My name is Enoch Maarduk. I am the CEO of PHANTASM, which is an acronym for Preventing Horrors and Nightmares Through Active Spectrum Monitoring. Was a movie too, but since it’s a regular dictionary word, we use it. As our previous, and now comatose, CE phrased it our mission statement is: When a person, or […]
Read More →Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter. – Mark Twain You don’t stop laughing because you grow older. You grow older because you stop laughing. – Maurice Chevalier The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing […]
Read More →Let’s agree (just for the sake of this convoluted discussion) that the Universe exists. I mean, I’ve written the sentence above and you’re reading it. Some kind of “thing” exists. In other words, it’s not some kind of “Matrix” projection or extraterrestrial simulation – there is a real world and we live in it. If […]
Read More →I live on the third floor of a three-story condo unit. Nice community. Gated. Not sure how secure it is though. I was drinking a beer the other day with Pat — the maintenance guy — and we started talking about security, and somehow he let it slip that the gate code for the maintenance […]
Read More →We like to think of ourselves as urbane, sophisticated, intelligent. We modern folk are not superstitious – we believe in science and technology and the practical applications thereof. We scoff at our ancient ancestors and all the gods, spirits, and mystical forces they revered and worshiped. We look at the pantheon of Roman, Greek, Norse […]
Read More →There are mentally-stimulating, thought-provoking, and often disturbing side effects to a continuous and non-stop exposure to global events via the Internet. It offers a very unsettling, uneasy, sometimes horrific, and confusing notion of what it means to be human. We are now exposed – through online news, social websites and many other portals – to […]
Read More →Most people love cats or dogs. Maybe birds. Shoot, even reptiles. Snakes. Hamsters. Gerbils. (Seriously, gerbils?) I love the dung beetle. I know, it just seems so wrong. I think the immediate response of most people has to be “huh,” or some more colorful derivation thereof. A great many people simply stare at me blank-faced […]
Read More →He was dreaming. That had to be it. He remembered some of his Shakespeare – To sleep, perchance to Dream; Aye, there’s the rub, That makes Calamity of so long a life: He did not feel like his life was a calamity. However, he was indeed old – he was completely aware of that fact […]
Read More →Generally speaking, I leave Biblical explication to others eminently more qualified. However, in the process of some research for a book I am laboriously laboring over, I came across something so compelling that I thought you might want to read about it. This is from Revelations 13:18, of the Christian New Testament: Here is wisdom […]
Read More →I want to talk about an ancient fable, “The Hare and the Tortoise,” because it is very appropriate for today’s world – both in terms of our personal lives and our business endeavors. Everyone is hopefully familiar with that ancient tale but – for the sake of universal clarity and a shared starting point – […]
Read More →The official publication of the United States Chess Federation (USCF) is Chess Life magazine. And, they just published a short story that I wrote. Also, please don’t start a sentence with and… Anyway, you can read this great short story and also support the USCF, which is a wonderful organization promoting chess and the fine […]
Read More →At every level of any business organization you will encounter people who believe in perfection, and will often transfer that misguided notion to anyone unfortunate enough to work under them. Why, you might be wanting to ask me (perhaps with a smack to my head) would I consider the quest for perfection in a business […]
Read More →We should all be familiar with the succinct and profound military attack plan best expressed as “divide and conquer.” The phrase is often attributed to Julius Caesar (100 to 44 BCE) — “Divide et impera” if my Latin serves me correctly. Okay, fine, I looked it up… “Divide and conquer” is a simple and robustly […]
Read More →After a long day at work I settled into my favorite chair, relishing the solitary adult beverage I normally permit myself, and sat scanning through the news on my digital device of choice, looking desperately for something which, upon reading, wouldn’t prompt me to run screaming into the night and calling for my binky – […]
Read More →With all the craziness going on in American society, it’s no wonder my mind did a Dobie Gray and drifted away into thoughts about violence and mayhem. Not writing it down is just killing me… Hah. It made me ponder our culture and the daily exposure to violent things. Here goes something (or nothing): Axe […]
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