Someone’s going to be laughing. That someone will be me. Join me if you choose.
Ladies and gentlemen, I did not come here tonight to make you laugh, I came here to sell you something. What I’m going to sell you is not a slicer or a dicer, it’s not a chopper or a hopper, it’s not even the Sledge-o-Matic™! What in the hell could it possibly be? Continue Reading »
BWL is not intended to be a political or news site, but I don’t think I can keep from saying something about this. Eartha Kitt, you will be missed. We’ve lost a lot of earlier generation greats in 2008, but this one pretty much killed me. No funny on this one.
I’ve jumped back and forth between a few thoughts for what to write today, since it’s kind of a relatively important day and season in a number of religions. I figure that, while I’m posting today, I’ll be nice. Enjoy whatever holiday you have recently celebrated, are celebrating, or are soon to celebrate. Tell me about it in the comments. I want to know what sort of religious festivities my readers partake in, as well as any family traditions. Tell me everything. Even you, the one who’s been reading my crappy little site but never comments. I know who you are. I think.
The simplest answer makes no sense.
We live in an age of reason. But what exactly is reason? Is it the slavish devotion to the rules of logic, without understanding of what those rules actually entail? Increasingly, this seems to be the attitude taken by those who claim to follow in the footsteps of great minds of olden days; what I’d like to understand is how this helps anything whatsoever. There are reasons behind every maxim, proper applications thereof, and times when those same rules can be set aside (see my Electric Pixies for an example). Continue Reading »
To the friend of mine who texted me asking how I was doing and if I was going to fail again: Thank you for reminding me (without saying it) that I still at least need to post something. I’m serious; thank you.
To anyone who’s pissed at me for not updating with something “real” today, I have one thing to say to you: I just coughed out a blood clot about an inch in length and a quarter inch in diameter from the back of my sinuses. You can bloody well wait.
I’m way too sick to think, and if I get my cough medicine I’ll be too tripped out to think soon. I’m hoping I’ll have a substantive post tomorrow (I even have an idea written up on my whiteboard about Occam’s Razor), but no guarantees. Here, have a threesome as a consolation prize. It’s safe for work, I promise.
It’s still technically Day 2 of my experiment, as long as I get this up before midnight. However, this is going to be a short object lesson in the non-Westernized concept of Karma.
I’ve met in my time a number of pagans who are either confused about what they should be doing now they’ve switched over to “the other side”; similar to these are the pagans I’ve met who have accepted their new label, but haven’t developed spiritually past that point. To be a perpetual neonate isn’t inherently bad, but it can lead to some confusion and pain - especially if the neonate in question falls into the traps of believing either that they are a master or believing that they are being “persecuted” when they can’t answer the most basic questions about their beliefs. I’ll admit up front that I am no master; I’m simply someone who hates to see others in pain they do not deserve. Consider me a guide with ideas, rather than someone who thinks themselves a teacher come to bring you to the “right” end of the “right” path.
This is the first part in a series, as indicated by the title; I’ll admit right now that I have no idea how many parts this is going to have, so I’ll call it an ongoing series for now.
DISCLAIMER: I’m a follower of the general concept of the Left-Hand Path, and my beliefs border on chaotism. If you’re seeking a specific path, or are already following a path, some of my advice may be less than useful - in those cases, you do need to find a teacher.
This is a short one, and as it’s Site News, there’s no point in bothering with a jump, cut, or whatever you call that “Continue Reading” tag. I’ve come to realize that I’m not a writer unless I write, and that nothing I write matters until I finish. Since I’m not going to bang out the Great American Novel any time soon, I’ve come to realize that hey, I have a blog, right? So why not write something every day on that blog? Over the next week, I’m going to write something here every single day. It may not be some great work of insight - in fact, it may just be me bitching about random things in my life - but I will give you an update every day, Monday through Sunday. Bonus: This one doesn’t count. Monday begins after I wake up, and I haven’t gone to bed yet.
So why am I telling you? Mostly because this will keep me honest - it’s easy to break a promise when you’ve only made it to yourself. I’m promising you, my handful of readers, something new every day for the next week. Here’s hoping I can keep up.
I’m sure that by now you’ve heard all sorts of claims that the world will end on December 21st, 2012 or somewhere thereabouts and that it’s all backed by the Maya calendar and prophecy. You, being smart, probably know that the Maya claims are bullshit. Unfortunately, you’ve probably also heard a lot of bad reasoning for this. That’s where Uncle - er, Father Jakri steps in and helps out.
To preface all of this, I’ll say that I believe that being right for the wrong reasons is a bad thing, because it opens your position to attack. If you believe that 2+2 does not equal 5, you’re nominally correct. However, if you believe that because you’re certain it equals 3, your position is as untenable as if you did believe in 5. Hence, it’s not only important to be correct about the nominal fact of the case (that X is wrong), but to have the proper supporting reasoning; to do otherwise means that you weaken the perception of the position that X is wrong by creating new “wrongs”. And as we all know, two wrongs, er, insert kindergarten platitude here.
The life and times of an angry solitary academic strange religious guy who is sick and tired of bullshit. Warning: rants and vulgarity ahead. Not for the faint of heart, mind, soul, or spleen.
