'Oregon Trail' Gen X Nerd

Image from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junk_drawer Adding to your "junk drawer" by Jen Davies, nerd June 24, 2026 Please let me invite you first to watch Hank Green's video, No Effort is Wasted (25 minutes): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgBaU9mmceQ The rest of this blog will make a lot more sense. As a career counsellor I've seen a lot of people who are concerned about the outcome of a particular effort. If I do X, will I get Y? Like, if I take on this project at work, will my boss give me a raise? I see a similar concern in the Save #TheHuntforBenSolo fan campaign. If we do Z can we be sure to get a Ben Solo movie? And the answer to both of those questions is unsatisfying. As wise scientist and negotiator Ben Franklin gets credit for telling us, the only guarantees in life are death and taxes. We can rarely be 100% certain of the outcome of a social behaviour because people are complex. Occasionally someone will then express the idea that maybe they shouldn...

Image from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093779/ The movies we have obsessed over June 10, 2026 by Jen Davies, nerd Last week I hosted a Watch Party for the #TheHuntForBenSolo fan campaign, and I noted that I have now seen the featured film - 65 - 8 or 9 times now, and that's a lot for me. I rarely revisit movies or TV shows. Something has to really grip me to get me to rewatch.  And it got me wondering about the movies I have obsessed over. Which movies have YOU obsessed over? Do you think it says anything about us? Childhood... The Princess Bride Willow SW Ep456 things with puppets I cannot remember a time when I did not know Star Wars (original trilogy). My father showed it to me as soon as he thought I could handle it, and I know I saw all three movies in the first home that I can remember. We moved from there when I was 7, so I know I had seen all three by that age. Likely thanks to Frank Oz's Yoda, I loved rewatching The Muppet Show and Fraggle Rock for years, which had...

Image from https://freesvg.org/shuttermonkey-movie-clapperboard Movies I'm glad I saw, but I won't rewatch by Jen Davies, nerd June 17, 2026 Last week I wrote about films I've seen a LOT . This week, here are films I've seen only once (and I'm glad I did even though I never want to see them again). I don't think I'm the only one who has only so-much tolerance for films with particular kinds of content. For me, I don't do high levels of violence well (especially not horror movie-type gore - like, the whole Saw series seems like just an ongoing repetition and I don't understand why there is more than one). I can tolerate some sex in a movie (brief scenes that have a story purpose). I don't care either way if there is a romantic plot, and I actively avoid romcoms. And yet I try to avoid spoilers before seeing movies that I know I'm interested in, so certainly I'm exposed to all of those things regularly. Here are a few films that I saw, whic...

  Image from https://tenor.com/view/simpsons-flirting-do-you-like-stuff-walking-gif-16413189 Interviewing and the joy of meeting new people June 3, 2026 by Jen Davies, nerd There was no blog last week - it was just a heck of a week! I had a choir concert to perform in (lots of rehearsals), I taught, and then I had to get on an airplane to a conference where I presented a workshop with two beloved colleagues. A heck of a week, made worthwhile by the fantastic people I got to spend time with. As a counsellor, I interview people all day. That's actually a technical term that we use to describe the process and skills we use to collect a client's story. Unlike a media interview, a counselling interview aims to help a client look at their situation in new and different ways with questions and helpful paraphrases. With new and different understanding of their situations, clients can make informed decisions about their day to day thoughts and behaviour. It's a great career for me, ...

  Image from https://www.youtube.com/@ColbertLateShow Spring cleaning with Stephen Colbert May 20, 2026 by Jen Davies, nerd It's Spring Cleaning season, so I've been rearranging my basement and tidying my house. Winter jacket goes to the back of the closet, spring jackets come forward... putting winter boots away so sandals are easier to reach. My back hurts from all the bending and lifting. All those signs of spring. And throughout, I'm sad because I don't know how I'm going to consume my US news after this week. Stephen Colbert has "pre-chewed" the US news for me since back on the Daily Show in the late 1990s I guess? And then on his own show, the Colbert Report. And then he took over the Late Show from Dave Letterman over a decade ago. At times, the news from the USA has been so hard to process directly: the violence (shootings, hatred), the wars and violence abroad, and lack of action on essential social issues (poverty, addiction).  Having all that to...

Ben Solo Lives (at my house): A Journey of Acceptance by Jen Davies, nerd May 13, 2026 My blog is late this week because it's been a heck of a busy week! And it started with a jump scare by Ben, my houseguest since mid-March when I brought him home from Toronto Comicon. As you can imagine, my spouse was a little concerned to have a lifesize cutout of an artistic rendition of Ben Solo / Adam Driver around the house. He is confident in his masculinity so I don't think it was that he felt like the piece of art was a threat. It's just... it looks like a person! And it's flat but the base is large enough that it doesn't fit conveniently in a closet, so Ben has been floating around the house for a while. The jump scares started with me, setting it up in places I thought spouse might find. I was a bad guesser, it would be days and days before spouse found him. But recently, spouse has deigned to touch the Ben Solo cutout, and now Ben surprises me all over the place. And I ...