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’
Friday Flotsam
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’
Sunday Sundry: End of the Semester and ‘Animal Farm’ Hypocrisies
1. Another semester done at last! And exams were mostly pretty fun this year. For my English students (all high schoolers this time around), I opted for a discourse method in which students had to give a verbal answer to a question regarding one of the books we read, followed by a general class discussion … Continue reading Sunday Sundry: End of the Semester and ‘Animal Farm’ Hypocrisies
Saturday Sundry: Gods of the Copybook Headings and Ten Years of Misery
1. I had my students read The Gods of the Copybook Headings this week (it's almost exam time and I didn't want to start new lessons, so we're just reading Kipling poems). It's really amazing that this was written in 1919, when its subject matter and thesis are a pitch-perfect match to the present. But … Continue reading Saturday Sundry: Gods of the Copybook Headings and Ten Years of Misery
Sunday Sundry: Principles of Unity
1. A bout of insomnia this week left me only half-rational, hence why this is extra late. 2. Unity – ‘Oneness’ – is one of the transcendentals: qualities of Being that transcend the Ten Categories. It is the ability to speak of something as a single unit or concept. Coupled with this is Distinction: that … Continue reading Sunday Sundry: Principles of Unity
Sunday Sundry
My father's out visiting, so my schedule is a little off (as far as I have one). That means no Flotsam this week. Sorry.
Friday Flotsam: ‘The Running Man’ and ‘Epic’
1. Last week's movie night was The Running Man, starring Ahnold. It was more or less your typical action-sci-fi film of the 1980s: over-the-top violence, bitingly funny satire, mounds of creative energy, and a charismatic cast (Arnold Schwarzenegger, Maria Conchita Alonzo, Richard Dawson, Yaphet Kotto, Jesse Ventura, Jim Brown, etc). It's not brilliant, but solidly … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: ‘The Running Man’ and ‘Epic’
Serpent's Den 