Van's Nonfic Blog

Ever since I was young football stood out to me apart from all the other sports. From my first memory of watching a football game, the Packer’s 2005 loss to the Carolina Panthers, to this year’s college football national championship, I have always loved the sport. Due to the depth and intricate strategies of football, throughout playing all kinds of other sports throughout my youth, football stayed closest with me. Football’s most defining factor is the depth of the game play. In sports such as hockey and soccer there is a pseudo-separation of offense and defense, but it is never actually defined in the rules or physically separated as it is in football. This separation in football increases the amount of specialization of the players themselves which is key in understanding the game. For every one of the several unique positions in football, there is a player that specializes and trains for that position only. With more specialized training the skill cap, for each position goes up tr...

Like most people, my musical tastes has changed a lot over my life. I’ve never been in orchestra or chorus like 70% of my class at Uni has, but that doesn’t stop me from appreciating music from a listening and learning perspective. This outlook has kept me engaged with music and I’m always listening and trying to find more. My dad always played music when I was young whether we were at home, in the car, or outside. There isn’t any specific genre he listens to as it ranges from rock to jazz to rap to music I don’t even know the genre of . As a result of this, I got exposed to many different forms of music to choose from and my brother and I clung to one genre much more than the others: classic rock. Almost all of the music I listened to through elementary school consisted of Guns N Roses, AC/DC, and other heavy rock bands as my brother and I would beg my dad to play in the car. My interest in classic rock has had the biggest influence on what instruments I have played. Rather than pian...

Nostalgia means something to different to everyone. Nostalgia can take form in many different ways, be applied to many scenarios, and range from being sought after by some while hated by others. It’s no wonder nostalgia is much better understood as a unique “feeling” rather than defined by words. As nostalgia is almost always based around pleasant memories, it makes sense to interpret nostalgia as always being a happy feeling. What I feel defines nostalgia the most however, and separates the feeling from simply happily remembering the past, is the bittersweetness of nostalgia. Nostalgia is made up the Greek words nóstos, meaning "homecoming" and álgos meaning "pain" or "ache", so from the etymology we can tell the feeling of nostalgia is inherently tied partly to a bit of sorrow. Personally, I’m always looking for ways to be reminded of my past whether its songs I used to listen to, stories from family members, or just events from my childhood I’ve seemed ...

The question I hear often (as many of you can probably relate) discussed by nearly everyone from kids to those in academia: "Would you rather own a man in a dog's body, or a dog in a man's body?". Not which you would rather be but own,  due to the impossibility of imagining having a dog's mind. The amazing part of this question is many are quick with a seemingly correct answer to them, while their response may be the opposite from the person across from them, leading to lengthy discussions delving into and opening up this question to its fullest.  For those few that haven't heard this hypothetical question there's a chance one or both may seem appealing, but I'll be quick to make it clear this is one of those dually unpleasant "Would you rather's". For that reason, the stipulations follow that you are not allowed to give away (or even kill) the dog/man/whateveryouwanttocallit and to make the situations fair the life expectancy of each wil...

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