Opinion

Stuff I've watched lately

Published by editor on Mon, 07/28/2025 - 9:04am

One of the worst kept secrets around me is my love for movies, and to a lesser extent, television. When you grow up in rural Iowa with a 10 person elementary class in Boxholm and no one lives within walking distance, you grow up watching movies and TV.

Also video games but we’re not ready to dive down the rabbit hole yet.

I’ve made no secret that my film collection is over 1,200 at this point. So here’s what I’ve watched for either for the first time, or something revisited lately.

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You Win

Published by editor on Mon, 07/28/2025 - 9:02am

We were just doing what siblings often do: we were sparring.

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My weird sickness, or hobby if you will

Published by editor on Wed, 04/20/2022 - 8:34am

Hobbies can be a weird thing. Can be. It all depends on what someone enjoys doing. There are model cars to put together, knitting, painting or a myriad of other things. There is really no limit as to what a hobby could be considered to be.

There are people who collect everything White Castle so nothing is really off limits. Also I’ve never actually had White Castle.

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An ode to my past

Published by editor on Wed, 04/13/2022 - 8:47am

As we may know, April Fools Day fell on a Friday this year. I had scheduled to take the afternoon off due to the forecast showing it to be a beautiful day, and it most certainly was. I was over in Ames when a former colleague of mine sent me a message on Messenger.

When you see something on April Fools Day that starts with “This is not an april fools joke,” you tend to already take it with a grain of salt. My friend began to explain to me that the newspaper we had both previously worked at was being sold. On April Fools Day.

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Well, state wrestling is pretty fun

Published by editor on Wed, 03/02/2022 - 9:35am

A couple of weeks ago I had the fun privilege of being part of a group of employees from Mid America Publishing, who owns the newspaper, that got to go to the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines to cover the state wrestling tournament.

For years I never got why people loved wrestling so much despite living in Iowa all of my life. I always found it to be weird and kind of boring. I usually enjoyed the kind of wrestling that involved John Cena more than what goes on in a high school gym on a mat.

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Say, “NO!” to Exploitation, “Yes” to Compassion

Published by editor on Thu, 03/18/2021 - 9:29am

A friend once told me that with kids, ‘yes’ should be your answer most of the time. Say ‘no’ when you really mean it and stick to it.

I’m just wondering, in our day and age, do kids hear yes too often? When they hear no, do they act as if it’s negotiable?

I sometimes fear we try to make life for our youth too easy.

I think it’s a divine plan that toddlers stumble and fall often when they’re learning to walk. After all, they don’t have far to fall; they have the resilience of youth and don’t give up easily.