End of the Game

Hope in the Modern World

Michael Cunningham — Sat, 08 Jul 2023 04:51:15 +0000

Sadako Sasaki was two years old when the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The impact of the explosion blew Sadako out of her bedroom window and she very nearly died. Though she survived the blast, the radiation eventually gave her leukemia and doctors insisted that she wouldn't live longer than a year. Sadako’s story so far might sound like a tragedy, but it is actually a story of hope.

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Aliens, Death Threats and a Free Flight to Brazil

Michael Cunningham — Sat, 01 Jul 2023 12:42:00 +0000

After he offered to pay my way to Brazil, I took the bait and told him to book the tickets. He said he'd email me the details on getting the free ticket, and that I'd have plenty of time to contemplate my errors while in the emergency room. I didn't realise yet how deep this man's hatred went, and over the next few days, I went down the rabbit hole with him, to a dark and twisted place that can only exist on the internet.

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The Dark World of Balinese Cockfighting

Michael Cunningham — Sat, 24 Jun 2023 12:30:00 +0000

On an otherwise uneventful day in Bali, I found myself standing in the sweaty crowd of an illegal cockfight. Being the only white person present, I was left wondering what I was doing there, and more importantly, why I was betting money. I know many of you reading this are already reaching for your pitchforks and blazing torches, and that's ok. Cockfighting is a dirty sport, and one that probably shouldn't exist, but the reality is that it does.

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The Scorpion and the Turtle

Michael Cunningham — Sun, 18 Jun 2023 14:09:00 +0000

One lazy afternoon day a turtle was swimming happily along a lake. As the turtle was nearing land he heard a scorpion hail it from the muddy shore. A scorpion, being a very poor swimmer, asked the turtle if he would carry him on his back across the lake. The turtle thought it was the […]

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Guide to Vice Magazine

Michael Cunningham — Sat, 17 Jun 2023 12:08:00 +0000

Here's my take on Vice's 311-page “best of” edition, covering all 72 issues from 2003 to 2008. If this is their best of the best, I wanted to see how good it really was. I'll be covering the first 100 pages, which contain three sections: 'Vice Guides,' sex, and lastly, drugs. Each Vice article will have a short review along with a link to the original article (hyperlinks in the titles) so you can check it out for yourself and form your own opinion on whether it's good or not.

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The Writing Journey

Michael Cunningham — Fri, 16 Jun 2023 06:42:25 +0000

I rub my eyes and look around the room; it’s cramped and poorly lit. The only thing I can make out is a desk and chair slumped in the corner, illuminated by the glow of a small lamp. I think I can see a shadowy figure hunched over the desk, but to make sure I’m not […]

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Guide to Writing Fiction

Michael Cunningham — Sat, 10 Jun 2023 22:34:00 +0000

A plot is the skeleton of a story, and is therefore essential to any work of fiction. If you plan on writing a story without a plot, don't even expect your mother to read it, yet alone the rest of the world. In this guide, we're going to outline a bulletproof formula to plan and establish a solid plot for your story. This system was developed by James Scott Bell, author of the book Plot & Structure, and is very easy to remember - it's called the LOCK system.

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How to Prepare for a Psychedelic Trip

Michael Cunningham — Sat, 03 Jun 2023 16:19:00 +0000

A psychedelic experience is a journey to new realms of consciousness. The scope and content of the experience is limitless, but its characteristic features are the transcendence of verbal concepts, of spacetime dimensions, and of the ego or identity. This guide is a map on how to best prepare for and navigate such a journey.

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The Psychology of Child Development

Michael Cunningham — Sat, 27 May 2023 14:54:00 +0000

Child development is an area of psychology overflowing with zany theories and crazy ideas (cough, Freud, cough). In all seriousness though, child development is one of the most interesting topics in psychology to learn about and is also, arguably, the most important, as just about everything that we think and do today as adults has its roots dug firmly in our childhood.

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