Matter, Energy, and Life of Michaela A. Castello.

Category: Long Reads

Stories that take a bit longer to get through.

  • Inheritance Book 2: The Plagiarism Continues

    Once again, Paolini rips off the work of other talented storytellers while adding nothing new. The result is a predictable, flat story that, like its predecessor, reads like Tolkien fan fiction.

  • Eragon

    The concept of dragon riders seems like it would be cool, but I think it’s poorly executed.

  • The Office: Stress Relief

    Last night’s episode of The Office, “Stress Relief,” has got to be one of the most disappointing episodes of that show I have ever seen. After hyping it for the duration of the Super Bowl, they delivered what was at best a mediocre episode with enough actual laughs for a 30-minute episode, and an additional…

  • Test Day

    I took the MCAT today in Bethesda at 8:00 AM. Perhaps I should repeat that: I had to be in Bethesda today at 8 AM to take a five-hour test. Normally—that is, without traffic, so it’s probably more accurate to say abnormally—it takes about 45 minutes to get from my house to Bethesda. So in…

  • Reading List Inoculation

    A few minutes ago I finished reading Flowers for Algernon, one of those extremely well-known titles that I wasn’t entirely sure if I had read before or not. It was an excellent book that I would highly recommend reading if you weren’t already required to at some point. One of the benefits of being largely…

  • Left 4 Dead

    Last month three of my buddies/former roommates got together to give me a spectacular Christmas present: my own copy of Valve Software’s latest hit computer game, Left 4 Dead. Of course, the move wasn’t entirely altruistic as the game is designed for four-player co-op. Since then, I’ve been having a grand time blowing a motley…

  • The Last Diamond?

    In the United States, an album must sell ten million copies (10x Platinum) to be certified Diamond. Given my interest in today’s music industry, I did a bit of research. The most recent Diamond certified album that I could find was Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, a double album by OutKast that shipped 5 million copies after…

  • Down with MMOs

    Age of Conan, the latest in the parade of Massively-Multiplayer Online Gaming scams, released yesterday. Almost immediately a number of my friends happily boarded the train where you not only have to buy a ticket to get on, but also must continue slipping bills to the conductor to prevent him from throwing you off somewhere…