The Benefits of Manual Labor and Practical Skills

This week I went home for Easter break and I learned how to replace my brakes. Given my love of learning practical things, it seems kind of surprising that I had never learned much about my car. I knew how to do a battery jump, so I wasn't completely useless, but this was a huge …

The Storytelling of Stranger Things

It’s been a while since I’ve written for this blog. I have plenty of good excuses, but the fact is that I need to make time for it- it’s too easy to fritter away time on meaningless things even when you’re extremely busy. Those meaningless things are supposed to make you relax, you know, you …

Made of Honor and Hollow and Twisted Romance

Tonight, I took a short study break that turned into a rest of the night study break because I turned on a movie- one that I had never seen before in its entirety- Made of Honor. It was interesting and entertaining, but it left me thoroughly unsatisfied, and hopefully this will explain why. The first …

Quo Vadis: A Tale of Conversion

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted on this blog. The entire summer, I was busy, and then the school year started again, and I’ve been even more busy. To summarize it that way is to gloss over some very important things that happened in these few months. If you read these posts, you’ll …

Percy Jackson and Returning to a Simpler Time

If you’re familiar with the Percy Jackson series (either the original 5 or the Heroes of Olympus), I would hope that you recognize their ingenuity. It’s rare to find a book that reimagines an older story both so directly and so originally. While the target audience is certainly more towards middle and high school, I …

What Does It Mean to Be Moral in Today’s World? : Luther

  In case anyone was confused from the title, I’m not talking about Martin Luther, but John Luther, the lead in the crime drama BBC show aptly called “Luther”. This was kind of a bad weekend for me. I agreed to petsit for some friends who were away for the weekend, and I was kind …

A Confluence of Unfulfilled Potential: The Circle

  One week ago, I saw The Circle, starring Tom Hanks, Emma Watson, John Boyega, and Karen Gillan. Part of the reason that I didn’t write about it last week was because last week was insane. The other part of that was that it took me a while to get my thoughts together about that …

A Week With Zoe Kazan: What If and In Your Eyes

If you’re looking at the title of this post, and wondering who Zoe Kazan is, well, last week, I’d be right there with you. Then, in one week, I chose two different movies that both inadvertently had her as a lead: What If and In Your Eyes. Incidentally, the characters that she played were similar, …

Going for a Walk: Getting Healthy

I had a realization this week. I’ve been overweight for most of my life, and slowly gaining weight over that time. However, I’ve never been a very body conscious person. I didn’t step on the scale each day, or go on the binge and bust diets that many people in my situation talk about. I …

The Benefits of Manual Labor: Doing My Own Brakes

My dad has a saying that any sufficiently advanced form of technology is basically indistinguishable from magic, and I think that this is particularly true of cars. Many people, particularly women, have the notion that any tinkering with such a magical chariot must be left to the professionals. How does anything in there run? I …