Thanks for the recommendations, Facebook. If that ain’t a recipe for a good time, I don’t know what is.
On top of all the other reasons the right hates Obama, there is also the fact that he is smarter than they are and he knows exactly what they are up to.
—
That Obama Feller Knew What He Was Talking About (via wilwheaton)
“I mention this mainly because of the apposite pairing. We have two men who now sit atop two of the three branches of the government. They both laid down markers seven years ago on how one of those men was likely to perform once in office. One of the predictions seems a lot more prescient than the other.”
What an astonishing thing a book is. It’s a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you’re inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic.
—CARL SAGAN (via Advice to Writers)
(Source: kadrey)
At the risk of sounding like a depressed-emo Livejournal post
…wait, are emo and livejournal still around?
Anyhoo. I’ve been thinking I have a problem of not being understood. You know, like the hypothetical-stereotypical depressed emo kid on livejournal? I guess?
I have trouble understanding other people. See, the thing is, I’m pretty good at thinking outside the box. So good, in fact, that I have trouble thinking inside the box. Sometimes, some very basic things, that are obvious to everyone else, go flying over my head, while I’m busy seeing around corners and coming up with interesting new possibilities.
And the flipside of that is that most people don’t seem to get me. I wrote a book that landed a lot of 1-star reviews on Amazon before I pulled it. And the gist of the reviews were, it wasn’t a 1-star because the writing was bad or that I hadn’t any talent. It was a 1-star because it was so strange, bizarre, and random. I suppose I made the mistake of taking the “write what you know” and “write for yourself and you’ll find your audience” advice to heart. Oh, don’t get me wrong, it hasn’t put me off writing, I’ll just (sadly) try to be a little more… conventional?… the next time around.
This tumblr thing is another great example. Most tumblrs I’ve seen don’t seem to have trouble netting a lot of followers in a short period of time. After well over a year of posting my thoughts and reblogging other stuff interesting to me, I have exactly a dozen followers. And I’m not even sure who any of them are or why they followed me. If they’re enjoying my tumblr, that’s great! Unfortunately they are in the vast, vast minority. Hell, I got more feedback reposting stupid pictures on my Pinterest the first week I had it, than I have ever, ever received via Tumblr.
I’m not really sure where I’m going with this. I don’t really care too much about people on the internet not getting me. My bigger problem is that people in the real world don’t get me much, and don’t care to have much to do with me, to the point where my social life has gradually evaporated into nothingness over the last 10 years. So all I’m left with is the internet, and trying to find an audience, I suppose. In the meantime I’ll continue flailing about in the real world, in a sad attempt to make some new friends and/or find a love interest, but that just seems to go worse and worse every year.
Anyway, there’s not really any point to this except that I felt like venting. Thanks for sticking with this and reading it all the way through, hypothetical person that stumbled across this for some reason and then read it. You’re the cat’s pajamas! Also, the bee’s knees.
So congratulations, North Carolina. Last night, you struck a decisive blow for loneliness. And tonight, as you go to sleep beside your heterosexual life mate, you can rest assured that all across your great state, a gay man or lesbian woman is crying themselves to sleep in solitude and making your relationship stronger with each tear.
—STEPHEN COLBERT, The Colbert Report (via inothernews)
So another state has banned gay marriage.
Now, it’s obvious to pretty much everyone that this is nothing more than prejudice and hate being enshrined in law. But, of course, the people pushing to oppress the gay community will scoff at this, and claim “What? But gay marriage is against my religion! This is religious freedom!!”
Well, here’s an honest, straightforward question to all married folks who think gay marriage should be banned on account of religious freedom: if I were to point out to you that your marriage is against my religion, would you go out and annul it?
…didn’t think so, hypocrite.
Yes, that’s right, I know. Yours are the only beliefs that matter, everyone else can suck it. Right?
“But wait!” you yell, thinking to have caught me in a trap. “You’ve said before you’re agnostic, or even an atheist! This is a false premise because you don’t believe in my religion!”
That’s right. That doesn’t mean that I’m without religion. You see, my religion is kindness. My religion is understanding. My religion is fairness. My religion is basic human goddamn decency. These are the things that I believe in. These are the principles I feel should be guiding the universe, even if the vast majority of mankind ignores them completely whenever it suits them (myself included, from time to time. I’m not perfect.)
If you’re truly worried that your religion is at stake, that your beliefs are in danger, why not try this: spend more time with your God. Talk to your God, pray to your God, do good works in the name of your God, whatever brings you closer. But if you truly believe that oppressing people who are slightly different than you is the way to strengthen your religion or do good works, then I’ve got news for you: Oppression is wrong. End of story.
Every once and a while, I forget myself and start thinking that I live in the land of the free, where all men are created equal and have the inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Well thank god this whole “banning gay marriage” thing keeps popping up to remind me how pathetic and naive I’m being.
So, congratulations North Carolina on becoming the latest state to punch basic human decency in the face. We’re all “really” “proud” of you.
