{749} seeking a righteous laser beam of justice

wordboner: If you don’t mean what you say… (get this on a tee |...

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 19:39:35 -0500

If you don’t mean what you say… (get this on a tee | make your own tee | get this on a tee at European store)

rejecter: Dear bigot behind the counter, if you don’t know the difference between Arabic and...

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 18:32:46 -0500

Dear bigot behind the counter, if you don’t know the difference between Arabic and Persian, how can I trust you with elementary arithmetic?

"Hope everyone’s spirits are staying sunny."

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 18:07:13 -0500

“Hope everyone’s spirits are staying sunny.”

- well wishes from my brother.

"Stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long."

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 10:52:58 -0500

“Stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long.”

- Walker Evans (via theimpossiblecool)

"[W]e have become so far removed on the Internet from the idea that writing might have a cash value,..."

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 19:44:36 -0500

“[W]e have become so far removed on the Internet from the idea that writing might have a cash value, that to propose it seems like a novel idea. It is almost necessary, in fact, in a world where the Huffington Post has elevated not paying writers into a business model, to point out that it used to be the convention, when a writer wrote something and had it published and read, to get paid.”

- Michael Wolff, How Much Is This Post Worth? at Newser. (via indefensible)

illinoisairship: Forget Paris. Romance is a Sunday. I love...

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 07:00:33 -0500

illinoisairship:

Forget Paris. Romance is a Sunday.

I love sundays. Sundays are the absolute best. Forgetting about the trepidation of work following on Monday and just making the day an absolute non-productive/all relaxed span of time. I plan on making this true forever. Even in the future. And sharing that slow and quiet stretch with whoever I end up with. I look forward to domestic bliss in a way completely unbefitting of being the city mouse who likes tall buildings and the siren song of ambulances when he goes to sleep.

Because we can claim Sunday as our own. In the morning, in our house. White walls and old paint, our kitchen table will be oak and across it will be spread layers of newspaper, newly dropped off, for us to comb through and share. As we read and sip our coffees the sun will shine through the windows overlooking our snow covered yard. The morning light will hit the sill and the bright columns of colored light will intermix with glittering dust particles. Our robes will be clean, our toes will be warm and I see no reason why we can’t go back to bed if we want to.

But we won’t. We’ll get dressed and take the dog on a walk, maybe into town. You’ll go to that used bookstore where you like to run your hand along the spines of books as you walk down the aisles and take great intakes of breath smelling the yellowing pages and aging covers. I’m going to stop in at Ed’s and have my hair cut and listen to him talk about friends from the army and baseball players long forgotten. We’ll meet back at the square next to the statue and begin a slow leisurely walk home as the sun dips deeper toward the trees that line the horizon on all sides. Maybe we picked up a movie that we can half pay attention to as we sit and decide what we want for dinner. After this, we can sip tea and watch the streetlights buzz on. Then to bed and after what transpires there I want to read a book I’ve always loved as you slumber beside me, one hand outstretched and laying against my chest.

Oh my fucking god, that’s going to be so fucking AWESOME. FUCK PARIS.

We are all held together by invisible threads.

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 08:43:05 -0500

We are all held together by invisible threads.

I believe

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 08:31:42 -0500

“DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
“Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
“Papa says, ‘If you see it in THE SUN it’s so.’
“Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

“VIRGINIA O’HANLON.
“115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET.”

VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

everythinginthesky: I think if I had to choose any super-power it would be writing, and writing...

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:28:13 -0500

everythinginthesky:

I think if I had to choose any super-power it would be writing, and writing well.

szymon: more Logo Evolution There’s that badge I lost.

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 20:23:06 -0500

szymon:

more Logo Evolution

There’s that badge I lost.

nedhepburn: Diane Savino, New York State Senator, raddest...

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 14:04:35 -0500

nedhepburn:

Diane Savino, New York State Senator, raddest speech in the world on gay marriage.

via davidpress and robhuebel.

“If there’s any threat to the sanctity of marriage in America, it comes from those of us who have the privilege and the right, and we have abused it for decades. We have nothing to fear … from people who are committed to each other, who want to share their lives … we have nothing to fear from love and commitment.”

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 13:09:58 -0500

““Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.””

- Leonardo da Vinci (via theimpossiblecool)

everythinginthesky: notpants: Apis mellifera. Honey bees have the loveliest scientific name. My...

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 09:14:56 -0500

everythinginthesky:

notpants:

Apis mellifera. Honey bees have the loveliest scientific name.

My favourite has always been Tursiops Truncatus, because it sounds like the name of a foreign hero in a sci-fi book.

Red fire ants, Solenopsis invicta

Challenging small talk

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 08:45:00 -0500

When I studied abroad, my host mother used to ask me “Qu’est-ce que tu as fait de beau aujourd’hui?” when I got home.

It just means “What did you do today?”

But I like to think of it as meaning “What did you do that was beautiful today?”

(via evoke)

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:24:14 -0500

(via evoke)

Every man’s life should contain as many adventures as possible, and no regrets from having...

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 12:57:05 -0500

Every man’s life should contain as many adventures as possible, and no regrets from having turned away from opportunity.

"Because, in the end, no one will ever give a shit who has kept shit ‘real’ except the two or three..."

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 07:18:29 -0500

“

Because, in the end, no one will ever give a shit who has kept shit ‘real’ except the two or three people, sitting in their apartments, bitter and self-devouring, who take it upon themselves to wonder about such things. The keeping real of shit matters to some people, but it does not matter to me. It’s fashion, and I don’t like fashion, because fashion does not matter.

What matters is that you do good work. What matters is that you produce things that are true and will stand. What matters is that the Flaming Lips’s new album is ravishing and I’ve listened to it a thousand times already, sometimes for days on end, and it enriches me and makes me want to save people. What matters is that it will stand forever, long after any narrow-hearted curmudgeons have forgotten their appearance on goddamn 90210. What matters is not the perception, nor the fashion, not who’s up and who’s down, but what someone has done and if they meant it. What matters is that you want to see and make and do, on as grand a scale as you want, regardless of what the tiny voices of tiny people say. Do not be critics, you people, I beg you. I was a critic and I wish I could take it all back because it came from a smelly and ignorant place in me, and spoke with a voice that was all rage and envy. Do not dismiss a book until you have written one, and do not dismiss a movie until you have made one, and do not dismiss a person until you have met them. It is a fuckload of work to be open-minded and generous and understanding and forgiving and accepting, but Christ, that is what matters. What matters is saying yes.

”

- Dave Eggers (via slippy)

OH MY GOD. YES. THIS. (even though i cant get into the Flaming Lips)

(via nedhepburn)

“What matters is that you want to see and make and do, on as grand a scale as you want, regardless of what the tiny voices of tiny people say.”

"Attack with your strengths rather than defend your weaknesses."

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 09:43:09 -0500

“Attack with your strengths rather than defend your weaknesses.”

- Chairman Gruber, offering advice that seems useful to pretty much any situation I can think of. (via merlin)

indefensible: (via britisshameless) I am aware of the irony of...

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 09:32:17 -0500

indefensible:

(via britisshameless)

I am aware of the irony of this existing on the Internet, as well as the figurative idea of getting your hands dirty.

whileyouweresleeping: Josh Tyrangiel is managing editor at...

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:58:59 -0500

whileyouweresleeping:

Josh Tyrangiel is managing editor at TIME.com. He has just been appointed Editor of BusinessWeek Magazine by Bloomberg, effective as soon as the acquisition is completed.

Josh Tyrangiel is also 37 (that’s thirty seven, three-seven) and he twitters, sort of. Well, not really. Whatever, here he is, telling us all about “storytelling across platforms.”

— From London.

Notes: The experience of the event can trump the details of the event. Sometimes you need to pause. Be efficient. Use the right platform. And: “I definitely want to see snakes crawling on some dude’s face.”