Drabble Geeks

Geeks…Being Total Geeks.

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Drabble Geek

I am a self proclaimed geek. My interests include reading, writing and playing video games. Oh yeah, and fangirling over my favorite shows. Follow me on Twitter at @Drabble_Geek

Grey’s of the Sea

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I usually don’t watch shows as they come out. I don’t have a TV nor cable. The only things I have are Hulu, Netflix, and Crunchyroll accounts; I usually am binge-watching shows. Imagine my surprise when my friend, Panda, told me that I needed to watch this show that was coming out every single week: a medical drama that takes place on a boat. Well, call me intrigued. That show is “Doctor Odyssey.” Some may have heard of this show from the aside John Oliver made on “Last Week Tonight,” but I was there from week three or four.

Anyway, “Doctor Odyssey” is about a Doctor who seems to be running from his everyday life because of a wake-up call from being a “patient zero” for COVID in his hospital. Enter the two other medical staff on the boat, sorry, ship. Anyway, we know how most medical dramas typically unfold and eventually lead to romance. I really thought this show would be interesting, since from the very beginning it was hinting at an OT3, or one true threesome for those not in the know. There was chemistry between everyone. Unfortunately, at least Panda and I think, the networks got involved, and nonsense started happening. While the medicine and medical aspects were still good, I would not stand the relationship as the show kept going. I eventually started skipping anytime our favorite characters were not doing their jobs. While I enjoyed the show and where I thought it was going, I don’t think the show will continue. There were lots of plot points that would keep that from happening unless there is a time jump, and everything was resolved in the season finale. Maybe start with another group. Either way, it was a good weekend binge if you’re looking for something quick to watch.

Fighting for Death

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I don’t often read shounen manga, but this has been on my list for a while. I was told that it was amazing, and I couldn’t wait. The manga of interest today is Bleach by Tite Kubo. Very simply, you follow a boy named Ichigo, who is able to talk with ghosts. One day, he stumbles across a Soul Reaper, hijinks ensue, and he becomes a Soul Reaper himself. I think that’s all I can really say about this three-arc story without giving too many spoilers.

While the fights were interesting and the transformations were gorgeous, the story was a rollercoaster in terms of plot. The first and last arcs were amazing and kept my attention. The second arc, while each individual volume was good, I couldn’t have cared less about that story. I can’t really get into why I don’t care without spoilers for everything else, but honestly, you can just get away with reading the outer arcs. It also didn’t feel necessary. I had a friend tell me that Kubo may have been forced to write the second arc, and I completely believe it. The story could have ended after the first arc, and I would have been happy. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the last arc, and it was beautiful and gripping, but I could have lived without the drag that was the second arc. Overall, it’s a fantastic story, and I’m eager to see what the anime is like. Perhaps the show performed better with the second arc, given that they had more time to develop the story.

The New Extinction

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As I was reading, I thought it was quite timely that news about the “re-emergence” of an extinct species was announced: the dire wolf. I will go a bit into that later; however, I want to discuss The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert first. One of the draws that led me to this book was our current understanding of extinction. It was just amazing that there was a universal belief that no species ever died out, up until the 1700s, when people would find fossils and bones that did not match any species that were alive at the time. We also didn’t have the meteoroid hypothesis about what killed off the dinosaurs until the 80s. It just blew my mind how recent it was. Next, the author covered the more modern extinctions and how the migration of Homo sapiens aligns with the extinction of several species, and how to current activities may lead to the next mass extinction without a random catastrophe.

Now, onto the subject of making a species come back from extinction. As it may not be such a surprise with the dire wolves, we have not brought a species from extinction. As far as I know, science has not gone that far yet. The dire wolves are just grey wolves with some genes edited, but they are very cute, nonetheless. Even if they did come back from extinction, the species would still be considered functionally extinct, since the scientists are not trying to breed the wolves together. Also, as was brought up with Jurassic Park, I’m not sure that we should consider bringing species back, as cool as it would be. Evolution has continued without the existence of these species, so there would be no natural protections, unless you consider humans poaching them, which, I believe, would inevitably happen. Any de-extinct species would, in my opinion, be a glorified invasive species. In this example, wolves are considered top predators in their environment and would probably have no natural failsafe to keep the ecosystems aligned. I personally believe that we should focus on keeping the species that are still alive alive, rather than trying to create new species for us to protect or protect against. (But that might be none of my business.)

Math IRL

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Alright, guys… I’m an absolute nerd. You know this; I know this. I found a book about math in the real world and how we may or may not use it correctly, and I had to read it. I couldn’t help myself. It also had no reason being as interesting as it was. The book was The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives by Leonard Mlodinow.

The title refers to the mathematical principle of calculating the random path a drunk person would walk. (I told you this was going to be really nerdy from the start.) Part of my studies included learning some statistics, but even then, hearing some of the concepts in an everyday context had me answering questions incorrectly. The wording of math problems will always be confusing. Another interesting aspect was learning when many of the principles we take for granted came to be. Hilariously, it was from people trying to constantly win at gambling. It made statistics interesting, although I might be a bit biased because I watched shows about math and had the time of my life.

The Mysterious Process

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There is apparently a very secret world that I knew little about even though I am part of the community. What community am I talking about? The uterus-having community. I read Period: The Real Story of Menstruation by Kate Clancy to see if there were any secrets that I could uncover. Although, in all seriousness, I did learn a lot about a process that happens to me. I did grow up in an “I don’t want to hear about it” household. Now that I’m older, I’ve taken the position of “it’s something that happens to about 50% of the population, so get over yourself.” Even with that perspective, I never took the time to learn about it until now.

This book takes the story of menstruation from a cultural perspective. It was interesting to hear about cultures where periods are something to revere rather than a shameful action and how that view has shaped gynecology. Next, the book covers the biology of why. Humans are one of the very few species that menstruate, so it’s interesting to listen to the theories of how humans have evolved. Another interesting thing I learned was that the “normal period” isn’t quite normal. People are placed into boxes that never made sense to begin with and can move in and out of said boxes. For anyone interested in the topic, I highly recommend this book.

Also, because I am an equal-opportunity reader, I would also love to read a book on male reproduction. I spent my doctorate studying parts of it, but I genuinely believe I could always learn more. Period was suggested to me as a good read, so it went on my list.

How Does It Hold Up: Nancy Drew

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One of my goals in life is the read the entirety of the Nancy Drew series. All 175 books. Why was this a goal in my life? I have no clue. Anyway, I have finally got to the end of my library’s catalog of Nancy Drew books, I figure now is a better time than any. To start, the original books were initially published in 1930. That becomes super important as you continue with these books. Payphones. What are those? Strange words that you look up that end up being considered slurs now? It’s just the time.

That stuff out of the way, I’ve been enjoying myself reading the books. Some times I’m flipping through past chapters trying to figure out if there was something I missed. Others, I pretty confident in who the criminal is from the first couple of chapters, but unsure as to how we are going to get our evidence. Whelp, no need to hard proof when everyone confesses, so I guess we can move on. One the the things that got me every time was Nancy not calling someone to tell her where she was going. Excuse me, shouldn’t you be calling your dad? Oh, there’s literally no phone around. Could you leave a message, at least? Oh, no answering machines. The only thing that made this better was that after the initial publications, I once read, that they turned Nancy into an eighteen year old instead of the thirteen year old she was originally published as. I think I would have more problems had she not been a legal adult. Also, the boyfriend plot lines would have been even more awkward. Yes, that becomes an entire thing, but at least boyfriends are just the help and not the main sleuth.

Unfortunately, I have yet to read of the books, and I still feel the need to questions all of these characters questionable life choices while trying to figure out the criminal before anyone else. (I mean, what else am I supposed to do.) If anyone can find me more sources to find the books, I would be eternally gratefully. It shouldn’t be this hard to get my children’s mystery fix.

Let Me Teach You How to Lie

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Well, lie is a really strong word for what I’m going to discuss. A better word would be to deceive with facts and logic. I recently read How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff. This book goes into all of the ways in which a glorified “statistic” can be used to sway and mislead the people who see it. With fun illustrations, we are taught how exactly looking at different axes and altering study design, you can get some really interesting conclusions, whether justly or not. At the end, we are at least taught who to dig deeper into what we are seeing to draw our own conclusions that may be different from the conclusions we are being led to.

One of the funny things about this book is how money works. Being that this book was written in 1954 and read by me in 2025, let’s just say that inflation has not hit these numbers. Having super “wealthy” Yale graduates making an annual salary of $25,000 or the outrage of the price of bread doubling to a single dollar was hilarious. If only the author knew and could update these numbers for the modern day. Hilarity aside, this book is a great way to learn how people may inadvertently lie to you, because they are 95 percent of the time*.

* Source: Because I said so…

Update for 2025

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So, this is the new year, so of course I have to inform everyone about the new-ish me. Just kidding. Not much new is going on. I hope to be able to post on a regular basis again, especially since I am getting to the end of the degree. Working on my different projects, which include this, is how I de-stress from the stressful day. I also hope to add longer form content. This is something that I have been working on in hopes that I can upload one later this month. Right now, I am hoping that I can release one every other month. First, I’ll have to see if I can keep up with everything. To see how well I’m doing, you can stop by my YouTube channel were I record myself working. So far, it seems to be working in keeping me focused on working during my time. Stop by if you need it as well. Either way, I’ll hopefully see you next week to continue our normally scheduled programming.

An Entirely New World Pt 6

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I’m almost done with the Chronicles of Narnia: a series I technically started when I was a child. I don’t even remember when the first movie came out, but that was how long it has been. This time, because I’m reading in publication order, I read The Magician’s Nephew, and what a wild ride it was.

If you didn’t understand that Aslan is an allegory for Jesus yet, there is so much Christian imagery in this iteration. It was a bit funny how I could guess the next plot point because I grew up in the church. I was in fact internally giggling. No matter how predictable the plot was, I was surprised by how good it was. If you read the last couple of my reviews, you know that I felt like I was dragging my way through the content. Insert random characters I didn’t care about. Insert literally nothing happening as we just listen to people talk. Insert absolutely no imagery, of which I could barely imagine what was going on, even with the included illustrations.

No, this story engaged me, and I practically read it from beginning to end in one sitting. There was just so much happening and so many questions I had as I reading. There was an entire chapter of which a landscape was being described, and I loved every second of it. The imagery was vivid and drew me further into the world of Narnia, something the few previous books had not done. This was a journey to Narnia that was unforgettable and should be read again and again.