Essays Seven Days in the Desert Dear Burner tell me now before the memories fade into the dust from whence we came, among the wing-tipped goggles and frilly pink tutus and rhinestone anklets, the suntan lotion stratified on bare chests and the chewy nozzles protruding hydration from camping daypacks, the multicolor bandanas and the feathered hats,
Books My Bible This post's publication marks the terminus of my reading the Bible, one of my goals this year and, I suppose, this life[1]. Now, it should be obvious that reading the Bible, or anything else, is a decision, but this is worth calling out because the general person
Humor Yayoi Kusama and the Mirror of Nature Many consider Don Quixote, published in 1605, the first modern novel. If you're the sort of reader who prefers not having things spoiled for you and you haven't read Don Quixote yet, that's okay, there's a 99% chance you're going
Philosophy A Question of Taste I, in full disclosure, towards the purpose of your esteeming me a personage of transparency and honesty, considered titling this thing Principia Aesthetica*, but decided, in the end, wisely, that such a feat would have been too pretentious—even for me*. A POEM Once upon a midnight dreary walked down
Philosophy The Annals of Power SURGEON GENERAL'S WARNING: Heterodox views. Reading may result in massive cognitive dissonance. I. The date is November 29, 2016. Fresh off his election victory, Donald J. Trump sits down with Mitt Romney to have dinner and talk, undoubtedly, politics. A gaggle of journalists is invited to swarm the
Lucy in the Sky Epistemic status: Speculative. While my use of certain scientific terms is bound to be inaccurate, I ask the informed reader to make her best approximation of the intent behind my usage of a particular term (versus a different term that would be unequivocally wrong). A river of dark red liquid
Philosophy Impossible and "Impossible" In English class they teach you to hook the reader with your first sentence and end with a mic drop. Which I do in most of my posts. I think. But I'm afraid this one begins by establishing a precise philosophical ontology (read: boring) that is self-referential within
Philosophy The Nature of Fiction Take a look at this image. If it looks like some random jumble of black and white, then you, my friend, are living in a very special world right now. A world of purity. A world of innocence. A world which I am about to shatter, once and forever. if
Humor Seattle Fried Chicken Review After our last post of Serious Pedantry, it's time to up the game with some Serious Pedantry. That is to say, fried chicken. Nothing can be more serious than fried chicken. When we are born into this world, no matter what culture or era, our genetic heritage predisposes
Philosophy On Self-Definition Who am I? This is the question you more-or-less consciously ask yourself in moments of depersonalization, alienation, or mere whimsical introspection. On this angle my current answer, take it for what it is, is: there is no you. Am I? No. More practically, it's the question you'
Essays Hawaii Psychiatrist Norman Doidge wrote a book about neuroplasticity which I read back in college. It advances the thesis that the brain is not a fixed phrenological entity, but is able to reorganize itself when exposed to different stimuli. For example, if you get in a car accident and lose motor
Hiatus From Wiktionary: Hiatus From Latin hiātus (“opening”) (mid-16th century), from hiō (“stand open, yawn”). (plural hiatus or hiatuses) Noun 1. A gap in a series, making it incomplete. 2. An interruption, break or pause. 3. An unexpected break from work. From the King James Bible, Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 To every
Essays Fear I'm sitting here on my bed, typing on my laptop keyboard. Two years, one month, two weeks, and thirty hours ago, I was standing on top of a cliff. I. "Turn off your lights," said Rossano. "This might be the only time in your life
Philosophy Exclusivity About a month ago, I visited my friend Cora* in San Francisco whom I hadn't seen since the old college days. This naturally involved deciding where to eat. Because she prefers serendipitously wandering around and happenchancing on places when she gets hungry and I prefer planning things out,
Philosophy Your Resting Place "There was a point at which I decided, completely decided, that I would stay here in the Napa Valley. Once I committed to living in and cooking from this place it was almost like entering into the service of a bigger ideal. It was at this point that I
Humor Chocolate Did you know craft chocolate is a thing? It has been for a few years now (...) and it's slowly, rightfully growing. The goal of the movement is to promote chocolate as an artisanal food product worthy of connoisseurship - much like wine, beer, coffee, cheese, olive oil, any
Essays A meal at Benu Food is identity, it's the most revealing thing about you, about a culture, where you come from, how you live, what's important to you... they go hand in hand. -Corey Lee, Chef About a month ago, I watched The Search for General Tso, a documentary tracing
Philosophy Dialogue with a Roman Emperor Prologue If you had the chance to sit down and have a chat with anyone in history, who would you pick? I thought Marcus Aurelius, the ancient Roman Emperor and philosopher king, would be the perfect choice. Luckily for me, a powerful necromancer by the name of Martin Hammond agreed
Essays Excelsior Excelsior is a word usually reserved for superheroes and giant robots who shout it before transforming into some more powerful form. Nowadays, it has a kind of cheesy connotation, but you have to admit it sounds cool. Once you look up what it means, you realize that it actually is
Food The Weight of a Human Soul An American Doctor by the name of Duncan MacDougall decided, at the very start of the 20th century, to perform a then-serious, now-hilarious experiment. He tried to prove, empirically, that souls exist. Methodology: 1. Find six tuberculosis patients on the verge of death 2. Weigh each of them on a
Essays Tinnitus Turn the sound on. Watch this video. Don't shut it off after ten seconds, watch it for the whole thirty. Did you shut it off after 10 seconds? I don't blame you. I mean, it's really annoying. Hell, it hardly even qualifies as a
Philosophy My Favorite Scene in All of Cinema 2017 update: It is no longer. But maybe you can figure out why it was? This is the scene, taken from Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises. If you haven't seen the movie, I suggest watching it first - great flick. Spoilers ahead. Losing everything Do
Food Austin Barbecue Anthology (ABA) I write this paragraph laying flat on a bed in my first Airbnb ever. That's not as relevant as the fact that I'm in Austin right now, and y'all know what that means. Barbecue. Barbecue is essentially slow-cooked smoked meat. That's it!
Essays Alinea and Me ¶. Wikipedia tells me that this is the alinea, Latin for "off the line" (a lineā), most commonly known as the symbol indicating the beginning of a new paragraph. The last time I encountered this alinea was in grade school - English teachers would pen it in red ink
Philosophy Language and Culture - a Metal Gear Solid V Commentary Metal Gear Solid is a legendary story-rich video game series best described as 90% realism and 10% fantasy - on one hand set in battlegrounds like Russia and Afghanistan with shadowy government agencies manipulating double-crossing spies, on the other featuring cyborg ninjas, telekinetic psychopaths, and a reanimated corpse riding a
