A few years back I equated the Republican Party with a breed of dinosaur going extinct, but that doesn't quite know it yet. These old, rich, white fat cats sitting around counting their money and smoking their cigars might have tried their hardest to maintain their conservative empire, but progressive thought can only be held at bay for so long. This doesn't mean that intelligence or altruism is winning by any means, but ...
The Kindle Fire: is it the greatest invention since the crock pot, or is it more like 3D usage at the movie theater? Of course, that all depends on who you ask, and even then, most of those people get it wrong.
Kindle Fire reviews usually fall into one of two categories: 1.) technology critique, 2.) iPad fanboys bitching about how it's not more like an iPad. Unfortunately for the consumer public, most reviews ...
I have been in awe the last several days over the rise in popularity of GOP presidential contender and current Congresswoman Michele Bachmann. Bachmann, although admirable for her work as a foster parent, has done little during her time as a Congresswoman to show that she is capable of doing much more than push her own image and a few ultra-conservative ideas. She certainly hasn't turned around economies like both Mitt Romney and Jon ...
Although a nice overview of the history of psychology, Morton Hunt's Story of Psychology isn't objective or serious enough to be considered a seminal work in the social science. To his credit, however, he does attempt to take an increasingly drab subject matter and bring it into the context of modern humanistic literature. As a result, what you end up with is a tweener book: not serious (or accurate) enough for the psychological ...
I took down the interviews that I had post here. As many of you know, they weren't written for this web site originally anyway. Some of the first interviews that I had written were actually for the old Mad Ghoul web site, which I maintained as an investigation into the paranormal. Later when I helped form the online counterculture magazine Key 23 (which later morphed into Key 64), I imported all of the interviews ...
You had to know that this was coming. I haven't exactly been burning up the radio waves with consistent podcasting material. Really, I gave up a while ago and just wouldn't let go. Today, I officially removed the meager attempts at two podcasting episodes after an instant messenger conversation with my good friend Bill Ahern. Bill has been a podcast enthusiast and professional for a while now; however, over IM, he informed me ...
I go back-and-forth constantly about if I should have a blog, if I should have a separate domain for a blog, if I should just use Tumblr, etc. The main concern being that I once put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into Key23 (later Key64), and really didn't get much recognition for it. Despite being the glue holding it all together (and not to mention paying for it) and having some rock ...
As a few of you know, I've been taking some psychology courses in what little spare time I have left in each week. This spring, one of my courses is titled History and Modern Systems of Psychology. The textbook is Morton Hunt's lengthy The Story of Psychology. Since the book is available on the Amazon Kindle, I bought it and decided to get a jump on the reading. At 800+ pages, it's ...
One of my favorite blog posts deals with Meister Eckhart and the whole existence/non-existence battle between theologians, philosophers, etc. A few days ago, I received an email from someone who was presenting a similar argument to a professor at a Catholic university and was inquiring about any additional evidence/thoughts backing up Eckhart's conclusions. After a bit of back-and-forth, the last email I sent to him provided what I felt was a solid ...
As much as I love Lost and the very character-driven nature of the entire epic, I have to say that the mystery surrounding the Dharma Initiative is by far my favorite aspect of the show. I wish the show had gone into much more detail about them. Hell I'd even support a Dharma Initiative spin-off series (off-Island) about mad scientists, corporate espionage and the mysteries of the universe.
As I plan to go through all of the main plot points, mysteries, challenges, etc. in detail while re-watching the entire series, I'll only give some brief thoughts here. After all, such an epic ending to a roller-coaster show deserves some first impressions.
The Twitterverse was abuzz when 37Signals released their Rework book (complete with availability from Amazon.com, and even in the Kindle format). At first I refrained from listening to any hype; but with a quick glance at the back matter, I found myself a button click away from immediate Kindle satisfaction. Topics like "meetings are toxic" and "planning is guessing" hit pretty close to home with my previous job at Travel Tribe... so I clicked ...
When I was younger I never threw anything away. This isn't to say I was a hoarder. I threw mostly useless shit away sure. But I was a collector (as in collectibles) so I had a lot of things that were collected. Maybe it was some OCD "everything in a line" problem. I liked to have the collection, complete the collection, and think that I'd never get rid of the collection. I had ...
I became a steady collector of comic books in 1990. Before that, I had loved super-heroes, but lacking any steady place to pick up comics. It was always a few here and a few there. Over the last 20 years (with a short period of maybe 3 years when I had stopped collecting) I've amassed a huge collection of comic books. The problem is, I'm no longer a collector. I still love reading ...
A lot of people think Lost jumped the shark last season when they began to incorporate time travel into their episodes. On the other hand, there are others that believe it jumped the shark way back in season three when Jack, Kate and Sawyer spent way too much time in the Others' village doing not much of anything. Although I won't point to a particular moment that I feel entails "jumping the shark," I ...
Let me start this review by praising John Major Jenkins for his intense scholarship and dedication to the Mesoamerican culture. If there's one person who should be consulted in any effort to understand or speculate on the various cultures of Central and South America, it is he. Jenkins' opinion is highly thought out, scientifically tested and comes with a solid passion for the material. In many ways, he is more qualified than those scholars ...
The absolute best part of Jonathan Wells' Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design is the quote on the front cover from Ann Coulter: "Annoy and godless liberal; buy this book!" Coulter is the Howard Stern of political conservatism. I probably disagree with about 90-95% of what she says, but she's always fun to listen to in a train wreck sort of way.
As a disclaimer, this book was selected for the Conservative ...
Everybody loves a good apocalypse meme. That's why the 2012 one is so popular right now. The millennium came and went without even a harrowing Y2K glitch, so we have to hitch our self-destruction and self-loathing onto another upcoming event. 2012 just happens to be that event.
A while back I finished reading Daniel Pinchbeck's 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl. Though I have mixed feeling about the book, the cultural examination was fascinating ...
DRM is gay. And not gay in the homosexual way - though it may be that too. No. Gay in the gay way. In fact, DRM is whatever term gay people use to say something's gay. It's that ridiculously stupid.
Yesterday I started up my Zune software to listen to some tunes. I was in the mood for something a little on the New Age electronica side. Enigma. Deep Forest. Delerium. Bands like that ...
There are some companies out there that run their business on vengeance - plain and simple. These are the companies that you just do not want to do business with - or even work for. It's nice to want to "crush" the competition, or make comments about putting the other company out of business, or perhaps running them over with the "bus," but the truth is, these comments are really just ego masturbation meant to make ...
I was going to write about something else today, but seeing as I've been slacking when it comes to watching Fringe, I was lacking of a review (I should get that up tomorrow). Since the past two days have been posts of fiction that I've written, and today is friday, I thought it'd be nice to throw out a little "Friday Fiction."
Friday Fiction was something that my old Internet colleague Klint ...
It would be an engaging predicament had this all been popcorn movie fare. The audience would be leaning forward right about now with suspenseful anticipation, waiting for the miraculous moment of triumph in the midst of an emotional clash. Unfortunately there's no camera lighting or any director's clapboard to ease my own tension as my mind slowly awakens wondering in which poor soul's tome I am buried. I can taste the wretched ...
I stood there, arms, legs, and chest bleeding incessantly from the callous grip and vengeful tearing of wild thorn bushes and razor blade leaves, wishing things had turned out differently, wishing that the wounds of the hsin healed as quickly as the wounds of the flesh; even if scars are left in their wake.
I wadded in three feet deep swamp; mud, muck, and sludge forming a prison of fluidity, jailing me for sins of ...
This year was going to be a special year. Halloween is my favorite time of year. It's my favorite holiday. Being an occultist and a horror movie fan, you tend to enjoy the freakish nature of the holiday. More than that though, Halloween is in the Fall (or Autumn if you will), which is my favorite season. There's something about the Fall that's special - a preparedness, a fun-loving, adventurous time as the ...
As many of you already know, I recently switched jobs, while moving out to the country just outside of Harrisonburg, Virginia. It was actually very bittersweet for me, and required a lot of soul-searching and second-guessing.
As a bit of a Cliff's Notes background, back in 2004 I left the consulting company I was working for (Series-I Support Services, Inc.) to pursue a little bit less of a consulting arrangement. I went to work ...