Uncut version is 3 hours and 40 minutes long. It has some really cool shots—very cinematic overall. If you’re looking for atmosphere, this is it. I really liked the intro where they introduce the Minutemen. Also, the animated pirate comic short was great. I love when movies do creative stuff like that.

I also just really like when characters self-narrate. I liked it in Casino, and I liked it here too.

There’s a reference to Dr. Strangelove in here—the war room full of generals and Nixon is straight from Strangelove.

I also liked the non-linear storytelling. It kind of feels like a mix of noir and superheroes. It’s not super deep or anything, but it’s just a great story overall. Though maybe there is something deeper—like the idea that if you think everything is evil, you eventually become evil.

I really liked the ending too. Usually in superhero movies, villains fall into two categories: either evil just to be evil, or the utilitarian type who does something horrible for some “greater good.” The first kind usually ends with a message like “don’t be evil,” and the second with “the ends don’t justify the means.” This movie doesn’t pick either one, and I appreciated that. It didn’t try to create a neat ending just to keep the American public—or the lowest common denominator—happy. 8/10.

For the past two weeks, I’ve been meditating regularly (following Culadasa) after getting up in the morning. Today was different. I was exhausted from the previous workday and decided to stay at home, which threw me off my rhythm, as such I skipped my regular mediation session in the morning.

After lunch, I chose to meditate a bit longer than usual to “make amends.” That’s when something happened—something I can only describe as similar to what Plotinus called Henosis: the union with the One (i.e., God) through meditation and contemplation, as described in his writings. Or ecstasy, from the Greek meaning “standing out of oneself.”

It began with me smiling. The smile grew wider and wider, followed by a feeling of overwhelming bliss. Everything outside my mind ceased to exist. Before my eyes, I saw myself moving through a tunnel. It lasted a few minutes but felt like only a few seconds.

When I opened my eyes, my surroundings felt strange and alien—accompanied by a deep sense that the things in front of me weren’t real.

Note: This is strictly a report of personal experience. I make no claims whatsoever about metaphysical reality or the existence of God, nor if it actually was Henosis, all I’ll say it was a Henosis like experience. It’s also worth noting that I’m currently reading parts of the Enneads by Plotinus, and my experience may have been influenced by this.

There are times when we ought to die and are unwilling; sometimes we die and are unwilling.No one is so ignorant as not to know that we must at some time die; nevertheless, when one draws near death, one turns to flight, trembles, and laments.
Would you not think him an utter fool who wept because he was not alive a thousand years ago? And is he not just as much of a fool who weeps because he will not be alive a thousand years from now? It is all the same; you will not be, and you were not. Neither of these periods of time belongs to you. You have been cast upon this point of time; if you would make it longer, how much longer shall you make it? Why weep? Why pray? You are taking pains to no purpose.

You think, I suppose, that it is now in order for me to cite some examples of great men. No, I shall cite rather the case of a boy.
The story of the Spartan lad has been preserved: taken captive while still a stripling, he kept crying in his Doric dialect, “I will not be a slave!” and he made good his word; for the very first time he was ordered to perform a menial and degrading service,—and the command was to fetch a chamber-pot,—he dashed out his brains against the wall.
So near at hand is freedom, and is anyone still a slave? Would you not rather have your own son die thus than reach old age by weakly yielding? Why therefore are you distressed, when even a boy can die so bravely? Suppose that you refuse to follow him; you will be led. Take into your own control that which is now under the control of another. Will you not borrow that boy’s courage, and say: “I am no slave!”? Unhappy fellow, you are a slave to men, you are a slave to your business, you are a slave to life. For life, if courage to die be lacking, is slavery.

~ Seneca, Letter 77

And what difference does it make how soon you depart from a place which you must depart from sooner or later? We should strive, not to live long, but to live rightly; for to achieve long life you have need of Fate only, but for right living you need the soul.
A life is really long if it is a full life; but fulness is not attained until the soul has rendered to itself its proper Good, that is, until it has assumed control over itself. What benefit does this older man derive from the eighty years he has spent in idleness?
A person like him has not lived; he has merely tarried awhile in life. Nor has he died late in life; he has simply been a long time dying. He has lived eighty years, has he? That depends upon the date from which you reckon his death! Your other friend, however, departed in the bloom of his manhood. But he had fulfilled all the duties of a good citizen, a good friend, a good son; in no respect had he fallen short. His age may have been incomplete, but his life was complete. The other man has lived eighty years, has he?
Nay, he has existed eighty years, unless perchance you mean by “he has lived” what we mean when we say that a tree “lives.”

And yet I would not on that account decline for myself a few additional years; although, if my life’s space be shortened, I shall not say that I have lacked aught that is essential to a happy life. For I have not planned to live up to the very last day that my greedy hopes had promised me; nay, I have looked upon every day as if it were my last.
Age ranks among the external things. How long I am to exist is not mine to decide, but how long I shall go on existing in my present way is in my own control. This is the only thing you have the right to require of me,—that I shall cease to measure out an inglorious age as it were in darkness, and devote myself to living instead of being carried along past life.

~ Seneca, Letter 93

South Korean smut horror drama? This is the weirdest movie I’ve ever seen. A mother discovers her husband cheating and unsuccessfully tries to cut off his dick. After that, she ends up cutting off her son’s penis. The father then gives his son an implant, but the son can’t get an erection anymore. So, the father teaches him how to achieve orgasm by rubbing a stone very hard against his skin. And from there, the story continues.

Most striking about this film, besides the bonkers plot, is that there isn’t a single line of dialogue. The entire plot is conveyed through expression and other non-verbal gestures. 6/10.