Daniel DiGriz
AN EXPERIMENTAL LIFE
New York City (again)
Went all over NYC again - well, lower Manhattan - everything below Central Park. This time went to Queens… [more]
Portland, Oregon 2010
I love Portland. I like Chicago, as a friend. New York City is enthralling and wonderful - center of… [more]
San Francisco
We scouted San Francisco as a possible place to live. For us, it's about a lot of things - the mass transit,… [more]
Fundamentalism is to Christianity what Top 40 Country is to Folk Music
It's Thistle & Shamrock night, and Folk Salad night. I'm always surprised that people seem surprised, sometimes, because I listen to Celtic or Appalachian folk. Likewise, I have a straw hat I wore when I ran a company based on working outdoors. Normally I come off as either a bit Breaking Benjamin or just Wagner, … [Read More...]
Zoos and Animal Procurement
When I was younger, I bought into the sales pitch that zoos are rescuing animals from the jungles where, otherwise, they might be wiped out. Later, when we had more information about animal procurement, they changed their pitch. It became about 'raising awareness' so that people would care about protecting animals in … [Read More...]
Conversion as Time Travel
When some people ask about my religion and, and I mention our traditions, they express surprise because I wasn't raised in it. Their point is that, if you didn't grow up in the Faith, speaking of "my people" or "our tradition" seems false or contrived. It has taken me some years to realize that, because they are … [Read More...]
The Executive Principle, Politics, and the Spirit of Antichrist
We live in an age of AntiChrist. I don't mean a fundamentalist theory that plays "who's the devil". I mean in principle, politically, and ethically, it's one of the ages of AntiChrist, of which there have been many - perhaps (as is my attitude) all of them. There are several core principles of AntiChrist or of an … [Read More...]
Soft Atheists – the New Gentle Antagonist
I've always thought atheists should be consistent. Don't bow your head when someone says grace. Don't close your eyes and pretend to go along. Don't go through the motions in your parents' church. Just be what you are. It's really impossible for atheism to be fully consistent - nihilism is the theoretical outcome, but … [Read More...]
We Are a Pack
It's never right to look at the family pet as 'just' an animal. It reflect a certain absence within the human being to do that - a missing component in the man, not the animal. It is the fundamental alienation from nature that Francis Schaeffer wrote about in Pollution and the Death of Man. "Dog" is often a derogatory … [Read More...]
The Dark Ages
1. A fictional period that current Mediaeval historians (e.g. Cantor, Strayer, et al) reject, but which is useful for history teachers to justify spending only one chapter on an entire millennium. 2. A means of ensuring students have no significant understanding (beyond parroted platitudes) of the religious precedents … [Read More...]
Power, Ideology, and the Western Epistemology
Every movement driven by ideology of any kind will eventually massacre, maim, murder, torture, and terrorize in the name of its ideals, if it can get the means, acquire enough support, and evade eradication. It could be a movement for peace and lollipops led by Bambi and Mother Theresa, and it would shoot your family … [Read More...]
10 Years Ago I Began This Experiment
On New Years Day in 2002 I dumped a corporate job in the sales department of a national office supply chain. Leaving shocked my boss and one of my colleagues. I remember having the discussion with my coworker. "What are you going to do?" he asked. "Anything but this," I said. "But for now I plan to go back to running … [Read More...]
Academic Fashionistas vs. Being Educated
Those for whom education consists of conversance in other people's ideas have missed the point that that familiarity is merely a jumping off place not an end goal. Education, rightly, cannot be a hobby - that's trivial pursuit. Education delivers tools for developing something new, something with one's own brand on it, … [Read More...]
Elections – The Undecided & The Ideologues
Every major election, the dictated media focus is on "the undecided", usually in rural areas of Kansas and Iowa, where interaction with the larger world really is a quadrennial phenomenon. These folks are a source of interest to other voters merely because most of the rest of the country has their minds made up … [Read More...]
Los Angeles in December
Los Angeles in December isn't much different than August. It's fairly warm (for me, a Northerner), and comfortable with little more than a t-shirt. The vegan food, Korean food, and Mexican truck food are just as good. Great deals on clothes, too. The Ocean air in nearby Orange County is still lovely - though brisk at … [Read More...]
Installing the New Hero – Book Writing Experiment #2
I hated it that the new Sherlock Holmes movie made the guy more of a savant, less of a methodical erudite. The meaning of the character was ripped away. Then, in addition, he was made an action hero - not that an intelligent man could act speedily, craftily, and quickly when needed, but more fundamentally an … [Read More...]
Creating the New Villain – Book Writing Experiment #1
In new (current stories), there's a marked difference from a few decades ago. Villains can't be nearly as passive, now: they have to remain a continuous threat - it's not about punishing them - "bringing them to justice", it's about stopping them they have to be a direct threat to the reader, vicariously living … [Read More...]
Ywriter vs. Scrivener with some mentions of Yarny and Writer’s Blocks
Four things have driven a renewed review of writing software: YARNY: Finally, in time for NANOWRIMO 2011 (that's National Novel Writing Month), someone is offering a cloud version (Yarny), and I'm committed to moving everything to the cloud that's possible and practicable. WRITERS' BLOCKS: A colleague recently … [Read More...]
2 Logical Fallacies that Saved My Life
Logic has been one of the most successful experiments of my experimental life. Logic saved me when I was a child and realized adults could be wrong. Logic saved me as an adult when I realized the world, in general, could be wrong. Ad Hominem (Argument against the Man): I give the average person under two minutes to … [Read More...]
Implementing a Personal TOS
A TOS ("Terms of Service") document on a web site is the provider's explaination of the boundaries and limits of the relationship between provider and client, and the basis on which the provider will accept a relationship at all. In other words, either by interacting with the provider, or by explicit agreement, or … [Read More...]
Experiment – Structuring Core Needs into a Time Management Engine
I need to systematize my time in such a way that I accomplish the incredible goals I have. This is more a statement of goals than anything, but it's also an ongoing experiment. I took flack for meticulously structuring my time in college, as the most effective people I knew did, because it wasn't cool or romantic. … [Read More...]
Tidbits
The Clock
The symbol for Ayn Rand's life was a cigarette (one of attitude). The symbol for her characters was a dollar sign (one of value). I've decided the symbol for my life is a clock … [Read More...]
