The awesome new online Buddhist magazine, Prapañca Journal, included one of my India stories in their second issue on the theme of "Four Protections." It's about modern-day austerity, the search for new adventures in testing limits, and the kind of privilege you have to have to seek out testing experiences.


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If you follow me other places you've seen me pimp this already, but I'm pimping it some more.

"Ghost Crossing," a short essay about Bodhgaya and the Sujata Bridge.


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1. Fucking birthers.

This thing about Ryan Seacrest, Indian stand-up comedy and your lack of faith, which I find disturbing.

This other thing, which is inspired by a Buddhist Journey.

Not sure who's still keeping up with my LJ who hasn't seen this shared elsewhere, but whoomp, here it is.

A few days ago, I learned, through Facebook updates from friends and family, that a man with a gun was holding hostages at a bank in my hometown, Kearney, Nebraska. By the end of the day, the hostages had been released and the gunman taken into police custody, and I was spared the anxious phone call to find out if anyone who died was someone I ( Read more... )

When Scott, the assistant organizer of the International Meetup, told me he was thinking of hosting a Super Bowl party, I thought he meant that he was going to email invitations to a few of his closest friends on the Meetup. Instead, he put it openly on the website. We were both a little puzzled when a handful of people who had never come to a ( Read more... )

I wrote a Buddhist review of Caprica on Monkey Goggles. Enjoy.

Also, I shared most of my India photos from last year on Facebook, but for those of you who aren't on Facebook or those who want to see my very favorites, I've been putting some of the best up on TrekEarth. They only let you upload one picture a day, but it's a good exercise in

For the first time, I kept track of all the books I read in one year. There's some observation bias at work; I sometimes made it a point to finish a book on principle when otherwise I would have moved on, and I think I read fewer anthologies and the like, because bits and pieces of a book wouldn't count for the rules I made up for this silly ( Read more... )

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Someday soon I'll write something just for LiveGerbil, cause I've been neglecting you lot, but for now, read what I wrote here: Kurt Cobain Vs. Guitar Hero, Part One and Kurt Cobain Vs. Guitar Hero, Part Two.