Unwelcome Guest

            Colleen has started calling me Wile E. Coyote whenever talking about our rat problem. I must admit that the idea of painting a fake tunnel to trick the rat is becoming quite appealing.

            In the ongoing saga of our attempts to get rid of Donald, the rat living in our house, we last left off with Donald regularly eating poison hidden in peanut butter on crackers in our closet. When that failed to get rid of him, we switched poisons. A week later, going on the hunch that we might not be getting a high enough dose of poison into the rat, we crushed the poison pellets, mixed them with the peanut butter, and put that in the closet on a plastic lid.

            Donald has been steadily eating it for a week, but he should have been dead by now if he was getting a lethal dose. So, in an attempt to gain a better understanding of our enemy (and in connection to a vague scheme involving dropping a bucket over Donald while he’s eating from his dedicated food source), I set up a camera in the closet.

            We now have video footage of our unwelcome guest – he showed up around 11:00 last night, after everyone had gone to bed. Here’s what he looks like:

            It’s hard to tell in the picture, but he’s about 10 inches long, not including his tail, and 4-5 inches tall. Until now, we had been assuming (well, hoping) that Donald was a somewhat smaller rat, when it turns out he’s actually as big as Templeton (who I actually saw in person). In fact, there’s a good chance he’s the same rat a Templeton, which heightens our suspicions that he is immune to poison. Either that, or he’s somehow smart enough to know how much to eat to avoid a lethal dosage.

            What’s next? Well, we’ll likely try a new type of poison. Failing that, I just might have to go through with my ridiculous bucket plan. Or, better yet, I could hang an anvil in the top of the closet and, when he shows up, drop it on his head! Yeah, that should work....

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

What Makes Morality?

            I got myself to thinking about morality and how right and wrong can be determined. For most of my younger life, I had a very clear idea of what was right and wrong. Even when I reached the age where black-and-white thinking shifted to contain a lot of grey area, I still easily determined right from wrong.

            As someone on the hyper-rational end of the spectrum, I always figured that morality was something determined by logic. After all, if we are to believe there is some underlying, universal truth about what is right or wrong, then we must be able to follow the logical path to discover why it is right or wrong.

            How, then, is it possible for different people to have such varying rule as to what is good and bad? Some comes from external guidance – with religions or trusted people dictating right and wrong – but even without those, most people have an inherent sense of morality. Put someone in a situation or give them a scenario and, without even thinking, they can tell you what they think of it based on their moral compass.

            Which means that a person’s morality is dictated not by logic, but by emotion. Now, it is obviously tempered by their upbringing and life experiences, but the root of all morality lies in emotion.

            This actually makes a lot of sense, because logic doesn’t know morals. Logic can be used to prove a great many things – I have the ability to logically prove that there is nothing wrong with using humans as lab rats, but that doesn’t mean that it is right. That’s something that most people’s morals will immediately tell them is wrong. That decision is also logical, however that logic is built on a foundation of how we feel when confronted with that scenario.

            So I must determine that there are as many different moralities in the world as there are people. What does this mean for the underlying universal morality? Does it exist, and we have yet to find it, or are we simply deluding ourselves into thinking there is such a thing as right and wrong?

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Green Door Reboot

            Some exciting news that I’ve been putting off until the time is right (i.e. all the right eggs were all lined up) is that my wife Colleen’s new website is now live!

            After launching Green Door Life Coaching last year, Colleen (with some help from me) worked at marketing the business herself. Alas, marketing is challenging and her attempts weren’t getting the reach she needed. So, rather than continuing to fumble around in the dark, we hired a marketing company to get us on the right track.

            Over the last few months, that company has built a brand for Colleen’s company, built her a new website, and given her a marketing strategy (which has been augmented with the help of a business coach she’s working with). And, just in the past couple of weeks, everything has finally been completed – the website has been launched, the strategy had started, and Green Door Life Coaching officially has a brand!

            So I encourage you to go check out the website (watch the awesome video! And, for the geeks among you, keep an eye on the background of Colleen’s office space for references). It would also be great if you went and followed her Facebook, Twitter and/or Tumblr pages – and, above all else, point other people (especially those with ADHD) in her direction. Even if they aren’t looking to hire her, she’s regularly sharing great resources that can help anyone.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Evil Vegetarian Elves

            Of late, I’ve been reading the Inheritance Cycle (by Christopher Paolini) to Colleen. As a result, you now get to hear about one of my biggest pet peeves in fantasy: vegetarian elves.

            To start off with, I should probably say that this is in no way an attack on vegetarianism or veganism – it is merely my opinion relating to an aspect of world building.

            Now, I completely understand the concept of elves being vegetarian – from a certain perspective, it makes complete sense. Elves revere nature and life, so wouldn’t they be opposed to killing animals?

            However, I can very easily refute that argument by saying: take a close look at nature. In nature, it is kill or be killed. Eat or be eaten. Yes, some animals eat only plants, but that’s because they lack the ability to eat meat. Elves are one with nature and, as such, would partake in the natural cycle of life. To abstain from eating meat would be to elevate themselves above nature.

            That said, it is also important to go back to the roots of modern fantasy. Tolkien. This is where we start, because prior to Tolkien, elves were all short sprites like the ones who help Santa. Tolkien reinvented the race into what is used in most stories.

            So, were Tolkien’s elves vegetarians? No. Thanks to the movies, this isn’t common knowledge because the idea that elves are vegetarians is so widespread that it managed to get into Peter Jackson’s interpretation. However, in The Hobbit, when Bilbo and the dwarves are in Mirkwood, they find themselves on the outskirts of a hunt – involving elves hunting a white elk. Later they come upon the elves feasting and, yes, meat is mentioned.

            This is the point where we reach why this becomes a pet peeve of mine. It can easily be argued that each writer is at complete liberty to make their world whatever they want it to be, which is entirely true. So what’s wrong with vegetarian elves? Internal consistency.

            When aspects of a world are created, even a fantasy world, they have to make sense. For that, let’s look at the common traits elves always have. Pointed ears. Graceful bodies. Keen eyesight and hearing. Exceptional archery skills.

            This last one is the problem. Exceptional archery skills. Why are elves exceptional archers? They are generally a peaceful race, so they would have no need of weapons unless threatened – at which point, they’d have to learn pretty fast to be that good at archery. There are easier weapons to use. No, they aren’t exceptional archers for the purposes of war – it is because they are hunters. And as they are so attuned to nature, they would not hunt for sport – only for food. Thus, for elves to have archery skills (and tracking skills, for that matter), they must eat meat.

            All of that said, it is possible for elves to be vegetarian – the world building just has to match. And, while it was his books that inspired this post, Paolini actually did a good job on the world building end of making his elves vegetarians – they have a reason for their choice and instead of exceptional archery, they’re simply very good at all forms of fighting due to their age, magic, and super-strength (making them more like Vulcans than traditional elves).

            So, in conclusion, elves can eat whatever they want – but the world and their abilities had better support their food choice.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her life coaching website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.