writing
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On bias in (and against!) romance novels.
Romance novels espouse a radical philosophy, that our joy matters as much as power, progress, or fame.
aesthetics of care, AI, AI algorithm, AI algorithms, algorithm, ancestry, artificial neural networks, beach reads, bias, book review, books, Christina Lauren, Ciara Smyth, data training, dating algorithms, dating apps, dating service, DNA, genetic ancestry, genetics, guilty pleasure, happiness, Maggie Nelson, matchmaking, On Freedom, online dating, pleasure, predictive algorithm, prejudice, prejudice against romance novels, reading, romance, romance novel, romance novels, romantic compatability, silent mutations, soulmate, The Falling in Love Montage, the pursuit of happiness, The Soulmate Equation, The True Love Experiment, writing
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On Jenn Shapland’s ‘The Meaning of Life’ and boundary conditions.
As we live, we must fine a way to greet the world with delight & joy.
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On translation and quantum mechanics.
We have so many ways to depict the world – they’re not all equally good for all ideas.
3 body problems, 3-body problem, base ten numbering, Beyond Weird, Child with a toy hand grenade in Central Park, Chinese, Dance Your Ph.D., Dance Your PhD, decimal notation, describing photographs, Diane Arbus, does God play dice, Eliot Weinberger, God does not play dice, God is a gambler, God is an inveterate gambler, grain size of the universe, Hugh Everette, infinite precision, infinite series, irrational numbers, language, math, math is language of universe, mathematics, meaning of quantum mechanics, metaphoric language, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Ninetween Ways of Looking at Wang Wei, Perry Link, Philip Ball, physics, pi, pixelation of physical space, precision, quantum mechanics, quantum physics, Richard Feynman, Science Olympiad, Stephen Hawking, three body problem, translating, translating mathematics into words, translating poetry, Translation, voxelation, what does quantum mechanics mean, Write It Do It, writing
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On writing.
By writing, we can prove that we really do exist. But not everyone in jail has access to even as much as a sharpened pencil.
action permanence, depression, deprivation in jail, drug trip, drugs, ego death, jail commissary, jail poetry, medicine, mushroom tea, pencil sharpener, pencils, pencils in jail, Portland, psilocybin, psilocybin mushrooms, psychedelic, psychedelic drugs, psychedelic medicine, psychedelics, PTSD, PTSD cures, Sacred Knowledge, shrooms, suffering in jail, teaching in jail, teaching poetry in jail, trip, trip report, William Richards, writing, writing in jail
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On bowerbirds, process, and happiness.
In a world where not everyone wins, we can either prepare to mope or learn to enjoy the process of our lives.
abolition, abolitionism, art, attention economy, Bestiary, birds, Bower, bowerbird, bowerbirds, children, corvids, crow family life, crow intelligence, crow smarts, crows, crows using tools, Donika Kelly, goal-oriented, goals versus process, jail, jail poetry, mass incarceration, mate choice, mate selection, mating, mating behavior, non-coercive mating, parenting, poetry, process-oriented, psychology, self-actualization, self-help, sexual choice, sexual selection, social media pyramid, storytelling, suffering in jail, teaching in jail, teaching poetry, teaching poetry in jail, tool use, tropical birds, War on Drugs, writing
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On reading poems from Donika Kelly’s ‘Bestiary’ in jail.
Will poems about lovelorn bowerbirds help men in jail for domestic violence? At least the words are beautiful.
abuse, abusive relationships, affirmative consent, AI, art, assault, Bestiary, Bower, bowerbird, Bruce Weigl, child abuse, Child Beater, consent, CPS, creation, DCS, desire, domestic, domestic violence, Donika Kelly, drinking, Heartbreak, incarceration, jail poetry, Kavanaugh, kindness, love, love poems, mass incarceration, mouse, objectification, poems, poetry, pornography, pre-emptive excuses, relationships, respect, romance, sex education, sexual assault, sexuality, teaching in jail, teaching poetry in jail, That Cat, The Impossible, trauma, violence, What Gay Porn Has Done for Me, writing, writing poetry
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On courage, parenting, and Sergio de la Pava’s ‘Lost Empress.’
It takes real courage to do something hard day after day with nobody watching, nobody cheering.
a meaningful life, accounting, brain damage, bravery, concussion, courage, David Foster Wallace, Dorothy Dinnerstein, emotional pallet, fatherhood, Fatherhood in Pieces, finite bravery, football, good parenting, heroism, how we act when no one is watching, interminable tasks, Lost Empress, meaning, Michael Chabon, parenting, Pops, raising children, raising kids, Sergio De La Pava, Sisyphus, sports, suicide, The Mermaid and the Minotaur, The Pale King, writing
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On clarity, Matthew Zapruder’s “Why Poetry,” and reading Bruce Weigl.
We should strive for clarity, out of love for those willing to listen.
abuse, Billy Collins, blaming victims, Blast Furnace, Bloomington, Bruce Weigl, childhood, clarity, drug abuse, drug use, honesty, honesty in writing, Introduction to Poetry, jail, mass incarceration, Matthew Zapruder, memory, metaphor, Monroe County Jail, New Leaf New Life, poems, poetry, prison, psychiatry, psychology, PTSD, rape, recovery dorm, rehab, rehabilitation, repressed memories, say it clearly and you make it beautiful, sexual abuse, Spotlight, symbolism, The Impossible, Tom McCarthy, trauma, Why Poetry, writing
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On reading Playboy from the 1970s.
Take away the rampant chauvinism and Playboys from the sixties and seventies are actually pretty good magazines.
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On biomedical research (and why I no longer do it).
Getting a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Stanford is excellent preparation for two careers. One, becoming a research professor at one of our nation’s universities, in which case you get to help mint more Ph.D.s because the workforce employed by research professors is primarily composed of doctoral candidates. Two, conducting bioscience science research at one of…
Frank Brown Cloud 