“Hay fever. Hay pneumonia. Hay coma. My last breath is a sneeze.” ~Green Bük, 1994 “…a falsely heightened sense that my own morality was superior…” ~Wil, 2019 One of these days I’m going to have the ultimate sneeze, one that gets out all that bad stuff: the anger, the stink of old age, the accumulated…

This week has been loaded like a fast food baked potato… The Weather: This week the National Weather Service issued their highest level of severe thunderstorm caution. We all expected to be under the rage of tornadoes all day, but it didn’t rain at all until the next morning, and none of that was severe….

My wife Abby has been able to lose some weight since about August 2017. If you want to know how much and how she did it, ask her. She looks thin to me. I temper this inclination to see her as too thin with the very real notion that almost all human bodies we see…

Earlier this week I weighed 151 pounds. I stand 6′ 1″  tall, which means that I am thin. I happen to think this is a really good weight for me. Part of my success at being a good weight is that I am active; in addition to my work as a photographer and the necessities…

It’s been one of those weeks as a news photographer; one of those weeks we will all remember years from now. It started eight days ago with a brutal fatality crash south of Ada involving a sand truck, which I covered. Later that night in Seminole County, an SUV and a Konawa activities bus collided,…

My fellow Oklahomans and I are aware that Governor Kevin Stitt signed the so-called “permitless carry” bill February 28, which allows Oklahoma residents 21 and older to carry open or concealed firearms without a permit, background check or training. The law takes effect November 1. This was the first item Stitt signed into law. As…

Am I attending Open Mic Nyte for all the wrong reasons? Am I there just to be the center of attention? If that is the case, has my whole life been one giant egogasm? Come on you target for faraway laughter, come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr, and shine! ~Pink Floyd We all…

Here is the current paradox that troubles me… “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” This is a foundational tenant of skepticism. At that same time last fall, supposed skeptics and free thinkers were asking me to believe claims of sexual misconduct against various politicians and celebrities. I am not advocating inappropriate sexual conduct. And of course…

This has got to be the health care laugh of the decade: Teladoc. Why? Here’s my very short story. Two years ago our corporate office decided to offer this service as part of our compensation. For a $25 co-pay, we could call a doctor on an 800 number, tell him/her what was wrong, and they…

Things to stop doing: Stop blaming everyone else for your misfortune. Guilty or not, your resentment has no effect on their lives, and does not enrich your own. “Resentment is like taking poison and waiting for someone else to die.” Stop trying to disabuse people of their suffering. They love it more than anything else….

I am often surprised and frustrated by willful ignorance, and the worst of all these offenses is the willingness to believe in god. These instances are the awfulest, silliest, most damaging beliefs because they distort reality, create an environment in which we are inclined to believe lies, and lead us to debate whether or not…

For some time this month I have been coming back to a vexing question: why “people”? Why do we spend so much time and energy being angry, being disappointed, criticizing, vilifying, and trying with all our might to change and control people? Is it that we are programmed as a hive, and feel we must…

Something that has always troubled me a lot: people with inaccurate self images. It troubles me because I have known people who thought they were the spit, but were, in fact, insufferable losers. Also, I worry I am like that. A perfect example of this is “Katy,” a woman I knew who killed herself years…

While I was writing this, it turned into an all-purpose rant/repository for my angry notes. Alternate title: The Lame Naming Scheme of Marketing “Oh, yeah, bro. The XX-series is totally 2016. You should upgrade to the YY!” And thus, marketing is born. Products are sold mostly on their perception, and much of that perception is muddled…

Presumption of innocence: “Ei incumbit probatio qui dicit, non qui negat.” (the burden of proof is on the one who declares, not on one who denies). Criminal conviction by public opinion, usually through the media, and more recently through social media, is one of the most dangerous aspects of 21st century society. It feeds into…

I saw a post on social media recently about the “dangers” of vaccinations. The post included the word “shocking” in the title, and contained unattributed “facts,” and major errors, including misidentifying the FDA as the “Federal Drug Administration.” I am a vaccine proponent, and here’s why… I am old enough to know polio and smallpox…

There have been thousands or millions of opinions rendered since Sunday night’s mass shooting in Las Vegas. Virtually all of them have been vehement pronouncements of unassailable “truths”, such as, “This was an act of pure evil,” or, “this guy should burn in hell,” or, “we need gun control now,” or, “guns didn’t do this,…

I admit to being at least a little giddy about being handed a brand new iPhone 7 Plus by my newspaper this week. Although I didn’t ask for it, many on our staff had experienced shortcomings in the iPhone 6S in our hands, and yearned and lobbied for the next big step up. Though neither…

Faithful readers of the Giant Muh know how down I’ve been this week about some of my fellow photographers being laid off from their jobs at The Oklahoman. I was taking stock of this last night as I drove to my final assignment of the day (which I actually assigned myself), the Pontotoc County Free…