Everyday Junglist
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About me. You know how everyone says to be a successful writer you should focus in one or two areas. I continue to prove them correct.
Stories (709)
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Leisure and Family Formation
For as long as people in the western (particularly Christian) world have opined about the nature of the family, the contention has been made that humans have an innate desire to form and nurture families. That assertion is often made in support of various (suppossedly) pro-family political policies or positions. Less often it is made in support of the argument that human beings, particularly in the western world, emphasize work too much, and should place a higher value on leisure activities. These so called "leisure" activities include such things as spending time with ones family. I happen to agree strongly with the idea that human beings in the Western world do not value leisure nearly to the extent they should. However, my reasons differ greatly from those made by the British logician/political/religious/social philosopher Bertrand Russell in his book In Praise of Idleness which contains a collection of essays he wrote on the topic of leisure. It should be noted that the book itself was published with a general target audience in mind, and thus the arguments contained within it are watered down, and often do not withstand much genuine philosophical scrutiny.
By Everyday Junglist3 years ago in Families
When Everyone’s a Critic, No One Is
I imagine that most people view Vocal hearts as a relentlessly positive reward based system. Liking a given piece is a form of affirmation, a way of indicating that you agree with what has been written, or appreciate its style, or find it interesting, or funny or whatever. Criticism on the other hand is, by it’s very nature, a negative pursuit. To criticize a thing, to be critical of it, to be a critic, is to point out and emphasize all those things that are suboptimal, or incorrect, or illogical or whatever, in the thing being criticized. How could the Vocal like system then be a form of criticism? It is simple really, if the giving of hearts is a positive affirmation of a story than withholding of hearts is a form of criticism of it. Of course it is not that simple, many people, myself included, often times forget that the like option even exists, or are too busy to bother with the extra five seconds it might take to click the little heart. You may rightly ask, am I really that busy that I could not spare five seconds to click a mouse button a few extra times? Of course not, but I still use that excuse, and I am certain I am not alone. In any event, I do think that I am more the exception than the rule, and for most readers and writers on the site intentionally not liking, can be viewed as a form of criticism. And so what? What is wrong with that? you might be asking. Great question I might respond if you were asking and then I would point down about a half inch and say read on to find out.
By Everyday Junglist3 years ago in Journal
Wittgenstein, The Private Language Argument, and Artificial Intelligence
Author's preface: This piece was first published way back in 2018. A follow up post also from 2018 was published soon thereafter. I am combining the two and republishing here essentially unedited. I think they still hold up fairly well even five years later.
By Everyday Junglist3 years ago in Futurism
Digital Redlining
Vocal likes to think of itself as one of the most politically correct and family friendly websites on the internet. It can point to its' highly developed and detailed censorship program, and the strictness with which it enforces the policies described therein as evidence of this. Despite this view however Vocal has a serious, very non-PC problem in its own backyard. It sits at the very foundation upon which the entire site is built, the so called writing "communities" where authors are forced to submit anything they wish to have published on this site. Simply put these communities are a form of digital discrimination. Their sole function is to exclude works which do not "fit" with their value and beliefs. To keep out anything different or threatening. To ensure only that which aligns with how they want to be viewed by the outside world is allowed to see the light of day. No author can opt out, as I surely would were it possible, and choose not to submit to a community. You can not publish here without choosing a community to publish in first. In addition to forcing all authors to submit to a community, within each community lies a dropdown containing a set of search keywords, among which you must choose at least one. Again, you cannot opt out and chooose none, and worse yet, you cannot asign your own key words as search terms. They are fixed for each community, and as far as I can tell unchanging. They also happen to be very, very restrictive and have very limited applications. Certainly this is the case for the topics I tend to write about, and/or in the style and genre in which I write. I take it as as point of great pride that the majority of what I write does not fit neatly into any one box. In fact I tend to view anything I write which fits neatly into a community here or has obvious keywords within a given community with a healthy dose of skepticism. Generally speaking those works are my weakest.
By Everyday Junglist3 years ago in Journal
The Blue and the Grey
Grayson had just shit himself. This happens from time to time with young children who are potty training. Unfortunately for his mother the shit had erupted from his diapers and gotten into the carpet in his room. Little Grayson was crying, after all nobody wants to be walking around with crap in their pants. Mom was almost in tears too. Shit on her baby and all over the room. Young mothers have an incredible ability to multitask. It comes with the territory. She consoled and changed her crying son while simultaneously scrubbing and cleaning fecal matter out of the carpet. It was truly an incredible site to behold.
By Everyday Junglist3 years ago in Fiction
Man's Childhood Mom Fails to Life Up to Expectations of Current Wife
Local man Todd Steven’s wife Mary was reportedly very disappointed this week when she learned that the childhood mother of her husband of six years was not the do it all dynamo she had pictured in her head, but rather a slovenly, lazy, do nothing, alcoholic, who mostly sat at home and smoked cigarettes when she wasn’t busy bedding at least half the married men in the small town where he grew up.
By Everyday Junglist3 years ago in Families
War Declares Victory
In a stunning announcement sure to have significant ramifications for the entire world, War today declared victory in its long running conflict with Peace. In dedclaring victory War said the following "At long last, today we have defeated our eternal enemy, peace, once and for all. Humankind is finally free to destroy itself with impunity, killing every last man, woman, and child without worry or fear of some dope smoking hippie ruining their fun by going on and on about giving peace a chance or some dumb crap like that. Stupid hippies."
By Everyday Junglist3 years ago in Fiction
Class Act
In the area of Mexico where I live (Baja, California) there is really only one main highway. This road which is (very appropriately I think) known as route 1 (officially carretera federal 1) runs north south along the pacific coast (mostly) of the Baja Peninsula from almost the southernmost tip (Cabo) to the border with the state of California in the United States. There are two different "versions" of route 1 in many portions of Baja, the cuoto (toll) portion and the libre (free) version. As you might guess the toll version of route 1 is more like a traditional highway in the United States, with faster speed limits (90-110KPH, 55-70MPH) and no stop lights or signs. In contrast the libre sets up much like a state route or large county road in the states with slower speeds and either a few stop lights and signs or many of these depending on where exactly one is driving. The two versions run mostly parallel to each other, though not always. This can be quite confusing as it is often not clear which version of route 1 one needs to be on to reach any given destination. It definitely challenges Google Maps and it is notorious for not differentiating between the two, resulting in many wasted trips and miles when navigating around the peninsula.
By Everyday Junglist3 years ago in Wander
If Everyone Was Like Me
Author's preface: The below article is republished from a piece I first posted way back in 2016. Hard to believe that was seven years ago now. I was going to just republish as/is with no changes but then I realized that it did not meet the ridiculous and stupid Vocal 600 word count minimum requirement for publication so was forced to append this author's preface as a way to pad that word count. And there you have it. Six hundred and sixteen words, exactly.
By Everyday Junglist3 years ago in Humans
Eastern Standard Time (EST) Taunts Arch Rivals Vows it Will Defeat All Other Time Zones
At a press conference in Las Vegas today heavyweight champion time zone of the world Eastern Standard Time (EST) taunted his arch rivals Central, Mountain, and Pacific Time Zones and challenged any and all comers to a winner take all title fight. EST boasted that “it was his time now” and that he would show the entire world that he is “the greatest of all time.” Continuing his tradition of using humor to frustrate and anger his would be opponents he bad mouthed each of his major North American contenders with a constant stream of insults.
By Everyday Junglist3 years ago in Fiction
