The Snail Shell

I just finished a book about Buddhism that's been much more accessible and useful than any other book about Buddhism that I've read...

Here in India, everyone's car has a stereo, and they all have a little USB stick full of Indian mp3's plugged in. As I have a USB s...

Say, the size of our solar system. What would life be like then? - almost no chance of ever finding life on other planets - we'd have to...

Assuming I'm going to vanish into blissful nirvana in about 50 years, it'd be a good idea to leave behind some documentation. I gues...

Here I am again, in my parents' house, riding bikes around Westlake, and filling out apps for colleges. What is this, 2003? Here's ...

It almost feels like a life stage: during the last three years, I learned to Consume Well. By "Consuming Well" I mean either consu...

On the super-hosed side, there's the fact that we have so much debt. What, we're going to cut 2 trillion dollars... over the next N ...

No better time to write the post than now. Here's a guide from a 3-year local who lived in Capitol Hill. Really, we all want lists, rig...

A month and a half ago, I looked at Facebook vs Google+ pros/cons . What's changed since then? - this chrome extension  hides the red n...

Lately I've felt very goal-oriented. I have a hard deadline to move out, so all the moving has to happen before then. So, too, does my w...

(I am posting this right after two more posts; if you're not RSS/Google Buzzing this, scroll down to read something a little less esoter...

I used to like soda. Then at some point I started to get this rather visceral feeling of sugary fuzz on my teeth after drinking it. Also, I ...

Last weekend: first silent Buddhist retreat ever. Man man man I have like 3 posts worth about this. First, some very basic human thoughts: ...

I love this app . Turn it on, put it in your shirt pocket, forget about it. It takes one photo every 30 seconds. On later iphones it can mak...

In high school, I juggled a fair bit with the St. Ignatius Circus Company . It was sort of fun. Like everything I did those days, I did it f...

Imagine you're a housewife. In 1900, you'd wait until your house got very dirty, you'd sweep for an hour, and then your house wo...

Googlebook (ahem, "Google Plus") is out. I like it. It might actually let me quit Facebook. But it's not a toaster; I can'...

I had always figured that, since I pretty reliably drink about 150mg caffeine/day (5 cups of tea, 1.5 cups of coffee, or some combination, a...

Normative Heuristic Microethic #3. I'll try not to say much here, because Sebastian Deterding says it better . Flip through the entire...

or, Normative Heuristic Microethic #2. And dear family: I'm allowed to swear on the internet if I'm just copying someone else's ...