Of all the grown-up things I have to do, I think my least favorite is taking down the Christmas tree in the beginning of January. There are two main reasons for this. The first is obvious, it is the absolute, no kidding, real end of the holiday season. The second is the stress. I know…
A few days ago, Qasem Soleimani was killed in a U.S. drone strike. That’s probably not a shock. It’s all over the news. On the surface, it almost looks like the news is being competent in their coverage. We know who, Qasem Soleimani. We know what, was killed. We know when, January 3, 2020. We…
People have known for a long time that time is relative. It’s where sayings like, “Time flies when you’re having fun,” come from. Twice a day, time slows to a crawl. It stretches interminably out so that you can experience all the agony of three lifetimes in just two minutes. I’m talking, of course, about…
Philosophy Phridays is a series where each Friday, I go to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, click on “random entry,” and then write about whatever comes up. This week’s random entry is the Repugnant Conclusion. Today’s topic is from the realm of population ethics. Population ethics poses questions such as, “Should we procreate?” “Is there…
I’m facing something of a dilemma. 2020 is looking to be an eventful year what with the presidential election and one third of the senate up for grabs and the entire house of representatives. Australia is on fire. The climate crisis is worsening. And then there’s all the regular everyday things that will continue to…
Going into The Rise of Skywalker, I did my best to ignore the fact that it was a Star Wars movie. Episodes VII and VIII did so much damage to the franchise that there was no chance of episode IX being good as a Star Wars movie. I was hoping to be able to view…
I can’t believe it’s the last day of 2019. It flew by. I still haven’t gotten used to writing 2019 and I’ll have to figure out how to write 2020 starting tomorrow. Weird. I would recap the year, but it went by so quickly that it’s all a blur. I hope you had a good…
I had a dream last night. In and of itself, that’s not a big deal. According to people who study such things, we all dream every time we sleep. I almost never remember my dreams, though. It’s rare enough that I sometimes wonder if the scientists are wrong and I don’t actually dream every night….
I frequently see people who say that they value experiences over things. I’ve never really understood what they mean. I worry that I am just being defensive because I like things. The statement feels condescending, like I’m some sort of cretin for liking my things. It would be understandable if I got defensive. But I…
As the 2010’s come to a close, there are a ton of “best of” lists floating around. I’m not going to do a best of because I don’t understand how you rank things like that. But, I thought I’d share some of my favorite music from the past decade. Basically, this is music that I…
