Election Dose

I saw John Oliver’s takedown of Donald Trump a few months ago. I thought, “heh, I once designed a game that had a Trump card. I should change it to a ‘Drumpf’ card as an election-year joke.” Then, a few…

Road Trippin’ (2016)

New road trip scheduled for July 2016. This will be my (hopefully final) cross-country move. I made a map (again). I almost want to skip visiting all of my friends in order to visit the last few states I’ve not…

Circling the Flame

This is a sort-of-sequel to this post. It is all-but-decided that I will be joining the faculty of the University of Nevada, Reno in September. This blog has been going since I was a junior in college, it’s strange to…

The Ten-Point Coffee Shop Grading Rubrik

Last time, I talked about my 10-point rubrik for public bathrooms. Now, I’d like to share my Coffee Shop Checklist. If you are thinking of starting a coffee shop, these items are essential (and listed in order of necessity). A…

Getting Your Hopes Up

I had a choice:

1. Remove all of the information about this interview out of my life, computer, and mind
2. Get my hopes up.

Remedial Life

I’ve had a strange feeling for the past few years. It’s a weird feeling of deep unease and unhappiness. It’s not depression – I know depression. It’s more like the feeling a detective in a film noir gets as they…

A Candle in the Deep, Dark Void

This is my third consecutive year of not knowing what the next year will hold. I’ve had a number of these years. In 2001, I didn’t know where I would go to college for a few months. It was panic…

Malignant True Believers

A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject. – Winston Churchill On the way back home from my 30th birthday, I sat next to a 20-year-old, talkative Christian missionary to India. Aside from chattering about…

!!!!0

I’m 30! XXX! Egads! I flew down to North Carolina to spend it with people I love. My girlfriend gave me seven days of birthday presents, my best friend made me a cake, and people rented out a beach house…

Found Art

Attn: Mr. David Bradley, First, congratulations on winning the National Championship last night in Men’s basketball. Second, because Duke has a great philosophy on basketball and you are the Director of Basketball Operations, I thought you might be interested in…

Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-nges!

Given the fact that I’m terrible at posting here – and the fact I started a half-dozen separate ventures (see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here) – I am going to treat this as the hub…

Back to creative writing

(I might have once published this in my Pixelated Novel website, before it was hacked and had to be taken down. But I added to it today and I really like it.) Traynor and Well worked at Well’s dad’s copy…

Recurrent conversation topics

If given free reign with a person of similar interests/background/sense of humor, what conversation topics would be most likely to come up? That question randomly popped into my head because Emily, a graduate student in philosophy, remarked how she always…

Apocalypse Report Card

Hunting:  1 Farming: 3 First Aid: 4 Gathering: 6 Hacking: 3 Sewing: 8 (don’t judge me!) Fishing: 5 Psychological Flexibility (read: won’t freak out): 8 Masonry: 2 Welding: 1 Hand-to-Hand Defense: 9 Weaponry: 8 Mechanics: 4 Diplomacy: 9 Fire Starting:…

Life Buddies

We have gym buddies, we have drinking buddies, and we have shopping buddies. I want a life buddy. Someone to remind me to work toward my goals and to motivate me daily. I think, ideally, best friends or life partners…

Predictions for 2045

Given that 26 years ago, Back to the Future II predicted the world of 2015 as imagined by people in the 1980s, I thought it would be a good exercise to make concise predictions about the world of 2045 as…

2015 – “Priorities”

The word of the year is “Priorities” Resolutions follow: Health – I’m becoming redundant. Let’s say… 12 pull ups in a row. Wealth – Dig my way out of at least two credit cards worth of debt. Mind – Send…