TracFones. Brainwashing. Surveillance. Creep Club. CIA. Parkour. Characters named Dilbert, Humpty, Swarm and Snake. All populate a shadowy world featured in T. L. Hines’ techno-supernatural 386-page hardcover fiction release, The Unseen (Nelson).  The book tells the story of Lucas, an urban nomad who lives in the airspaces and attics of office buildings. He has no past,…

Why do the same Christmas decorations that look so festive in mid-December look so tacky in mid-January? (And why do some Christmas decorations look tacky no matter when you plug them in and inflate them on your lawn?) When did the term “Thundersnow” start getting used by TV meteorologists? Does anyone else find the breathless…

Here’s a different kind of Christmas song on which to meditate this Advent… Revelation 15 captures the worship of those who have endured  through the torment unleashed on believers by the Christ-loathing beast. This beast, demanding unquestioning fealty, adoration and obedience from his followers, tried wringing worship from the Christ-ones. As God’s final judgment is…

Shortly after I began homeschooling in 1992, I responded to a “help wanted” note I found at an  online homeschool message board I frequented. The editor of this magazine was looking for curriculum reviewers. I tossed my hat in the ring, and ended up reviewing language arts and social studies curriculum for the magazine for most…

Some cliches live on in our language long after their original context has faded. “The squeaky wheel gets the grease” is one of those cliches. Though no one I know has brought their market wagon into the wheelwright’s barn to get some grease applied to a wheel’s grinding squeal, the truism embedded in the original…

This is a blurry image, taken with my cell phone, of the organizational tool I use to order my work at the school. It’s a crumpled December calendar. The little picture doesn’t clearly show the scribbed notes, arrows, crayoned boxes, lists in the margins, or the extra thoughts on the post-it note, attached at the…