G.R. Linden's Blog, page 15

Wily Wordplay – From Philosophers

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 p...

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...

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...

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 l...

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 St...

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...

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 bottl...

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

The post The Silver Bullet – Cu...

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....

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 W...