Random thoughts, musings and things I think are interesting…

  • 90 Second Book Review: The Myth of the State

    I don’t consider myself a philosopher.  I’m more of more a “fan of philosophy” to borrow a phrase from my favorite podcaster.  I still have to look up the definition of meta-physics and epistemology.  I am not sure of the difference off the top of my head between existentialism and positivism.  But that doesn’t keep…

  • Illuminating the idea of striving without clinging

    I suppose it was inevitable as I made an attempt to get more serious about meditaton this year that I would get exposed to some Buddhist ideas.  I haven’t sought them out (if anything I have tried to find a purly secular meditation approach), but as I said was probably impossible to avoid them entirely.…

  • Maybe school isn't such a great network builder after all

    I made a brief argument in my last post about higher education, that it used to be good at three things: building a social network, access to unique knowledge and provinding certification.  I went on to point out that the first two had already been relplaced with things that do or soon will do a…

  • Could this pop the education bubble?

    I found myself in a interesting discussion about a month ago with another guy about my age and two current college students.  We talked about a wide array of topics but at some point along the way we got on to the subject of their experiences as current college students.  I made mention of the…

  • GoPro video and commentary from this weekend's local IPDA match

    Keeping with the approach I started with the MI Match video, I added in some quick commentary, mostly for me to keep track of what I did well and where I need to improve.  Fun match, great squads and good weather.  Can’ ask for much more!

  • 90 Second Book Review: Self Reliance

    This book doesn’t need an intro, so I’ll make it short: Self Reliance was one of several essays written by American Transcendentalist movement.  Emerson is also sort of a Socrates to Henry David Thoreau’s Plato. You can read it online for free, but the specific version I am reviewing here was put together by the Domino Project.  It…

  • Without moral support the very strength of a state becomes it's inherent danger.

    A few weeks ago I got home from an annual long weekend in southern Kentucky and immediately caught whatever illness that my wife and daughter had been dealing with in while I was camping.  It wasn’t any big deal really, but one night I woke up at around 2 in the morning with a raging…

  • Syntopical podcast listening: why it's so hard to have a real conversation these days

    Despite the cooler fall weather, I’ve still had to mow quite a bit which means podcast listening time.  It’s not all bad though since of late I mostly work from home, which has cut down on my commute related podcast listening time, so about the only time I get to catch up on the 30 or…

  • 90 second book review: Red Queen

    Red Queen, by Matt Ridley, is another book that made it on my “to read” list somehow that I can’t quite remember, and came to be on my “to read” pile by way of Half Price Books. Since I can’t remember how I became aware of it, I also can’t remember what interested me about…