Friends! It’s been a while. Things are progressing as planned with the actual book. Short email this time around. I wanted to show the last two quote images. See them below. More emails coming soon!
Dropping in quickly again to mention Just Thomism’s post on the Catholic Church’s socio-economic policy, as stated in its catechism: The Church has rejected the totalitarian and atheistic ideologies associated in modem times with “communism” or “socialism.” She has likewise refused to accept, in the practice of “capitalism,” individualism and the absolute primacy of the … Catholicism’s Social Teaching
Dropping in here for a moment between writing PBS and living a normal work-family life. Upon a recent visit to amazon.com I saw one of their “recommended books”: Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible. Despite something of an embarrassing cover featuring a photo of that Nazi treasure hunter … Two Books of Note
“At any rate, that is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great. When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep.” -Willa Cather Have you ever gone camping overnight? There’s an astounding lack of electricity in the wild, unless you bring batteries with you. But that’s where this illustration point ends … About Sleep and Light – Pale Blue Scratch Email Newsletter #7
I’ve said it before on here. Other, more adept and well-known writers have said similar: a non-belief in God requires, philosophically, that one must find or apply Godlike attributes to something else. It’s an accidental side meaning smuggled in Voltaire’s famous quote: “If God didn’t exist it would be necessary to invent him.” Related to … When Living is a Crime
“I let my past go too fast No time to pause If I could slow it all down Like some captain whose ship runs aground I can wait until the tide comes around” -Rush, “Time Stands Still” Though in Pale Blue Scratch there isn’t any time-travel—or is there?—the idea of a machine that allows for … About Time and Travel – Pale Blue Scratch Email Newsletter #6
I don’t mean to brag, but tThis is the third year in a row I haven’t gotten sick—not the flu or anything else. This is even with living in a small house with a wife and two kids who all got sick, and with a 9-5 type of sit-down desk job. There was a time … Time To Brag About Not Getting Sick Again
Here’s a neat bit of imagery I noticed at the end of the Halo: Reach game. Some backstory (and spoilers, obviously): your player-character arrives on the scene in the beginning of Reach, on the planet Reach, as the replacement for the Spartan’s recently-KIA sixth member. Hence, your player’s name is Noble Six. The end of … Imagery in Halo: Reach
Short answer: no. Longer answer: watch video. Guest speaker’s at my church last Sunday, Austin Hohn. Jesus is God from Discovery Christian Church on Vimeo. To be clear, I think you can get some vague idea of what Jesus’ divinity was because, as the famous phrase goes, “words mean things.” I think Chalcedon is about … Can You Understand Jesus’ Divinity Via Enlightenment Reasoning?
Nothing fancy-pants this time around–just another email with some quote images. I don’t even have a quote under the email title! But there is some actual news to share: there will soon be a first-draft chapter of Pale Blue Scratch available online soon. It’s called “The Flights at Bridge Zero,” and yes, the chapters have … Images. And Words. Part 2 – Pale Blue Scratch Email Newsletter #5
I posted about Bertrand Russell’s teapot argument a while back, but it’s been resurrected to my attention recently by some random blog post I read that voiced support of his argument in passing. In reading the post (it was more of a quasi-academic article than something linkable, and I have no idea where I came … Update: Russell’s Cosmic Teapot Argument is Still Bad
“The role of the artist is to not look away.” -Akira Kurosawa I first saw that Kurosawa quote on Mike Duran’s blog. After I finished writing my first book which will never be released, I had searched for “swearing in Christian fiction” and Mike’s blog was one of the first results returned. The quote is … Images. And Words – Pale Blue Scratch Email Newsletter #4
When there’s as decent amount of accumulation of snow or ice, especially on the street, and it rains, parts of the snow or ice on the ground melt and some doesn’t. It depends on the thickness of the snow/ice, how dirty it is, the grade of the hill it’s on, the type of ground it’s … A Possible Metaphor
Just Thomism talks about the Kalām Cosmological Argument, one that I’ve been iffy on: If the universe were ten minutes old, it would make sense to say it was not around 11 minutes ago, but this doesn’t mean there is a physical meaning to “eleven minutes”, and without this physical meaning it makes no sense … Criticism of the Kalām Cosmological Argument
Not a huge post, but a break from all this blubbering about the book is nice. Aldous Huxley. I’ve posted this one before but they were of lower quality: Cristina Fernandez: Fran Lebowitz: H.L. Menken: Ian Fleming: John Maynard Keynes: Kurt Vonnegut: Murray Rothbard: Road Dahl: Stephen King. That’s Drew Barrymore with the match: William … Photos of Smoking Writers – Back from the Dead
“Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.” -Henry Ward Beecher Even though Pale Blue Scratch will be a self-published book, I won’t be skimping on cover art. My friend Marcia Furman will be depicting one of the devices in a watercolor sketch for book cover. … Of Art and Light – Pale Blue Scratch Email Newsletter #3
The Ghost Box is Mike Duran’s third full novel, about Reagan Moon, a journalist of the paranormal who gets caught up, to put it mildly, in some otherwordly happenings in SoCal. I don’t dabble too much in modern science fiction or paranormal (see below), so I can only really competently comment on Moon’s first person … Book Review: The Ghost Box
I normally pay no attention to legislative news because, as Michael Corleone said, politics and crime are the same thing. Inordinately fixating on the schemes of social deviants does not reside in the realm of the sane. But since the issue of net neutrality has some personal impact as a software engineer, I have some … Net Neutrality is a Bad Idea
“Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your art.” -Gustave Flaubert The protagonist of Pale Blue Scratch, Elisabeth, is known by her colleagues to be a bit of a impulsive decision-maker. This trait is somewhat at odds with her vocation as a professor, journalist, and member … The Daily Routines of Famous Creative People – Pale Blue Scratch Email Newsletter #2
Here’s the official back cover copy for Pale Blue Scratch, which got sent out to those of you on the email list last Monday morn. It’s no Amish Vampires In Space, but what is? “I would disassemble this body and cast it onto the coronal burn of the sun if it means I get answers.” … Pale Blue Scratch Email #1 – Back Cover Copy
There’s a sticky post at the top of the site (or go here) where you can sign up for the email list for my new book, Pale Blue Scratch. It’s currently being drafted but will soon be advancing to the later, less unattractive stages. Most of what I send out on the list will be … Feign Interest in My Writing and Sign Up For My New Book’s Email List
There are honest movie trailers and then there are honest movie posters. Here’s my honest movie poster for Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away. Now get me some bath tokens! Edit: The “bath house is a brothel” theory is contentious. It’s irrelevant to the story at large; just a point of interest. Edit II: This poster is … Honest Movie Poster: Spirited Away
If you’re my friend on Facebook you’ve seen me briefly whine about Scarlett Johansson’s role in the Americanized, live-action version of Ghost in the Shell (GitS). As I’ve said on there, I don’t care much about race qua race in most contexts, but within the GitS fictional world it matters a lot. Since both movies, … Scarlett Johansson’s Race and Ghost in the Shell
I don’t write about music on here often even though I have a large background in it. There is something I wanted to note in the ceremonial passing of 2014 into 2015. Our yearly New Year’s Eve tradition is to blast the Wii with the new release of Just Dance. This past New Year’s was … Katy Perry’s “Dark Horse” is a Weird Song
A few months ago I read an excerpt of Wright’s Awake in the Nightland and it delivered the creep factor of Kubrick’s 2001 with a hint of Lovecraft’s pantheon in its first pages. I don’t know much about Wright but as an ex-atheist, current Christian, he expresses irritation with spiritually didactic literature in a Castalia … John C. Wright Doesn’t Like Preachy Novels
I posted these questions on Facebook and didn’t receive much response, though I should’ve known that site isn’t the greatest medium (*rimshot*) to field science questions that aren’t in meme format. I came across the article linked below while doing book research, and it’s actually an excerpt from a book called Transcending The Speed Of … Is There an Ether or Isn’t There?
Progress on Retardo Montalbán is going well. I should have a editable draft finished very soon. I don’t like being silent here for too long but I also despise meaningless posts, so here’s some things to mitigate that. You are currently viewing WordPress’ 2015 default theme with very little modifications on my part. I have … I Still Live
Yes, it’s fine, in this modern day, if you want to emphasize the St. Nicholas version of Santa Claus. It’s also a fine thing if you want to play up the Sunblom version of Santa Claus as well. I don’t find rejecting either one as particularly bad, but what I object to is rejection of … The Christian Case for Santa Claus
Taking a quick break from Retardo Montalbán to mention this. Science-lite articles using “science says” verbiage are bothersome reification fallacies, since science doesn’t “say” anything; people do. On the other hand there’s a different kind of fallacious appeal smuggled through, since using “science says” doesn’t exactly invite criticism of whatever “it,” as an object, says. … There’s No Arguing With Disembodied Concepts Labeled “Science”
I’m already sort of breaking my “no more posts until the book is done” rule already, but this was too delicious to pass up: “The Case for Idolatry: Why Evangelical Christians Can Worship Idols”. Secondly, and even more significantly, we need to read the whole Bible with reference to the approach of Jesus. To be … Coming Out of the Idolization Closet
Not that I am particularly prolific on here, but I’m going to be taking a shortish break from posting while I finish up the first few drafts of Retardo Montalbán. There will be more drafts while Jill does her editing thing but that writing won’t be as rigorous or demanding…unless the bean bang completely misses … Taking A Short Break
You can buy it on Amazon. Here’s a list of things you can do with the paperback that you can’t do with the electronic version: Read 17 more stories Hold it Throw it Hide it from your babysitter Hide it from any babysitter Steal it* Steal it from Kevin Bacon** Bite it Do nothing with … Bored in the Breakroom Print Paperback Is Out
Good thoughts from Ed’s latest post: One of the biggest problems I run into is this knee-jerk reaction that our cultural substrate is the human default. It seems nobody wants to understand that what we have today is an anomaly, an intellectual tradition more radically different from all others than any of the rest are … Salvaging Some Knowledge
EDIT for all the people finding this post: I didn’t write the quoted text myself. It’s found at the page linked below, on the 16personalities.com site. I specifically picked the negative section because lots of personality quizzes give glowing praise as results, and the 16personalities site is one of the only ones I found that … Myers-Briggs Test Results: INTJ – The Conceited, Nit-Picking Sociopath
I received an email asking to promote the results of a poll, as seen in this post from the Daily Beast. Even though I’m actually doing what was requested by linking to it in this post, I responded to the email and declined because I’m not into charities I’m not personally involved with, and because … A Stupid Poll About Writing
I am currently on the first draft stage of Retardo Montalbán, and I have onboarded Jill Domschot as the semi-formal editor of the project. We have a verbal agreement for services and payment, where I will remite payment at the end of her editing duties. So this public post carries with it the accountability factor—mostly … An Update on the Works In Progress
When you see a beautiful chalice, it has a double beauty. If it’s well made, it has beauty for what it is. But if you know what it is, it also has beauty because you know what it’s meant to be filled with. The present world is like a chalice. God has made it as … N.T. Wright on Christian Art
Once in a while, Relevant Magazine will post something not so completely drenched in Millenial Christian cheese sauce that it’s worth noting. Via Wintery Knight, “What If Having an Extraordinary Life Isn’t the Point?“: Some have grown tired of the constant calls to radical change. They are less sure they want to jump on the … Living In Taupeville
Jill’s post about the simpy interpretation of this survey of the hierarchy of values among religious people gave me agita—not anything Jill said but the fact that a self-styled smartypants can’t process the inapplication of the simplicity of surveys*. This is a roundabout way of saying people and their belief systems are too complex for … The Paradox of Obedience
Spurred to action by squinty eye strain and this thread about Google Drive not having a dark theme like Gmail does, I tinkered with the CSS on the Typo theme I use here to make it mostly dark with a not-quite-white text, bucking the design trend of Apple and every website in existence that relies … Dark Is the New Black
At the Altar Bar in Pittsburgh – September 22, 2014.
From My Inventions (free pdf here): I was about twelve years old when I first succeeded in banishing an image from my vision by willful effort, but I never had any control over the flashes of light to which I have referred. They were, perhaps, my strangest experience and inexplicable. They usually occurred when I … Nikola Tesla Was A Weird Guy
If you would permit me a wholly web development-related post, I recently finished a translate jQuery script for my friends’ charity site, Mission to El Salvador. Technically, the script doesn’t translate the English to Spanish, but it replaces the English text and (sometimes) HTML markup. I was forced to do it this way because WordPress … Using jQuery To Translate Websites
One additional thought related to this post. The idea of universal suffrage as an absolute is a strange one if you are one to consider the state as a morally legitimate entity. I, for one, do not believe it is, so this argument is moot but I’m arguing this on a statist’s logical terms. If … Addendum to “Universal Sufferage” Post
I was tagged by Jill Domschot, who wrote Anna and the Dragon (read my review here), to write a post on what I’m working on. I barely talk about current book stuff so I badgered asked her to tag me when she was soliciting to be badgered asked for participants on Facebook. 1. What am … What I Am Working On
See here for the original post. To clear up any confusion, it’s important to make the distinction between gnostic and agnostic atheism. Gnostic atheists—the specific ones I addressed in the post—specifically claim knowledge of God’s non-existence. I take “knowledge” in the vaguely epistemic sense. Agnostic atheists claim a non-belief in deities but are open to … Addendum To “Correct Religion” Post
It’s a common question but there’s a lot of philosophical assumptions behind it, much like the loaded question logicians have pointed out. One has to take a step back to really address it properly. Julie Borowski, who isn’t much of a skeptic from what I can see, asked this on her personal Facebook page. I … “How Do You Know Your Religion Is the Correct One?”
I’m currently vacationing in Massachusetts, home to Elizabeth Warren and her corporo-fascism. A new Cheerios commercial portrays a competent dad. Interesting for its novelty but especially attention-starved social justice warriors are going to Tumblr the new paradigm. The Folly of Scientism – “Advocates of scientism today claim the sole mantle of rationality, frequently equating science … Links of Possible Relevance, Part 8
Vox Day posted recently about female suffrage. Talking about “their votes are equally incompatible with the long-term national interest as the other classes of current non-voters”: This can be done using a variety of metrics, including what Shelles describes as another possibility to the only way. Just to give one example, if the reason children … Suffer(age) the Little Children
While reading The Not So Wild, Wild West: Property Rights on the Frontier, I came across one of the earliest forms of stupidheadedness in the American government, concerning property: On March 3, 1889, [President] Harrison announced the government would open the 1.9 million-acre tract of Indian Territory for settlement precisely at noon on April 22. … The Cockamamie Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889
I made good use of the “Listen To Metal” stickers I helped Seth with. This was placed next to a map of the Pittsburgh subway system. When I checked last it was taken down. I have no idea what the pink smudge on it is: On a Pittsburgh Steelers promotional poster: On a pillar on … Photos: Listen to Metal Stickers
I made a silly video of a polar bear “dancing” to a Meshuggah song. Ed links to an interesting article about the HTML5 canvas tag and a possible use/misuse to track client-side activity. We something of an ongoing discussion on how to resolve it (somewhat) with user-defined javascripting. Germany government might revert to typewriters for … Links of Possible Relevance, Part 7
From the Examiner: Have you ever heard the claim “all smart people are atheists”, or maybe its inverse: “people who believe in God are dumb”? It’s quite a pervasive urban legend, and one which I’ve known is false for a long time, but I didn’t realize just how false until the other day. I recently … 8 Out of the 10 Highest IQ People on Earth are Theists
“Nice” people might be immoral. Also, any casual observer of human nature already knew this. No need for a study. [HT: Jill] The cupcake bust. Easy credit = bubbles. As if this never happened over and over again in the past. How families lose a lot of money in a few generations. Your band does … Links of Possible Relevance, Part 6
Internet friend Tim O’Neill commented on a HuffPo article on Hypatia. You can guess the tone of the story if you look at the title (“The First Female Astronomer“) and if you know how buzzy the leftoid beehive HuffPo is. Sayeth O’Neill: “Synesius of Cyrene …. asks for her advice on the design of scientific … Utterly Shocking: Recent Article on Hypatia Gets It Wrong
It occurred to me recently that I still haven’t gotten sick since will before the past winter. See here for my “hacks,” though recently my vitamin intake has been sporadic. This isn’t really a Link of Possible Relevance proper, but more just unmitigated bragging. Hobby Lobby blah blah. It was an okay decision but arguments … Links of Possible Relevance, Part 5
If Seth activated comments on his blog, I might write something like this on a recent post of his. Instead: I think it’s helpful to recognize and factor in for scale. Some software dev firms are too small to really have a “human touch” to be of value (I personally don’t think any company would … Words Mean Things
Archie comics now has an openly gay character. Soon to come: the first character openly not caring about who other people doink. The economics of WALL-E. The site of Aristotle’s Lyceum is open to the public. I like grass-fed butter, and I like coffee, so… Math metal, lit’rally. Yet another “man up” post for Father’s … Links of Possible Relevance, Part 4
Wintery Knight comments on the story about Tim Lambesis coming out as a scam artist in Christian metal. This is why my heroes in the faith are not athletes and artists. It’s possible for athletes and artists to be as solid in their faith as a J. Warner Wallace or a Tim McGrew, but scoring … Knowing A Lot of Stuff Doesn’t Make A Christian
Michael Bay might direct the live action version of Neon Genesis Evangelion. There’s no supporting links on that page so I’m doubtful. Also, if it actually happens I will curse Bay’s name with my last breath. Why a boom in skyscraper constructions is a sign of economic downturn. This video will make a man out … Links of Possible Relevance, Part 3
I have a story idea that’s been germinating for some time*. The element of the two main protagonists I want to share is a rather common one: one of them has the “special powers” and the other acts as the “guide” and liaison for interactions with the normal world. As it is now, the “powered” … Invert Your Characters
The quintessential Enlightenment-nonsense song gets the comic treatment. A List Apart, instead of being a resource for UI/UX industry thought and trend, will soon be a platform for constant social-political hand-wringing, finger-wagging and other such compound-word descriptors. Such is the chosen way of all tech sub-industries, it seems. If you’re a man, you need to … Links of Possible Relevance, Part 2
The final few episodes of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars series concerned the framing of Ashoka Tano in the bombing of the Jedi temple, and subsequent related crimes. It was one of the better story arcs of the series but the writers left didn’t include a crucial piece of logic that would make the … Ahsoka Tano: A Near Perfect Tragic Story
Taking cold showers may be a good idea. Looking at net neutrality through the libertarian lens: “They are against regulation of the Internet, so they support ceding power to the government to…decide how and whether the Internet should be regulated.” Stefan Molyneux’s new, free ebook about atheism and agnosticism is out. His arguments about the … Links of Possible Relevance, Part 1
The short of it: luthier (that’s a “guitar maker,” for you public school kids) Vik Kuletski got slammed as a homophobe because he didn’t care about Cynic’s Sean Reinert and Paul Masvidal’s sexual preferences, and said he personally disapproved of it but ultimately didn’t care. Reinert’s and Masvidal’s preferences were of the gayish kind and … Vik Kuletski Expresses Disinterest In Metal Dudes’ Sexual Orientation, Gets Labelled A Hate-Filled Hatey Homophobe. Hate.
Anna and the Dragon is Jill Domschot‘s debut speculative fiction novel, an impressive dive into the “soft” supernatural realm. The titular Anna is a computer engineer with mild character quirks who falls for an errant academic with a heart condition and a fixation on dragonry. Though the title and book cover suggest something of a … Book Review: Anna and the Dragon
Interesting fact about the Shakers. Enforcing celibacy in mixed communities would seem to be an impossible task, but the Shakers set up a strict hierarchy of Elders and Eldresses and deacons and deaconesses to enforce the sexual prohibition. Shakers who spent time outside the community were interrogated upon their return. Outside visitors were held to … The Shakers and Abstinence
A group of satanists will go ahead with plans to erect a statue dedicated to the devil outside the Oklahoma statehouse, despite the building permit being suspended in a row over religious freedom. New York-based Satanic Temple members said they would press on with plans for their 7ft bronze and stone sculpture of Baphomet (Satan … The Saga of the Baphomet Statue Continues
Well, not really Mickey Mouse or Disney, but Lucasfilms: As of now, the official Star Wars canon consists of the six existing movies and the recent Clone Wars TV series. “These stories are the immovable objects of Star Wars history, the characters and events to which all other tales must align,” explained the announcement on … Mickey Mouse Has Force-Choked the Star Wars Expanded Universe
Chad Whitacre at Gittip posted about Julie Ann Horvath’s departure from GitHub*, and he invokes, with all the richness of proper proggy vocabulary, the secularized original sin so beloved by wealthy, white, leftoid man-dorks: Speaking personally as someone who ticks all the standard boxes of privilege (straight white male, etc.), knowing that my conversations and … Gittip On Horvath
My pastor’s sermon on Easter introduced a nice bit of new information concerning Jesus’ claims of divinity. He did make other, more verbal claims to Godhood but this one is more powerful if you understand the context. During the Last Supper, the seder meal* that He shared with His disciples: While they were eating, Jesus … Jesus and the Afikomen Bread
Enjoy! Embodyment – Golgotha Crucifixion up on the cross Dying for sins fulfilling prophecy Beaten for his faith Praying for enemies upon sacrifice Forsaken in the eyes of God Sins of man to Him were taken Innocent and blameless Death without purity Place of the skull Golgotha Death of the Son Descend into misery His … Happy Good Friday and Easter
Again from The World’s Last Night, Lewis, in a roundabout way, addresses the “all the jobs, everywhere, all the time, for everyone, forever” angle heard during election season nationwide. Such would seem to be the inevitable result of a society which depends predominantly on buying and selling. In a rational world, things would be made … C.S. Lewis On Full Employment Fetishism
Years ago, during the Myspace era, there was a study done on the empirical effects of prayer on sick people. The results showed that prayer made no difference in the health of the patient*. I thought the experiment silly since, as God is a person who decides things (not quite like humans do, but I … C.S. Lewis On Scientific Experiments On Prayer
Some blunt thoughts from Christopher Cantwell’s post, “Top 10 Reasons Libertarians Aren’t Nice To You” (emphasis his): 6. All those “what ifs” you’re so concerned about, they’re called choices. …. You have become so used to the State being the arbiter of all things, that you seem to panic at every uncertainty. The funny part … Governments Are Leprosy, Speeding Drivers Are Acne
I was debating doing a post on this in the past, but it popped up on theChristian Libertarians group on Facebook: how does the God-commanded genocide of the Canaanites in Joshua 6:20-21 square if you’re a libertarian and Christian? The first commenter offered a good start with 5 options: 1. They deserved it. The Canaanites … Justification for Divinely-Directed Genocide
I’m posting this video because I’ve just finished a playthrough of this game. I had played it on the original SNES system twenty years ago and could “sense” how good of a game it was. Since it was pre-Internet days I was pretty much he only person I knew who really got into RPGs. It … Final Fantasy 6 Final Battle and Ending
I’ve had the problem with my 2007 Macbook described here in the video, to the point where the screen didn’t light up at all. The customer service guy at the Apple store said I probably needed a new LCD lamp when in fact it’s just the inverter cable. The stores don’t carry the parts for … How To Fix A Macbook Inverter Cable, Sort Of
The first search result for “why do borrowers pay pmi” on DuckDuckGo (fifth on Google) is this helpful page, which explains in as basic English as possible, why borrowers pay personal mortgage insurance and not the lender. The reason I searched for this is because 1) I have a mortgage, 2) I pay for PMI, … Why Borrowers Pay Mortgage Insurance
From an old old article in The Atlantic: “The Undertaker’s Racket“: Cemetery salesmen are also prone to confuse fact with fiction to their own advantage in discussing the law. Cemeteries derive a substantial income from the sale of vaults. The vault, a cement enclosure for the casket, is not only a money-maker; it facilitates upkeep … Funerals in America are Expensive and Weird
I don’t know much about Cody but I found him engaging, though I didn’t listen to any of the other parts of his presentation yet. Take note of the social contract as the “big other” theory he brings up. It’s a tool of what C.S. Lewis called “moral busybodies“—bureaucrats, activists, and other state-as-religion believers use … Invasion of the Moral Busybodies
Watch from 11:27 – 15:26. My takeaway is that 1) Enlightenment philosophical ideals aren’t as great as we dress them up to be, and 2) an abstraction (in this case, the state) with people as its primary engine cannot be trusted with the exclusive use of force. Bear in mind that Molyneux is very much … American Government is a Failed Enlightenment Experiment
As promised in a post almost a month ago, I’m happy to report back that I’ve remained flu-free. There were a few days, a few weekends ago, where I thought I was coming down with a bug, but nothing came of it. Sorry, Virus Men. Go pound sand and come back next year.
This is the level of political campaigning and discourse in Pennsylvania: video selfies, genuine or faux (probably the latter). Not that I care much since modern politics is really just like two guys with different tribal banners telling each other they are terrible people. And they’re both right but for the wrong reasons. It is … Katie McGinty’s Video Selfie
Yeah, you can depict things how you like in books or film, particularly animated ones, but the main motivation behind Millennium Actress illustrates a realistic bit of attraction psychology. Chiyoko spends her entire life chasing down a man with whom she spent only about a half a day, whose face she never fully saw, because … Millennium Actress – Full Movie
A few nights ago I Skyped with a good friend of many years who is struggling with severe under- and non-employment. He doesn’t have a steady job but does odd, mostly web-based projects that come along. I’ve been in that dodge, too, earlier in life. Sometimes it springs out of mistakes you’ve made in the … Waiting It Out
I decided to take out the jQuery I mentioned in my last design post and just the plain Okay theme with a few small UI changes in an external CSS file. I installed a plugin that will automatically add the Creative Commons footer to every blog post. I noticed that plenty of colophons on personal … Unnecessary Blog Design Update
I was going to do an original post on this but Wintery Knight did it sooner and better. Quoting J.W. Wartick: The depiction of the multiverse with little-to-no qualification was alarming, for there is much debate over whether there even is such a multiverse, and if there is, to what extent it may be called … Utterly Shocking: First Episode of Cosmos Reboot Contains Unscientific Propositions
I’m a softie for album art explanations; I’ve posts in the hundreds combined on Buzzgrinder and Noisecreep, et al., on album art design and the stories behind them. Former colleague and radio guy (radio-bro? bro-adio? brodio?) Sean Cannon interviewed Damien Jurado for his radio show, and Damien mentioned the cover of Brothers and Sisters of … The Story Behind Damien Jurado’s Brothers and Sisters of the Eternal Son Album Cover
Well, from what I can cobble together from scattered information online (here’s a good post on it), the word for “to be” or “am” in Japanese is “desu.” Sometimes it is shortened as “des” or “dess.” There is no “th” sound in Japanese, so an “s” sound is used as a substitute when porting loan … The Japanese Word for To Be/Death is Awesone
Political campaign commercials are the worst expression of modern media technology. Wolfy here is playing bigshot by wanting to make gas companies “pay up” by taxing them for drilling in PA, and he’s going to use the revenue to help pay for schools. There’s no such thing as taxing a corporation, because the corporation always … Surprise! A Politician Thinks You’re Stupid
Theatrical wordplay rides the sweep of socialized assumptions but it eventually crashes. I disagree with you not because what you propose is unfashionable (it’s actually very fashionable) or not an ideal (it’s very idyllic), but because it’s a certain non-possibility—not in the theoretical realm, not through a “given set of circumstances,” but literally, existentially, by … Give and Take
Some more advice for bands from Seth: What happens when Facebook determines your tour announcement is not high-quality content? Or that your line of products that you’ll be selling at this weekends market isn’t high-quality content? … Get your fans, the people who LIKED you, onto an email list. Now. Tell your fans on Facebook … Bands Need to Buy a Domain Name
Reading things like this lead me to believe politicians inhabit a completely different universe. Not just a different moral universe, but a literal inverted realm in every way except physically. Hat tip goes to Ed Hurst for this. Emphasis mine: The circumstances of McGovern’s 2011 arrest were marked by stinging irony. McGovern was brutalized and … Freedom Means Dragging and Beating You
I know flu season isn’t over yet, but I still haven’t gotten sick yet, even with two kids who came down with something. Who knows if what I’ve been doing is affecting anything, but here’s a few things that may be contributing to my success. 1. No flu shot! I’m not an anti-vaccine guy but … How I Avoided the Flu This Year