January 2008
27 posts
On the other side of paradise.
--||: Until the end of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, I was alternatively amused and annoyed by his writing...but I enjoyed and appreciated his sentiments--no, as he would say, romantic notions--in his last chapter, The Egotist Becomes a Personage, a lot more than I expected. :||--
Q: Don't you care?
A: Rather. I don't want to commit moral suicide.
Q: Have you no interests left?
A: None. I've no more virtue to lose. Just as a cooling pot gives off heat, so all through youth and adolescence we give off calories of virtue. That's what's called ingenuousness.
Q: An interesting idea.
A: That's why a "good man going wrong" attracts people. They stand around and literally warm themselves at the calories of virtue he gives off. Sarah makes an unsophisticated remark and the faces simper in delight--"How innocent the poor child is!" They're warming themselves at her virtue. But Sarah sees the simper and never makes that remark again. Only she feels a little colder after that.
Q: All your calories gone?
A: All of them. I'm beginning to warm myself at other people's virtue.
Q: Are you corrupt?
A: I think so. I'm not sure. I'm not sure about good and evil at all any more.
Q: Is that a bad sign in it self?
A: Not necessarily.
Q: What would be the test of corruption?
A: Becoming really insincere--calling myself "not such a bad fellow," thinking I regretted my lost youth when I only envy the delights of losing it. Youth is like having a big plate of candy. Sentimentalists think they want to be in the pure simple state they were in before they ate the candy. They don't. They just want the fun of eating it all over again. The matron doesn't want to repeat her girlhood--she wants to repeat her honeymoon. I don't want to repeat my innocence. I want the pleasure of losing it again.
Wasteland - 10 Years
On the lesser evil.
And as odd as it sounds, I’d rather continue to miss our friendship than begin to resent it.
Stop and Stare - OneRepublic You start to wonder...
On a wind-whipping.
We had ferocious wind today. I was struck by an intensely sharp sense of deja vu, all the more unsettling because last night I had written in my handwritten journal about my delayed anxieties towards this coming April. I had class, going from the same building to the same classroom, just one floor above (they all look the same anyhow)…at the same time I did that morning. Hell, I was even...
On limits.
Good thing tumblr sets a limit of one mp3 upload per day, otherwise I’d probably go on a massive music frenzy and upload 5+ songs a day, each day. I’m such a music freak like that! Oh wait, were you expecting to read something more insightful than my utter lack of self-control towards audio uploading? Haha, sucker.
Map of the Problematique - Muse
“Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion. What man...”
– Henry David Thoreau, in Walden
So Contagious - Acceptance Oh no, this...
“The good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain until it is secured...”
– -Jane Addams (founder of Hull House in Chicago and the Settlement Movement in the US)
No Undeserving Poor
“…life span is more influenced by improvements in housing, living standards, and sanitation than by improvements in medical intervention, surgery and acute care.” -Townsend on public-health approaches, 1992.
Put Your Records On - Corinne Bailey Rae Three...
hot chocolate is the loneliest life. →
I love reading mcsweeney’s. amusing schtuff for any occasion.
On Solitude (aim)
Vy: Quick question, what is your #1 source of motivation?
Jo: Myself, and my solitude.
Vy: Solitude?? Hm...
Jo: Yes. My #1 source of inspiration is my mother, cliche but true. Are you prepping for interviews?
Vy: I wish. Good idea, but no. You just managed to punch a huge hole in my blog entry. *punch*
Jo: Hahaha, about what?
Vy: Motivational factors. I'm arguing that people are driven by 1 of 2 things (mainly).
Jo: Oh, ic ic.
Vy: You don't count.
Jo: Well, thanks for denying my existence.
Vy: Done and done. Great. You've dampened my writing mood. THANK YOU... now I can concentrate on work.
Vy (few minutes later): Ooo. I should specify. Long-term motivational factor.
Jo: I'd still give the same answer, you know.
Vy: Solitude?
Jo: Yeah, being with myself...solitude.
Vy: siodjfgosiehwgbdoijwensk
Jo: Just spending time alone for awhile is good for that, lols.
Vy: So being with yourself motivates you...
Jo: To take action, to do what I want, to figure out what I need, etc.
Vy: So... action with yourself.
Jo: Shut up.
“It was the becoming he dreamed of, never the being.”
– This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald (one of the current books I’m reading)
On Infinity.
To live in the moment—I mean to really live in it—you need to know that it is only a moment. And in that single moment where you are allowed to feel utterly exposed and wholly infinite, you will know just how special you are. You know it’s not because there’s no one else like you or because you are indeed like everyone else, but because you feel connected. Whether it’s to yourself, in your...
I wonder if there is such a thing as posting to tumblr too often in one day. Then, I realize why self-impose a limit? Why does it even matter? It shouldn’t. Part of tumblr’s appeal is a way to “log” all my erratic, at most times astonishingly disorganized thoughts into some semblance of order. How can there be “too much” when I’ve only got these few...
Save Tonight - Eagle-Eye Cherry save tonight and...
Incognito
It’s some kind of free to blog without the comments option, it’s what separates tumblr from WP, Blogger, etc. My instant attraction to tumblr is its ultimate minimalism, blogging at its core. But I did miss not having comments…so, we’ll see how this pans out.
Tumblr Comment Hack Installed on Everyday Jo →
Adds a central commenting platform to tumblr. You know you’re curious. Very easy-to-install, sleek, and doesn’t have ads like Haloscan. Click on individual posts to comment in the permalink pages. Thanks to. . 2nd Possible Option: Inline Blog Comments by LineBuzz.com
Glass Booth - Election 2008 →
Be Better Informed. Find out which candidates you most closely align with (or don’t) and why. Quick quiz supported with legit references. Highly recommend a try.
Believe Me - Fort Minor ft. Bobo and Styles of...
“I feel like I just found out my favorite love song was about a sandwich.”
– Katherine Heigl in 27 Dresses (an amusing chick-flick not to be underestimated)
Follow Me - Uncle Kracker you don’t know how...
the laid.back buddhist →
My personal site. Which is updated…”er, regularly” (pronounce: irregularly). Anyhow, due to a busier schedule, I’ve realized that I don’t have time to write full-fledged posts 5-6x a week, like I used to. So, tumblr is my solution. I can do random, short-and-sweet posts…it satisfies my impulsiveness and I won’t feel like I’m jipping my blog...
Hiiiiiii.
I seriously suck at taking self-pics. I’ve become less self-conscious in front of the camera over time due to necessity and through sheer force of will (read: denial). But can you tell how anxious/nervous I am? Picture taken in December 2007.
“Not even thinking about it. Because I was standing in the tunnel. And I was...”
– Charlie in Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (thanks to Kath for the recommendation and for lending me her copy!)