The Closer: a study in empathy

empathy – noun – the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

Oxford Dictionary of English

“Netflix transgender controversy”

“transphobic Netflix special”

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Newsletter 2: Republican Theocracy

Opening WordPress this afternoon was meant to be about a new post describing how the “American” Republican party has become a magnet for stupidity. There is also the distinction that like today’s Taliban, which does not resemble the Taliban of 2001, the Republican party of 2021 hardly resembles the Republican party of 2001. Both entities have evolved, but in opposite directions. The Taliban has put itself in a situation in which a more moderate stance will be required to ensure the flow of desperately needed foreign aid. In contrast, the GOP has evolved into an extremist fanatical threat to American democracy that has more in common with Belarussia’s Lukashenko than Abraham Lincoln.

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Reluctant gratitude; My bicycle Saviours

An intention recently arose to express gratitude in a blog post to two people who helped me overcome a frustrating challenge.

As I was writing that post, it began to seem trivial. Who would be interested in reading it? Would writing it simply add to the banality that is already saturating the world wide web, social media, and human existence?

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Mr. Glynn, Kingdom Filipina Hacienda sovereign, goes to Singapore

“I will never plead guilty or not guilty,” said Benjamin Glynn before Singapore District Judge Eddy Tham on August 5th, 2021. “The charges don’t apply to me,” adding that he is a “sovereign.”

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Pro tip: wash your shoelaces

It took just over a year for the laces in my trail running shoes to become kinda gross. More specifically, tying my shoes got gross. Before a run, tying my shoelaces is a mini-ritual. This began after buying a pair of Topo Ultraventures and taking a serious look at the extra eyelets. Previously I’d never really considered their purpose. Now that YouTube explains everything, after about six related videos describing the benefits of the heel lock lacing method, I decided to give that a go.

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Fact-based Buddhism

As I awoke this morning I was reincarnated, just like yesterday, the day before that and the preceding 21,391 days. That’s the perspective of “me”, the Reform Buddhist, or Liberal Buddhist – maybe better: the Progressive Buddhist. Sort of like the members of Reform Judaism and the Protestants, just with less magic.

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The Semantics of Clickbait

Producers of clickbait deserve credit for one thing; a keen awareness of misleading vocabulary. They don’t care that beneath the sensationalised and misleading headlines that they spew across social media and online news sites is vapid drivel that instantly bores the audience. No. All they care about is the volume of clicks. Clicks are kings. Nothing else matters.

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A Topo Ultraventure

BOOMZ! In the same instant I realised I had tripped, I had to accept that this was going to be a very hard landing. Running downhill on a rocky section of the MacRitchie Reservoir trail, it came down to just hoping that the body parts absorbing the brunt of the impact would not suffer catastrophic damage.

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