Chapter Title: On the Aesthetics of Guarding One’s Ass How beautiful can it be to guard one’s ass? I’m not sure. But it makes me giggle. In this chapter we’re introduced to the Norse gods Odin, Loki, Thor and Freya. They basically play their traditional roles from Norse mythology; that is to say, Odin believes…
Chapter Title: On the Genealogy of Better Beginnings The title of this chapter is taken from Nietzsche’s first essay in The Genealogy of Morals. At first, I attempted to replicate the entire opening paragraph but that proved to be quite a boring read, so I only took a couple of phrases from it. I don’t…
Chapter Title: On the Nature of Re-Genesis The titles of each chapter are probably my favorite parts of the book. I can’t remember how they came to be, exactly, but they are meant to poke fun at philosophical treatises. Each one follows the format: On the (philosophical term) of (something relevant to the chapter). I’m…
When I first set out to write Operation Cosmic Teapot, I did so to entertain myself. I wanted to write a book that would make me laugh while allowing me to look into a number of philosophies. OCT was the result. More recently, I started thinking about writing a reader’s guide because while I did…
Writers can be a strange breed, including the way that they died. Here is a shortlist of the most bizarre. 1o. Tenessee Williams (1911 – 1983) While known for abusing a variety of substances, the one that did him in wasn’t meant to get him high. Williams choked to death on a plastic cap from eye drops. The…
Whether the creators of Robot Chicken, Seth Green and Matthew Senreich, know it or not, their show is a fascinating demonstration of Jacques Derrida’s philosophical theory of deconstruction. For those that haven’t seen the show, and I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t have yet, Robot Chicken is a stop motion comedy sketch that reduces pop…
Your kids talk. The words sound like English but nothing makes sense. I know because I’m in the same boat. So, allow me to share what I have learned with you. One of my kids eli5’d these terms to me. It’s interesting boots. ELI5 – Explain like I’m five. When a discussion is too difficult…
May 9, 2026 A cold breeze smacked Joan sharply in the face as she sat on top of the building, next to a bricked exterior which housed the heating exhaust. She could see the Victory Day Parade on the streets of Moscow below her, where the military procession endlessly marched into her view momentarily before…
First off, let’s set a couple things straight: A) Geppetto was weird. On a scale from Jim Carey to Marilyn Manson, he was a Charlie Sheen, and B) There are no talking crickets in this story. A talking puppet is creepy enough. One day, Geppetto was given a lump of wood from a carpenter who…
Making the Trailer (Part III) After the images were created, it was time to start animating and compositing. Because we were working primarily with .png images, we were limited in movement. Since the style that we chose had the characters move as marionettes, this wasn’t so bad. We also decided that in the interest of…