Edison's Blog

  SpongeBob SquarePants is a Nickelodeon TV show about aquatic creatures who live very human lives, but in an underwater world known as Bikini Bottom. The show first aired its pilot episode, "Help Wanted", in 1999. In "Help Wanted", the main character, SpongeBob SquarePants, gets hired at the local fast food establishment called "The Krusty Krab" after saving the workers from a mob of anchovies. This episode sets the scene for the entire SpongeBob universe. The creator of the show, Stephen Hillenburg, was a marine biologist who worked as an educator before pursuing his true dream of becoming an animator/artist. Hillenburg's first iteration of SpongeBob came in 1994 when he got the idea to create a show where sea creatures live in a small town and behave more like humans that fish. He borrowed the character named "Bob the Sponge" from the show The Intertidal Zone  and further developed it into the SpongeBob we know today. Hillenburg's visi...

"Happily ever after" is a phrase that seems to be thrown around in almost every children's story or fairy tale. In fact, I had known this phrase way before I became fluent in English, simply from hearing it so many times. For my whole life, I had a general sense of its meaning: The characters involved end their story at the same time that I see them end it, and they continue some sort of pseudo-existence in a happy state, doing whatever they were doing at the very end of their story. However, I am now tasked with defining "happily ever after" as I see it, so let's break it down. Of course, in a fantastical world, characters may truly be able to achieve a state of never-ending happiness. As I wrote about previously, happiness derives from having purpose in life, rather than a single experience or action. I believe that even in a fairy tale, this principle still holds. For example, if the plot of a fairy tale involves two characters falling in love, the "...

When the pandemic started, I was not anxious, stressed, or depressed. Rather, I was somewhat relieved. Senior year was shaping up to be an incredibly busy time, and even after getting into Duke ED it felt like second semester was dragging, with no point in going to school or putting effort into my extracurriculars. Quarantine sort of gave me the break that I had long desired, and I took full advantage of that. However, I quickly became extremely bored at home. Unlike most of Gen Z during the pandemic, I did not turn to binge watching my favorite Netflix classics, get hooked into Tiger King, or endulge in an entire series of movies. I have never been a big movie person; I tend not to seek emotional rollercoasters or unpredictable storylines when I attempt to relax. I like to be in control of my story, not let the story control me. Therefore, video games became my go-to quarantine relaxation activity. Minecraft had seen a resurgence on YouTube earlier in 2018/2019, which pushed many play...