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GEB: Introduction
Immediately upon starting Göodel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter, I knew this was going to be a goliath of a book to finish. For this reason, I have decided to upload my thoughts in parts. What I have gleaned from the introduction is that this book is going to be an examination of knowledge from the perspectives of mathematics (logic), infinite artwork, and music. The Canon is a form of music in which the stated theme is repeated in many different ways; I modeled an example given in the book using Online Sequencer: https://onlinesequencer.net/4807786 The tune of Good King Wenceslas is the stated theme, found…
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Dungeon Crawler Carl
My sources for book recommendations all seemed to love this book, but I absolutely did not get the hype when reading it. However, some of my own preferences with the genre may play a role with my perception of Dungeon Crawler Carl, by Matt Dinniman. First of all, I am a sucker for stories about a person and their cat. Donut’s full name (Princess Donut the Queen Anne Chonk) and character was probably the only thing that made me laugh in this entire book. Other than that, I don’t get the humor at all. There’s nothing worse than a comedy book that’s not funny, because then it just becomes boring.…
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Sinners
This movie was unbelievable. In the good way, obviously. It’s impossible to ignore the music. The voices and melodies were so beautiful, and even though the songs were very folky, the production of it made it feel so cinematic and grand. This is fitting because music is such a huge part of this movie; again, the blues were the only thing the enslaved people were able to bring from Africa. And every time the music swelled, the way the screen expanded was just mind-blowing. The cinematography was so unique and innovative in this movie. The themes of Sinners is something I think each person should figure out on their own.…
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A Minecraft Movie
Honestly, I don’t know what Warner Bros were thinking when they made this movie. I thought I was going to like this movie, because I can appreciate a piece of high-quality brainrot content. But this movie wasn’t even brainrot; it was boring. And that is the worst thing a movie can possibly be. First of all, every single character was executed abhorrently. The writers could have tried to work the spirit of the game into the script through the different characters, but it feels like they half tried for the little kid and gave up on everything else. The movie establishes that the kid (I won’t bother to search up…
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Photographing the Cosmos: 2024
Welcome to another post about the Cosmos, my favorite flower in our backyard. These pictures are from 2024, and like mentioned in the previous post, I have decided to transfer my notes on the insects pictured here to my website. Additionally, I have done my best (using google) to identify the species, but there may be mistakes. Enjoy! House Cat: Felis Catus. Our journey begins with my cat, who finds shelter from the sun under the growing leaves of the cosmos. He likes to spy on his squirrel buddies from this hiding spot too! Painted Lady Butterfly: Vanessa Cardui. Butterflies are a frequent guest to the cosmos, and this beauty stayed…
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A Real Pain
This was a really good movie. I thought the themes of loneliness, family, and pain were really well executed. Also, some ideas of generational trauma, like the pain Benji and David have from their grandma’s experience in the concentration camps, reminded me a lot of Maus. It would make a person feel guilty to feel pain when they know their parents and grandparents have gone through such horrible things, even though everyone’s pain is valid. I mean, you can’t say someone’s pain is real or fake, because we’re all human and hurting. Though it was slow, the movie never felt long or boring, and the cinematography made all the sights…
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Alley
This compilation of horror stories by Junji Ito was pretty good. I don’t have much thoughts on it though, so I’ll just cover one idea that was pretty interesting. Gaslighting is one of the scariest things in any horror movie; the protagonist sees a ghost, or a serial killer, and everyone around them tells them they are imagining things. It’s so bad, because that is the moment the main character realizes they are truly alone in whatever situation they are trapped in. Ito made good use of that in one story, where a girl’s family spies on her out of the fear that she brings guys into her room, and…
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Photographing the Cosmos: 2023
Tall Yellow Sulphur Cosmos. Scientific Name: Cosmos sulphureus. We have been growing these flowers in our garden for a long time, and they have always been very popular within our backyard insect community. I have also been taking pictures (to the best of my ability, using an iPhone 6) of these little visitors for a couple years now, but I decided to begin uploading the pictures and notes online rather than let it sit in my phone, or simply writing it in my journal. Also, the identification of all species on this post is done to the best of my ability using google, and mistakes are absolutely possible. Once this season’s…
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Plato’s Symposium
“This book is basically the Ancient Greek equivalence of a reddit thread.” That is the first thing I thought after I finished The Symposium by Plato, because that is probably the most entertaining book I’ve read in a long time. It wasn’t just funny; it was absolutely OUTRAGEOUS. Gender roles in history is a topic I am really interested in, and The Symposium provides a deep dive into what Greeks thought about sex and gender. The first thing I want to point out is that there is no way people still think that Akhilleus and Patroklos from the Iliad were hetero-bro-buddies. If Plato is out here calling them lovers, then…
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Fight or Flight
Watching this movie was another case of having to choose something for the entire family to watch. I was pretty excited though because I heard Fight or Flight is like the airplane version of Bullet Train, which is basically the pinnacle of action-comedy for me. However, after watching, I’m not sure if this movie will be nearly as memorable. The first thing I wanted to talk about was the lead actor, Josh Hartnett. The first thing I thought of when I saw his face in the movie was that he’s a psychopath. Or serial killer. Or probably both. Then, I realized he was the serial killer from Shyamalan’s Trap. Considering…