The Google-Searchification of AI
August 28, 2024
Essays
Douglas Adams had an idea about technology that whatever technology existed at the time you were born is normal and ordinary, anything that was
Learning to Travel
June 24, 2024
Travel & Essays
Starting last in Spring 2023, I decided to learn how to travel. That’s a bit hyperbolic, but not much.. It’s not as though I hadn’t traveled per se
On Problems
April 25, 2024
Essays
When I was much less mature, I was fond of bandying about with the phrase, ‘The reward for a job well done is a harder job.’ I used the cliché to
On Radical Inclusion
March 8, 2024
Essays
In a lot of my communities, either explicitly or implicitly, the concept of ‘radical inclusion’ come up. For burners, it’s a stated value. For
Terms with the Dead
March 1, 2024
Essays
As a big part of my life, and an even bigger part of my spiritual life, I’ve been focusing on coming to terms with my dead. Most
Dog Shit: Practicing Judgment, Practicing Being Hated…
February 13, 2024
Essays
…but not really. In Two Cheers for Anarchism, James Scott advocates (ethically) practicing breaking rules as necessary and good to be better
Enlightenment & Reductionism
February 9, 2024
Essays
I was reading about enlightenment the other day (from a thread on twitter I can no longer find). The basic premise was
Fatherhood 8 Years In
July 19, 2023
Essays
Elliott flourishes, and this pleases me. She has friends and family. She has school and her dog. She has more or less good
Story Capture
June 1, 2023
Essays
Human beings live inside stories. Perhaps it is possible -with brain injury or with enlightenment- to live outside them rather than simply take
Meditations
April 24, 2023
Essays
I started writing this when I was 19. I had less chill then, was prone to imagining that hardness would allow me to be what I wanted
Status Hacking
April 2, 2022
Essays
Depending on what door you enter a building through, your mannerisms, your _; the same data/information will be interpreted differently as
The Numinous, Trauma, and What Comes After
August 2, 2021
Essays
Imagine you see a UFO. It doesn’t have to be a UFO, but Something that doesn’t fit in your worldview: light(s) in the sky not following all the
Fatherhood – 6 Years
August 2, 2020
Essays
Let me begin, my daughter thrives (even now) and nothing makes me happier. And while I believe that, today, I don’t have the certainty of that I
Soul Retrieval
December 6, 2019
Essays
I grew up in the library. I was -in large part- raised by books… for much of my life I marinated in books, I inhaled them. They were some of my
Burning Man Travelogue 2019: Lessons in Going it Alone
November 3, 2019
Essays & Travel
Note: This piece was heavily edited for a bunch of reasons. If the transition worked, I just cut the bit but you may occasionally see [Redacted]. If
On the Limits of Relationships
October 9, 2019
Essays
The ‘Dunbar Number’ is a figure that purports to be able to determine –by looking at primate neo-cortex proportions- how large a particular
Composing a Life
June 9, 2019
Essays
On an episode of one of my favorite podcasts ‘On Being’ I heard the guest speak about ‘composing a life.’ I appreciated this metaphor; so often it’s
A Review of Desert X
March 20, 2019
Essays & Travel
Let’s begin here; attending Desert X was a phenomenal daytrip and the most ambitious artist’s date I’ve ever taken. If you’re unfamiliar, Desert X
Fatherhood - 4 and a Half Years In
January 20, 2019
Essays
It is an extreme pleasure to start this essay, as I been able to start all these fatherhood essays, that my
Scare-People & False Signifiers
January 14, 2019
Essays
In my apartment’s laundry, there is what appears to be a security camera (it might be fake). Someone has placed a crumpled sticker over the plastic
Pilgrimage to the Center: Burning Man 2018
October 3, 2018
Travel & Essays
Of all the cultural and tribal identities that have accreted to me like barnacles, the one I am most comfortable with, the one that fits best is
ScreenWorld
April 4, 2018
Essays
Plato imagined a cave of untruths, chained captives captivated by flickering shadows on the wall. Marshall Mcculan said the medium is the message
Fatherhood: Three Years In
September 25, 2017
Essays
On July 30th my daughter -Elliott Rose Perkins- turned three. On September 12th, she attended her first day of pre-school. Milestones like these
On Why so Many of ‘Us’ Suffer
August 19, 2017
Essays
Recently, a friend posted ’Why do so many of ‘US’ suffer?’ Which was a question I found interesting and personally relevant, so I ended up writing a
The Skills I Intend to Give My Daughter
March 17, 2017
Essays
The only thing I know about the future is that it will be different than today. This presents an interesting dilemma when it comes to deciding how
Pokémon Go and the Invitation to Play
November 5, 2016
Essays
I considered –briefly- writing an essay about why I’m not playing Pokémon Go despite it seeming to be nearly perfectly designed to appeal to me: a
An Invitation to the Burner Scene
October 4, 2016
Essays & Travel
Dear John; You are 29, and for the last few months your dear friend has been inviting you to house parties, camp outs, and other events of a
Fatherhood 22 Months In
May 1, 2016
Essays
When it comes to parenthood, first and foremost let me say my daughter thrives and nothing makes me happier. I recently reread my earlier essays
3 Things I Learned Wearing “Women’s” Pants
April 13, 2016
Essays
So, first things first, there’s nothing particularly ‘womanly’ about the bright blue pants I picked up while thrifting (which are perfect as a base
Fatherhood: Seven Months In
April 2, 2015
Essays
TLDR - I Like it, it’s hard sometimes, but it’s helping me become a better person and I love my daughter. Long Version If what my mother modeled for
Monogamish
March 9, 2015
Essays
It is the 9th day of March in the year 2015 and as I write these words, I am deeply in love and lust with my wife, someone with whom I
Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Frankenstein, Lex Luthor, and the Hobbled
May 4, 2012
Essays
Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Frankenstein, Lex Luthor and the Hobbled Genius in Fiction I dig me some supervillains, but of all their tropes and flavors I