Category: people and relationships
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Proposition 8 isn’t just about civil rights, it’s about love and commitment
Hi there, I don’t tend to post much about politics in this blog, especially nowadays. But I have something I want to talk to you about that’s more than “just politics.” It’s about my friends. It’s about—with semi-apologies to Princess Bride—True Love. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Proposition 8, I’ll quickly fill…
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I, Robot
Hello. Good day. A little quiet?I’m feeling a little blue myself.You know, A little anxious for no particular reasonA little sad that I should feel anxious at this age.You know, a little self-conscious anxiety resulting in non-specific sadness.The state that I call blue. – spoken by the narrator (“Man In Chair”) in the awesome musical…
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Two Brazil short stories – The Galloping Vendors and the Patient Kindness of Strangers
The Galloping Vendors There had just been again weeks of violent unrest in the world, but I was quite a few countries away, together in a sprawling São Paulo street market with a colleague and our big happy-but-guarded driver. The three of us were amiably ambling amidst a big, colorful, confusing, and crowded set of…
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Free hugs and the beauty of human touch
I just learned from BLADAM member Flathead in the Netherlands that there’s a worldwide movement involving Free Hugs. I just watched a few snippets, and this just totally made my day! 😀 It also brings to mind some thoughts I shared in an early blog entry (”Non-sexual Healin’” ) […] It was then that I…
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Provincial half-wits okay, but no Goddamned atheists!
In the marvelous The Week magazine (March 2007 edition quoting a USA Today / Gallup poll), it was disclosed that 53% of Americans wouldn’t vote for an atheist for U.S. President (and, unsurprisingly but just as sadly, 43% said they wouldn’t vote for a homosexual, either). Barring a horribly worded poll question—which, I concede, isn’t…
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All "friends" aren’t created equal! (why we need better relationship marking in social networks)
I’m planning on quitting twitter. Flickr—at least as a social site—is getting frustratingly unwieldly. You know why? Because pretty much all social sites like this treat all my friends, co-workers, acquaintances, online buddies the same, and it’s a big, stupid, completely off-putting mess! Sure, these services want to reduce complexity… they know that many folks…
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Second Life — Amazing, beautiful, compelling… and not for me
What if you could build a better world, from the ground up? What if you could even start “yourself” over… You.v2 or even New You; a different hairstyle, thinner, maybe even a different race or gender? What if you could escape the hellish aspects of our world whenever and for however long you liked? Glamorous,…
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What makes a blog a community? And are such communities indeed highly fickle?
I’ve spent much of this weekend dealing with my blogfeeds. I have well over 200 (haven’t bothered to count ‘em exactly), and I’m tens of thousands of posts behind. Some feeds I’ve just had to (often regretfully) unsubscribe from, others I’ve “reset to zero” (admittedly just masking a larger problem), but—most interestingly to me—I’ve become…
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What do you do with thoughtless, clueless acquaintances?
Earlier this week, I got an e-mail from an acquaintance which basically started off… “Hey man, you know a lot about [x], right? So would you recommend…” That in itself isn’t so offensive. But when someone routinely takes and takes (advice, help, my time via his rantings, etc.) and never gives (a sincere “How are…
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Secrets to maintaining a full life and not going too crazy
I just had a very enjoyable and productive job interview, and the interviewer asked me an interesting question that I had not encountered before. He wanted to know how I manage to successfully juggle such a wide variety of disparate personal and professional tasks and responsibilities. The answer: It’s a combination of discipline, luck, support…