Homo Sum:
humani nil a me alienum puto

I like to think of myself as a fairly philosophical person, and a fairly rational one–that is to say, I like to think that I examine my life, my motivations, my actions, and my beliefs on a more-or-less continuous basis, and try to integrate them into a framework that makes some kind of objective sense [...]

Well, the most interesting book world story right now is surely the whole hardball face-off between Amazon and Macmillan. I expect the most interesting discussion at Making Light. It’s been a pretty depressing week in the book world: too many stories of authors dying. I guess there will only be more and more stories about [...]

So, last night was likely my last time as a regular attendee of the Halifax Gentlemen’s Poker Association’s weekly meetings. Since I’ve been pretty consistent about attending these for several years now–I think the first one I went to was just before Sarah was born, as I recall making jokes about having to leave suddenly [...]

I have finished1 the ridiculous project of ripping all my previously unripped CDs before the move. This has resulted in the addition of exactly 9175 new MP3 files to the collection–a bump of about 1/3 in the overall size. That seems like a lot. In celebration of that seemingly endless effort being completed allow me [...]

Please, allow me to share with you a graphical representation of the most disappointing thing about my recent business trip to Australia. It occurred during my return trip through Heathrow, Terminal 3. This is the current map of Terminal 3: This is slightly different than my mental picture of what Terminal 3 looks like, which [...]

In catching up with my RSS reader, I see that everyone and his brother is pointing me to that CNN “where’s my jetpack” article. The article didn’t really interest me, but it does touch on some “man, the future of the past isn’t what it used to be thoughts” I’d been having at while at [...]

And now, for another exciting post of links and short comments: I’ve always been aware of having been gifted with a pretty powerful attention span. I have always kind of assumed it came from becoming a reader at a very young age, but I guess it’s equally plausible that things are actually ordered the other [...]

The one-armed man walks into a flower shop And says: What flower expresses Days go by And they just keep going by endlessly Pulling you Into the future Days go by Endlessly Endlessly pulling you Into the future?

Today, as my grandfather would say, the sadness is upon me. Let’s just say that my growing fear that McCain’s Big Lie tactics will work, combined with my stark and utter terror at the nearly inescapable certainty of a Harper majority, have made me miserable today. I’ve lost faith in my fellow man. Maybe I’ll [...]

Sigh. I finally got around to reading the Edge of Reason last night. Despite the fact that lots of people on the Internets seem to think this was the wonderful book I was expecting, it just didn’t work for me. The plot was kind of interesting, but the rest of the craft just wasn’t there. [...]

I had one of those shocking epiphanies today. I realized, seriously, completely, viscerally, that I am going to die someday. There was no hair-raising event, no near death experience, nothing dramatic. Just a realization that hit me during a very long drive, when I had some time to think about what it meant. Harlan Ellison [...]

While that last piece was read at Santayana‘s death, I’m slightly more enamoured with a piece he wrote on the death of a friend, simply entitled “To W.P.“. It’s not too long, so you could go read the whole thing. Here are two bits that particularly resonate with parts of my personal philosophy: Another, if [...]