Today's featured image: Our new apartment is just a few minutes' walk from a nature reserve. It was a major deciding factor when I picked this place. Though we're inconveniently far from the city center, this forest will help us keep our sanity in the coming months. This day was the first day that really... Continue Reading →
Today's featured image: The weekend after I moved to Uppsala, I immediately had the itch to get out and explore. I've realized that the destination isn't all that important. I took a public transit bus for an hour to a nearby town called Enköping. There's not much there, but there was a nice nature reserve... Continue Reading →
Today's featured image: A morning view from the north side of Camel's Hump mountain. The day before, this was just a view of the highway. I like this version much better. You’ve probably heard of Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881), and probably also know Leo Tolstoy (1847-1910), even if you never a read word from either of... Continue Reading →
Today's featured image: a secluded beach on the west side of Lake Pend d'Oreille (pronounced "Ponderay") that we hiked down to only to find that we were late to the party. Several motorboats were at anchor, and their passengers had brought pop-up tents and coolers of beer. Fortunately, they didn't bring any boomboxes. I was... Continue Reading →
I've been needing to get this out for a while.
This is the last one, I swear.
Update 06/16/2020: Sam Harris recorded his thoughts on this issue shortly after I posted mine. We agree on most everything, but he said it with much more detail, tact, and eloquence. You can listen here: https://samharris.org/podcasts/207-can-pull-back-brink/Let me begin with a statement of belief to make sure that I am not taken the wrong way: Law... Continue Reading →
One of the most difficult aspects of life in the United States for me is traffic. It’s not so much the fact that other cars are occupying the roads that I want to use but the implications for my environment of having cities built around the automobile. First and foremost is the noise. As far... Continue Reading →
The question of philosophy of late has been what one ought to do in life. The exercise often results in an exposition of the author’s preconceived notions of basic values that ought to be upheld for society to function in their ideal way. I’ve become quite skeptical of such admonishments, and so I have decided... Continue Reading →
I’ve never taken medication for a chronic illness. Indeed, it has been a long time since I took any medication. Maybe that time in 2012 when I got a respiratory infection and was prescribed a round of antibiotics? I can’t remember the last time I took cold medicine or painkillers, and I think the last... Continue Reading →
Geoffrey S. DeSena 