Untimely meditations
One man's thoughts, observations and rants
Welcome to the personal blog of Joop Beris. I blog about a wide variety of topics, ranging from atheism to information security and lots in between. I welcome feedback on my articles but there are some guidelines. Feel free to share articles you like by using the sharing buttons but please give me credit if you want to share something. Also, check out my privacy policy and other legalese.
Please note that the things I write here do not represent the views of anyone else but me. I do not represent an organization or a business and I have nothing to sell. My views do not necessarily coincide with or represent those of my employer. Just throwing that in there for legal reasons.
Below you’ll find the most recent things I’ve written. Feel free to check them out, leave a comment and share them with others who might be interested.
Latest posts
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The app that changed my life
I know titles like this are often considered clickbait but that’s not what I am trying to do here. I want to talk a bit about an app that changed my life. Or rather, I should say that using this app on a regular basis has changed how I relate to life and even to…
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Paying for quackery
A couple of weeks ago I was reading through my health insurance policy, as one does. I am not ashamed to say that I have a fairly broad policy that covers a lot of treatments. One thing struck me, however. This broad policy covers, among lots of other things, a vast category of so called…
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Book review: Revolusi
Someone recently recommended I read Revolusi, a book written by Belgian historian and writer David van Reybrouck. The title Revolusi is Indonesian for “revolution” which shouldn’t come as a surprise. In this book, van Reybrouck tells the story of how Indonesia gained independence from The Netherlands. There’s more literature on this topic but Revolusi differs…
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What I learned about racism…?
This article is a response to an article by Rob Wijnberg published on The Correspondent, an independent news site which is shut down since January 1, 2021. Ever since a friend sent me the link to “What I learned about racism by listening to people who experience it“, the essay has irritated me on some…
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Sitting with autism
I’ve been practicing meditation for at least 20 years now. And when I say “practicing”, I mean that quite literally. Sitting down to meditate may sound easy enough, it’s just sitting and breathing after all. As with many things in life though, appearances can be deceiving. Most of us do those activities very regularly (especially…
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What “The Witcher” can teach us about information security
“The Witcher 3 – Wild Hunt” is a massive open world role playing game (RPG) by Polish game studio CD Projekt Red. Based on the books by Polish fantasy author Andrzej Sapkowski, the games center around the character of Geralt of Rivia, a famous monster slayer. The games series and books are so popular that…
Recent comments
I have a question. I believe life is valuable because you have a soul and are a unique person, precious.…
I used to believe in god until my life went downhill. Your reasons are actually good.
Joop, Hope you are well. It is amazing to me the gullibility of people. How can educated people believe in…
Those analogies don’t hold up, I’m afraid. Like marriage or choosing to have children. Or moving to someplace new because…
“What can be asserted without evidence may be dismissed without evidence.”
Christopher Hitchens
Author and journalist
You seem to have multiple questions but let’s take them one at a time, shall we? I believe life is…