Essay: "Being Ignorant the Hard Way"

"Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than he was before. He is full of murderous resentment for people who are ignorant without having come by their ignorance the hard way." - Kurt Vonnegut

Essay: "The Stupidest Myth in the World"

The death of Amy Winehouse  made headlines, but it didn't exactly sweep the social media landscape the way other, seemingly more trivial events, have done recently.  Whether you liked her style of music or not, Winehouse was exceptionally talented.  Her voice was unmistakable, of course, but her songs were very well put together too, and had an intense raw honesty that you don't see very much in popular music.

Essay: "Social Media and the Panopticon"

I was not particularly surprised by the riots after Vancouver lost game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals.  That kind of thing is nothing new, but you wouldn't know it from all the tut-tutting.  I think the spread of digitical cameras and social media made the stupidity and destruction of the riots hit home in a new way, much the same way that the photograph brought home the horrors of the American Civil war.

Essay: "Video Game James"

It's easy to forget, these days, how much people used to love Lebron James. I'm too lazy to look up the study, but the spread between those who looked on him favourably and those who disliked him was enormous for such a prominent athlete. Of course, that's all gone now, thanks to the way he publicly screwed around with Cleveland last year.

Essay: "The Future of the Novel - Part 2"

A reminder: I'm only discussing the survival of the novel as an art form, not as a business. My concern is not that Steve King or Random House will be poor. My concern is whether, in thirty years, people will read novels at all.

Essay: "The Future of the Novel - Part 1"

I resisted the temptation to call this essay the "death" of the novel. I hate it when people prematurely proclaim the death of things. It's so melodramatic. Relax everybody - the novel is never going to "die." But something his happening to the novel, something important enough that I think it's worth sitting back and thinking about what it is.

Essay: "What I Do Best Isn't Very Nice"

 "I'm the best at what I do. But what I do best isn't very nice." Wolverine

 I like to play videogames but I don't own a TV, so I'm not able to use a Playstation, Xbox, or Wii. After some careful thought and research, I decided to invest in a Playstation Portable (or PSP) around the same time I was wrapping up law school. I figured I deserved a treat, and it was right after the first God of War game was released for the system.