Karl Rove is my hero.

The Devil’s Advocate project is about arguing for the other side, for people and ideas that I disagree with or even hate outright. In my mind, this is one of the core ideals of Discomfort Zone; to look at things from an opposing, or even insane point of view, in the hopes of better understanding them or even adjusting my opinions. I will usually write in character from the other side, though I can’t promise not to laugh.

For my first outing, I become a White Nationalist.

After only three short Bible chapters, I’ve decided to jump ship to Islam; you can thank my MTV-generation attention span. Jesus Christ is supposed to appear in the Koran, too, which means I wouldn’t really be missing much…

I kid. I thought it’d be more interesting to have two sacred books going at the same time, and I finally settled on which translation of the Koran to read: The Holy Qur’an by Abdullah Yusuf Ali. I chose it mainly because it’s the most popular version among English-speaking Muslims. The Koran Project can be found here.

I’ve decided to add a silly gimmick to the Sacred Books project: the Conversion Meter!

This attempts to sum up my disposition towards the religion with a single number. -100 is utter contempt and disbelief, while +100 is utter faith and acceptance. The meter will start at neutral 0 and points are added or subtracted based on my reaction to the contents of the given chapters. The more (or less) I want to become part of the faith (for whatever reason) the more points will be added (or subtracted).

Why? I’m not sure. I guess it’s a (silly) way to pit the sacred books against each other and see which religions I’m more or less disposed to. If it turned out that Christianity was the winner, my discomfort would reach epic masochistic proportions, benefiting the site and possibly compelling me to hurl myself off a cliff. Besides, competition between religions never hurt anyone, did it?

Note: Since I’ve already started the Bible, I will go ahead and calculate the Conversion Points for those chapters and retroactively edit them in to the posts.

Interior View of a Library by Bruce James Talbert

This project involves me, sacred tomes of the world’s major religions, a word processor, and quite possibly the rest of my life.

If you want to find out more, Sacred Books awaits.

What is this place?

It’s essentially one big shrine dedicated to the uncomfortable.

Odd. Why does it exist?

To spite myself.

No, really. Life (for me anyway) is a constant struggle against complacency in routine and thought. This place is dedicated to fighting my natural inclination and giving myself a swift kick in the pants.

How will you kick yourself in the pants?

Well, the act of creating this place itself is a start, and one that doesn’t involve bending my legs backward in an awkward manner. This is about wallowing in the uncomfortable, and there are two main types of discomfort that I’ll focus on.

The first is the discomfort of doing, which revolves around conquering that innate laziness and fear that vegify life. For starters, while I ostensibly like writing, it’s an excruciating process for me. You can rest assured that these words you are reading are causing me pain and suffering, not just in the writing, but also in the knowledge that my amateur efforts are undergoing scrutiny at this very moment. In addition to bleeding my blather onto the screen, I will also work on random projects and ideas that have all too often just stayed in my mind to grow old and fade away.

The second type is the discomfort of thought, which revolves around challenging my preconceptions and stereotypes, as well as taking an honest look at things that I would just as soon ignore. It’s about yanking on the tails of sacred cows (mine or anyone else’s, really) and watching to see how they unravel.

Why should we care?

I have no idea. Maybe it’s fun to watch me squirm? Readership numbers be damned, sometimes you just gotta poke yourself with a hot stick and invite the Internet to watch and maybe grab more sticks.

What’s up with the sections?

Projects: This page indexes, you guessed it, projects.

Random Thoughts features cute kittens playing with yarn. Actually, just random thoughts.

Reviews takes a look at things rarely reviewed (probably for good reason).

There are other ideas floating around, but I’ll save them for when I actually do something about them.

“Discomfort Zone”? Really?

If you hadn’t noticed, all the really cool domain names were taken years ago. Besides, I’m just an 80’s business cliche at heart.

“Let’s brainstorm, people! Think outside of the box! Don’t just get a bigger piece of the pie, ya gotta expand the pie! It’s not about your comfort zone, it’s about your discomfort zone! Profit shmofit, I don’t wanna be a millionaire; I wanna be a billionaire! All right, that’s a wrap. Let’s go to Hooters.”

Your writing/design sucks.

Thanks for noticing. I’m always trying to get better at web design and writing, and would love constructive criticism.

Is this a solo show, or can anyone play?

If you have any project or article ideas, please feel free to email me at discomfortzone@gmail.com. You, too, can kick yourself in the pants and let Google index your discomfort for posterity.

- Cowtipper