This is another old one - but somehow still relevant I have been thinking about this topic for a long time and finally hit on a way to say it that expressed what I wanted to say. An Imperfect Metaphor I like cats. Note, I didn't mention dogs. In fact, I’m more of a dog person than I am a cat person. Saying I like cats doesn’t impact my feelings about dogs at all, despite it being a reality. Think they are fluffy adorable little murder machines and I enjoy cuddling them.

A word of caution — this piece gets pretty personal and discusses some themes around SA and DV, so if you don’t want to read that kind of thing, maybe skip it I grew up with hippies. Sometimes we were in housing co-ops, sometimes we were in communes (both urban and rural), sometimes we were homeless, sometimes we lived in regular apartments with a group of people, and occasionally we even lived in houses (mostly my dad).

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.

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.

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 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

Hello, everyone, Dr. Mason. I came across a video titled "10 Hidden Laws of Game Theory That Control Your Life," which had 187,202 views on January 14, 2026. The channel is titled Your Brain on Glitch: The Secrets of Human Psychology. It starts off by saying…

Published in 2003, but still relevant today. Elaine Pagels contrasts the Gospel of John with the Gospel of Thomas, a non-canonical text discovered in 1945 at Nag Hammed, Egypt. Very enlightening and controversial. This is a blog post from my author's website johnstrapasonbooks.com

We are not accidents of history—we are answers to prayers that survived generations. Our ancestors trusted God with a future they would never see, and through faith, endurance, and sacrifice, they made room for us to stand here today. Black history is holy ground, and our lives are living testimony that what was meant to break us only refined us. We are rising not by permission, but by divine purpose. Our time is now.

The story is a powerful reflection on the strength, resilience, and enduring hope of Black people despite generations of hardship and adversity. It honors ancestors who planted seeds of hope under oppression and celebrates the courage passed down through families, communities, and culture. The narrative emphasizes perseverance in the face of loss, refusal to surrender to despair, and the belief that hope is not only preserved but shared across generations. Ultimately, the story affirms that Black people never back down, never give up, and continue to rise by carrying hope forward.

Design Biology Forensic Evaluation Protocol (DB-FEP) Meanings and Principles Reference Sheet Version 1.0 – Work in progress January 2026

Design Biology Audit of Abiogenesis: When Lab Chemistry Isn’t the Same as Early Earth Hello everyone, Dr. Mason here. I will be reviewing a video I watched called "How did life begin? Abiogenesis. The origin of life from nonliving matter by Arvin Ash. What the video is aiming to show I hear one significant assertion in this video. Chemistry can make the parts, but life might start without magic. Then, over time and with a lot of testing, those sections can move toward the first living system. The video also conveys something that matters. Evolution is not the same as abiogenesis. Abiogenesis is about the beginning of life. Evolution is about how things change after life has already started. That difference is correct and valuable.

A person's opinion perspective and somewhat of a metaphoric vantage point can all be attributed to a person's own experiences knowledge lifestyle and a somewhat calculated opinion forming scenario or a wide variety of scenarios through the years I have noticed that actively becoming involved in other people's situations life problems happiness celebrations whatever it might be always turns out to have extra pieces of association involved with it let's say that a person gets invited to a get together and they attend the gathering and there may be other people there that the person does not know as they meet new people and either they are going to blend well or they are not and sometimes what happens is that people want to be extra

How I Got Started Since I left the IT industry, I’ve been doing a few things to make money. One of the big ones has been Uber Eats delivery. This piece isn’t (yet another) Uber is so evil piece. It’s also not a gushing endorsement of the company or the job. Instead, it’s about what the experience is like for me, day to day. Specifically isolation. I have been doing Uber Eats delivery for about a year now, since the beginning of 2025 (it’s December 31st, 2025, as I write this). I’ve actually seen it change a lot in that year, which is rapid.

This story crosses into territory a couple of my publications cover, but since I have been neglecting Dollar Survival it is going to live here. The World in Turmoil Right now we are in trouble as a species. We are doing some things that are long-term unsustainable and have a strong probability of creating some pretty extreme climate feedback loops. Those loops will create conditions that are chaotic. Chaotic is bad for us. Our environment being in chaos makes it hard to prepare, hard to maintain infrastructure, hard to survive.

I felt a sense of madness, freedom bubbling over, through my veins. I was running down the street with my best friend. We were young, so young and stupid. The night air was warm, cloudless. No stars, the city lights made stars impossible. A city of millions isn’t the place for astronomers. The madness we felt was because, at fifteen, we were on our own. Things had come to a head with my mother, and I was no longer living with her. My friend Michael (not his real name) was in the same situation. Although for me, and I think for him as well, it was something deeper. I was still profoundly wounded by my return to Canada, leaving my beloved jungle behind and trying to make sense of a place where the world was devoted to cars and giant buildings. Toronto was not the best place for my return.

Has your heart ever had that racing feeling after an argument or a disagreement? How about thinking of what to say after it's all over? The truth is, 9/10 times we as humans don't have the "right" words at that moment or our emotions are over powering our ability to think with a clear mind. Today we are simply going to discuss how the things left unsaid, even if a little late, affect us in the long haul. So grab a bowl of popcorn and let's get to it.

I LOVE UGLY PEOPLE That's what I said. I really LOVE them. I have always thought I was ugly and not good enough. A close buddy informed me while I was in the service that I was so ugly that my mom fed me with a slingshot. I've always wondered why people liked me. But let's get back to the ugly individuals... I love the wonderfully ordinary, delightfully lopsided, and boldly unpolished people on Earth who wake up, look in the mirror, and go about their day like brave housecats with bedhead. I enjoyed Prince and his songs, but his manner was too much for me. What man likes purple? But I adored the song "Purple Rain." Life is complex.

So, to start, let's define some meanings. Omnism is the belief that all religions contain some truth, with no single one holding a monopoly on ultimate reality, and that these faiths often share common goals or wisdom, even if their specific doctrines differ. An omnist recognizes and respects various spiritual paths. I am not an omnist.