Ethically Dicey?

From lucky socks to not having sex at particular times, hobbies are full of superstitions; and tabletop roleplaying games are no exception. But are they something to be embraced, countered, or just ignored? I'm currently playing in two tabletop games. During the last two sessions of both of them, at least one friend has commented …

Where the Heart Is

As most of you probably know, the (not very) United Kingdom officially left the European Union on Friday. As many of you also probably know, this was not my preferred option. I have plenty of thoughts about it, but perhaps the strongest is irony: those of the Leave camp who are not indulging in triumphalism …

…With More Feeling!

Thoughts on double-plus good writing are double-plus good. This morning, I discovered some notes I'd made years ago, which included this quote from Cliff Seal: "No one has ever been offended by proper grammar or proper sentence structure. No one has ever emailed you to say I really wish you would use six more exclamation …

Twelve Rules for Life in an Uncaring Cosmos

Like many others in the United Kingdom, I hope our new overlords’ actions do bring great benefits to the entire nation. However, as I have mentioned previously, we cannot sit back and expect others to do everything for us. Thus, I thought I would reshare a relevant article on how we might each better prepare ourselves for the future:

Davetopia

All who bear the burden of unholy knowledge know that Yog-Sothoth, the gate and the key, is perceived in congruence, and that the reasoned half of the mind is our protection from horrific truths. Thus, when I encountered a headline about a forthcoming Lovecraftian project and read the producer not as Jordan Peele but as Jordan Peterson, I both quailed at the blasphemous congruence and felt compelled to explore this intersection. I was ill-prepared for the underlying truths revealed in Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life!

1. Stand up straight with your shoulders back: Many unspeakable abominations are hunched, lack shoulders, or even bilateral symmetry. An upright posture that highlights your arms will therefore signal to others that you are likely to be human. Also, focusing on your posture will distract you from your surroundings, reducing the risk of perceiving the incomprehensible.

2. Treat yourself like someone you are responsible for helping:

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Green Shoots of Knowledge

With only a few days to go until the General Election, representatives of some parties are doubling down on the message that they are speaking for the nation. They might genuinely believe they are, but Parliament, the organisation they seek to be part of, isn't one person speaking for everyone, it's many representatives discussing perspectives …

A House Without Windows Has No Light

Paul A Kramer's talk below comes from the perspective of the US Immigration debate; however, with Boris Johnson proposing a strict points-based immigration system for the United Kingdom, Kramer's insight resonated with me. https://www.ted.com/talks/paul_a_kramer_our_immigration_conversation_is_broken_here_s_how_to_have_a_better_one You will be unsurprised that, as an artist myself, I am uncomfortable with reducing any human being to a single measure …

Our Glass

Unshockingly for an author of creepy tales who is Gothic in heart if not fashion, I make more than occasional visits to cemeteries. Over the last couple of months, one of the houses between my most frequent ossuarial destination and the river path into the centre of town has received a sprucing up, including a …

Life Through a Pain of Glass

History shows us over and over that atrocity doesn't come solely from a single malevolent entity, unregenerate in their inhumanity, but also from ordinary people making imperfect choices in the face of an imperfect world. And so perhaps the path to a less imperfect world is to accept that those who oppose what we think …

What The Crap?

Of all the things a household uses, toilet paper is perhaps one of the things least likely to inspire interest. However, today I wanted to share some pictures of ours. My wife has stopped using plastic for January. The rules of her challenge exempt things that I've bought that are for communal use; nevertheless, I …

The Black Sea of Experience

Proving once more that psychogeographers and chaos magicians might be onto something, the chance collision of pedestrian-crossing etiquette and computer gaming has summoned forth before me a dread irony: the human mind inconsistently correlates the meaning Lovecraft's work, and that results in a lack of mercy. A couple of days ago, a friend shared an …