The Sun and the Sky
I made a wish to see a shooting star. There, a flash across the sky! I made a wish upon it. If only I had used that first wish on something practical, like a book deal or a handjob from a supermodel
Internet Advertising?
If this video is to be believed, then advertising will eventually phase itself out. That is to say – enlightenment, “a new way of thinking,” will eventually move beyond materialism altogether. The newest, most amazing way of thinking and seeing the world will be on terms of enlightenment itself, not something you can buy or [...]
The Book of a Google Faces
It’s been a long stretch of Truckin’ with Ron posts, so I thought I’d ramble a bit on the uses and abuses of ye olde Facebook. Recently, a friend of mine (who is an excellent blogger) “quit” Facebook. I say “quit” because, as she pointed out, Facebook saves ALL of your information (contact and “about me”, pictures, [...]
The Space Between
I haven’t been given to much blogging lately, as a symptom of a greater ill-at-ease that has infected my life. As an example, use my previous sentence in the context of “my purpose in blogging.” – Is this blog/webpage a venue to showcase my writing ability, as a medium to pull potential readers into buying [...]
The History of Fairfield and Jefferson County, Iowa
I recently wrote a two-part article on a basic history of my hometown, published down at Fairfield Voice. Part One: The Beginning of Time to the First Settlers Part Two: The First Settlers to Today It took me significantly longer than I anticipated to write these things. First, I put considerably more effort into writing [...]
Drinking Tea is Good for You
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/health/5281046.stm I’ll have some now thank you.
No More Frontiers, No More Discovery
I’ve been researching the history of my hometown and county: Fairfield, Iowa in Jefferson County. I know it’s a myth, the idea of pioneers and settlers “discovering” the land, when people have been living here since 10,000 BCE. And, of course, what happened to the Native Americans was freaking tragic. But the settlers themselves didn’t really think about [...]
Clash of the Titans (1981) vs Clash of the Titans (2010)
They’re both terrible, terrible movies. I was just going to publish the above sentence and be done with it, but I’m still kinda pissed off about it. Who thinks that the timeless Greek epics are not interesting stories, that they “need improving?” Seriously – reading the Wikipedia article on Perseus is more interesting and engaging than either [...]
Prolific Output into the Void.
I often wonder about how technology seems to have vastly improved our lives… when it fact it changes almost nothing. Before the internet, a single, unremarkable person with something to say would struggle their entire life to find a way to express themselves – to find an outlet for the voice, the ideas and feelings [...]
If You Touch Your Toes, You’re Worshiping the Devil.
http://www.equip.org/articles/yoga-meditation-in-the-classroom The above link is an excellent example of a conservative Christian movement against the influx of “Eastern” spiritualism in America. The basis of their argument stems from what must be an understandable confusion: “Why are so many people looking to Eastern religions and practices for spiritual fulfillment? They already have a religion that, as the Bible [...]
Helpful Spam
Lately I’ve been drowning is (apparently) Russian spam comments (over 30 yesterday), so I thought I’d translate a few and see what’s up! The best so far: Согласен с автором по поводу информации. = I agree with the author about the information. Может тоже себе сделать, буду думать. = It can also make yourself, I’ll think [...]
Strange Suggestions: Questionable Content
Subject to Suggest to Strangely: the webcomic Questionable Content Things I Like: Solid artwork, writing, and consistency of humor. Things I Don’t Like: Not enough character diversity (the beliefs and motivation seems the same for everyone), plot slower that molasses in January. Strange Suggestion: Focus Drift. Right now the comic is focused almost exclusively on relatively new characters, having the main [...]
Bad Reviews
For those of you who don’t know, I wrote a book. It’s been out for over a year now, and has received good reviews. In fact, that’s all I’ve gotten… good reviews. Some rave reviews, some “it’s ok” reviews. I’ve yet to receive a bad review, and it’s driving me crazy. It’s easy to to [...]
In Praise of America.
I love America. It may not seem like it at first glance, (and certainly not after reading some of the things I’ve had to say about our government) but it’s true. Moreover, I believe that America has been a net profit of good for the world. Of course I’m not ruling out or glossing over [...]
The Death of Growing Freedom
Well, it looks like my old blog “Growing Freedom” is dead. Apparently upgrading to the latest version of WordPress without backing things up is a bad idea. By all accounts my content is gone, even if whatever “Internal Server Error” sorts itself out. I suppose I should be upset – I put a good chunk [...]
Fiction as Real as My Breath.
I’ve been writing so much serious non-fiction I’ve forgotten how to write fun, lighthearted fiction. Or non-fiction, I guess. I don’t really have any stories to tell. Some people, I’ve seen them, they have stories. Characters, plots, rich new worlds of imagination…. I don’t. My aborted novel is testimony to that – it’s awful not [...]
Interview on “Writers’ Voices”
http://www.writersvoices.com/free-radio-online/writing/ron-khare-the-sharp-knife-of-forced-simplicity-the-numinous-rebellion/ Probably the best interview I’ve had so far. Thanks Monica and Caroline! You can also watch the interview on YouTube here: Get Volume 1 Now!
American Farmer (GF)
[This is one of my posts from Growing Freedom, my old blog on the trials of trying to start your own sustainable garden/mini-farm with almost no personal experience. This was originally posted on Apr 27, 2009] from “How To Grow More Vegetables” – “One mini-farmer may be able to net $20,000 to $40,000+ a year [...]
On Credit Cards
A credit card is a lot like a basket full of puppies held by a gun-wielding maniac. You can take all the puppies out of the basket and play with them, but you have to put them all back – plus two more puppies. If you don’t, the maniac will shoot you. Get Volume 1 Now!
Rebellious Thought for the Day.
“Whenever the legislators endeavor to take away and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any further obedience.” ~ John Locke We live on a beach with a million lines drawn [...]
A Test Turns Real
Trying to pass yourself off as a “Professional Writer” is tough sometimes. For example, having a blog. Every post you make has to not only be impeccably spell-checked and grammar-fixed, but also so engaging and interesting that the random reader, like a sailor in antiquity, will be helplessly drawn in by my Siren song and [...]
Website Update – Real Blog Post
Hi Everyone! Welcome to ForcedSimplicity.com version… gosh, 4.0? Something like that. I’m still somewhat in awe of these background flash videos. When I first started making websites in high school, we were coding basic HTML on Notepad, back when animated .gifs were actually considered cool and the < blink > tag worked all too well. [...]
