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A Couple Observations About "Turning Red"

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I watched the latest Pixar movie “Turning Red” and loved it. Seems like a lot of people really enjoyed the movie as well (even if there is a tiny bit of ridiculous controversy). I thought that there were characters that were just lovable, a good storyline with both humor and drama, lovely animation (if nothing else you can expect great animation from Pixar), and an excellent climax.  While watching and enjoying the movie I made a couple of observations. Observation #1: “Turning Red” is directed by Domee Shi. She was born in China and raised in Canada (mostly in Toronto). Her feature film debut takes place in Toronto. The previous Pixar movie “Luca” was directed by Enrico Casarosa. That movie takes place in Italy, and the director was born and raised in Italy before coming to America to strive for a career in the arts. I think it’s more than a coincidence that the past couple of Pixar movies take place in the native countries of their directors. I wonder if Pixar encourages this
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Using Imagination to Accept Facts

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I read an article recently titled “18 Really Toxic Things People’s Family Members Had the Nerve to do at Thanksgiving Dinner.” Basically a bunch of people contributed to the article and described insane things happening at their Thanksgiving dinner, ranging from simple etiquette blunders to family members having affairs. I browsed the comment section and saw that one person posted, “None of these are true. #3 is among the fakest thing I’ve ever read. If you believe any of this I honestly think I could convince you to eat a rock.” I on the other hand thought, “Yeah, I could see any one of these incidents happening.” I feel that sometimes people have a hard time believing things that are true because they have no real experience with what’s being described. For example, one of my favorite books that I’ve read in the past couple of years has been Tara Westover’s “Educated: A Memoir.” It’s gotten mostly universal praise, this tale of a young woman who went from being in an abusive ho
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Reasons "Molly of Denali" is a Great Show

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Recently I discovered a television show called “Molly of Denali.” As I mentioned before on this blog I am an English teacher, currently living abroad teaching little ones a second language. Sometimes I’ll use clips from television shows in my lessons, whether it’s from a cartoon or a commercial from America; I do this to make the lessons more interesting and to expose them to culture outside of their own. One day the Almighty Youtube Algorithm suggested an episode of “Molly of Denali” to me and I checked it out, figuring that maybe I could show a clip of it to my kids. Immediately I found myself really liking this show. It focuses on a young Native Alaskan girl named Molly Mabray and her life living in a small Alaskan town called Qyah. For one of my lessons I downloaded a clip of an episode in which she and a few other kids perform a dance, and my students enjoyed it.  Here are just a few reasons to appreciate and check out “Molly of Denali.”           1. People are Always Doing
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Books I Highly Recommend

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“It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it.”  ― Oscar Wilde I’ve written a few blog articles in which I have talked about books that I have read before and recommended (and I’ve also written a few ). Here are a few more books I would like to recommend. 1. “Pen & Ink: Tattoos and the Stories Behind Them” by Isaac Fitzgerald with illustrations by Wendy MacNaughton and an introduction by Cheryl Strayed When people get tattoos there is oftentimes a story behind them. This short book (which can easily be read in one sitting) includes several different stories about people from a variety of professions and walks of life and the stories behind their tattoos (each of which includes an illustration). The stories range from comedies to tragedies, and include cases of wanting to honor a loved one (living or dead), and also to mark a coming-of-age ritual.  2. “Live Nude Girl: My Life as an Object” by Kathleen Rooney This is a
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Cottagecore as Seen in a Twenty-Year-Old YA Sci-Fi Series

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I’ve been a big fan of science fiction since I was a child learning to read. When it comes to science fiction, one thing that people often ask is, “Does it predict the future?” I would personally argue that it’s not a simple yes or no answer, and I was thinking about this when reading about cottagecore recently.   Ultimately like any genre the writer of science fiction has one major goal, which is to tell an entertaining story. Some of the great science fiction writers such as Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov have also worked as scientists or scholars in their own right; Clarke proposed using a satellite communication system back in the 1940s and was an active scuba diver and underwater explorer, while Asimov was a professor in biochemistry. There have been other writers who have worked in the science fiction genre that barely even went to college; Ray Bradbury never went to college due to the cost, and Harlan Ellison got kicked out after punching a teacher (Ellison was known for be
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McMemory

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  I moved to the state of Washington back in the fall of 2013 after spending nearly two years living and working in Israel. My first job there, the first one I could get, was at a local McDonald’s. I worked there for a good six months before moving onto another job at Home Depot. While I didn’t want to necessarily spend the rest of my life working at McDonald’s I did have some interesting experiences, and there were regular customers that I enjoyed seeing. I shared a memory from McDonald’s on this blog awhile back, and now here is another one.                   Typically I ended up working the early morning shift when breakfast was being served. One man came in and asked for three breakfast McMuffins without the sausage. Basically he was asking for pieces of buttered bread with cheese. I put his order in and then he says, “And I would like those for free!” “Okay,” I said. “Do you have coupons?” “I am a Muslim!” said the customer. “Well, okay,” I said. At first I was confus
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Me vs. Cracked.com

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Hey everyone! Hope all of you are doing well! I know it’s been a bit since I have written in my blog. Been kind of busy, between my job, working out, and of course putting the finishing touches on my new book, “ The Princess of Infinite Tomorrows: Child of Prophecy.” If you haven’t checked out my new novel yet, feel free to do so (hint hint, wink wink). Anyway, here is my latest blog article and thoughts about life in general.   I’m not really a big fan of the website cracked.com. I’ve enjoyed some of their articles but in the past few years or so I feel that the writers in general try way too hard to sound edgy and cynical. I’m not saying that it’s necessarily bad to write something edgy or cynical, but oftentimes when I have read the articles on cracked.com, I feel that they often try way too hard. Also there have been multiple times in which I have found that facts touted in the site’s articles are often just plain wrong.   One of the articles cracked.com posted is titled, “9 Lame H
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