Boston won. The post-game ceremonies started. This was important stuff, so I made Ruby pay attention. We watched them award the Conn Smythe to Thomas, and she noted the maple leaf adorning it. Then they carried out the Stanley Cup and called Zdeno Chara over. The moment came, and he hoisted it over his head [...]
Archive for the ‘philosophy’ Category
Vancouver Riots
June 16, 2011
My brother has posted his thoughts on last night’s rioting in Vancouver. I think we’re mostly on the same page about how this mess came about: the riots happened because people expected a riot to happen. The anarchists and the assholes showed up, dragged a few fence-sitting drunkards in with them, and the party was [...]
Standing in the Rubble
April 30, 2011
Two months ago, near the start of the Libyan revolution, I read this paragraph: Gaddafi, clad in brown robes and a turban, spoke on Tuesday evening from a podium set up in the entrance of a bombed-out building that appeared to be his Tripoli residence hit by US air raids in the 1980s and left unrepaired [...]
Passionate Wisdom
April 27, 2011
UPDATE (June 13, 2011): The author of this story has come forward admitting that it is a hoax. Although the story loses some of its appeal without the lustrous shine of a “based on a true story” tag, I hope that the underlying message of my commentary still stands. An out lesbian in Syria is [...]
My Advice to My Sister on the Night Before She Wed
April 15, 2011
“Don’t be so in love with the idea of your marriage that you forget to fight.” That’s right, fight. Fighting is certainly an exercise in communication (although, granted, perhaps not the most efficient or effective communication). But even more importantly, fighting is an exercise in trust and honesty. It takes trust to show someone your [...]
On Poppies
November 10, 2007
I spotted a poppy pin lying on the ground today. Serendipitous! Poppies are a Canadian tradition — nobody wears them here — and the pin was probably accidentally dropped by a Canadian shopper taking advantage of the exchange rate. I’m excited to be able to celebrate Remembrance Day properly. In the US it’s Veteran’s Day; [...]
Procrastination
November 10, 2007
I’m a decent procrastinator. In fact, I’m procrastinating right now by writing this blog entry. I’m trying to develop a different mindset about some of the things I procrastinate about. For most of those things, there’s a lot of pleasure to be had after (but not necessarily during) the activity. For example: I went [...]
10 out of 10
November 10, 2007
An article in today’s paper discussed your carbon footprint. They talk about some cars, and how each one gets an EPA “greenhouse gas score” out of 10 (higher is better). A GMC Yukon gets a 3 out of 10; a Prius gets 10 out of 10. A perfect score? For a car which only reduces [...]
Landfill vs Clean Water
June 5, 2006
Today our first deployment of cotton diapers arrived. We’ve signed up with a diaper service that will drop off fresh diapers twice each week and take away the soiled ones, never to be seen again. Or so I like to think. I’ve actually been fairly happy with disposal diapers, but being the conscientious earth lovers that [...]