Happiness is Not a Noun
Keeping with this week's theme of things I've learned from the last year or two, here's something a bit more personal.I'm a lot happier than I was two years ago. There are a few reasons for this - I'm...
View ArticleWhere does rape culture come from?
Let's start with a definition. Rape culture is a form of victim-blaming. It's saying 'If a woman is raped, it's her fault for not preventing it, for dressing or acting provocatively, or simply for...
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What 'shy guys' are really saying...
This came up on my facebook stream yesterday:It came in for a round of entirely deserved derision from both genders - 'the shy kid who met a girl that changed his life' is a supercilious, smug,...
View ArticleThe Only Mansplaining I'll Ever Do
(hopefully)We seem to be having quite a mansplainyweek, kinda. Or at least, I've been talking a lot about male psychology as a perspective on gender issues. I've tried not to make excuses or suggest...
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The Second Realm 4.6: We Have to Go Deeper
First Episode - Previous Episode - Season 1 Hub - Season 2 Hub - Smashwords (all major ebook formats - pay what you like) - Next EpisodeThe Rabbit Hole6. We Have to Go DeeperThe room Taslin had found...
View ArticleDigital Dandelions
More wonderfulness from Neil Gaiman. Watch it all, but the key point for today's purposes is just after the fifteen-minute mark where he starts to talk about being a dandelion.Gaiman's idea is that in...
View Article'Natural'
What does it mean to say something is natural? Does it mean hills and valleys, wildflowers and singing birds? Are GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms) natural? If not, what about seedless fruits? Is...
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How to Visualise Your Success
...in a non-self-helpy-buzz-wordy sort of way.Being something of a nerd (you'd never guess ;) ), I keep detailed statistics on the performance of The Second Realm. This involves a huge 5-page...
View ArticleFlow, Happiness and Snot
Somebody linked me to this ages ago, and I thought 'That's very interesting, I should totally blog about it', and then couldn't think of anything to say that the video didn't already. And now, finally,...
View ArticleWhy George R. R. Martin is wrong about killing characters
I'm going to begin by taking my share of the public moment of smugness that everyone who's read A Storm of Swords felt last week after all the fuss about the Game of Thrones episode (you know the one)....
View ArticlePrivacy
There's a shill line that comes up every time a privacy or government snooping scandal breaks, that only people who have something to hide get angry about invasions of their privacy. I want to be very...
View ArticleThe War on Traditional Publishing
I haven't heard this particular complaint in a few months (I've been busy), but it's a popular refrain among the suffering trad-publishing mid-list that self-publishers are 'out to destroy' or 'waging...
View ArticleWhen is a Radical Religion Not a Radical Religion?
This is a fascinating article and you should read it. It's the first article of its kind - a negative description of Iranian culture (as opposed to the Iranian regime) from a liberal within Iran - that...
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The Second Realm 5.1: Wolves at the Gate
First Episode - Previous Episode - Season 1 Hub - Season 2 Hub - Smashwords (all major ebook formats - pay what you like) - Next EpisodeA Light in Her Violet Eyes1. Wolves at the GateThe first words...
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Just how valuable is the modern bookshop?
I moved house a couple of weeks ago, and I have to admit that on first sight, my new study/bedroom wasn't that appealing - it was dusty, not fully cleaned out, the floors were bare boards and not very...
View ArticlePrinciple, Practice and Privacy
There is a difference between how things are and how they should be. What I mean is not the obvious, that things (generally speaking) are not how they should be, but that the question'how are things?'...
View ArticleBeing Your Own Boss
This is quite a patronising article, but an interesting one. In particular, note the fifth claim on the list, that creative people should not be paid extravagantly. Cruel as it sounds, the science on...
View ArticlePrivacy part 3: What is it?
Part 1 - Part 2In part 2 of this rather impromptu series, I finished up by asking some questions about the link between secrecy and privacy. Part of what I was asking, and indeed something that's been...
View ArticleFreedom and Free Stuff
Today, I'm going to draw a connection between two interesting, but at first glance very different, studies.The first suggests that books which are 'protected' by copyright seem to have a shorter...
View ArticleCan the government force you to be evil?
Here is a story about a group of Christian (or at least Christian-owned) businesses in the US trying to get out of providing healthcare support for abortions on religious grounds. The article is...
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