mother of motion, the eyes can't capture time
Apropos of a conversation I recently had with my housemates:
Studies show that people with high-self esteem are rather happier than those with low.
Studies also show that people with low self-esteem have a rather more accurate self-image than those with high. (They tend to be right about what other people think of them, for instance.)
If you boil this down to some kind of (admittedly ridiculous and grossly oversimplified) pure form, one would seem to be confronted with a choice, and while I think I know the answer most of my friends will give I'm still curious:
Sudden Poll! Pick one: be happy, or know the truth about yourself.
...
Today at work I was reminded that such simple things as the U.S. Post Office's country conditions for mailing can be amazingly entertaining. For example, a few favourites from the list of things you're not allowed to mail to Italy:
* Albums of any kind (of photographs, postcards, postage stamps, etc.).
* Artificial flowers and fruits and accessories for them.
* Clocks and supplies for clocks.
* Playing cards of any kind. (We must protect the countryside from Gambit.)
* Ribbons for typewriters.
* Toys not made wholly of wood. ("Good God, Letitia, it's a bouncy ball!" "Noooo!")
Germany is slightly more relaxed, but doesn't allow:
* Articles bearing political or religious notations on the address side. (They learned their lesson from Martin Luther? But he just posted them personally on a door, didn't he?)
* Melatonin.
* Playing cards, except in complete decks properly wrapped. (They've heard about Gambit too? Or they just want him to use native playing cards.)
* Pulverized coca beans. (What?)
I wonder if both countries have suffered from sudden Gambit attacks? Or are they just trying to protect the native playing card industry? What happens if tourists try to bring in playing cards? Do they get jailed for 20 years, like that girl who tried to bring marijuana into Indonesia? I suppose it's more likely that their playing cards are confiscated and a watch put on them by Italy/Germany's CIA equivalent.
...
Best Commencement speech ever: Bill Watterson at Kenyon College
I wish I'd heard this when I was graduating. All I got was a pompous ass who didn't know the school ranting about how I ought to make sure and vote.
Creating a life that reflects your values and satisfies your soul is a rare achievement. In a culture that relentlessly promotes avarice and excess as the good life, a person happy doing his own work is usually considered an eccentric, if not a subversive. Ambition is only understood if it's to rise to the top of some imaginary ladder of success. Someone who takes an undemanding job because it affords him the time to pursue other interests and activities is considered a flake. A person who abandons a career in order to stay home and raise children is considered not to be living up to his potential-as if a job title and salary are the sole measure of human worth.
You'll be told in a hundred ways, some subtle and some not, to keep climbing, and never be satisfied with where you are, who you are, and what you're doing. There are a million ways to sell yourself out, and I guarantee you'll hear about them.
To invent your own life's meaning is not easy, but it's still allowed, and I think you'll be happier for the trouble.
from gm_28.
Excellent article on superhero stories
The superhero story is as capable of speaking to adult concerns as any other genre of fantasy. There exist, even today, scolds to declare that Tolkien or Harry Potter or any other example of the literature of the fantastic released since, oh, The Tempest is and must be childish tripe, unworthy of properly frowny-faced grownups. But refuting what remains of the case against fantasy generally is outside the scope of this essay, which must confine itself to fantasies about men and women in capes and tights.
from cooper_korman.
Love those ridiculous Greatest Hits CD commercials? Love Mandy Patinkin, a.k.a. Inigo Montoya, a.k.a. an investigator on "Criminal Minds"?
The natural conclusion of those loves.
from miketodd13.
Best quotes from Baldur's Gate
I've never even played Baldur's Gate and I was entertained. Though obviously I won't get them all.
Minsc (when berserking): Fear not! I will inspire you all by charging blindly on!
from potatocubed.
Studies show that people with high-self esteem are rather happier than those with low.
Studies also show that people with low self-esteem have a rather more accurate self-image than those with high. (They tend to be right about what other people think of them, for instance.)
If you boil this down to some kind of (admittedly ridiculous and grossly oversimplified) pure form, one would seem to be confronted with a choice, and while I think I know the answer most of my friends will give I'm still curious:
Sudden Poll! Pick one: be happy, or know the truth about yourself.
...
Today at work I was reminded that such simple things as the U.S. Post Office's country conditions for mailing can be amazingly entertaining. For example, a few favourites from the list of things you're not allowed to mail to Italy:
* Albums of any kind (of photographs, postcards, postage stamps, etc.).
* Artificial flowers and fruits and accessories for them.
* Clocks and supplies for clocks.
* Playing cards of any kind. (We must protect the countryside from Gambit.)
* Ribbons for typewriters.
* Toys not made wholly of wood. ("Good God, Letitia, it's a bouncy ball!" "Noooo!")
Germany is slightly more relaxed, but doesn't allow:
* Articles bearing political or religious notations on the address side. (They learned their lesson from Martin Luther? But he just posted them personally on a door, didn't he?)
* Melatonin.
* Playing cards, except in complete decks properly wrapped. (They've heard about Gambit too? Or they just want him to use native playing cards.)
* Pulverized coca beans. (What?)
I wonder if both countries have suffered from sudden Gambit attacks? Or are they just trying to protect the native playing card industry? What happens if tourists try to bring in playing cards? Do they get jailed for 20 years, like that girl who tried to bring marijuana into Indonesia? I suppose it's more likely that their playing cards are confiscated and a watch put on them by Italy/Germany's CIA equivalent.
...
Best Commencement speech ever: Bill Watterson at Kenyon College
I wish I'd heard this when I was graduating. All I got was a pompous ass who didn't know the school ranting about how I ought to make sure and vote.
Creating a life that reflects your values and satisfies your soul is a rare achievement. In a culture that relentlessly promotes avarice and excess as the good life, a person happy doing his own work is usually considered an eccentric, if not a subversive. Ambition is only understood if it's to rise to the top of some imaginary ladder of success. Someone who takes an undemanding job because it affords him the time to pursue other interests and activities is considered a flake. A person who abandons a career in order to stay home and raise children is considered not to be living up to his potential-as if a job title and salary are the sole measure of human worth.
You'll be told in a hundred ways, some subtle and some not, to keep climbing, and never be satisfied with where you are, who you are, and what you're doing. There are a million ways to sell yourself out, and I guarantee you'll hear about them.
To invent your own life's meaning is not easy, but it's still allowed, and I think you'll be happier for the trouble.
from gm_28.
Excellent article on superhero stories
The superhero story is as capable of speaking to adult concerns as any other genre of fantasy. There exist, even today, scolds to declare that Tolkien or Harry Potter or any other example of the literature of the fantastic released since, oh, The Tempest is and must be childish tripe, unworthy of properly frowny-faced grownups. But refuting what remains of the case against fantasy generally is outside the scope of this essay, which must confine itself to fantasies about men and women in capes and tights.
from cooper_korman.
Love those ridiculous Greatest Hits CD commercials? Love Mandy Patinkin, a.k.a. Inigo Montoya, a.k.a. an investigator on "Criminal Minds"?
The natural conclusion of those loves.
from miketodd13.
Best quotes from Baldur's Gate
I've never even played Baldur's Gate and I was entertained. Though obviously I won't get them all.
Minsc (when berserking): Fear not! I will inspire you all by charging blindly on!
from potatocubed.