Fourteen Twenty

I've moved

2009-06-14T15:12:00.004-05:00

I still have the fourteentwenty.com domain name, only now it points to www.fourteentwenty.wordpress.com.Update your bookmarks to www.fourteentwenty.com.See you at the new site.

Softly, softly

2009-06-09T22:41:00.001-05:00

"...for when lenity and cruelty play for a kingdom,the gentler gamester is the soonest winner."-HENRY V - Shakespeare

Media Convergance

2009-06-09T19:40:00.000-05:00

Um... So. Media Convergence. Interesting term.No longer do we watch a movie, or a TV show, or make a call on our mobile phones, or use the internet, or read a book.What

Josies Lalaland

2009-06-09T19:36:00.001-05:00

Three Quotes

2009-05-31T03:26:00.001-05:00

From the Stoic Marcus Aurelius:"The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way."Seneca:“There is nothing the busy man is less busied with than living; there is nothing harder to learn.”Greek proverb:"Passa plemmyris peritrepetai." ("Every tide turns.")

The Hand that's Dealt

2009-05-21T20:52:00.004-05:00

I don't believe in fate, or destiny. The idea that my entire existence is at the whim of some supernatural entity doesn't hold water (neither should it, for any rational individual). There is a type of 'fate' or set of pre-determined pathways that I do believe in, however. A kind of inevitability perpetuaded by the triangle of human influence, human behavior, genetics and culture (inseperable

Reflections

2009-05-16T16:23:00.004-05:00

So I'm looking out through the rear window of a CTA train, looking into the next carriage and the reflections of people and seats in my own carriage are superimposed over the people I'm seeing, so passengers are next to each other in the joined reflections, some walk down the aisle towards me and it takes a while to figure out whether they're in my carriage or the other one. It's an interesting

Cashback

2009-05-14T20:16:00.002-05:00

and now this... worth watching. Do try to stop giggling. It's beautiful.Cashback

better than biting into the apple and finding half a worm

2009-05-14T19:50:00.004-05:00

Fetid stink, sewer miasma rising from clogged vents, a million people shoving, shuffling, pushing and screwing, all trying to get a piece of the pie that's always just around the corner, stinky fingers from having so many digits in so many people, rotting streets, bugs and insects replaced by beetle humans. Engineering looks and masks, continual chameleon mimicry and trickery, tweaking, prodding,

And another one from Charlie Brooker...

2009-05-12T19:29:00.001-05:00

.... showing that fascism, pro-establishment skewed media and police brutality is alive and well in Britain.

Charlie Brooker on the American News Media

2009-05-12T19:28:00.001-05:00

I think this guy pretty much nails it. I always thought Beck was a lunatic.

Pertinent

2009-05-03T12:29:00.000-05:00

"Well the tiniest little dot caught my eye and it turned out to be a scabAnd I had this funny feeling, like I just knew it's something badI just couldn't leave it alonePicking at that scabIt was a doorway trying to seal itself shutBut I climbed throughNow I'm somewhere I am not supposed to beAnd I can see things I know I really shouldn't seeAnd now I know why now, now I know whyThings aren't as

Make of it what you will.

2009-04-27T22:28:00.004-05:00

A picture I took on the CTA this evening. Interesting combination of advertisements.

skin

2009-03-17T23:57:00.003-05:00

Sitting on the trainI notice the motes of dust, illuminated in thelight,follow their own trajectory, flitting betweenthe legs of swaying commuters.The dust motes are the commuters, as mostparticles of dust are skin cells, ejected fromthe derma by friction or the elements.It seemed as though the people on thetrain were evaporating, one dust particle at atime.Little chunks of us, falling off.The

Chicago Skies

2009-03-15T13:52:00.002-05:00

When the light of the heavens have been denied,And all our sins have multiplied,The only stars that will remain,Are landing lights on airplanes.-March 2009

Garbage Island

2009-03-07T13:44:00.001-06:00

For more information on this, contact me at archangelcharlie@gmail.com

Dior, Jewel, Bathrooms and Pesto

2009-02-04T00:18:00.002-06:00

Even if you don't believe in a formal destiny of some kind, there is an inexorable motion to ones life, a force pushing us along, comprised and concreted by your previous actions, reinforced often by routine and habit, but occasionally smashed and restructured in those rare moments when you decide to step off the beaten path and onto the grassy verge to experience a different way.And those times

Candid portraiture and why I do it

2008-12-25T00:31:00.004-06:00

I think when it comes to photography in the form of candid portraiture, that is, snapping people at their most unaware, least flattering, most truthful, un-staged, it requires a degree of fearlessness behind the camera, a willingness to just 'go for it' no matter how they react, because 'the shot is everything', especially when you're mingling with complete strangers. Family and friends are easy

We'll See.

2008-11-05T18:36:00.007-06:00

A few quick points:-- So we're told that it's a momentous event that a black man was voted to the presidency, and yet simultaneously, we're told that it shouldn't matter that a black man is voted to the presidency.-- All those people who pissed and moaned about the electoral college stealing the vote when Bush beat out Gore in 2000 are no longer complaining. Why? Well Obama only won by a marginal

fucken zombies...

2008-11-01T08:06:00.002-05:00

DAY 2 of the apocalypse. Journal by Daniel F., one of the last survivors. Zombie bodies lying everywhere, the defense of the bunker last night was tough, and not without casualties. We lost three good guys. Noticed that the zombies are smaller this time, carrying buckets, containing, well I can only assume they're carrying entrails, or bones, or both. Hundreds of small, grotesque, twisted

Tony Benn

2008-10-27T17:33:00.001-05:00

This is Tony Benn, one of the most outspoken politicians in the British political system. The interview is conducted by Michael Moore in the movie 'Sicko', but forget what you think about Moore, what Benn is saying is laden with wisdom and clarity.Remember: scared, indebted, unhealthy and uneducated people are easier to control.

What is intelligence, anyway?

2008-10-23T09:15:00.003-05:00

(My mother was one of these people, like the car repair man. The woman had virtually no book smarts, yet could out-think on anything she put her mind to, and frequently did. I always thought that the wisdom from the 'unlearned' was far more potent than anything I heard from the ranks of academia).What is intelligence, anyway?By Isaac AsimovWhen I was in the army, I received the kind of aptitude

Tabula Rasa

2008-10-15T16:28:00.002-05:00

Amazing photography by Mladen Penev. I particularly liked this one.

what smells bad in the bailout (as if you need me to tell you)

2008-10-12T23:53:00.004-05:00

So it passed, the massive bailout to help save the banks of America. $810 billion dollars. It was $700 billion a little while ago and failed to pass, but disaster relief and further incentives sweetened the deal and like a greased sex toy into the collective butts of working class America... it goes through... and guess what, we're getting screwed again.In the words of Jay Leno, we should have

Free Press

2008-09-26T21:35:00.004-05:00

An example of the joke which is 'free press' in this country.Watch:She is censored for stating a mostly unheard-of perspective regarding the conflict. What is the significance of her saying that it's Russian troops and not Georgian troops that helped her? The importance is the wholly pro-Georgian slant that perpetrated the western media at that time, when in fact, the Russian troops prevented (

Bush did what? No... surely not.

2008-09-26T19:15:00.003-05:00

I know this is old hat, but hey, here ya go anyway.via Wanttoknow.infoGreg Palast writes for the Guardian and Observer newspapers of London and reports for the BBC’s Newsnight. Palast abandoned hopes of working in America when mainstream press failed to report on his groundbreaking exposes known for stripping bare abuses.In the months leading up to the November [2000] balloting, Florida Governor

Brilliant Noise

2008-09-23T17:00:00.002-05:00

(give this some time to load) Brilliant Noise from Semiconductor on Vimeo.via semiconductorfilms"A Semiconductor film by Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt made at the NASA Space Sciences Laboratory, UC Berkeley, California, USA. 2006.""Brilliant Noise takes us into the data vaults of solar astronomy. After sifting through hundreds of thousands of computer files, made accessible via open access

Who shot the TV?

2008-09-22T20:47:00.003-05:00

This plaster installation piece by PROMETHEUS is at Infart in Bassano, Italy.via Who Killed Bambi.

The City

2008-09-21T22:40:00.002-05:00

A film short by me.

Georgia

2008-09-12T22:54:00.002-05:00

I'm tired of hearing about 'Russian Aggression' and 'U.S. Peace Keeping'.Lets set the record straight: we are in Georgia for the pipeline. That's all. We don't give a half-baked turd for the Georgian people. It was Georgian aggression against the South Ossetians that caused the problems in the first place. Invading a predominantly Russian populace isn't going to go unnoticed by the Bear. And if

2008-07-12T23:32:00.004-05:00

In line with my current obsession with short films, I give to you this: Director/animator: EB HuMusic: Phillip Sheppard

Too Close

2008-07-12T23:24:00.002-05:00

(by Shem - 2008)“I read something interesting the other day.”“Yeah? What about?”“It’s weird, but did you know back in the day people believed that when died, they went somewhere else?”“Somewhere else? What do you mean?”“I mean they thought they went somewhere else.”“They moved the bodies? That doesn’t sound good.”“No, the corpses stayed where they buried them. They thought their personalities

kite

2008-07-09T22:58:00.002-05:00

My first ever movie... I'm happy with how it turned out. There's a story in there if you look hard enough.

It goes both ways...

2008-07-01T17:06:00.003-05:00

The most compelling and most simplistic argument for the concept of an infinite universe:Ask yourself... can you conceive of the idea that the universe will ever cease to exist?Most answers, no. How can energy cease to be? It simply transfers states, but never disappears completely.So we must accept that the same fact applies to the past.Ergo... we must be in an infinite universe.Thanks again

Alice

2008-07-01T11:42:00.001-05:00

The music video for the song 'Alice', an electronic piece of which 90% is composed using sounds recorded from the Disney film 'Alice In Wonderland'. I can't stop listening to it. Watching the video with the song makes it literally hypnotic.

RIP George Carlin

2008-06-24T14:40:00.001-05:00

Born on May 12th 1937. Died June 22nd 2008. Married twice, first wife died when he was sixty, was outlived by second wife. Died of heart failure.To me, it is difficult to actually decide whether he was a comedian or an intellectual. I rarely laughed out loud to his work, I simply absorbed his ideas and applauded his perspectives. I didn't always agree with what he said, but I highly respected him

A note to everyone / A general statement

2008-06-16T16:22:00.001-05:00

A few criticisms, albeit correct, that I receive on a regular basis are; "You're always slamming America", "What's your problem with this country", and then usually "If you don't like it then why don't you leave?"Slamming might be a strong word for most of anti-Americanism I hear and proliferate. Okay, some is unnecessary, I'll admit, but a lot is simply bringing important points to the table,

You like them Apples?

2008-06-14T16:42:00.001-05:00

I was installing yet another iTunes update, and was sufficiently bored/brain dead to actually read the License agreement. I took a screen shot. You're not going to believe this.Read it yourself next time you install. As far as I can gather, iTunes can't be used in conjunction with the production, development or design of Nuclear or Chemical weapons. I guess you have to use Windows Media Player

The Three Oddest Words

2008-05-29T13:58:00.001-05:00

When I pronounce the word Future, the first syllable already belongs to the past.When I pronounce the word Silence, I destroy it.When I pronounce the word Nothing, I make something no non-being can hold.-Wislawa Szymborska

a single snowflake

2008-05-23T13:23:00.004-05:00

Something to think about:"Modern radio telescopes are exquisitely sensitive; a distant quasar is so faint that its detected radiation amounts perhaps to a quadrillionth of a watt. The total amount of energy from outside the solar system ever received by all the radio telescopes on the planet Earth is less than the energy of a single snowflake striking the ground. In detecting the cosmic

Flat Life

2008-05-18T22:24:00.001-05:00

This is a delightful (yeah, I said it) cartoon which was at Cannes Film Festival. Delightful! Again!

Kamikaze

2008-05-15T17:27:00.003-05:00

The Second World War caused suffering on an unimaginable scale, touching almost every nation in the world in one form or another. However the Kamikaze pilot is a concept that to me has always stood out amongst the others. It was the ultimate manifestation of a strict and disciplinarian culture, an ideal that could be so easily filed under the category of 'insane', yet I feel to do that is to

"No revolution for us thanks, we're watching TV..."

2008-05-08T20:47:00.004-05:00

*****The irony of what I am about to write is not lost on me, in fact, it fills me with a sense of glum inevitability, that the same system I am decrying is the same system I'm using to express myself. Yet, the medium does not have to be perfect to contain the words within. Most pro-union leaflets historically were printed on nothing better than parchment paper (I wouldn't equate myself to any

Stress

2008-05-05T13:14:00.001-05:00

"You see the world as you see yourself, as if looking at ones reflection in a pool of water. The more disturbed the pool is, the more it ripples with anger, spite and stress, the more distorted will be your perspective." -unknownA lot of time at work I won't realize how stressed I am until I am so uptight and irritated it takes a lot of effort to bring me back down again. I'll realize I'm tapping

2008-05-02T18:57:00.001-05:00

Tim Wise is an author and speaker whom I've just discovered, but his words articulate clearly and plainly the opinions I've been stating for years, inspired by my reading of Howard Zinn and general study of white and black demographics as well as the social ramifications of modern day segregation and prejudice. His work is very powerful and absorbing and I recommend you give him a listen.He

Lost Cause

2008-05-01T21:31:00.001-05:00

It's a two part phrase. Lost: the absense of direction. Cause: a definitive purpose within an ideology. The phrase lost cause makes me think of something I read once, that we can sometimes be a boat on the ocean with a sail, but no rudder. The sail is our passion, our drive. The rudder is our common sense, our grounding, practicality. Without the sail we would run in circles, endlessly and

Dreams

2008-03-24T20:12:00.000-05:00

Read it twice.

A story

2008-03-15T14:51:00.002-05:00

A Sufi story from the Middle East: Mula came upon a frowning man walking along the road to town. "What’s wrong?" he asked. The man held up a tattered bag and moaned, "All that I own in this wide world barely fills this miserable, wretched sack." "Too bad," said Mula, and with that, he snatched the bag from the man’s hands and ran down the road with it. Having lost everything, the man

Conversations

2008-03-15T14:51:00.001-05:00

The friendly Vietnamese laundrette attendant... ...said that her regular Sunday morning customers were all men, a lot of them as early as 6:30. She noted that in her native country, you would never see a man do laundry...An older lady buying books... ...her husband flew B52’s in World War 2 and was stationed for a while in a little village outside Brussels. In the center of the village

Alone and awake

2008-03-08T16:57:00.001-06:00

In between the moon and youthe angels get a better viewof the crumbling differencebetween wrong and right...This lonely mind is wandering from morning to night, pondering on the principles of existance. Not why we are here, that much is obvious. But the point to being here. Is purpose as intergral to the human condition as sex, violence and survival? Are we trying to be something we are not when

Guns, germs and Christians

2008-02-22T10:34:00.001-06:00

A DIALOGUE WITH SARAH, AGED 3: IN WHICH IT IS SHOWN THAT IF YOUR DAD IS A CHEMISTRY PROFESSOR, ASKING “WHY” CAN BE DANGEROUS

2008-02-09T15:55:00.000-06:00

from Science CreativeBy Stephen McNeilSARAH: Daddy, were you in the shower?DAD: Yes, I was in the shower.SARAH: Why?DAD: I was dirty. The shower gets me clean.SARAH: Why?DAD: Why does the shower get me clean?SARAH: Yes.DAD: Because the water washes the dirt away when I use soap.SARAH: Why?DAD: Why do I use soap?SARAH: Yes.DAD: Because the soap grabs the dirt and lets the water wash it off.SARAH:

Helping girls hate everything about themselves earlier every year

2008-02-01T10:08:00.000-06:00

Symptomatic of a much larger and subtler problem, but still a great article.From Andromeda:I remember when I was a young girl in high school I hated so many things about myself. I hated my thick glasses that made me look like I was wearing Coke bottles on my face. I hated my hair because, although hairdressers loved its thickness, for me it just made it hard to do anything nice with it because at

Apathetic Al the Spider... a lesson in futility by Shem

2008-01-25T20:29:00.000-06:00

This is Al.He just can't be bothered. He created his web on a spoon, and it's not much bigger than he is.This is the sum total of his ambition for the day.We could assume several reasons for this: One, that he's not very smart. Two, he is incredibly over-confident. Or the third possibility, which is the correct one, that he has absolutely no motivation. He just can't summon enough energy or drive

Patriotism

2008-01-18T14:11:00.000-06:00

Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. - Samuel JohnsonPatriotism is a kind of religion; it is the egg from which wars are hatched. - Guy de MaupassantPatriotism is the passion of fools and the most foolish of passions. - Arthur SchopenhauerPatriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons. - Bertrand RusselPatriotism is your conviction that this

Strange Fruit - Billie Holliday

2008-01-11T11:49:00.000-06:00

A stark and poignant reminder of the brutality caused by racial intolerance. With the increase in racial attacks lately, it seems critical that we maintain a vigil against this facet of humanity, whether in this country or abroad.Seven treesBearin' strange fruitBlood on the leavesAnd blood at the rootsBlack bodiesSwinging in the southern breezeStrange fruit hangin'From the poplar treesPastoral

2007-12-29T17:10:00.001-06:00

Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cellEdward Abbey

2007-12-29T10:15:00.000-06:00

An older lady came in this morning who talked a lot and I caught myself having to speak over her in order to stick to the original point. She set me on edge at first; I usually get that way if people come in and try to tell me their life story when they just need to buy a book.She asked me about our credit policy, but seemed extremely protective of her books, and unenthusiastic about leaving them

Neurons

2007-12-17T23:05:00.000-06:00

"We know we are more than just neurons firing. Or, at least we think we are, while the neurons are firing."-anon“A physicist is an atom’s way of knowing about atoms”-George Wald“Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create super-human intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended.”-Vernor Vinge

Resistance

2007-12-17T17:29:00.000-06:00

Via Inspector Lohmann"Acts of resistance are moral acts. They begin because people of conscience can no longer tolerate abuse and despotism. They are carried out not because they are effective but because they are right...Resistance is about affirming life in a world awash in death."

The Wisdom of Crowds

2007-12-16T21:43:00.000-06:00

via Chad Perrin: SOBThere’s no such thing as a “wisdom of crowds”. That may sound funny, coming from a former Wikimedia Foundation employee and current Wikipedia/Wikinews proponent like me, but it’s true. It’s not “the wisdom of crowds” that makes Wikipedia work, but the ability to aggregate individual knowledge and save it in a central location.Collecting people in crowds increases exactly three

23 Tools To Brainwash and Influence People Through Media

2007-11-29T16:52:00.000-06:00

via Alterati’till at last the child’s mind is these suggestions, and the sum of the suggestions is the child’s mind. And not the child’s mind only. The adult’s mind too all his life long. The mind that judges and desires and decides made up of these suggestions. But all these suggestions are our suggestions!“- Aldous Huxley, Brave New WorldThe opinions and behaviors of people and societies are

Killing Us Softly

2007-11-22T19:53:00.000-06:00

Pretty colors

2007-11-20T16:22:00.000-06:00

The internet as a medium for social change fails right where it succeeds. Grassroot movements are quickly swamped by the sheer quantity of banality. As a resource to communicate it is unparalleled, but only as far as it can reach out to those who wish to be communicated to. As with TV, you can just switch over, and people frequently do. (although the similarities end here, as TV content is almost

2007-11-08T14:23:00.001-06:00

via Cectic

happiness

2007-10-21T20:13:00.000-05:00

happiness is knowing that the world will spin without you, and that you get to be here for a little while to watch.

A Vision

2007-10-20T03:20:00.000-05:00

Follow me on this one. Play this piece of music when it loads. Then read below... Picture this:Twenty or thirty bouncy-castles lie in a field, out of sight, deflated. All shapes and sizes, some that look like forts, some like clowns, some like mansions. All different types, all without air, splats of rubber and plastic laid out in the field, as if melted in the sun.A few bus-loads of children

Easier

2007-10-12T17:36:00.000-05:00

it's easier to hate than to adoreit's easier to sit than to exploreit's easier to dismiss than to learnit's easier to take than to earnit's easier to fail than to succeedit's easier to rest than to achieveit's easier to settle than to dreamit's easier to bleed than to healit's easier to destroy than to buildit's easier to be dumb than be skilledit's easier to despise than to forgiveit's easier to

The anchored mind

2007-10-09T12:30:00.000-05:00

We carry on like machines with our tiresome daily routine. How eagerly the mind accepts a pattern of existence, and how tenaciously it clings to it! As by a driven nail, the mind is held together by idea, and around the idea it lives and has its being. The mind is never free, pliable, for it is always anchored; it moves within the radius, narrow or wide, of its own center. From its center it dare

For work

2007-10-02T15:33:00.001-05:00

What I had to write for a newsletter:Halloween is just around the corner, it's almost time to start designing those costumes for the big night. Whether you're dressing up to go out with friends, or helping your children look their best for a little trick-or-treating, we want to see your outfits! Send your pictures through to (name) at (emailaddress).com. What I wanted to write, but would probably

To my friend...

2007-09-29T01:20:00.000-05:00

Now somewhere in the black mountain hills of DakotaThere lived a young boy named Rocky RaccoonAnd one day his woman ran off with another guyHit young Rocky in the eye, Rocky didn't like thatHe said I'm gonna get that boySo one day he walked into townBooked himself a room in the local saloonRocky Raccoon checked into his roomOnly to find Gideon's bibleRocky had come equipped with a gunTo shoot off

best spontaneous quote heard yet

2007-09-28T11:17:00.000-05:00

"My life's in the crapper."(adds:)"I'm just waiting for someone to flush."

From sleep to sleep

2007-09-28T00:33:00.000-05:00

Those of you who read this regularly know that I put a place aside to the left for videos. This is an exception. May I present to you 'Giant Girl Doll'. Turn up your speakers and let go.Something about her movements, her elegance, reminds me of something pure and wonderful in humanity. That if we as a race produce nothing else in our struggles, let us show this as the best testament to

Miracle

2007-09-27T03:17:00.000-05:00

(No credit available for this one, not sure who it is, but if anyone knows the cartoonist, let me know)

What is lost...

2007-09-22T16:50:00.000-05:00

An old man walks into the shop. He's covered in tattoos, gray straggly hair hangs down his front and back. His face looks swollen, but not fat. His eyes are rheumy. He asks for the art section.I always feel guilty when people ask for that section because it's tiny. Maintaining a collection of good books in a shop like mine is a combination of both wanting to sell them (of course) and not wanting

Faith and Logic

2007-09-19T01:58:00.000-05:00

Invisible Pink Unicorns are beings of awesome mystical power. We know this because they manage to be invisible and pink at the same time. Like all religions, the Faith of the Invisible Pink Unicorns is based upon both logic and faith. We have faith that they are pink; we logically know that they are invisible because we can't see them.~ Steve Eley

Information Please

2007-09-14T18:08:00.000-05:00

Via GCFWhen I was quite young, my father had one of the first telephones in our neighborhood. I remember well the polished old case fastened to the wall. The shiny receiver hung on the side of the box. I was too little to reach the telephone, but used to listen with fascination when my mother used to talk to it. Then I discovered that somewhere inside the wonderful device lived an amazing person

Sounds

2007-09-12T19:58:00.000-05:00

Lake District - AngletarnThe sounds of man are constant, unremitting, loud. A cacophonous symphony of decibels, the beating of hammers, the explosion of TV, lawnmowers, processors, cars, trucks, the dull roar of planes. The branches beating against the window.There is a natural noise that emits on a frequency that fulfills the conscience of people. Grass shifting in a breeze, the rustle of

Manufacturing Fame

2007-09-09T16:48:00.000-05:00

If you were in any doubt how much bullshit goes into creating the average 'Pop'-ular music artist (and I use the term 'music' extremely loosely) then this short film clip will put things straight.

My Name Is Daniel

2007-09-04T19:49:00.000-05:00

My name is Daniel.I am a statistic. A demographic. I eat what I am told to eat, because I am told it is good for me. I purchase what I am told to purchase because I am told it will make me feel better. When I pick up my game controller I willingly lose myself in a distraction that will take me away from myself. When I switch on a movie, I am saying ‘entertain me’, extract me from the humdrum,

The Line - Bruce Springsteen

2007-09-01T12:43:00.000-05:00

Beautiful song from one of my favorite albums of all time, 'The Ghost of Tom Joad' which has been covered by the likes of Rage Against the Machine, amongst others.I got my discharge from Fort Irwintook a place on the San Diego county linefelt funny bein' a civilian againit'd been some timemy wife had died a year agoI was still tryin' to find my way back wholewent to work for the INS on the

Making it Real...

2007-08-24T09:22:00.001-05:00

Oh how we know that old cliche, "we enter the world alone, and alone we must leave it". ... What wonderful words these are, devoid of meaning as we say them and as we think them, comforting, distracting, empty.I for one am no closer now than I have ever been to fully understanding that statement. No closer to digesting its actuality, a meaning that were it understood, would at once becomes as

The Life Manual - Ver. 1.0

2007-08-20T16:52:00.000-05:00

1) Wake up.2) Go to work.3) Purchase crap.4) Go to sleep.Repeat until dead.If you have any questions or confusion regarding the manual, consult Instruction #3. That should clear up any problems.

You meet the nicest people in prison

2007-08-19T04:17:00.000-05:00

An insightful and refreshing insight into an old myth. But maybe it's not a myth. Who knows. Make your own mind up. Sooner or later someone you know will end up behind bars. Movies and TV give the whole thing a barbaric perspective. But what this guys says makes sense somehow. Anyhow... I wanted to share this.YOU MEET THE NICEST PEOPLE IN PRISONWhy You Probably Won’t Get Stabbed or Raped if You

Both Sides

2007-08-16T12:08:00.000-05:00

Thank you

2007-08-15T11:53:00.001-05:00

101 Posts... 3427 hits... And a buttload of commments.Thank you! Keep checking back.

What matters...

2007-08-11T15:34:00.000-05:00

A story a customer told me:A middle aged man named Joe worked for a nunnery as a janitor, and had worked there for 25 years. He did his job to perfection, everything was always clean and tidy, in working order. He was never late, never messed up. Perfect employee.The policy of the church changed for it's un-ordained employees (or it might have been state or city policy, I can't remember which),

Cartoons of Dan Piraro

2007-08-11T14:17:00.000-05:00

May I recommend the excellent cartoons of Dan Piraro. You can check out his website over here.

Warning - don't mess with a philosopher

2007-08-11T10:10:00.000-05:00

via Tibi Cogitate

Ready for Rapture

2007-08-10T21:08:00.000-05:00

via Max Blumenthal.These people walk the streets. They buy groceries where you do. They lobby. They change foreign policy. They practice their belief in public. They decide what you do with your life. But that's fine. They can do whatever they want. Free country right?I don't agree with the lifestyle, but hey, what are you going to to do? All I ask is that they don't do this sort of thing in

Stuff

2007-08-07T15:53:00.000-05:00

From paulgraham.com:...a house full of stuff can be very depressing. A cluttered room saps one's spirits. One reason, obviously, is that there's less room for people in a room full of stuff. But there's more going on than that. I think humans constantly scan their environment to build a mental model of what's around them. And the harder a scene is to parse, the less energy you have left for

Rattling Windows... Dancing Light -UPDATE

2007-08-07T01:42:00.000-05:00

Gauls! We have nothing to fear; except perhaps that the sky may fall on our heads tomorrow. But as we all know, tomorrow never comes!- Asterix The GaulShe's not happy...It almost seems like the earth is kicking back. A huge thunderstorm has settled and grown over the skies of the city. It's exploding out there as I write. I went outside to watch it, in lieu of sleep, and I'm so glad I did. It

Cartoons

2007-08-06T18:47:00.000-05:00

Below are some simple, yet extremely good cartoons by the Romanian illustrator Dan Perjovschi (website here), as part of his exhibition 'What happened to us' at the New York Museum of Modern Art."(He has) a profound ability to respond to his context, he deploys irony to comment cuttingly on local and global politics, economics, and culture."His drawings are excellent in their simplicity and I'm

10 Reasons why gay marriage should be banned

2007-08-06T17:43:00.000-05:00

via BW.org1. Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.2. Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.3. Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal

INGSOC

2007-08-03T14:40:00.000-05:00

Saw this today whilst in Walmart:Seem familiar?I could feel the patriotism seeping into my bones as I drank it......Victory to the Party! Ignorance is strength!

The End

2007-08-01T11:22:00.000-05:00

I've found the end of the internet.And it's here.

Short Story

2007-07-26T19:09:00.001-05:00

Only a Flyby Shem------------I'm outside on a deck chair. The sunlight seems to lethargically drift through the swaying branches above my head and scatters across the lawn. A beautiful breeze moves gently across my face like someone pulling a length of silk cloth over me.A fruit fly drops from it's little flight path and alights perfectly on my arm. Turns once, then again, a full one-eighty. Its

Politically correct...

2007-07-25T17:46:00.000-05:00

The GOP National Committee announced today that it is changing the Republican emblem from an elephant to a condom because it more clearly reflects the Party's political stance: A condom stands up to inflation, halts production, destroys the next generation, protects a bunch of pr***s, and gives one a sense of security while screwing others.I'm sorry for the pointless partisanship, I guess this

Illegal Immigrants we are all

2007-07-18T13:59:00.000-05:00

Two comics in one day... I spoil you all, really I do.

...until it's too late

2007-07-18T13:38:00.000-05:00

From: News From Babylon