Useful physical objects: not known to just disappear. I doubt the collapse of nations occur as they do in movies. Things would more likely end gradually, with a quiet, undramatic whimper (sorry, doomsday preppers, and people who think The Purge is realistic). This holds true if the collapse occurs via the government’s own hand—enterprise-wide, self-inflicted … Not Your Parents’ Government Collapse
After raiding the newfound Language Log’s archive for a few minutes, I found this post, on the increasing usage of the “We are all x now” snowclone. Quoting from a Jeffrey Kluger article in Time: “This increasingly common trope has an easy, fill-in-the-blank quality to it that allows us to affect a bit of purloined … We Are All Something Agreeable Now
Most of these recommendations come with the territory of “living in a society flush with books.” They are a given, yet I want to assume that, if you want to write a fiction novel, you are out-of-this-world stupid and in need of guidance. The links are to free copies online where available, otherwise it’s an … Read These 50 Books Before You Write Your First Fiction Novel
A bit late in mentioning this, but Tom Woods addressed Slate’s “unanswerable” question to libertarians nicely here (with some follow up here and here). An introductory quote is below. The scattery Stefan Molyneux also provided a decent video answer here. If I can offer an uneducated answer: the reason nations don’t “do” libertarianism is because … An Unanswerable Question Rebuffed
Via Media Bistro, an infographic (.pdf, ugh) on how high school reading lists have changed over time. The immediate conclusion is that kids aren’t as easily attentive to words on a page as they are to whatever shiny device is eating their free time up like so many Pringles, so they aren’t able to process … What High Schoolers Read Now
I got rid of the annoying Google ad in the sidebar, for no other reason that I just didn’t like the aesthetics of it. I was actually starting to make some money off of it but it would be another few decades until I would see some return from it. In its stead I replaced … A Blog Design Update of Some Interest
I rewatched this movie last night on the Crunchyroll channel, but it’s also on Youtube for free in its entirety (see above), in decent quality. It’s worth watching, even if anime isn’t your thing, because it has the sense of a semi-sci-fi movie from a Western producer…but animated. It helps to think of it as … Movie: The Place Promised In Our Early Days
Related to one of my recent posts about art inside the church, I came across this gem posted in a Facebook group. While not really single-church related it bears out the attitude of gatekeeper Christians needing to sanitize expression. Here we have Vengeance Rising’s Destruction Comes, released in 1991, with the cover as it should … Vengeance Rising’s De-Awesomed Artwork
It was the day of all days. I planned on finally exerting some of my blossoming masculinity on the two callow lads that were a year my minor. I was picturing how awesome I looked in my “confidence headband” when I slipped on that damned log and fell. They ran away, but I found a … A Short Excerpt of the Internal Dialogue of a Young Video Game Hero
Consider the first two paragraphs of this post, “How to Discourage Artists in the Church” from The Gospel Coalition: Many Christian artists live between two strange worlds. Their faith in Christ seems odd to many of their friends in the artistic community—almost as odd as their calling as artists seems to some of their friends … Why Your Pastor Thinks Your Painting Is Stupid
From a NYT article on the decline of certain word usage in literature: I’d like to tell a story about the last half-century, based on studies done with this search engine. The first element in this story is rising individualism. A study by Jean M. Twenge, W. Keith Campbell and Brittany Gentile found that between … Those Words Do Not Mean What You Think They Mean
Consistently hit-or-miss James Altucher‘s new book, upon first release, will only be bought with Bitcoins, the currency of choice of libertarian doofs everywhere. It’s supposedly the first of its kind to do that. Many people who self-publish right now are simply uploading their files and hoping for the best. I am self-publishing as if I … James Altucher Wants Your Bits
I’m posting a Twitter-sized summaries of each book of the Bible on my Twitter (and Facebook, too), one a day, in order. Right now I’m on Deuteronomy, but eventually all 66 books will be drained of meaning summarized. When I’m done I’ll post all the Tweets for any one-stop Bible study pleasures that need to … I’m Hacking Away at the Bible to Meet All Your Short Attention Span Needs
She chattered on with the appropriate disposition of a teenager displaced onto another world. This time she had to convince him that people on her planet dressed up like he does, just for fun, and got together in conspicuous groups to ogle one another. He ignored her as best he could when trying to vibe … Story: Luck Intensification Program
I started reading the series in the late eighties, right in the midst of that pre-pubescent sweet spot where one instantly relates to fictional character one’s own age. Garion, the main protagonist of both of Eddings’ series, was about my age around when I was reading the first few books, so my identification with his … Book Series Review: The Belgariad and The Malloreon
Came across this one-two gem between Lewis and Tolkein, on Christianity Today: “Why C.S. Lewis Was Wrong on Marriage (and J.R.R. Tolkien Was Right).” And while it’s technically about divorce (their generation’s “gay marriage,” if you will), it still has similar applications. That CT sided with Tolkein is no shocker—just look at the post title. … C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkienn on Gay Marriage
I wanted to try one of these because I’m usually not super hungry in the morning and it was more convenient than making something the night before (or the morning of). AMRAP bars are fairly new to the market and the ingredient list was attractive. It’s very dense but chewy, not crumbly or crunchy. At … I’m Not a Foodie Food Review: AMRAP Bar
Via mine own two eye-orbs and then Tobias Buckell here, Amazon hopes to make all those unedited conspiracy theory e-books look a little more credible. More info here, but here’s a screenshot from that post: Eh. It’s a step forward from what amateur writer-cum-designer people can come up with, but nothing beats what professional designers … Amazon’s New Book Cover Maker Might Invoke My Gag Reflex
More here. Schrödinger’s cat found him sleeping, buried under the covers, and she wondered if her species’ curiosity could work in the other direction. — Jay (@Jaybreak) March 13, 2013 He was the Pol Pot to her Eva Braun. — Jay (@Jaybreak) March 8, 2013 Their host spoke little but his voice set Amanda’s teeth … A Bunch of Story Tweets from the Last Few Months
If you consume anything fictional—movie, TV show, book, video game—you’ll know that if you come across any situation in the story that’s too good to be true for the protagonists, the situation is probably based on a lie from the pit of one of the lower circles of hell. After a few episodes of The … Surprise! That Utopia Was Actually A Festering Hellhole
Below is something I wrote in an email to a friend, and I guess it’s something that I think the world at large needs to read. I apologize for the crassness. About the piss: I was typing my response e-mail and stood up to do something mundane, then I had an additional thought and found … A Post About Urinating
Wintery Knight has a good summary-type of post on the view of early church on Jesus’ divine nature, using the 1 Corinthians and Phillipians letters, Mark’s gospel, and then hitting the Q document. One of the strongest historo-logical (?) arguments, I think, against the Jesus’ divinity is that if you put crucial passages in chronological … Jesus’ Divinity as Embellishment or Doctrine
From a correspondence with Matt, who runs Safety Third Enterprises: The other day a friend of mine let me see the “chapbooks” his students made. He teaches English lit at a prison. The rules were books could only be put together through found items at the jail. What was done and written in the books … E-Chapbooks and Prison
The official answer, as in Catholic church code “official” answer, is as unsalacious as it comes: 47 years of some sort of church officialdom needs to be in the can before the smoke de blanco can rise for thee (source, sort of). Jose Canseco, the final word on all things church leadership, sagely offered on … Why Are All The Popes So Frigging Old?
It’s excerpts like this that made me a Bradbury fan: The lights came on. I blinked. For I saw the entire unholy thing. There it was, laid out for me under the drizzling rain. The lights came on. The men quickened, turned, gathered, and we with them. A mechanical rabbit popped out of a little … Electric Rabbit Chasing
I can enjoy books like The Lotus and the Cross or the Coffee with Jesus comics from Radio Free Babylon, but presuming to speak for Son of the Big Guy (SotBG) seems to be an awfully heavy load to carry. Even if we disclaim it as paraphrasing or going with the flow of the “spirit” … What Would Jesus Dribble Into His Beard?
Why are protagonists the serious ones in the fight? The partial explanation, of course, is that the villain sees a minor breach of scruples, like kidnapping or murder, as a means to a grander end. The protagonist’s outrage is a source of the villain’s distracted amusement. The hero’s end, the intrinsic value of a human … Why Are Heroes Always Serious?
Hot on the heels* of my last update about the design tomfoolery on this blog, I’ve made some further mods. The jQuery scroll to top/bottom animation was ditched. I couldn’t make it work on mobile the way it does on normal OS browsers. I’d rather have a consistent experience, cross-device, than a fancy-pants experience on … Another Blog Design Update, Maybe a Little More Interesting
It’s been a while since I did one of these, but the post I did earlier on Russell’s teapot lit a match and ignited the shreds of inspiration tobacco in my bloodstream. Albert Camus: Albert Einstein: Aldous Huxley: Bertrand Russell: George Edward Moore: Harold Lesch: Jean Baudrill: Jean-Paul Sartre: Karl Barth: Mircea Eliade: Oscar Wilde: … A Compendium of Smoking Writers, Mostly Bertrand Russell Edition
I had a dream that involved a news anchor, and not the fun, drunkish, Ron Burgundy kind. He was a boring weatherman and he said the temperature for the next day was going down to “-20-plus” degrees. It was a dream, but the nightmare started when I woke up and thought all day if “-20-plus” … Linguistic Nitpicking: The “Number-Plus” Dilemma
Ever since entering the smartphone world recently I’ve been more aware of how this site looks on mobile viewports. On the whole it transfers well; I use my own child theme, based on WordPress’ Twenty Eleven theme with only a few CSS adjustments and stuff like custom PHP functions for the ads. The thing that … An Uninteresting Update About This Blog’s Design
I posted a few weeks ago about my workout schedule, and there was mention of a 100-rep pullup burpee workout. It’s actually pretty varied so I thought I would post it here with some explanation, since burpees are wonderful conditioning exercises that get a lot done in such a short time. There’s a lot of … My Burpee Workout
There’s a Facebook group called “I fucking love science“, which basically posts science-lite factoids, mostly by way of photos of astronomy- and zoology-oriented things, and quotes from scientists. But why love science? It’s a method and process of uncovering facts and collecting data about material, observable phenomena. I’ve said it before on here, but science … I F*cking Love the Universe!
I came across Russell’s teapot the other day, and I thought I had unearthed the source of the “evidence or GTFO” argumentation. But it seems that Russell only throw his skeptic torch on a strawman: If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun … Hmm: Russell’s Teapot
I left this comment on Mike Duran’s blog post/sort of review of A Shot of Faith (to the Head): Be a Confident Believer in an Age of Cranky Atheists. The comment has some weird [sic] moments but you should understand what I was getting at. Basically, it doesn’t follow that religious presuppositions should be thrown … About Religious Beliefs Being A-Rational
I made this image and posted it recently on FaceTwitter. The family and I went out to eat at Burgatory and the Inauguration Orgy was on all six of the TVs that I was facing. It annoyed me (and the wife) but we were at least able to eat. I tried looking for the entire … G.K. Chesterton on Hanging Politicians
I always find people’s workout schedules interesting, so I thought I would post my (future) schedule. Clicky: A few notes about this: This was actually pretty hard to organize, mostly because of working around prior commitments and the fact that the Legs and Back workout always gives me DOMS, so I don’t want to schedule … My Workout Schedule
My current work in progress, Sarah Jessica Porker*, is alternate history fiction/soft sci-fi. One would think that this would include a lot of world-building and lots of different characters and parties—but one would be only partially correct. There is only some POV jumping and world-building. The thing is, I want to cut most of it … A Question for Fiction Writers Concerning Point of View
I don’t mean, of course, that she was somehow able to alter her ethnic makeup. Wikipedia says she’s half a Euro mix and half African-American, and as far as I know she’s stuck with that. If there are any genetic alchemists reading this, please feel free to correct. When I worked as an assistant manager … Alicia Keys Was White
I looked at this page for the number of miracles performed in the Bible. It lists the number at 120. Some of them I wouldn’t necessarily count them as Biblical miracles (like number 120), but 120 is probably a good number to start with. But I would double that, just to be sure, for a … Average Number of Miracles in Biblical Times
I was going to write a post about the paradox of the card game War—the paradox being that it should always “end” (aka, “keep going forever”) in a draw with neither player receiving all the cards, even though games of War do in fact end. I found the solution to this online on Math Overflow, … This Post Involves an Episode of Frasier Dubbed in Hungarian
From Tremendous Trifles (Kindle version is free). I thought I would have a dingdong of a time finding this excerpt, because all of those quote sites (or sites with quote collections on them…looking at you, Goodreads) only have two or three sentences at the most. That’s fine if you’re one of those people who put … G.K. Chesterton on Fairy Tales
In my last post, I may have made it sound like I find blogs annoying*, but I really don’t. I subscribe to many of them and I know there are some mutual subscriptions. The crux of it was that, even though I’m not a heavy publisher, I was getting burnt out on my own blogging. … An Addendum to My Last Post About Blogging
Lately I’ve taken to writing microfiction on Twitter. There wasn’t an epiphany or earth-moving impetus behind it. It was very fly by night. I’ve been doing them for over a week, once a day. Back when I posted a lot of flash fiction on here I used to do 100 word stories daily for quite … Blogging Is Annoying So Here’s a Bunch of Tweets
From The End of Christendom: Against the new leviathan, whether in the guise of universal suffrage, democracy, or of an equally fraudulent triumphant proletariat, he (Kierkegaard) pitted the individual human soul made in the image of a God who was concerned about the fate of every living creature. In contrast with the notion of salvation … Muggeridge on Political Power
10. toe. – The Future Is Now EP I like to refer to them as a less grumpy Don Caballero, but they’re good (and different) enough to have their own identity. Best quote about this album, from Amazon reviewer Tyler: I don’t know what the hell the drummer is doing with that snare, but it … My Top 10 Amazon Affiliate Links to Albums Released This Year
Here’s another review I did on Buzzgrinder for the best of the 2000’s, for At the Drive-in’s last album, Relationship of Command. Like the Further Seems Forever review, there’s a dozen things I wouldn’t write today. It’s also fun to badmouth a band some people for which some people and unquenchable religious affection. At the … An Old At the Drive-In Review
Via Karen DeCoster, check out all the harumphing comments for this house built around the presence of physical books. Says one commenter: In the years to come it will seem as absurd as building a house around a collection of 8-track cassettes. This takes the burrito for worst analogy of the year, seeing as “story … House of Books Gets Meh Reactions on Gizmodo
I recently helped Mike Duran with the formatting for his Subterranea e-book, which released earlier this week. You don’t have to dig into the ground to buy it*, since it can be unearthed on Amazon and read on your Kindle. If you think about it, downloading an e-book is as opposite of shoveling into dirt … Buy Mike Duran’s New E-book, Subterranea, Even if Only for the Decent Formatting
This section ripped its clothes off to get my attention the other day, while I was proofreading my book. It was saying, “I know you think NaNoWriMo is a steaming heap of silly, but look at my nakedness before moving on. Is there something strange?” The shuttle-wagons were on the off peak schedule so they … A Brief Paragraph of a Work In Progress
My shadow won’t be darkening the voting booth tonight for a number of reasons*, both practical** and moral, but the biggest reason is pure statistics. I’m not a member of the electoral college so as far as the presidential ballot goes, the chance that the college ties and things go to the popular vote to … A List of Things I May Be Doing Tonight Instead of Voting
Like any red-blooded American male, I was watching the Lifetime Network* Sunday night when I noticed the logo in the corner. I noticed it because it was new as of May of 2012, which was weird since I watch the channel everyday and had passed over the rebranding consistently for a good few months. I … Lifetime Network’s Newest Logo Is Kinda Nice
In honor of Further Seems Forever’s new album as a reunited band, Penny Black, I thought I’d post a review I did of their first album, The Moon Is Down. I wrote it in early January of 2010, as part of the top albums of the 2000’s, for Buzzgrinder. The site is down but I … An Old Further Seems Forever Review
On Omegle you can chat anonymously with another anonymous user, but you can also ask questions and watch two users discuss it, or stand on the other side and discuss a question with someone else. In between disturbingly sexual questions about the My Little Pony reboot and disturbingly sexual questions about everything else, you can … The Downfall of Western Civilzation: Omegle, Part 1
Alvin Plantinga argued for the evolutionary argument against naturalism (PDF link): if modern humans macroly evolved over a large period of time, our cognitive processes are tailored more towards seeking survival rather than truth. If evolutionary theory were true, that would mean that modern forms of government came extremely late in the game. It could … Evolutionary Argument Against The State?
My friend Marcia recently linked to JumpFromPaper, a niche fashion design duo that create cartoon-aesthetic bags. I haven’t decoded it yet, but my first thought was that “JumpFromPaper” is code for “rewiring everyone cerebral functions so that non-Euclidian geometric space and the furthest reaches of Humean skepticism fuse together into a Lovecraftian, infernal mental existence.” … These Cartoon Bags Will Completely Destroy Your Perception Of Reality
From an over two year old post at The Futurist, emphasis mine: Lastly, the religious ‘social conservatives’ who continue their empty sermonizing about the ‘sanctity of marriage’ while doing absolutely nothing about the divorce-incentivizing turn that the laws have taken, have been exposed for their pseudo-moral posturing and willful blindness. What they claim to be … Every Pastor That Has Whined About Gay Marriage Should Read This
You can do searches for how to make your own shaving soap, more from scratch that what I did here. It’s basically soap with some other ingredients added. If you buy all of that stuff and go jump through the hoops, like here, it may come out more cheaply but it’s more time consuming and … How To Make Your Own Shaving Soap For El Cheapo
I’ve mentioned a few times on here, and in a roundabout way in the review of Alvin Plantinga’s Warranted Christian Belief, about non-Aristotelian epistemology. This is sometimes called Middle Eastern (ME) or Hebraic epistemology. ME epistemology utilizes divine revelation as a legitimate, basic form of knowledge, the same way we accept sense perception or memory … A Quick Thought on Non-Aristotelian Epistemology
Ravi Zacharias’ Can Man Live Without God explores the moral and material, not spiritual, consequences of atheism, particularly on a cultural scale. I think Zacharias intends to explain that atheism (he terms it “antitheism”), flowering to its logical consequences, intrinsically leads to philosophical and existential despair. The book’s audience seems to be people of various … Book Review: Can Man Live Without God
While having nighttime coffee with a traveling friend earlier this week, in the midst of our conversation we thought of the futility of fame. We all want to become famous for different reasons or for different things, but that goal is mostly out of our hands. Mass fame is the result of chance circumstances—i.e., the … Stop Trying to be Famous
Paleo Bread is new from Julian Bakery, and I bought a loaf and had it shipped. Nothing earth-shattering there. I’m not too huge on eating bread or grain-based food in general (for some good reasons), so I thought trying this stuff out would be a fun experiment. The first thing you notice is that the … I’m Not a Foodie Food Review: Paleo Bread Coconut
In turn of the century letter-writing—I can’t exactly point to where—I have read on “dying a good death”. In a general sense this means dying under favorable circumstances, and most of us would take the phrase to mean favorable material circumstances: living to a prosperous old age, free of disease or dysfunction, in the company … How to Die Properly
Ellison’s Invisible Man, not H.G. Wells’ more enjoyable The Invisible Man, deals with race relations both in the south and north of 1940’s America. The treatment is abstract, though, as everything is filtered through the nameless protagonist’s first person perspective. The story follows him through a series of unfortunate circumstances, starting at college, to his … Book Review: Invisible Man
I wonder how I had missed this article, on the Department of Homeland Security’s List of Naughty Words* that will flag their systems or whatnot. DailyMail covered their nethers well by posting an image of the words, not the words themselves. Poking around to see if any other blogger-types actually published the words, Soveriegnman.com looks … A Blatant Use Of Words You Are Not Supposed To Publish On Your Blog
Because of this, and most recently this, there’s been a lot of discussion lately about gun ownership/rights, the 2nd amendment, etc.—as there always is when the media cycle restarts and a report of a shooting hasn’t been done in a while. There exists one common argument that gun rights people* use to counteract proposals for … A Bad Argument For Gun Ownership Rights
Like most male American highschoolers with little literary orientation, the first exposure to Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms was the loose reference in the first Golgo-13 Nintendo game. I had a chuckle when I thought of the stoic Duke Togo grunting in frustration from the inability to wave goodbye to his amputated arms. But then … Finish Your Summer Reading List: A Farewell to Arms Book Review
Ben Pike tipped me off to this blog post, “Abortion Rights are Logically Required by Libertarianism“. Below is the email I wrote back to him. It was a rough email, not intended as post material, so it’s kind of jumpy. But the thoughts are there. Basically, reading this and the original post over a few … Abortion and Property-Rights Theory: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
I changed things around. It was a matter of scalable convenience; the theme I was using was customized and I didn’t want to keep merging code or design or making sure stupid plugin x functioned whenever the theme had an update or a door was slammed in Kathmandu. Now I’m using the twentyeleven default theme … This Post Is About Web Design and Not Chik-Fil-A*
Short post today. Read below the delicious red meat-quote on Austrian vis-a-vis Marxist or Keynesian, etc., economic theory, from an interview with Robert Higgs: Most of all, an understanding of Austrian economics reveals that mainstream economics is the exact opposite of what it claims to be: it is not science, but scientism. Relying on crude … Are You an Electrical Current Or a Human?
Check out this article, on the latest stats on the number of commuters who bike to work. Though it doesn’t count people in my situation, who do a bike-to-mass-transit combo, there shows an increase of cycling commuters. There’s probably a million lists like these online that will try to guilt you into riding a bike, … Some Reasons to Commute by Bike to Work, and Some Reasons Not To
This is a quick post, but at a recent meeting at work the question about year-based cyclical adjectives came up. Me and another colleague did a little research and came up with some answers. “Biannual” – occurring two times a year (“semiannual” seems to have the same meaning but it doesn’t feel as accurate to … A Quick, Unsatisfying Post About Recurrent Time Adjectives
Note: I made some of the explanations clearer and images more contextual, and the images now load via fancybox instead of a new window. Now change that favicon! You know that little picture next to your web address in the URL locator? That’s a favicon, and it shows up in important places like right next … A Post for All the Bloggers on Bluehost
Most of us have heard of the various “God started the universe” arguments but haven’t known what exactly the formal name of it was. Well, they are generally called cosmological arguments, which isn’t too obscure, but the specific one apologists invoke unknowingly is the Kalām Cosmological argument. I never knew the name until I landed … Rollicking Good Times with the Kalām Cosmological Argument
My mother in law recently gave us two coffee pots, made by the WearEver company. They began around the turn of the century in the rust belt (Ohio, western Pennsylvania) and are still around in some form today. I imagine that these were some of the first things they produced. The company was closely related … These Coffeepots Are Over 100 Years Old
My friend Ben Pike asked me why I hadn’t posted any photos of Ayn Rand smoking in my previous posts. The exclusion wasn’t intentional; I had a folder of just her sitting around that I was planning on unleashing. Now is that time. I didn’t find many photos of her. Let’s face it, she wasn’t … A Minor Compendium of Black and White Photos of Writers Smoking – Ayn Rand Edition
Forbes posted yesterday about “10 brainteasers to test your mental sharpness”. Most of the riddles were the trick/”false premise” type of questions with crucial information that tend to sneak by the testee. Riddles like these focus on ambiguities of language rather than actual problem-solving. When we hear a riddle or problem we tend to pick … You’re Not an Idiot If You Answer Some of These Questions Wrong
Ingredients 1 cup chopped nut(s) (almonds, walnuts, etc.) 1/2 cup nut butter (almond, walnut, etc.) 1/3 cup raw honey 1 cup coconut flakes (unsweetened) 1/2 cup flaxseed 1/2 cup cacao/carob (powdered or chopped, unsweetened) 1 tsp salt 2 tsp vanilla 2 tsp cinnamon Directions 1. Throw everything into a bowl and mix (hands are best) … Recipe: No-Bake Primal Energy Bites
In reading my last post I noticed I made a subtle but fatal error. I said that atheists and skeptics have an epistemological apparatus that can apprehend supernatural things. While I think this is true it is only acceptable—according to the state of philosophy as I know it—if the actor is a supernaturalist to begin … Correction: Abraham Vs. Aristotle
I’ve been reading one guy here and another guy here and here. They talk about Hebrew/Middle Eastern (H/ME) epistemology, the existence of which I and most other Christians are aware and utilize under different names and applications. H/ME relies heavily on revelatory knowledge—our radar aimed at the metaphysical or supernatural—as a legitimate form of knowing … Abraham Vs. Aristotle
There’s info online you can Giggle regarding the reliability of New Testament manuscripts compared to similar documents of antiquity. Here’s a good summary, but I saw an image on Facebook (see note way below) that diagramed the comparisons. It’s an interesting phenomenon to note, but in most cases it won’t do much to convince skeptics. … New Testament Manuscript Reliability Doesn’t Matter
I’ve seen this image appear in my facebook feed at least a few times every week. The idea is that it’s best (according to some) to spend our money on local businesses because the business owners will extract more practical or “moral” utility, where the CEO will just squander it. The only problem is that … It Doesn’t Matter What Business You Spend Your Money On
I don’t mean, of course, that he doesn’t really know what science is. If someone were to prod him to unpack what he thinks I’m sure he could make a coherent case, but the quote is nonsensical. Science is a method and a process that’s neither true nor false. There’s nothing about it to “believe” … Neil Degrasse Tyson Doesn’t Know What Science Is
Halper, who plays in the band Periphery, is sponsored by Mapex and had the neat idea of setting up his set out in the busy streets during the music industry gathering SXSW. Thank God the police were there to stop this immoral act from continuing. The look of horror on everyone’s faces is heart-wrenching. This … Cops Shut Down Criminal Drummer Playing in Public
I first heard Melt-Banana when a fellow grocery store warm body lent me their Scratch or Stitch release. It held my interest for a few listens: an album full of layered ray gun guitar effects, fuzz bass pounding, ADHD drumming, insane cat-bark yipyap vocals, song titles bordering on Engrish hilarity. Something that was experimental but … In Which I Bloviate About Melt-Banana
I just bought these used but brand new at Half Price Books. There were other editions that were a dollar less but I bought these because I liked their covers. This is what “splurging” means when you have a mortgage and two kids.
Click here or up in the menu if you have a manuscript that needs the once-over. If you have no interest or need for a beta reader, please enjoy some music timed to the video of the Fraggle Rock theme song, performed by your friends in The Locust.
From Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye. Reading this paragraph put me in another place. I was sitting under a tree, naked, in 140 degree weather, with a large block of ice resting on my belly. The recent warm turn of local weather didn’t hurt, either. At eleven o’clock I was sitting in the third booth … The First Paragraph of Chapter Thirteen of Someone Else’s Book
From near the end of The Abolition of Man (read it free online here). Emphasis mine. But once our souls, that is, ourselves, have been given up, the power thus conferred will not belong to us. We shall in fact be the slaves and puppets of that to which we have given our souls. It … C.S. Lewis on the Soft Dictatorship of Objective Values
Buckell posted a few days ago that Arcitc Rising is now out, and I felt bad because I had the book for review but I was (unwillingly) dragging my feet on it. But now I will drag my fingers over it, and by “it” I mean my Macbook keyboard. Arctic turns UNPG (United Nations Polar … Book Review: Arctic Rising
I’ve noticed a tendency of modern writers to write clipped sentences and paragraphs. Like this. One or a few in each paragraph, for certain scenes. Not even action scenes. Ones where there’s supposed to be descriptive of a scene, or internal thought development. I can understand if it’s first person from a certain kind of … Have No Fear, This Is an Easy Read
If you’re a great writer, and I know you are, then you should be able to take a personality type that has been known to really boil my goat in the past, and eventually turn me sympathetic toward the character holding that personality. One recent example for me was Dio from Last Exile, which is … I Hate Your Guts, But Give Me a Few More Episodes
While trying to escape that weird part of Youtube, I landed on the first video posted below, of C.S. Lewis on the problem of evil. He explains, with much better clarity and elegance, what I mentioned before about God having preferences (he even used the same word), and that He prefers free moral agents over … Nothing Racks Up Adsense Money Like Another Post on Theodicy
I’m due for another one of these, and I kind of miss blatantly stealing images of beauty without attribution, from bloggers and websites that did the same (I did steal some of them from The Gentleman). Of note are the reprisals of Chesterton, looking as crabby as ever, and Alan Moore with his life-long imitation … A Compendium of Smoking Writers, Part Four or Five or Around There
I recently replaced my copyright disclaimer on my blog with a Creative Commons license. Coincidentally, my friend Seth, who has been publishing Buzzgrinder for over a decade, ran into a trademark issue with the buzzgrinder brand name and the twitter.com/buzzgrinder account. It turns out someone had secured the buzzgrinder name on twitter before, and Seth … If Your Hands Were on My Trademark I’d Smack Them
I’ve thought before that, sociologically speaking, people look to attribute God’s qualities to other phenomena, like the universe, politics, aesthetics/art, or science. People much smarter than me have undoubtedly come across this before, like Voltaire when he said that if God didn’t exist it would be necessary to invent him. I like that quote because … An Inexhaustive, Scatterbrained Post on Atheism and Science Fiction
Whenever you want to get a lot of response from religious people, ask something basic yet broadly-defined and colored by perspective. At the Christian Libertarians group on facebook, someone asked what faith was. The responses were varied as you’d expect with such a word with varied usage. I was surprised there wasn’t the guy that … A Very Clear Post About the Definition of Religious Faith
Almost a year ago I posted about the typical alien invasion scenario one sees in sci-fi books and films, and how those scenarios were unlikely versus possible non-coercive interactions. In a Stefan Molyneux speech I was listening to the other day I was surprised to hear him mention it, though it was only as an … More on Alien Invasions, Moron Alien Invasions
One way struggling artists assuage a stunted career is to summon da Vinci Leonardo’s “art isn’t completed but abandoned” quote. Its dogged overuse has erased its profundity and replaced it with irritation as it’s thrown in with other quotes on facebook profiles to justify unwanted, and sometimes unacceptable, behavior. But I’d like to take it … A Dead Italian Philosopher Says You Can’t Finish a Novel
2011 was a mostly-arbitrary division of time just like any other, but things happened within that duration in my life that are worth noting. My son got borned in August and I got canned from Noisecreep in the Great AOL/HuffPurge. On the literary side I released Bored in the Breakroom as a free e-book (rave … Annual “Click All My Amazon Affiliate Links” Post, 2011 Version