Emo Nemo

Mily

Sarah

Shaidrian Rios

Jimmy Beans

miCCwatreSSop

Julie Wynne - videos

Kapuster

Nicky Tallon

Harini Sen

Vastralaya

Evan Shively (Perseus271)

I don’t know what to do with these stars anymore. I give stars to books and then I think, ‘god, you give five stars to everything, people will think you are terribly undiscriminating’ – so then I give four stars or even three stars to some books. Then I look back and it turns out that that I’ve given four stars to Of Human Bondage and honestly, how could I possibly have thought it was a good idea to give that book less than five stars? It is the absurdity of human conventions that has us doing such things.Now, that is what is called a segue, from the Italian ‘seguire’ – to follow. For the last thirty years I have studiously avoided reading this book. I have done that because for the last thirty years I have known exactly what this book is about and there just didn’t seem any point in reading it. In high school friends (one of them even became my ex-wife) told me it was a great book about a man condemned to die because he was an outsider. Later I was told that this book was a story about something much like the Azaria Chamberlain case. A case where someone does not react in a way that is considered to be ‘socially appropriate’ and is therefore condemned.But after 30 years of avoiding reading this book I have finally relented and read it. At first I didn’t think I was going to enjoy it. It didn’t really get off to the raciest of starts and the character's voice – it is told in first person – was a bit dull. He is a man who lives entirely in the present, how terribly Buddhist of him – although, really there doesn’t seem to be all that much to him.My opinion of the book began to change at his mother’s funeral. I particularly liked the man who kept falling behind in the march to the cemetery and would take short cuts. Okay, so it is black humour, but Camus was more or less French – so black humour is more or less obligatory.I really hadn’t expected this book to be nearly so funny as it turned out. I’d always been told it was a ponderous philosophical text – and so, to be honest, I was expecting to be bored out of my skull. I wasn’t in the least bit bored.A constant theme in my life at present is that I read ‘classics’ expecting them to be about something and they end up being about something completely different. And given I’ve called this a ‘constant’ theme then you might think I would be less than surprised when a read a new ‘classic’ and it turns out to be completely different to my expectations. I’m a little more upset about this one than some of the others, as I’ve been told about this one before, repeatedly, and by people I’d have taken as ‘reputable sources’ – although, frankly, how well one should trust one’s ex-wife in such matters is moot.I had gotten the distinct impression from all of my previous discussions about this book that the guy ends up dead. In fact, this is not the case – he ends up at the point in his life where he has no idea if he will be freed or not. The Priest who comes to him at the end is actually quite certain that he will be freed. Let’s face it, he is only guilty of having murdered an Arab, and as we have daily evidence, Westerners can murder Arabs with complete impunity. The main point of the book to me is when he realises he is no longer ‘free’. He needs this explained to him – because life up until then had been about ‘getting used to things’ and one can 'get used to just about anything'. But the prison guard helpfully informs him that he is being ‘punished’ and the manifestation of that punishment is the removal of his ‘freedom’. Interestingly, he didn’t notice the difference between his past ‘free’ life and his current ‘unfree’ one. The most interesting part of the book to me was the very end, the conversation with the priest. The religious often make the mistake of thinking that Atheists are one thing – I’ve no idea how they ever came to make this mistake, but make it they do. Given that there are thousands upon thousands of different shades of Christians – from Jesuit Catholics to Anti-Disney Episcopalians – it should be fairly obvious that something like Atheism (without any ‘organised’ church or even system of beliefs) could not be in anyway ‘homogeneous’.I am definitely not the same kind of Atheist as Camus. To Camus there is no truth, the world is essentially absurd and all that exists is the relative truth an individual places on events and ideas. This makes the conversation with the priest fascinatingly interesting. To the priest the prisoner who is facing death is – by necessity – someone who is interested in God. You can play around with ideas like the non-existence of God when it doesn’t seem to matter (life is long and blasphemy can seem fun) – but surely when confronted with the stark truth of the human condition any man would turn away from their disbelief and see the shining light.Not this little black duck. Now, if I was in that cell I would have argued with the priest too – but I would not have argued in the same way that Meursault argues. No, I do not believe in God, but I do believe in truth, and so Camus’ arguments are barred to me.Meursault essentially says, “Look, I’m bored, I’m totally uninterested in the rubbish you are talking – now go away”. Now, this is a reasonable response. What is very interesting is that the priest cannot accept this as an answer. The world is not allowed to have such a person in it – if such a person really did exist then it would be a fundamental challenge to the core beliefs of the priest. So, he has to assume Meursault is either lying to him or is trying to taunt him. But it is much worse – he is absolutely sincere, he is not interested in this ‘truth’.I don’t know that the world is completely meaningless, it is conventional rather than meaningless. That those conventions are arbitrary (decided by the culture we grew up in) doesn’t make them meaningless, it makes them conventional. I don’t think I would like to live in a world where people go up and kill Arabs pretty much at random and with impunity, but then again, we have already established this is precisely the world I do live in. My point is that it would be better if we did adhere to some sort of moral principles and that these should be better principles than ‘he should be killed because he didn’t cry at his mum’s funeral’. Camus is seeking to say that all of our ‘moral principles’ in the end come to be as meaningless as that – we judge on the basis of what we see from the framework of our own limited experience. And look, yes, there is much to this – but this ends up being too easy.The thing I like most about Existentialism, though it isn’t really as evident in this book as it is in the actual philosophy – although this is something that Meursault is supposed to have grown to understand (sorry, just one more sub-clause) even though this wasn’t something I noticed at all while reading the book, was the notion of responsibility. I didn’t think in the end Meursault was all that much more ‘responsible’ for his actions than he had been at the start. But I do think that ‘responsibility’ is a key concept in morality and one that seems increasingly to be ignored.Better by far that we feel responsible for too much in our lives than too little – better by far that we take responsibility for the actions of our governments (say) than to call these governments ‘them’. I’m not advocating believing in The Secret - but that if one must err, better to err on the side of believing you have too much responsibility for how your life has turned out, rather than too little.So, what can I say? I enjoyed this much more than I expected – but I’m still glad I waited before reading it, I really don’t think I would have gotten nearly as much out of it at 15 as I did now.

George Orwell's timeless and timely allegorical novel—a scathing satire on a downtrodden society’s blind march towards totalitarianism.“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”A farm is taken over by its overworked, mistreated animals. With flaming idealism and stirring slogans, they set out to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality. Thus the stage is set for one of the most telling satiric fables ever penned—a razor-edged fairy tale for grown-ups that records the evolution from revolution against tyranny to a totalitarianism just as terrible.  When Animal Farm was first published, Stalinist Russia was seen as its target. Today it is devastatingly clear that wherever and whenever freedom is attacked, under whatever banner, the cutting clarity and savage comedy of George Orwell’s masterpiece have a meaning and message still ferociously fresh.

Eckhart Tolle's message is simple: living in the now is the truest path to happiness and enlightenment. And while this message may not seem stunningly original or fresh, Tolle's clear writing, supportive voice and enthusiasm make this an excellent manual for anyone who's ever wondered what exactly "living in the now" means. Foremost, Tolle is a world-class teacher, able to explain complicated concepts in concrete language. More importantly, within a chapter of reading this book, readers are already holding the world in a different container--more conscious of how thoughts and emotions get in the way of their ability to live in genuine peace and happiness.Tolle packs a lot of information and inspirational ideas into The Power of Now. (Topics include the source of Chi, enlightened relationships, creative use of the mind, impermanence and the cycle of life.) Thankfully, he's added markers that symbolise "break time". This is when readers should close the book and mull over what they just read. As a result, The Power of Now reads like the highly acclaimed A Course in Miracles--a spiritual guidebook that has the potential to inspire just as many study groups and change just as many lives for the better. --Gail Hudson

Bridge of Spirits is a story-driven action adventure set in a charming world rich with exploration and fast-paced combat. Players find and grow a team of...

In the near-future, society is starting to collapse, and the human population is at an all-time low. A deadly toxic presence has spread across the land, destroy...

The little spirit Ori is no stranger to peril, but when a fateful flight puts the owlet Ku in harm’s way, it will take more than bravery to bring a family bac...

Definitive Edition delivers a multitude of new areas, difficulty options, and gameplay upgrades that should appeal to both new and sea...

The Last Campfire is a 2020 puzzle video game developed and published by Hello Games. It was released for iOS, Windows, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and Xbox One on August 27, 2020.The Last Campfire is a puzzle game. The player assumes control of a soul named Ember, who must solve various environmental puzzles to help fellow forlorn souls who have lost hope to find their purposes. As the player saves all the Forlorns in an area, new areas will be unlocked. As players progress, they would meet and assist various non-playable characters, who will give Ember new items for solving puzzles. Players can play the game in "explore mode", which removes most of the puzzles in the game.

A cozy management game about dying. What will you leave behind? Play as Stella, ferrymaster to the deceased, a Spiritfarer. Build a boat to explore the world,...

Machinarium is independent puzzle / adventure game developed by the makers of popular web-games Samorost and Samorost2. A little robot who’s been thrown out t...

Samorost 3 is a puzzle point-and-click adventure game developed by Amanita Design. It is the third video game title in the Samorost series and the sequel to Samorost 2. It is the first game in the series that is full-length and with high-definition graphics. The story takes place across five planets and four moons. The game was originally scheduled for 2015.Samorost 3 has sold over 300,000 units as of February 2017.The development started in 2010. Samorost 3 was developed by a team of about six people. Developers drew artistic inspiration from animated films by Czech directors like Karel Zeman, Jan Švankmajer, Jiří Barta or Břetislav Pojar. Another source of inspiration were films by Russian animator Yuriy Norshteyn. The game consists of 45 screens that were changed many times during development. Another important part of development was sound recording. It was created by people making weird noises in microphones. These people include Bára Kratochvílová and Miloš Dvořáček. Other sounds were created by Tomáš Dvořák as he used multiple instruments, such as a lollipop used to a strum, to create required sounds. Dvořák also composed the music for the game.

New to the series, the Sims display a range of emotions which influence your variety of decisions in the game. Emotions give you new choices that impact your Si...

Twenty years after a pandemic radically transformed known civilization, infected humans run amuck and survivors kill one another for sustenance and weapons - li...

The long awaited sequel to the award winning Life is Strange returns with a new 5-part narrative adventure from DONTNOD Entertainment....

When 8 friends become trapped on a remote mountain getaway gone wrong, things quickly turn sinister and they start to suspect they aren’t alone. Gripped by fe...

Live the life of Jodie Holmes, a young woman who possesses supernatural powers through her psychic link to a mysterious invisible entity. Experience the most st...

Meet Chris, a creative and imaginative 10-year-old boy who escapes reality with fantastical adventures as his alter ego, the Awesome Captain Spirit. Hearken bac...

A bold new era of the award-winning Life is Strange begins, with an all-new playable lead character and a thrilling mystery to solve! Alex Chen has long suppre...

Immerse yourself in Little Nightmares, a dark whimsical tale that will confront you with your childhood fears. Help Six escape The Maw – a vast, mysterious ve...

Before the Storm is a new three part standalone story adventure set three years before the events of the first game. This time play as Chloe Pr...

Inspired by the short called “Kara”, Detroit is a neo-noir thriller set in the near-future city of Detroit. Androids, who look exactly like human beings, ha...

Alice returns to the whimsical world of Wonderland and travels back in time to help the Mad Hatter.

2016 film produced by Walt Disney Pictures

When a pilot crashes and tells of conflict in the outside world, Diana, an Amazonian warrior in training, leaves home to fight a war, discovering her full powers and true destiny.

The lives of two mob hitmen, a boxer, a gangster and his wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption.

1994 American crime film directed by Quentin Tarantino

After narrowly escaping a bizarre accident, a troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a man in a large rabbit suit who manipulates him to commit a series of crimes.

A seventeen-year-old aristocrat falls in love with a kind but poor artist aboard the luxurious, ill-fated R.M.S. Titanic.

In efforts to construct perfect android killing machines in a war against China, UK scientists exceed their goal and create a sentient robot.

2013 British science fiction thriller film directed by Caradog W. James

A woman, accidentally caught in a dark deal, turns the tables on her captors and transforms into a merciless warrior evolved beyond human logic.

Bound by a shared destiny, a teen bursting with scientific curiosity and a former boy-genius inventor embark on a mission to unearth the secrets of a place somewhere in time and space that exists in their collective memory.

2015 science fiction movie produced by Walt Disney Pictures

A man in a legal but hurtful business needs an escort for some social events, and hires a beautiful prostitute he meets... only to fall in love.

1990 romantic movie directed by Garry Marshall

Former Police Sergeant Barnes becomes head of security for Senator Charlie Roan, a Presidential candidate targeted for death on Purge night due to her vow to eliminate the Purge.

In the aftermath of a family tragedy, an aspiring author is torn between love for her childhood friend and the temptation of a mysterious outsider. Trying to escape the ghosts of her past, she is swept away to a house that breathes, 

While on a journey of physical and spiritual healing, a brilliant neurosurgeon is drawn into the world of the mystic arts.

2016 superhero film produced by Marvel Studios

In a story depicted in oil painted animation, a young man comes to the last hometown of painter Vincent van Gogh (Robert Gulaczyk) to deliver the troubled artist's final letter and ends up investigating his final days there.

A failed reporter is bonded to an alien entity, one of many symbiotes who have invaded Earth. But the being takes a liking to Earth and decides to protect it.

Teen Miles Morales becomes the Spider-Man of his universe, and must join with five spider-powered individuals from other dimensions to stop a threat for all realities.

The romantic tale of a sheltered uptown Cocker Spaniel dog and a streetwise downtown Mutt.

Blue Is the Warmest Colour (French: La Vie d'Adèle – Chapitres 1 & 2; French pronunciation: ​[la vi dadɛl ʃapitʁ œ̃n‿e dø]) is a 2013 romance film co-written, co-produced, and directed by Abdellatif Kechiche and starring Léa Seydoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos. The film follows Adèle (Exarchopoulos), a French teenager who discovers desire and freedom as an aspiring painter, Emma (Seydoux), enters her life. It depicts their relationship from Adèle's high school years to her early adult life and career as a schoolteacher. The film's premise is based on the 2010 graphic novel of the same name by Jul Maroh.Production began in March 2012 and lasted five months. Approximately 800 hours of footage were shot, including extensive B-roll footage, with Kechiche trimming the final cut to 180 minutes. The film generated controversy upon its premiere at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival and before its release. Much of the controversy was about allegations by the crew and lead actresses of poor working conditions on set, and also the film's raw depiction of sexuality.

Young Blade Runner K's discovery of a long-buried secret leads him to track down former Blade Runner Rick Deckard, who's been missing for thirty years.

A molecular biologist and his laboratory partner uncover evidence that may fundamentally change society as we know it.

A frustrated son tries to determine the fact from fiction in his dying father's life.

When a suburban mother turns to dealing marijuana in order to maintain her privileged lifestyle after her husband dies, she finds out just how addicted her entire neighborhood already is.

2005-2012 American dark comedy-drama television series

As her 16th birthday nears, Sabrina must choose between the witch world of her family and the human world of her friends. Based on the Archie comic.

Following the lives of students in high school, dealing with drugs, teen pregnancy and their sexuality.

TV series about a high school philosophy teacher, Merlí, who teaches in an original way, and about the students of his class, including his own son, and the relationship, friendship, love, and problems among the students of the class

Pol Rubio starts to study Philosophy at the University of Barcelona while the relationship between Bruno and him begins to strengthen. Pol will meet new friends, new colleagues and new teachers apart from having to face conflicts in 

People answer a Newspaper ad to move from City Life, get a house and start living at the abandoned town of Penafría.

Follows the inhabitants of a fictional building in Spain.

The inhabitants of the block of relatively luxurious flats. Follow the problems faced by those living together in Spain, the Spanish property bubble, and the hardships faced by young people trying to find a place to stay in the flat.

She broke the law for the boss she fell in love with. Now this naive girl has to pay the price.

A high school chemistry teacher diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer turns to manufacturing and selling methamphetamine in order to secure his family's future.

A group of vigilantes set out to take down corrupt superheroes who abuse their superpowers.

Sheriff Deputy Rick Grimes wakes up from a coma to learn the world is in ruins and must lead a group of survivors to stay alive.

American post-apocalyptic drama television series

Series of adventures, war, and evil that occur throughout the history of the Four Lands.

An unusual group of robbers attempt to carry out the most perfect robbery in Spanish history - stealing 2.4 billion euros from the Royal Mint of Spain.

Nine noble families fight for control over the lands of Westeros, while an ancient enemy returns after being dormant for millennia.

The story of one woman and her three lovers. TV series based on the film by Spike Lee.

Convicted of a decade old crime of transporting drug money to an ex-girlfriend, normally law-abiding Piper Chapman is sentenced to a year and a half behind bars to face the reality of how life-changing prison can really be.

At a predominantly white Ivy League college, a group of black students navigate various forms of racial and other types of discrimination.

American satirical comedy-drama television series

Bette Porter, Shane McCutcheon, and Alice Pieszecki intermingle with a younger generation of Los Angelenos experiencing love, heartbreak, sex, setbacks, and success.

Follows the lives and loves of a small, close-knit group of gay women living in Los Angeles as well as the friends and family members that either support or loathe them.

music

movies

shows

books

games

Active tastebuds