December 2009
26 posts
“I had spent the weekend alone in the house with 52 close friends and a couple of...”
– Early line from early draft of some early fiction that was written in early 2001.
“He was one of God’s own prototypes: a high-powered mutant never even...”
– Hunter S. Thompson/Fear et Loathing in LV. Also: Why I probably wouldn’t have my former labmate’s babies.
Reminder to backup files.
After spending a couple hours scanning (8 or 9 year old) cell biology notes with no specific memory of having taken the class, I nearly dropped my laptop and in a flash, I remembered: it was in Warren Hall; there was a vending machine with apples in it across the hall; work packets were left in the back of the auditorium; I was regularly late; there was a door to the outside where the snow was...
“And, when we make these sorts of connections through art — and we each have at...”
– The voice of Merlin Mann—whether written, per @kungfugrippe and other internet outlets; or spoken, inclusive of both the actual sound of his voice and even character voices— makes me uncomfortable with happiness WAY more often than not.
1 tag
“The great source of both the misery and disorders of human life, seems to arise...”
– Your brain has just been groped by Adam Smith’s invisible hand.
From “The Theory of Moral Sentiments” (1759)
(It’s the originally scheduled moving day. I’m not gonna cry…openly. Especially because I’m still here in California, not moved, waiting for...
“Top of page:
“Good intro.”
Middle of the page:
“This is...”
– I pretty much love the boss annotated first page out of a former colleague’s first draft of a paper that appears to have maybe kind of sort of been modeled after another of his previous publications.
“It is through science that we prove, but through intuition that we discover.”
– Henri Poincare, the circler of all sorts of things.
“If there is anywhere else, I shall be on the look out for you”
– Winston Churchill—I guess I’ll see you next lifetime.
“Discontent is the first necessity of progress.”
– The Inflammable Edison
“Happy holidays to you and the lab and your family, [former boss]!
I hope this...”
– From copy of seasonal greetings from Berkeley to Ithaca, Winter 2002.
“I don’t believe in total freedom for the artist. Left on his own, free to do...”
– Fellini, the most constrained of pastas.
1 tag
“The master of the art of living makes little distinction between his work and...”
– Lao-Tzu MFA, as recommended to me by Lisa Simpson.
QUIDQUID LATINE DICTUM SIT, ALTUM VIDETUR.
“I smell like yesterday.”
– Notation from study guide edits of 2/27/2006.
“You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside,...”
– Francis Church on Scanning Electron Microscopy the Existance of Santa
Message in a bottle
I have yet to hit “follow” on any tumbleblogs here because I am terrified of creating another set of RSS feeds for myself to deal with, especially given that I spent the last 4 months scaling down on a bad (at peak, 320 feeds, processed to “zero new” semiweekly) bloglines habit. *(Edited, see footnote.) Grad school was a great environment for constantly...
“Of all the attributes of living things the one that most fascinates me is the...”
– —Julius Adler can write a pretty solid opening. (from “The Sensing of Chemicals by Bacteria”)
(It had me at “irritability”)
1 tag
“Oh, how could I possibly admit an infirmity in the one sense which ought to be...”
– Beethoven—and why you should tell your children they are hard workers instead of praising their innate talents, even if they have them in spades.
“All you need, now, to be permanently beyond the reach of want, is one more...”
– Twain understood. This is the very essence of platonic love and the kind of sentiment that lasts. I even second-order love the feeling of wanting to be better, gentler, higher principled, more affectionate, and loyal. Cripes.
“Wouldn’t go so far as to say that not saying ‘I love you’ is a...”
– No relation to book: Hodgman was told his work was loved.
(Some are only “competent” when it matters. Sad but true.)
WatchGeneral Veers’s falsetto could really go for some General Tso’s Chicken.
…you were a bloodthirsty foe, but your chicken is delectable!
