field notes
I’m Dean and I record my mostly coherent observations.
Incomplete thoughts and ideas percolate in my head at all times. Words from others’ brains also can penetrate mine and spark thought. Unfortunately, there is not enough time to properly explore all the things that interest me. With my methodology of recording and interpreting my mostly coherent observations on the empirical world, I seek to eventually bring meaning and comprehension to these otherwise unexplored phenomena. Until then, they remain simply, notes.
Echo Chambers
June 13, 2020
I love you all, but if you are only talking to those in your bubble who agree with you, you are missing an opportunity to understand and have someone who disagrees with you, understand as well.
the violence dept
June 11, 2020
For incidences that need violent answers, you call the violence dept. For all other incidences, your call will be redirected.
Enforcement
June 1, 2020
There's a reason you separate military and the police. One fights the enemies of the state, the other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people.
File under ‘existing’
April 16, 2020
Sensations of touch dissolving from recall, while its importance sears under the skin. It's been longer than a month in many ways. A glaze of numbness gently washes over me. What once noticed out the side of my eye, is placed squarely—the sameness of my days...
when bad artists do great art
December 8, 2019
When it comes to artists and entertainers, whom we do not know personally, do we condemn them because of their personal lives?
regret is an impossibility
May 5, 2019
Since there is only ever this one moment and if we are always true to who we are regret is an impossibility for we can never look back with anything other than...
nice guys finishing last
January 1, 2019
We should not treat women like princesses, but with the same respect we would treat our mothers, sisters, the whole of humanity, etc.
Change is the Only Constant
July 10, 2018
Change is the only constant and at its core, all change is neutral.
RIP George Romero: Rise in Pieces
July 17, 2017
George Romero, you'll live on through your monsters who live on by living on when they shouldn't live on, but I'm glad they live on because you live on through them even if they don't really live on because that would be scary, which is exactly why you'll live on.
True Attraction
September 5, 2016
In my eyes, good conversation is the birthplace of true attraction. Open your heart and share with me every experience and encounter that shaped you into who you are today.
a harmony of engagement
March 19, 2016
I still find it difficult, knowing, accepting, that I have an impact on this world. That I can make the world a better place.
The Star Buck
November 13, 2015
Seriously. I drink the coffee once and a while. Almost never more than a half cup in a day. Star Buck is not coffee. It’s the product of some deranged scientist, who wanted to give the world super powers.
What Research Says Happiness Really Is
September 18, 2015
I've read many articles/books about happiness through the years. And this one was packed with great info. It's kind of long, so I dropped in some highlights below.
A Simple Game of Darts
September 6, 2015
It's like fucking throwing darts at a dartboard, but you have no clue where the dartboard is, but you have a picture of the dartboard...
Reacting Bodies
July 27, 2015
We didn't choose our genetics, our brain, our perceptions, how our brains and bodies react to billions of situations that are mostly out of our control.
We are Family
June 29, 2015
Stuff I learned at lunch:
If your two parents hadn’t bonded just when they did – possibly to the second, possibly to the nanosecond – you wouldn’t be here. And if their parents hadn’t bonded in a precisely timely manner, you wouldn’t be here either.
the invisible race
June 16, 2015
The "racial" worldview was invented to assign some groups to perpetual low status, while others were permitted access to privilege, power, and wealth. The tragedy in the United States has been that the policies and practices stemming from this worldview succeeded all too well in constructing unequal populations...
a boat, the sails, and drugs
April 23, 2015
When it comes to drugs, I'm a big proponent of the boat-sails-wind analogy: your life is a boat...
Seducing a writer by Neil Gaiman
August 4, 2014
Mister Gaiman, you're kickass. I was just wondering what do you think is the best way to seduce a writer? I figured your answer would be pretty spectacular.
escape into fantasy
February 3, 2014
My life, I feel, is in this weird tiresome limbo right now, so leaving that behind, going on epic adventures, embracing dreams, and stimulating my imagination alongside some of the best people I know, well it's the highlight of my month.
The Science of Tipsy Moms
January 12, 2014
My friend Kelly is a professor at CalState Riverside who has done research into fetal alcohol spectrum disorders and just released a new study that has groundbreaking implications...
history, my new companion
November 25, 2013
It's odd. I feel I have a history. It's a solid history that I have somehow built and can glance back knowing that it is no longer just an introduction...
The Custodians of Life’s Meaning
October 11, 2013
We are rare and precious because we are alive, because we can think. We are privileged to influence and perhaps control our future. We have an obligation to fight for life on Earth
It’s who you know
June 11, 2012
College is as much for networking as it is for learning, if not more so. That drink you bought that guy from your sociology class at the campus pub might end up being the best decision of your life.
veteran’s day
November 11, 2011
Thank You to each and every military veteran out there. I hope in the future we celebrate fewer and fewer of you, until that day we don't need a standing army any longer.
on being creative
June 25, 2011
What nobody tells people who are beginners — and I really wish someone had told this to me is that all of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste.
contentedness is the only thing that matters
June 15, 2003
We live. We die. And happiness, contentedness is the only thing that matters. The problems only arise when you desire more than what the world offers and that which you are not willing to fight for.