I wonder if people in other states ask people where they are from all the time.  If you live in Illinois or Alabama, is it just assumed that you are from there?  Of course, here in California, most people are NOT from here, so that is a common conversation topic to get to know a […]

Over the years, I have participated in many collective working and living projects.  Several years ago, I was recruited by a group called the Matchbook Learning Project. We sponsored classes for adults in the anarchist community.  The vision was a way to keep people in community in times of life that it is harder to […]

I recently watched the PBS documentary on Jim Jones and the mass suicide in Jonestown. It is almost incomprehensible how many people died there and the destruction of many families that occurred. It is hard to imagine being in a group that harnesses so many hopes and dreams and ends up paranoid and […]

I find political arguments against breeding to be a bit silly. Well, yah, there are already enough people in the world and kids that need homes. But in our specific area, people are choosing to have fewer kids and many people are adopting. Actually, from all that I understand, adopting a […]

When my father was in a coma in the emergency room a few weeks ago, I initially didn’t know what to do. I knew that I wanted to go down there, but I wasn’t sure why. I hadn’t been close to my father in over 10 years. He had done things to my […]

My dad died. Twice, actually. The first time that he died was very suddenly. He suffered from a pulmonary embolism on the morning of February 23rd, 2008. His wife heard him breathing heavily as he left the bathroom and grabbed something from his closet. Shortly after, he collapsed.
She called 911 immediately and they […]

My father suffered from a pulmonary embolism on Saturday that gave him severe brain damage.  On Wednesday morning, it was clear that he would not improve or survive and that keep him on life support was the equivalent of torture.  The hospital staff extubated him in the afternoon and he took his last breath at […]

I am 36 today, which is a number divisible by many other numbers. While the birthdays that fall on decades (ie turning 30, 40, etc) still stand out for me as important markers, birthdays that are very divisible serve to offer more subtle comparisons and reflections. Here are some of some of the ones […]

A few friends of mine have mentioned astrology to me recently as a tool that they use for thinking about their life and making choices. They have asked me whether I “believe in it”. I suppose that I don’t really “believe”, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t understand why it is useful. […]

I suddenly dropped off the face of myspace.com. It wasn’t really working for me, anyways. I suppose that I did start semi-serious blogging there, but I knew I wouldn’t last there. I had started a facebook account, which seemed much more fun and I also am on tribe.net, where I like the topic-based forums.
J- came […]