Thursday, September 29, 2011

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Quote of the day -- Peter McWilliams

If it'll be funny then, it's funny now.

R.E.M. breaks up

Thank you for everything.

The Carpetbaggers

It is unlikely that you will experience in your lifetime all that you will see in The Carpetbaggers.



It is unlikely that you will see in your lifetime all that you will experience in The Carpetbaggers.

Quote of the day -- Stewart Brand

“Rigorously collected old data keeps finding new uses.”

-- Stewart Brand, The Clock of the Long Now, p. 140

Monday, September 26, 2011

Robert Nozick: Individual Liberty Trumps All



Blatant name dropping -- Tamar and I were philosophy majors together in college. She's famous and I know her.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Panoramic View In Front of Andrews Memorial Chapel

Panorama of Outside Andrews Chapel on CleVR.com

And quickly, too.

1. Something must be done
2. This is something
3. Therefore, this must be done.

Fewer posts

I'm posting less often recently because I've been trying to write every day -- I signed up for 750Words.com, a great website that encourages me to write every day and gives out badges (!) if I hit certain milestones. Apparently, although I've intended to try writing every day as a form of mental discipline and emotional health, I can only do it if I get badges.

Friday, September 16, 2011

Hello, I'm Shelley Duvall

A Time Bank in New York City

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/15/where-all-work-is-created-equal/?hp&pagewanted=all

Thursday, September 15, 2011

How to write good

http://homepage.mac.com/mseffie/handouts/writegood.html

Having said all that, I do believe you have to know the rules before you can break them effectively.

Quote of the day -- George Patton

A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week.

George S. Patton
US general (1885 - 1945)

Monday, September 12, 2011

Do not go gentle into that good night

Do not go gentle into that good night
by Dylan Thomas

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Monday, September 5, 2011

Anthony Lane is in the right place at the right time

A few quotes from the May 16th issue of The New Yorker that make me glad I live in a world where I can read his work and share his observations about the world:

From an article about Pixar:

To disentangle the dealings between Disney and Pixar is perfectly straightforward, so long as you have trained yourself by studying, say, the history of Anglo-Irish relations.

and from the closing paragraph of the same article --

But what do they know, these super-educated Peter Pans, up in the Bay Area, hammering out their perfectionist fables, high on Cocoa Puffs and single malt?

and from a review of Thor:

Some gods have all the luck. When the hero of "Thor" plummets to Earth, from a far corner of the cosmos, in a storming thunderbolt, the first thing he sees upon waking is the face of Natalie Portman. Not a sheep, or a branch of Subway, or a rainy day in Pittsburg but, I repeat, Natalie Portman.

Quote of the day -- William Shakespeare

Our doubts are traitors,
And make us lose the good we oft might win
By fearing to attempt.

Measure for Measure
Act 1, Scene 5

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Quote of the day -- Edgar Degas


. . . Degas was a realist who was also subtle -- guarded even -- about how reality should be rendered. He once said that, were he to start an art school, it would be in six floors of a single house. Beginners would start with the model on the top floor. As students developed, they would move down, floor by floor, until they reached street level; to consult the original model, they would have to climb the stairs each time. Art for him was not just about memory, it was a Platonic conception of different layers of being.

Alistair Macaulay
New York Times
9/4/2011
Arts and Leisure p. 12

Friday, September 2, 2011

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline



Totally worth reading. Super fun. 80's media trivia + Geek Boy Meets Geek Girl + D&D + Console Video Games = Single serving novel. Best beach read of the summer.