A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma...
About Zack Verham
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The Absurdity of Death: A Lenten Reflection on Camus
I both love and am unsettled by Lent. This season of the church calendar has always felt especially “real,” or maybe “lived-in” to me. I don’t really know the right language to describe it. But where Christmas and Advent quickly become enmeshed in joyful-but-confusing commercialization, and Easter culturally comes and goes over the course of […]
I’m a Vampire! I’m a Vampire! I’m a Vampire!
Another year, another Dungeons and Dragons campaign on the books. Fully enveloped within the modern resurgence of the classic fantasy roleplaying game, I’ve been running (“dungeon mastering”) a series of campaigns for my wife and our group of best friends over the past few years. We just wrapped up a six-month campaign where our party […]
Crime and Punishment and Adventure Time: A Kierkegaardian Reflection on Lowliness
“Because when you have stanky old wizard eyes, sometimes you see things that are real, and other times it’s like crazy, crazy, crazy, in your face, all the time. *sighs* All the time.” – Ice King Adventure Time is the single best kids show (which is also secretly for adults) of all time. I’ve obsessively […]
Thank God for Mr. Bubz
I now present to you the current top-tier internet dog, a title which has only recently come into contention with the untimely passing of Gabe, the miniature eskimo pup who held our hearts in his tiny paws for many a moon. The newest meme champion is Mr. Bubz; look on his Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
A tiny, ugly, self-important little snot, Mr. Bubz thinks he is significantly more threatening than he actually is, and he constantly grandstands for attention. Alas, even when he tries to be good, he has to let out a little growl to make sure his owners know that he is the boss. He can’t help himself.
The greatest part about Mr. Bubz is how much his family loves him and how his owners refuse to take him seriously. Regardless of Mr. Bubz’ outer demeanor, his parents talk to him in a sweet, high-pitched voice, and they continue to dote upon him even as he lets out some small, pitiful, self-righteous growls. In video after video on his official Instagram page, Mr. Bubz’ family cherishes him in spite of himself.
We’re all just a little bit like Mr. Bubz. Self-aggrandizing, pitiful, and much too self-important for our own good, yet entirely reliant upon the unconditional love of our Father, who dotes upon us even as we pretend like we’re the ones in control. Thank God for Mr. Bubz!
To Dissolve the Line Between Man and Machine: Reflections on Cyberpunk and Suffering in the Meatspace
“The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel” (Neuromancer, pg. 3) If I self-reflect on how geeky my hobbies are, I’m nothing if not consistent. For the past year or so, some friends and I have been meeting in a basement after work and playing a fantastic Dungeons […]
A Message of Hope for the Geeks: From Coheed and Cambria
Music is a weird time machine. Whether it’s an entire record, a song, or even a particular melody or rhythm, music has a way of viscerally tethering me to snapshots from my past. It not only surfaces visual memories of particular places and things, but it dredges up the feeling of particular seasons of life. […]
Meme Lore 101: Lecture 1 – Course Overview
Henlo class, and welcome to your introductory course on the dankest Internet trend since coolmath-games.com and Early Youtube. I’m sure that many of you have elected to take this course because of your confounding daily encounters with spicy fresh-baked memes. You’ve caught yourself thinking “what are these ‘may-mays’ my children are always talking about? Why […]
Incomplete Math and the Paradox of Grace
Achilles: “Well, the best way I know to explain it is to quote the words of another old Zen master, Kyōgen. Kyōgen said: ‘Zen is like a man hanging in a tree by his teeth over a precipice. His hands grasp no branch, his feet rest on no limb, and under the tree another person […]
Gospel Moshing: Adventures at Metal Shows with a Spooky Friend
Maybe we, why don’t we Sit right here for half an hour? We’ll speak of what a waste I am And how we missed your beat again I swear we need to find some comfort in this run down place To bridge the gap of this conscious state that we live in And I’m short […]
“I Roll to Punch the Shark”: The Strangely Familiar World of Dungeons and Dragons
My first encounter with Dungeons and Dragons (DnD), the archetypal tabletop roleplaying game (rpg), took place in the winter of my freshman year of high school. I had just left the dark, lonely, Mordor-esque bleakness of my middle school years, and in joining the marching band, I made some good friends who shared my affinity […]
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