Buck Hardcastle
Bio
Viscount of Hyrkania and private cartographer to the house of Beifong.
Stories (101/0)
Should you talk about how you were canceled?
Lindsay Ellis is a popular YouTuber with a focus on in depth video essays about films. I’ve referenced her work before. She also does featurettes for PBS and wrote a best selling novel, Axiom’s End. On March 26th, she would make a controversial tweet that would lead to her being, in her words canceled.
By Buck Hardcastle3 years ago in Humans
The Henchman’s Award
An invitation to see James O’Keefe receive the Heartland Liberty Prize has been extended to me. Obviously The Heartland Institute doesn’t know who I am (I am a leftist) because there’s no way I’d pay a dime to attend a conservative fundraiser. The bigger question here though is, do they know who James O’Keefe is? Because the man has been repeatedly exposed as a fraud. I’m not going to go into examples of how he’s a fraud because that plays into his game. Mr. O’Keefe makes gotcha videos and he knows that even if the headlines eventually read “Video showing corruption at XYZ was deceptively edited” his intended audience will still vaguely remember “Video showed corruption at XYZ.” I’ll just mention that he has paid $100,000 in a legal settlement and pled guilty in federal court.
By Buck Hardcastle3 years ago in The Swamp
A review of music from 1996
Pop asks ecclesiastical questions While pop songs with spiritual undertones were not new, mainstream acts tended to leave overt religious themes to Christian rock groups. Not so in 1996. There were two big religious songs that year. The better one was Jewel’s Who will save your soul? The song is about a materialistic society full of people ready take advantage of others to get ahead. People aren’t cartoonish villains though, they are left wondering about the scars their actions have left on their souls. People ask god for salvation but without knowing what god even is. Hence we’re all looking for someone, anyone, to save us and we’re so desperate that it might just be a devil that answers our pleas.
By Buck Hardcastle3 years ago in Beat
Money can’t buy happiness, but can you be paid to be happy?
Early into the course Be Happy: How to Bring More Joy to Your Life participants are asked the following: “Please introduce yourself to the class. Who are you? Why did you decide to join the class? What are you hoping to learn?” My answer was blunt:
By Buck Hardcastle3 years ago in Psyche
Spring 2021 starts on March 20th, unless it started on March 1st.
“Happy first day of Spring!” A coworker said to me, and she wasn’t the first one to say it. I looked outside, it was snowing. It had snowed almost everyday since November. What were these people thinking? This was not Spring.
By Buck Hardcastle3 years ago in FYI
- Top Story - March 2021
Either I'm having a COVID fever dream or "Space Jam 2" is real and importantTop Story - March 2021
I must be unwell. Perhaps I should get tested for COVID-19. See, I think I’m having a fever dream, I’ve been seeing things that just can’t be so. Remember like a decade ago there was that joke going around the internet that there ought to be a Space Jam 2 starring LeBron James? What a ridiculous idea that would be. I mean, Space Jam was a movie that was largely enjoyed ironically, a so-bad it’s good film. I mean the movie was based on a Nike commercial.
By Buck Hardcastle3 years ago in Geeks
6 of the Best Shaggy Dog Stories
A shaggy dog story is a kind of joke, but one that's on the listener. They're meandering stories with purposefully anti-climatic endings. The name comes from a story about a man with a dog, and everyone comments on how shaggy this dog is. One day he enters the dog in a "shaggiest dog competition." He does a lot of training for the competition. On the big day, a judge takes one look at his dog and says "That dog isn't that shaggy."
By Buck Hardcastle3 years ago in Geeks
FAQ about being an English teacher in Japan.
I worked as a teacher of English as a foreign language in Japan, 2008-09. I worked for GEOS which was a private company with small language schools all over the country. I specifically worked in two towns, Gotemba and Mishima, both were near Mount Fuji. These are some questions I was asked while working in Japan.
By Buck Hardcastle3 years ago in Education