Freakonomics and Super Freakonomics Book Review
Score: 10/10 Freaknomoics (2005) and its sequel Super Freakonomics (2009) are collaborations between University of Chicago economist Steven D. Levitt and author and New York Times journalist Stephen Dubner. I could not stop reading either of the books. They are great because they are quirky, provocative, yet are intelligent enough to force you to look at and perceive something in a way you normally would not. An example of all these...
On SF/Fantasy: Inspiration from Inquiry
I’m interested in telling human stories. I began writing SF/Fantasy out of curiosity I had about my favorite heroes and stories. How do members of the Fantastic Four poop? How does Superman have sex? What was college like for Batman? How does Silver Surfer deal with his total loss of mortality? Does Wolverine butter his bread with his claws because using anything else would be redundant? These were just some of the questions that I...
Amsterdam (Kind Of a True Story)
Download Link (right click save as): Amsterdam Nicole and I had already been living in London for four weeks when her privatized student loan finally came through. I had paid her end of the deposit on the apartment we were now sharing with two other students from the Ithaca London Program, but a place that size comes with a high price tag. She needed money if we were going to enjoy Europe to the fullest, and now, she finally had...
Once More, With Feeling (A Short Story)
Download link (right click save link as): Once More With Feeling Your dad walks into a bar, and it already looks and sounds like the beginning of a joke. He doesn’t fit here because this bar is you, just as you don’t fit in his condo because his condo is him, and you don’t fit together. He finds his table and you’re on a platform, singing the last few bars of your latest song. Dickens is actually quite well-attended tonight; the spot...
Burdens (A Short Story)
Are you nothing but beginnings and ends with nothing in between? The worst parts of you are like shit clogging a toilet. You’re tired of telling this story over and over again. Every time you tell it, you feel the worst parts of yourself resurface. You begin to tell the story just like you always do. You start at the end when you told her to leave. Leave. Just leave. You tell the story: remembering, hating, wanting, and...