Slope of Hope Blog Posts

Slope initially began as a blog, so this is where most of the website’s content resides. Here we have tens of thousands of posts dating back over a decade. These are listed in reverse chronological order. Click on any category icon below to see posts tagged with that particular subject, or click on a word in the category cloud on the right side of the screen for more specific choices.

Boomerangs and Greased Logs

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Have you ever tried to climb on top of a log that’s floating in the water?

I have. I don’t remember the circumstance. Maybe it was some Scout Camp thing. All I remember is that it was really, really tough. The log was typically much larger than the one pictured below, and as such, it was extremely tough to climb on top of it, because naturally when you reached up and tried to hoist yourself, the damned thing would just spin on its axis.

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Afternoons & Coffee Spoons

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First, I want to acknowledge how I have not been my usual prolific self. My disposition toward my health is binary: I am either (a) immortal or (b) at death’s door. And (b) does not require anything severe. If I am anything less than absolutely healthy, I become consumed with whatever ailment I’ve got. Annoying muscle pains over the past week have kept me in full blown I’m-going-to-die-any-second mode, but I think it’s abating now. It makes me even more joyful to be around than usual.

Not that anyone asked.

In any case, you know me better than to think I’ve actually been lazy. I continue to work 7 days every week, thinking of little else except Slope and how to make it better. Most imminently , our long-anticipated Mobile App should have its official launch on October 1st, and our increasingly feature-rich virtual trading is making steady progress toward a full rollout this autumn.

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A Not-So-Funny Future

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This funny clip is oddly chilling. I remembered first watching it back in 1983 on my big new television that I had bought with my writing income (hey, as a teenager, consumer electronics purchases were a great pleasure!) It featured the ingenious Richard Pryor and Robin Williams in a very informal appearance at The Comedy Store:

These two men are both gone now, of course, both having died before they even passed the traditional retirement age of 65. Pryor, who had contracted M.S., died of a heart attack, and Williams by his own hand, dangling from a doorframe in his own house.

Watch the clip for the laughs (and the audience shots, since a lot of famous folks are there) but realize how unexpected and surprising the future always turns out to be.