And now here are some wise words from people much smarter than myself. 1.“The unexamined life is not worth living” – Socrates 2.“The brave man is he who overcomes not only his enemies but his pleasures” – Democritus 3.It is impossible to begin to learn that which one thinks one already knows. ~Epictetus 4.The great aim of education is not knowledge but action. -Herbert Spencer 5.“If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things” – René Descartes 6.“It is the mark of an…
Recent Posts
Worth it? – The Equalizer
“What is the point of opening a generic, action-driven, male-revenge fantasy film with a quote from Mark Twain?” –The Eclectic Eccentric Unless of course, you intended for every reviewer to give you one strike right off the bat. Maybe the director likes living on the wild side or maybe he just takes himself and his work way too seriously. I suppose that’s just one of the many questions I’ll have to answer today as I decide if The Equalizer starring Denzel Washington is Worth It? Let’s get one thing out of the way from the get-go, this movie features one…
Mind Blown- Eternal Return
Ever feel like you’ve been through all this before? Well, you’re not the only one. For millennium thinkers, philosophers, and spiritualists have put forward the notion that existence is just one big eternal loop. That was is exactly the same as what will be. While always a popular theme among eastern philosophies this belief gained notoriety in the western world when it was put forth by Fredrick Nietzsche. But we here at Mind Blown are not overly concerned with philosophical gobbledygook. You can wax poetic on your own time, we say. Show us the Science! (Or at least some pseudoscience…
On The Shelf- In The Woods
I love a good whodunit. My bread and butter may lay more with fiction of the speculative variety, but at my core, I’m a puzzle solver. I want to put together the clues and see if I can’t figure it all out before the plot reaches the denouement. Unfortunately, I have consumed so much media over the years that I’ve become intimately familiar with all of the conventions of the mystery genre. As a result, some of the subtler breadcrumbs writers leave along the way for their readers instead read like big neon signs for me. I felt this was…
Troping the Riff- Bottle Episode
An unknown contagion has been detected. The station is under quarantine until further notice. Or maybe there was an explosion and we’re stuck in this room until help arrives. Maybe we’ve been taken prisoner and are stuck sharing a cell until we can make bail. However it plays out, the main cast is stuck in a single location for an entire episode. In this Troping the Riff post we take a look at the most cost-effective of tropes: The Bottle Episode. The phrase bottle episode originated with Star Trek: The Original Series. The crew often called these types of episodes…
Subtitle Subversive- El ángel exterminador
Some films are straightforward. They have a plot, characters, scenery, and operate under a basic premise that what you see is what you get. Some films are not at all straightforward and require multiple viewing and an extensive amount of thinking after the fact to discern and interpret their true meanings or if the film had any meaning at all. Luis Buñuel’s El ángel exterminador certainly falls into the latter category. A surrealist indictment of Franco’s Spain, the movie is a masterclass of satire and a high watermark of Spanish cinema. Which is why I’ve made it the subject of…
Science! For Parties- Call me Iceman
Iceman. Frozone. SubZero. Elsa. No matter what era you grew up in odds are one of your childhood heroes (or villains) had super-cool (pun intended) ice powers. Well in today’s Science! For Parties, you’re going to learn how to summon up your own insta-freeze powers. All you’ll need are a couple of bottles of unopened purified water and a freezer. Lay the bottles down in your freezer and let them be for about an hour and a half. After that check them every fifteen minutes or so. When the bottles are still liquid but starting to see the water getting…
The Silver Bullet – Curriculum 9
Ninth Grade: The final transition year. Ninth graders are so excited to finally be in high school that they often forget it still means they are in school. It’s important to ease into the school year lest they become overwhelmed. Math: Geometry Science: Natural Sciences Computer Science: Advanced Java History/Social Science: Geography Human Studies: Ethics English: Intro to Literature Foreign Languages: Spanish 3 Music: Music Appreciation Art: Art Appreciation
Reference Humor: Bojack Horseman S1E11 “Downer Ending”
Nothing screams nostalgia like a 90’s sitcom and nothing says pop-culture like a show about a talking horse. Combine the two and you what you get is something unexpected, a dark comedy featuring rampant drug use and nihilistic narcissism. In this edition of Reference Humor, we take a look at one of the earlier episodes of one of my favorite Netflix shows: Bojack Horseman As always bold numbers represent the time at which the reference happened and Spoilers abound for a wide variety of films. Scroll down at your own risk. Okay, let’s get started. 00:11– Bojack’s publisher is Penguin…
Robot Don’t Wear Belts: Animal Robots
Dogs may be man’s best friend, but let’s get real. Since the days of the original Lost in Space, what every little kid has really wanted is a kick-ass robot sidekick. We here at the Eclectic Eccentric say why choose? Shouldn’t we all have a faithful companion who is both a canine and a robot? I think we’ve earned that as a species. Well those of us who believe in science do anyway, screw the flat-earthers and climate change deniers. No Robo-puppies for them. For today’s entry of Robot Don’t Wear Belts we’re going to take a look at one…