On Saturday night, three friends and I went to the Haunted Hayride at Griffith Park.  I hoped for some overpriced cheap thrills and instead found something far more terrifying: a Purgatory filled with lost souls searching, pleading, clawing for escape. It starts promisingly enough.  The smell of fresh hay hangs in the air, red and green [...]

Y’know what the awesomest thing about being single is?  You can go anywhere and do anything!  Last week, for example, I just picked up stakes and drove up to Fresno.  Sure, it was for work, but I didn’t need to clear my schedule with anyone or check in.  I just rented a Kia and zipped [...]

Do you ever feel awash in a flow of information?  As if your identity is being shaped by the various social networks, newstreams, and push notifications cluttering your inbox and clamoring for attention?  Like you’re just a cog in a massive, convoluted information economy? You probably are.  And that must hurt.  Because if you’re reading [...]

When I was about 12, some kids in my neighborhood beat me up a little.  I’d been taking the same route to and from school for three years–subway, bus, walking.  I’d gotten used to seeing the same faces every day, a comforting routine.  These kids were new faces.  And they beat me up a little. [...]

The small prop plane suddenly drops out of equilibrium, careening sharply into the volcano.  It swoops down, losing altitude as it tilts at a nearly 90 degree angle.  The three other passengers and I hold on for dear life certain that we’re about to crash into a crater.  A moment ago, we were placidly snapping [...]

My smart phone officially and irrevocably became too smart for its own good on Thursday night at 2:30 AM.  I woke to a light beep and blinking indicator.  I picked up my phone where it sat, functioning as an alarm clock, on my bedside crate.  Instead of the clock I expected to see glowing on [...]

Do you remember the first time you called a 1-900 sex chat line? I do. I was 12 years old. A friend had come over for dinner and I nonchalantly asked my parents if we could call a 900 number advertised on a business card that some entrepreneurial soul had slid under our windshield wiper. [...]

A moment ago, just as I sat down to write this here bloggie, my friend cleared her throat and held up a paper towel absolutely sodden with several years worth of grime.  “I just want to make a point,” she said before tossing it aside and plunging back into the task of imposing order on [...]

Originally published 01/31/11 As I write this, it’s raining outside.  It would be a perfect day to cuddle with That Special Someone.  But I don’t have a Special Someone.  What I do have is a fancy new phone.  Which is why I’m developing. . .The Virtual Girlfriend App. Download the free version, fill out a [...]

Growing up, I read books.  A lot.  Three or four books a week.  They were mostly science fiction and fantasy books.  The occasional bit of literary fiction.  Fathers in these books were taciturn, secretive, violent, absent.  Maybe the hero’s dad was King Arthur in disguise.  Or a space alien.  Or abusive.  That was always a [...]