The Age of Vulnerability

12.1.10

Sending this out early because it's just that good: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UoMXF73j0c&feature=related

Or this : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4Qm9cGRub0 

Same woman, similar topics, both very interesting. It all comes down to vulnerability. Which ties in wonderfully to N8's suggestion - to fail is to be vulnerable.

Have a great week of failures!

Lists, lists, lists

11.30.10

I was first drawn to this article because of the tagline "we like lists because we don't want to die."

I was further drawn in by this statement: "The list is the origin of culture. It's part of the history of art and literature. What does culture want? To make infinity comprehensible. It also wants to create order — not always, but often. And how, as a human being, does one face infinity? How does one attempt to grasp the incomprehensible? Through lists, through catalogs, through collections in museums and through encyclopedias and dictionaries. There is an allure to enumerating how many women Don Giovanni slept with: It was 2,063, at least according to Mozart's librettist, Lorenzo da Ponte. "

I was finally attached to the interview based on this final word: "If you interact with things in your life, everything is constantly changing. And if nothing changes, you're an idiot."

Today I will be making a pro/con list about the virtues (or non-virtues) of lists....and probably failing at this. 

To Fail is to Live

11.29.10

"the plain fact is that the planet does not need more successful people. but is does desperately need more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of every kind. it needs people who live well in their places. it needs people of moral courage willing to join the fight to make the world more habitable and humane. and these qualities have little to do with success as our culture defined it."

-David Orr

I love this quote, and furthermore I'm wondering if we need to not be successful but rather failures.  I think there is great wisdom gained through failure.  Failure is humbling, failure makes you grateful for what you do have, failure can teach you far more than success.  What if religion was more based in failure than success?  Wouldn't the world be a better place if we weren't so caught up in trying to succeed at bringing everyone over to our "right" opinion and understanding of the world? 

Boogie Down

11.28.10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OLUKaqmlYQ

my inspiration for the day...

i wanna put on my my my my my boogie shoes.

Falling in love with Humanity

11.25.10

First, an explanation:
In my online Religion and Anthropology last week one forum was entirely devoted to posting some of our favorite quotes (we read a book about the use and important of words).   But here is the twist: we were asked to post quotes not from famous people, but from people we know. 

People always give me a hard time about all the stories from Guatemala that I share, but the fact is that the month I spent there was incredible.   The main reason was the people on that trip.  Hence I give you two quotes that I wrote in my journal that come from two of my friends from my time in Guatemala: 

"When I think about all the problems in the world I simultaneously feel so small and yet so important." 

         - Janne , my friend from college, certainly one of the smartest people I know.  

"Service Trips are all about falling in love with Humanity." 

        - David, another friend from college.  He was also on the Guatemala trip to Guatemala.  During that month long trip we spent a lot of time examining what we were doing there and the purpose of it all, David's words provided many of us with the best lens for understanding our purpose during our time at the orphanage. 

God's Debris

11.23.10

This is an excerpt from "God's Debris" by Scott Adams (though this is NOT anything Dilbert related). So far, I can't say I agree with a whole lot of the ideas proposed in the book, but I like this conversation about "ranking" and "importance," and I do feel that we should recognize the arbitrariness of the way we rank things. 

“To a God not bound by the limits of human practicality,

every tiny part of your body would be as action-packed

and meaningful as the parts of any rock or tree or bug. And

the sum of your parts that form the personality and life we

find so special and amazing would seem neither special nor

amazing to an omnipotent being.

“It is absurd to define God as omnipotent and then burden

him with our own myopic view of the significance of

human beings. What could possibly be interesting or important

to a God that knows everything, can create anything,

can destroy anything. The concept of ‘importance’ is a

human one born out of our need to make choices for survival.

An omnipotent being has no need to rank things. To

God, nothing in the universe would be more interesting,

more worthy, more useful, more threatening, or more

important than anything else.”

“I still think people are more important to God than animals

and plants and dirt. I think that’s obvious,” I argued.

“What is more important to a car, the steering wheel or

the engine?” he asked.

 “The engine is more important because without an

engine, there is no reason to steer,” I reasoned.

“But unless you have both the engine and the steering

wheel, the car is useless, isn’t it?” he asked.

“Well, yes. I guess that’s true,” I admitted.

“The steering wheel and the engine are of equal importance.

It is a human impulse—composed of equal parts arrogance

and instinct—to believe we can rank everything in

our environment. Importance is not an intrinsic quality of

the universe. It exists only in our delusion-filled minds. I

can assure you that humans are not in any form or fashion

more important than rocks or steering wheels or engines.”

Save Humanity(ies)

11.21.10

Perhaps not so inspirational, but thought-provoking, none the less. Below is an open letter to the President of SUNY Albany, in response to his decision to eliminate about half of their humanities programs (this was published in Genome Biology, no less). Personally, I think this is outrageous and indicative of a larger issue that our nation is facing. My own alma mater decided to eliminate the classics program this year, over which I am pretty incensed. 

http://genomebiology.com/2010/11/10/138 

Hark! How do I hear?

11.20.10

Yesterday on NPR science fridays they played this segment about how music works in our ears: http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/201011192

mish mash

11.19.10

So Pclub is our outlet for inspiration, right?  Well the next time someone tells you that Buffalo is a lame place to be you can blow their mind with this...

One more thing.  I wrote this haiku for y'all:

p club is so rad

i wait for it everyday

my inspiration

PS  Sorry but I lied about that being the last thing.  I want to do this.

Do you see the farm?

11.18.10

Potentially over the top, but thought-provoking nonetheless:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbp6umQT58A

"To see the farm is to leave it."

Do you see the farm? 

Coolness is having courage...

11.15.10

Hope Lives!

As some of you may know, the one thing that typically destroys all hope that I hold whenever it has the chance, is "the internet message board." But just the other day, I found the most awesome message board comment that I have ever read. And so, as before, hope lives.

"Comfy in Nautica" is one of my favorite songs, I have listened to this song in my darkest hour. I have fist pumped my way through fear with the help of this song. I have sung this song out of tune without a care in the world. This song is, epic. 

Coolness is having courage

Courage to do what's right

Try to remember always

Just to have a good time

Anthem for life. 

The message board commenter of my dreams described this song as such: 

"This song makes me think of all of us who mean anything to the world marching triumphantly towards the apocalypse. Happily."

There is so much about this quote that I love. Hope lives.

Sharing is Caring

11.14.10

An awesome file-sharing idea: http://deaddrops.com/

[ a dictation ]

11.12.10

Friends, a dictation (like in english class):

Oh, snail

Climb Mt. Fuji,

But slowly, slowly!

-Issa

[from Franny & Zooey]

Bhagavad Gita

11.11.10

The quote is a small part of Krishna's speech explaining...life, essentially, to his student Arjuna, who is about to go into battle. He says:

"When the senses contact sense objects, a person experiences cold or heat, pleasure or pain. These experiences are fleeting; they come and go. Bear them patiently, Arjuna. Those who are unaffected by these changes, who are the same in pleasure and pain, are truly wise and fit for immortality. Assert your strength and realize this!"

Old school

11.9.10

This article doesn't necessarily tell us something we don't already know or suspect. And it really is just one guy's opinion, rather than fact. However, I like the idea that he is coming right out and saying that writing old school style (with pen and paper) leads to more creativity than writing on your technological item of choice. You know what they say, you can't really do new school until you do old school...

http://lifehacker.com/5684918/a-defense-of-writing-longhand

So, my contribution this week is an interesting article, and an inspiration perhaps to take a little extra time this week to do some old-fashioned writing. If I had planned this out 4-5 days ago, I could have coordinated a mass mailing through the postal system. Dang, wish I had come up with that idea earlier. 

Two more great things

11.8.10

First, a quote for 2010 (I know it's almost over but I just stumbled across the quote)

"Motto for 2010. Be led by your dreams, not pushed away by your problems"

     --Shaquille Oneal

Second, a picture I took one night at St. Olaf. I think sunsets are very inspiring. 

Two great things

11.7.10

Two things that were suggested to me this week that I am passing on to you all:

Zoe Keating (new favorite): http://www.myspace.com/zoecello

Bit-sized philosophy, brought to you by your very own NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/01/opinion/20101101_Stone_Profile.html

It's too soon for this...

11.5

I used to play this when I wanted to didn't want to do work.  

It's really fun and hopefully we'll see some of these soon!  

I'm crossing my fingers!

A character

11.4

Lawrence Anderson never forgot January 3^rd, 1963. The year his baby girl, Prudence was born. He had such a god-awful memory (could have been the drugs), but that entire day was permanently imprinted into his skull. That and the time his friend Scott in 4^th grade pulled his pants down in front of Scott’s older sister, who Lawrence was terribly in love with. Lawrence spent most of his adult life working as an usher, lobby attendant and ticket taker, among other things, at the historic Stadium Theater in Woonsocket, Rhode Island.

In 1969, Lawrence died at the Woodstock Music Festival for reasons undocumented. Lawrence wrote several articles for the local Woonsocket paper that were crank bits (much like the now popular fake periodical, the Onion) done from the perspective of a 1920’s vaudville producer aimed at the woes of modern politics and social issues. Those articles, and his daughter Prudence, live on in his memory.

Pronoia

11.3.10

Remember Rob Brezsny, friends, the master of the horoscopes and inspiration for scopes mail? Well, he has written a book. Which, I don't know about you, but I'm dying to read now that I know it exists. It is called PRONOIA and the description posted on his website is below. (If you don't have time to read all of this - it's a lot - read at least the first 6 mini-paragraphs. It's worth it.) There's also more on his site if you're interested: http://www.freewillastrology.com/ 


DEFINITION: Pronoia is the antidote for paranoia. It's the understanding that the universe is fundamentally friendly. It's a mode of training your senses and intellect so you're able to perceive the fact that life always gives you exactly what you need, exactly when you need it.

OBJECTIVE OF PRONOIA: To explore the secrets of becoming a wildly disciplined, fiercely tender, ironically sincere, scrupulously curious, aggressively sensitive, blasphemously reverent, lyrically logical, lustfully compassionate Master of Rowdy Bliss.

HYPOTHESES: Evil is boring. Cynicism is idiotic. Fear is a bad habit. Despair is lazy. Joy is fascinating. Love is an act of heroic genius. Pleasure is your birthright. Receptivity is a superpower.

PROCEDURE: Act as if the universe is a prodigious miracle created for your amusement and illumination. Assume that secret helpers are working behind the scenes to assist you in turning into the gorgeous masterpiece you were born to be. Join the conspiracy to shower all of creation with blessings.

GUIDING QUESTION: "The secret of life," said sculptor Henry Moore to poet Donald Hall, "is to have a task, something you devote your entire life to, something you bring everything to, every minute of the day for your whole life. And the most important thing is -- it must be something you cannot possibly do." What is that task for you?

UNDIGNIFIED MEDITATIONS TO KEEP YOU HONEST: Brag about what you can't do and don't have. Confess profound secrets to people who aren't particularly interested. Pray for the success of your enemies while you're making love. Change your name every day for a thousand days.

MYTHIC ROLE MODELS: Prometheus and Pronoia. In Greek mythology, Pronoia was the consort of Prometheus, the divine rebel who pilfered a glowing coal from his fellow gods so that he could slip the gift of fire to humans.

TOP-SECRET ALLIES: Sacred janitors, benevolent pranksters, apathy debunkers, lyrical logicians, ethical outlaws, aspiring masters of curiosity, homeless millionaires, humble megalomaniacs, hedonistic midwives, lunatic saints, sly optimists, mystical scientists, dissident bodhisattvas, macho feminists, and socialist libertarians who possess inside information about the big bang.

DAILY PRACTICE: Push hard to get better, become smarter, grow your devotion to the truth, fuel your commitment to beauty, refine your emotional intelligence, hone your dreams, negotiate with your shadow, cure your ignorance, shed your pettiness, heighten your drive to look for the best in people, and soften your heart -- even as you always accept yourself for exactly who you are with all of your so-called imperfections.

POSSIBLE REWARDS: You will be able to claim the rewards promised you at the beginning of time -- not just any old beauty, wisdom, goodness, love, freedom, and justice, but rather: exhilarating beauty that incites you to be true to yourself; crazy wisdom that immunizes you against the temptation to believe your ideals are ultimate truths; outrageous goodness that inspires you to experiment with irrepressible empathy; generous freedom that keeps you alert for opportunities to share your wealth; insurrectionary love that endlessly transforms you; and a lust for justice that's leavened with a knack for comedy, keeping you honest as you work humbly to liberate everyone in the world from ignorance and suffering.

USAGE NOTE: We employ the adjectival form "pronoiac" rather than "pronoid." That way, it rhymes with "aphrodisiac" and resonates with "paradisiacal" instead of being conditioned by "paranoid."

DISCLAIMER: Material in this book may be too intense and controversial for some readers. It contains graphic scenes of peace, love, joy, passion, reverence, splendor, and understanding. You will not find any references to harsh, buzzing fluorescent lights in a cheap hotel room where a heroin dealer plots to get revenge against the authorities at his old high school by releasing sarin gas into the teachers' lounge. There are no reports of Nazi skinheads obsessed with re-creating the 14th-century Tartars' war strategy of catapulting plague-ridden corpses into an enemy's citadel.

Completely absent from these pages are any stories about a psychotic CEO of a Fortune 500 company who has intentionally disfigured his face to help him elude the CIA, which wants to arrest him for the treasonous sale of his company's nanotech weapons technology to the Chinese. You should therefore proceed with caution if you are a jaded hipster who is suspicious of feeling healthy and happy. Ask yourself: "Am I ready to stop equating cynicism with insight? Do I dare take the risk that exposing myself to uplifting entertainment might dull my intelligence?" If you doubt your ability to handle relaxing breakthroughs, you should stop reading now.

"We either make ourselves 

miserable or we make 

ourselves happy. The amount 

of work is the same.“

  -Carlos Castaneda

Dilbert

11.2.10

Towards the end of my last job, I found out that my boss had the Dilbert comic strip emailed to him daily. He would randomly laugh about one, and occasionally forward them to me when "they reminded him of me." 

I started getting them emailed to myself, in an effort to stay one step ahead. 

In any event, this isn't inspirational, I just thought it was funny. It's my favorite Dilbert comic from the last month or so.

I think I might go into marketing...

Bonus shot monday

11.1 - part deux

During First Semester of Junior Year I had a coffee pot that had an alarm so it would start brewing automatically in the morning.  I also had a CD player alarm clock, so I could wake up to music.  I also had a roommate that had a 9am class, just like me.  

So, every night that semester I would get the coffee pot ready for brewing, and I'd put a very specific CD into the player.  Then my roommate and I would watch an episode of the O.C. and go to bed.  

The next morning the coffee would start brewing at about 8:27, and then this song would begin playing at 8:30.  My roommate was in the St. Olaf A Capella group, and would usually begin singing from the top bunk mid way through the song, and by the time "Good Day" had ended, our coffee would be ready.  

For an entire semester, this was our routine.  It was the best semester of college.  I hope you can all appreciate the world's greatest wake up song:  "Good Day" by Click Five.

You heard it hear third

11.1

Perhaps you know it from Nelson Mandela's inauguration speech in 1994.  Or perhaps you heard it from Samuel L Jackson in the movie Coach Carter.  Whatever the scenario, it's a great quote:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” 

             - Marianne Williamson

Isolation was somebody else's bad idea

10.30

From Off the Map

"This is what it means to be an adventurer in our day: to give up creature comforts of the mind, to realize the possibilities of imagination. Because everything around us says no you cannot do this, you cannot live without that, nothing is useful unless it's in service to money, to gain, to stability. The adventurer gives in to tides of chaos, trusts the world to support her - and in doing so turns her back on the fear and obedience she has been taught. She rejects the indoctrination of impossibility."

Wow

10.29

Have you seen this before?  Yes, he's holding his breath for the entire time.

If you've already seen that, this next part goes out to you.  Pretty appropriate for the season...