Down below you are seemingly endless depths. First, your own body, below the first inch of which is too appalling to consider visually. Then dirt, filled with insects, mud, grime, and a fiery core. Below that? An inhospitable vacuum. That’s above you, too. There are depths that aren’t physical, as well. The astounding degree to…
doctor who
Freeing a hell of a bird
A soul could be a bird. In “The Girl who Fell Beneath the Sea” by Axie Oh, the main character’s soul is a magpie, and I feel like mine could be some avian variety as well. I can feel it now, in fact. Fluttering madly in my chest, the ribs like cage bars. Such is…
The Everything Bagel isn’t Everything: Dealing with life’s meh
I’ve been going through it lately. A bad “it.” “It” can be a lot of things to different people, but “it”‘s are everywhere. I’m tired of “it.” Figuring out how to cope with “it” all has been a top priority for me, when I could figure things out at all. In my better moments, I…
In which I get real about my Void Sphere
A mysterious sphere gives everyone the heebee jeebies in the Doctor Who episode “Army of Ghosts.” The reason for this unsettled feeling, scientists explain, is that it isn’t really there in any measurable way. Of course it ends up being nefarious – it is a ship from the void, which is why it can’t be…
An Ode to Lucy Worsley and Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor Who
Bedecked with their brilliant blonde bobs, Inspiring us with their facts, Lucy Worsley and Jodie make wonder their jobs, And in style they never are lax. These women illumine the past And point to a future with insight They deal with the hard bits that last, But do so with hope and with light. Their…
Our days in the dreamy Nexus of quarantine
Most of the time these days, in the COVID-19 quarantine, I feel pretty much like this: …Dreamily staring at plants. Of course I am pretty sure I didn’t just snap away half the universe… but in a way, it does feel like half of the universe is gone – or at least, changed. Of course,…
Don’t let Amy Poehler become a Horcrux: Buddhism and the Self
Is meditating like taking the red pill in “The Matrix”? Yes, in fact it is, at least according to author Robert Wright in “Why Buddhism is True” – a book whose simplistic title does not do justice to its geeky and frankly mind-blowing innards. Wright holds that the clarity of meditation/mental work is so earth-shattering…
Best Frogs of Fandom (and You)
Frogs. There is just something about their pop-eyed expression, their vibrant color, their skin that is sleek shiny smooth – or bumpy. Their adorably compact body that splays out into floppy legs. The implication of whimsy and humor mixed with vulnerability and the alien. They’ve been my favorite animal for a long time for those…
Exorcising Your Modern-day Demons
What demons are haunting YOU? You certainly have some. They may not look like the red devil below, but then again, the red devil below wasn’t actually a devil, it was Captain Picard messing with holographic projectors to prove an important legal point, as you do: A demon, broadly interpreted, can be any force in…
You, twisted: Getting to Know your Nemesis
Who’s your perfect nemesis? Or conversely, whose perfect nemesis are you? It’s a question we might do well to ponder on both personal and an artistic levels – to understand ourselves as well as to understand what makes for great, relatable narrative. Our perfect nemeses aren’t necessarily the Big Bads in our lives – the…