It’s been a week punctuated by a couple of “bad food choices.”

I’ve had a run of sleepless nights this week, and I’ve been feeling a bit foggy in the head. I know that poor sleep can affect mental cognition in ways similar to ethanol intoxication.

The reasons for my sleepless nights are manifold; suffice it to say, I’m craving a night of quality sleep.

On the mornings when I’ve felt most exhausted and like a zombie incapable of thinking clearly, I’ve turned to a carbohydrate-rich pastry.

On Thursday, it was a cinnamon scroll, and today it was a cream-and-jam bun.

On a high note, today has been glorious. It’s been drizzling all day, and the humidity is comfortable.

What have I been reading?

In an unusual twist, I’m reading a book rather than listening to the audiobook. The audiobook will be released at some point, but I wanted to read it now.

The New Dark Age: Why Liberals Must Win the Culture Wars[i] by Nigel Biggar. Nigel Biggar is a British Anglican priest, theologian, and ethicist known for his work at the intersection of Christian ethics, public life, and contentious historical questions.

What have I been watching?

Not much. I’ve been putting in extended hours. After dinner, I’ve been returning to work to complete tasks.

Last night I watched an episode of Hawaii Five-0 before bed.

What have I been eating?

You mean apart from bakery goods?

Here’s a gallery of photographs.

I hope you’ve had a good week.

---

[i] The New Dark Age is an intervention into the contemporary “culture wars,” arguing that these conflicts are not trivial distractions but deep moral and political battles that shape the future of Western civilisation. Biggar challenges the claim that culture-war debates are superficial or manufactured. He insists instead that they concern questions such as:

• the welfare and moral formation of children
• How societies manage ethnic and cultural diversity
• the nature of truth, civility, and public reasoning

Biggar contends that unless liberals, understood in the classical sense of valuing free inquiry, civil disagreement, and intellectual honesty, actively resist these trends, the West risks sliding into a “new dark age.”