Vegans are a passionate bunch — I’ve never been yelled at more on the internet than I have when trying to have a conversation with a vegan — but if they used their anger properly, they could probably save the world.

But, veganism alone isn’t going to do it.

I have to be honest, I’m not a vegan, nor do I ever intend to be. For health reasons, eating poultry and fish helps me to maintain a balanced and healthy diet. Since I can’t completely cut animals out of my diet, I focus my energies on supporting sustainable and local…

“You need to believe in things that aren’t true. How else can they become?” — Terry Pratchett, Hogfather

All it takes is posting something — anything — about religion, especially Christianity, on the internet and the aggressive atheists will swarm like hornets that just had their nest kicked. It’s almost guaranteed.

Post it and they will come.

These people pride themselves on being smarter than anyone who might be religious. Of course, because anyone religious is an idiot for believing in “fiction,” “superstition,” “lies,” and my favourite: “fairytales”. …

I’m a self-proclaimed wellness junkie, but I will be the first to admit that Wellness Culture™️ is the worst.

Especially in this age of COVID and post-truth, we need wellness and mindfulness more than ever. But, modern society and capitalism took a practice that is meant to be about caring for and connecting with ourselves and turned it into this for-profit consumerist suck-fest.

Instagram wellness influencers peddle detox teas – which basically act as laxatives and can cause diarrhea – or diets or basically everything you don’t actually need to practice wellness.

It’s also become a toxic sphere of “good…

With 2021 fast approaching, now is the time for reflecting on the dying year – good riddance. Like all of us, I came into January 2020 (approx. 50 years ago) with hope and optimism. In my own diary entry from January 4th I write:

Here is the new year. They always feel so exciting when they’re shiny and new.

The person I was in January is a naive child of the summer compared to the person I am today. But with all the experiences and pain and loss of this year, some wisdom has been gained. At least a little.

…

With each new Christmas I see, I find myself fascinated with old seasonal traditions. Whether it’s Victorian ghost stories or the pre-Christian symbols of Yule, there’s always something new to discover this time of year.

One thing I’ve learned this Christmas season is how many different old traditions there are which involve visiting neighbour’s houses on Christmas or around Christmas. Modern North Americans are likely only familiar with carolling — where groups of singers travel from house-to-house to sing festive songs and bring cheer — but there are several European traditions, some of which date back to Pre-Christian seasonal celebrations.

Mumming

NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, happens every November and participants set a word count goal (usually 50,000 words) and try to reach it in 30 days. 50k words in 30 days doesn’t sound like much, especially to some writers, until you actually go to write it.

I’d made three previous attempts at NaNoWriMo, once in 2013, in 2017, and one last time in 2018, but each time I’d failed to even make it past 15,000 words. I figured I just didn’t have some key writing component in my brain to actually crank out that many words in such a short…

If you haven’t seen the 2015 film The VVitch, you might not understand the reference to this post’s title. If you have, I’m sure you get it.

Imagine now, it’s nighttime, dark as pitch outside, and a dark figure comes up behind you — the devil in the form of Black Phillip the goat-and, whispering, offers you the chance to live your life how you want. Creatively.

“ Wouldst though like to live creatively… “

I know the price is probably my soul or something. But isn’t that what we pay anyway for the price of living the way we…

Last year, to celebrate my favourite and most spooky time of year, I wrote an article about the 13 spookiest graveyards from around the world. Now I’m back with a list of the world’s most haunted places! Thirteen of them, of course.

Just as a heads up, some of the places I included in this list are part of the colonial history in South Africa and Indonesia, and unfortunately I can’t delve into too much about that in this article unless I wanted it to be a 50 minute read. …