Growing up, I remember my mom always warning my sister and me about Black Widows. She made it out that they were under every dark spot in my backyard. I was made to believe that they were out to get my sister and me and that they wanted to come and attack us. Coupled with their inhuman-like appearance and eight legs, this led to me developing a legit fear of spiders. I would tell people at my elementary school, “Yeah, I'm afraid of spiders,” and I always felt a little proud o

Karl Kautsky with the Georgian Social-Democrats, Tbilisi, 1920. In the first row: S. Devdariani, Noe Ramishvili, Noe Zhordania, Karl Kautsky and his wife Luise Kautsky, S. Jibladze, R. Arsenidze; in the second row: Kautsky's secretary Paul Olberg, V. Tevzaia, K. Gvarjaladze, K. Sabakhtarashvili, S. Tevzadze, A. Urushadze, G. Tsintsabadze Ideological competition can flatten out the complexities of history, and likewise, the flattening of history’s complexities can contribute

What makes movies like The Thing so horrifying? What is it about something trying to look like us that causes such intense anxiety? John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982), remains an iconic piece of horror history due to how it uses our fear of pretenders and isolation to invade our minds. The Isolation The film is set on an American base in Antarctica, one of the most isolated places for humans to be. The cast is effectively grounded in that location, and they have no real mean

When I was quite young, I thought the clouds were created by the billowing smoke drifting out of factories, supplying the world with all sorts of things. These plumes looked like clouds and acted like clouds, so why would they not be clouds? A similarly misinformed conclusion, I was confident for some time that the world existed in black and white up to about 1960, informed by my only insight of the period being through black and white movies. One more: before I knew that fac

Tutor fears are here. Once a year, brave English tutors confess their fears to me, and the result is a rediculous story. Enjoy, and be unafraid. Be very unafraid. Carl secured the last restraint on the kiddy roller coaster, walked over to the control panel, and dispatched The Sloth on an empty test-run before the park’s gates opened. The animal clicked and crawled along the tracks, conserving energy before the guests arrived. Such a moody beast, Carl thought. Remembering th

“Oh, it’s nice to see that your generation is not as lazy as we thought.” I’ve got to ask, “What is with people nowadays?” . . . I am sorry, but please explain to me why people think they can come up to you and say things like that. If you are wondering where my example comes from, it was the old lady at the Vons in Clovis . . . Like, really, I'm over here picking out deodorant, and you decide that was the perfect time to tell me. Like, come on, lady, there is a time and plac

Rob Juarez pulled up to the shinning monument of physical media, Videolopolis. The chrome and glass gargantuan of a super store was a treasure trove of all things Blu ray, DVD, laserdisk, CD, cassette, and of course VHS. Rob was a fanatic for all things physical and heard that Videolopolis' selection was second to none. He spent about an hour wandering the labyrinth of shelves and floors. Still, Rob felt like he had only seen a quarter of what Videolopolis had to offer. All i

“I could die, I used to think if it happened, it happened, but now that would make Coco an orphan, and I cannot die” - Character, Rosita Espinosa (The Walking Dead) We all have something we cherish in this life, maybe as of this moment you have it or you lost it. I had something I cherished, something I wished I payed more attention to, something I could never get back, but back then when I did have them, they meant everything to me. I would have fought for them and lived for

When the month of October hits, the sky goes cold, the clouds turn into coal, and emotions start to dim. This is known as the “season of the witch.” Halloween to most is not a positive celebration but rather seen as a glory to the devil and other hidden spirits which we do not see. People believed that on October 31st, the distance between the living and the dead grew shorter, which allowed the underground spirits to roam free on earth and haunt the living. In many religions,

A colorful time of year... Where the summer went, I do not know, but now it is Fall 2026 and a new academic year is here. For those of you returning, welcome back, and those of you who are new, welcome to Reedley College's Paper Jam Blog. As is the case each year, our students graduate and new folks begin. This year we welcome four new tutors, and look forward to the ideas and will share here. We have a lot to look forward to, new courses, new people, new ideas, interspersed

"It’s easy to feel hopeful on a beautiful day like today, but there will be dark days ahead of us too, there’ll be days where you feel all alone, and that’s when hope is needed most. No matter how buried it gets, or how lost you feel, you must promise me, that you will hold on to hope” - Character Gwen Stacy (The Amazing Spider-man 2) No matter who we are, we all face the same challenges in college at one point in our lives. College is never easy, the work is hard and there

College is a new experience. A new community that includes diversity in people, interests, and hobbies. A community that goes beyond our reach in understanding. A place where so many stick figures walk back and forth to different doors, going to different classes, working different jobs, and living completely different lives, where no one understands how many steps it took the other person to get to that class. We see people walking through the hallways, sitting in classrooms

This past summer, I took an introductory certification course focused on freediving in Monterey, California. Freediving is the act of diving underneath the surface and only returning once you run out of breath. It's like scuba diving without all the clunky gear, on only a single breath. Your success in this sport is heavily dependent on your ability to calm down and clear your mind, since your heart rate needs to be as low as possible in order to conserve oxygen. This is thec

Philip and I rested on the edge of his grandfather’s pool. A few leaves from the fruitless mulberry trees overhead fell prematurely, and I extended my scarred pool noodle into the water and lifted them out. It was fun peeling the leaves off the pool noodle and slapping them on Philip’s leg. He didn’t like it, so he peeled them off and put them on my arm. I left them. We spent our entire summer, from sunrise to sunset, in that back yard getting a tan. We’d been neighbors

On July 31, 2026, the highly anticipated fourth installment of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man films finally released after nearly five years since the series’ last film. Audiences were eager to see what Marvel’s web-slinger had in store for them this past summer blockbuster season, especially after such a long waiting period and a recent phenomenon of what some have come to define as “superhero fatigue.” In recent years, audiences have seemed to take less interest in superhero rela

As we navigate our adult lives, we learn how to manage relationships and goals. Both of those things can be complicated, and it gets even more complicated if you are not secure in your own identity. When you don't know who you are, it can be easy to define yourself based on your relationships and aspirations rather than those things being part of your identity. I myself had to learn this the hard way when I crumbled under the expectations placed on me by myself and others. I