Boredom. No word more laconically conveys anguish. And I suffer it in its most extreme form at work. Every job I've ever had has bored me to tears, and beyond, within a month or two. Except one. But that's another blog for another day. From my observation of the rest of you, boredom seems, for most people, to be a minor annoyance. Something you take in your stride, with which you cope admirably if not always easily. Not so for me. It's a torment that poisons my life. I leave work feelin...

Renaissance - when not referring to a revival of the arts and learning the word means, generally: a renewal of life, vigor, interest, etc.; rebirth. A major factor in my recent rejuvenation has to do with the fact that I'm no longer addicted to Vicodin, as I have been for the last several months. This isn't the first time I've come close to losing myself to that wonderful, pernicious drug. This is my second go-round with it. And I'm now completely certain that taking even one pill, ever...

A warning in advance. This article deals with issues of deviant sex and deviant sexuality and discusses them graphically, with no consideration (other than this warning) given to the more tender sensibilities of some among us. If you're offended or disturbed by such things - read no further. Since I've recently had cause and inspiration (I wish the two always came together so easily, but they rarely do), I've been writing on the topic of Sado-Masochism. I've never really liked the ...

A warning in advance. This article deals with issues of deviant sex and deviant sexuality and discusses them graphically , with no consideration (other than this warning) given to the more tender sensibilities of some among us. If you're offended or disturbed by such things - read no further. Dylan Zimmerman recently wrote an article to whichich I responded a couple of times. Her original article and my responses can be found here. ( Link ) The comment in Ms Z's aricle I wa...

'300', which I saw for the first time last night via On Demand TV, is visually one of the most impressive movies I've seen in a very long time. There is an epic, mythological feel to the imagery that goes a long way toward compensating for deficiencies in dialogue and acting. Not that the dialogue is particularly stiff or wooden (or no more so than in many other action-flicks -Arnie's work springs to mind) but it suffers from the imposition of an alien political message. This message is ...

I recently bought a new game. Buying a new game is a Big Issue for me - because I hate, hate, hate being disappointed by a new game. And I tend to stick close to what I know, for that reason. So generally I buy updates to either the Doom or Quake franchises. I have only two reasons for buying a game at all: 1) it's full of blood, carnage, horror, and graphically realised monstrosities (hence my love for Doom and Quake ). And 2): it has some quality that I find completely absorbing, ...

I'm an immigrant. I'll never be an American in the way that someone born, raised, educated here is an American. That's OK. There are pubs in Britain I know where you can have lived in the same locality for twenty years and you'll never be a 'local'. It seems to me that immigrants to a country have a perspective that the native-born will never, can never, possess. It may not be a more accurate perspective. It may not be a more detailed or comprehensive perspective. But it must, of necessit...

Happy birthday, America. And thank you.

I make no claims for this article beforehand. I don't claim that it's coherent or consistent, or that it's particularly well thought out. Given the chaotic nature of my thoughts on love, there's no reason why it should have any of the above-mentioned qualities. C'est la vie c'est la guerre. What is love? How do you love others? Can you, and should you if you can, love yourself? We say we love many things. We love our cars, our wives/husbands/children. We love our pets and our jobs. we s...

After fourteen days of unemployment I'm working again. Whereas I recently worked for D now I work for T. T is a large civil engineering company here in Richmond - the office I work in downtown is less than twelve minutes away on a route that has little traffic. I liked the office as soon as I got into it on Wednesday, when I attended the interview. It occupies three floors in a very large historic building downtown - but without being a part of the business area. The area the building occ...

Sometime in the late 1980s, after marrying for the first time, I returned to my local vocational college to once again mount an attempt to turn my life around. There had already been radical changes in my life. I had become a Christian. As a consequence of my first conversion I had met the woman who would subsequently become my first wife, married her, and we had set up home together. And as a consequence of marrying into that particular family I had become determined to gain a Degree. Jenny'...

What is happiness? Does anyone deserve to be happy? Can happiness be bought? What's the difference between happiness and misery? Does anyone deserve to be miserable? No one fully understands the life of another. No one can, merely on the basis of external appearance, judge whether another is truly happy or not. What is happiness? Is it found in external circumstance? For example, are the fabulously wealthy happy? Does the ability to buy whatever you want, whenever you want it, bring y...

Locamama posted an article here ( Link ) asking if God cares. Before my response to her she received a couple of others offering sympathy and encouragement. I answered her as bluntly as I could: no, God doesn't care. That's perhaps a little too blunt, left as it is. So here, as a primer for the puzzled and confused, is a more detailed explanation of my point of view. I've written on the topics of faith and theology many times, engaged in many discussions of those topics here on JU. My...

I posted this on the Gurdian's talkboards this morning, in response to an article about prejudice and fat. Read the article and comments here ( Link ). I'm posting it because Sabrina thought it was funny and wanted me to share... cannibalcritic Comment No. 472616 March 13 14:47 USA We all need something to hate. And there isn't much left, after the work of the PC-mongering wankers that generally (not universally, please note) make up the readership of the Guardian and its ilk. ...