Memes of the Living Dead

I have often wished that someone would run a contest where the winner would say the smartest thing about something trivial and stupid.

An odd scenario, I admit. These are the things I think of as I stare into empty space. I don’t know who would back this contest and how it would benefit society, but stupider contests have happened. If anyone ever ran this contest, I would win.

My entry, you ask? Here it is: “Memes are the Commedia dell’Arte of our generation”.

I find a flawless perfection to this statement. You couldn’t ask for something more trivial: memes, the stupid jokes and time killers of the Internet. And paired with that, Commedia dell’Arte, a sixteenth century, Italian style of theater. I have never been prouder of a more worthless achievement.

 To break down my ridiculous sense of accomplishment, Commedia dell’Arte was a style of improvisational theatre. The company would start with a couple of stock characters: Harlequin, a childlike acrobat, Brighella, a cowardly, greedy villain, Pedrolino, the dreamer and clown, and, of course, the lovers. This grew into a whole wide array of different stock people and scripts. With this set of characters and ideas, a theatre troupe would improvise stories before a live audience, changing according to their demands and the whim of the actors.

And how does this relate to memes?

Memes are the modern expression of stories. You take your stock characters: FU guy, Why U NO, the Troll, Forever Alone, Challenge Accepted, Okay, Me Gusta, F It Yao Ming, and Jackie Chan WTF. That is just the beginning of the possibilities.

Then, anyone on the Internet can make a comic strip using these characters, often relating to their own personal life. The strips break down modern annoyances, victories, or interesting occurrences. If a comic strip is too much, you can go to a meme generator and create a joke off of an accepted meme: Socially Awkward Penguin, Good Guy Greg, Scumbag Steve, Paranoid Parrot, Condescending Wonka, Philosoraptor, Insanity Wolf, Hipster Kitty, Unhelpful High School Teacher, Annoying Facebook Girl, Lazy Senior, and Extremely Photogenic Guy. You can make your own joke, from your own life, and share it anyone. Although you may not recognize all of these memes from their names, you have definitely seen them, had them posted on your Facebook, or had them emailed to you.

Memes take these stock characters and let anyone improvise their own jokes. We only all agree on the basic characters, and then let each person take it where they will. Then the Internet sorts out what is good and what isn’t. The updated format of Commedia dell’Arte. The smartest thing I have ever thought about something trivial.

But I find trivial is too harsh of a world. Though it may sound overly sappy and too lame to be true, memes have changed me. Memes have bettered me. I can’t count the number of times I have read a meme and thought, “Other people do that too!?!?!?!?!?” (my grammar automatically gets worse when looking at the Internet).

To me, memes are more than jokes; they are about connecting our small experiences to the larger world. Memes have taught me that I’m not as awkward as I though. Other people agonize over the things they did in fourth grade as they’re trying to fall asleep. Other people will take out their cell phone and pretend to check it when they realize they are walking the wrong way. Other people do all the stupid, dumb things I do, and they are ok.

Memes give us the latest culture, and though many can be simply stupid or one time jokes, this form of expression opens us up to humanity as a whole. I think memes give a truer nature of my generation’s culture, values, and habits than anything else. Though people may argue about the validity of the Library of Congress publishing a book of Tweets, I honestly think anthropologists will look at our memes in 1,000 years to learn of our everyday lives, habits, and honest actions. 500 years ago Commedia dell’Arte was just a passing entertainment, as memes are now. It is their connection to human nature that gives them meaning and allows them to endure.

Cookbook of the Living Dead

(Sorry to reprint this blog; I published it before by mistake. Here are the corrections from class)

My roommate has dragged me down into her latest obsession: The Hunger Games. However, I am hardly one to complain. I have only read the first book and subsequently seen the movie, but I find myself drawn into this dystopian world. I have always loved stories set in a dark future or parallel world. So yes, I was happy to be drawn into this obsession, though I was surprised where it took me.

For a gift, my roommate received The Unofficial Hunger Games Cookbook.

There couldn’t have been a louder scoff than mine. A cookbook? For the series based upon children killing each other or starving to death? The fact that it is also “unofficial”, with a clear warning on the bottom that this cookbook is “not authorized, approved, licensed, or endorsed by Suzanne Collins, her publishers, or Lionsgate Entertainment Corporation”, seemed to be the nail in the coffin. So, basically, this product didn’t come from a corporation looking to make a cheap buck, but from some random chick looking to edge in on someone else’s idea to make a cheap buck.

But I do have a soft spot in my heart for cookbooks. As an English and Writing major, after I finish all my homework of reading, writing, and analyzing, I usually am not up for indulging more with the written word. But I like flipping through cookbooks, looking for some new taste to try out for dinner. And The Unofficial Hunger Games Cookbook surprised me.

The recipes in it looked good. They looked different, which is a rare enough occurrence after two or three cookbooks, and they looked really delicious. This isn’t some half-hearted “Peeta Ham Sandwich” cookbook, but one full of real meals people will want to eat.

The book is broken up into ten Chapters: Breakfast of Champions, Breaking Bread, Keep the Camp Fires Low and Forage (Soups, Stews, and Salads), Humble Beginnings, Sink or Swim-Seafood, Don’t Call Me Chicken (Poultry), Put Some Meat on Your Bones (Beef, Lam, and Pork), Wild Game for Wild Girls, Just Desserts, and Katniss’s Family Book of Herbs. The author, Emily Ansara Baines, tries to give recipes from all sides of Panem: from the rich and luxurious Capitol to the hearty and the survival-oriented world of District 12.

I was surprised to see an entire chapter devoted to bread in this cookbook. Bread is extremely important to The Hunger Games triology, especially in the first book. All of the Districts make their own bread, and Peeta comes from a bakery. The bread in this chapter seems easy enough to make and some sound delicious, like the Heavenly Onion and Dill Bread.

This book has a lot of interesting additions besides the bread. There are also several jam recipes, like Jewel-Colored Mint Jelly and Orange Preserves. Jelly isn’t something you see in ordinary cookbooks; usually it comes in some sort of Do-It-Yourself book. There are also tea recipes and a smattering of goat cheese recipes, stemming from Prim and her goat Lady. The Honey, Goat Cheese, and Apple Tart recipe was what originally endeared me to this cookbook. I remembered how The Hunger Games mentioned this dish in the text, and how tasty I thought it sounded at the time. The cookbook also includes things you might remember from the book like the Orange Chicken that Katniss eats at the Capitol, the Lamb Stew with Dried Plums, and District 11’s Crescent Moon Bread with Sesame Seeds.

Lamb Stew with Dried Plums



District 11's Crescent Moon Bread with Sesame Seeds





The cookbook also has your classic sections: breakfast, poultry, seafood, red meats, and desserts. The poultry section is pretty impressive. I made the Moist Chicken in Basil Cream Sauce, clearly one of the decedent Capitol dishes. I sautéed the chicken in butter and drenched it in a heavy cream, parmesan, and basil sauce. It turned out fantastic; I couldn’t stop myself from indulging. Also looking good from that section is the Orange You Glad I’m Chicken and Katniss’s Picnic Chicken Salad.

Moist Chicken in Basil Cream Sauce

However, the poultry section reveals the cookbook’s biggest problem: it uses a lot of exotic ingredients that are difficult to find. This section not only has chicken, turkey, and duck, but partridge, dove, groosling, and pheasant. Since the book focuses on the scavenger District 12 and the over-the-top Capitol, several recipes include ingredients that will take some tracking down. Examples include primrose root, arrowhead tubers, yucca stalks, wood sorrel, kudzu, and Braunschweiger liver sausage. I am in favor of leaving Wal-Mart and looking for some of these things at farmer’s markets or specialty stores, but the fact that the author suggests ordering most of these ingredients from the Internet makes it too much of a hassle. Also, the chapter Wild Game for Wild Girls has recipes for rabbits, raccoons, squirrels, venison, beavers, mountain goats, and rats. Though I suppose hunters would like recipes for leftover venison, beaver and raccoon push this section to a completely worthless area.

Still, I find that 30-60% of the recipes in any cookbook are worthless due to bizarre ingredients, personally disliked tastes, or difficulty to prepare. The fact that I definitely won’t make some of the cookbook's recipes doesn’t take away the appeal of all the things I want to try from The Unofficial Hunger Games Cookbook.

What really impressed me about this book was the effort. Emily Ansara Baines could have renamed some Betty Crooker recipes,  and then popped out a waste of space book mostly composed of pictures of the actors from The Hunger Games movie; that would have also made money. But she didn’t; she instead put together a cookbook full of recipes people will want, one that draws from a source people love. She even included a chapter at the end that explains how to find your own wild herbs, berries, and vegetables like Katniss does. But especially since Baines mentions Peeta’s fatal slip with the nightlock berries, this section really should have included pictures.

So yes, if you are a French trained chef you might be embarrassed to put this besides all of your soufflé and risotto cookbooks. And yes, Baines does write an introductory sentence explaining how each recipe relates to The Hunger Games trilogies, and some of these lobotomize the reader with their grasping at straws, overly analyzed, metaphorical technique. However, this cookbook isn’t just going to gather dust in your respected Peeta or Gale Shrine. With the Odds in its Favor, The Unofficial Hunger Games Cookbook beat my disbelief and proved itself worthy through 150 respectable recipes (minus the rat recipe). 

Crisis of the Living Dead

Does the thought of graduating send you into an existential crisis? Well, congratulations! You are entering into your quarter-life crisis!



Abby Wilner coined the term “Quarter-life Crisis” in the late 1990s, but the phrase has more recently blipped on society’s consciousness as people opened up about their feelings online. A quarter-life crisis refers to a period of anxiety and inner turmoil people experience in their mid 20s, often 25, as they try to figure out who they really are and if they are doing the right things with their life.

After graduation, some people start to feel depressed that they haven’t become adults, or reached their life goals. Many people expect they should have a high paying job that they enjoy, and that they should find their soul mate and settle down into a family. They think that by this point in their life they will understand who they really are and have things mapped out for the future. But today’s society doesn’t really allow for these things.

First off, a college education isn’t the to-do it was in our parent’s generation. A college degree, for all the money you sunk, won’t guarantee you a good job. And then you are left with all that crippling debt from student loans.

With debt, the recession, a poor job market, and glut of people going to college, our generation grows up slower. According to the American Sociological Association, 66% of people in their early twenties receive finical support from their parents, and 40% of people in their late 20s still depend on that extra cash to get by. 56.8% of men and 43.2% of women between the ages of 22 and 31 live with their parents (according to the US Census). And as much as we yearn for our dream job, the average American between the ages of 18 and 30 has moved through seven or eight jobs. All in all, when you look at the traditional benchmarks for adulthood (such as graduating, leaving home, getting a career, marriage, having a baby, and being financially independent), only 46% of women and 31% of men today have accomplished these goals by the time they turned 30. This compares to 77% of women and 65% of men in 1960.

The quarter-life crisis has become common enough to have books, blogs, and web services devoted to it. Huffington Post offers a 25 question "Are you having a Quarter-Life Crisis?" quiz to see if you have entered into quarter-life crisis-dome.

A lot of people in our class are ready to graduate this semester. How are you feeling? Is a quarter-life crisis sneaking up on you? Or do you think you won’t be susceptible for a few more years?

Personally, I am too terrified that I won’t be able to find any job to worry about finding a career or a soul mate. And I am definitely not worrying about settling down for a family. But I can start to feel the pinpricks of this anxiety stinging at the back of my neck. Tell me how you feel, or if you even believe in this premise of the quarter-life crisis, in the comments below. Do you think it is a symptom of the modern transition to adulthood, or a bunch of affluent college graduates complaining? Give me your thoughts. Even if you are like me, and just feel like this about the future:

Wonder of the Living

I have always loved jellyfish.

My earliest memories of them are when I was five. Growing up in Nebraska didn’t have many advantages, but one of them was the Henry Doorly Zoo, the second biggest zoo in America. I would dash through the jungle exhibits, the elephants, and the tiger cages. In the aquarium, I would race past the penguins and the glass ceiling aquarium where you walked underneath swimming sharks and sting rays. I would burst into the jellyfish exhibit.

It was a large cylinder shaded in a dark corner, a quiet place aside from the children’s screams of joy and anger. I would cement myself there and watch the jellyfish drift. I would wonder at the various sizes, from gigantic to tiny specks against the glass. I would stare at the slow movements and try to figure out which were swimming and which were simply floating on the current.

Mostly though, my mind would blank out. I would lose track of all conscious though and feel my heart beat with the thump of the jellyfish’s bells.

When I was eleven and lived in California, my mother, sister, and I would often walk along the beaches. One of my most poignant memories was seeing a whole school of jellyfish washed ashore at sunset. Without the weightlessness of the water the jellyfish’s bodies dissolved into plastic lumps. At first, they looked more like melted paper bags, or lumps of gelatin. There was something so hauntingly sad about those jellyfish marooned onshore. I couldn’t tell which were alive and which had already died. Since then, my heart bursts at the sight of a jellyfish. I find myself hyper-emotional when looking at them, working through an emotional catharsis.

After visiting the Jellyfish Exhibit at Shed Aquarium, I learned you can own your own jellyfish.

Somehow I had never thought this possible. It seemed an unrealistic dream to own jellyfish, like owning a shark or a tiger. It might be something some obnoxious, eccentric rich jerk did, but never a common sense person. But a quick look around the internet proved me wrong.

Jellyfish Art offers you jellyfish at home.  Their starter set offers you everything: a tank, 3 moon jellyfish, and 6 months of food. The tank even comes with a flashing LED light to color your jellyfish as you stare at them.

I have read through the webpage, and taking care of jellyfish doesn’t seem any more difficult than caring for a goldfish. You have to check the water salinity and clean the algae once a month, but that is it. Your jellyfish are FedExed to you, which does seem a bit harrowing, but once they survive the journey they are yours. That is all you need to do to own jellyfish, the silent meditators of the ocean.

The dream will set you back $500. Jellyfish are no longer for the eccentric, but still for the rich. Jellyfish are the latest trend for everyone else who walked through an aquarium as a child. But this doesn’t deter me. I will save my money or wait for the fad to pass. I will clean off a spot in my room and let keep the dust away. I will capture the sublime for myself.

Mexican Food for the Living?

Review of La Mision:

How to Stand out Among Multiple Mexican Restaurants?

Address: 935 N. Glenstone Ave., Springfield, MO 65802

Phone Number: 417-832-0032
Website: NA
Hours: Monday-Saturday: 11:00 AM-10:00 PM

            Sunday: 11:00 AM-9:00 PM

Price: Cheap, Dinner under $10
Full Bar: No

When I saw La Mision pop up, only a block away from another Mexican restaurant, I was doubtful. With some restaurants I get stuck in my ways. I had my cheap Mexican place, and I was happy with it. But adventure called, I suppose, or something akin.

Driving up, the place seemed established. There was a definite look, and the place seemed to have an identity. A group of us went on a Thursday at 6:00 pm, and found it fairly empty. The restaurant sat on a well-manicured lawn, and the interior design showed a rustic flair more sophisticated than your normal Mexican eatery. The tables were lit with candles and accented with flowers. The centerpiece was a bowl with an avocado and a lime, which impressed me by how well the stark minimalism worked. La Mision definitely had its charm. A woman stood behind us making fresh tortillas. The waiteresses wore ruffled shirts that seemed like a forced traditional look. Our service was quick and friendly. Most of the other customers were older, though they were also dressed casually. What our generation would call “Muzak” played, though the other customers seemed to enjoy the smooth jazz. It played at the right level, where it was heard but not spoken over.

We looked over the prices. La Mision has a large selection, and overall has the same prices as any other Mexican place. All dinner entrees are under $10. We quickly were given the standard chips and salsa to fill up on. There was a plate of tortillas on my side of the table, which honestly confused me. I thought they were just left over from the last customers. But the tortillas come free like the chips, so dipped in salsa they were tasty.

We ordered some appetizers. We decided on the guacamole and the shrimp appetizer. I would highly suggest the guacamole. The server takes the avocado and lime center piece on your table and whips you up a batch right there. The guacamole was nice and fresh and made to our accommodations.

The shrimp were much larger than expected. They were cooked in a light white wine sauce, which I thought a bit odd. The shrimp were well cooked, but not at all what I expected. They lacked the spice and umph that I expect from Mexican food.

We put in our orders: a chimichanga, a chicken enchilada, and tostada ceviche. I was surprised to see the ceviche on the menu. Though it is a classic dish, it is often missing from most Mexican fare. I figured it would be more expensive, but it was under $10 like everything else.

The food came out quickly on large white plates. Everything was laid out well, looking appetizing and appeasing to the eye.

The food, unfortunately, followed the shrimp appetizer. Again, there wasn’t any of the spice or flavor of Mexican food. The food was, dare I say, bland. I ordered the chimichanga because it is one of my favorite dishes, and relatively uncomplicated. The rice and beans on the side were fine, though the same as every other Mexican place. The chimichanga itself had little to offer. The cheese tasted like plastic. There wasn’t shredded beef inside but steak, chewy steak pieces that tasted like they had been frozen. I tried the chicken enchilada, again ordered for its simplicity. But alas, no zing. The sauce it was in was just red, with no taste. No tomato, no pepper, just existence.  

The tostada ceviche was the crowning surprise. It was set out modestly, just fish and tomato on three tostadas, a hard, flat shell, with lime slices on the side. The dish’s simplicity worked well this time, giving nice fresh flavors. However, like the tortillas, the server laid down the tostada ceviche and left. He offered no help on how to prepare the ceviche. Given their other items and the elderly customers, there should have been some explanation on how the lime juice cooks the fish and makes it safe to eat. Ceviche is relatively unknown in America, not to mention Springfield, Missouri.

We originally were thinking of ordering dessert, but after dinner we had enough. The atmosphere soars above what you would expect from the normal Mexican place, but it lost the life and flavor. La Mision might be a place to take your grandmother when she is in town, the one that needs an explanation between an enchilada and a burrito. The mood was nice, but the food was lacking and that is what everything boils down to.

My normal Mexican eatery need not worry. I will keep my business there.

Sequels for the Living Dead

In my previous blog I talked about the joys of Bioshock, but I mentioned its possibly superior sequel Bioshock 2. I will talk about how Bioshock 2 improves upon the first one, and try not to have a conniption fit about when Bioshock Infinite will come out (which has goddamn been pushed back to October 16 Goddamnit Goddamn). But Bioshock 2.

I will breeze a bit over the story of the first Bioshock since I have discussed it in a previous blog, but basically it covers the story of Rapture, an underwater utopia that went to an apocalyptic hell. You play Jack, a man who fell from a crashed plane and has to make his way through.

But in Bioshock 2, you are a Big Daddy (again, warning video is graphic).

The introduction starts in 1959, before the Jack character in the first game comes down. You play a Big Daddy guarding your Little Sister, Elenore. But at the end of the opening scene Elenore's real mother, Sofia Lamb, takes back her daughter and forces you to kill yourself. 10 years later you reawaken alive in Rapture. Someone has started stealing girls from countries surrounding the ocean and turning them into Little Sisters, pretty much restarting Rapture's horror and war again. You have to make your way through Rapture to rescue Elena, who is being held captive by her mother. Sofia Lamb is an ethical psychiatrist who filled in the void of power Andrew Ryan left open; she controls the splicers and starts harvesting of Adam again. She hates you and blames you for stealing her daughter from her.

There are several similar features that connect the two. You have the same splicer types from the first game, houndi splicers, spider splicers, leadhead splicers, and nitro splicers. There’s Adam and Eve, tonics, plasmids, weapons, cameras, turrets, robots, weapons, and the what not.

But besides the story, there are several upgrades.

HACKING: In order to gain control of robots, turrets, and security cameras, or gain entry to a safe, you have to hack them. In the first Bioshock, the game stops and you pretty much gain control of a machine though a game of Pipe Dream.  

But in Bioshock 2, you have a quick moving needle that you have to hit in the green area.

The game doesn’t stop, so you have to keep dodging attacking Splicers. You also get a hacking gun, so you don’t have to stand next to something to hack it. You can hack from afar.

Also in the first Bioshock, when you hack a security camera an alarm goes off after you stay in its sight for too long. Then flying robots with machine guns attack you.

In the first one, you are stuck with robots attacking you for 50 seconds while the camera is unhackable. If you can find a robot shutdown panel the robots will stop, but you have to find it and they are well out of your way. In Bioshock 2, as long as you can hack the camera, even after the security alarm went off, the robots will stop. After a few failed hacked cameras, you really start to appreciate this difference.

GAME PLAY: In the first Bioshock, one hand holds your gun and the other one controls your plasmids. You switch between the two hands using the two triggers on the controller, but you can only have one hand onscreen at a time.

In Bioshock 2, you get both hands up and out. This immediately comes in handy because the main way of defeating Splicers is to immobilize them with a plasmid, and then shot them with one of your weapons.

LITTLE SISTERS: In the first Bioshock, your interactions with the Little Sisters are pretty small. You learn about their experimentation and see their orphanage, but you only spend a moment with the actual girl after you kill her Big Daddy. The choice of harvesting or rescuing the girl happens quickly, and you don’t have much reflection upon it until the end.

In Bioshock 2 you have to hold onto the Little Sisters, literally carrying them on your back. You use them to gather Adam from the various corpses splayed around Rapture.

Splicers attack while the Sister is gathering, so you have to guard her like a real Big Daddy. You have several traps you can set up to protect her from Splicers.

You get more Adam than in the first game, but you have to stay with the Little Sisters. They stick with you through large chunks of the games, even waiting for you at Vita-Chamber where you respawn after you die. They talk to you, giving you compliments when you play good like “Daddy, you always protect me from the monsters” or “I’m going to tell the other sisters I have the best Daddy”.  If you are evil, their words will break your heart: “Uh-Oh, Daddy’s home. I’ll be good, I promise” and “You’ll never hurt me, right Daddy?” Harvesting the Little Sisters affects you more in the second one.

WEAPONS: You get most of the same weapons in Bioshock 1 and 2. There is the standard machine gun, shot gun, and grenade launcher. You know, your regular video game fare.

Bioshock 2 starts you off with a much better opening weapon. In the first Bioshock, you pick up the first wrench you come across and just smack it around. The simple wrench only works as a bludgeon, and you quickly move on to the more complex weapons.

In Bioshock 2 you start off with a Drill, which is a very impressive weapon. It works well as a large bludgeon, but with fuel you can simply drill through flesh in a symphony of gore.

It is a weapon you use throughout the game. With later upgrades, the Drill can even deflect bullets.

Bioshock 2 has better weapon upgrades. The first Bioshock only has two weapon upgrades for each weapon, one for increased capacity and one for damage. Bioshock 2 has three weapon upgrades, and the third one has a special quality. For the Drill it is the bullet shield and for the shotgun it is electrified bullets.

ENEMIES: While Bioshock 1 and 2 share most of the same enemies, Bioshock 2 has some new surprises. There are Big Sisters, what happens to a Little Sister who grows up.

The Big Sister attacks after you either harvest or save all of the Little Sisters on the level. They move swiftly and shriek at you, throwing things with psychic powers. They act on pure, irrational rage and are some of the toughest opponents in the game.

SPECIAL TWIST: One of my favorite things about Bioshock 2 is the part where you play as a Little Sister. You see the world of Rapture as they do.

The Little Sisters have psychological work in their brains to ignore the horror of Rapture, seeing a bright shiny world full of pillows (non-Adam corpses), toys (guns), and snazzy, tuxedo-wearing gentlemen (Splicers). They see the Adam ridden corpses as angels,

instead of damp, rusted walls they see instructional posters,

and the Little Sister's eyes even show how they see you.

Overall, Bioshock 2 enhances the Bioshock franchize, but the first one does have a few things that are better about it. I like the story in Bioshock better, especially with its big twist. I always have a soft spot in my heart for beginnings. I also enjoy the two different endings of Bioshock, the good ending and the evil ending, versus the two similar endings of Bioshock 2.

Also, Bioshock has U-Invent machines.

The U-Invent allow you to collect random bits of junk around Rapture and turn it into high quality weapons, like automatic hack tools, antipersonnel bullets, new tonics, and grenades. I honestly missed these vending machines in the second game; to have these items you had to just hack more safes.

Overall, the people at 2K games did an incredible job of revamping and starting a Bioshock franchise. They kept all the things people liked in the first game, but improved upon it. You get to learn the backstory of how the Little Sisters and Big Daddies came into being, and where your character came from. You get an expansion on the Bioshock story, including an Amusement park covering how Rapture began. You even get to walk around outside in the ocean, picking up Adam infused slugs. The game picks up on the plot of the first, but advances it into an incredible father and daughter story full of jealously, love, redemption, and forgiveness. It also adds a multi-player online option with plenty of games you can play against other Bioshock fans.

You cannot miss the first Bioshock for the continuity of the story, but also because it is still an incredible game. I find Bioshock 2 the better game, the one I keep returning to. But maybe Bioshock Infinite will be better. Maybe. But the real apocalypse will probably come first.