Extreme Introversion and a Pandemic When the coronavirus began ravaging a little place in China that I’d never heard of, Wuhan, I knew it was only a matter of time before it hit the United States of America. It slowly spread throughout the world like a winning game of *Pandemic*, and at last, the news hit that this new virus had come to America. I knew at that time that it wouldn’t be long before it hit Minnesota, too. It crept into the cities first, by means of passengers…
Movie Novelizations: Why I Love Them This article was originally posted by me on Medium. I was going through my massive book collection when I found an old tote bin. Aside from only a handful of shelves worth of fiction books (most of them in foreign languages so I could study with input), all of my books were textbooks or nonfiction. Some of them contained information so out of date, I could only speculate why I kept them on the shelf and not stashed away or donated to a…
Unsolved Mystery: The Death of Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) Most of us know of Edgar Allan Poe through our English classes. The poems and stories he’s most often known for are dark, twisted, and frightening. “The Raven”, “The Fall of the House of Usher”, and “The Masque of the Red Death” are just some of the works you likely know of his, and I bet you can even quote them. You may also know some of his life. Mr. Poe was a profusely unlucky man, losing his first wife (and…
The Hubris of Athens When most people think of Ancient Greece, they think of Athena. The second-place runner-up would be Sparta and in third place is probably Corinth. If you’re a gamer, you might be thinking of *Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey*, but even in that game, Athens is a central location, her magnificent Acropolis reconstructed in all of its glory. The game makes no attempt to downplay the might of Athens. It sports a fantastically tall statue of the goddess Athena,…
Consistency: It's the Key to Business, Projects, and Everything Else! Human beings seem to have a predisposition to binging. We binge all of our projects, refusing to be consistent in our actions even when we know it's wrong. We prefer to cram for that important test instead of study a bit each day. We start a blog or Instagram and post a bunch of stuff right away, slowly tapering off into nothing before coming back with a vengeance and starting the process all over again.…
How Journaling Can Renew Your Life This story begins with a diary. When I was in fifth grade my grandma bought me something that I thought was strange: a journal. No, it wasn’t a journal. It was a straight-up diary, complete with a little key to unlock it. At first, I was mortified. Diaries were lame and weren't they for girls? But I liked the idea of having a book that locked, so I decided to keep it. After all, my grandma was my best friend, and she seemed to think it was…
How To Win Debates Without Pain Now, I don’t particularly care for the term “win” in a debate, as this is largely a matter of opinion, not fact. However, you can increase your odds of getting undecideds on your side or even opening your ‘opponent’ up to considering a different viewpoint if you follow these tips. Let’s start with the general tips. **Smile Genuinely and Don’t Interrupt — Respect Goes a Long Way** Most of us aren’t in Congress or addressing the UN, trying to…
GDF11 as a Cancer Treatment? **Molly’s Story** I first noticed something was off with Molly, my little dog, just before Easter. Her side felt a little hard, just below her rib cage. She had some runny stools, but there wasn’t any blood in them. Her appetite wavered between normal and a refusal to eat anything other than her dog treats. She also began to lose weight, which I attributed to her lack of eating. I waited a week and a half for my third stimulus check to come in…
Bands and Kettles: How I Finally Got Back in Shape I have a confession to make: I’ve never been athletic. Ever. I was the kid no one wanted on their team. I think the only reason I ever played any kind of sport during recess was because a friend of mine insisted that everyone let me play and not tell me how much I suck. I must admit it wasn’t very fun. No one likes to do something when you know everyone around you is secretly frustrated with you, perhaps even hating having…
Horizon: Zero Dawn vs The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild In 2017, two games were released just days apart: *Horizon: Zero Dawn* and *The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*. Both take place in a post-apocalyptic version of their worlds (*Horizon* in our own and *Zelda* in Hyrule) and both are open worlds. *Zelda* took home the Game of the Year Award, and it’s easy to see why. The weather system is unique and innovative, the way nearly everything you pick up can be used…
There’s No Wrong Way to Learn a Language I’ve been thinking about my language learning journeys yesterday and how I’ve used different methods for different languages. I wrote a while back about different methods for language learning and thought I’d just share some personal stories of my various languages to counter the argument that there are definitive methods for language learning. https://read.cash/@Shounenbat/the-road-map-of-language-learning-35c60b8d The one consistent…
Tips for Learning Ancient Languages I briefly touched on ancient languages in my last article, which was about how your methods can change from one language to the next. When it comes to ancient languages, however, you’re dealing with an entirely different animal. Ancient languages are, for the most part, no longer in use. Some may survive in some small way (Latin is used in some liturgical settings as well as in science, for example), but they’re no longer part of the wider…
Beating Writer’s Block I’ve spent the past two days staring at the blank page on my computer, wondering what in the world I should write about. It’s not that I have no subjects to write on; I have so much more to say about language learning, would like to do an episode-by-episode blog of some old shows I grew up with, and have lots of new stories to write and tips to give, not to mention historical escapades to share with everyone. But I can’t seem to get any of them typed…
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