“How long does a building stand before it falls? How long does a contract last? How long will brothers share the inheritance before they quarrel? How long does hatred, for that matter, last? Time after time the river has risen and flooded. The insect leaves the cocoon to live but a minute. How long is the eye able to look at the sun? From the very beginning nothing at all has lasted.” ― David Ferry, The Epic of Gilgamesh Everything ends, I think that is pretty clear. Not one thing, since the beginning has lasted forever and, nothing ever will. Above is the speech of Utnapishtim to Gilgamesh about the great flood that god set upon the earth. This brief paragraph touches mostly on death and the end of all things, but I would argue that the most important hinted at is time. Utnapishtim is a former king and priest of Shurrupak, he survived the flood by building a boat and with God Ea's favor. Utnapishtim meets Gilgamesh on his was to obtain immortality, thus earning Utnapishtim's ire despite being immortal himself. From someone who has seen all life wiped away and had to live through it and rebuild by himself, the pursuit of such an existence by someone who does not understand can be irksome and enraging. The text itself contains numerous juxtapositions of life and death, cause and effect, actions and consequences. An insect is born just to die in minutes whereas a building is erected just to crumble years later. Both have different time frames, and yet the result is the same. It can be seen that the main focus of all these questions is the inevitable end; however, with these dower words it is easy to gloss over the most important aspect of this literature is, time. Every questions contains the words "how long"? "How long does hatred, for that matter, last?", or "how long is the eye able to look at the sun?". Thus the problem Utnapishtim has with immortality isn't necessarily watching the constant life and death of other things, but it is the very unnatural nature of not having an end and a sense of incompletion. Utnapishtim's name means "he who saw life"; but, that is all he can do is witness it. Utnapishtim would argue that being immortal means you can no longer live life because to live is inherently, to die. Time is what makes things precious and important, the fact that nothing lasts forever and everything ends is what gives them their value. Those things that don't last burn the brightest, a feud between brothers is an inferno that fizzles out, an eye looks at the sun briefly because of its vulnerability. Having a deadline gives life, especially human life, its meaning and so it can be argued that a never-ending life loses its worth. The only thing that all living, and non-living things for that matter, is time. Everything is given an amount of time, no matter how brief or how long that may be. An insect may live a minute, a building may stand for years, a human lives for decades, and a quarrel may stretch on even longer. But everything is given time, it is what is done with that time that matters even in a race against the proverbial clock. As much as Utnapishtim is emphasizing that everything is given a beginning and an end I believe his most important point is the space between, without an end then the space doesn't matter. To make life matter and have meaning is not to lengthen your amount of time, like Gilgamesh is trying to do, but to make the most of the time given to you and accept the end when it comes.

After I picked myself up from weeping on the floor at the knowledge I can only watch ONE MOVIE for the rest of my life I would choose Tucker and Dale VS. Evil. Why not a cult classic? You may ask, like Pulp Fiction, Star Wars, or any Tarantino or Kubrick movie? Well I'll tell you why, and no it's not because I'm an edgy hipster. The two best genres in film are horror and comedy, lucky for me this movie has both. Rarely do you find a movie that chops people in half and delivers witty punchlines. We follow two hillbillies, Tucker and Dale, on a journey to fix up their brand new holiday home on the edge of a lake in the middle of nowhere, prime real estate am I right? Well on their way out of town they stop by a gas station and bump into a group of college kids who have seen one too many camp-councilor-murder-spree movies. Immediate stereotyping takes place in a matter of seconds and Dale falls for the pretty blond girl, Allison, and the college kids flee for their lives unnecessarily. Alas, because this is a movie, and Canada, the group of college kids ends up camping at the lake quite close to the Tucker and Dale's holiday home. As kids do, the group decides to go skinny dipping in the lake. Tucker and Dale happen to be fishing in their boat for dinner when they happen upon Allison climbing on a rock. Dale scolds Tucker loudly to stop staring and startles Allison who then falls and bumps her head. Tucker and Dale valiantly save her from drowning; however, a friend of Allison sees then dragging her, seemingly lifeless body, into the boat. She jumps to immediate conclusions as one would and runs to her friends saying they had murdered her. This comedy of errors goes into full swing when the group of kids wages an all out, and greatly misinformed, war on the titular characters. While our heroes are waiting for the kids to come and collect their now bandages, good-as-new friend from their lake house chaos soon breaks loose. If being ambushed, chased, and shot at isn't enough; wood chippers, poorly placed branches, and booby traps should just about cover it. Convinced this lunacy is apart of a ruined suicide pack, our hillbilly heroes will stop at nothing to protect their dog, Allison, and each other. This may not sound like a comedy so far but believe me when I tell you even through all the horror they manage to bring out the hilarity and punchlines to this grave situation, pun intended. There are many reasons I would choose this movie over others, one being it would be impossible for me to choose a movie in a series as I would constantly itch to see the rest, no matter how much I love that single movie in particular. Additionally, the movie I choose would influence my mood whenever watched so I chose one that always puts a smile on my face and makes me laugh. I appreciate a movie that can supply and conquer such a large contradiction of genres and I believe this one does so with a certain flair that I can't help but appreciate.

So the world is ending? What next? I'm sure many of us look around and see what everyone sees, barely contained anarchy. Aliens have visited, fires everywhere, the economy is imploding and the government is a mess. Well I'm here to tell you we are not alone, for one family in particular the world is literally ending, no matter how they try to stop it. The Umbrella Academy is arguably the most wild, unhinged, and hilariously-exciting show to grace Netflix. The Hargreeves family is dysfunctional at its best and clinically insane at its worst, the end of the world knocks daily at their door and they seem to open for it every time. The seven adopted siblings and their unique individual powers wreak havoc on the each other, the general population, and even extends to other worlds (oh and the future). So several women across the world become pregnant and simultaneously give birth within a couple of hours, and then an eccentric billionaire proceeds to go around the world and "adopt", or at least buy, these children from their mothers. Oh yes, and they all turn out to have superpowers but is that really that shocking? Anyhow, of those hundreds of girls the billionaire, Sir Reginald Hargreeves, was able to procure seven of them. The powers range from the classic strength, mind control, and time travel the the more nuanced communing with the dead and burst-through-the-chest monsters. An untimely death, a disappearance, and a hidden power insights an uncomfortable family reunion and, oh yes, the end of the world. If that is not enough then I may as well mention a robot mother and a fully intelligent chimpanzee butler and caretaker. However, as hell bent on utter collapse as the world seems to be, the family is even more determined to see it saved. Time-travelling assassins? Murderous fish-man director? Psychotic adoptive father? No problem. Getting along long enough to save the world? May be an insurmountable challenge. With each season you will find yourself asking "could this get more bizarre and frustrating"? and the answer is always yes. The world has been saved by the most dysfunctional family since, well take your pick, not once or twice but three times. And yet with each passing time their circumstances seem to get increasingly worse, which begs the question "how could things get any worse"? A dreaded question that everyone knows to avoid but is this family's moto. Can they get along long enough to get their happy endings? Is there a world worth saving for them anymore? Will the siblings band together with their mutual father issues enough to stop him or will they continue to be their own worst enemies? Lucky for all of us, with the last season fast approaching on Netflix, all the questions and more will be answered. . . or not.

Super Smash Bros is not just the name of the game, it's the name of my favorite activity. I remember when his friends first introduced the fated game to my brother. It looked like so much fun even though I didn't know any of the characters or the games behind them. I knew I wanted to play and, most important, dominate. My brother, four years older and reluctant, introduced me to Super Smash Bros Brawl (2008) on the Wii. For years he had defeated me and would not relent but I remember one fine summer day. The sun was shining and our mom was complaining that we were still inside. It was a free for all in the classic Battlefield stage from Super Smash Bros Melee and the game was intense to say the least. With my brother as Falco and I in my unwavering choice of Kirby it was coming down to the final seconds. A few hammer swings, super moves, and strange ingestions later the game had ended and the results were in. After three years of painstaking effort and tears (mostly mine) I had beaten my brother and won in the arena. It has not happened since and I don't think it ever will again, but I will remember that day forever.