Welcome to Maren's Dasein

Dasein-An abstract philosophical term that basically means the condition of existing as a human

I understand the artistic reasons for muffling the Sirens' song in The Odyssey (2026), but also it feels like a cop out, and a skosh cowardly. Hearing a version of the Sirens' song (not what Odysseus heard ofc). Could have been a stand out setpiece. Well, I now have a reason to watch Todd Phillips's Joker (2019). I just saw The People's Joker (2024), and unless Phillips was lying both films share a goal of utilizing popular IP to tell their own story. Might be interesting to compare them. Seven Psychopaths is such a fun movie. I know Martin McDonough has made better movies since, but Seven Psychopaths is one of the most fun.

New Stuff!

Website features

Thought Marquee: That scrolling text at the top of the page. It's a bunch of random stuff I've been thinking about. Kinda like a twitter feed, but somehow both more and less annoying.
New background: Fancy colorful background. Took way too long for me to make cause I am most certainly not a digital artist.
New Stuff Section: Section on the homepage that informs you of the newest content and updates.

Content

Newest Blog Post

8/7/26 - The Journal

Newest Poem

The Parable of "I" and "She" - 5/28/2026

A prose poem I wrote both out of mild frustration, and intense joy.

Newest Essay

The Odyssey (2026) - 7/20/2026

Christoper Nolan attempts to twist The Odyssey into something approaching his artistic sensibilities, and it almost works.

About Me

Hello! ^^ I'm Maren and you've found my personal website. If you're here, you probably already know me. If you don't, or just need a refresher, here's the run down. Fundamentally, I'm just a person (She/Her) who: might just be a little too obsessed with movies (and to a lesser extent videogames), harbors semi-secret delusions of being a talented writer of prose and poetry, occasionally takes pretty pictures, and is almost certainly quite pretentious.

About This Website

So that's who I am, but the next question is: what am I doing here with my own Neocities page? Well to put it simply; social media sucks. I found myself frustrated by the unpredictable way my online presence, my very digital identity, is presented through the engagement driven hellscapes of Facebook, Twitter (X), Instagram, Threads... whatever else. By centralizing my online self on a website I have full control over I can make sure that the people who want to see my online content can without having that content filtered by some obscure black box. This website is me: unfiltered, and it literally can't be anything else.

Quick guide for navigation:

Home is this page here. It's an overview of me and my website. Welcome!
Blog is a repository of general thoughts and where I'm at in life. One might call it a web log of my life ;)
Photos is a repository of my photography work (storage permitting).
Prose & Poetry is all my fiction and poetry writing. A lot of it is rough, unpolished and old. Some of it might even be worth reading.
Critical Essays is all my film reviews and informal media essays usually about videogames, film and television.