1. This week I held my first 'Classic Cinema Showcase' after-school meeting. The idea is to cultivate students' taste in cinema and fiction by showing them classic films and then explaining what makes them good. Our first film was Back to the Future, which they had all seen and liked, but when I started explaining … Continue reading Saturday Sundry: Back to the Future and Shikata ga nai
Overdue Flotsam: Lincoln Criticism and ‘Iron Lung’
1. I had a very distracted weekend one way or another, hence an extra late Flotsam this time. 2. The more I read about the Civil War, the more I begin to wonder whether Abraham Lincoln was really the amazing and wonderful leader he is made out to be. He certainly could give a good … Continue reading Overdue Flotsam: Lincoln Criticism and ‘Iron Lung’
Saturday Flotsam: God’s Existence and Miscellaneous
1. By hypothesis, we would expect there to be many difficulties and seeming inconsistencies involved in God's existence. The idea of God is of One who is all-powerful, all-good, all-knowing, and all-wise. Such a Being would necessarily have a vastly different perspective from us, meaning that much of what He would do would seem strange … Continue reading Saturday Flotsam: God’s Existence and Miscellaneous
Friday Flotsam: ‘Animal Farm’ Trailer and ‘K-Pop Demon Hunters’
1. I subjected myself to the trailer for Andy Serkis's Animal Farm, which looks incredibly bad in itself and to be a flat-out insult as an adaptation. The only joy in the experience came from looking at the video numbers: In case you can't see it, it reads: 7.15M subscribers113,000 views641 upvotes. At this point, … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: ‘Animal Farm’ Trailer and ‘K-Pop Demon Hunters’
‘Godspeed, Scott Adams’
The promised retrospective on the death of Dilbert creator Scott Adams is now up at the Everyman As a child of the 90s, I grew up reading Dilbert. The world-famous comic was my introduction to the corporate world, and I had been laughing over it from long before I was old enough and aware enough to even … Continue reading ‘Godspeed, Scott Adams’
Poem – Sonnet 104
To me, fair friend, you never can be old,For as you were when first your eye I eyed,Such seems your beauty still. Three winters coldHave from the forests shook three summers' pride,Three beauteous springs to yellow autumn turn'dIn process of the seasons have I seen,Three April perfumes in three hot Junes burn'd,Since first I saw … Continue reading Poem – Sonnet 104
Friday Flotsam: Miscellaneous Thoughts and RIP Scott Adams
1. I fell ill this week and stayed home Wednesday and Thursday. 2. Appealing to man's baser instinct may be morally dubious, but it is nevertheless more wholesome than attempting to re-write his baser instincts. 3. I've heard it said that we shouldn't make judgments about other people's looks. The trouble is, whether we should … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: Miscellaneous Thoughts and RIP Scott Adams
Sunday Sundry: Mostly ‘Cells at Work’
1. My newest anime discovery is Cells at Work, a lighthearted edutainment series that personifies the cells of the body. The main characters are a rookie Red Blood cell, who delivers oxygen and nutrients throughout the body, and a stoical White Blood Cell, who defends against germs. We also meet other cells, like the Platelets … Continue reading Sunday Sundry: Mostly ‘Cells at Work’
New Year Flotsam
1. Happy New Year! 2. This marks a new low in that I’ve procrastinated through the whole weekend and the flotsam is going up on Monday. I wish I could say there was a good reason for that, but there isn’t, unless it’s reluctance to talk about the year that is passed. One of my … Continue reading New Year Flotsam
Friday Flotsam: Christmas, ‘Avatar’ and ‘Rebecca’
1. A Merry Christmas! 2. It's been a very laid back, half-hearted kind of Christmas on my end, keeping with the whole of these past few months. The experience has been (so I imagine) similar to that of a functional alcoholic; there are good days and bad days, and a kind of fog over everything, … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: Christmas, ‘Avatar’ and ‘Rebecca’
Serpent's Den 