To be amused by what you read - that is the great spring of happy quotations.
-- CE Montague
Maybe that is a point of this blog -- to be a happy spring to the people who know it exists!
8.02.2008
7.25.2008
7.06.2008
A Song for the Struggle
"Lovers In Japan" or "Reign Of Love" by Coldplay
Lovers, keep on the road you're on
Runners, until the race is run
Soldiers, you've got to soldier on
Sometimes even the right is wrong
They are turning my head out
To see what I'm all about
Keeping my head down
To see what it feels like now
I have no doubt
One day, we are gonna get out
Tonight maybe we're gonna run
Dreaming of the Osaka sun
Ohh ohh...
Dreaming of when the morning comes
They are turning my head out
To see what I'm all about
Keeping my head down
To see what it feels like now
I have no doubt
One day the sun will come out
Ooh...
From their newest album "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends". It's a good one, you should check it out!
Lovers, keep on the road you're on
Runners, until the race is run
Soldiers, you've got to soldier on
Sometimes even the right is wrong
They are turning my head out
To see what I'm all about
Keeping my head down
To see what it feels like now
I have no doubt
One day, we are gonna get out
Tonight maybe we're gonna run
Dreaming of the Osaka sun
Ohh ohh...
Dreaming of when the morning comes
They are turning my head out
To see what I'm all about
Keeping my head down
To see what it feels like now
I have no doubt
One day the sun will come out
Ooh...
From their newest album "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends". It's a good one, you should check it out!
6.26.2008
Parents are People Too!
"When I was a boy of 14 my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in 7 years."
-- Mark Twain
I'm not quite 21, but I do appreciate my parents a lot more today than I did 7 years ago, even 7 months ago. That's a nice feeling.
-- Mark Twain
I'm not quite 21, but I do appreciate my parents a lot more today than I did 7 years ago, even 7 months ago. That's a nice feeling.
6.21.2008
What You Shall Do
This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants... have patience and indulgence towards the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, reexamine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.
-- Walt Whitman
-- Walt Whitman
6.19.2008
6.17.2008
Success
I'm in need of some words of encouragement...
Here they are; I hope they encourage you, too.
Success is the sum of small efforts; repeated day in and day out.
--Robert Collier
Here they are; I hope they encourage you, too.
Success is the sum of small efforts; repeated day in and day out.
--Robert Collier
6.11.2008
From two great English authors
5.21.2008
To My Dear Friends
(who probably don't know this blog exists or read it)
Say whatever you have to say, I'll stand by you.
Do whatever you have to do, to get it out and not become a reaction memory
To hurt the ones you love, you know you never meant to but you do
Oh yeah you do.
Be whoever you have to be, I won't judge you.
Sing whatever you have to sing to get it out and not be come a reclues about how to come out.
I know you never meant to but you do.
Oh but you do.
Still I need your sway, because you always pay for it.
And I, and I need your soul because you're always soulful.
And I, and I need your heart, because you're always in the right places.
And take whatever you have to take, you know I love you.
Come however you have to come, and get it out and get it out.
Take it out on me, take it out on me.
I'll give it you all, I give it you all.
I give you all, I give it you all, yes, I will give it you all.
'Cause I need your sway, because you always pay for it.
And I, and I need your soul because you're always soulful.
And I, and I need your heart, because you're always in the right places...
Lyrics of "Sway" by the Kooks from their album Konk.
Say whatever you have to say, I'll stand by you.
Do whatever you have to do, to get it out and not become a reaction memory
To hurt the ones you love, you know you never meant to but you do
Oh yeah you do.
Be whoever you have to be, I won't judge you.
Sing whatever you have to sing to get it out and not be come a reclues about how to come out.
I know you never meant to but you do.
Oh but you do.
Still I need your sway, because you always pay for it.
And I, and I need your soul because you're always soulful.
And I, and I need your heart, because you're always in the right places.
And take whatever you have to take, you know I love you.
Come however you have to come, and get it out and get it out.
Take it out on me, take it out on me.
I'll give it you all, I give it you all.
I give you all, I give it you all, yes, I will give it you all.
'Cause I need your sway, because you always pay for it.
And I, and I need your soul because you're always soulful.
And I, and I need your heart, because you're always in the right places...
Lyrics of "Sway" by the Kooks from their album Konk.
5.19.2008
"Correct" English
Even if you do learn to speak correct English, whom are you going to speak it to?
--Clarence Darrow
--Clarence Darrow
5.14.2008
There's Gotta Be More!
There must be more to life than having everything.
-- Maurice Sendak, author of Where the Wild Things Are
(which is one of my fave kids' books of all time)
-- Maurice Sendak, author of Where the Wild Things Are
(which is one of my fave kids' books of all time)
5.05.2008
Don't be Afraid
The follies which a man regrets most, in his life, are those which he didn't commit when he had the opportunity.
-- Helen Rowland
-- Helen Rowland
4.29.2008
My Life According to "Fahrenheit 451"
This is just the beginning. But my new favorite book is Fahrenheit 451. The temperature at which books start to burn...or maybe the book at which my life begins to burn. I'm not an overtly emotional person. I don't cry during sad or horrifying movies. I don't cry when reading books like The Notebook. Fahrenheit 451 is sad in someways, I guess, but it's not the mushy sadness. Even so, this book made me tear up more times than any book has ever before. That's saying something. And Marvin and David, I don't think the main idea of this book is censorship either. Here are my fave quotes:
From the page before the book starts:
"If they give you ruled paper, write the other way." Juan Ramon Jimenez
"He felt his body divide itself into a hotness and a coldness, a softness and a hardness, a trembling and a not trembling, the two halves grinding one upon the other." p.24
"...but do you know, we never ask questions, or at least most don't; they just run the answers at you, bing, bing, bing, and us sitting there for four more hours of film teacher. That's not social to me at all. It's a lot of funnels and a lot of water poured down the spout and out the bottom, and them telling us it's wine when it's not." p.30
"A book lit, almost obediently, like a white pigeon, in his hands, wings flutter. ... 'Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine.'" p. 37
"Always at night the alarm comes. Never by day!" p.39
Possibly my favorite quote ever in the history of my life:
"We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over; so in a series of kindnesses there is at last one which makes the heart run over." p.71
"'Jesus God,' said Montag. 'Every hour so many damn things in the sky! How in hell did those bombers get up there every single second of our lives! Why doesn't someone want to talk about it! We've started and won two atomic wars since 1990! Is it because we're having so much fun at home we've forgotten the world? Is is because we're so rich and the rest of the world's so poor and we just don't care if they are? I've heard rumors; the world is starving, but we're well fed. Is it true, the world works hard and we play? Is that why we're hated so much?" p.73
When we know we're doomed: "the last liberal arts college shuts for lack of students and patronage." p.75
"'I don't talk things, sir,' said Faber. "I talk the meaning of things. I sit here and know I'm alive." p.75
"The good writers touch life often. The mediocre ones run a quick hand over her. The bad ones raper her and leave her for the flies." p.83
"The books are to remind us what asses and fools we are. They're Caesar's praetorian guard, whispering as the parade roars down the avenue, 'Remember, Caesar, thou art mortal.' Most of us can't rush around, talk to everyone, know all the cities of the world, we haven't time, money or that many friends. The things you're looking for, Montag, are in the world, but the only way the average chap will ever see ninety-nine per cent of them is in a book. Don't ask for guarantees. And don't look to be saved in any one thing, person, machine, or library. Do your own bit of saving, and if you drown, at least die knowing you were headed for shore." p.86
I do this: "The women showed their tongues, laughing." p.96
"Out of two separate and opposite things, a third. And one day he would look back upon the fool and know the fool. Even now he could feel the start of the long journey, the leave-taking, the going-away from the self he had been." p.103
"We all have our harps to play. And it's up to you now to know with which ear you'll listen." p.108
"Here we go to keep the world happy!" p.109
"But that's the wonderful thing about man; he never gets so discouraged or disgusted that he gives up doing it all over again because he knows very well it is important and worth the doing." p.153
"'Stuff your eyes with wonder,' he said, 'live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories. Ask no guarantees, ask for no security, there never was such an animal. And if there were, it would be related to the great sloth which hangs upside down in a tree all day every day, sleeping its life away. To hell with that,' he said, 'shake the tree and knock the great sloth down on his ass.'" pp. 158,159
"And someday, after it sets in us a long time, it'll come out our hands and our mouths. And a lot of it will be wrong, but just enough of it will be right." p.161
"And while none of it will be me when it goes in, after a while it'll all gather together inside and it'll be me."
"I'll hold onto the world tight someday. I've got one finger on it now; that's a beginning." p. 162
"And someday we'll remember so much that we'll build the biggest goddamn steamshovel in history and dig the biggest grave of all time and shove war in and cover it up." p.164
And there you have it... This is probably the longest blog ever. And I'm sure there are many more bits and pieces of this book that I will love after I read it again, and again, and again...!!!!
From the page before the book starts:
"If they give you ruled paper, write the other way." Juan Ramon Jimenez
"He felt his body divide itself into a hotness and a coldness, a softness and a hardness, a trembling and a not trembling, the two halves grinding one upon the other." p.24
"...but do you know, we never ask questions, or at least most don't; they just run the answers at you, bing, bing, bing, and us sitting there for four more hours of film teacher. That's not social to me at all. It's a lot of funnels and a lot of water poured down the spout and out the bottom, and them telling us it's wine when it's not." p.30
"A book lit, almost obediently, like a white pigeon, in his hands, wings flutter. ... 'Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine.'" p. 37
"Always at night the alarm comes. Never by day!" p.39
Possibly my favorite quote ever in the history of my life:
"We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over; so in a series of kindnesses there is at last one which makes the heart run over." p.71
"'Jesus God,' said Montag. 'Every hour so many damn things in the sky! How in hell did those bombers get up there every single second of our lives! Why doesn't someone want to talk about it! We've started and won two atomic wars since 1990! Is it because we're having so much fun at home we've forgotten the world? Is is because we're so rich and the rest of the world's so poor and we just don't care if they are? I've heard rumors; the world is starving, but we're well fed. Is it true, the world works hard and we play? Is that why we're hated so much?" p.73
When we know we're doomed: "the last liberal arts college shuts for lack of students and patronage." p.75
"'I don't talk things, sir,' said Faber. "I talk the meaning of things. I sit here and know I'm alive." p.75
"The good writers touch life often. The mediocre ones run a quick hand over her. The bad ones raper her and leave her for the flies." p.83
"The books are to remind us what asses and fools we are. They're Caesar's praetorian guard, whispering as the parade roars down the avenue, 'Remember, Caesar, thou art mortal.' Most of us can't rush around, talk to everyone, know all the cities of the world, we haven't time, money or that many friends. The things you're looking for, Montag, are in the world, but the only way the average chap will ever see ninety-nine per cent of them is in a book. Don't ask for guarantees. And don't look to be saved in any one thing, person, machine, or library. Do your own bit of saving, and if you drown, at least die knowing you were headed for shore." p.86
I do this: "The women showed their tongues, laughing." p.96
"Out of two separate and opposite things, a third. And one day he would look back upon the fool and know the fool. Even now he could feel the start of the long journey, the leave-taking, the going-away from the self he had been." p.103
"We all have our harps to play. And it's up to you now to know with which ear you'll listen." p.108
"Here we go to keep the world happy!" p.109
"But that's the wonderful thing about man; he never gets so discouraged or disgusted that he gives up doing it all over again because he knows very well it is important and worth the doing." p.153
"'Stuff your eyes with wonder,' he said, 'live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories. Ask no guarantees, ask for no security, there never was such an animal. And if there were, it would be related to the great sloth which hangs upside down in a tree all day every day, sleeping its life away. To hell with that,' he said, 'shake the tree and knock the great sloth down on his ass.'" pp. 158,159
"And someday, after it sets in us a long time, it'll come out our hands and our mouths. And a lot of it will be wrong, but just enough of it will be right." p.161
"And while none of it will be me when it goes in, after a while it'll all gather together inside and it'll be me."
"I'll hold onto the world tight someday. I've got one finger on it now; that's a beginning." p. 162
"And someday we'll remember so much that we'll build the biggest goddamn steamshovel in history and dig the biggest grave of all time and shove war in and cover it up." p.164
And there you have it... This is probably the longest blog ever. And I'm sure there are many more bits and pieces of this book that I will love after I read it again, and again, and again...!!!!
4.20.2008
Coffee
Hopping out of bed and
thinking about the one thing
that will make the morning sun
a little brighter,
that will make the birds sing
a little more
enthusiastically, that will make
the crisp air seem
a little crisper and that will
make my day before
the day really starts.
Found on a Starbucks wall somewhere in NJ. Apparently on many Starbucks' walls.
thinking about the one thing
that will make the morning sun
a little brighter,
that will make the birds sing
a little more
enthusiastically, that will make
the crisp air seem
a little crisper and that will
make my day before
the day really starts.
Found on a Starbucks wall somewhere in NJ. Apparently on many Starbucks' walls.
4.08.2008
In this case: Matter over Mind
Be who you are and
say what you mean because
those how mind don't matter
and those who matter don't mind.
Dr. Seuss
say what you mean because
those how mind don't matter
and those who matter don't mind.
Dr. Seuss
3.14.2008
In the Dark with You
People are in the dark, they don't know what to do
I had a little lantern, oh but it got blown out too.
I'm reaching out my hand. I hope you are too.
I just want to be in the dark with you.
-- Greg Brown, In the Dark with You
I had a little lantern, oh but it got blown out too.
I'm reaching out my hand. I hope you are too.
I just want to be in the dark with you.
-- Greg Brown, In the Dark with You
2.27.2008
Don't Wait Until It's Too Late
First they came for the Communists,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Social Democrats,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Social Democrat.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up,
because I wasn't a Jew,
Then they came for me,
and by that time there was no one
left to speak up for me.
- Pastor Martin Niemoller
Free speech, for everyone!
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Social Democrats,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Social Democrat.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up,
because I wasn't a Jew,
Then they came for me,
and by that time there was no one
left to speak up for me.
- Pastor Martin Niemoller
Free speech, for everyone!
2.01.2008
The Utter Truth of It
In mathematics you don't understand things.
You just get used to them.
-- Johann van Neumann
Please understand this my dear brain, please understand it!!!
You just get used to them.
-- Johann van Neumann
Please understand this my dear brain, please understand it!!!
1.20.2008
"The Queen" Wins
So who won the Nevada caucus? I sure don't know, and I don't think anyone else really does either.
I find it interesting, and very appropriate, as to how one precinct decided to split its delegates between Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton. It all came down to a 10 of Spades and the Queen of Hearts.
There was a tie in the vote, 48 for Obama and 48 for Clinton. What do they do? There are 5 delegates, and everyone knows, people don't like to be split in half!! Well, they're in North Las Vegas, Nevada, so what do you think they do? They pull out the deck of cards!! Shuffling occurs, the Clinton supporter pulls a 10 of Spades, the Obama supporter pulls the Queen of Hearts, and it's over. Clinton gets the third delegate!
Haha! Who said politics wasn't just some big game, lasting way longer than any round of Monopoly?
Copy and paste this link for proof: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/01/19/clinton-wins-precinct-tie-with-queen-of-hearts/
I find it interesting, and very appropriate, as to how one precinct decided to split its delegates between Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton. It all came down to a 10 of Spades and the Queen of Hearts.
There was a tie in the vote, 48 for Obama and 48 for Clinton. What do they do? There are 5 delegates, and everyone knows, people don't like to be split in half!! Well, they're in North Las Vegas, Nevada, so what do you think they do? They pull out the deck of cards!! Shuffling occurs, the Clinton supporter pulls a 10 of Spades, the Obama supporter pulls the Queen of Hearts, and it's over. Clinton gets the third delegate!
Haha! Who said politics wasn't just some big game, lasting way longer than any round of Monopoly?
Copy and paste this link for proof: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/01/19/clinton-wins-precinct-tie-with-queen-of-hearts/
1.17.2008
Crazy "Holiday"
National Kazoo Day
Monday, January 28th
Grab a kazoo from the Dollar Store and hhummm along!!!
Go here: http://www.kazoos.com/nationalkazooday.htm to learn more.
Monday, January 28th
Grab a kazoo from the Dollar Store and hhummm along!!!
Go here: http://www.kazoos.com/nationalkazooday.htm to learn more.
1.09.2008
And I thought I was getting smarter...
"Education is not a steady process of accrual, but a touch-and-go contest between learning and forgetting, like frantically trying to fill a sink faster than it can empty through an open drain."
from The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver
Alas! what have we been doing with ourselves then!! Though, it really is true to a certain extent. Keep filling, faster, keep filling!
from The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver
Alas! what have we been doing with ourselves then!! Though, it really is true to a certain extent. Keep filling, faster, keep filling!
1.02.2008
The Secret of Life?
The whole secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and in a thousand things well.
- Horace Walpole
Hmm...
- Horace Walpole
Hmm...
1.01.2008
New Year!
I went to NYC for New Year's Eve with my fam this year. It was crazy! We stayed in Princeton, NJ and then took the commuter train in to Penn Station. Then we had to walk up to Times Square. Unfortunately, we chose the wrong side of 7th Avenue to go up and try to get in. The line at 52nd Avenue was crazy, after we stopped at 3 or 4 other side streets to try to get to 7th Avenue again. But then the 52nd Avenue entrance was closed because it was "filled up." So we had to go up all the way to 57th Avenue. We got right in and ended up about 100 feet from the corner of of 52nd - where they said it was filled up. Then it was 6 hours of wait. Cold, no food, nothing to drink, nothing to do but wait.
The 6 hours were nothing I'd like to live again.
But the 10 seconds leading up to midnight, that was worth the wait. There were about a million people there. You could look down the street to Times Square and just see a sea of people, then you could turn around and right behind you was another absolute sea of people. Then the countdown... And there's all of these people, screaming at the top of their lungs, counting down the seconds. I didn't care about much else, really. "The Ball" was tiny, there was a little girl jumping around right next to us.
The feeling of having that many people around, all for one reason and one purpose, cheering their hearts out...it was incredible.
I'm not sure if I want to do it again. It was cold, and standing for that amount of time begins to hurt... But it was a good experience, and I'm definitely glad I forced my family to go with me!
Happy New Year!
The 6 hours were nothing I'd like to live again.
But the 10 seconds leading up to midnight, that was worth the wait. There were about a million people there. You could look down the street to Times Square and just see a sea of people, then you could turn around and right behind you was another absolute sea of people. Then the countdown... And there's all of these people, screaming at the top of their lungs, counting down the seconds. I didn't care about much else, really. "The Ball" was tiny, there was a little girl jumping around right next to us.
The feeling of having that many people around, all for one reason and one purpose, cheering their hearts out...it was incredible.
I'm not sure if I want to do it again. It was cold, and standing for that amount of time begins to hurt... But it was a good experience, and I'm definitely glad I forced my family to go with me!
Happy New Year!
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