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Author: Elizabeth Dean

The Absurd, The Surreal, and The Chronically Depressed

The Absurd, The Surreal, and The Chronically Depressed

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Absurdism has always existed as a lurking force bubbling beneath the surface of comedy television, especially when it comes to adult animation. Since the early 2000s, one only had to look towards Cartoon Network’s programming block Adult Swim to find programs ranging from the satirical claymation Robot Chicken to the graphic acid trip Aqua Teen Hunger Force, or even the endless non-sequiturs of Family Guy. You would surely damn yourself, however, if you tried to dig through the endless stream…

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#InterviewStruggles

#InterviewStruggles

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It has come to my attention that, as a college senior, I am going to be an adult professional type person very soon. This is exciting, yes, but also frightening. Mostly because I am supposed to be going on my first few medical school interviews in a couple weeks and I just realized that none of the clothing that I currently own is at all appropriate for my future. I preface the rest of this by saying that I am…

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Going with the (E)motions—a short review of Inside Out

Going with the (E)motions—a short review of Inside Out

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Inside Out started playing in my local theatre the day I left for college. I treated the film as something I could put off watching (but who could pass off Pixar?) until an HD stream was available online. I was crying and laughing more frequently than any film I have ever seen. All of this is a testament to how the film plays with emotional cadences beautifully, a see-saw of humour and catharsis that propels the narrative forward effectively.  …

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“WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE”

“WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE”

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As soon as the tracklist for Drake and Future’s rumored collaborative mixtape What A Time To Be Alive leaked on Twitter, the internet hype machine began firing on all cylinders.  When Drake uploaded the cover art to Instagram, he catapulted What A Time To Be Alive from the shadow realm of hip hop fantasy into the bright spotlights of today’s social media.  The 11-track mixtape premiered on and was released exclusively through Apple Music, which is clearly reaping the rewards…

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The Boozy Ballot: Pairing your Presidential Candidate with a Beverage | Muddled Post 2

The Boozy Ballot: Pairing your Presidential Candidate with a Beverage | Muddled Post 2

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Lincoln Chafee — “O’Doul’s Premium Non-Alcoholic Beer” Who is this strange tall man who is running for president? No, it’s not Joe Biden, but his understudy Lincoln Chafee, governor of Rhode Island! O’Doul’s is a perfect match because it’s a beer with less than one percent, for a candidate with less than one percent in the polls.   Hillary Clinton — “White Wine” Which white wine? The white one. Can I get more specific? Not at this time.   Lawrence…

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Stannis Burns On

Stannis Burns On

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Heavy spoilers for Game of Thrones Season 5 follow. Like, seriously. Heavy.   Trigger Warning: this blog post includes a discussion of extreme violence and rape that occurred on this television program.   Stannis Baratheon is a straight-up monster and we should all hate him. But for a while there in season five, we forgot that. We started to like him. We may have even started to root for him. His rescue of Jon Snow and the Night’s Watch, his weary correction…

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On a Break with Yik Yak

On a Break with Yik Yak

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I would like to say I deleted the Yik Yak app off my phone for political or social reasons. I would like to say that it was a response to me realizing how detrimental the app was to my well-being and mental health. Unfortunately, that is not the case. I simply had not clicked that little yak head icon in months, and I desperately needed to clear up space on my phone. So, along with apps like 2048 and WordBrain,…

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Musings on Moon—Space, Man, and the Pursuit of Meaning

Musings on Moon—Space, Man, and the Pursuit of Meaning

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When we think of space, we often think of grandeur. We think of a new frontier of unexplored dark. We think of the Hubble Deep Field and the infiniteness and peace of space time. Even our stars and planets, often referred to as celestial bodies with their almost-holy names, evoke a sense of divinity and ever-presence. However, in just 97 minutes, Moon overturns that notion. Set on a lunar energy base on the far side of the moon, Duncan Jones’…

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On Veganism and Animal Testing

On Veganism and Animal Testing

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In my tenth grade biology class, we dissected fetal pigs. It was near the end of the school year, the last couple of weeks of May, so it was really hot. The combination of stifling heat and formaldehyde fumes was exceedingly unpleasant, but I came to class excited to learn and investigate the inner-workings of the body. My partner and I received the pig we would be working with, and we had to decide between the two of us who…

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Can I Watch TV Without Being Critical? Should I?

Can I Watch TV Without Being Critical? Should I?

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“Take a break, and watch some TV,” they said. “It’ll be fun,” they said. I am not sure who ‘they’ are, but I would like to watch whatever is on their Netflix queues. TV shows, as entertaining and mindless they may seem, are loaded with misogynistic, LGBTQA-phobic, racist, etc. content and language that most people let slide because it is “not real life” or it is progressive in some other way. It amazes me that people who think this way…

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