Archive

  • Reasons to Laugh

    What makes you laugh? I laugh at irony. I laugh at observations on the absurdities of life. I laugh at wordplay and cleverness. I enjoy sardonic jokes, jokes that push themselves up from the common denominator. I like humor that people put effort into, that has a setup and a punchline that makes you think Read more

  • A Little Room for Failure

    Heeded my words not, did you? Pass on what you have learned. Strength, mastery. But weakness, folly, failure also. Yes, failure most of all. The greatest teacher, failure is. Master Yoda, The Last Jedi Leave it to the most controversial Star Wars movie to present one of the best lessons in the series. While people Read more

  • The Surprises of Blogging

    Blogging is a delightfully unpredictable hobby. Having blogged for over two years now, I can safely say that what I regularly post today is not what I envisioned for my blog when I started. If you ever check out my earliest posts, it’s obvious that I was in full college essay mode, writing long paragraphs Read more

  • Tolkien on Escapism

    I was ranging the Internet tonight and came across this quote by J.R.R. Tolkien. Food for thought for writers, poets, and all other storytellers. Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisoned by the enemy, don’t we consider it his duty to escape?. . .If we value the freedom of Read more

  • A Letter to 100-Year-Old Me

    Write a letter to your hundred-year-old self. Well, Jake, I have a few things to say. First of all, since you’re such a worrywort, I just want to let you know that if you’re whining and cringing over how much worse society has gotten, let me remind you that it always had problems and they’re Read more

  • Thoughts on Boredom

    What bores you? Boredom bores me. Okay, that’s a bit of a glib answer. Let me try again. What bores me? Being unable to exercise my artistic skills. Being unable to imagine and create gets under my skin if I’m not careful. Maybe it’s a curse of the artistic mind, but I often feel like Read more