Essay
Michael Jordan Spotted Rocking Rare Vanguart Tourbillon In Marbella
It’s always a good look for billionaires to show off their wealth. For Michael Jordan to express his wealth with his Vangart Tourbillon in Spain is a positive. He is showing off his efforts and ability to manage his money.
By Skyler Saunders4 months ago in Critique
Slut Shaming. Content Warning.
It’s bad enough when men do it, but when I witness women participating in slut shaming, it lights a fire in me. When I see women instigate it, I want to burn cities and countries, beginning with the justice system that slut shames sexual abuse survivors. Ladies, if we EVER want this to stop, you have to stop shaming your sisters for choices that are none of your business.
By Harper Lewis 4 months ago in Critique
The Last Babel: The Planned Obsolescence of Intelligence
The Last Babel: The Planned Obsolescence of Intelligence The Long Descent of the Speaking Animal Humanity has often defined itself through language. Philosophers, theologians, linguists, and poets have repeatedly returned to the conviction that speech is not merely one human faculty among many but the very foundation upon which civilization rests. Through language, memories become history, emotions become culture, ideas become institutions, and isolated individuals become societies. The human story is inseparable from the story of communication. Every civilization has risen through systems of symbols, narratives, myths, laws, scriptures, and conversations that allowed individuals to transcend the limitations of their immediate existence. Language transformed biological creatures into historical beings. It enabled cooperation among strangers, preserved knowledge across generations, and opened intellectual horizons inaccessible to any other species. Yet the same instrument that elevated humanity has always contained the seeds of confusion, manipulation, misunderstanding, and conflict. Every word clarifies something while obscuring something else. Every act of communication creates possibilities for both understanding and misinterpretation. The history of language is therefore simultaneously a history of connection and division.
By Peter Ayolov4 months ago in Critique
I Do Not Know How To Finish. Winner in Not Quite There Yet Challenge.
I am not a finisher. I was engaged for six years without ever once trying on a wedding dress. I have a tendency in my creative process to ride the high of a good idea. Ideas are my safe space. Here, critique is rarely generated, and I can thrive on the possibility of creating something if I had the luxury of time and money.
By Cali Loria4 months ago in Critique
The Manuscript Beneath the Clock
For seventeen years I have kept a packet of pages within a narrow drawer beneath an ancient clock whose pendulum marks each passing hour with solemn authority. The packet bears no title. Its first page carries a date crossed out so many times that the numerals resemble wounds cut into paper, while its final page ends in the middle of a sentence.
By Tim Carmichael4 months ago in Critique
Why Are We Hard On Ourselves?
"Self-Criticism is an Art not many are Qualified to Practice" Joyce Carol Oates. Failing, failure or fail are words which have become much too familiar to me. Seeing an F on an exam or a test paper, where the murmurs of classmates were getting grades in the eighties and high nineties. I became known in my class to be one of the worst students, as a matter of fact I was bullied for achieving highest grade in my English language arts class because no one believed me that I received 100% on an essay. My other grades were slipping into the under fifties. I would receive that mark on my math test and my face would fall, the pit in my stomach grew into an ache. However, I somehow managed to graduated high school, graduate university, graduate from a certificate program and have a job that I became passionate about.
By Adrianna M. Braun5 months ago in Critique
Computational Mirror of the Universe
According to Elan Barenholtz, the central argument of "Beyond Next-Token: Why Autoregression Might Run the Brain—and the Universe" is that autoregressive processes—the generation of each new state from previous states—may constitute a fundamental principle underlying language, cognition, and perhaps even physical reality itself.
By Peter Ayolov5 months ago in Critique
Just Another Monstrous Woman . Runner-Up in Not Quite There Yet Challenge. Top Story - June 2026.
I started this short story a year ago. For a different challenge. And was inspired by the story of Medea. And there really wasn’t anything wrong with it, I really loved writing it until I started to second guess myself. I’ve included what I had written below, as well as my thoughts about why it never fully got finished.
By Lane Burns5 months ago in Critique
The Woman Who Refused to Give Up
Among the many authors whose reputations grew after their deaths, Edith Gotzens occupies a unique place. Critics often remark that she never set out to become a writer. Unlike many celebrated authors who spent their youth pursuing literary fame, Gotzens spent most of her life collecting experiences. Only later did she begin transforming those experiences into stories that would resonate with readers across generations.
By Dagmar Goeschick5 months ago in Critique
Oh my Computer!
Wondering why it seems that my laptop seems to always be updating. At times it seems to be updating daily is this right or do I have a very cheap computer which I do for it was all I could afford at the time, but it works 98% of the time. Lately it seems that when I turn the thing on it says, 'Please wait.' or 'Updating in progress.' It seems to do this on its own and giving messages like 'Please keep your computer on you are 30% there, then 75% and then you are 100% there, and then the next day its updating again. Is that normal even for a cheap computer? This is driving me nuts for one day I was reading and commenting here on Vocal and suddenly my computer gives a reminder that it's time to update. Do you want to start now or later and I click LATER, but it still updates right then. I so wish I could afford a new computer like my old DELL I had for years, and it seemed to never update daily or every two days. I have a feeling that this Gateway computer is getting ready to say that updates are ready and state please do not shutdown computer updates are starting. The sad thing is I really do not see anything new or changed from the last time this computer has updated. Does anyone else have such a problem with their computer such as this issue. Please let me know in the comments or do I need a new computer. Constant updating makes me want to go back to pen, pencil and paper. Sorry for the rant.
By Mark Graham5 months ago in Critique
