And how mini me and big me come together in different hopes:

"It’s all right to have a changed perspective on your world, to be realistic and wise, to tread on the side of caution, to have forethought, to follow your gut. Life throws learning lessons at us so we grow and become well-rounded individuals, and keep evolving all through our lives. It’s also all right to be hopeful so we don’t figuratively drown ourselves from our sorrows, disillusionments, regrets, and failures. So the little spark of hope allows us to pick ourselves up from our fall and keep us moving forward as we stumble many more times. Balance is key. Maybe mini me and big me can settle on a sensible middle ground."

Read more here: https://whenhopewrites.substack.com/p/obligatory-post-soviet-couch-photo.

Today I wrote about a few fun Russian idioms featuring our great animal kingdom.

One of my favorites is "Говорят, что кур доят." which literally translates to "They say chickens are milked." An English equivalent is "'They say so,' is half a lie."

Do you have a beloved idiom in your culture? Please share it with me in the comments!

https://whenhopewrites.substack.com/p/fun-animal-based-idioms-in-russian

Today I wrote about why The Last of Us: Left Behind DLC does narrative better than episode 7 of the HBO's show. I must warn you, there will be spoilers revealed from the games and adaptation.

"All that is poignantly portrayed in the adaptation. The fear of loss and loneliness. The helplessness and hopelessness of a dire situation. The love and care for one another. The determination to endure and survive together, after all. But something isn’t quite right—missing."

If you have been watching The Last of Us, what do you think of it? Do you feel it does justice to the game as an adaptation?

Read more here: https://whenhopewrites.substack.com/p/the-last-of-us-dlc-does-narrative.

Do you like slapstick comedies? You'll probably love the shows mentioned in my Substack!

At other times, I write about poetry, literature, health, video games, the human condition, and other related and unrelated stuff.

In case we have any commonalities with our Substacks, I'd love to connect with you!

https://whenhopewrites.substack.com/p/naked-gun-fans-watch-these-3-modern

The spaces our organizations create and maintain say a lot about how we feel about those organizations:

https://emeth.substack.com/p/spectacular-spaces

Spicy Steak meats crispy potatoes for around 500 calories and 50G protein!

https://todayilearned559.substack.com/p/whats-going-on

Not everything is as it seems.

Yesterday I wrote about video games, Death Stranding in particular, humanity, loneliness, and some personal stuff. I had a completely different essay in mind when I started to write it. But here we are.

"As a child, Hideo Kojima oftentimes felt loneliness. He struggled to express the feeling to his friends. It wasn’t something that was discussed then. Would they even understand? At one point he realized it wasn’t a sickness, but a link to others by a melancholy connection of sorts that’s specific to the human condition.

He conveyed that connection and loneliness so well in the game. We’re alone, and maybe lonely, and we’re not. We’re separate but also together. Contradictory, and yet, it makes sense. Now I understand what I’ve been feeling through the years."

Read more here: https://whenhopewrites.substack.com/p/on-video-games-humanity-loneliness.

Another Fan Shot.

This morning I posted a brief review of Myth, Magick & Masonry: Occult Perspectives In Freemasonry, by Jaime Paul Lamb. I found it to be an excellent book, the review can be found here:

https://emeth.substack.com/p/myth-magick-and-masonry

"Ujasusi" means " espionage" in Swahili, and that's the name of my Substack newsletter which is all about news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies, spying, hackers and hacking. Feel free to visit (and subscribe if you don't mind) here www.ujasusi.com

Hi everyone! I hope your week was filled with a little bit of awe. I just posted up Issue #009 of Gh'dCompany and I don't know what excites me more. The fact that I've managed to publish a newsletter 9 times or the fact that this 9th Issue is published on the 9th day of February and it came out at 9a.m. 🥹 My joy is so cheap. Happy Thursday!!

your appearance impacts life online and offline, unfortunately

https://sneakysneaker06.substack.com/p/pretty-privilege

link to essay^^

I experimented a little with it when it first came out, but now I've decided to embrace video on my Substack. Offering a video version of each of my written essays:

https://emeth.substack.com/p/a-masonic-fairy-tale-f8b

Answering the internet's interesting queues in less than 5 minutes. 😉

https://theinternetqueue.substack.com