STORIES, STORIES

Still on the Band by Chukwudi Barrah Seeing a post recently about the Microsoft Band being the best fitness band you never heard about reminded me that I was going to write a review—or rather ended my procrastination in writing a review—about the Band. I've owned mine for five months, paired primarily with my iPhone 6 plus. In that time I have come to the conclusion that the combination of both devices do not meet the requirements for which they were purchased. In essence, I need to change one of these devices. I know, first world problems, right? Not really. The essence of exchanging hard-earned money for electronic devices—or anything, ever—is to derive some sort of satisfaction from those things, and so far my satisfaction has been relatively low (at least compared with my expectations). Again, I know the argument is that experiences are lower than expectations. I'd argue that that is the case if the expectations are set unreasonably high. In my case, I don'...

Gakkou Gurashi – A Matter of Perception by Carcass H Initial impressions: Let us begin with a happy moment: perfectly normal girls attending their classes, as if it was school as usual. What is unusual, however, is the presence of a unique club within the school. I’m sure the students in most schools have extra-curricular activities, such as participating in clubs (gardening, language, sewing) or sports-based activities such as football, baseball or track. Well, the exciting premise (I’m lying) here is that our main characters are part of the School-Living Club, where the main activity is… living in  the school. Our happy-go-lucky protagonist, Takeya Yuki, seeks out fun school activities such as camping and tests of courage, while the other club members seemingly go out of their way to entertain her whims.  Mental Anguish Before we continue to the end of the episode, those watching the show with a keen eye will likely see a few things amiss in ...

To save you some precious time, I go through movies, TV shows, books, websites and apps – both good and bad. Here's a list of my recommendations for you this month.  Good TV, Bad TV Now that the Big Kahunas have ended (The Wire, Battlestar Galactica, Breaking Bad) or are winding down (House of Cards, Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, Doctor Who) ,  us television rats are scrambling about for the Next Big Thing to put our social lives – and sometimes careers – in jeopardy with the binge-watching and Twitter-ranting that comes with committing to a TV show. At least I was, earlier this year, and so I hunkered down on the couch and went on a brave mission to find just the right TV series.  Here are some of the worthy ones: FARGO (Season 1) If you're a sucker for character development like I am, you'll have to fight not to be mesmerized with the one in this show. It certainly helps that they are doled out by such fine actors as Billy Bob Thornt...