Here I am in the car, watching the landscape whiz by, the dark grey bones of trees clawing up at the light grey sky. Here I am in the airport, paying too much for junk food and searching for a nonexistent shoeshine stand. Here I am on the plane, ears clogged and head swimming from the dips in altitude. (more…)
For the last year, I’d been thinking about going to my grandmother’s assisted living facility, sitting down with my digital voice recorder and getting the story of her life. She was 93 years old and there was so much about her I didn’t know.
I’d heard bits and pieces of stories about growing up during the Great Depression, or what it was like to be at a high school dance and hear the announcement that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor and the United States was at war, but I never heard the complete versions and now I never will. (more…)
My life is often dominated by lonely activities. Every weekday morning, I go to an office where I am by myself most of the day. When I go home, I often spend my time writing and editing alone. I eat alone and watch Netflix or Hulu to unwind. For fun, I play videogames, usually alone. (more…)
The National Mall is a temple mount. George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, John Hancock, Benjamin Franklin – to an American, these names take on a mystical quality. The Founding Fathers are our secular version of the cult of saints; the Revolution a conflagration of Biblical proportions. To an American. (more…)
On this day in 1959, the Soviet Union hit the moon with a tin can, making it the first man-made thing to touch the moon. What are you doing this weekend? (more…)
The life of Ezio Auditore da Firenze – and it is a life, fuller than any other character in videogames to date – raises an interesting question, namely: why do we care? (more…)
“Should anything happen to me, Claudia, should my skills fail me, or my ambition lead me astray, do not seek retribution or revenge in my memory, but fight to continue the search for truth so that all may benefit. My story is one of many thousands and the world will not suffer if it ends too soon.” (more…)
