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
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 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
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
Like someone else in a similar position recently posted, I’ve decided to suspend A Season Underneath indefinitely. The reasons are legion, but the biggest is that I am on my fourth rewrite and it doesn’t seem to be getting a whole lot better. The chapters are just sort of there, with no real story to … I Used To Write Her
Writers love to hi-five each other with permalinks instead of dollar bills in our hands, then we return to our dens and badmouth others’ sentence structures and word choice into half-empty coffee mugs. This post is different because I’m referencing a comment that I made and liked, posted on someone else’s site. Mike Duran’s blog … A Post Where I Feature a Comment I Made About Car Accidents
I posted about the problem of evil about a month ago, and I had some further ideas related to it. God created at least one physical universe with moral agency (axiomatic). God created the angels with moral agency (2 Peter 2:4, Jude 6). God would be omniscient enough to know when his preference for moral … Further Thoughts on God and Trans-World Moral Agency
An interesting image of dubious accuracy that has popped up many times in my facebook feed the last week. The origin might be here, but a website with a domain name like that might not be the best source for statistics. Some may cluck their tongues at America’s unfettered capitalism but it’s really a result … Something To Get Mad About For A Few Minutes
I posted before about the kinda-sorta-in-a-way superiority of physical books as opposed to e-books. It felt like a conflict of interest as I’ve released an e-book of my own, but since a physical book(let) of a short story has been actualized (more on that later) I won’t feel the cognitive dissonance as harshly. The emergence … Another Case for Physical Books
After reveling in spirits the night before, come to Discovery in Cranberry Township/Pittsburgh this Sunday. We begin the new series, God the Artist, featuring a story I wrote plus some other fun writey type of things. You’ll be able to buy a book designed by Kevin Rupert and notecards designed by Alanna James. The money … Drag Your Hangover to My Church This Sunday Morning
»Seth W recently released a little zine of sketches of broken robots, called Broken Robots. You can get it for free if he has any more of them. It makes a nice addition to the decor for any of my fellow cubicle jockeys’ working quarters (see photo, where it is nicely coupled with a full … Broken Robots and Memoirs
I will get to the falling anvils later. But first, here’s the problem of evil set in deductive logic form. My church’s small group dealt with this idea a few weeks ago, and I think it’s the best argument against the Christian God there is. God is omnibenevolent. God is omnipotent. God is omniscient. Evil … The Problem of Anvils
Tobias Buckell posted on and about his blog a few days ago, with a interesting chart on his blog’s traffic. He turned off comments some time ago but his traffic increased. This is counterintuitive to a lot of chatty blog marketeers, who overstress the community aspect. If your blog doesn’t have comments, then it’s just … On Blogging Too Much About Writing and Armadillos
I had the thought to reboot Jesus’ message of the Good Samaritan into more modern terms after last Sunday’s sermon. Doubtlessly this has been done before, but the point of this was to use people I would expect to be good or bad neighbors in a role reversal, which I think is part of the … The Good Godless Humanist
» My church is doing a series on art and Christianity and they asked me to be a part of it, which I am honored to be doing*. I’ll have a short story (not flash fiction) to be included in a nicely-designed short story book for sale in the near future. I don’t know the subject … A Blog Post of Small Bits of Information of Possible Interest
I saw this video over a month ago via Bill’s site. Movie cliches are more noticeable because of their easy access and immediacy. Literary cliches, not so much, but they definitely exist and they can be just as horrid. Consider the meta-cliche, “It was a dark and stormy night.” A night was dark, you say? … Avoid This Post Like the Plague
To add to my image of long-suffering but borderline dorkdom, I had the thought to add the text of incantations I’ve seen in Bleach episodes somewheres online (probably Facebook), not because I think fictional magic is cool, as I have no strong affections either way for it, but because those particular ones are nicely written. … Necromancer? I Barely Know Her!
Cathy posted the interview she did with me about flash fiction right here. There’s a flash fiction autobiography of me and a six word story I agonized over for a few days. You can even write your own six-worder in the comments. Not that you couldn’t do that anyways but writing a six word story … My First Interview Will Make You Question the Internet, Life
It’s been recently pointed out to me by the astute Ms. Apokedak that one of my RSS feeds is the old, pre-Feedburner one. If you stick https://jaydinitto.com into Google Reader’s “Add a Subscription” function you will get this old one, as opposed to the new one linked on the right column there or right here. … An Update on My RSS Feed That I Don’t Want to Publish
I got some great responses on my post wondering how pastors write and/or deliver sermons. Bill LaMorey from Calvary Fellowship West Hartford provided links to his personal site on how he does it, and linked to a Mark Driscoll interview where he reveals his method. How pastors do this interested me because it involves writing … On Getting Schooled by Church Leaders
In lieu of an orthodox blog post I wanted to document my thought trail and sequence of events for considering the grand question at the end (time-constrained readers can skip to #8 with #6 as a bonus if it’s doable). This may be of use to someone in the future. On the way to the … I Overthought Something and Now I Have a Question for Pastors
Martha Carr has a post at Novel Publicity for fake writers (me) seeking to make a career by writing (emphasis not mine): …[T]here’s still one powerful rule that remains, and it can mean the difference between making a comfortable living as an author or just barely getting by despite the great reviews. Think of it … You Will Not Make a Living by Writing
Hit the triangle, then continue reading. I have three stories in the works that are not quite short story-length but they are longer than standard flash fiction fare. One of them involves murdering a monarchal retainer, the other talks about murdering a monarchal retainer, and the last involves an orbiting driving range in space. All … Read This Post While Listening to Wagner’s Valkyrie Joint
Silence was written by Shusako Endo, who is described by the book’s notes as being Japan’s foremost novelist. This fact brings the total number of Japanese novelists that I’ve read or ever known of to a whopping one. What’s notable about his eminence—an eminence which may still hold true since his death in 1992—is that … Book Review: Silence
There’s a two things you learn when you stay overnight for a few consecutive days at a hospital, waiting for test results for a loved one. One is that the passage of time is entirely subjective, a phenomenon noted when the circadian rhythm of one’s daily routine is smashed to bits. The other is that … Happy Birthday, Here’s A Meal Ticket for the Hospital Cafeteria
I’m not going to write much here or post a cute picture as I’m working off caffeine fumes and a broken sleep pattern from the night before. Bored in the Breakroom is now available—press here. Note: the Diesel bookstore link is being saucy, but the others are fine so far.
There are two notable births of late, one of which involves my new son, Nickolas Manni DiNitto, while the other involves my e-book, Bored in the Breakroom. The latter of these I will post about tomorrow, the former of which I will post a photo (look to the side). For reasons unknown the e-self-publisher I … Babies Are Me
Becky Garrison’s book isn’t really necessary, and I mean that in the nicest-spirited way possible. The New Atheist Crusaders and Their Unholy Grail: The Misguided Quest to Destroy Your Faith (deep breath) is Garrison’s jab back at the new atheist polemicists and their proposition—if I understand it correctly—that religion is no good because it produces … Book Review: The New Atheist Crusaders and Their Unholy Grail
Every so often one comes across the blog run by someone competent enough in writing that a mere Twitter mention seems inadequate, like throwing a brick to fill a sinkhole. Not a small sinkhole, but the one that just devoured your shack of a house and your rich, overbearing neighbor’s fleet of Hummers and his … I’m Not Tweeting About Jesse Pearson’s Blog
There’s only a handful of things that separate good storytelling from the sea of decent but forgettable reads, and it’s creating a sense of mystery and explaining away only part of it. It properly engages the reader’s imagination, which, I’m starting to believe, causes a physiological reaction not unlike the reaction one might receive from … Stop Telling Me Everything About Everything
There’s not much you can do for an e-book of short stories except things like this. I’m not extroverted or good-looking enough to do a Youtube video or talented enough to make a trailer, so this is the biggest gun in my arsenal, and the bullet is a stock photo I bought for $9. The … The Unnecessary E-book Cover Teaser Post
Continuing my unofficial tour of all the books you read in high school and never entertained a thought about again, I come to All Quiet on the Western Front. Erich Maria Remarque’s archaic, turn-of-the-century German prose, weirded out teenage reading levels America-wide and was rivaled only by Hemingway’s casual, complacent-shrug narration about life-changing events. All … Book Review: All Quiet on the Western Front
Warning: cryptic content below. I’m going to attempt a little real-world experiment with anonymous fiction writing. I’ll explain more in the next post if the experiment ever advances. Please notice the emphasis on “if” in that last sentence. When you’re depending on people that you haven’t met and don’t know that they’re being depended upon … Anonymous Fiction, Part 1
I just read two very-related articles on sites of disparate focus that will not be linked in this post. One post was concerning the Google science fair and how the top three entrants were girls, a story that ends up undermining, if we’re being honest with ourselves, against both boys and girls. The other article … I Did an Autopsy on Harry Potter and He’s a Woman
Florida to Maine by Bike and Train is Seth W’s third e-book and end result of a traveling stint he recently completed. After the cover, which has Seth channeling Leonidas on his bike, the pages are filled with photos, stories about the places he visited, and some good advice if there’s been something you’ve always … Book Review: Florida to Maine by Bike and Train
Via Gallycat, the Oxford people across the pond have dropped support for their comma in their official style guide. If you didn’t know — and I didn’t know it had an official name — the Oxford comma is that last comma in a list of things. Like this: He’s allergic to bananas, kiwi, strawberries, and … The Oxford People Snoot It Up Towards Final Commas
WorldNetDaily is a huge, festering neocon sore on the Internet’s bum-bum so this is probably a bit of selective reasoning on their part, but they’re reporting that Arianna Huffington wants dudes to touch themselves. The article, written by Huffington for everydayhealth.com, ended up on AOL.com’s front page. Shocking!: The health site’s subtitle read, “Ever wonder … Huffington Post Wants Men to Walk the Dog More Often
This is a photo of me, looking a little awkward, and my bicycle, Functional, a 25 year old steel frame Trek 520. I bought it off of someone on ebay over a year ago, and it came with a sticker that just said “Functional” on it, hence its name. If you click for the larger … A Very Functional Photograph of Me
The other night on PBS there was a documentary on post-Soviet Russian families. A father, speaking to someone offscreen, said that his children don’t read much because there’s no interest in books any more. I didn’t see what happened after that but I inferred that when the father was younger, when the hammer and sickle … Time to Bring Back Book Banning
On my way back from the optometrist this morning I walked up 4th avenue, which was one of the first streets on which I remember driving in Pittsburgh. It was some years ago after a job interview. 4th avenue starts (or ends) at PPG Place, a curious agglomeration of crystalline spires and shimmering glass. There … An Extremely Subtle Reminder of My Pending E-book, Bored in the Breakroom
My daughter, Elena, reads a lot, so it’s natural that eventually she would start writing — which she has done. Well, she wrote in the sense that she comes up with stories, but to actually commit them to paper would strain the limits of time and legibility. So I dutifully wrote down her epic stories … Fan Fiction by a Five Year Old: The Hello Kitty Chronicles
I first heard about Philadelphia-based artist Michael Bukowski when I came across his Yog-Blogsoth site, where he is doing his own visual interpretations of all the H.P. Lovecraft alien-gods. He also has a normal site (if you can call it normal) at lastchanceillustraion.com, that addresses his other artistic explorations. In this here little interview you’ll … Interview: Michael Bukowski
I just spent about a week of vacation in an area of the nation where people have begun to worship a group of people named after a kind of bear. I brought back about 100 minahs of processed wood and right now my eyes have been overlayed with a sheen of lead. There were four … Back From the Flexed-Arm State
I first heard of H.P. Lovecraft in the winter of my freshman year of high school, when I listened to Metallica’s Ride the Lightning nonstop. The closing track, an instrumental, was titled “Call of Cthulhu”, and I found out it was a literary reference to a creepshow universe of alien gods and people going insane. … Book Review: Tales of H.P. Lovecraft