Hello! I would like to introduce you to Clara. I very much hope that you accept her. Or at least feel towards her similarly to how you have felt towards me (however that may be…lol…). You see, you’re already friends with her, if we are friends, and for as long as you have known me,…
Category: g) And Now For Something Completely Different
131) Stranger Things, Part 5: Some wee critiques, and a suggestion; or Why Is Henry so Damn Evil???
I have two extremely minor critiques of Stranger Things, and one real “I hope they do better” critique. First, the minor ones. There is a profound inability of bad guys with guns to do much of anything effective (other than shooting Brenner from a helicopter with a sniper rifle, and the guard-dudes inside the house…
130) Stranger Things, Part 4: How the Great Evil will be defeated
So, how will the Great Evil finally be defeated? How will the heroes possibly prevail, as Hell gets unleashed on Earth? Dustin! One more drum roll, please…….. My best guess is that Vecna is going to rebel at a key moment, acting on some deeply buried vestige of his humanity which has retained a tiny…
129) Stranger Things, Part 3: The Master of Puppets
The true villain of Stranger Things isn’t Vecna, obviously. The Upside Down already existed when Henry fell into it, and he was initially terrified, thinking that he was dying. However, he was transformed into Vecna. Why? Presumably because he was already a super-powerful psychic dude, and he was psychotic, and he was willing to offer…
128) Stranger Things, Part 2: Eleven’s real “papa”
***SPOILER ALERT*** This contains mad spoilers for Stranger Things. If you haven’t watched it, don’t read this! * * * * * One of the enduring mysteries of the show is, WHO is Eleven’s true “papa”? Well….(Dustin! Drum roll please…..) ——— I think it’s Henry AKA Vecna AKA 001. I know, icky icky icky,…
127) Stranger Things, Part 1: I am finally cool (Plus, some Season 5 plot predictions)
I am finally cool. It took half a century, and I’m sure my newfound status as cool likely only extends to two people on the planet, but hey, I have finally joined the ranks. What a feeling! How did I attain this exalted status? Well, the other day, I was hanging with my kids, and…
125) If I Could Write a Poem
I want to write a poem about beauty and love and laughter and kindness and inspiration and heroes, about Grandma’s hands, and Grandpa’s chuckles, and the smell of the dog I had as a child and the sweet tartness of apples and the purring pleasure of an orgasm and snowflakes sparkling in sunlight and those…
116) Dealing with the Devil: Adventures in parenting, Part 4 — Role-play, kids, and personal growth
So, Siskenet had a pretty interesting discussion with a Lord of Evil eh? What fertile ground has been prepared! And seeded! Such rich soil, such abundant energy, for future conversations and questions about topics like power, compassion, maturation, stereotypes of masculinity, personal responsibility, and Lord (of Evil) knows what else! This is one of…
115) Dealing with the Devil: Adventures in parenting, Part 3 – Philosophizing with Asmodeus
“It’s like a game, Siskenet. You like games?” After a pause, reluctantly, Siskenet nodded. “Right, so if you want a really excellent, super-satisfying game, what has to happen?” Siskenet answered right away. “You have to win?” The man laughed heartily, holding his belly. “Well,” he sniffed, wiping his eyes, “that does help.” He blew his…
114) Dealing with the Devil: Adventures in parenting, Part 2 – Asmodeus and Siskenet
Siskenet glanced sideways at Faeruz, hoping for a signal, a suggestion, anything helpful at all. Faeruz, unfortunately, was staring ahead, blank, as if in shock. Which made sense. They were, after all, being interrogated by a very large, terrifying, horned creature; an actual Demon, from the actual Hells. And not just one. This one,…
113) Dealing with the Devil: Adventures in parenting, Part 1 – A Sentient Universe
So, the other day, my kids and I made a deal with Baphomet. It was our second time making a deal with a Lord of Evil. Hmmm, you may be getting the wrong impression here. Let me explain. In my Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) campaign, demons and devils are quite real, as the incarnation of…
112) From Shitty-ness to Well-ness, Part 6: Backlash, resistance, and dissociation
Why am I making such a big deal about Backlash & resistance? It’s because resistance, learning to feel into it, to approach it and eventually learn from it and harness it, IS much of the healing path. If you want to heal, or “grow” as a person, then you are working with resistance. Inevitably. …
100) A New Century
3:45 in the morning, January 1st, 2000. (yawn, stretch, roll out of bed, go pee…) Well, it’s the dawn of a new century! Actually, a new millennium! Well…I guess it isn’t really, until Jan 1st, 2001, but hey, nobody really cares about that. Anyway, whoa, that’s pretty cool. This sure feels like a unique,…
81) The Feeling of Falling
I hesitate to put my fingers to keys.Words are too solid. Once produced, they sit, motionless, changeless, static. Even the most poetic depiction of something that moves, breathes, sparks into life, Is like a box, with solid sides and a solid bottom and a solid lidEncapsulating whatever is insideIn the confines of its walls But what I…
d) Saving the World: Environmental and other Challenges of this Age of Humanity, e) The Meaning of Life and related thoughts, g) And Now For Something Completely Different
80) Magic, Motorcycles, and Mandelbrot: Part 4 – A Call for Global Revolution
So, over 40+ years, my thinking has evolved, from Magic, to Motorcycles, to Mandelbrot, as it has passed from naive and wishful hoping, to power-based command & control ways of thinking, to socio-ecological complexity ways of thinking. And this takes us to the present, where an understanding of the direction the world is heading, leads…
d) Saving the World: Environmental and other Challenges of this Age of Humanity, e) The Meaning of Life and related thoughts, g) And Now For Something Completely Different
79) Magic, Motorcycles, and Mandelbrot: Part 3 – Mandelbrot
Then along comes Mandelbrot. Fractals. Complex dynamic systems. Feedback loops. Self-organization. Resilience. Perturbations. Multi-leveled thinking. Holonarchies. Cybernetics. Nonlinearity. And your world changes. If you have gone through this learning curve, then you know, and I know that you know, that you think differently as a result. (Unless yahyah, you’re a super-genius and you were…
d) Saving the World: Environmental and other Challenges of this Age of Humanity, e) The Meaning of Life and related thoughts, g) And Now For Something Completely Different
78) Magic, Motorcycles, and Mandelbrot: Part 2 – Motorcycles
If you’ve never experienced the full, bird-like ecstasy of cruising down back roads on a sweet bike, then you’re gonna have to find your own metaphor for ego + pleasure + control + domination + scientific materialism + technology + adrenaline + Good Times. For me, “motorcycle” works fine. As a teenager, around when…
d) Saving the World: Environmental and other Challenges of this Age of Humanity, e) The Meaning of Life and related thoughts, g) And Now For Something Completely Different
77) Magic, Motorcycles, and Mandelbrot: Part 1 – Magic
“Magic, Motorcycles, and Mandelbrot” This is the tagline to my blog. It’s a TERRIBLE tagline from a marketing perspective. I do know that. It’s almost like I’m hoping people WON’T come and read my blog, b/c you show up for the first time to check out this Dan Dolderman guy, you take a look and…
54) God Masturbates
When did you start masturbating? I mean, you don’t have to tell ME. I’m just asking you to reflect. Although, whatever man, if you want to tell me, that’s fine too. I’ve been told I’m a good listener. 😉 So, when you started, did you feel guilty about it? Confused? Did you worry that it…