Last January, I set my reading goal for the year to 75 books, 25 less than the year prior, to give myself a little room. When I predicted at that time that the goal was easily attainable as long as I stayed single, I had no idea how precisely right I would be: Kari and…
There are so many reasons why I adore Kari, and on a near-daily basis, she reveals another aspect of herself, almost always by accident, like an incidental turn or bump of a kaleidoscope’s wheel, her light reflecting in brilliant, dazzling new patterns, captivating me all over again. I’ve never been so entranced by another person…
It was early in the fall of last year when I heard noises in the apartment below mine. The previous tenant had long since moved out, and someone new was moving in, but not, from what I could tell, all at once. Every few days, I heard someone bumping around downstairs, and then nothing at…
When I decided at the end of last winter to return to school and major in English, I knew that I would be reading more than usual and that I needed to start stretching my brain before classes began. Having fallen out of the habit of reading many years prior, at the end of February…
This fall, I read Vladimir Nabokov’s Pnin for the first time, having read Lolita for the first time decades ago. I mention this timeline because, while it took me nearly 40 years to get to Pnin, Nabokov went to work immediately on the novel while still wrapping up Lolita. More precisely, Nabokov originally wrote and…
The mismanagement of plastic waste in Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous country and second largest polluter, is, at its core, a global crisis. The Indonesian government, the World Bank, the United Nations Environment Programme, and an untold number of non-governmental organizations have worked tirelessly for years, investing countless resources, to develop and implement strategies…
This summer during introductions in an English lit class, a fellow student suggested that I read J.D. Salinger’s Nine Stories as a primer for the author. As I sat reading the last of the short stories in his collection (in a gently-used first edition paperback printed in the summer of 1954), the lyricism of one…
It’s been two and one-half months since I arrived here. Today was the first day that I went to the beach. Today was also the first day I picked up food from a local seafood restaurant. The food from Seaview Crab Company was delicious. (Dining inside wasn’t going to happen.) It’s amazing that it’s taken…
Hi all,My name is Scott and I recently moved to Wilmington, North Carolina to embark on a new path in life. After getting a degree in mathematics in my youth and spending the fifteen years that followed corporate ladder-climbing in tech, I eventually burned out and pursued a more relaxing career in photography. (Creative endeavors…
I’m leaving Miami for a while. I’m taking a trip across the country. On my scooter. Since my scooter maxes out at 35mph unless I’m going downhill, I can’t take the interstate. And so I will be taking the long way: the winding back roads, the busy streets, and the empty stretches of highway, through…