We got our first snow of the season last night. It was the second winter storm, but the first one had mixed precipitation and just left a slushy mess on the ground. This one was snow from start to finish. We only got about three inches, which isn’t a lot, but it covered everything in…
I saw The Nutcracker this afternoon. It was my first time seeing a professional ballet company perform it. Plus, my kid was in it as a member of the mice regiment. The mice regiment was, of course, the highlight, but instead of bragging about my kid, I wanted to give some thoughts on the ballet…
I promised a post a day for the month of December. Today, I’ve got nothing except this post. Well, that’s not really true. I started two other posts today, so I had some ideas. That’s not nothing. But I wasn’t able to finish either of them. It was a busy day, plus I had to…
Nihilism is the idea that life is meaningless. In popular thought, a nihilist is usually a person who does not believe in any higher power, no afterlife. You live and then you die and that’s it. People just naturally assume that nihilism is a pessimistic view. But why does it have to be pessimistic? Life…
It’s December 8th and I haven’t done a single Christmas post this year. In the past, holiday posts have been a staple of my Decembers. I’ve written a bunch of posts about Santa and a bunch of posts about holiday music. I’ve written a fair number of posts about Chanukah. I’ve written about the language…
The time has finally come. The Ice Climbers are finally re-emerging as a threat in the Super Smash Bros. meta. The ICs have always been dangerous- in Melee and Brawl, they were a character that could land an infinite combo off of basically any grab. But despite their incredibly powerful grabs and Smash attacks, the…
Meritocracy seems great. Who could be against the idea of people getting economic benefits, societal benefits, and even government positions based on merit? Plato believed it was the most just political order possible. Who am I to argue against Plato? Well, I’m a nobody and probably have no place arguing against Plato, but I’m going…
I’ve read a bunch of retrospectives about Deep Space Nine over the last couple of years. They agree that it’s the best of the Star Trek series, and have various reasons why it’s superior. They usually point to either the grittier tone, the use of serialization, or the Dominion War as the main reason for…
I have a weird relationship with satire. I love the idea of it, but I rarely like satire anymore when I read it or watch it. I think there are a couple of reasons why it leaves me cold. First, it gets dated too quickly. If you watch a 20-year-old Saturday Night Live sketch about…
I work part time as an English tutor at a local community college. I give all kinds of writing advice to all kinds of students. One of the most common bits of advice I give students is, “Don’t try to sound smart.” What I mean by that is the students should sound like themselves in…
