Lifestyle & Culture
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[ 2 Comments ]Posted on October 21, 2009 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009Exploring modern bromance may lead to bro jobs.
Reading this guy’s rant against the pervasiveness of portmanteaus reminded how much I love them. Although I lean a little toward the prescriptivist side of the old prescriptivist vs descriptivist debate, new times clearly call for new words, and slang is often the only way to really say what you mean. I love books like Opus Maledictorum
Tarot Cards Are Evil
[ Comments Off ]Posted on October 14, 2009 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture
Wednesday, October 14th, 2009Or so a good friend told me recently.
 This card pretty much sums me up. |
At least a friend surprised me recently by saying this when they noticed I had a deck of them. I didn’t know anything about this friend’s spiritual beliefs, so I was even more surprised when they described themselves as a “rational minded agnostic”. I asked them why they thought they were evil, and they said something to the effect of “silly fortune telling tools like that impede rationality“. Which underscored the fact that they had NO IDEA what Tarot cards are about, which is not surprising; the cards have a very murky history. Although the first documented mention of them is in 1367, The earliest documented use of them for divination wasn’t until 1781. Although many still use them in a predictive fashion, perhaps more people (like myself) use them as a reflective tool, to simply open up thoughts on a topic, much like Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies or Marshall McLuhan’s obscure Distant Early Warning Deck. Although the evidence is anecdotal, I think it’s safe to say that the more “occult” impression that modern people have of Tarot cards is a result of the same crazy British aristocratic types that would hold seances, go to India to get their personal gurus, and allow weirdos like Aleister Crowley to hang out with them. All of which I believe was driven at least in part by a sort of quiet Anglo rebellion against the stifling rules of the more repressive forms of Christianianity of the era. A more modern use of the Tarot is probably descended from the influence of C.G. Jung, who suggested that the images on the cards were “distantly descended from the archetypes of transformation“. Over the years I’ve personally used a few “conventional” decks. I started with the Rider-Waite
What’s The Matter, Michigan?
[ Comments Off ]Posted on October 10, 2009 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture
Saturday, October 10th, 2009Michigan is a beautiful state with lots of resources, and is full of hard working people. So why don’t they just cheer up and get to work?
I live in Michigan. A state surrounded by the world’s largest fresh water lakes, with more than 11,000 inland lakes. The state is relatively rich with wildlife and natural resources, and the residents are known nationwide for their exceptional work ethic. So why is it that the state is number one in unemployment as of August, 2009? Why is it that the state’s largest city is known mostly for its urban decay? I have one guess: ATTITUDE. For some reason, the same character traits that give a Michigander a hard working, common sense attitude are easily flipped to the negative. Michigan’s sort of like a beetle. Almost indestructable and very industrious when things are right, but flip it on its back, and oh boy, forget it. I’ve had two experiences in the past year that highlighted this phenomena, and I still don’t understand it. But they’ve both re-invigorated my positivism. I’m proposing we start using the old saying “Michigan. America’s High Five To The World” as the tagline to get things rolling. One of these experiences was when the huge pharmaceutical conglomerate Pfizer closed its operations in the Ann Arbor area. It was psychological Armageddon for the locals. The economy was DOOMED. Until a short while later of course, when Google announced they were opening an office in the area. THE MESSIAH WAS ARRIVING. WE ARE SAVED! No-one paid much mind to the Read the rest of this entry »
Procrastination Is Like Masturbation*
[ Comments Off ]Posted on October 3, 2009 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture
Saturday, October 3rd, 2009It feels fine while you’re doing it, but in the end you realize you just effed yourself.
Help. I’ve recently become the person I detest: a Procrastinator. Generally, I’m one of the more organized, productive, and on-schedule people you’ll meet. I like feeling peaceful, and I feel peaceful when things are complete and in order. Feeling on top of things also keeps one ready to accept new opportunities, and to me, that’s what life is all about. New experience, learning, and growth. So how, oh how and why did this happen to me? Well, as a friend pointed out recently, when it comes to procrastination, “why” is over-rated. The fact is, the problem is immediately solved by simply DOING things. Duh. But if you’re having trouble getting out of the weeds, it might help to know why. This Psychology Today piece explains a lot of things about procrastinators, including the three basic types: “Arousal Types”, who wait ’til the last minute for the euphoric rush. “Avoider Types”, who may be avoiding fear of failure or even fear of success, and “Decisional Types”, who avoid making a decision to absolve themselves of responsibility for the outcome. I in fact have had a more neurotic version recently, which combines the Arousal and Avoider types with social/media overload and a devious unconscious plot to undermine my self-esteem. I know better than to excessively try to multitask (check out this NPR piece if you think you’re good at it), but it’s almost unavoidable with today’s prevalence of texting, voice phones, Facebook, e-mail, and real life. One thing I didn’t know though, was that multitasking is actually muddling and generally wrecking our brains. Also worthy of note is that strangely, Read the rest of this entry »
God vs. Atheism: Um, Are There Maybe Other Choices?
[ Comments Off ]Posted on September 27, 2009 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture
Sunday, September 27th, 2009Is it just possible that science is as much a faith as religion? Or that there’s a place between atheism and biblical literalism?
It’s interesting how theism vs. atheism has become such a hot topic over the past decade or so. It’s such a heated topic for some people that I, for one, am pretty sure I have a couple of friends who aren’t speaking to me because they don’t take the time to understand why I think rigid atheism is as ignorant and dangerous as religious fundamentalism. The WSJ piece Man vs. God – in which Karen Armstrong and Richard Dawkins take turns discussing their respective beliefs – is one of the most rational discourses I’ve read in a while. As a person who believes in reason and science but who also has a certain sort of belief in a greater consciousness that I find convenient to call “God”, I’m repeatedly befuddled by the two extremes of this debate. If you’re taking a truly rational, scientific point of view, you simply cannot legitimately deny the existence of God, or even Santa Claus or the Flying Spaghetti Monster, for that matter. You simply cannot prove empirically that they don’t exist. That doesn’t mean you have to believe in them, it’s just a simple fact that you can’t absolutely deny their existence. And if you’re using science as the basis for your beliefs, you’ll also have to accept the fact that the theory of evolution is just that: A THEORY. On the other hand, if you’re a rabid creationist or some other kind of fundamentalist, you’re kind of in luck, because with your utter lack of reason and magic fairy thinking, ANYTHING is possible. Heck. You might even believe you’re Jesus and get away with it when your concept of reason is that lax. So what do you think? Absolute Atheist? Somewhere in Between? Or Was The Earth Absolutely Created In Seven Days? Take the poll below… Read the rest of this entry »