PicoBlog

Okay – this one is gonna be weird. I warn you I’m going to go on a little too long, and not about The Elect or Amanda Gorman or whether math is racist, but about Tolstoy! Just this time. When the lockdown happened, many decided to take the opportunity to master skills, complete tasks, and accomplish milestones long left on the back burner. For me, the lockdown was the occasion to finally read War and Peace, which I had been tacitly pretending to have read for decades.

Let’s be honest: Before President Biden’s State of the Union address, even millions of Democrats who planned to vote for him thought he wasn’t really up to the job. That was a recipe for despair and eventual defeat. Now Biden has put those worries to rest, delivering a fiery speech that sets him up to win in November. He can still blow it; the “predecess… ncG1vNJzZminnJm0sK3TrGWsrZKowaKvymeaqKVfpXyxtMSwZJuhlJq7brrAoqOsZZmp

The whirlwind that was the incomparable Tina Turner was silenced May 24, 2023, at age 83. There will be the inevitable debates about the greatest hits, the most exhilarating performances, and the most iconic videos by the 2-time Rock Hall of Fame inductee. And, all will be correct, accurate, and well-presented, I’m sure. This tribute will focus on one song. It’ll threaten to be “high-jacked” by some high-powered, towering musical figures themselves, and the reader might feel focus is being pulled away from the magnificently-riveting Ms.

By the end of his life Philip K. Dick became convinced that all his novels are not fiction but truth — that they weren’t invented by him but rather transmitted through him by a benign entity trying to save humanity from doom — basically by Ubik itself. If what PKD thought was true, then he was a prophet-like figure who just shared his revelations. But i… ncG1vNJzZmixkai1onrSrpmsrJGYuG%2BvzqZmqWegnbattc9momacmZi4tHnFopqtoZ%2Bjeqq%2FjKisq2WepLuntcKtoKim

As I explained in Part 1 of this post, students of Leo Strauss are known for treating old books of political philosophy as potentially containing the truth about “the whole”—the human world of politics as well as the natural / theological / cosmological context in which it unfolds. That can make the study of political philosophy with students of Strauss a heady experience. But what happens when an advanced student of these texts comes to be powerfully attracted to the account of human existence and politics found in the work of a figure of the far right?

Hunting seasons are opening across the country and I have already seen almost every iteration of dead animal photo I could imagine —a spot of blood on a leaf, the ubiquitous reverent hand on fur or feather, a man with his foot on the back of a bear’s neck, grinning, and everything in between. I see this same spectrum of photos every year, so none of the… ncG1vNJzZmiilaO7or7Os5ylpJVjwLau0q2YnKNemLyue89op6GnpKTAbrvFZpuemZRirq%2B1zJqjrA%3D%3D

It took far longer than I wanted, because I was really busy finishing my own weird RPG (out March 27!), but I finally finished Baldur's Gate 3. If you make video games, it's really important to pick apart notable games and find out what does and doesn't work. 90% of creating video games is finding the right ideas to steal. We all stand on the shoulders of giants, after all.

I love hot sauce, but I am not always looking for “wet” saucy heat. Sometimes I want the crunch of pepper without the harsh and bitter aftertaste. Enter pickled serranos. The serrano pepper, while similar to jalapeno peppers, has a more intense, sharper, and “spicier” flavor. Their flavor notes are both grassy and earthy and complement everything from grilled meats, to ceviche to salads. In this preparation, I like to have these in my fridge for the sole purpose of snacking.

What follows are pictures of funky computer keyboards. Why? Because keyboards are cool. And some of these are just plain weird (and awesome). ncG1vNJzZmikpaOxtrfEZ6qumqOprqS3jZympmegZL2qr9OuqZ6rXaSzbr%2FOppxmr5Wev6V5wqikqa2kmr9ut8SymaiZopnA