Published in Club Cybelle·Feb 252023 NFR Nominees: Men In Black, The Karate Kid, Gladiator, and MoreMy other nominees include How To Play Football, Seven, and But I’m A Cheerleader — NOTE: This year, I decided to remove four of my selections from The Mind’s Eye series. The reason being that I discovered that these films were exclusively released on VHS. While home video recordings are not expressly forbidden by the National Film Registry, they are not prioritized, so I made…Film27 min readFilm27 min read
Published in Politics & Discourse·Jan 20The Robot’s CanvasWill human creativity survive the 21st century? — The Chef, the Runner, and the Chessmaster “Technopoly is a state of culture. It is also a state of mind. It consists in the deification of technology, which means that the culture seeks its authorization in technology, finds its satisfactions in technology, and takes its orders from technology. …Ai Art13 min readAi Art13 min read
Published in Politics & Discourse·Dec 29, 2022In Defense of the Open LibraryYou can support the Internet Archive and authors at the same time — Introduction I would like to amend my previous criticism of the Internet Archive (IA). While I praised the IA for preserving invaluable artifacts, such as old websites, Grateful Dead concerts, and Balinese writings, I criticized its Open Library (OL) for not acquiring official licenses for ebooks which are still in-print and…Internet Archive19 min readInternet Archive19 min read
Published in Portraits in Pixel·Dec 16, 2022Like Father, Like Son“Final Fantasy XIV: Dad of Light” is an inspiring story about how a video game brought a father and son together one last time — SPOILER ALERT: Plot details for FFXIV: Dad of Light follow. NOTE: In this essay, I will sometimes quote or refer to a 2015 interview in the online magazine Inside Games. The interview was originally in Japanese and I translated it myself. My Japanese is far from perfect, so I cannot…Videogames8 min readVideogames8 min read
Published in Seven Questions·Oct 10, 2022To the Moon and Back: Seven Questions for Lisa KohnI spoke with the author Lisa Kohn about her memoir of her life in the Moonies — I found a lot to relate to in Lisa Kohn’s memoir, To the Moon and Back: A Childhood Under The Influence. Like me, she was an ex-member of a cult known as the Unification Church. The cult was founded by the late Korean billionaire Sun Myung Moon, in 1954, where…Unification Church8 min readUnification Church8 min read
Published in Club Cybelle·Aug 13, 20222022 NRR Nominees: Coolio, Ween, and Green DayGangsta’s Paradise, The Mollusk, and American Idiot — It’s that time of year again, folks. Every year, the Library of Congress selects 25 American recordings to be preserved in its National Recording Registry (NRR), which are historically, culturally, or aesthetically significant to American life. …Music14 min readMusic14 min read
Published in Portraits in Pixel·May 14, 2022Great Games: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight PrincessZelda’s revolutionary debut on the Wii — SPOILER WARNING: Plot details for The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess follow. PLEASE NOTE: For the purposes of this review, I played the Nintendo Wii version of Twilight Princess. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is one of the few Wii games that fully utilized the revolutionary motion controls of…Zelda9 min readZelda9 min read
Published in Portraits in Pixel·Apr 29, 2022Great Games: Street Fighter IIThe global fighting tournament that no one ever forgot — I have to confess that I’m not very good at Street Fighter II. I’ve had my ass handed to me more times than I could count. I didn’t quit, though. The game is terribly addicting. No matter how many times I saw my character beaten to a bloody pulp, I…Videogames5 min readVideogames5 min read
Published in Politics & Discourse·Feb 15, 2022Why I Am Not A MoonieSix reasons why I am no longer a member of the Unification Church — My Life with Reverend Moon For the first nine years of my life, I was raised by a single mom in the Catholic Church. My mother emphasized to me that God was a God of love, and that I needed to follow the example of Jesus. I went to church every Sunday, took First Communion…Unification Church33 min readUnification Church33 min read
Published in Portraits in Pixel·Jan 29, 2022Great Games: Star Wars: BattlefrontSending you to the frontlines of your favorite Star Wars movies — I may not like the Prequel Trilogy, but that era of Star Wars films (1999–2005) produced many fun and memorable games, like Knights of the Old Republic and Lego Star Wars. Among these fun games was the original Star Wars Battlefront released for the Xbox, PS2, and PC in 2004…Star Wars4 min readStar Wars4 min read
