Samuel Engelen's Blog, page 3

The Motorcycle Club

“Get some K’s under your belt, then we’ll talk Dangles.” Nails (aka Kit) was thoroughly enjoying this play of power. As silly as it may have seemed, he called the shots. After all, he had ridden over 300 kilometers, crossed the border into Burma and haggled for well over five minutes to obtain a batch [...]

The post The Motorcycle Club appeared first on contradictorian:.

There’s No Such Thing As Jackhammers

When I first got interested in online business, I was intrigued by all the stories and promises of overnight success. It seemed like internet marketing was the answer to my problems. It would be easy, and it would be quick, and I would have all the freedom I wanted. I would travel to exotic places, [...]

The post There’s No Such Thing As Jackhammers appeared first on contradictorian:.

Getting Rid Of Stuff Is Easy, Embracing Minimalism Is Not

When we hear the term ‘minimalism’ we usually think of getting rid of stuff. But getting rid of stuff is easy. I once had my car stolen. It sucked, but after a few days I really didn’t care much anymore. Today, I’ve given up practically all of my stuff. My girlfriend has gotten rid of [...]

The post Getting Rid Of Stuff Is Easy, Embracing Minimalism Is Not appeared first on contradictorian:.

Minimalism And Motorcycles

Riding motorcycles is my preferred method of meditation. As Shinya Kimura put it: “[Motorcycle riding] is not as violent as it looks from the outside. It’s very serene.” I wholeheartedly agree. Before I left for Thailand I had never ridden a motorcycle. They scared me, and it seemed to me you had to be an [...]

The post Minimalism And Motorcycles appeared first on contradictorian:.

A Confession

I have a confession to make: Sometimes I really don’t want to write these articles. Why not? Because I often feel like I’m just trying to come up with something to write about, just to have something to publish here. But that feels like lying. It makes me feel like I don’t really have anything [...]

Get Your Hands Dirty

Prepackaged meals. Step-by-step courses. Paint-by-numbers. Vacuum-sealed Tupperware. On-demand movies and TV. Prefab houses. We want everything handed to us on a silver platter. Impeccable, perfect, streamlined and ready-to-consume. It has to come in a nice box, wrapped in cellophane or similar plastic, so it’s brand-new and shiny and uniquely ours when we unpack it. We [...]

Think Again (or Catching Dead People)

One of my friends once went to see a psychic—mainly because his girlfriend-at-the-time begged him to. When he went in he didn’t even get a chance to say anything before the psychic worriedly told him that there were seven dead people attached to him. My friend—a hard core skeptic—found this very amusing and asked her [...]

Content vs. Packaging

As I got closer to writing the end of my novel, my writing slowed down and eventually stopped. One of the characters directly questioned the protagonist’s motives and I was stumped. I had no answer. I realized that I had focused more on “writing” than on “storytelling.” I had lost sight of my story because [...]

Expanding Your Mind Goes Both Ways

One of the most closed-minded phrases I’ve ever heard was “expand your mind.” Not because of the phrase itself, but because of the person uttering the phrase and the context they uttered it in. Nine times out of ten, what the person uttering the phrase wanted its audience to do was join his/her perspective. For [...]

Are You Living On A Dead End Street?

I was taking my son for a walk yesterday when I suddenly got intrigued by the view of one of the dead end streets in the neighborhood. Maybe it was the angle of the light or maybe the sounds coming from the backyards or even just that yellow sign on the street name post that [...]