Uncategorized Archives

The intensity of exuberance

In group celebrations we find exuberance differently. A love of festivities is universal, observed William James, and in many respects celebration is yet another form of human play.

We call it the zeitgeist

All of this is part of a shared space, it is what we call the zeitgeist, the spirit of the time, which is also what we express ourselves through.

Here is a story of a woman running away from tigers

Each moment is just what it is. It might be the only moment of our life, it might be the only strawberry we’ll ever eat.

Jan 2022: Reddit

And if they’re driving slow, it’s because they’re transporting a large cake.

Einstein’s Three Rules of Work

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.

Culture is to society as style is to the individual

An answer to the sterile ends of pure utility and the cold-heartedness of a survival mindset.

Relearning how to think according to David Foster Wallace

I have come gradually to understand that the liberal arts cliché about “teaching you how to think” is actually shorthand for a much deeper, more serious idea:

Do you remember when we talked about…?

Now Greif does not grieve as much as I about the warning sign he nailed onto the hedonist storeroom of memories that live rent-free in my mind. He insists this habit of happiness-by-experience results in “a life of permanent dissatisfaction and a compulsion to frenetic activity.”

The past woven into the present

Our lives are made up of so many people who become parts of our lives and like lines from your favorite book, some parts of them remain long after they leave. And in the same exact way, it’s comforting to know there are so many lives you’re still a part of that you have noContinue reading “The past woven into the present”

How to lose a nuclear weapon

Despite an extensive search, not a single trace of the crew nor the plane nor the cores has ever been found.

Do you know about the nuclear exercise “Snowball” or Снежок?

In the days after, Soviet scientists’ reports detailed the impact of the nuclear blast on everything: vegetation, animals, shelters, vehicles, houses. And a small part on human lives.

Oak Ridge’s radioactive mist

Swim naked in the local lake with Oak Ridge native Megan Fox, the mist caressing both of their faces would be radioactive.

Yeltsin’s close nuclear call

It’s January 25, 1995 and you’re President Boris Yeltsin activating the “nuclear briefcase”.

Billy Collins on the arbitrary distinction between revision and writing

And when I revise, I’m writing, aren’t I?

Carry on: an epitaph to a bag

Epitaph to a bag with a face.

Pythagoras and Hepatia

Pythagoras vs. beans and Hepatia vs oyster shells.

Weeklinks – Edition 3

This week’s links on creativity, social media, distractions, tips on writing and drawing, art, Lady Lilith, and Max Ernst. PLUS! Unusual inspiration for unusual times.

Sunday Showcase: Expansion by Paige Bradley

The Sunday Showcase, not to be confused with “The Sunday Scaries”, literally zooms in on a piece of artwork and shares videos and/or quotes from the artist.

Merriam-Webster’s Words of the Day Quiz for August

11 new words, brought to you by Merriam-Webster

Harvest

It’s harvest and I ask for more time without pressure.

Vespers (End of August)

selective focus photography of red fruits

And some things have the nerve to be getting started…

Yordi As Seen By Yordi: #1 in an interview series

This is the first “interview” (it’s very short, only a few quotes from each conversation) with friends and family members who are Deaf. My 25 year-old brother, Yordi, is using photography as a way to escape from his three other roommates, not counting the kitten and the Dalmatian, all of which are Deaf, except forContinue reading “Yordi As Seen By Yordi: #1 in an interview series”

What I love is blue

What I love about you is blue.

Weather to vaccinate, or not.

Whether the weather weathers the whether.

The Marriage of Romeo & Juliet by Death (1967-1975) by Salvador Dali

The Great Mathematician Paul Erdős on Possessions and Coffee

Between scientific conferences, universities, and the homes of colleagues all over the world.

Van Morrison’s Into the Mystic

Hark, now hear the sailors cry.

The only difference between the Surrealists and me is that I am a Surrealist – Salvador Dalí

The Temptation of St. Anthony (detail), 1946 Oil on Canvas, 89.5 x 119.5 cm (35 1/4 x 47 in.) Brussels, Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique

Henry Miller on the mystery of attention

Even a blade of grass it becomes a mysterious.

What Charles Bukowski didn’t say

Charles Bukowski didn’t say you should find what you love and let it kill you.

Daniel J. Levitin on Organization: Chapter 1

Categorize to save yourself.

If you inherently long

Become it first.

All of Life is Practice

All of life is practice.

August 29 News Download: Pacific Light Undersea Cable

A data pitstop on the way to China.

Don Draper’s Brand

Change the conversation and you control the brand.

Fear and Circumstance in Las Vegas

Place yourself in circumstances of want, and ask yourself, “is this what I fear?

Wages in Cuba and a quote from my former Professor of Latin American Politics

Ending the dual-currency system is expected to lead to the eventual removal of subsidies and bankruptcy.

The Gallery Inn

San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Frame control on why gun control is political in the U.S.A

You were on your own.

I’ve decided on Tolstoy’s Decision Making Matrix

You’re never at the beginning of some event.

Nuclear incidents in the 1950s

Nothing is known of attempts to recover the nuclear weapon and presumably it is still in the ocean.

Soviet Spy Klaus Fuchs

…not until 1949 that decrypted cables from the United States Army Signal Intelligence Service (SIS)’s “Venona” project revealed Fuchs was a Soviet spy.