Eclectic Living
Is there such a thing as an honest-to-God, real-life asshole? This was the debate my brother Zach and I had after hiking the mountain passes in Colorado. I was on the pro-asshole side, while Zach argued that nobody is truly an asshole. Our debate was a rather sucky one as debates go, and quickly ended at an impasse.... Continue Reading →
You are not yourself today. In fact, you are not yourself any day. Neither am I. We are collectives of trillions of selves, and most of these selves are not our selves: of the 130 trillion or so cells that make up our bodies, about 30 trillion are human and the other 100 trillion are bacteria,... Continue Reading →
Dylan Thomas pleaded with his father: “Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” But the light will go out for all of us eventually. Still, whether we’re defiant or sanguine about the end, our final act doesn’t have to be an extravagant, expensive affair. For most... Continue Reading →
Half-assed outcomes can be categorized as tangible or intangible. Tangible half-assedness occurs when the product of work is subpar. Half-assed work can include everything from an insufficiently cleaned room to a shoddy construction job to a poorly written term paper (or blog post*). Half-assed work arises when the project is done too hastily, without focus, or simply... Continue Reading →
Back in the heady summer of 2002, I spent many late nights and early mornings chasing World Cup soccer games around Boulder County - the Cup was in South Korea and Japan that year. I found games at beerless bars and at various friends' houses. I joined a gaggle of bleary-eyed soccer fans at a bar in south Boulder... Continue Reading →
Americans drive an average of over 9000 miles a year per capita, or 25 miles per day.* I used to be closer to the national average when I had a painting company - some of the guys that worked with me even called me Sir Drivesalot. These days, because most of my work and projects are... Continue Reading →
The one and only time I tried acid, in my senior year of high school, my fellow trippers and I figured out how the universe works. It's all spheres, everything is spheres. Humans are spheres and we have multiple size spheres that interact with almost infinite other spheres. From atoms to planets to stars, all objects... Continue Reading →
If you'll recall from the timeless post How to Be Happy, one of the steps to achieve happiness is to Be Healthy. As it happens, Poppa's been working on just that (with occasional lapses*). One of the primary barometers of health is girth, of which most of us in the U.S. could stand to lose a little. We... Continue Reading →
In Part I of this edition of Poppa's Notes, I briefly discussed and then summarized Seneca's "Letters from a Stoic" (aka "Epistulae Morales Ad Lucilium"). Seneca wrote these letters to his friend Lucilius. Here's Part II: 78 - Sorry to hear you've been sick, Lucilius. Now buck up, li'l soldier - you can overcome it with your mind. An... Continue Reading →
Are you sick of me talking about dead Mediterranean dudes? Well, I have one more I'd like to hype, because he fits in so well with our discussion, then I'll give it a rest for a while. Seneca was an eclectic and a Stoic. By most accounts, he was an imperfect man who didn't necessarily follow... Continue Reading →
Poppa's Cottage 