- Alcatraz
Last June I visited Alcatraz, in the bay off San Francisco, with my friend Snoo. I can't recommend it enough. On the downside, the tour guide's spiel romanticizes the violence and death that marked Alcatraz until it was shut down in 1963. My [ ... ]
- Zen And The Body Politic
I'm re-posting this article I wrote for the Village Zendo Journal in October 2008, about canvassing for Obama with my friends Kim and Myoshin. It was an ideal moment in the Obama / McCain race: the nominees were selected and the parties were [ ... ]
- Review of "The Evolution of God" by Robert Wright
The Evolution of God, 2009 by Robert Wright, has two big ideas. Convincing: Our ideas of gods or God evolve in a social and political context. When we see gain in warfare, we imagine a vengeful God, but when our interests lie in [ ... ]
- Back From Zen Camp
I got back Sunday from two weeks at the Village Zendo's summer retreat; we did an 8-day sesshin and a weeklong precepts study. I practice shikantaza, and although the word means "just sitting," there is some method to it. Indeed, our study [ ... ]
- Zen Camp
I'll be on retreat with the The Village Zendo through August 13. Hello Muddah, hello Fadduh, Here I am at Camp Bodhisattva All this zazen gives me contusions but I think I'm really tackling my delusions
- Motor: Four Strategies For Maintainability
- Motor Internals: How I Asynchronized a Synchronous Library
How and why I wrote Motor, my asynchronous driver for MongoDB and Tornado.
- Introducing Motor, an asynchronous MongoDB driver for Python and Tornado
- Meditate NYC 2012
This is my fifth year photographing Meditate NYC, organized by the New York Buddhist Council since 2007. It's an all-day event in Manhattan where a dozen teachers share 20-minute talks. Full photo set.
- How Should I Learn TCP?
As a maintainer of a database driver, I need to understand TCP a thousand times more deeply than I do now. I want to know about windows and Nagle and keep-alive and every little detail. What's the best book or online course?