Category: Outside the Box

Non-mainstream thoughts and musings

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Social Media And You (And Me)

I’m old enough to remember before Social Media existed. Heck, I remember before the internet, cell phones, unleaded gasoline, and video games existed. (Yes, I’m old. Shut up and get off my lawn!)

Seriously though, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve gone through phases of using the internet and social media. Back before the Internet even, there were things called dial-up BBS’s that you could dial into with modems, and were their own little self-contained social computer networks.

Somewhere, someone had the idea that “more is better” in the American tradition, and turned ARPANet into the behemoth that is now called the Internet.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The internet is a tool, much like anything else we use to get things done. It has potential, and pros and cons. Sometimes it’s the right tool for the job, and sometimes it’s not.

For collaborating on documents, researching, and connecting with people far away, the Internet is a good tool. It’s allowed us to do things that were once the realm of science fiction.

But what most people use it for nowadays, a.k.a. “social media” it’s not only a poor choice, it could actually be harmful to us socially.

We are constantly balancing things like privacy, security, and convenience. The question we should ask ourselves is “what real problem does Facebook/G+/Twitter solve, and is it the best solution?” Continue reading “Social Media And You (And Me)”

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I’m Now A Goodreads Author

After a bit of work, I decided to apply for author status on goodreads.com so I can organize my bookshelf, and let you- my faithful readers- know when I have more writing projects coming up. You can visit my Goodreads author page here.

Since I’m not going to waste a whole day’s blog post on that short announcement, here’s a few thoughts I’ve been chewing on:

After an excellent discussion about yesterday’s blog post, I’ve decided to write a daily creed that I can recall, to help me keep my focus. I haven’t written it yet, but I will be working on it over the weekend.

Also, I’ve decided to dedicate my Saturday mornings to writing on my novels. In 3 hours, I can get several thousand words written, and though it’s not as fast as I’d like, it’s as much as I can commit to right now.

My exercise routine has been on hold for 3 weeks. That’s right, I haven’t done anything. What I have done is reclaimed my sleep schedule. It’s going to be a struggle…. it may be a while before I get back to bike commuting, unless I can move my work hours. Getting up at 4:30 just isn’t working. It’s affecting my mental state in a bad way. I will go back to it at some point, but for now, sleep is more important.

I’ve been fighting car problems, too. Nobody wants to hear about those, but let’s just say, I had to rip the whole interior out of my Saturn because of water leaks in the sunroof. The ’65 Rambler needs a brake cylinder seal replaced before I can drive it again. And since I’m not riding my bike, I’m left driving the gutted Saturn.

Creativity-wise, I’m starting a new project soon with my friend and fellow author, musician, and ADD Mastermind, JohnnyHow. Can’t give much detail on it yet, but it’s going to be fun, random, and in all likelihood extremely crazy. And did I mention random?

Fun times ahead! Stay tuned, kids!

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I Don’t Belong Here (And Other Lies I Tell Myself)

Have you ever felt like you just didn’t fit in? Like you were standing in a crowd, and everyone there was oblivious except you?

To some extent, I’ve always felt this. Growing up in rural Louisiana meant that most of my friends never shared the same interests that I did. I was reading horror novels when I was ten. Was reading epic fantasy and sci-fi when I was twelve. Was into games and adventures and things most other kids didn’t care about. You see, my brain has always been somewhere else. (My apologies to all the teachers I had growing up… it wasn’t you, it was me. I’m sure what you had to say was interesting, if only I’d been on Earth at that particular time.) Mostly, I was somewhere else, or wishing I was.

As I grew older, my penchant for feeling like a stranger in a strange land intensified. The more amazing new worlds I discovered, the less interested I was in this one. And without knowing it, I was slowly detaching myself from life in general, in exchange for something that was only a fantasy. Continue reading “I Don’t Belong Here (And Other Lies I Tell Myself)”

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Freedom Of Speech And Double Standards

Let’s be honest: everyone says they want freedom of speech.

But what they really means is they want freedom of speech for themselves. Everybody else… not so much.

If you say you’re for freedom of speech and then wish to forcibly silence hate speech- you’re a hypocrite. I’m not saying hate speech is good or okay, mind you. But the two ideas of letting people say what they want and controlling what they say are incompatible. They’re diametrically opposed. You can’t have both.

As believers of Holy Scripture, we have the responsibility to fight falsehoods, hate, prejudice, and everything that is evil. This is non-negotiable. Light drives away darkness, and we are supposed to be the light of the world.

The mistake that most people make is that they think they can fight hate with censorship. Here’s a bit of advice:

You can’t fight darkness with darkness. Continue reading “Freedom Of Speech And Double Standards”

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First Blog Of The Year

I’m not a big fan of New Year’s resolutions. Normally when people talk about resolutions I just smile and nod. It’s not that I think resolutions are bad necessarily, I just know that most people won’t keep them.

In fact I’m pretty bad about not keeping my own resolutions. Will this year be any different? That depends on what we resolve to do. When you have unrealistic resolutions, then it’s very easy to fail, and call yourself a failure. But we need to learn to be optimistically realistic.

Continue reading “First Blog Of The Year”

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Merry Christmas

Today, as we celebrate the arrival of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, I think it would be a good time to stop and reflect on the year. (I know most people wait till New Year’s for that, but I’m a nonconformist.)

I hope and pray that you’ve had as productive a year as I did. Health, writing, music, and family were all part of my growth, and I’m very thankful for that opportunity.

If you’re with family today, I’d urge you to be present with them in heart and mind. Don’t check out and mentally be somewhere else. If you’re not with family, I’d suggest praying for them and thinking about them for a few minutes.

Celebrate life. Enjoy the time that you’re given. Don’t waste it with being too busy to be with the ones you love, mentally or physically.

Merry Christmas!

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Hope Is The Antidote

Giving up always seems like the easy way out of a bad situation. All my life, when things got hard, I wanted to quit. When I hurt and was lonely, and it seemed that nobody cared whether I lived or died, then it was easy to say I didn’t care, either.

But my perception of the situation was always wrong. When I was lonely, it was because of my own actions. Because I pushed people away. When I was hurting, it was because I’d let people into my life that I knew would hurt me, or because I’d hurt them first. It was almost always my own doing. I’d complain about failing again and again, when I wasn’t doing anything to fix my problems. I would complain, and turn right around and bury myself in a pity party.

I was my own worst enemy.

Not surprisingly after years of this, I ended up in a very dark place. I filled my mind with negativity, hatred, anger, and bitterness. I had no hope of ever living a happy life. I tried to convince myself it was justified, that I was the victim, but in reality I was killing myself slowly. Inexorably pushing myself towards a cliff that I couldn’t see, and any day, I would have fallen clean off of it. I’m ashamed to say I contemplated suicide more than once. Continue reading “Hope Is The Antidote”

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A Supervillain’s View Of Fatherhood

There are some days, as I sit in my gold-encrusted throne inside my lair on a remote volcanic island, that I wonder why I wanted to become a supervillain. I mean, World Domination is always nice, but really there’s more to living than being all-powerful and feared by nations.

At some point, I wanted to pass on my legacy as an evil genius. And since I hadn’t gotten my cloning vats functional yet, the next option was to have offspring of my own.

So- I became a supervillain dad. After eighteen years, I’ve just graduated my first Evil Minion, and am in the process of doing the same for the rest. What have I learned on the way? What’s the secret to being a dad with aspirations of taking over the world? Continue reading “A Supervillain’s View Of Fatherhood”

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Thoughts On Anonymity

Most people’s opinions on anonymity are fairly polarized: either they love it, or despise it. And not so surprisingly, it’s pretty easy to guess which group has not the most to hide, but the most desire to find out what others have to hide. And as anyone who reads here should know, I value protection of privacy greatly, even if I don’t take advantage of it regularly for the sake of convenience.

The truth is, there is much more out there watching us than conspirators or the government. Every single thing you do on a computer is tracked and sold to marketing companies. Every time you turn your phone on, it leaves a digital paper trail. Your bank, your insurance company, your employer, your mortgage company, even your regular shopping trips, all track what you do.

So how do you balance convenience with security? Do you really want corporations, banks, and politicians knowing everything you do? Well, up front we don’t. But our actions say otherwise. Privacy, as we know it, is dead. Continue reading “Thoughts On Anonymity”

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Everything Is A Choice

For years now, we’ve seen the rise of a “progressive” political/cultural movement in the United States, and all over the world. But sadly, its central problem is that you can’t get something for nothing. It’s not realistic, because it assumes you can have your cake, and eat it too.

Let’s face it: everybody wants things to be “better.” And by that, we mean “better for us.” Because, who would want things to be worse?

Most of these assumptions are based on the simplistic idea that actions are isolated and can have simple solutions, which observably isn’t the case. Everything is a choice between one thing or another. And in the case of Progressivism, everything is skewed one way or the other, with no one wanting to accept that there’s a middle ground, because no one wants to admit their idea could possibly have negative consequences.

But every decision you make is an “either/or” choice. It may not seem like it, but even taking the time to do something easy is still a choice, to use your time for something. There is always a cost. It may not be apparent at first. It may not be a large cost. But if you look hard enough, it’s there. Continue reading “Everything Is A Choice”