Philosophy

Holiday Rain

When your eyes well up they remind me of a day at the beach with small children shivering underneath the dark clouds of suppressed emotion.   Then you give me that look, and it’s like an afternoon shower on the fourth of July. Guests scurry inside, leaving muddy tracks across the carpet of my regard. […]

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Politeness is a Virtue

I just finished reading The Way of the Samurai by Inazo Nitobe.  Nitobe was of the samurai class in Japan but was western educated.  He wrote The Way of the Samurai in English in 1900 around the time Japan was westernizing.  Nitobe does a good job of explaining the philosophy of the samurai as it […]

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Is AI Bad?

Recently, several companies that work with developing Artificial Intelligence (AI) sent an open letter to the UN.  The letter was to voice concerns over the use of AI in weapons.  These companies are concerned that AI will be used to develop weapons that will act independently of humans.  They call it the “third revolution in […]

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Super Genius

My daughter calls me Super Genius, but not in a good way.  She doesn’t mean Fruit Loops with marshmallows genius (If you haven’t tried this perfect breakfast cereal, stop denying yourself).  When she calls me Super Genius, the words are accompanied by a smirk and an eye roll.  She means Wile E. Coyote Super Genius. […]

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Envy is a Powerful Motivator

I am envious of other writers. I am envious of their success and their ability to connect with readers.  I am envious of those people who can step into a crowd and walk away with a gaggle of new friends.  I am envious of you. Envy is that green-eyed, nine-armed monster who menaces us all, […]

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The Book Review Quandary

When I joined Goodreads a few years ago, I felt like I should write reviews for the books I read. After doing this for a month or two, I changed my mind.  I still will rate a book (as long as I finished reading it, and if I liked it enough to read it then […]

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Do You Re-read?

My philosophy has always been that there are too many books out there to spend the time to re-read.  I’ve only consciously made a couple of exceptions to this rule. A few years ago I re-read Robert Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land.  In my opinion, this is one of the classics of science fiction […]

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