PicoBlog

This had not happened for any of the first 60 episodes that I recorded for You, Me and An Album, but for Episode 61, I felt the need to put a warning in the podcast about the sensitive nature of the content. The impetus for that warning was the discussion that Sean Inderbitzen and I had about the track, “John Wayne Gacy, Jr.,” from Sufjan Stevens’ Illinois album. Sean recited the song’s chilling second verse, and given that it made both us of extremely uncomfortable, I thought that listeners unfamiliar with the album should be alerted before going forward with the episode.

When I was 25 years old, I dropped out of grad school.  I’d been enrolled in a well-respected, funded masters program in creative writing with a focus on poetry. I’d moved from my sunny home state of Florida to rural Appalachian Ohio to pursue the degree, packing my dreams and my furniture into a yellow Penske truck.  It was a two-year program, and I got through the first year pretty well by all external accounts.

I first arrived at MIT as a tourist, a thirteen-year-old with glasses that didn't flatter my face and blunt bangs I cut myself. It was spring break of eighth grade, and my family was on a vacation visiting the East Coast—of course, as was typical for my academically-serious parents, such a trip had to include visits to prestigious college campuses. It's been a decade, and only brief snippets of that MIT still remain in my memory.

If someone offered you $17,859,000 dollars a year to spend two hours a week trying to annihilate another human being, would you do it? Would it make it easier if I told you that this job is completely legal? Not only is it legal, but its effective execution is celebrated by billions of people around the globe. For many people, the violence would be a non-starter.  That still leaves millions of people eager and ready for the opportunity around the world.

Life is all about growth. It is about the opportunities to grow that come our way. It is about constantly striving to grow as an individual and avoid the feeling of plateauing. We all want to keep getting better. That feeling and desire to grow was the driving force behind my decision to leave Cyclone Fanatic after 10 years of writing and podcasting about Iowa State athletics. It wasn’t an easy decision to come to, and it’s one I’ve continued to grapple with in the week since making the move official.

Last month, I quit social media, leaving my accounts on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook still up but deleting the apps and logging out. I haven’t looked back since. Right before quitting , I left a final message and watched some of the comments roll in, many of them saying they were contemplating a similar move, which only underscored my belief that many people are on social media simply because many people are on it.

I attended the US Open over the weekend in New York. Apparently, there’s “something going around” the Open; it has been reported that a handful of tennis players have experienced a variety of viral symptoms. The thing is, nobody knows whether it’s Covid. Players are no longer required to test for it. That said, TV commentator John McEnroe said he’d tested positive for the coronavirus after being on the premises all tournament long.

Please note: This is my personal take on the evolving science and research around Metformin as a potential treatment to improve healthy life span. It is not a recommendation for readers to do the same, and it’s critical to discuss any new drugs with your doctor. I started taking low-dose Metformin about four years ago because of my interest in ageing. Conferences on ageing over the years have implicated that this drug used to treat Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) may have a part to play in slowing the ageing process.

Now when the passions have receded a bit after I got an incredible number of critiques and insulting emails because I did but think that Argentina 1985 is a very good movie I would like to explain my reasons. First, let me say that the critique of a film or a book is totally separate from whether we think the events that are described in a film or a book are important and worth describing.