Month: April 2021

Thomas Sanders

Back in late December when I was gushing about MALINDA, I mentioned that the prince in her music video “Don’t Make Me” is played by Thomas Sanders, “who’s also awesome and should probably get a post of his own at some point.” Well, it took four months to come back around to that little promise, but here we are!

Thomas Sanders is an adorkable YouTube creator (and also formerly Vine, RIP) with an eclectic repertoire of content. I can’t recall which particular song introduced me to his work, but it was definitely his music I found first. That facet of his art is a mix between parodies and mash-ups, like the incredible Friends On The Other Side – Disney Villains Mash-Up, and original songs, my favorite of which is probably Recipe For Me.

Granted, there are a few other songs that would be contenders for that title if they weren’t part of a different talking point: Sanders Sides, an ongoing series featuring… well, Thomas talking to himself, if we’re being honest. But that’s an oversimplification — what Thomas has done is taken different aspects of his personality and turned them into distinctive characters of their own, namely Logic, Morality, the Prince (who represents Creativity), and Anxiety. These characters and Thomas himself then debate various topics together. For instance, A New Year of Lying To Myself has the whole gang questioning the practicality of New Year’s resolutions… in song! If you’re looking for a sampler, that’s the episode you want– it’s got all five of them, and it’s early enough to avoid spoilers, since Sanders Sides has actual inter-episode continuity and dynamic character arcs over the course of the series. (Fair warning, the comments sections are a minefield of spoilers, so you might want to avoid them on the first watch.) You can also, obviously, just start at the beginning of the playlist, which I’ll link to here. Make sure to stick around for the end cards!

I think Sanders Sides is intriguing in large part because it’s a brilliant balance of goofy, quippy fun and meaningful messages. Among other things, several episodes provide tips for managing anxiety, there’s an entire video dedicated to dealing with intrusive thoughts (which is understandably darker than the others, just a warning), and others with discourse on everything from originality as a creator to the balance between the mind and the heart. It’s touching and thought-provoking, but with the right amount of humor to still be lighthearted, and a pace that somehow blends the two perfectly.

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The Fountain Of Youth

After reading “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” by Nathaniel Hawthorn, I wrote this opinion piece on whether or not I thought the “Elixir of Life” from the Fountain of Youth was worth drinking. As a note, this post contains some spoilers for the short story in question, and I definitely adopted far more of its formal vernacular than strictly necessary.

In “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment,” we see four elderly characters sample the Elixir of Life, granting them, if only briefly, a return to the height of their youth. While this may seem like the ultimate gift, I would argue that the Elixir of Life, is, in fact, more a curse than a blessing.

I freely admit, some of my stance on the Elixir comes from my broader opinion on eternal life, which is that it would be a rather unpleasant experience. The fact of immortality is that you will, inevitably, watch the world pass by, as everything changes and everyone else lives and dies as is natural, while you merely linger. It seems to me there can be few existences more painful than outliving everyone you might ever love, or alternatively, condemning them to the same eternal lingering as your own.

There is also, however, something to be said for the means of immortality. To be blessed or cursed with it, depending on your standpoint, only once, to hold true for eternity… that would be one thing. But the temporary nature of the Elixir’s effects in “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” suggest that one must constantly be consuming it if they wish to maintain that coveted youth. So allow me this query: if one must constantly be retrieving water from the Fountain to stay young; if one’s singular focus, as the ending of the tale implied it might become for the doctor’s friends, is to maintain that youth… is that a life worth living? It seems to me that a life spent intent only on prolonging itself is a life that is no longer truly being lived, a life that has been drained of its value by its all-consuming need to persist. Dr. Heideggar’s friends forgot, it would seem, that a thing is not beautiful because it lasts, but because of the mark it makes in the time that it is given.

Granted, some things are meant to last. For instance, the wisdom we gain from experience, which the four test subjects were shown to have lost when they drank the Elixir. They thought it ridiculous, “the idea that… they should ever go astray again,” and yet they immediately did so, as apparently youth of figure brought with it youth of mind. This, to me, seems like the greatest nail in the coffin — would a drinker of the Elixir, addicted to its effect as the characters became, not simply become caught in an endless, vicious cycle of making the same mistakes over and over again? What a torment that would be, truly.

Yes, it seems to me that the Elixir of Life would not be wise to consume — after all, it is not the length of a life that defines it, but its quality.

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Red Oak

We recently went on a trip to a neat little nature spot in the west Chicago suburbs called Red Oak Nature Center. Easy to miss, but well worth checking out. Anyhow, I thought I’d share some pictures from that excursion; I can only presume it’s even prettier in the summer and autumn!

Little blue flowers poking up through dead leaves and twigs on the ground.
Goose, swimming in the river.

I managed to photograph several geese, but not the hawk we saw while walking one of the trails. I did get pictures of the small cave near the riverbank, though! It’s called Devil’s Cave (or Cave of the Spirit), and there’s a really neat legend behind that. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the foresight to photograph the placard. Oh well. You’ll just have to check it out yourselves!

As a bonus, the nature center itself had some absolutely stunning flowers in a pot near the doors!

Purple flower with yellow inside, and a dark red/black inside of that, with yellow at the very center.
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Tower of Hell

No, I’m not talking about Jenga. Tower of Hell is a Roblox game where you’re trying to reach the top of the tower before the timer runs out and the tower resets. The catch? It’s a randomly generated layout each time… and there are no checkpoints.

Tower of Hell is an obby — in other words, an obstacle course. Each section of the tower sports its own challenges, from gaps you have to jump, to sliding zones (think moving sidewalks, but more likely to vroom you off the edge and halfway back down the map), to glowing areas that will kill you if you touch them. Dying respawns you at the very bottom, whereas falling off of something provides the opportunity to catch yourself on a lower level on your way down.

The progress map on the right shows where everyone is in relation to the sections, as well as the highest spot you’ve reached so far– the higher on the map it is, the more coins you get. Once someone reaches the top and steps into the victors’ archway, the timer speeds up, doubling its pace for each player who’s finished.

Usually, the clock is set for six minutes. I say usually because one of the things you can buy with coins are mutations, which affect the map for the rest of the current round — one of those is to add two minutes to the timer, and another, also pictured above, takes away the lethality of the glowing parts, so it’s just falling you need to worry about. Where mutations affect everyone, gears affect only yourself; both, however, disappear at the end of the round. In fact, the only in-game purchase of permanence are effects, which come in “boxes” that provide a random trail, gear skin (ex: Pastel Gravity Coil), or constant effect, like “Steaming,” which my avatar is sporting in the second screenshot.

As a final note, the (often witty) name of each section is displayed at their starting platform, which is the flat safe space that all sections have in common. I mention this specifically to point out that they are not the title in the lower right corner of the screen; that’s the name of whatever instrumental track is currently playing in the background.

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