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