The Short Form

Husband, father, writer, reader, gamer, diplomat, magpie, theist, civil libertarian, social justice warrior, techie, pointy-haired manager, traditionalist, Coloradoan, wordsmith, progressive, quotation collector, blogger, Team Oxford Comma, pedant, he/him, nice guy.

The Longer Form

• Husband of a wonderful wife, Margie.
• Father of faboo college student, James.
• IT corporate applications management guy (for a global fintech player, before that for a major metropolis, before that for a multinational professional services firm). Previous to that a documentation and standards manager. Previously a desktop and network services manager, Oracle DBA, Xbase programmer, and help desk guy. Previous to that an elementary school teacher (two years, LAUSD). Previous to that a mainframe (VM/SP) systems programmer. Jack of many trades, faker of most.
• Liberal arts graduate (History major) from Pomona College.
• Born at the very end of the Baby Boom generation (depending on how you define it), or, alternately, part of  “Generation Jones” (bleah).
• Episcopalian, in an unorthodox way (which may be redundant).

Shallow Thoughts

• I read a lot. Mostly fiction, mostly sf/fantasy, with some detective and mystery bits on the side for leavening, and audiobooks on history in the car. I also have a crack-like addiction to comic books. I spend a lot of time walking around with a book (or, these days, a Kindle) in my hand, including walking to and from lunch. My wife says my super-hero name would be Easily-Distracted-by-Reading-Material Lad.
• I watch an odd mixture of TV. Very little on the networks. Very little on a schedule. A lot of re-runs. Having a DVR and Streaming has been a Godsend. Having a kid who enjoys super-hero cartoons and science fiction shows has also been a Godsend.
• I play (and GM) Role-Playing Games. So far as I know, I’ve never encountered Satan in any of them.
• I write. Not as much as I’d like or I should. Not as much as I used to.  I used to draw a lot, too. Not enough time in the day …
• I collect quotations.
• I blog, therefore I am.

Deep Thoughts

• I think the Golden Rule is a pretty neat thing, and try to live that way as much as I can. Everything else is gilding the lily, in my opinion, though I’m always more than happy to debate any particular moral, ethical, philosophical, political, or other sort of proposition you’d care to.
• Civil libertarian. Social liberal. Economic moderate (when moderation is appropriate).  I dislike whiners, demagogues, easy-answerers, and opportunists on all ends of the political spectra. I’ve become more liberal and progressive as time as the years have passed, largely because I’ve seen too many people use their money and power as a means of getting more money and power at the expense of others.
• With great rights come great responsibilities. To those whom much has been given, much will be asked (time, talent, and treasure).
• It’s a shame that philosophical ideals don’t always match up pragmatic reality. We live in an analog world, not a digital one, so binary black-and-white choices and reflexive adherence to absolutes are rarely useful or applicable. Deal with it.
• It’s a shame that pragmatic reality doesn’t always live up to our philosophical ideals. There is right and wrong, even if we aren’t always gifted with the knowledge of which is which. One can too easily get lost in a world of greys, and so guarded commitment to some absolutes (while acknowledging one’s own fallibility) can be essential to avoid sliding down that old slippery slope. Deal with it.
• Life isn’t fair, at least on the micro level. Deal with it. But don’t deal with it by making it more unfair to others.
• There is justice. Sooner or later, there is justice. Just hope there’s mercy, too.
• Nobody has a Monopoly on the Truth. On the other hand, some folks haven’t passed Go recently.
• Tolerance does not equal agreement or support.  But disagreement doesn’t have to mean intolerance, either.
• Everybody is irrationally picky about certain things. That includes you. It certainly includes me. The trick is to recognize it and admit it, even if you can’t change it, and to not go ballistic if others don’t share your pickiness.
• Spelling and grammar and vocabulary count. Or they should, dammit. (See previous point). But language rules are also descriptive, not prescriptive. If people understand what’s being said, it doesn’t matter if you’ve included a dangling participle. That said, the best way to be sure you are communicating clearly is to follow the rules (or at least know how to follow them before you break them).
• My favorite boss in my career called me “Too Many Commas Man”.
• Aesthetics are not morality. Don’t confuse Taste for Truth, Icky for Evil, or Preference for Perfection.
• Power without oversight will be abused. Always. Sooner or later. Always.
• I used to condemn the use of shame in our society to control and lock people into antiquated social models and unjust restrictions on freedom. The demonstration, 2015-2020 (and beyond) of how shamelessness in the political arena can also mean essential lawlessness, and that “do what thou willt shall be the whole law” is an horrifying way to run a country, is leading me to add some nuance to that equation.
• Equal rights does not necessarily mean equal outcomes. But unequal outcomes might indicate unequal rights.
• People are way too worried about on-line privacy. Except for the Big Corporations, who aren’t nearly worried enough about it.
• Big corporations and the accumulation and use of capital have done incredibly wonderful things, and those things outweigh, by and large, the evils they have also done. Which does not mean that those evils should have happened, were not largely avoidable, or that We the People don’t need to keep their feet in the fire to avoid future evils.
• No single cause is all-important. Zealots who feel that way usually end up being a lot more of a threat than a help.
• God will not eternally damn you to infinite torment for a finite lifetime of mistakes. But by the time He’s done rubbing your nose in it, you’ll wish He had.
• The true Mystery is how to have a personal relationship with an infinite being. Fortunately that being is omnipotent, so She’ll do all the hard work.
• Mind your own business. But love your neighbor as yourself.
• Think about the precedent you’re setting. Somebody else will.
• It’s your prerogative to ignore what I have to say. It’s not your prerogative to keep me from saying it, nor to keep me from hearing what someone else has to say.
• Your Mileage May Vary. Maybe that’s the point.
• If hard choices of life were easy, everyone could make them. Maybe that’s the point, too.
• There is a point. Don’t expect to understand it yet. You’re still in kindergarten. So am I. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t keep “trying” to understand. Indeed, I think that’s also the point.
• Debating theological niceties is fine, and even useful, but if it distracts us from the Greatest Commandments, then we’re doing something wrong.
• Bad actions can lead to bad thoughts. Good actions can lead to good thoughts. We do what we are, and we are what we do, sooner or later.
• We can’t control the world. We can only (barely) control our own reactions to it. Happiness is largely a choice, not a right or entitlement.
• Take care of the little stuff and a lot of the big stuff will take care of itself.
• Things almost never turn out as horribly — or as wonderfully — as it seems they will. It’s the occasional exception to this that keeps us on our toes, both in hope and in dread.
• If you let yourself get pushed around, you will be.
• Sometimes force does solve things. Unfortunately. It’s difficult to tell sometimes whether it’s more unfortunate that this is the case, or that some people don’t realize it.
• But if you’re going to use force, remember: you break it, you buy it.