Kal Spriggs

Category: Society

  • From a Certain Point of View

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    ka1spriggs
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    A while back, I was riding in a pickup truck.  This is notable only for the fact that the girl driving it was consistently using about three feet of the right lane while driving in the left.  As a passenger, I found that pretty terrifying and said something to the effect of “Jesus, what the…

  • Enabling Others (In Good Ways)

    Enabling Others (In Good Ways)

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    ka1spriggs
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    I see a recurring theme on social media of late.  If someone doesn’t like what an author/creator is doing or the direction they took, the first response seems to be “I hate you and everything about you.”  Some of this seems to be politics and identity based, because God knows, we’ve become a fractured society…

  • Kal’s Christmas Gift Ideas

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    ka1spriggs
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    So, for those of you who find difficulty in buying gifts for your family and friends, here’s a set of suggestions.  What do you get for the person who has everything?  Or the nerd in your life?  What about when you buy that awesome gift for yourself and then suddenly realize that your significant other/spouse/favorite…

  • The Mars Plan

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    ka1spriggs
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    To say that I was excited about SpaceX’s mars plan announcements last month would be an understatement.  Their plan is ambitious and exciting and my first thought was: “where do I sign up?” For those of you who haven’t heard at this point, they want to transport people, 100-200 at a time, to Mars to…

  • How Pokemon Go is Changing the World

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    ka1spriggs
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    I took a walk last night.  And before you roll your eyes, no, I’m not playing Pokemon Go. What I was doing was walking around and watching people (I do that as an author, it helps write better characters).  I’ve seen a number of disturbing trends in our society, not least of which is a…

  • Memorial Day

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    ka1spriggs
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    Memorial Day is supposed to be a day of remembrance and reflection.  To honor those who gave their lives for their country.  To those who have served, it’s often a somber day.  Many of us have lost friends, even family, in military service. It’s a day to honor those who gave the ultimate sacrifice, to…

  • Wile E. Coyote

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    ka1spriggs
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    Robert Heinlein wrote a few times about the “Crazy Years” which he plotted pretty much where we are now.   He didn’t go into much detail, besides off-hand mentions of the general collapse of nations and civilization and all the things that go with it: war, famine, riots, looting, you know, all that stuff that…

  • Sense of Wonder

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    ka1spriggs
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    “Stop and smell the roses.”  It’s cliche for a reason.  Human nature being what it is, we adapt to things, we take things for granted.  What seemed wonderful and amazing only yesterday quickly becomes mundane and common.  The fantastic gets ground down in the daily grind, as we focus on doing the things we need…

  • Skidding Sideways on the Ice

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    ka1spriggs
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    Now on my Wednesday morning commute, we had what they call a “blizzard”.  You know, whiteout conditions and lots of this fluffy white stuff everywhere. (25 inches of it at my place, with drifts over four feet in height) More or less in the middle of this commute, I watched several vehicles driving sideways down…

  • Are You Human?

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    ka1spriggs
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    I remember reading Frank Herbert’s Dune as a child and being at once excited and awed by some of the concepts.  One of the big ones, one of the ones that stuck with me, was what I remember as the “Human” test.  Basically, you stick your hand in the box and the box gives you…