I love poetry and writing but never knew I wanted to write myself, because I was scared of what others would think <3

Direct answer: Early on, many biologists treated sugars on proteins and lipids as “decorations” because they were hard to map, hard to sequence, and hard to connect to a clear function. The core problem was technical and conceptual: glycans are structurally diverse, branched, and not template-encoded as DNA and proteins are, so the field felt messy and slow-moving. (ACS Publications)

This short love story is about how a Bangladeshi-Canadian woman finds love in Korea, with a Korean man, and despite their cultural and ethnic differences, this short story is a reminder that no matter how big the barriers they have, their love will overcome them every step of the way. This is a Valentine's Day treat for all international K-Drama and K-POP fans out there.

Ray was a great guy. You wouldn’t know it if you met him. He’s an older man, homeless, a paranoid schizophrenic. Get him cornered indoors and he might be violent. Actually, it’s pretty likely. I don’t know if Ray is still alive. I haven’t seen him recently and the life expectancy for people like Ray tends to be low. I used to see him all the time.

This is a work of fiction. It uses real public controversies as atmosphere, not as proof. So, let us begin… I know how a jail smells when the night goes wrong. Cold bleach. Old sweat. Burnt coffee that sat too long on a hot plate. And that stale, damp odor that clings to concrete no matter how hard you scrub. You learn it in your first month, and it never leaves you. Years later, you can catch it on a stranger’s shirt in a grocery aisle, and your body tightens before your mind even places the memory. I did my time on the inside in South Carolina, at the state level, and then again down in Florida. County work. Not federal, but we still held prisoners for the Feds that had detainers. Still, a cell is a cell when the doors lock, and policy turns into habit, and habit turns into survival.

Will people still work if there’s a UBI in place? A long and pretentious thought experiment UBI and You There are a lot of common objections to the idea of a UBI and I’m going to try and address them over the next little while. This article is my first stab at it. The objection “People won’t work if you give them money for free”. I’m going to examine that idea and see if it holds up to scrutiny. Spoiler alert: not even a little.

I have a box full of broken boards. Some of those boards have blood on them. For years and years, I persevered, until I didn’t. On that day I failed. The boards are wrapped in lengths of cloth. I fought for those bits of cloth, I bled for them. Those bits of cloth are my belts. White, orange, green stripe, green, blue stripe, blue, red stripe, red, brown. These days brown would be black stripe, but back then it was brown. There is no black on that list.

Low taxes discourage spending while high taxes encourage it The Lie We All Believe It’s a common refrain today, more from the right than the left, but both are guilty of it. Lower taxes encourage growth. It’s also a lie.

When I got ADHD meds I lost the things that made me able to cope even with ADHD, now I am getting them back — they will help you as well This is another old piece - I haven't done as well as I thought I was going to when I wrote it In the Beginning Getting diagnosed with ADHD was a big deal, but it still took me a little bit to get meds. When I did it changed everything. I have never been good at getting back to work after being interrupted. Once I had my meds it was effortless. I could get into a fight with my girlfriend and drop back into coding without having resolved the fight. Previous me was so far from capable of that that it never even occurred to me it was possible for a human to do.

People Suck TI is a terrible person. That’s not exactly news. I mean, the guy got arrested for weapons charges and then conveniently “found Jesus” and reformed. He manages to still be a terrible person. It’s pretty impressive. Taking your adult daughter to her gynecologist appointment and insisting on the doctor sharing information with you is creepy as fuck and proves that there is something deeply wrong with the man.

How to Tax More, Get Less, and Increase Revenues at the Same Time A radical look at tax loopholes and higher marginal rates

This article argues that in Dragon Age, faith functions less as spirituality and more as infrastructure. The Chantry persists not because it is holy, but because belief stabilizes a world defined by chaos, magic, and uncertainty. The Chant of Light absorbs disaster by translating systemic failure into moral explanation, allowing institutions to avoid reform. The Circle of Magi and the Templar Order exist not to protect, but to contain unpredictability and preserve narrative coherence. Hypocrisy is survivable; truth is not. When belief can no longer bear the weight of reality, coercion replaces faith. Dragon Age shows that belief becomes dangerous when it exists to maintain systems rather than help people understand the world.

Another old story - I'm moving everything from Medium over, or almost everything (some stuff is about Medium itself and won't make sense here)

This story is from 2019, a lot has happened in the intervening years, and I'm in a different place One moment: I’m lying against the wall, sobbing so hard I can’t breathe. The tears flow down my face. It’s unexpected, came on suddenly. The result of too many things at once. It’s not about her, not this time. The only thing on my mind is that I wish she was with me, was in my arms.

This is an older piece that I just moved over here. I still agree with what I wrote, but damn did J.K. Rowling double down on the shitty views Some thoughts on J.K. Rowling and the leftist reaction to her (probable) transphobia

Yes, most women like assholes — but not because they are assholes Not a Pickup Guide If you are looking for advice on how to attract women, this might help and it might not. When I was young I was pretty good at getting women to agree to go out with me. Okay, I was actually pretty good at having women ask me out. I thought I had game, but it turns out I was just the right mix of good looking and arrogant/confident. I did learn some things from the experience though, and now I’m going to impart my vast wisdom. It should take about thirty seconds…

I still feel the languid beauty of her arms, slender, wrapped around my shoulders. The softness of her, unparalleled, welcoming, warm. The feel of her underneath me, more true, more accepting. She fills my memory. I wish I were able to erase the pain between us, the pain she holds in her heart, the wounds she carries. I wish I were able to be enough, to be the one who could take her in his arms for all time.

I can be a bit contrary at times. One thing that I do, when I’m bored and lonely, is bait scammers. I take up a bunch of their time, and really, it doesn’t have any purpose other than that. The most common scams I see are random people adding me on social media and then attempting to move things into a relationship based on photos. There are others, but this story is about that.

How can you love someone you have never met? How can you wake up thinking of someone who has never woken next to you, who has never been in your arms, who has never been part of your reality? I wake thinking of your smile, your voice, your soft accent. I think of you in quiet moments, in between thoughts, tasks. I daydream about possibilities.

There’s no reason for it, nothing happened, nothing changed, but I have a need — and I don’t know what it is for. The things coming from our southern neighbours are so horrific, and I have a drive, deep in my soul, to do something. I’m deeply, deeply angry.