Monthly Archives: November 2014

The Word

When I was young I thought a single word could change everything. As I grew older I thought I needed to instead depend on collections of words, and hoped that by their jostling Brownian randomness they would somehow settle into … Continue reading

Posted in Literary Theory, Literature, Writing | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on The Word

The Body Out of Control

For some reason literary treatment of the body out of control is both evocative and frequently avoided. You can think of Margaret Laurence’s Stone Angel which is touted as being such a great portrayal of a disintegrating mind, but one … Continue reading

Posted in Literary Theory, Literature, Singularity | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on The Body Out of Control

The Hot and Cold of Aid

When I first went overseas with the volunteer organization Canadian Crossroads International (CCI)—which I wholeheartedly recommend—they put us through a highly questionable selection procedure. There are a few of these organizations that offer what people in the development field call … Continue reading

Posted in Development | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on The Hot and Cold of Aid

Writing the Police

I sometimes imagine telling the story of a cop in a police state. I think about what goes on in their head, whether they are merely following orders, like the Nazi underlings claimed at Nuremberg, or whether they are so … Continue reading

Posted in News, Police, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Writing the Police

November is Novel Writing Month, Not Short Story Writing Month

As many of you know, November is the month that many people around the world put away the procrastination and pick up the pen, or more likely keyboard, to expand a late night idea into a novel. The challenge is … Continue reading

Posted in Code World, Writing | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on November is Novel Writing Month, Not Short Story Writing Month

How to Make Facebook Work for You

This is nowhere as easy as it sounds and I am sure that people more media and tech savvy than me have worked out a better way. The problem is that my facebook feed bombards me with cat videos and … Continue reading

Posted in News, Social Media | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on How to Make Facebook Work for You

To Talk About Mars

No talk about Mars is complete unless you begin with Giovanni Schiaparelli and his canali. It has become almost a cliché in the field of exobiology, at least in terms of Mars, that ancient history, complete with Percival Lowell’s maps, … Continue reading

Posted in Mars | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on To Talk About Mars

Using your Hands

In the west we are taught to be fastidious about eating with our hands, and in fact, we want our hands to be as far from our food as possible. We make exceptions, of course, finger food at luncheons and … Continue reading

Posted in recipes | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Using your Hands

Anecdotal Evidence and Climate Change

I was talking about anecdotal evidence tonight, such as you hear if you bring up global climate change in January in the northern climes: “Global Warming!? I don’t see any warming around here.” Likewise, I have heard that a ninety … Continue reading

Posted in Climate Change, News of the World | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Anecdotal Evidence and Climate Change

Ramming Reluctant Words

Learning to do more than just ram otherwise reluctant words together is a long and difficult procedure. That is why, generally, I am a fan of blog writing. So much of it is arduously un-self-reflexively narcissistic, but it does more … Continue reading

Posted in Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Ramming Reluctant Words