3. Colby-Jack

The concept of a museum is an honestly baffling concept: at some point in time, some guy decided to dedicate an entire building to show a bunch of objects to other people. And we’re all just…okay with that? I could step outside of my house right now, walk for two hours, and arrive at a collection of video cameras and studio equipment that were used to create movies alongside the world-famous silent film actor Charlie Chaplin.  Any person that has known me for any meaningful length of time would be able to (correctly) guess that, above all, I’m an absolute sucker for science museums. But no matter what kind of museum I’m in, there’s a pretty good chance you’ll see me staring at a diorama. Absolutely cannot get enough of these The main appeal of dioramas for me is the sheer amount of detail put into replicating a scene to near complete accuracy. I often find myself spending several minutes for each one, and for a good reason. The artist’s deliberation in every blade of artificial gra...

It is possible that after racing penguins, flying on ten-foot-tall flowers, and walking on roads made out of candy that you may still feel lonely. Nintendo’s 2008 title Super Mario Galaxy is one of the most acclaimed, and certainly one of the most remarkable, video games of all time. In almost every category, it delivers beyond expectations: its ideas are rich and endlessly creative, forever surprising players with its depth and intentionality of design; the graphics can reach brilliantly colorful and appealing heights but make frequent use of darker, more somber tones; the gravitational physics are more sound than even simpler games today; and the series’ first orchestrated soundtrack remains a favorite of many (myself included). The most interesting reason for its praise, however, is its surprising thematic maturity. Or rather, how the game welcomes introspection and gives you more to think about than any other title could match in nearly two decades since its release. Simply, despi...

  Locks.  Did you know! = The most common key today is a house key.  Did you know! = Keys used to be unique. But in 1917, a method for duplicating keys was developed using a wheel used to cut a blank key into a copy of another key!  Did you know! = Viking women took pride in being the family’s keeper of keys? This position was often flaunted by sewing the keys into their dresses, symbolizing power.  Did you know! = Once upon a time, guys with thick wallets were the only ones privy to them? If you were lucky enough and had deft fingers you could snag one---but only they got the coin to choose.  Did you know! = In ancient China, the royal and powerful could care less if the thing actually worked? They had their locks commissioned to resemble various animals, like goats or fish. And what’s the worst that could happen? You break in, take their fancy shit, their wallet’s still thick. Maybe they do care, in which case you’re dead—or maybe you’re stupid enough to ...

For the last two weeks I’ve been (essentially) living alone. To any other teenager that would be a dream; no parents, no rules, free to do whatever I want. My experience was a bit different though.  Coming from a large Indian family having lavish weddings is inevitable. So when my parents were invited to not one but two of these events, they couldn’t say no. Unfortunately, the weddings had to be during the middle of the most important year of my life (so far).  So as my parents boarded their AirIndia flight I was thinking about all the things I would be able to do once they left. All those hopes went out the window when I realized the amount of work I was left with. Taking care of a whole house on top of trying to balance school was my own personal nightmare.   As the days went on I felt more and more drained. I quickly realized that my parent’s absence was not the vacation I intended it to be. All my responsibilities piling on top of one-another, I eventually broke...

I’ve always wanted a younger sibling. *** Freshman Year.  Being a part of the Leadership class since my first year of high school, I was introduced to many upperclassmen. Freshman year specifically, I grew extremely, extremely close to some. Whenever current leadership students ask me about it, I like to say that I walked into a room of strangers and exited the year with a new family.  These upperclassmen—or as I call some of them, older siblings—have impacted my life in ways they will never know, and probably in ways that I never realized.   I don’t know if this is simply because I looked up to them or because I was a dumb, little freshman—or maybe both—but I idolized them. When they spoke, I listened; every syllable spoken had to be memorized. When they instructed me, I followed—not that I had a choice lol.  Yet it never felt authoritative; it was always nurturing.  *sidenote: You know those moments when you think of someone after noticing a what-would-no...

There is a famous experiment in psychology called the Harlow experiment that I recently read about in my psychology class. The experiment was run to answer the question of whether younglings are attached to their mothers for contact comfort or for food. Due to our survival instincts, being attached to our mothers for food makes sense. We want to stay close to our consistent food source. However, the results were quite surprising to me. The monkey stuck close to the physical representation of an older, female monkey made out of  cloth over the wire stand holding a bottle of milk. In fact, the baby monkey sat with the cloth monkey but drank out of the milk bottle held by the wire stand. It stood out to me because it proved that sometimes our attachments and relationships are beyond logic and survival, which sounds kind of dehumanizing for me to admit. This is from the experiment. Just imagine the milk bottle with the model on the left. Picture Credits: https://aavs.org/maternal-depri...

I love jumping into shows, books, and movies I haven’t a single clue about. The experience feels untainted and raw, and every cliche or ending that unfolds still feels novel to me. Even reading the synopsis on the back of a book or hearing a fleeting opinion about a series will mold how I will experience it—and I hate that feeling. My mind is too malleable, so other influences easily corrupt my own take on things. In this way, I’ll always be chasing some sort of freedom in what I consume. – Saturdays. The optimal time for binging things. Every Sunday, I come to regret all that I did on Saturday—or rather, everything I didn’t do. On Saturdays, I go through an absolute marathon of catching up on weekly airing episodes, or just mow through an entire series at once. Last week, I thought I’d learned my lesson with letting myself go, running free with my desires amidst my unchecked to-do lists…yet here I found myself again! I watched an incredibly depressing series last time, thinking I wou...