My so called life*

“Few people still admire Lenin and Stalin. Mao Zedong also has few remaining fans in the West (though he still hasn’t gotten the negative recognition he deserves for being possibly history’s greatest mass murderer). One communist icon, however, still has staying power: Che Guevara. Go to any college campus or hip hangout and you’ll find no shortage of Che T-shirts, Che posters, and even Che cell phone messages. The truth, however, is that Che was no less a brutal killer than other communist leaders. If he failed to rise to the same ”heights“ as Lenin or Mao, it was largely for lack of opportunity.”

http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2007_08_05-2007_08_11.shtml#1186849063
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2007_08_05-2007_08_11.shtml#1186849063
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2007_08_05-2007_08_11.shtml#1186849063

The productive atmosphere of a desk light without the bulk. LEDs in the poster illuminate the printed lamp.

http://finnmagee.com/Flat%20Life.html
http://finnmagee.com/Flat%20Life.html
http://finnmagee.com/Flat%20Life.html

Cris Johnson: “Here is the thing about the future, every time you look at, he changes because you looked at and that changes everything else.”

http://imdb.com/title/tt0435705/
http://imdb.com/title/tt0435705/
http://imdb.com/title/tt0435705/

[…]The defining characteristic of my whatever-you-want-to-call-it is an inability to form and maintain normal human relationships. Romantic, platonic, social, professional, whatever. I have a deep-seated fear of abandonment. I often feel betrayed for no reason. I believe that I am a worthless human being, and consequently doubt that anyone could actually desire my company/love me/enjoy talking to me at a party, et cetera. Out of fear of losing personal bonds, I push people away as a defensive reaction. See, I think they’re just going to abandon me anyway, so fuck ‘em.

I go through periods of uncontrollable rage. That is to say, the rage is uncontrollable. I get angry for no good reason, or at best for a very, very insignificant reason, and it doesn’t go away readily. I’m not dangerous in any meaningful sense, at least not to others. But I can be very difficult to be around.[…]

http://theshapeofdays.com/2007/08/05/how-do-you-put-a-title-on-something-like-this.html
http://theshapeofdays.com/2007/08/05/how-do-you-put-a-title-on-something-like-this.html
http://theshapeofdays.com/2007/08/05/how-do-you-put-a-title-on-something-like-this.html

http://www.abstractstrategy.com/infinite-chess.html
http://www.abstractstrategy.com/infinite-chess.html
http://www.abstractstrategy.com/infinite-chess.html

Word.by.word.

[…]I was only seventeen years old, hardly more than a boy. When Tesla’s eyes went through me, I experienced my first taste of death. That’s closer to what I mean. I felt the taste of mortality in my mouth, and at that moment I understood that I was not going to live forever. It takes a long time to learn that, but when you finally do, everything changes inside you, you can never be the same again. I was seventeen years old, and all of a sudden, without the slighest flicker of a doubt, I understood that my life was my own, that it belonged to me and no one else.

‘I’m talking about freedom, Fogg. A sense of despair that becomes so great, so crushing, so catastrophic, that you have no choice but to be liberated by it. That’s the only choice, or else you crawl into a corner and die. Tesla gave me my death, and at that moment I knew that I was going to become a painter. That’s what I wanted, but until then I hadn’t had the balls to admit it.[…]

Word.

“The things that fascinate you about your life are almost always banal to strangers. Strangers want to read about their lives, not yours. And guess what? The same thing is true about prospects and customers and just about anything you can imagine marketing.”

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/07/empathy.html
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/07/empathy.html
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/07/empathy.html

“We understand the impact we provide through the sale of band related music and merchandise. Our goal goes way beyond financial contributions. Most celebrities want to help but don’t know how to make the biggest impact. It costs nothing to give. The Band From TV Global Charity Trust will be a model for other celebrities to organize and mobilize in a creative way. Our vision is to bring other celebrities in as guest musicians, support their charities, and in turn, open up our network to everyone. And for those celebrities not musically inclined, there is always a tambourine standing by.”

http://www.myspace.com/bandfromtv
http://www.myspace.com/bandfromtv
http://www.myspace.com/bandfromtv

The picture:

And the advice:

1. Wear a burqa (ideally for a NATO visit). Wear nothing.
2. Focus on the positive reinforcement and the ones that matter.
3. Stop trying. Think about smaller, cooler groups.
4. Remember the people you are gonna outlast for sure.
5. Don’t try to be like Grace Kelly, all her looks were too sad.