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January 2020 Listen List - The Ones You Can't Miss

by CFC123

Periodically over the course of the new year, we will produce two lists to highlight a few of each month's new albums. This list spans multiple genres, with each album ordered best to worst – the first list is the former, the second is the latter. Of the 50 albums in both lists, these are the Ones You Can't Miss - - -    🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Stellar    Bill Fay – Countless Braches An absolutely gorgeous album, despite the songwriter’s age and distance from his previous work. The music has a unified mood, but each…
Score: 3.95

Nontraditional Student in Japan

  Introduction  Have you ever felt that the world is outside of your grasp?  Things happen to everyone else, why would they happen to you?  That dream job you’ve always wanted, but resigned yourself to never being good enough for it?  This was what I felt even as I started at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. My life was surrounded my dead-end retail jobs and wasn’t going anywhere. After five years of this, however, I reevaluated my life.   Why did I believe that I couldn’t do more? It was time for a…
Score: 3.88

On the Subject of Empowerment

  I recall the first time a guy thought he had some unspoken right to my body, as he tried to force me into bed with him. I was able to get out of the situation before it escalated, but that moment haunted me for years. I was angry with him, but my anger did not come close to the shame I felt. I blamed myself, though the situation was entirely out of my control. I did not tell anyone about it for almost eight years   Instead, I let the shadows of shame creep in and set up residence. I began to have…
Score: 3.74

January 2020 Listen List - The Ones You Might Want to Avoid

Periodically over the course of the new year, we will produce two lists to highlight a few of each month's new albums. This list spans multiple genres, with each album ordered best to worst – the first list is the former, the second is the latter. Now presenting, with 50 total albums on both lists, the Ones You Might Want to Avoid - - -   ⭐⭐ Pretty Decent / Recommended to Genre Fans Only Alice Boman – Dream On Alice Boman is part of the “melancholic indie singer/songwriter” genre that has…
Score: 3.43

Walking the West Highland Way

    Meander along rolling hills of the lush Scottish countryside, trace the banks of Loch Lomond while making your way through vibrant oak forests, and wander up and over the windswept highlands as you walk the West Highland Way from its southern terminus in Milngavie (pronounced Mul-guy) to its northern terminus in Fort William.    This 96 mile (154.4km) expanse of trail is perfect for fit and healthy adventurers of all ages. If you like to rough it, pack your gear on your back and wild camp the…
Score: 2.74

Social Media Activism

#MeToo: Did Anything Change?

2 words… 2 words and what was once known as a pound sign lit up the internet, was stoked by celebrities and ignited the world into discussing a topic that once was too taboo to even speak behind closed doors. Though this movement has proven to make major waves in the world of the celebrity - with the big name arrests of Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein - what is happening for everyone else? What about the everyday woman without the money, power, and influence behind her?The first time I was…
Score: 1.16
anthology shows

We Always Need A Black Mirror

    The Netflix original series Black Mirror has attracted a surprising number of critics, some ridiculing the very premise of the series - and having that backfire - others just dismissing it as "pretentious," while others claim the very title sailed over their heads, and finally a whole subsection out there blowing it off because it's similar to The Twilight Zone franchise.    Um, yeah, that's the whole point!      For those out of the loop: Black Mirror is a modern speculative fiction anthology series with…
Score: 1.1
Politicians

John McCain: The End of Civil Politics?

It has been a rough year. From the fashion community, we lost Kate Spade; from television and culinary, we lost Anthony Bourdain. And now recently with the loss of the superstar Aretha Franklin, some people were shocked to learn that just a few days later John McCain had passed away.  Before I go any further, let me say that this is completely an opinion piece so you do not have to agree with me, all I ask is that you read and try to understand my perspective as a young person and maybe try to…
Score: 1.06
Moving to Asia

Thailand VS Philippines by Food

Food, one of the key happiness factors of living in Southeast Asia   It can be said for those looking to live in the Philippines or Thailand that:     "a way to a Expat's heart is through their stomach."      When choosing to move to a country to live in Asia, people often consider between moving to Thailand or moving to the Philippines.  They are both unique in their own right.  When deciding between moving to Thailand or moving to the Philippines, we often look into some of the bigger issues between the two…
Score: 2.73

No Job, No Apartment, No Problem, Graduating and Moving to Asia

In my senior year of college, I still didn’t have much of a plan for what to do after graduation.   Studying writing and psychology didn’t provide the clearest of paths and I wasn’t one of those kids who’d had an internship every summer. But I did know three things:  I liked working with kids.  I liked traveling abroad.  And I didn’t want to move back in with my parents.        Taking A Risk   I wanted to take a risk and do something out of the ordinary.   There’s no better way to grow than getting out of your…
Score: 1.69

Thailand VS Philippines in language, culture, money, and love

Moving to Thailand or the Philippines and how the English language, cultural influence, cost of living, and relationships could affect your choices.        It is never as easy as choosing a pros and cons list or just doing what works for others.    If one is considering the possibility of moving to Asia and becoming an official Expatriate (or expat for short), two popular choices are:   Moving to Thailand Moving to the Philippines   I use these two more specifically because I have lived in both countries.  In…
Score: 1.52
Scotland

How Dr. John Hunter Influenced Modern Medicine

With all the amazing medical technology and knowledge we have today, it's probably hard to believe that much of modern medicine got its start from a single man, who was born in Scotland in 1728. This man was John Hunter, a surgeon who is regarded as one of the most distinguished surgeons and scientists of his time.   It's interesting to note that Hunter didn't start out wanting to become a surgeon or even a scientist. In fact, he did very poorly in school and by the time he was seventeen he worked…
Score: 1.0
Violance and Trauma

A Letter from the Voiceless

The day you broke me wasn't the day you attacked me. The day you broke me wasn't the days, weeks or months that followed. The day you broke me wasn't even the hours upon hours I spent crying in my shower. The day you broke me was far worse than any of that... and I can't rid myself of that feeling. I can't take back how small, scared, or broken I felt the minute you came strolling back into my life as if nothing was wrong. As if you had never done all of those horrible things... and I was just…
Score: 1.17
Internet & the web

How to Avoid Copyright Strike On YouTube in 2018

by Kami

You need to avoid copyright strike on your videos on YouTube in order to generate revenue. It may seem impossible to avoid copyright strike on YouTube.      You will get a copyright strike, if your video contains audio from another YouTube video. If this audio plays on your video for more than 5 seconds, your video is taken down      The general method to deal with audio copyright strike is: Change the pitch, bass and intensity of the audio. Prepare a remix. Modify the audio voice by mixing another tone…
Score: 1.41

5 ways to overcome phone addiction

In this time and age, it is very hard not to become addicted to one thing or the other. The addiction that is gradually sweeping the millennial generation like a widespread virus is that of addiction to the phone. Addiction can be substantially or drug-related. In the case of that of a phone, it is behavioral related. The funny thing about this is that a lot of people are not aware of their addiction status when it comes to the use of the phone. People don’t plan to be addicted; they just become…
Score: 1.0
Trends in contemporary media

The media are the one true global religion

by Dominus

All-knowing, all-encompassing and ever-expanding, the media has managed to infiltrate in every aspect of our lives over the last 15 years or so. What started as a recreational and informational activity that hard-working people used for unwinding after a long day of work, has gradually transformed into an unconscious consuming obsession that eats away countless hours of our lives and offers little in return, except the occasional “like,” “poke,” “thumbs up,” or the number of virtual friends or…
Score: 1.0
Kitchen Hacks

7 Cool Kitchen Gadgets You Didn't Know You Needed

   Penguin Pete here, and today I'm going to venture far astray from my usual topics. No horror movies or Linux distro geeking. Today, we're going to talk about cooking.  You must be asking, "By what authority do I have a license to lecture about cooking?" By having raised a household of four kids, that's how. During which time about 90% of our meals were all homemade, both Mrs. Penguin and I took turns cooking, and we weren't the richest household on the block so we mastered the art of cooking…
Score: 1.0
Dystopian Novels

Why Do We Force-Feed Dystopian Literature To Students?

    If you can read this, you're not living in a dystopia!  You know how teenagers end up so negative, depressed, and pessimistic?  Maybe it's because we shove gloom and doom down their throats as part of their required reading. In the United States, George Orwell's mid-20th-century dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four is heavily picked by teachers as required reading for students, and the blues don't end there.  Here is a list of required reading titles for American high schools, let's see how negative…
Score: 3.51