I stumbled across a debate yesterday on the topic of escapism, worldbuilding, and speculative fiction. I had initially intended to contribute my own thoughts to this discussion, but after having perused a number of other opinions on various websites and blogs, I doubt very highly that there is anything I could add that hasn’t already [...]
human-behavior
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Sports Mania
Apparently, Ohio State lost big yesterday. And apparently, it’s a sore subject for a lot of Buckeye fans. I’ve never really understood sports fanaticism. I lived in Ohio for a number of years, and I know how seriously those folks take their OSU sports team, especially where it comes to football. Anyone ever heard of [...]
Emotional Reactions to Stories
Either I have a cold, cynical heart, or I have a more (ahem) refined literary palette than most people. The reason I say this is because I frequently find myself puzzled at reader reactions to a lot of stories. For example, I’ll read through a given story and then be like, ‘Ok, that was nice. [...]
More from the Driver’s Seat of a Horse-Drawn Carriage
GenCon weekend in Indy is always an amusing and interesting time to drive carriages. The things that you see downtown:
Apparently the years have not been good to Darth Vader. He’s both shorter and rounder than his last appearance. Spending too much time in the Los Eisley Cantina, perhaps?
This one is not related to GenCon attendees – a grandma leading [...]
Low-Minded People
Two events in the news lately leaving me disappointed – but not surprised – in the reaction of the American and the world populace. Ken Lay dies before going to trial, and Mel Gibson gets picked up for drunk driving and spouts a lot of anti-Semitic speech. The reactions of the vast majority of people to both events has [...]
Observations from the Driver’s Seat of a Horse-Drawn Carriage, Redux
For several Saturdays running now, I’ve been back driving carriages in downtown Indy, and as usual you see all kinds of interesting things during the hours spent circling the streets. Here’s a few of the things I saw last night:
Inevitably, there are always a handful of bums and homeless people on the streets. And, also inevitably, [...]
Intermittent Explosions
Study says millions have ‘rage’ disorder
There comes a point when even I think psychology and science end up just looking plain, down-right ridiculous. If you explode in a rage at seemingly random intervals, don’t look to your own attitude for a fix. Look to your physiology. Or at least that’s what a recent scientific study is [...]
Bite Down
I’m feeling much less than charitable today. I think it’s a product of recovering from being ill, trying to catch up on a lost day of work, and having read far too many inflammatory opinions over the past several days about a large number of topics.1 Needless to say, my knee-jerk reaction to just [...]
Eye Contact
Here’s an interesting social experiment. Walk through a high-traffic area and try to make eye contact with as many people as possible. It’s interesting to see the results. Some people glare and scowl with suspicion, some smile and nod amiably at you, others react almost not at all, other than the brief flicker of their [...]
Plank. Mote. Sound Familiar?
Why do we tend to focus more on the fact that others often hurt us with their words, however unintentionally, rather than on our own response to those people? How is that we forget that we are not responsible for how others interact with us but rather we hold full responsibility for how we react [...]