interview the former governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie. My ears immediately perked up during this specific part of the interview: It's a short clip - under two minutes long, but there's at least a couple things to unpack here. A policy

life

Family Matters - Tales of my Father

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life

Family Update June 2026 - To Madrid and Mt. Hermon

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life

Family Update May 2026 - May is for Birthdays

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Tech

How I'm Using, Loving, and Hating AI Today

For whatever reason, over the last six to nine months, an increasing number of people have been asking me my opinions about AI. What it is. What I use it for. If it's as crazy as they have heard it is. These questions have come from friends, parents of kids from school, coworkers,

life

Family Update - April 2026

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movie review

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (It's fine)

It is. It really is. Your kids will enjoy it. My youngest son, Asher, laughed gleefully out loud several times in the theater. And, at a few key points, even I couldn't help but grin, turn, and look my kids to see their reactions to what was happening on screen. That was fun.