i have a backlog of single link draft posts that i haven’t gotten around to fleshing out to a state that is publishable by my minimal standards. you would think i was busy. hah. i’m going to go ahead and post this video though because what it describes is very close to my own philosophy, […]
Why I’m A Squishy Leftie This isn’t scary socialism. This is self-protection by protecting the social contract within which we live, and just giving a damn about people. just read Harry August this summer and it was very good.
Gene Wolfe Turned Science Fiction Into High Art On April 14, 2019, at the age of 87, Gene Wolfe dies of heart disease at his house in Peoria, Illinois. The obituaries are appropriately admiring. But there’s an undertone in some of them similar to the undertone that sometimes creeps into reviews of his books. His […]
Anyone unfamiliar with the term “geek” should seek out and read William Lindsay Gresham’s now-classic 1946 novel, Nightmare Alley, for the most chillingly accurate description ever set in type. A geek is usually a wetbrain; that is, a young or old man so far gone into alcoholism that his brain has turned into prune-whip yogurt. […]
On my temple in Delphi there are two words written: Know Thyself. It’s good advice. Know yourself. You are worth knowing. Examine your life. The unexamined life is not worth living. Be aware that other people have equal significance. Give them the space to make their own choices, and let their choices count as you […]
A Review of Perl 6 The market for new programming languages, as I write this in 2017, is competitive but not impenetrable — but like a freshly minted Ph.D., no one seems to be sure of Perl 6’s market prospects, and like a just-turned-in dissertation, no one seems to know whether the fruit of many […]
I Hate New Year’s Day, Antonio Gramsci, January 1, 1916 That’s why I hate New Year’s. I want every morning to be a new year’s for me. Every day I want to reckon with myself, and every day I want to renew myself. No day set aside for rest. I choose my pauses myself, when […]
How to Read Žižek These contradictions don’t show that ideology is “irrational” — the problem is exactly the opposite, that there are too many reasons supporting their views. Žižek argues that these piled-up rationalizations demonstrate that something else is going on. Have been a Slavoj Žižek fan follower for a while. Maybe i should read […]
Scrawl–Punk Rock for Grown-Ups: A Retrospective So what does it mean to make rock music that speaks for the responsible older sibling; for the friend who cleans up after the party; for the people who won’t leave work early for the party, because they need the extra hours; for Mom? How would that sound? It […]