The Useless Critic 2.0

By Guest Writer  Taylor Birk There are two words that can accurately describe Tom Hiddleston, a British actor most known for playing Loki in "Thor" and "The Avengers": Life Ruiner.  That’s exactly what he does. He ruins lives. He ruined mine back in May of 2012. As usual, I’m late on the bandwagon. I didn’t see "Thor" when it was actually in theaters. I didn’t even see it until after I had seen "The Avengers." Which, by that point, I was already in love with Loki. Seeing Thor just made my love for him even worse. Until more recently, Hiddleston hasn’t been a household name, as far as actors go. His popularity has grown greatly since he teamed up with Marvel, and I expect that he will just keep going up from here. He’s not just another pretty face (although his face is beautiful. Seriously. Look at it). He has the talent to keep his career skyrocketing even further. After I had seen all the work he’s done for Marvel, I knew I had to se...

By Guest Writer Taylor Birk I never thought that I would laugh at a book about cancer patients. Yet, this past spring, I found myself laughing until I was crying at "The Fault in Our Stars." I’m not new to John Green novels. I read his first book, "Looking for Alaska," back in 2010. So, I shouldn’t have been surprised he would be the guy to make me laugh while reading a book about a serious subject. Now, I didn’t laugh the whole time, of course. The book was very serious at times. In fact, I cried more often than I laughed. To be specific, I started crying during chapter eleven and I didn’t stop until the book was over. I felt so many emotions while I was reading that book. Green took a serious subject, made it a lighthearted story, but didn’t make it completely unbelievable. He kept the not-so-pretty aspects of dealing with an illness and just wrote an amazing novel. I think it’s safe to say I love John Green (not in the same way I love Tom Hiddleston, bu...

This another guest post by Taylor Birk Natalie Portman had no role in writing this Whatsoever I’m counting down the days until Nov. 8 2013. Seriously. I have a countdown on my calendar. Why? What’s so special about Nov. 8 ? If you don’t know, we probably can’t be friends (okay, not really). Nov. 8 marks the release date for Marvel’s next superhero film, "Thor: The Dark World." In case you couldn’t already tell, I’m dying. Thor is my favorite of all the Avengers and I adored the first film, released back in 2011. It was action packed and had a stunning cast to go along with a fantastic director. Plus, let’s be honest, Chris Hemsworth is quite nice to look at. This sequel is supposed to take place approximately one year after the events in "The Avengers." An ancient civilization, known as the Dark Elves, are trying to take over the Nine Realms and it’s Thor’s task to stop them. Leading the Elves is Malekith the Accursed (played by the amazing Christophe...

This guest writer is Taylor Birk, from Edinboro, PA. YES, I know "Game of Thrones" has been an ever-popular topic on here. But have at someone else's opinion. Thanks Taylor! "Game of Thrones?" More Like "Game of Pain." Painful. That’s the first word that comes to mind when I think of the third season of "Game of Thrones." It’s painful for the characters (quite literally) and painful for me (figuratively and literally). So much of this season left me, and many others, to weep into a pillow at night. And not just because of some of the traumatic events that took place in Westeros this season. Seriously. Some of those torture scenes left me in a severe amount of (psychosomatic) pain. I was late to get on the "Game of Thrones" train. A friend and I sat and watched the entire first and second season in a span of two weeks so we could watch the third season when it started. I regret not watching the show sooner, but better late...