One of the best Easter Songs ever written is “He’s Alive,” by Don Francisco. Here’s Dolly Parton’s live cover: Pay special attention to the chorus,…
Category: Life
For more on this project, click here. My Weird Hobby A good hobby needs to be something you could do forever. But things tend to…
I have had a fraught relationship with “Praise and Worship Music” since I was a teen. I mean stuff like “Jump,” by Van Halen: .…
The End of Everything: A Philosophy of Play (pt. 1)
Posted in Life, and Video Games
Something broke in my brain at age ten. After dinner, my dad and younger siblings would play games of make-believe, complete with ongoing characters and…
I Get Angry When People Like Stuff
Posted in Life
I don’t like Dragon Ball Or Dragon Quest Why? Well, my friend, it is because Akira Toryama‘s character designs make me angry. And you know…
Computer Programming Is Practical Philosophy
Posted in Friendly Philosophy, and Life
Modern programming requires you to be a philosopher: you have to understand what the world is made of and how those things interact to model them in code.
Computer Programming as a Lesson in Faith
Posted in Life, Theology, and Thinking Out Loud
Computer programming is a creative activity in which you have to build coherent, rational systems. This can teach us something about faith.
The Magic of Computer Programming
Posted in Life, and Thinking Out Loud
What drew me to computer programming was getting to be creative. Later, I heard someone say the whole thing is like magic. They were right.
Starting October 1st, it is officially Pumpkintide. But what is Pumpkintide? Where did it come from? What is it’s purpose?
A New Job and a New Podcast
Posted in Life, Teaching, and Top 40 Philosophy
Things are pretty exciting in Tillmanland recently. A Great New Job First, I’ve started a new job as a content developer for Smartly. Smartly is a…
Yesterday, I pointed out how the instrument I generally loathe — the saxophone — has made a comeback in the 2010s. The 80s were the…
Fruit Have you ever seen the following quotation? Intelligence is knowing that tomatoes are fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put tomatoes in a fruit…
Every study is or will be contradicted by some other study within a decade. Or, more precisely: (Please note: The text in the image above…
Two Posts Today: Grunge and the Beatles
Posted in Life
“Grunge and Philosophy: What Nirvana Can Teach Us about the Philosophy of History,” at Blackwell’s X and Philosophy blog. “Top 40 Philosophy: The Beatles, ‘I Want…
Learning from Games
Posted in Friendly Philosophy, and Life
I find it absolutely fascinating when animals play, even though their games basically boil down to pretending to kill each other. The ability to pretend…
Imagining the Kingdom, by James K. A. Smith
Posted in Life, and Thinking Out Loud
I recently finished Imagining the Kingdom: How Worship Works (Cultural Liturgies, vol. 2), by James. K. A. Smith. It’s the 2nd book in a series,…
Perception as Synthesis?
Posted in Friendly Philosophy, and Life
While checking some audio-books-on-CD, to make sure I was returning all the right discs to the library, I noticed something odd. The slip covers/pages/whatever that…
A New Site for a New Degree
Posted in Life
Yesterday — April 14th, 2011 — I successfully defended my dissertation, Empty and Filled Intentions in Husserl’s Early Work. This means I’ll be graduating in a…