Author: Sandra Daum
From Worn-out Heels to Existential Dread: What a Year of Daily Use Reveals About the Absurdity of Staying Sane.
If you listen to the tech gurus on YouTube, they’ll try to convince you that a product is “life-changing” after a mere forty-eight hours of unboxing euphoria. Please. Give me a break. I’ve seen more long-term stability in a prize-winning, overripe marrow at my hometown’s Most Unusual Vegetable contest than in most of these “must-have”
Why Is Finding a Soulmate Easier Than Figuring Out How People Make New Friends as Adults Without It Feeling Like a High-stakes Hostage Negotiation?
I was sitting in a trendy, overpriced “social mixer” last week—the kind where everyone wears forced smiles and pretends that networking is a substitute for a personality—and I realized that the internet’s advice on how people make new friends as adults is fundamentally broken. We are constantly bombarded with these polished, Pinterest-worthy suggestions to “join
From Zeus’s Temper Tantrums to Your Weirdly Specific Dating Habits: a Chaotic Guide to How Ancient Myths Shape Modern Culture.
I was sitting in a lecture hall during my Emerson days, listening to some professor drone on about how “the structural archetypes of Hellenic lore provide a foundational blueprint for the collective unconscious,” and I swear I almost choked on my overpriced latte. Can we please stop pretending that understanding how ancient myths shape modern
From Candlelight Romances to Blue-light Comas: the Absurd Reality of How People Spend Their Evenings Now
I was sitting on my floor last Tuesday, surrounded by a sea of discarded laundry and a half-eaten bag of kale chips, staring at my phone with the blank, unblinking expression of a deep-sea fish. I realized then that the polished, “aesthetic” version of how people spend their evenings now—the one involving sunset yoga, artisanal
The No-nonsense Guide to Building a Bookshelf That Won’t Collapse Under the Weight of Your Unread Ambitions
There I was, staring at the wreckage of my living room, which currently resembled a crime scene involving several hardcovers and a very ambitious, very cheap particle-board disaster. I had spent three hours trying to figure out how to build a bookshelf that lasts, only to realize that my “easy-assembly” unit had the structural integrity
Is It Just Me, or Is the Math Getting Weirder? a Deep Dive Into How the Loneliness Statistics Are Actually Measured.
I was sitting in my home studio last Tuesday, staring intensely at a pair of socks featuring neon, geometric radishes, wondering why the world feels so disconnected while everyone is supposedly “connected” 24/7. We see these massive, sweeping headlines claiming we’re in a global epidemic, but nobody ever stops to explain the actual math behind
Don’t Join a Digital Cult: the Absurd Truth About What to Look for in an Online Community (before You Lose Your Mind)
I was once convinced that finding a digital tribe required a high-level security clearance or, at the very least, a willingness to endure a three-hour seminar on “synergistic engagement.” Some gurus will try to sell you on these polished, hyper-curated digital utopias that look great on a pitch deck but feel about as warm as
Is Your Living Room Killing Your Genius? the Absurd Truth About Why Remote Work Hurts Long Term Creativity.
I was sitting in my home office yesterday—which is really just a glorified corner of my bedroom shared with a dying monstera plant—trying to conjure up a brilliant comedic premise, and all I managed to produce was a deep, existential stare at my laundry pile. We’ve all been sold this glossy, filtered lie that working
Don’t Join a Digital Circus Without Knowing What to Look for in an Online Community (unless You Enjoy the Chaos)
Ever walked into a digital space that promised “synergy” and “curated networking,” only to realize you’ve actually just stumbled into a high-stakes cult for people who unironically use the word bandwidth? We’ve all been there—trapped in a thread of polite, hollow platitudes that feel about as nourishing as a single, sad radish from a discount
Is Everyone Actually Just Avoiding Eye Contact? the Absurd Truth About How the Loneliness Statistics Are Actually Measured
I was sitting in my studio the other day, adjusting my favorite pair of neon eggplant-patterned socks—which, let’s be honest, are the only thing keeping my sanity intact—when I saw another headline claiming that loneliness is a “global epidemic” quantified by some divine, infallible cosmic force. It’s infuriating. We see these massive, sweeping numbers tossed