My Life

I often feel that not enough love is expressed in the world.  I have seen many valid reasons why people are hesitant to express love, or are hesitant to trust someone who is attempting to express love toward them.  But I think the fact that "I love you" is such an underutilized phrase in society, and the fact that saying "I love you" can often scare the person hearing it are two indications that there isn't enough love going around. I tell Conrad that I love him.  I tell him on a daily basis.  Normally multiple times a day.  It feels good to tell him.  It feels good to actually love him, and to know that when I'm saying it, it means something and isn't just empty words.  I tell many of my close friends and family members that I love them.  Not every time I talk to them or see them, but often.  Perhaps not as often as I should. But there are so many people that I love that I do not and even, due to the nature of our society, cannot tell th...

I have heard opposition to social programs argue that people should be guaranteed equal opportunity, not equal success.  I agree with this idea.  In fact, I think it's summed up in the old adage, "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink."  So, yes, I think that's true.  I think that personal responsibility should be assumed by each individual.  I think that people who work harder should see the benefit of that work. However, the irony to me is that the social programs this argument is used to oppose aren't trying to guarantee equal success.  They're actually trying to guarantee equal opportunity.  Food stamps are a good way to guarantee equal opportunity to eat.  Some people make enough money to buy their own food.  Some people don't.  I don't think it's reasonable to tell those who have no money that they must go without food.  And it certainly isn't equal opportunity. Education is the opportunity to make a b...

So, the cheating student I blogged about the other day finally came in to my office.  I was (only mildly) surprised that he denied it, considering that the evidence was overwhelming.  But what really surprised me was his persistence.  Even after I pointed out to him precisely how I knew that he cheated, he continued to deny it.  He simply guessed all the right answers without doing any work.  And that's the story he was sticking with.  It seemed entirely bizarre to me.  I honestly didn't know what to think or how to respond.  I was just sort of dumbfounded. What really stuck out to me, though, was that he seemed to sincerely believe that he was telling me the truth.  Whether he really did believe it himself or not, he certainly wasn't giving any signs of lying.  He was clearly very practiced in the art.  It was certainly an eye-opening experience for me. There's a game I played as a youth that made me extremely uncomfortable. ...

Brendan Eich was recently named CEO of Mozilla Corp.  This was a big to-do because he is known to be anti-marriage equality.   OkCupid semi-blocked Mozilla users from accessing their site in protest.  I say semi-blocked because they could still go through to the site but before they did, there was a page to inform them why OkCupid thought they should use a different browser. So, apparently, Eich just resigned from the position.  One gay blogger said he was disgusted that the gay community did this to him. One thing he said I agree with.  "If we are about intimidating the free speech of others, we are no better than the anti-gay bullies who came before us."  I think that it's important to avoid bullying.  I think it's important to allow people the freedom to hold their own opinions.  But to me that's not what this issue is about. I read another article that I feel explains my personal feelings about the matter much better.  See, to me, ...