I keep trying to post something with, you know, substance. But that lofty aim got trumped by wrestling my half-dozen email inboxes into submission, which I have now done, and while that is neither art nor literature, it’s better for my Responsible Adult quotient.
And that leaves me license to share some wonderfully juvenile links. Maybe you’ve been there and done that already, but:
Jonathan Coulton quit his job as a software guy and now makes a living writing songs about offbeat stuff, including Flickr (with slideshow, of course) and Ikea. Recently his end credits song for the new video game Portal has been making the YouTube rounds. Naturally, he also blogs regularly, is a Creative Commons devotee and even links to the Firefox plugin that’ll let you rip his music for free. He’s the kind of geek who makes me love having grown up amongst engineers.
Thanks to Gaudior for the tip on Improv Everywhere, a candid-camera-esque guerrilla collective famous for its U2 rooftop concert a few years back. They’re still taking volunteers for this year’s annual no-pants subway ride. Some missions are on the mean-spirited side, but Ben Folds Fake is marvelous, as are the many layers of humor (pun intended) to be found in No Shirts.
Anything else I should avoid if I want to get any work done?
Pictures I Like For A Variety Of Reasons is about as addictive as Engrish.com, only…well. Not always safe for work.
I don’t know why this makes me laugh so hard.
Liquid CO2 “dry” cleaning apparently works better than that nasty perchloroethylene stuff anyway. And since it can use CO2 collected from industrial processes, it sometimes diverts carbon emissions from the atmosphere too.
I heart FreshDirect. Combined with the farmers market and the 24-hour hipster grocery down the street, I’m all set.
Stewart + Brown and Edun use organic textiles and ethically minded sourcing/labor to make clothes with actual styling details. Just when I thought there were only t-shirts and yoga pants out there in the world of “green” fashion…
And hey, if you buy used clothing, you’re recycling! I love it when being a cheapskate dovetails with environmentalism.
Bokashi composters let you toss almost any kind of kitchen scraps (meat, dairy) in with a microbe mix, which odorlessly turns them into compost over several weeks. In theory, anyway; I’m midway through my first bucket, so I’ll let you know how it goes.
Social Innovation Conversations and the Stanford Social Innovation Review are good for staying in the loop about social entrepreneurship, justice in economic policy, and other capitalism-with-a-soul topics. I think what I like about business, more than the activist sphere, is that it’s inherently optimistic—it sees a world full of opportunities rather than enemies. The MBA world attracts competitive types, people with the salesman’s gift, social butterflies, relentless chasers of numbers that signify success; when that kind of energy expands beyond profit margins and toward questions of human responsibility, some pretty cool things can happen.
The latest in Profound Thoughts That Are Kind of Obvious:
Lay the groundwork first.
Everything worthwhile requires the accumulation of skill, background knowledge, the moving of basics into the realm of second nature. Drills, exercises and throwaway experiments are not wasted time; they’re essential to the process. Can’t be fluent unless you start learning vocabulary. Can’t dance until you can crawl.
The same goes for the mind-body: the energy to do the things I want to do comes from getting enough sleep, drinking water, eating good food, going outside and getting a bit out of breath. Everything is connected. My physical being is not an addendum to some abstract notion of who I am: it is who I am. Take care of that, and a lot of other things follow.
Relationships, too. Some rare connections are effortless and seem never to need maintenance, but everything else is a steady building of shared thoughts and experience. Remembering to call and ask how someone’s doing. Day-to-day becomes the big picture.
Sorry for the selfhelpy moment—I’m doing the equivalent of writing on the back of my hand. Just wanted it to go somewhere it wouldn’t wash off in the shower.
Any “well, duh” epiphanies for you lately?
Because I am currently living chez mama et papa, and because my dad can be a talkative fellow, I have the following questions on the brain, and am curious how y’all would answer them.
- What do (you think) your parents expect of you?
- What do you expect of yourself? Is it in conflict in any way with the above?
- Would you say that family is important to you?
- If so, what does that translate to, in how to live your day-to-day life?
Will answer these myself, of course. After I do my taxes.
“[In] this modern era…a sound bite can be heard instantly around the world but a position paper is never read.”
I’ve changed my browser homepage to Google News. From sixteen time zones away, J continues to send links to great articles; Dad continues his steady supply of newspaper clippings; but I feel like I should start doing my own work in keeping abreast of things. The above quote comes from a Salon article about John McCain’s open-door, on-the-record policy with the media. Frustrating that politics is so seldom really about the issues—the speed of the news cycle seems to make it nearly impossible to have a sophisticated discussion. I think that’s why grad school continues to tug at me.
Perhaps someday I will have a piano in my house, and I will not be up at four o’clock in the morning, mind buzzing in that particular way, realizing that a bit of never-yet-heard music has just curled up beyond my reach, given a little blue sigh, and dissolved back into the ether.
Or maybe last weekend I watched jazz pianists Keith Jarrett and Chick Corea play Mozart’s Concerto For Two Pianos & Orchestra, and what I’m really feeling is musical inadequacy in general.
Just in time for President’s Day weekend, this fella* wrote a casual, modernized version of Washington’s Farewell Address. I love how it begins with “Sup.”
A commenter supplied H. L. Mencken’s 1921 “translation” of the Declaration of Independence as well.
Fascinating stuff.
So…seeing as I have nothing better to do, I tried the intro of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense. Original text courtesy of Wikisource.
The following ideas may not win any popularity contests. When we accept something badly wrong as normal, it begins to look right; people will even rush to its defense simply for its familiarity. But eventually the dust settles. Time makes more converts than reason.
Whenever there is a long and violent abuse of power, the oppressed will understandably question their leaders’ right to wield that power. The King of England has committed numerous abuses and claimed them as his right. So, separately, has Parliament. The two combined have put terrible pressure on the good people of this country, and so the people have a clear right of their own: to investigate their rulers’ pretensions, and if necessary to liberate themselves of both.
In these pages, I have carefully avoided any compliments or censure of individuals. The wise and the worthy don’t need pamphlets to validate them; the imprudent and the antisocial will eliminate themselves regardless of what I write here.
The cause of America is essentially the cause of humankind itself. The questions we face here, now and in the future, are universal. The destruction of a country with bombs and guns, the declaration of war on basic human rights, the annihilation of the defenders of liberty—these events are of urgent concern to all decent human beings, no matter their political leanings. Yours truly counts himself among them.
P.S. The publication of this new edition was delayed, in case there was any attempt refute the original; but there have been none so far, and since the timeliness of such an attack is long past, I assume that none will.
Who wrote this? you may ask. This is irrelevant—the point is the doctrine itself, not its author. It’s worth mentioning that the author has no party affiliation, and never accepts funds from any public or private interest; his only bias is a love of reason and principle.
* Also the author of the geeky goodness that is XKCD. Thanks to balanceinmotion for another nine-hour internet time-suck. No really, I needed to spend more time staring at my computer and bursting into spastic laughter, alienating everyone around me…
Pet Peeve #4.2: All this talk about “saving the planet” in the fight against global climate change. Let’s be clear: the planet does not need saving. Earth has gone through all kinds of drastic changes before, and will continue to do so long after Homo sapiens sapiens is gone—it’s seen mass extinctions, major shifts in the composition of the atmosphere, ice ages, likely a giant asteriod or two. Hell, our sun’s gonna die someday—if you take the super-long view, the whole thing’s temporary. But the activists aren’t talking about the super-long view; they’re talking about this century, the next few hundred years at most. They want us to realize how unpleasant things can get for us if we don’t do something.
The slogans should really be “Help save the human species!” or “Help save life as we know [and enjoy] it!” Not as catchy, I know. But that’s what it’s really about. Personally, I don’t want to be raising kids in a world where New York and L.A. are underwater and millions of unemployed homeless roam the Great Plains. Our ability to adapt to rapid climate change doesn’t square well with our need for national security, economic growth and basic human rights. Drowning polar bears are the least of it. And the planet will go on, regardless of our choices.
A man said to the universe:
‘Sir, I exist!’
‘However,’ replied the universe,
‘The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation.’
- Stephen Crane, “War Is Kind” and Other Lines (1899)
I would just like to say that menstrual cramps are a cruel, cruel joke of nature.