From an interview with Anthony Bourdain, a passage on those beautiful moments and how they feel kind of sucky at the same time: I‚Äôve talked elsewhere about there are times in your life… I‚Äôll use the example of you‚Äôre standing alone in the desert, and you see the most incredible sunset you‚Äôve ever seen and [...]
Category Archives: Life
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Monday, September 22, 2008
It’s been really wonderful to keep an eye on A House by the Park, “a first-hand chronology of the design, planning, and construction of a modern home in Seattle.” I’m not in the market now, nor do I plan to be in the near future, but it’s cool to watch and learn from a safe [...]
≡Noticing… curating… caring
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
This cool dialogue about noticing made me think of three connections. The first one came before I read it. The idea of noticing reminded me of a passage in Anne Fadiman’s book, Ex Libris, that I quoted in my review and will quote again because it’s funny: The proofreading temperament is part of a larger [...]
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Thursday, August 14, 2008
Sculptor Richard Serra gave the 2008 commencement speech at Williams College. I like his comments about thinking, obsession, and play: If it’s not broken, break it. One way of coming to terms with the prevailing language of a cultural orthodoxy is to reject it. It may be necessary to invent tools and methods about which [...]
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Monday, August 11, 2008
I divide this world into two classes—the cruel and the kind; and I think a thousand times more of a kind man than I do of an intelligent man. I think more of kindness than I do of genius, I think more of real, good, human nature in that way—of one who is willing to [...]
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Wednesday, July 30, 2008
A worthy bit from The Disadvantages of an Elite Education: The opportunity not to be rich is one of the greatest opportunities with which young Americans have been blessed. We live in a society that is itself so wealthy that it can afford to provide a decent living to whole classes of people who in [...]
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Monday, July 28, 2008
Innocent people should never talk to the police. Take the 5th. Very good advice from a couple of law school lectures. [via waxy]
≡More bad parking/driving
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
I couldn’t make it up if I tried. I saw this tonight. Only about 30 feet separates this from the worst parking I’ve ever seen incident earlier this year. There must be some sort of psycho-electro-magnetic field in this parking lot that disrupts human motor functions.
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Thursday, July 10, 2008
This fall, I’m thinking about running in the FATS Forty 40-Mile Ultra Trail Run or the Pine Mountain 40-Mile Ultra Trail Run. The most I’ve ever run in one stretch is about 17-18 miles, and that was a couple years ago. I have done day-hikes in the 30-35 mile range several times, though. I figure, [...]
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Wednesday, June 18, 2008
I’m joining the group working up to 100 push-ups over the next few weeks. Seems like a fun arbitrary goal. Should be cool. [via Get Fit Slowly]
≡Things I’ve Learned from Women Who’ve Dumped Me (review: 2/5)
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
I wanted this to be better. It starts off well, introduced by Nick Hornby. With a few exceptions, most of the other 40-something essays in the book didn’t do much for me. Rodney Rothman‘s piece—”I Still Like Jessica”—is probably my favorite. It’s a transcript of an interview with an old sweetheart (hear the interview and [...]
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Monday, June 16, 2008
Drivers of cars with bumper stickers, window decals, personalized license plates and other “territorial markers” not only get mad when someone cuts in their lane or is slow to respond to a changed traffic light, but they are far more likely than those who do not personalize their cars to use their vehicles to express [...]
≡Dallas, TX
Friday, June 13, 2008
The last time I was in Texas I was maybe 1 or 2 or 3 years old. It’s going to be an awesome weekend with friends, without computers.
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Tuesday, June 10, 2008
This bothers me more than it should: The parking meters reduce the walking width of the sidewalk. Without room for two people to pass comfortably, someone gets forced off onto the grass. Thus, long dead streaks of dirt. It’s a car’s world.
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Sunday, June 1, 2008
It is upsetting when we have to conclude that someone is “simply a bastard.” Partly, we are upset because of the initial offense that led us to conclude that. But we are also upset because, as tolerant, educated, broad-minded, empathetic people, we want to have a better explanation. We want to be able to attribute [...]
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Monday, May 19, 2008
“The Birth Clock is a fragile glass object containing a digital clock that is not working; it is designed to help you to come to a decision when you’re stuck at a specific point in life. Smash the glass, and the clock will start to work, leaving you with the broken object as a reminder [...]
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Sunday, May 18, 2008
Writers really do die young, especially poets, based on research in The Cost of the Muse [$, or use your library's access]. [via maud newton]
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Sunday, May 18, 2008
“David Rakoff, who swore off TV in college, returns to it in dramatic fashion: he attempts to watch the same amount of television as the average American—29 hours in one week.“
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Thursday, May 15, 2008
Rob Giampietro is blogging via postcard this week. I got my first one this afternoon:
≡PLEASE STOP MOWEING YOUR LAWN SO EARLY
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Today I spent some time sorting through a bunch of old documents, notes, letters, tickets, playbills, etc. I came across an old letter placed in the mailbox back home when I was away at college. A summer of cutting the grass earned me a bad reputation that Dad must have continued into the fall that [...]
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Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Eddie Murphy riffs on wanting McDonald’s food when you were a kid. “I had one of those mothers, no matter what you want, she has the ingredients at home.” It’s Eddie Murphy so, nsfw.
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Friday, April 4, 2008
Eyeglasses and the pushing up thereof, an analysis of optical adjustment techniques. Good commentary from the audience.
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Sunday, March 30, 2008
The Thurber & White send-up on the knee phenomenon: Simply stated, the knee phenomenon is this: occasions arise sometimes when a girl presses her knee, ever so gently, against the knee of the young man she is out with… Often the topic of conversation has something to do with it: the young people, talking along [...]
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