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The Journals of Doc Surge is the personal blog of Chris Billows. This blog’s purpose is to explore ideas and concepts through the discipline of writing as an exercise to further personal understanding.

Check out more about me, some of my thoughts on Games and Hockey.

May 04

Depths, Mirrors, and Mine Detectors

May 04, 2016 by Chris Billows in Republic of Bloggers 0 comments tags: Human Condition, Virtuous Discourse
An open letter to Chris Bateman responding to his blog-letter Wisdom in Practice at Only A Game as part of the Republic of Bloggers. Feel welcome to provide your own input via the Comments! Dear Chris, Thank you for your response on December 8, 2015. My apologies for the tardiness of my reply. It is an undertaking to write a response that captures something I feel convinced off but struggled to articulate, especially something that I find to be complex. These letters have offered an opportunity to validate my biases and convictions so many thanks for engaging with me on this matter. We both agree that Modern Philosophy does have practices where smartness is placed above wisdom (the tone of your response in places is *smart*, but that’s fair given you’re a Philosopher practicing in Modern times – Ha!). It is at these times I would argue that Modern Philosophy could be ‘missing the boat’ despite claiming to be a vehicle of transport. Modern Philosophy is a cognitive exercise, which you consider to be a virtue as it provides a playground for nerds, intellectuals, and thinkers. This is the rub for me. While I value the cognitive intellect, I do […]
Dec 17

Response to Gender in Feminism

December 17, 2015 by Chris Billows in Republic of Bloggers 0 comments tags: Political Opinion, Virtuous Discourse
Response to discussion at… https://onlyagame.typepad.com/only_a_game/2015/12/gender-in-feminism.html Feminism as it is mostly practiced is a political movement and as such has all of the blind spots that political movements do. Solving women’s global issues through the spread of feminism is like solving war through the spread of pacifism. Both feminist and pacifist ideology are thinking systems that preach to the choir and do very little to build bridges with problem-makers. Feminism as it is practiced in your example of Ms. Melhuish vs Ms. Greer is exactly the kind of magical thinking meant to completely invalidate one’s opponent. It is diametrically opposed to the values of equality which Feminism is supposed to stand for!
Nov 15

Modern Philosophy and Its Loss of Wisdom

November 15, 2015 by Chris Billows in Republic of Bloggers 0 comments tags: Blogging, Components of Human Nature, Contrarian, Human Condition, Human Misery, Self Analysis, Virtuous Discourse
Some Background This blog-post is an indirect response to a blog-letter discourse that Chris Bateman and myself recently concluded that was about knowledge and how we know that we know. You can read it if you are so inclined at https://onlyagame.typepad.com/only_a_game/2015/09/knowing-that-we-know.html In reading Chris’ response, I was struck by the examples he used, particularly how he refers to John Haidt’s bias against philosophy. This got me thinking… I too have a bias against philosophy. It is apparent that Chris Bateman and I have different approaches about this question of knowledge. His focus on knowledge is cognitively and philosophically (epistemology) based, mine was emotional. This difference is likely from divergent backgrounds: Chris is a game designer, author, philosopher, and professor, while I am a social worker, ex-politcal party activist, and a wanna-be game designer. It was my game design interest that led me to Chris Bateman’s blog, where he taught me the value and practice of Virtuous Discourse. Enough background; the intrigue for me and the focus of this post is about my bias against philosophy. The Folly of Modern Philosophy As a part of my university coursework, I took Introduction to Philosophy which I enjoyed and did well in, but […]
Oct 12

Adventure (1979) – Reply from the Easter Egg King Robinette!

October 12, 2015 by Chris Billows in Playstates Theory 0 comments tags: Adventure 2600
It’s Thanksgiving in Canada and I can’t think of a better way of demonstrating gratitude than getting a nice response from Warren Robinette to my email thanking him for Adventure 2600. Here is his response: Chris — Thanks for the nice letter.  I meant to give you an immediate response when I first saw it, but your email kinda slipped down the inbox. I have attached something I wrote about Adventure a few years ago, which may interest you, if you haven’t seen it.  I kept copyright, so you can post it on your website if you want. I am also working on a book about the implementation of Adventure, which I hope to have online by the end of the year.  I am calling it “The Annotated Adventure”.  The book is about the program that implemented Adventure, so the target audience is programmers (I think).  But if you know Adventure, you might get something out of it without being a nerd. Thanks again for the good words.  Back when I was creating Adventure, I had no idea what I’d be doing 35 years later, but if I had made a list, it would not have included corresponding by email […]
Oct 08

Winnipeg Jets Height, Weight, and Age Rankings

October 08, 2015 by Chris Billows in Jets Flight Control 0 comments tags: Hockey Stats
With the start of the NHL last night, there has been lots of team reviews including those tracking things like average Height, Weight, and Age of each team. You can find the league wide averages for the past few seasons here: https://jetsflightcontrol.docsurge.com/about-us/nhl-comparisons/ Here is the the averages for the Winnipeg Jets: Team Height HtRank Weight WtRank Age AgeRank Distance 2013-14 Winnipeg 74.0 2 207.2 5 26.5 28 Non-Qualify 2014-15 Winnipeg 73.9 2 206.70 4 26.7 27 Conf-Quart-Final 2015-16 Winnipeg 74.2 1 208.2 2 26.7 27 TBD Unfortunately, I don’t see these numbers for the Jets from the first two seasons. The Jets are a big, heavy team that is very young and appear to be on the upswing as they made the playoffs for the first time in 2014-15.
Oct 07

NHL Weight, Height, Age, and Distance Team Comparisons 2013-16

October 07, 2015 by Chris Billows in Jets Flight Control 0 comments tags: Hockey Stats
Today marks the start of the NHL’s 2015-16 Season! Hockey geeks the world over are compiling stats and numbers to see where every team will compare. Here are the comparisons between teams with their Weight, Height, Age, and Playoff Distance collected in a simple web page.     [advanced_iframe securitykey=”f1c7736ca92d4b6153f3d7f60bd5d4d6ae63d8ee” src=”https://billo.ws/files/Weight-Height-Age-2013-16.htm” width=”100%” height=”700″]
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