Intervals of Sanity

Finito my darling.

2011-03-12T02:04:00.004-05:00

Ending a blog feels rather strange. I wish that I could create that concluding feeling that comes when closing a wonderfully cathartic book. But instead I'll just publish an ending post and tell you many thanks for following me. I'm sure I'll go stir crazy on my next adventure or become besotted with a photograph of some lovely flower with a snarky subtitle within the week...and then I'll be in need of another universal communication emotion expressing device. So drop me a line at sarahsh89@gmail.com if you'd like me to keep you in mind for my next online adventure, and I shall.

let

2011-03-11T17:19:00.001-05:00

an adventure

2011-03-11T16:58:00.003-05:00

“an adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. an inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.” – g.k. chesterton

amelie

2011-03-10T13:18:00.001-05:00

Space is Cool

2011-03-08T14:45:00.003-05:00

blue whale

2011-03-06T21:46:00.000-05:00

The size of a blue whale's heart

obviously

2011-03-06T20:09:00.001-05:00

life and love

2011-03-06T19:54:00.005-05:00

Life is one fool thing after another whereas love is two fool things after each other.

-Oscar Wilde

wonka words

2011-03-06T19:16:00.003-05:00

behind the scenes

2011-03-06T18:56:00.000-05:00

stories

2011-03-06T18:30:00.000-05:00

Stories were full of hearts broken by love, but what really broke a heart was

taking away its dream — whatever the dream might be.

-Pearl S. Buck

hmm.

2011-03-05T14:18:00.004-05:00

"She was bored. She loved, had capacity to love, for love, to give and accept love. Only she tried twice and failed twice to find somebody not just strong enough to deserve it, earn it, match it, but even brave enough to accept it."

-William Faulkner

it makes me smile

2011-03-05T13:32:00.003-05:00

"Why did you do all this for me?" he asked. "I don't deserve it. I've never done anything for you.' You have been my friend,' replied Charlotte. 'That in itself is a tremendous thing."

-Charlotte's Web

even

2011-03-05T13:16:00.001-05:00

2011-03-04T13:24:00.006-05:00

hits it

2011-03-04T13:10:00.000-05:00

Noah: You're bored Allie. You're bored and you know it. You wouldn't be here if there wasn't something missing.
Allie: You arrogant son of a bitch.
Noah: Would you just stay with me?
Allie: Stay with you? What for? Look at us, we're already fightin'
Noah: Well that's what we do, we fight... You tell me when I am being an arrogant son of a bitch and I tell you when you are a pain in the ass. Which you are, 99% of the time. I'm not afraid to hurt your feelings. You have like a 2 second rebound rate, then you're back doing the next pain-in-the-ass thing.
Allie: So what?
Noah: So it's not gonna be easy. It's gonna be really hard. We're gonna have to work at this every day, but I want to do that because I want you. I want all of you, for ever, you and me, every day. Will you do something for me, please? Just picture your life for me? 30 years from now, 40 years from now? What's it look like? If it's with him, go. Go! I lost you once, I think I can do it again. If I thought that's what you really wanted. But don't you take the easy way out.
Allie:: What easy way? There is no easy way, no matter what I do, somebody gets hurt.
Noah: Would you stop thinking about what everyone wants? Stop thinking about what I want, what he wants, what your parents want. What do YOU want? What do you WANT?

2011-02-27T16:34:00.002-05:00

"Need-love says of a woman, "I cannot live without her"; Gift-love longs to give her happiness, comfort, protection...appreciative love gazes and holds its breath and is silent, rejoices that such a wonder should exist even if not for him, will not be wholly dejected by losing her, would rather have it so than never to have seen her at all."

-C.S. Lewis

jewel tones

2011-02-16T23:24:00.002-05:00

oneday

2011-02-16T23:21:00.000-05:00

"One day, when I am a braver man, I will tell her these things, and then I will look her in the eye tell her I love her and ask her to be only mine. But until that day, we're just friends."

-Charlie Huston

snippet

2011-02-16T23:15:00.001-05:00

2011-02-09T22:06:00.002-05:00

la la la la love

2011-02-09T18:24:00.002-05:00

JIM: Four years ago, I was just a guy who had a crush on a girl who had a boyfriend. And I had to do the hardest thing that I’ve ever had to do, which was just to… wait. Don’t get me wrong, I flirted with her. Pam, I can now admit, in front of friends and family, that I do know how to make a photocopy. Didn’t need your help that many times. And, uh, do you remember how long it took you to teach me how to drive stick?

PAM: Like, a year.

JIM: I’ve been driving stick since high school. For a really long time, that’s all I had. I just had little moments with a girl who saw me as a friend. And a lot of people told me I was crazy to wait this long for a date with a girl who I worked with. But, I think, even then, I knew that… I was waiting for my wife.

l'art

2011-02-09T18:02:00.004-05:00

I had an assignment in my French course to take a virtual tour of a French museum. I chose le musee du Louvre, and must say I found it wonderfully lovely to stroll through the site without other people's heads blocking my view and being free to zoom as much as I wanted. Then using the handy dandy google to find it's meaning or background information. I preferred art about Greek mythology but there is so much history and fiction to be discovered all over. I definitely recommend a trip to Le Louvre if you have a minute.

This is an image of Canova's 'Cupid and Psyche' taken from the Louvre Museum in Paris. I absolutely adore this, and I mean it's in the spirit of Valentine's day.

and to add a taste of bitterness, a portrait of Psyche after Cupid breaks her heart. I think the sadness in her eyes is captured so beautifully.

Their story:

Once upon a time there was a king with three daughters. They were all beautiful, but by far the most beautiful was the youngest, Psyche. She was so beautiful that people began to neglect the worship of Venus, the goddess of love and beauty. Venus was very jealous, and asked her son Cupid (the boy with the arrows) to make Psyche fall in love with a horrible monster. When he saw how beautiful she was, Cupid dropped the arrow meant for her and pricked himself, and fell in love with her.

Despite her great beauty no-one wanted to marry Psyche. Her parents consulted an oracle, and were told that she was destined to marry a monster, and they were to take her to the top of a mountain and leave her there. The west wind took her and wafted her away to a palace, where she was waited on by invisible servants. When night came her new husband visited her, and told her that he would always visit her by night and she must never try to see him.

Although her invisible husband was kind and gentle with her, and the invisible servants attended to her every desire, Psyche grew homesick. She persuaded her husband to allow her sisters to visit her. When they saw how she lived they became very jealous and talked Psyche into peeking at her husband, saying that he was a monster who was fattening her up to be eaten and that her only chance of safety was to kill him. Psyche took a lamp and a knife, but when she saw her beautiful husband, Cupid, she was so surprised she dripped some hot wax onto his shoulder, waking him. He took in the situation at a glance and immediately left Psyche and the magnificent palace she had been living in disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Psyche roamed about looking for her husband, and eventually in desperation approached his mother, Venus. Still angry, the goddess set various tasks for Psyche, all of which she passed, with a bit of help from ants and river gods. At last Cupid found out what was going on, and he persuaded Jupiter to order Venus to stop her persecution of Psyche. Then they were married and lived happily ever after - and it really was ever after since Psyche was made a goddess.

you'll see

2011-02-09T17:51:00.001-05:00

The Butterfly Circus

2011-02-06T16:01:00.002-05:00

absolutely beautiful. i couldn't help but tear up

past

2011-02-06T15:09:00.003-05:00

A Very Long Engagement

2011-02-06T02:26:00.001-05:00

"Mathilde leans back against her chair, folds her hands in her lap, and looks at him. In the sweetness of the air, in the light of the garden, Mathilde looks at him. She looks at him... She looks at him... "

depths

2011-02-06T01:25:00.003-05:00

She had the perpetual sense, as she watched the taxi cabs, of being out, out, far out to sea and alone; she always had the feeling that it was very, very, dangerous to live even one day.

-Virginia Woolf

and i said...

2011-02-06T01:20:00.008-05:00

"There was a star riding through clouds one night, and I said to the star, 'Consume me'."

-Virginia Woolf

2011-02-05T23:48:00.001-05:00

"baby i just want to dance, i don't really care"

-Rihanna

"We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once."
-Nietzsche

The Great Ones

2011-01-31T18:10:00.002-05:00

Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly and Marilyn Monroe

~Glamour, Sophistication, Class, Panache, Elegance~

"Maybe i would become a mermaid... i would live in the swirling blue-green currents, doing exotic underwater dances for the fish, kissed by sea anemones, caressed by seaweed shawls. I would have a dolphin friend. He would have merry eyes and thick flesh of a god. My fingernails would be tiny shells and my skin would be like jade with light shining through it I would never have to come back up"

-Francesca Lia Block

"I like my money right where I can see it…hanging in my closet"
-Candace Bushnell, Sex and the City

"Sometimes, she reflected, she dressed for courage, sometimes for success, and sometimes for the consolation of knowing that whatever else went wrong, at least she liked her clothes."
-Emma Bull

oh the view from a good book

2011-01-31T17:25:00.001-05:00

edible

2011-01-31T16:42:00.004-05:00

If.

2011-01-29T03:30:00.000-05:00

As I'm about to graduate this semester and am lost trying to figure out what to do with myself, I found that this question is a brilliant measurement of whether you're headed in the right direction.

and i want to...

2011-01-29T03:27:00.001-05:00

"And I want to play hide-and-seek and give you my clothes and tell you I like your shoes and sit on the steps while you take a bath and massage your neck and kiss your feet and hold your hand and go for a meal and not mind when you eat my food and meet you at Rudy's and talk about the day and give you tapes you don't listen to and watch great films and watch terrible films and complain about the radio and take pictures of you and get up to fetch you coffee and bagels and Danish and go to Florent and drink coffee

... and tell you about the the programme I saw the night before and take you to the eye hospital and not laugh at your jokes and want you in the morning but let you sleep for a while and kiss your back and stroke your skin and tell you how much I love your hair your eyes your lips your neck your arse and sit on the steps smoking till you come home and worry when you're late and be amazed when you're early and give you sunflowers and go to your party and dance till I'm black and be sorry when I'm wrong and happy when you forgive me

and look at your photos and wish I'd known you forever and hear your voice in my ear and feel your skin on my skin and get scared when you're angry and your eye has gone red and the other eye blue and your hair to the left and your face oriental and tell you you're gorgeous and hug you when you're anxious and hold you when you hurt and want you when I smell you

... and not understand why you think I'm rejecting you when I'm not rejecting you and wonder how you could think I'd ever reject you and wonder who you are but accept you anyway and tell you about the tree angel enchanted forest boy who flew across the ocean because he loved you and write poems for you and wonder why you don't believe me and have a feeling so deep I can't find words for it and ask you to marry me and you say no again but keep on asking because though you think I don't mean it I do always have from the first time I asked you

and wander the city thinking it's empty without you and think I'm losing myself but know I'm safe with you and tell you the worst of me and try to give you the best of me because you don't deserve any less and answer your questions when I'd rather not and tell you the truth when I really dont' want to and try to be honest because I know you prefer it and think it's all over but hang on in for just ten more minutes before you throw me out of your life and forget who I am

and try to get closer to you because it's a beautiful learning to know you and well worth the effort and somehow somehow somehow communicate some of the overwhelming undying overpowering unconditional all-encompassing heart-enriching mind-expanding on-going never-ending love I have for you."

-Sarah Kane

bits and pieces

2011-01-29T02:55:00.004-05:00

you know how in mystery plots there is sometimes a letter that is torn up by the perpetrator in order to deter the detective? I feel like if I was the one sorting the case these are some of the things I'd put together- intuition takes you places.

Poulain

2011-01-24T00:36:00.003-05:00

"Et de ratage en ratage, on s'habitue à ne jamais dépasser le stade du brouillon. La vie n'est que l'interminable répétition d'une représentation qui n'aura jamais lieu."

"Failure teaches us that life is but a draft, an endless rehearsal of a show that will never play."

-Le fabuleux destin d'Amelie Poulain

Quoted

2011-01-24T00:30:00.004-05:00

"It is a risk to love.
But what if it doesn't work out?
Ah, but what if it does. "
-Peter McWilliams

everyday life.

2011-01-24T00:29:00.001-05:00

dead and gone

2011-01-24T00:20:00.001-05:00

something in Common

2011-01-20T21:29:00.002-05:00

using paper and boxes to say what you feel. looky, it's a contemporary john cusack boombox scene -but with a twist:

Boombox Serenade
Say Anything... at MOVIECLIPS.com

haha, of course, it's the thought that counts though

Royally So

2011-01-19T22:37:00.002-05:00

Have you ever seen 'The Royal Tenenbaums?' I actually had ordered it on the blockbuster site ages ago but every time I added something else to the queue it seemed to mysteriously get bumped in priority. I assume this has something to do with fate and perhaps garden gnomes. But I watched it this night and must admit I thought it was rather marvelous. This scene is perhaps one of my favorites of all time.

Oh Margot. I understand.

I love that they ran away from home together and hid for four years in the African art section of a museum

And Royal's epitaph, well it was brilliant.

if you have a taste for peculiar and unusual, watch it.

temp reading.

2011-01-19T21:12:00.005-05:00

She was frustrated and angry and she couldn't help it.

wouldn't this be wonderfully convenient?

Fullish

2011-01-19T21:08:00.002-05:00

Apparently it's a full moon tonight. Let the craziness ensue.

The date and approximate time of a specific full moon (assuming a circular orbit) can be calculated from the following equation:

so if you're looking up tonight and doubting the robust circle in the sky. do the math

regrets smell

2011-01-18T21:56:00.008-05:00

"That night she thought of him with pity. For hours, days, weeks and perhaps months, he would carry the putrid doubt in his heart and the decaying possibilities in his mind. Such is the way of unsatisfied love, it haunts long after its demise. Even she could not escape the sadness of its idle passing."
-E. S. Stewart

and then she fell in love with Fyodor Dostoyevsky

2011-01-18T21:45:00.003-05:00

Quotes from The Brothers Karamazov:

"And what does it mean - ridiculous? What does it matter how many times a man is or seems to be ridiculous? Besides, nowadays almost all capable people are terribly afraid of being ridiculous, and are miserable because of it."

"But I always liked side-paths, little dark back-alleys behind the main road- there one finds adventures and surprises, and precious metal in the dirt."

"If you were to destroy in mankind the belief in immortality, not only love but every living force maintaining the life of the world would at once be dried up. Moreover, nothing then would be immoral; everything would be lawful, even cannibalism."

"Even those who have renounced Christianity and attack it, in their inmost being still follow the Christian ideal, for hitherto neither their subtlety nor the ardor of their hearts has been able to create a higher ideal of man and of virtue than the ideal given by Christ"

"And so will I here state just plainly and briefly that I accept God. But I must point out one thing: if God does exist and really created the world, as we well know, he created it according to the principles of Euclidean geometry and made the human brain capable of grasping only three dimensions of space. Yet there have been and still are mathematicians and philosophers-among them some of the most outstanding-who doubt that the whole universe or, to put it more generally, all existence was created to fit Euclidean geometry; they even dare to conceive that two parallel lines that, according to Euclid, never do meet on earth do, in fact, meet somewhere in infinity. And so my dear boy, I’ve decided that I am incapable of understanding of even that much, I cannot possibly understand about God."

oh darling,

2011-01-18T00:22:00.000-05:00

mmm, i'm beginning to get that itch for adventure and travel and world exploration!

"Nowadays most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one's mistakes."

-Oscar Wilde

who are you again?

2011-01-18T00:12:00.002-05:00

i want to see this...

2011-01-17T23:42:00.005-05:00

"Blue Valentine" wrenches us with its painful and tender understanding of how people with even this tattered a connection can lunge for love as if it were air." -CNN review.

i love good movie trailers. now a days you can watch a trailer and might as well say you saw the whole thing. completely not the point. ehh.

you always break the kindest heart

with a hasty word you can't recall, so

if i broke your heart last night

It's because I love you most of all

vulnerable

2011-01-17T23:04:00.001-05:00

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable."

-C.S. Lewis

truth

2011-01-17T23:00:00.006-05:00

"when it is dark enough, you can see the stars."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

you are so beautiful to me

2011-01-16T00:53:00.005-05:00

Tonight I was enchanted by a song that played as I was clearing dishes and lip-stick stained wine glasses. I know it's an overdone classic and the lyrics are simple and few, but as you listen to Ray Charles' voice, you want nothing more than to believe him.

"For Attractive lips, speak words of kindness.
For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.
For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.
For beautiful hair, let a child run their fingers through it once a day.
For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone.
People, more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed. Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you will find one at the end of each of your arms.
As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself and the other for helping others."
-Audrey Hepburn

reluctantly.

2011-01-13T00:41:00.000-05:00

"I don't want to lose you.' His voice almost a whisper. Seeing his haggard expression, she took his hand and squeezed it, then reluctantly let it go. She could feel the tears again, and she fought them back. 'But you don't want to keep me, either, do you?' To that, he had no response."

-the Rescue

pastel

2011-01-13T00:34:00.002-05:00

Moon River, wider than a mile

I'm crossing you in style some day

Oh, dream maker, you heart breaker

wherever you're going, I'm going your way

Two drifters, off to see the world

There's such a lot of world to see

We're after the same rainbow's end

waiting 'round the bend

my huckleberry friend

Moon River and me

Quoted

2011-01-12T23:31:00.000-05:00

"He- that's Simon Bolivar - 'was shaken by the overwhelming revelation that the headlong race between his misfortunes and his dreams was at that moment reaching the finish line. The rest was darkness. Damn it,' he sighed. 'How will I ever get out of this labyrinth!''

So what's the labyrinth?' I asked her...

That's the mystery, isn't it? Is the labyrinth living or dying? Which is he trying to escape- the world or the end of it?"

-Looking for Alaska

awaken

2011-01-12T00:19:00.000-05:00

"We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us even in our soundest sleep. I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavour. It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts."

-Henry David Thoreau

613

2011-01-11T23:56:00.002-05:00

Brod discovered 613 sadnesses, each perfectly unique, each a singular emotion, no more similar to any other sadness than to anger, ecstasy, guilt, or frustration. Mirror Sadness. Sadness of Domesticated Birds. Sadness of Being Sad in Front of One's Parent. Humor Sadness. Sadness of Love Without Release.
She was like a drowning person...

What color is this?

He stood very close to the door, letting the end of his nose touch the peephole. He licked the wood and joked, It certainly tastes like red.

Yes, it is red, isn't it?

Seems so.

She buried her head in her hands. But couldn't it be just a bit more red?
Brod's life was a slow realization that the world was not for her, and for whatever reason, she would never be happy and honest at the same time. She felt as if she were brimming, always producing and hoarding more love inside her. But there was no release. Table, ivory elephant charm, rainbow, onion, hairdo, mollusk, Shabbos, violence, cuticle, melodrama, ditch, honey, doily...None of it moved her. She addressed her world honestly, searching for something deserving of the volumes of love she knew she had within her, but to each she would have to say, I don't love you.

This was the world in which she grew and he aged. They made for themselves a sanctuary from Trachimbroad, a habitat completely unlike the rest of the world. No hateful words were ever spoken, and no hands raised. But more than that, no unloving words were ever spoken, and everything was held up as another small proof that it can be this way, it doesn't have to be that way; if there is no love in the world, we will make a new world, and we will give it heavy walls and we will furnish it with soft red interiors from the inside out.

-Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything is Illuminated

words.

2011-01-10T16:06:00.006-05:00

"There is something about words. In expert hands, manipulated deftly, they take you prisoner. Wind themselves around your limbs like spider silk, and when you are so enthralled you cannot move, they pierce your skin, enter your blood, numb your thoughts. Inside you they work their magic."

-the thirteenth tale

The future of Sudan

2011-01-10T16:05:00.001-05:00

A picture from BBC showing a voter being stained with indelible ink to prevent multiple votes.

Have you been following the 2005 peace treaty of Sudan?

North against South is a struggle familiar in history books. Twenty-three years ago Sudan broke out in a civil war that has turned the country on its head. The south of Sudan is made up of a mostly Animist and Christian non-Arab population that sits on top of a multitude of resources including oil and water. The north of Sudan is comprised of an Arab population that mostly dominates the Sudanese government with Muslim principles and a desire to control the Southern Sudanese resources. Violence against the Southern non-Arabian population has added up to what should be termed genocide. The government failed its Southern citizens as their children and women were abducted from their communities and sold into servitude by Arab tribal militias. The Sudanese government even attacked humanitarian sites that could have provided relief to the victims of these atrocities. For these reasons there is much motivation for the people of the South to wish for independence from the North. The opportunity for them to do so has finally arrived as the terms of the 2005 peace treaty have dictated.

Yet, despite all of the cause to celebrate there is worry of a return to civil war and the bleak future of an independent impoverished South. “With ongoing violence in Southern Sudan and Darfur, and mounting tensions between the northern and southern governments, persisting arms flows should be a cause for great concern in the international community,” Small Arms Survey Managing Director Eric Berman said in a statement to Bloomberg news. Concern over the Sudanese situation has been growing, the peace agreement has run out as the 2011 referendum on whether the southern region of Sudan will decide to secede from the whole country. Taking its wealthy resources away will not bode well to the powerful northern government. Even under the peace treaty almost 2,000 people were killed the year of 2009 from the violence left over from the civil war disputes. Each side of the country has for the most part been biding their time, building their armories and preparing for the outcome of 2011.

We won't know for weeks the outcome of the referendum but BBC's Bill Ross in Southern Sudan has reported he has not yet met one person who has voted for 'unity' with the North.

BBC has some mesmerizing pictures of the voting:

people got to the polls the night before even though voting booths will be open for seven days

Because the literacy rate is so high the ballot papers show the image of hands clasped to convey unity and on hand to show independence.

tolstoy.

2011-01-10T01:30:00.000-05:00

"He stepped down, trying not to look long at her, as if she were the sun, yet he saw her, like the sun, even without looking."

-Leo Tolstoy

soul talk

2011-01-08T03:54:00.001-05:00

"I can talk to you because we can both set up sound-waves in the common air between us. Matter, which keeps souls apart, also brings them together. It enables each of us to have an "outside" as well as an "inside," so that what are acts of will and thought for you are noises and glances for me; you are enabled not only to be, but to appear: and hence I have the pleasure of making your acquaintance."

-C.S. Lewis

D.E.S.

2011-01-07T01:34:00.011-05:00

The consequences of late night internet rambling...

it seems that yawns are hard to come by these days.

north by north-lest we have to settle down

we can sail without the wind in this town

things that London never saw

Northern winters start to thaw

to islands on the sea,

to lands i've never seen

things will get calmer, follow me

you said a long long time ago

you were happy being someone

let's go far far far from home

i'll be glad to be with someone

continents all made of clay

dreamers leaving everyday

someone told me you had oceans in your eyes

...follow me

by: faded paper figures

Alice Walker

2011-01-06T22:10:00.000-05:00

"Be nobody's darling;
Be an outcast.
Take the contradictions
Of your life
And wrap around
You like a shawl,
To parry stones
To keep you warm. "

-Alice Walker

Franny

2011-01-06T22:07:00.004-05:00

"Franny has the measles, for one thing. Incidentally, did you hear her last week? She went on at beautiful length about how she used to fly all around the apartment when she was four and no one was home. The new announcer is worse than Grant - if possible, even worse than Sullivan in the old days. He said she surely dreamt that she was able to fly. The baby stood her ground like an angel. She said she knew she was able to fly because when she came down she always had dust on her fingers from touching the light bulbs."

-J.D. Salinger

"Franny was staring at the little blotch of sunshine with a special intensity, as if she were considering lying down in it."
-J.D. Salinger

"She was not one for emptying her face of expression. "
-J.D. Salinger

How to:

2011-01-04T08:22:00.000-05:00

to read the whole thing

Dear God,

2011-01-04T08:18:00.000-05:00

found via:

Ninja Hero Tumblr

a light from the shadows.

2011-01-04T00:55:00.000-05:00

"All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;

The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;

Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king."

-J.R.R. Tolkien

Fellowship of the Rings

alexithymia

2011-01-03T18:36:00.000-05:00

"It is always sad when someone leaves home, unless they are simply going around the corner and will return in a few minutes with ice-cream sandwiches."

-Lemony Snicket

(look what i discovered how to do!)

... Listen, don't hate me because I can't remember some person immediately. Especially when they look like everybody else, and talk and dress and act like everybody else." Franny made her voice stop. It sounded to her caviling and bitchy, and she felt a wave of self-hatred that, quite literally, made her forehead begin to perspire again. But her voice picked up again, in spite of herself. "I don't mean there's anything horrible about him or anything like that. It's just that for four solid years I've kept seeing Wally Campbells wherever I go. I know when they're going to be charming, I know when they're going to start telling you some really nasty gossip about some girl that lives in your dorm, I know when they're going to ask me what I did over the summer, I know when they're going to pull up a chair and straddle it backward and start bragging in a terribly, terribly quiet voice--or name-dropping in a terribly quiet, casual voice. There's an unwritten law that people in a certain social or financial bracket can name-drop as much as they like just as long as they say something terribly disparaging about the person as soon as they've dropped his name—that he's a bastard or a nymphomaniac or takes dope all the time, or something horrible." She broke off again. She was quiet for a moment, turning the ashtray in her fingers.

Franny quickly tipped her cigarette ash, then brought the ashtray an inch closer to her side of the table. "I'm sorry. I'm awful," she said. I've just felt so destructive all week. It's awful, I'm horrible."

-J.D. Salinger

2011 Ted winner

2011-01-02T17:55:00.000-05:00

TRAILER " WOMEN ARE HEROES" from SOCIAL ANIMALS on Vimeo.

i think this is beautiful. watch it all the way through.

"we went to see women that have struggle in their life, that had a lot of problem, because life is hard. They all wanted to tell their story. So that their story traveled. When you hear the story, you're like 'whoah' maybe the person is dying inside. But then when you ask her to do faces, then you can see life."

see you all again next year!

2010-12-31T12:45:00.000-05:00

"A new year...a fresh clean start !It's like having a big white sheet of paper to draw on! A day full of possibilities! It's a magical world, Hobbes, ol' buddy...let's go exploring!"

-Calvin, Calvin and Hobbes

"May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art — write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself."

-Neil Gaman

take note:
I don't know if I imagined these superstitions but I like them nonetheless. Who you're with and what you do as the New Year is rung in, is to foreshadow the coming year.
Kiss the person you love at midnight-the idea is that this monumental moment echoes the affectionate embrace for the next 365 days to come, ensuring the steadfastness of your love.
Call those far away who are dear to you within the first hour of midnight-i think this is an amendment traditionally made in honor of our military darlings.
The doors must be flung open to let the old year escape unimpeded.
Don't pay bills, cry or work on January first, otherwise you'll be doing these things incessantly throughout 2011.
For good luck dance in the open air, wear something that glitters, eat black eyed peas and surround yourself with loved ones.

Happy New Year's Eve loverlies!

human voice

2010-12-31T12:40:00.000-05:00

"She sat stirring her drink and feeling unclose to me. She worries over the way her love for me comes and goes, appears and disappears. She doubts its reality simply because it isn’t as steadily pleasurable as a kitten. God knows it is sad. The human voice conspires to desecrate everything on earth."

-J.D. Salinger

Paris, Je t'aime

2010-12-30T18:49:00.000-05:00

borrowed from the amazing blog 'Una Bella Vita'

no, thanks.

2010-12-30T18:42:00.000-05:00

Last night was lovely. I couldn't help but feel like Cinderella, dancing the evening to the first light of morning. But I left no glass slipper, because I simply don't want to be found. Nope, nope, I think I'll be needing both of my size seven shoes thank you very much.

"I am a princess. All girls are. Even if they live in tiny old attics. Even if they dress in rags, even if they aren't pretty, or smart, or young. They're still princesses. All of us. Didn't your father ever tell you that?"

le coeur

2010-12-30T18:28:00.000-05:00

"One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes."

-Le Petit Prince

Legend of the Guardians

2010-12-30T18:24:00.000-05:00

I watched 'Legend of the Guardians' this afternoon and thought it was wonderful. Owls are such mystical creatures to begin with, so add a little personification and technology, well you get a great picture. Although less realistic, it is always much easier when the issue is black and white, a dynamic this plot-line provided. The conflict unfolds when Seron and his brother Kludd are kidnapped by the Pure ones. A group of owls that believe they are superior to all others, enslaving those not of the biological classification: genus Tyto. I couldn't help but draw a parallel to the Nazi Holocaust and the claim of Aryan supremacy. The movie moves the viewer with bravery, honor and of course love to overcome evil. I simply adored one of the major taglines of the film "flying by faith and not by sight." Remind you of something? I'd highly recommend it and bet you're a tad better in the soul for seeing it by the closing credits.

“Words were the only proof I’ve ever had that the Guardians were real, and still I believed,”

-Soren

Tatooine

2010-12-29T18:21:00.001-05:00

Jeremy Messersmith - Tatooine from Eric Power on Vimeo.

stole my heart!

Out of Sight

2010-12-29T15:19:00.000-05:00

This is a graduation Production made by three students who graduated from the National Taiwan University of Arts.

smile

2010-12-27T15:39:00.000-05:00

"I've got nothing to do today but smile."

-Simon and Garfunkel

fear

2010-12-26T22:33:00.000-05:00

I do not fear pain or death.

What do you fear, Éowyn?

A cage. To stay behind bars until use and old age accept them, and all chance of doing great deeds is gone beyond recall or desire.

-LOTR

Supers

2010-12-26T22:07:00.000-05:00

I have to say, I've always loved the Marvel and DC comics. I think they can go a little overboard on the sex appeal when it comes to their female leads. But I like the power the girls command and the crazy story lines people have created for them. I somehow had never heard of Harley Quinn but I think the comic bit I included at the end is rather funny, and I like couples thing, it's nice that joker has a person to match his crazy.

Batman: "How did you know that Robin and I might be in trouble at this glue factory?"

Batgirl: "Through the one thing you couldn't possibly have in your utility belt, Batman. A woman's intuition."

“Be young. For youth is your greatest weapon, your greatest tool. Use it wisely.”

-Wonder Woman

"I sensed your presence earlier because I thought I heard your heartbeat. I was wrong. You have no heart."

-Supergirl

and then there are the villainesses

"

2010-12-25T20:42:00.000-05:00

"And he began to journey from planet to planet, in order to complete the development of "his mind and his heart," as people say. Those who travel only in post-chaise or coach will doubtless be amazed at the conveyances in the planet above, for we, on our little mud pile, cannot imagine anything other than what we use. Our traveler knew remarkably well the laws of gravitation, and all the forces of attraction and repulsion. He used them so skillfully that, at times with the help of a sunbeam, and at other times with the help of a comet, he and those with him went from globe to globe, as a bird flits from branch to branch."

-Micromegas, by Voltaire

Happy Birthday Jesus

2010-12-25T20:02:00.000-05:00

‎"Hallelujah, the King is here, given for all men. For today the Holy Son of God was born in Bethlehem!"

Cantique

2010-12-24T21:50:00.000-05:00

The Other Wise Man

by Henry Van Dyke

My Teen Idol

2010-12-23T04:24:00.000-05:00

I used to walk around my house in reebok warm up pants [sometimes with the skirt on top] and a sports bra because that's what Chilli did. 10 years later... And now she has a television show!? "What Chilli Wants" Which apparently I've missed the whole first half of the season... what better way to spend my winter break?

note: usher is an idiot.

haha, okay, just started watching the first episode dubbed "Checklist" and she lists off things she wants in a man: "he can't drink or smoke, has to love God, has to be superfine, and oh he can't eat pork..."

and missy elliot goes: 'date Jesus'

Necessary

2010-12-23T04:16:00.000-05:00

"There was never a right time to say it.
It was always unnecessary.
The books in my father's shed were sighing.
The sheets were rising and falling around me with Anna's breathing.
I thought about waking her.
but it was unnecessary.
There would be other nights.
And how can you say I love you to someone you love?
I rolled onto my side and fell asleep next to her.
Here is the point of everything I have been trying to tell you...
It's always necessary.
I love you..."
-Jonathan Safran Foer

.

2010-12-23T03:18:00.000-05:00

"their weeping was meant to be an unspoken rebuke to God"

-The Collector of Treasures, pg. 23 Bessie Head

the Bovidae family

2010-12-20T21:42:00.000-05:00

³ Then Jesus told them this parable: ⁴ “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? ⁵ And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders ⁶ and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’
-Luke 15:3-6

Si quelqu'un veut un mouton, c'est la preuve qu'il en existe un.

If somebody wants a sheep, that is a proof that one exists.

-Le Petit Prince

Sean: So what do you really want to do?

Will: I wanna be a shepard

Sean: really.

Will: I wanna move up to nashua, get a nice little spread, get some sheep and tend to them.

Sean: Maybe you should go do that.

-Good Will Hunting

"can you row?" the Sheep asked, handing her a pair of knitting needles as she spoke. "yes, a little--but not on land--and not with needles--" Alice was beginning to say.

-Lewis Caroll

Letters to Words to Paragraphs to Pages to Books to

2010-12-19T23:23:00.000-05:00

I watched Amelie for the first time in a very long while. I decided to find the French script and follow along as the movie progressed-in hopes of improving my français. I want to quote the entire thing here, that is how wonderful the word arrangements are, if you have not yet seen Amelie, then I implore you to do so. As I was google-ing the French script I found a site listing similar movies, and I've found myself a to-do list for the break.
I can go ahead and check off Paris, Je t'aime but left is Jeux d'Enfants (Love me if you dare), Une longue dimanche de fiançailles (A very long engagement), and one I'm especially excited to watch is La science de rêves (the science of dreams).

Words, such heavy things
perhaps one day someone might invent a scale that could weigh each word. Now, being plain as they are in the dictionary I suppose they would all come out about even. But the differences in grams would come as they are mouthed. The weight is added or sliced as they are spoken. And then someone could lift them off the ground they had tumbled upon and weigh each one. how lovely would that be for forensic science if every word spoken wrote itself on the air and then drifted on the wind like tiny dust particles. The font would have to be tiny, one would have to use a lens to make out the 'o's from the 'a's. Angry words would be sharp, when a scientist picks it up for inspection he is likely to prick himself. The heaviest of all the words are the ones arranged into bad news. To lift that off the ground requires more than one man or woman. There would also be the unspoken words, everyone pretends not to see them, but they are usually the grandest words of all, formed in italics and of modest weight. Happy words like 'baby' or 'balloon' would never hit the floor as they frolicked in the air, almost weightless as they rode the laughter surrounding them. Ah, words. Building blocks of magic, one might say.

Annie Leibovitz

2010-12-18T22:59:00.000-05:00

I wrote a post about Disney stories come to life in a photo shoot many moons ago. The photographer was Annie Leiboitz.She has a portfolio of some of the most fanciful and lovely photographs I've ever seen. She has an eye for art, with each one of her photos telling a story. She's most well-known for her portrait picture of naked John Lennon and Yoko Ono. The French government has declared her a Commander des orde des Arts et des Lettres. A prestigious recognition of significant contributions to the world of art. On her snapshots of celebrities she says she never liked the word 'celebrity' "I've always been more interested in what they do than who they are, I hope that my photographs reflect that."

I would absolutely keel over with happiness if I ever got the opportunity to do a photo shoot with her.

I'll count my lucky stars til then...

"If I didn't have my camera to remind me constantly, I am here to do this, I would eventually have slipped away, I think. I would have forgotten my reason to exist."

-A.L.

"My hope is that we continue to nurture the places that we

love, but that we also look outside our immediate worlds."

-A.L.

"Sometimes I enjoy just photographing the surface because I

think it can be as revealing as going to the heart of the matter."

-A.L.

"The work which is manipulated looks a little boring to me.

I think life is pretty strange anyway. It is wooo, wooo, wooo!"

-A.L.

Survival of the Studious

2010-12-16T13:11:00.001-05:00

How to survive exams:

hot chocolate packets
hot water
marshmellows
Landon Pigg
coca-cola or other caffeine enriched products
scarf [it gets cold when you study]
the go-to person to call when you start going insane

2010-12-15T23:59:00.000-05:00

"She wished she had a little yellow house of her own, with a flower box full of real flowers and herbs – pansies and rosemary – and a lover who would swing dance with her in the evenings and cook pasta and read poetry aloud."

-Francesca Lia Block

don't act like you don't know

2010-12-14T23:27:00.000-05:00

i promise i will give you real words when i'm not caught in the insanity of exams. two down and three more to go. holla hollaaa

All the beauty

2010-12-13T21:29:00.000-05:00

"Think of all the beauty left around you and be happy."

-Anne Frank

"Unexpected intrusions of beauty. That is what life is."

-Samuel Bellow

"What you do, the way you think, makes you beautiful."

-Scott Westerfeld

"Her face looked ugly in attempt to avoid the tears; it was an ugliness which bound him to her more than any beauty could have done. "

-Graham Greene

"He was like someone sleeping who woke suddenly and found the world . . . all the beauty of it, and the sadness too."

-Daphne Du Maurier

fate

2010-12-11T23:51:00.000-05:00

Vivieron felices y comieron perdices (y a mí no me dieron).

Translation: They lived happily and ate partridge (and didn't give me any).

English Equivalent: And they lived happily ever after.

2010-12-11T11:31:00.001-05:00

"He had never thought of himself as much of a praying man, but as he sat in the car in the growing darkness and the minutes passed, he knew what it was to pray. It was to will goodness out of evil, hope out of despair, life out of death. It was to will dreams into existence and spectres into reality. It was to will an end to anguish and a beginning to joy."

A GREAT DELIVERANCE, ELIZABETH GEORGE

La Galerie

2010-12-07T20:36:00.000-05:00

in a movie

2010-12-06T19:19:00.000-05:00

"A movie! That's your problem! You don't want to be in love.

You want to be in love in a movie."

-Sleepless in Seattle

2010-12-06T18:45:00.000-05:00

i will kill the spiders. i will share my fries with you when you’ve finished all yours and are still hungry. i won’t ever pop my collar. i will never be rude to your tummy- when i hear it growl and gurgle, i promise to bend down and reply respectfully. i will eat the mushrooms when we order the supreme pizza. i will kiss the paper cuts. and the door-slammed finger. and the counter-bumped hip. i’ll try my hardest not to get annoyed when you whisper questions and comments during movies. i will be the big spoon. i will let you win at wrestling. sometimes. other times i will not. i will go faster. harder. i will pull when you want. and tease you when you don’t. i will send you random txts and leave you silly gifts. not always. not on schedule. just whenever i want to. whenever i think you need one. or seven. i will check your tire pressure. and remind you to take your car in. i will hold your hand. i will love you. i will love you. i will love you.
-anonymous

2010-12-06T18:43:00.000-05:00

"But you don't remember the rest because you were absorbed in the landscape going by. With your nose pressed up against the window, you hadn't budged for a second. You were only a child immersed in her daydreams. Already you were escaping far away. Like a kite, you were fluttering over the cliffs, the sand dunes, the rivers, the dark brown pebble beaches..."

-Abdourahman Waberi, The United States of Africa

The Scientist

2010-12-06T18:33:00.000-05:00

Come up to meet you, tell you I’m sorry,
you don’t know how lovely you are

I had to find you, tell you I need you, tell you I set you apart

Tell me your secrets, and ask me your questions, let’s go back to the start

Running in circles, coming up tails, heads on a science apart

Nobody said it was easy

It’s such a shame for us to part

Nobody said it was easy

No one ever said it would be this hard

Oh, take me back to the start

I was just guessing at numbers and figures, pulling the puzzles apart

Questions of science, science and progress, do not speak as loud as my heart

Tell me you love me