I am a sociologist by vocation. My research has focused on a variety of topics including spectacular subcultures, neo-fascism, biopolitics and political violence. I have taught a bewildering range of courses so far in my career as a limited term instructor on the West Coast of Canada–from the Sociology of Popular Culture to the Anthropology of Illness —but my teaching and personal interests in the discipline have always leaned towards contemporary theory and themes of critique, phenomenology, and poststructural analysis. I hope Tolkien was right when he said “Not all who wander are lost.” Sometimes I wonder. Here I’d like to use these pages to digress on themes that have a general orientation to sociology without being overly concerned about whether they have anything to do with the discipline as it is conventionally understood and taught.