Jun 30, 2017Projects Update — July 2017It’s been a long, long while since I’ve posted any public progress updates (for a number of reasons that will become clear shortly), or, indeed, posted anything at all. This strikes me as a little bit incredibly lame. Total radio silence is a common thing for writers, but it sucks…Books7 min readBooks7 min read
Dec 20, 2016Two Signings and a DeadlineThe Facefaker’s Game has been out in the world for 50 days! That’s a weird sentence to look at, because it feels simultaneously like too much time and not enough. Too much time because it’s been an incredibly busy month-and-a-half — and not enough because it’s been so long since…Writing5 min readWriting5 min read
Nov 1, 2016So I Wrote a BookA Tiny Epic in Six Parts — The Facefaker’s Game is out today! On shelves! In real life! You can buy it right now, if that’s your thing, or you can read its reviews on Goodreads and then go buy it, or you can read its origin story below and then go buy it. Or you can…Writing6 min readWriting6 min read
Aug 17, 2016For My Friends Who Hate Everything About This ElectionOn the Merits of Crashing into a Tree — I was born a conservative and will probably die one. I believe in market solutions, judicious change, individual human freedom, a sharply limited government, the dignity of the common man, and God. I believe we must solve fiscal problems using proven solutions and sensible math. I believe that rights demand…Politics15 min readPolitics15 min read
Jun 3, 2016Kim, Khloe, Craft“Keeping Up With the Kardashians” Is Secretly Genius — To keep up with my life goal of embodying every early-20's white cliche, this year my wife and I joined a gym. We even work out sometimes. Adulthood! I can tolerate this gym because it was unquestionably designed by someone who gets me, by which I mean there are 18…Kardashian6 min readKardashian6 min read
Dec 14, 2015Let’s Play a Game: Fixing SPECTREThere have been a fair number of really thoughtful critiques of Spectre since it came out. Critiquing movies is a very valuable enterprise — it helps makes us better moviegoers, which in turn helps us demand better movies — but saying “that sucked” is easy. Figuring out why, and what…Movies13 min readMovies13 min read
Nov 20, 2015The Red-Nosed LiarArt and Purpose According to Flying Reindeer/Scotsmen — “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” is poison. Gaze, friends, on the lyrics that have been warping our perspective since we were wee babes: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Had a very shiny nose And if you ever saw it You would even say it glows And all of the other reindeer Used…Christianity6 min readChristianity6 min read
Nov 20, 2015Stop Acting Like BatmanWhat the Dark Knight Has to Say About Competence — For those of you who don’t notice the logos that precede the blockbuster movies you’ve been watching recently, in the world of comic book superheroes, there are two giants: Marvel and DC. Now, upfront, I’ll cop to being a Marvel fan. Spider-man is my spirit animal and I’ve never really…Comics5 min readComics5 min read
Nov 20, 2015Chewing Our Brain FoodBreaking Bad, The Little Mermaid, and Morality in Stories — So I think Breaking Bad is a more moral story than The Little Mermaid. In case you’ve been imprisoned in some distant pit for the last five years, Breaking Bad is the extremely distressing story of mild-mannered everyman Walter White, who, after learning he has cancer, starts cooking meth to…Breaking Bad5 min readBreaking Bad5 min read
Oct 1, 2015The Tribe Covers a Multitude of SinsI had a teacher in high school who had no poker face. Everyone knew the moment she tipped from Mildly Annoyed to Actually Enraged because she started calling students “my dear sweet.” It was sort of a verbal tic. “My dear sweet” meant she was trying to be patient with…Christianity5 min readChristianity5 min read
