January 2012
1 post
Dead Gallop
Dead Gallop by Pablo Neruda
There is one line that I repeat inside my mouth, “From where, to where, on what shore?”
It’s not just that it is so catchy. “From where, to where, on what shore?”
It’s inviting. It’s also frustrated - an exasperated sigh.
The famous, immortalized Pablo Neruda. I hadn’t heard of him until a good friend of mine gave me a...
October 2011
1 post
Voting
A third of us can’t be bothered to use the votes Libyans are dying for.
From IntelLife
April 2011
2 posts
What We're Not Seeing →
There are many people who look as photography as a means of artistic expression. I would agree. Then there are those who use photographs to portray something that cannot be read or heard. It has to be captured.
This past weekend, a movie about the Bang Bang Club just came out. It’s supposed to portray the lives of four photo-journalists who have risked their lives to show you and me...
Let's all pay 0% taxes!! →
Last year, Bank of America, Chevron, and Massey Energy managed to pay 0% taxes. This year, Congress proposes $38billion in budget cuts. If these multi-billion dollar corporations had paid their taxes, we would have an extra $68billion. Let’s not kid ourselves and think that letting them “save” the 35% created more jobs or boosted the economy - because it didn’t. While the...
February 2011
2 posts
Amazing Useless Facts
A rat can last longer without water than a camel.
Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks or it will digest itself.
The dot over the letter “i” is called a tittle.
A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top.
A female ferret will die if it goes into heat and cannot find a...
The Numbers On Your Credit Card
Budget Planner Software - Mint.com
January 2011
3 posts
Soul Therapy
“Don’t ever discount the wonder of your tears. They can be healing waters and a stream of joy. Sometimes they are the best words the heart can speak.” William P. Young
A lot of people know that I am a cry baby; in fact, I admit that I wear my heart on my sleeve. However, I concur with Mr. William P. Young when he says that tears can be wonderful. Although they can represent the anguish and...
don't be fat! →
inspiration! plus - i didn’t know that food could stay in your digestive track like that.
writing and laughing →
Two things I want to do more of this year.
“If you want to make an audience laugh, you dress a man up like an old lady and push her down the stairs. If you want to make comedy writers laugh, you push an actual old lady down the stairs.” - Tina Fey
“They got a character on [‘Sesame Street’] named Oscar, they treat this guy like shit the entire show. They judge him...
November 2010
1 post
When our taxes aren't enough →
What happens when a select few can control our elected government officials like stringed puppets?
Did you know that an insurance lobby contributed $82 million so that the health care bill wouldn’t pass? Is that all that the health of our country is valued?
The political formula seems simple enough: get elected + do some good = get re-elected BUT when you add in raise lots of money then...
October 2010
15 posts
“Poetry is the flower of associational thinking”
– Robin Blaser
melt my heart of stone →
I’ll anecdote one story.
This girl, Maggie Doyne, is a bright high school senior - great grades, varsity athlete - decides to take a gap year. Travels to Nepal, meets a girl, hikes three days to get to her village - decides to stay in this village because the main form of recreation for the children there is chipping away at rocks near a river.
So she takes the $5,000 she raised...
young me//now me →
People post up older pictures of them when they were young, and newer pictures of them now.
It’s really entertaining! trust me!
cheaper than bartending school →
America 1925 -> 1950 →
This is what people in 1925 thought 1950 would look like.
that was easy →
Walk into Cartier. Ask to see the most expensive ring (est. $700,000). Walk out with it in your pocket.
End of story.
Mean Duke Students →
So as a Duke basketball aficionado - the minute I heard that Hummel had re-torn his ACL, I immediately did a heh heh - well that sucks for him. Purdue is right behind for the #1 seed for this year and so them losing their best player again is alright with me.
However, I read this article and I realize that I wouldn’t wish this on anyone TWICE. The physical pain with the mental and morale...
2nd day of Nobel Prize week
Have you heard of the first 2-dimensional material GRAPHENE? Yeah - it sounds like graphite and it practically is graphite but it isn’t. This material can be used for faster computers (because that’s what corporations want) and it helps quantum mechanics became more complicated (because that’s what physicists want).
Okay so graphene didn’t win the Nobel Prize in...
First Day of Nobel Prize Week
October 4, 2010
Robert G. Edwards won a Nobel Prize in Medicine today. He was the first man to be successful in in-vitro fertilization. In 1978, Louise Brown was declared the first “test-tube baby”. Since then 4 million other human beings came into being through Dr. Edward’s work.
//on a side note - there are so many ways describing this man’s work could be crudely...
yeesh! people in hong kong hate other people. →
only 1/2
So the Economist tells me that only 50% of all MBA recipients are satisfied with their jobs. Their intended futures did not unfold with their business school commencements.
Considerable.
“His heart beat faster and faster as Daisy’s white face came up to his own....”
– The Great Gatsby
Angela Ahrendts →
So this article is about Angela Ahrendts who is the CEO of Burberry. Yes the fashion company.
I found this to be a particularly good read because this woman worked herself from the very bottom to the top of a 2 billion dollar company. Her favorite moment as Burberry’s CEO is when she got to give the commencement speech at her alma mater because she knew that for 23 minutes she could touch...
September 2010
2 posts
chim chimereee chim chim cheroo
Remember when we used to sing to this song from the Disney movie “Mary Poppins”?
I also remember how I thought that all chimney sweeps were older men (like Bert) and were happy go lucky because they could see the soot mixed with the deep sunset creating something wonderful to sing about.
NOT! Most chimney sweeps were young, homeless boys between the ages of 4-12 who were...
August 2010
2 posts
obama's promises →
so this website has tracked all 500 of the promises obama made during his campaign. it tells you its status - whether it was kept, compromised, stalled, or broken. pretty neat to look at.
even though most of the public seems to think that obama’s not doing anything - this website shows that he’s doing something. let’s stop sensationalizing - get the facts!
July 2010
4 posts
11% and dropping →
okay enough sensationalizing. “anthony weiner blows up”
“anthony weiner loses it”
“anthony weiner rants”
all these tag lines have an inherent tone to it that implies that it was anthony weiner who lost his sensibility and blew things out of proportion. it reminds us of our parents who get angry at us for coming home 10 minutes late - when in reality...
“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who...”
– - Mark Twain
June 2010
25 posts
Sex Trafficking in our nation's capital
From the corner outside my office building in downtown Washington, D.C., you can see three important landmarks. The first is the White House. The second is one of the most luxurious hotels in the city, where presidential candidates often host fundraisers and foreign dignitaries stay when they visit. The third is one of the most notorious corners for prostitution in the city, where children and...
who gives $$ →
i tried to add the picture here, but the quality sucked. but check out the website!!!
quick notes:
- it would take 14 italians to equal 1 american when it comes to charitable donations
- Wal-mart needs to start giving more out to the communities who give them $400 BILLION dollars; they only give 1% so far
- public charities collect more than the american tax system
- the average American...
Imagine China Walker and I singing - awesome...
love deferred
I don’t remember the first time I read this poem, but I think I’ve grown up a little bit since then. It’s wonderful how poetry always grows on you - the opposite way of shoes and clothes.
Plus my roommate China and I realized that we have similar music tastes - look for it on next post.
A Love Deferred What happens to a love deferred Does it hide in a corner Like a...
question
has anyone else read Love in the Time of Cholera? Maybe I was too young when I read it but it was kind of depressing.
?
( . . . ) my mind after looking through all these... →
“To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love.”
– Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen (via fuckyeahliteraryquotes)
one of my favorite books
love - by pablo neruda
There’s something about Pablo Neruda - I am convinced that if he were to write about something as commonplace as milk he would be able to drink in the words as milk were the only thing keeping me alive.
So here is something I stumbled upon today. I don’t know its meaning because I don’t but it speaks something to me because he has a way where his words that seep in and work...
Border Patrol shoots and kills a 14-year old for...
Wow - this is the American idea of security? The United States Border Patrol thinks that they are justified in critically shooting anyone (including children) who are a deadly threat to them.
Let’s first examine the Declaration of Independence. Too much of a digression from this story? I think not - one deals with foreign relations with a country directly tangent to us and the other deals...
Watchgreat video - definitely spreads out for you the costs and benefits of wearing a seatbelt in the most humane way possible
p.s. go to link sorry it won’t embed
YES! Duke connect me to Durham →
free bus from Trent Dr through downtown durham
kind of inconvenient to start from Trent, but it’s better than nothing!
the volunteer's bill of rights
Our generation has grown up being told that giving back and volunteering is a good thing. Some of us derive our satisfaction and purpose from living with a social angle knowing that all of our choices ripple into other people’s lives and therefore we must be smarter and more circumspect with our dollars. Okay - so with this in mind - it is really sad knowing that we don’t hold our...
National Block-Party
I personally don’t know any of my neighbors. Okay - so I know how much their house costs (in comparison to my family’s), I know what kind of cars they drive, who their kids are (if they still live at home), and a rough guess at what their nationality is. However, aside from that I don’t know my neighbors. Therefore, this idea of having a National Night Out - is a good thing.
...