So, About Rape Culture…

I’ve been meaning to write a short piece about this for the longest time because it bugs me to no end. And now’s as good a time as any.

Please consider the following:

Exhibit A: How To Stop Rapes (But Not So Much Other Crimes)
Exhibit A: How To Stop Rapes (But Not So Much Other Crimes)

Now, this might be a waste of time because the folks who seem to use words like “rape culture” are pretty passionate about it, and my friends who tend to be skeptical of this consider it generally unworthy of response. But I’m going to go for it anyway. 

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Do You Cross Off the Last Item?

The point of crossing items off a shopping list is to keep track of what items you have left to      get. So there’s absolutely no reason whatsoever to cross the last item off the list. I realized that today when I put the yogurt into my cart, and I hesitated. But then I crossed it out anyway. Wouldn’t you?

Snark and Testimony: Funny Mormon Gif Roundup

I’ll let you check out this page for the full list of amusing gif’s (which you’ll find funny even if you’re not a Mormon), but I’ve got to paste my favorite here:

When you and your spouse make it through all three hours of church.

Seriously, 3 hours of Church might have made sense in 19th century Utah (what else were they going to do in that desert anyway?), but in the 21st century it strikes me as cruel and unusual punishment. Can’t we just alternate Sunday School and Relief Society / Elders Quorum? I’m a Gospel Doctrine teacher, and I’d be Ok with that…

Outraged Anonymous

One of the chief responses I’ve gotten to my posts (mostly posted at Times & Seasons) about epistemic humility is that going around thinking that you could be wrong all the time saps your resolve. There are evils to be opposed, wrongs to be rights, and stances to be held and doing all this work requires conviction. If you spend all your time thinking about how you could be wrong, how are you going to have the gumption to go out and do what needs doing?

I’ve thought a lot about this, and about some grand unifying theorem of epistemic humility to cover all my bases, but if such a theorem exists I haven’t found it yet. Instead, I have a somewhat different suggestion. 

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Why I Listen to Screamo

One of my favorite movies ever.

At this point in my life I really should know better than to play the music and  movies that I like for other people: I have a terrible track record. Starting with playing a Bloodhound Gang song for a girlfriend in high school (I still think Asleep at the Wheel is sort of catchy, but I’m deliberately not linking to it out of shame) and going up through playing Voices of a Distant Star for my parents a couple of years ago. At the conclusion my mother–my own mother–responded with “That was supposed to be good?” For the record: it is very, very good and I highly recommend it. See? I know better, but I still can’t stop.

In that vein, I wrote a long piece that I’m inordinately proud of called “Why I Listen to Screamo” and posted it at Times and Seasons last night. I had misgivings about posting it, but I thought that the piece was interesting even if you didn’t listen to the music. Then again, with several YouTube videos embedded of Thrice, Underoath, and Emery, folks probably will listen to the music. And if you haven’t listened to that kind of music before, it can sound a bit like sonic assault and battery. (The fact that I drew a direct parallel between “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” and “The Artist in the Ambulance” probably didn’t win me any new friends either!)

I know that, in a sense, I should stop. But I’m not sure if I really want to or not. Playing eclectic music and movies for people backfires more often than not, but I’m sort of hoping it’s like a high-risk / high-reward activity. Maybe the “hits” will be fewer, but the connections formed will be all the sweeter for it? Who knows, but if any of this has drawn your interest, go read my original piece and let me know (there) what you think.

Meet the Difficult Run Editors

Nathaniel

Nathaniel

Nathaniel launched Difficult Run in November 2012 and ran the website alone until August 2013, when he invited the first Difficult Run Editors to join him in adding content to the site.

Nathaniel’s background is in math, systems engineering, and economics. He is interested in technology, science fiction, and theology. He is an avid runner, but not a very fast one. He currently works as chief scientist for a software development and consulting firm in Richmond, VA. He is married to fellow DREditor Ro and together they have two little children.

In addition to Difficult Run, Nathaniel blogs regularly for Times And Seasons and writes a lot of reviews on Goodreads.

All posts by Nathaniel.

Adam

Adam

Without a post-graduate degree nor any current plans to obtain one, Adam must compensate by being louder. He has a background in computer science and has worked in web technology for a number of years. He, like everyone, enjoys discussions about politics, science, religion and technology. He loves his wife, reading, video games, basketball, and Jeff Goldblum.

All posts by Adam.

Allen

Allen

Allen is obsessed with books. When moving to the USA he packed two suitcases full of them, and dreads being stuck without something to read. He is pursuing a major in journalism, is married to an amazing woman and together raise a beautiful daughter. His interests include religion, Jewish, Eastern European, and Middle-Eastern history and current affairs. He has also been known to have an allergic reaction to the term “literary theory.”

All posts by Allen.

Bryan

Bryan

Bryan is a chemical engineer, a materials science master’s student, and a Catholic. His interests include country western dancing, camping, video gaming, target shooting, and (unsurprisingly) debate. If it exists, he will argue about it.

All posts by Bryan.

Ro

Ro

Robin (Ro) joined this blog because she is awesome. She’s not very wordy. The End.

No, OK. Ro is a PhD student in Computer Science with a strong background in Mathematics. She thinks running is for crazy people. She enjoys reading, playing games, doing family history, and baking pies. All of these she rarely gets to do because she is a PhD student. With children.

Ro doesn’t blog anywhere else. See excuse above. (Full disclosure: Ro and Nathaniel are married.)

All posts by Ro.

Walker

Walker

Walker joined Difficult Run as an editor in August 2013.

Walker is currently a grad student at John Hopkins University. He also did previous graduate work at the University of North Texas. His interests include religion (particularly Mormonism), economics, management, psychology, and public policy. He attempts to juggle these interests with his need to play guitar, an unhealthy obsession with James Bond movies (note the tux), and his lovely wife.

In addition to Difficult Run, Walker also blogs at Times & Seasons and Worlds Without End.

All posts by Walker.

Mahonri (Emeritus)

Mahonri

Mahonri Stewart is a national award winning playwright, with over a dozen of his plays produced in both the United States and Europe. He is also working on becoming a screenwriter, having had his screenplays optioned and win film festival prizes. He would also love to work in television some day, as he loves long form storytelling. Mahonri is currently an MFA Dramatic Writing student at Arizona State University so that he can officially legitimize his impractical career choices. He is very happy to be a husband and a father, and has an unhealthy obsession with Doctor Who and the X-Men. He also blogs at And My Soul Hungered, Magic and Mutants, and the Association for Mormon Letters’s Dawning of a Brighter Day.

Mahonri went on emeritus status in March 2014 to focus on other projects.

All posts by Mahonri.

Monica (Emeritus)

Monica

Monica is earning her master’s in forensic science with a focus on DNA; she has a bachelor’s in chemical biology. Her interests include biology, the justice system, swing dancing, and the Epic Rap Battles of History. She has a toddler, an internship, a job, and a thesis. After that comes blogging.

Monica went on emeritus status in January 2016 to tend to her little vampire.

All posts by Monica.

About Difficult Run

I’m Nathaniel Givens, and Difficult Run started out as my personal blog in November 2012. In August 2013, I turned it into a group blog by adding a bunch of my talented friends as fellow editors. (You can see the current roster here.) When I started DR, I was working a job in the DC area that had me away from my family Sunday through Friday. It was a tough, lonely period but I wanted to make the most of time I had away from my kids so I started the blog and took the name from a signpost I passed on my run (or bike ride) to and from work.

2014-01-04 Difficult Run

It turns out that Difficult Run is just the name of the little stream that runs under the bridge in the photo, but I liked the idea of putting a positive spin on adversity. After all: if a workout isn’t difficult then you’re not accomplishing anything.

DR had about 57,000 visitors in its first complete year of existence (2013) and then another 50,000 visitors in the first two months of 2014. So far,the top 5 most-visited stories are:

  1. On Rape Culture in the Ensign (The Lack Thereof)
  2. Health Insurance vs. Food Insurance
  3. A Society Meet for Male Priesthood
  4. Understanding the Missing Empathy of Ender’s Author
  5. True Math Facts That Will Blow Your Mind

Currently, we post short new pieces on a daily basis. These usually link to content elsewhere along with some new commentary. We also post longer, original features on a weekly basis. You can follow DR via email, via RSS, or on Facebook.

By the way, if you’re curious about the tagline for the website, we pick them from song lyrics more or less at random and change it up every now and then. Here’s a post that keeps track of all the past taglines, and where they come from.

(Last updated: March 12, 2014)

The Minority Report UI Has Finally Arrived

You have to watch the video to believe it, so here goes:

This technology, as the Wired article makes clear, is not some academic prototype in an MIT basement lab somewhere. Nope, this puppy is ready for primetime. You can preorder it now, and it’s going to be bundled with Asus computers. The technology is incredibly well-timed because Windows 8 (which is being adopted at rates slower than Vista) is touchscreen-ready, and the Leap Motion allows users to access all the touch-screen options of Windows 8 without touching the screen. This is good if the screen is out of comfortable reach or if you don’t want to smudge your screen, and it means that Leap Motion isn’t just a shiny gadget. It’s a tool you can actually use.

I don’t know who is more excited right now, me or Steve Ballmer.

Penny-Arcade on Faith

So… I’m still having trouble picking my jaw up off the floor after coming across Extra Credit’s Religion in Games (part 2 of 2) over at Penny-Arcade TV. In response to the question, “Why aren’t there more examples of examining faith in video games”, they respond simply: “Because gamers are antagonistic to faith.” (I’m pararphrasing, these quotes aren’t word-for-word.)

As if that little nugget of honesty wasn’t enough, they followed it up with the bold claim that all science is faith-based. This is absolutely true, but I’m utterly shocked that a prominent voice in the gaming community would A – hold that opinion and B – have the temerity to state it publicly.

So, both as as a stunning departure from the party-line of secularism and as a pretty good explanation of reasonable faith in its own right, I commend this video to your eyeballs.