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This site is built by Keith Buhler more or less from scratch in plain text. It is hosted for free by the good folks at [Github](https://github.com). Below, I explain more details about the site.
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This site is built by Keith Buhler more or less from scratch in plain text. It is hosted for free by the good folks at [Github](https://github.com).
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### Content
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### Map
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The site is constantly being revised and updated because of my ADD. However, the main information is the BLOG (BUHLER REPORT), RESEARCH (PHILOSOPHY), and PROJECTS which includes some of my WRITINGS and other fun SANDBOX projects.
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The site is constantly being revised and updated because of my ADD. The current iteration probably redirects to a live-updating Notion site. which includes some of my WRITINGS and other fun SANDBOX projects.
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### Acknowledgments
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I learned to write Markdown and how to use Github with major help from [Dan Sheffler](http://www.dansheffler.com/), Jekyll, Michael Rose, and [W3Schools](www.w3schools.com).
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The little "KB" Logo I used for awhile was created by LogoMaker and <ahref="http://www.flaticon.com/authors/freepik">freepik</a> from <ahref="http://www.flaticon.com/">Flaticon</a>. It is licensed under <ahref="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/"title="Creative Commons BY 3.0">CC BY 3.0</a>. Create your own, free. (Thanks, <ahref="http://logomakr.com"title="Logo Maker">LogoMaker.com</a>)
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### Source Code
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You can view and even duplicate the source code on Github [by clicking here with the mouse machine](http://bit.ly/2lYmQsa).
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### DIY
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If you know programming, you can make your own similar website easily, over which you have total control. If you have zero programming experience, but you are tech-curious, you can do it. It will take some work. Start [here](http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2014/08/build-blog-jekyll-github-pages/). (Alternately, I could [make yours for you.](/sites))
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If you know programming, you can make your own similar website easily, over which you have total control. If you have zero programming experience, but you are tech-curious, you can do it. It will take some work. Start [here](http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2014/08/build-blog-jekyll-github-pages/).
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### History
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This site is my *eighth* draft. The [2013 first try](https://web.archive.org/web/20130511005256/http://keithbuhler.com) used GoDaddy's automatic one page builder and it was terrible. The [2015 second try](https://web.archive.org/web/20141217142037/http://keithbuhler.com/) with Web Zyro's automatic builder was also not great. Ultimately, I wanted more control over content and style, so I kept searching.
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This site is my *ninth* draft. The [2013 first try](https://web.archive.org/web/20130511005256/http://keithbuhler.com) used GoDaddy's automatic one page builder and it was terrible. The [2015 second try](https://web.archive.org/web/20141217142037/http://keithbuhler.com/) with Web Zyro's automatic builder was also not great. Ultimately, I wanted more control over content and style, so I kept searching.
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[Dan Sheffler](http://www.dansheffler.com) showed me his site and got me started using Markdown. There was a learning curve, but I am tech curious and enjoyed the problem-solving. Over Christmas 2015, I worked compulsively on making the content and organization the data. Versions 3-6 were failed attempts at using Github (first username was circularreason.github.io). Version 7 worked. Now it's a work in progress.
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Design-wise, I started with Dan Sheffler's site and made changes inspired by [Baron Peter Von Elswyk](http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~pdv12/research.html) and [Andrew M. Bailey](http://www.andrewmbailey.com/). After learning a lot about CSS by building from the ground up, I started over with the very powerful and beautiful [Minimal Mistakes Layout](https://mmistakes.github.io/minimal-mistakes/about/) from New York designer Michael Rose, and have made slight changes from there.
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In May 2017, I made a major shift toward the "Less is More" layout because it had additional functionality for sub-menus in the masthead. Even though I sandboxed this transition, upon implementation it of course broke a bunch of things. I am still in the process of making the Less is More CSS play nicely with the Minimal Mistakes CSS.
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I was able to land a job in 2017, so I stopped updating the site until 2023.
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Now it's a simple landing page serving my revised career goals.
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I met Andre at a Christian Philosophy conference. He was 5’8’’, muscular, tattooed, and stoic. Almost everyone else ‘looked’ like a philosopher. This guy looked like a cholo. He walked into the 9am session on Divine Omnipresence with his red hat backwards.
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The presenter, Dr. Arcadi looked like me: white, skinny, with a tie and sport coat. Andre looked like a gangster going back to college. Despite appearances, he proved intelligent. During the Q&A, Andre’s questions were articulate and informed. He asked Dr. Arcadi about the creation by the Logos, the divine presence within and not just outside the cosmos, and if that is just panentheism.. Dr. Arcadi responded calmly but with *some* strained magnanimity. Andre’s follow up question invoked suggested that holiness was like the “vibrations” of the voice of the original utterance of the Logos. Dr. Arcadi’s patience wore thin.
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The presenter, Dr. Arcadi looked like me: white, skinny, sporting a tie and a coat. Andre looked like a gangster going back to college. Despite appearances, he proved intelligent. During the Q&A, Andre’s questions were articulate and informed. He asked Dr. Arcadi about the creation by the Logos, the divine presence *within*the cosmos. He asked if Logos theology is just panentheism.. Dr. Arcadi responded calmly but with *some* strained magnanimity. Andre’s follow up question suggested that holiness was like the “vibrations” of the voice of the original utterance of the Logos. Dr. Arcadi’s patience wore thin.
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Andre spoke like a rapper and moved like a rapper. He flowed, bobbed, and virtually danced as he talked. His accent pegged him as from New Mexico. His voice and manner were from the street, but his words were that of a seminarian... or a mystic.
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After the talk I walked with Andre in the hallway, and we discussed Eastern Orthodoxy. I told him, “I was feeling your question.” I grew up in a charismatic church, so I wanted vitality; I went to a great college, so I wanted intellectual depth and fidelity to Christian history; I was meditating daily, so I wanted spiritual depth. The Orthodox had all that." He told me, ‘Bro, I got chills.’ He spoke with earnestness and sincerity, like a child.
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After the talk I walked with Andre in the hallway, and we discussed Eastern Orthodoxy. I told him, “I was feeling your question.” He asked me my story.
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"I grew up in a charismatic church, so I wanted vitality; I went to a great college, so I wanted intellectual depth and fidelity to Christian history; I was meditating daily, so I wanted spiritual depth. The Orthodox had all that."
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He told me, ‘Bro, I got chills.’ He spoke with earnestness and sincerity, like a child.
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He tells me as we refill coffee mugs that he fought in Afghanistan. He had held friends dying in his arms, killed men, and came back to the U.S. with a clear sense that he has some purpose. He’s in seminary now, getting a B.A. in Biblical Studies and ancient languages. In cholo accents, he tells me he’s learning Greek, Latin, and some Aramaic. He speaks quickly, passionately, using his hands to puncture the air.
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Andre has PTSD. He cried twice on the 30 minute drive. I listen and he talks voluminously. His narrative never strays far from his pain. He returns to it gravitationally. When he hits the center of the pain, the tears return. Then he bounces away and gets back into his heady, philosophical, exploratory narrative.
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He is the most articulate spokesman *about* PTSD I’ve ever met, as well as being – clearly, in real time, right now – being a sufferer *of* PTSD.
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He is the most articulate spokesman *about* PTSD I’ve ever met, as well as being – clearly, in real time, right now – a sufferer *of* PTSD.
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Andres was suicidal three days before this philosophy conference. Not that he was contemplating a gun or a bridge — rather, his definition of suicide was that he was contemplating volunteering to go to Syria for one last tour, volunteering for the most dangerous posts. Throw his life away by reckless service.
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Andre was suicidal three days before this philosophy conference. Not that he was contemplating a gun or a bridge — rather, his definition of suicide was that he was contemplating volunteering to go to Syria for one last tour, volunteering for the most dangerous posts. Throw his life away by reckless service.
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But then he found a philosophical conference about God.
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He had never hung out with “real” academics this much. People who cared. Who didn’t just read things on the internet and post on online discussions. People who spent their lives reading books and taking them very seriously.
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He said he lived in San Diego. But we’ve been driving for awhile. As the drive stretches on, I feel a sinking feeling. I just flew in from Kentucky, where I left my wife and kids, drove to Mexico with my brother, and landed as a stranger in San Diego.
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He had never hung out with “real” academics this much. People who cared. Who didn’t just read things on the internet and post on online discussions. People who devote their lives to books. People who take ideas more seriously than money, sex, or status.
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Now, driving with a stranger deeper and deeper into a part of the world I don’t know, my psyche is sliding deeper and deeper into the unknown. The Southern California sun is shining but it is getting darker.
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He said he lived in San Diego but we’ve been driving for awhile. Are we still in San Diego? As the drive stretches on, I feel a sinking feeling. I just flew in from the midwest, where I left my wife and kids to attend this conference.
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We stop for groceries. In my my grey sport coat and tie, black pants clinging to long lanky legs, we are the oddest couple in the grocery store.
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Now, driving with a stranger deeper and deeper into a part of the world I don’t know. As he talks, as I listen, I become wrapped up in his world. My psyche is sliding deeper and deeper into the unknown. The Southern California sun is shining but it is getting darker.
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We’re still discussing metaphysics, religion, psychology, and epistemology. We’re supposed to get salmon and chicken and Chex in the blue box. We just walk around talking.
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We stop for groceries. His wife told him to get food if he's bringing a guest. We’re supposed to get salmon and chicken and Chex in the blue box. We just walk around talking. In my grey sport coat and tie, black pants clinging to lanky legs, we are the oddest couple in the grocery store.
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Eventually, I decide to split up so I can halt the conversation and run a chance of actually finding a chicken.
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We’re still discussing metaphysics, religion, psychology, and epistemology. Eventually, I decide to split up so I can halt the conversation and run a chance of actually finding a chicken.
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At his home, I meet his wife (who eyes me sideways), and he invites his best friend over. Before he arrives, I play around with his kids. I’m a goofball. He is discussing and cooking. I’m playing catch with the kids or discussing. We talk more philosophy. He offers me a THC vape. I decline.
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Andres and his best friend default to treating me as an authority. They ask me questions about everything under the sun, expecting me to have well-formed opinions. This is flattering. I try to hold forth, to satisfy their expectation of me as a guru. It was a trap. As soon as I asserted authority, they rebelled. They wanted someone who Knows Things to argue with.
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When his friend arrives we get "into it" again. Andre and his best friend default to treating me as an authority. They ask me questions about everything under the sun, expecting me to have well-formed opinions. This is flattering. I hold forth. I try to satisfy their expectation of me as a guru. It was a trap. As soon as I asserted authority, they rebelled. They wanted someone who Knows Things to argue with.
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Andres has father issues. I know this from how he is projecting onto me (we are roughly the same age) authority *in order to fight with authority.* But I also know this from his stories about his dad. Either silence or complaint — no positive stories. He complains about his COs in the military. Complains about God. And now, as an avatar of intellectual authority, he complains about me.
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Andre has father issues. I know this from how he is projecting onto me (we are roughly the same age) authority *in order to fight with authority.* But I also know this from his stories about his dad. Either silence or complaint — no positive stories. He complains about his COs in the military. Complains about God. And now, as an avatar of intellectual authority, he complains about me.
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I keep a cheerful countenance. We eat, argue, and talk into the night. (Andres wife has concluded that I’m harmless.) We continue to talk theology but I also ask about New Mexico, growing up together, and life.
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I keep a cheerful countenance. We eat, argue, and talk into the night. (Andre's wife has concluded that I’m harmless.) We continue to talk theology but I also ask him about what it was like growing up in New Mexico, their friendship, and more of their life story.
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Eventually, the conversation between Andres and his friend (both high by now) settles into their favorite (non-intellectual) topics. I have come to believe that Andres is a tortured soul, a brilliant mind, and must reconcile with his own (earthly) father before he knows any peace. I suggest as much to him. He wants to argue about it. I excuse myself to go sleep.
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Eventually, the conversation between Andre and his friend (both high by now) settles into their favorite (non-intellectual) topics. I have come to believe that Andre is a tortured soul, a brilliant mind, and must reconcile with his own (earthly) father before he knows any peace. I suggest as much to him. He wants to argue about it. I excuse myself to go sleep.
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The next day, we return the conference and part ways. I’m grateful for the place to sleep and the connection. We’re still friends. We exchange an email every now and then. Last we talked, he was still angry at God.
Here's a really important question: What's the potential downside? What's the worst case scenario? What bad thing could happen if I act?
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Here's an even more important question: What's the potential upside? What's the best case scenario? What bad thing could happen if I *don't* act?
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Look for the good ("be the bee"), see the good, emphasize the good, notice what's noble, think on what is beautiful.
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And, as a corollary, look for the best case scenario, the highest potential upside, and let that factor into your risk analysis. If the good is great enough, it's worth a great risk.
All virtues stem from a few basic virtues: justice, love, wisdom, humility, and so on.
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What might the modern ‘virtue’ or quasi-virtue of *decisiveness* refer to?
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Decisiveness refers to taking action, right away, when it is time to act. This most closely corresponds to the classical virtue of ******zeal,****** opposite the deadly vice of *******sloth.******* Sloth is a torpid resistance to doing good — while zeal is an energetic ****leap**** in the direction of the good.
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When it comes to avoiding stress, and being happy in our day to day lives, decisiveness looks like setting *a time and a place for everything* and sticking to it with discipline.
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I call this ‘time budgeting’ because it is similar to a money budget.
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When it’s time to check email, for example, check email! But when it’s not time, don’t dip your toe in the email (for example, glancing at a mobile app) where doing so could cause stress because you aren’t able to answer the email right then.
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Even better: when it’s the time or place you have to develop the discipline to not even *think* about that topic or activity. For example, if you are not going to sit down and pay bills, don’t even think about bills — our thoughts cause us stress. The thought “I have bills to pay” may negatively affect your mood, especially if you can’t do anything about it right then.
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For all the recurring activities and responsibilities we must tackle, find a time and place for them. If you can’t (you’re ‘overbudget’ on activities) then cut back on commitments. If you set aside a time and place, but find yourself distracted or not completing things on time, increase the time budget or increase your personal discipline. Use checklists to keep track of each step in a larger project and get to it.
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By setting a time and place and being decisive (zealous!), it is possible to be both highly productive and also relaxed and stress free.
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An olympic runner doesn’t *run all the time.* There may be times that they look from the outside quite calm, or even lazy. It’s not time to run!
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