To quote the philosopher Chuck D, “Hate is a strong word, but I hate the snow.” These are some of the words I most clearly remember from my days at Syracuse University. Syracuse is a place for people who love snow, or at least it doesn’t bother them. At Syracuse I had a lot of…

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I am going to go on record with the commitment to try to post every day here. I have such a nice page, such a nice blog, and it gets ignored. It’s the perfect place to work on ideas by sharing them with an imagined audience (aren’t they all at some level?). So why don’t…

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The Motion: Live Debate Education is a monthly club that meets in Manhattan to debate pressing and important issues in order to improve the debate abilities of the members. It is a safe, non-partisan space for the consideration of argument quality. I advise them on various issues from time to time, and one of my…

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I had the opportunity to attend a debate held by The Motion in New York on Wednesday, here’s my commentary about the round. I am sorry the recording is not great quality, but I made it as good as I could! Next time I’ll get closer to the speakers.  The Motion is an amazing community…

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I left the house on one of the muggiest days of the year so far in NYC just to get my TSA Pre sorted out. I documented the mass transit journey here. The TSA screeners really liked the Snap Specs and wanted to see how they worked but I deleted those videos in the interest…

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Bob Dylan, well known music troll, trolled the Nobel Prize committee by barely accepting his award for literature and then delivering a speech quite late that was nearly as odd as the speech Donald Trump gave on innauguration day. The two speeches are odd because they seem to get that there are expectations for the…

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    Responses to violence against government officials are perfect opportunities to recast the violence of the normal political process as peaceful, non-violent, productive, natural, and normal. Paul Ryan’s response to the shooting of congresspeople engaged in baseball practice is a masterful example of the power of rhetoric to craft a world where there is…

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Easing my way into summer often comes with a return to PC gaming. Been spending a lot of hours messing around with various games, graphics settings, and improving my machine here and there to make everything work the way I want.  There’s also a bit of thought or a suggestion that perhaps we should offer…

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We’re done with the USU Nationals in Denver and I have a few questions: What sort of competition is this? What is it that we are competing to be good at doing? Or saying? Or being? Is this more like baseball or art? Dance or track? Competitive cooking shows or American Idol? What’s the best…

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My last post was about the difference between an administrator and a teacher, and how easily those things elide into one another. After reading some comments on it, I was returned in my mind to my days as a high school teacher in Texas. Thinking about those days reminded me of an older idea, an…

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