21st-century absurdism absurdity addiction adult-education adult-humor adulthood adventure africa african-safari airplanes american-expat american-expatriate american-literature anecdotes author autobiographical autobiography aviation biography boarding-school bravery british british-author british-empire british-literature canada canadian-literature childhood childhood-memories comedic-storytelling comedic-timing comedic-writing comedy comedy-writing coming-of-age communication computer-programming contemporary contemporary-fiction contemporary-literature corporate-culture corporate-world counterculture coupland courage creativity cultural cultural-commentary cultural-differences cultural-experiences cultural-misunderstandings cultural-observations culture culture-shock dark-comedy dark-humor determination douglas douglas-coupland dreams dysfunctional-families dysfunctional-family east-africa education england entertaining entertainment escapades essay-collection essays existentialism expat-life exploration family family-dynamics family-relationships fiction fighter-pilot flying foreign-language france french french-language friendship funny gaming geek-culture generation-x growing-up humor humor-writing humorist humorous humorous-anecdotes identity identity-crisis immigrant-experience independence internet internet-culture jpod kenya language language-acquisition language-barrier language-barriers language-classes language-humor language-learning laughter learning life-experiences linguistics literary-fiction memoir memoirs metafiction middle-east military military-service millennial-generation misadventures mischief miscommunication misfit misunderstandings nerd-culture nerds non-fiction nonfiction norway norwegian nostalgia novel observational-humor office-culture office-life office-politics paris perseverance personal-essays personal-experiences personal-growth personal-narrative personal-stories pilot pilots planes pop-culture pop-culture-references postmodern postmodernism quirky quirky-characters raf relationships resilience roald-dahl royal-air-force sarcasm sarcastic satire satirical self-deprecating self-deprecating-humor self-discovery self-expression self-referential self-reflection social-commentary speech-therapy storytelling subversion subversive surreal surrealism survival tanzania teaching technology travel triumph true-story unconventional vancouver video-games war war-stories wartime wartime-experiences witty workplace workplace-humor world-war-ii writer writing writing-style young-adult