Sometimes it’s better to just sit back and survey the situation. If you choose your words carefully, people will pay more attention to what you don’t say than what you do. And then when you talk, your words will mean more. I haven’t followed professional wrestling for something like 15 years, but I was a […]
~~ Continue reading Sunday Snippet: Vince McMahon on Beyond the Rhetoric.
I’ve had the Nintendo Switch for just over a year now. It’s a quirky little console that doesn’t fit neatly into traditional gaming conventions. As a result, as fun as it may be, it’s also not without its challenges and shortcomings. But some of these can be overcome with cheap Nintendo Switch accessories! Here I […]
~~ Continue reading Vlog #84: Cheap Nintendo Switch Accessories on Beyond the Rhetoric.
At a casual little get-together the other day, someone exclaimed that out of everyone in attendance, I probably had “the best gig.” For the most part, everyone else had a regular 9-to-5 kind of job or they engaged in some sort of shift work. In either case, I was the only one who had a […]
~~ Continue reading The Biggest Challenges I Face as a Freelancer and WAHD on Beyond the Rhetoric.
I enjoy a variety of movies. Movies that make you think, like Dead Poets Society. Comedies like Idiocracy (which is actually a very smart movie) and Office Space. Superhero flicks and rom-coms and Japanese anime. Given that this list only spans about a six-year period, though, there may be a rose-tinted glasses effect going on […]
~~ Continue reading My Top 5 Favorite Movies of All-Time on Beyond the Rhetoric.
I was never interested in being the “next whomever.” I just wanted to be the first Chris Jericho, because I knew if I wanted to make it, I had to do something different. A big personality, a knack for catchphrases, and flashy clothes that are literally flashy. Yup, that’s “Lionheart” Chris Jericho all right. The […]
~~ Continue reading Sunday Snippet: Chris Jericho on Beyond the Rhetoric.
Remember when practically every cell phone company had a different charging connector? You couldn’t charge your Sony Walkman phone with your LG charger, and you couldn’t use your Nokia charger with your Motorola V60. That was just unfathomable. These days, things are a lot better with far fewer standards, but the transition period between standards […]
~~ Continue reading Vlog #85: Embrace the Dongle Life, I Guess on Beyond the Rhetoric.
If you’ve been following this blog for the last few years, then you’ll know about my struggles as a work-at-home dad. I have a tough time trying to balance my professional duties with my parental ones. The third shift is brutal, but sometimes necessary, and I just don’t know how to shut it down. But […]
~~ Continue reading On Being Able to Tuck Your Kids In at Night on Beyond the Rhetoric.
So, you already know what I’m into these days in terms of TV shows, music, video games and podcasts. What about the stuff I actually make? There are the blog posts here on Beyond the Rhetoric, of course, as well as the weekly vlog, but my day job is that of a freelance writer. Want […]
~~ Continue reading What (and Where) I’ve Been Writing Lately on Beyond the Rhetoric.
The most important thing about David is that restlessness, the willingness to throw it all overboard and start again, the drive to always do better, that there’s a palpable, actual dynamism to his places, which is rarer than rare. Just last night, I finished reading Medium Raw by the late Anthony Bourdain. It contains a […]
~~ Continue reading Sunday Snippet: Peter Meehan on David Chang on Beyond the Rhetoric.
It’s been a long and difficult road, my friends. Okay, it probably hasn’t been that long, but it’s certainly great to be back in the saddle again. And by saddle, I mean the YouTube Partner Program. And by “back in,” I mean currently “under review.” Potato, potato. Oh, I suppose that doesn’t really work in […]
~~ Continue reading Vlog #86: The New YouTube Millennium Club on Beyond the Rhetoric.
We’re in the full swing of the summer heatwave and all the kiddos are starting to get bored out of their minds. With that in mind, we could probably all benefit from some summer survival tactics, tips and advice for making the most of this gloriously scorching time. It’s time for the What’s Up Wednesdays […]
~~ Continue reading What’s Up Wednesdays: Summer Survival on Beyond the Rhetoric.
Even though I haven’t watched the show in years, and even though I know it’s not really real, I enjoyed Dragons’ Den for a time. My American readers may be more familiar with Shark Tank, which is basically the same thing. And regardless of what you might think of Kevin O’Leary, he pounded home at […]
~~ Continue reading Getting Measured, Getting Done, and Getting Overwhelmed on Beyond the Rhetoric.
Insecurely teasing a teenager is a privilege of fatherhood. And I grew my second mustache for the same reason all your weird dads grew theirs: it is an evolutionary signal that says, “I’m all done.” A mustache sends a visual message to the mating population of Earth that says, “No thank you. I have procreated. […]
~~ Continue reading Sunday Snippet: John Hodgman on Facial Hair on Beyond the Rhetoric.
We’ve been to Stanley Park for the Ghost Train and Christmas Train, but several years have passed since we last explored the rest of area. I think it’s been about a decade since I’ve been to the Vancouver Aquarium and, understandably, a lot has changed. But this was the first time for Addie, so it […]
~~ Continue reading Vlog #87: The Vancouver Aquarium Experience on Beyond the Rhetoric.
There was a recent article published in Forbes where contributor Panos Mourdoukoutas asserted “Amazon should replace local libraries to save taxpayers money.” From what I can gather, the piece has since been pulled, but you can still access it via the Google cache. Mourdoukoutas says that public libraries no longer offer “the same value they […]
~~ Continue reading In Defense of the Public Library on Beyond the Rhetoric.
I’ve used the term “kitty corner” for as long as I can remember. It refers to when something is diagonally across from something else, usually in the context of a physical location somewhere. The grocery store is kitty corner from the coffee shop. Using my little makeshift diagram below, the blue cat is kitty corner […]
~~ Continue reading Idiomatica: Why Kitty Corner? on Beyond the Rhetoric.
In theory, any scrappy young kid with a tablet and a Wi-Fi connection could pick up a pen and become the next big thing. This is what was and still is great about the Internet: With the right grit, everyone can carve out a place for themselves. There’s just one problem — the party’s on […]
~~ Continue reading Sunday Snippet: Sarah Andersen (Sarah’s Scribbles) on Beyond the Rhetoric.
What does a typical weekend at the Kwan household look like? Well, there’s not really such a thing as a “typical” weekend for us. That’s mostly because no one in this house really adheres to a “typical” Monday to Friday, 9 to 5 kind of schedule. But sometimes, just sometimes, we play like normals and […]
~~ Continue reading Vlog #88: Costco Poutine and Tiny Planets on Beyond the Rhetoric.
The English language is filled with all sorts of common sayings that we all use all the time. Some people get a little irked if someone declares they’re having “a case of the Mondays.” Other people aren’t exactly fans of “filler” phrases like “at the end of the day” and “at this point in time.” […]
~~ Continue reading 5 Common Sayings That Annoy Me on Beyond the Rhetoric.
You can’t fit a square peg in a round hole, or so the saying goes. But what if you can’t find a square hole? As a social species, we humans are constantly looking for a sense of belonging. On Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the need for love and belongingness supersedes the need for accomplishment, validation […]
~~ Continue reading Finding Somewhere I Belong on Beyond the Rhetoric.
