Modern Day Revolution

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• Pale Blue Dot

  

  “Consider again that dot. That’s here, that’s home, that’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

  The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

  Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

  The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

  It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”

  -Carl Sagan

  04/10/10

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  Matt And Kim - Daylight (Yukon Ho Remix)

  
  

  04/10/10

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  St. Apollonia-Beirut

  
  

  04/07/10

• The fear of life is the favorite disease of the 20th century.

  William Lyon Phelps

  04/07/10

• From Reddit: 20 tips for things you wish you knew when you were 20.

  Source

  Twenty it is:

  1. Put 1tbsp of butter in a sauce pan on medium-low heat, add 1tbsp flour to the melted butter, mix until you get a doughy consistency, and cook for a minute or two. Add 1cup of milk. Season lightly with pepper, parmesan, basil. Let it come to a boil, then immediately simmer it. It’ll thicken up. You now have homemade Alfredo Sauce. Prepare to impress your friends, especially of the opposite sex.

  2. Get involved in the things going on around you, even if it’s just your schoolwork. Sitting in a dark room using a keyboard to talk to people a million miles away is not a social life. Talk to the people at class, even if it’s just about the upcoming test. Join a club or something. Intramural sports are awesome. Varsity are good too if you’ve got it in you.

  3. If it’s meant to be, it’ll happen. Don’t rush it. It’s nice to be a fiercely passionate person in all walks of life, but it’s a lot less nice to be the guy who can’t think ahead, or the girl who can’t see the forest for the trees.

  4. Slow and steady does not mean glacial. You’re going to get spread pretty thin in life if you’re doing it right. Learn to cut your losses on a project that’s not going anywhere rather than wasting five minutes every two months on it. Better to come back to it refreshed.

  5. Exercise really is important. We harp on it all the time, but if you seriously want to improve the way you FEEL about life: go to the gym. I come from a wrestling background, and Dan Gable is quoted as saying “Once you’ve wrestled, everything else in life is easy.” Same thing with working out. If you go to the gym and work yourself out HARD a few times a week, you will come home and everything else will seem to fall into place.

  6. They’ve all said it already, but it’s got some truth to it. Disregard females. Acquire currency. It’s nice to have someone who is a close friend. It’s nice to have someone who will sleep with you. Do not make either a priority. If you treat people right and respect them, they’ll be there in a few years when you’re ACTUALLY an adult, and you guys can start making plans. However, you don’t want to go out there wasting your time and money on somebody that’s going to have giant life decisions to make in a few years, one of which will be “Has it gone as far as it’s ever going to go?” Treat the opposite sex well, and feel free to spend time with them, but make it a fair deal, not a one-sided pursuit. Don’t waste your time and money on them until you’re ready to make a commitment to someone. (ps- At 20, you’re not ready.)

  7. Take every opportunity to travel. Broaden your horizons. See the world. If you’re lucky, and aren’t digging yourself into student debt, go on foreign-aid jobs during vacation periods. If you’re like the rest of us, and need to make money, look into working abroad for a few years when you’re done. Overseas experience is a HUGE boost on a job application. Many countries offer “working vacation” visas.

  8. Always have fun. Work is hard. School is hard. Find something that’s fun and keep doing it, no matter what else is going on in your life. Make time for it, or use it as a reward, but keep having fun. When your life becomes all work and no play, you become one of the drones helping to make this world a colder, more boring place.

  9. Control your vices. Fun is fun, but too much fun is exactly that: too much. I like a drink. I set aside time and money to partake. It’s not a lifelong commitment, but it’s something I do to socialize with friends. I do not, however, fall down drunk four days a week. No one ever should. Once a week is plenty.

  10. Milestones come and go. Woohoo! You’re twenty! Big deal. You said it already: “it doesn’t feel much different at all.” The same is true with holidays, anniversaries and other celebrations. Too much stock is laid into arbitrary dates. Make every day count. Do things for a reason, not for a season.

  11. The brands you wear are less important than the total package. If you’re concerned about the way you look, it’s better to spend time learning about Colour Theory than it is to figure out where you can find a good deal on designer phones/mp3players/computers/pants/shirts/cars. Buy for build quality, not perceived quality. Buy to last.

  12. Your taste in <insert object> does not define who you are. You are not a collection of songs, movies and TV Shows. Be proud of what you like, but don’t turn it into the definition of your personality (see: Goths, Trekkies, Metalheads.) Experience the multitude and be open to it all.

  13. “Be the change you want to see in the world.” Gandhi was a wise man, and this is probably the most important thing he ever said. No matter what you want from the world: be the exemplar rather than the fool crying for change. Lead by example, and preach from that example, but do not become the hypocrite who strives for a green planet while trashing his own house.

  14. Respect yourself. Far too often in life do we question our instincts and decisions. If you’re faced with unquestionable evidence that you’ve done something wrong, then accept it and move on. Until then, believe in who you are, and believe in what you do. You’re right more often than you’re wrong, even if you seem to be wrong an awful lot.

  15. Get shit done. Work to completion. Finish what you start. Do everything within your power to make sure that the important things in life happen on time and with minimal worry. Procrastination is both a valuable stress-relief tool and a dangerous enemy. Use it wisely.

  16. Learn the value of hard work. If you’ve never had a job: get one. ESPECIALLY if you don’t need it. When I was twenty, this was one of the biggest lessons I had yet to learn. I still haven’t learned the whole of it. Learn exactly what a dollar is worth to people. Learn how much it takes to earn one, and learn how much you can buy with one. Learn the lessons that money can’t buy you at school. Learn punctuality and teamwork in a real environment.

  17. Set your goals and achieve them. Think about it now. Where do you want to be when you’re 25? 30? 40? Retired? Take some serious time and write out some serious goals for your personal life, your career, your fame and renown. If you want to be the billionaire madman with a harem and your face on the nightly news: plan it out. If your goals are much more humble: plan them out too. Even if you just want a nice, simple job with a wife and kids… start planning. Look at the road in front of you, or you’re going to finish school/whatever and be left with no idea where to go from here.

  18. It’s okay to fail. Sometimes you are going to make the wrong decision. Accept it. Move on with your life. No one’s perfect, they only pretend to be. Learn from your mistakes, but don’t be afraid to make them. Someone’s already said it above, but you learn more from what you do than what you don’t do, and when you’re old and dry, you’re going to regret more the things you shied away from than the things you threw yourself into.

  19. Don’t argue on the internet. There are exceptions to the rule. It’s one thing to make a strong argument. It’s a whole other thing to be dragged into a drawn-out fight with an anonymous stranger. Avoid the latter. It’s a waste of valuable time and you’re going to gain what from it? Superiority? Be the better person to start with and walk away from the fool that wants to waste his time arguing trivialities.

  20. Stop asking for advice on the internet. How much time have you spent, TODAY, watching this thread for updates? If you NEED advice, the internet is a great place to get diverse viewpoints. You didn’t NEED advice today, though. Go outside and play.

  Source

  04/07/10

• ‘You,’ your joys and your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules. Who you are is nothing but a pack of neurons … although we appear to have free will, in fact, our choices have already been predetermined for us and we cannot change that.

  Francis Crick’s book The Astonishing Hypothesis 

  04/06/10

• Why was I born with such contemporaries?

  Oscar Wilde

  04/06/10

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  oszca:

  She gave me headphones, said have you heard this sound? I think I’ve heard this one, it’s totally underground. “What’s the Attitude” Cut Chemist featuring Hymnal. 

  
  

  04/06/10

• I hate my job.

  My job is so fucking unbelievable. I’ll try to sum it up by first telling you about the folks I work with:

  First, there is this supermodel wanna-be chick. Yeah, okay, she is pretty hot, but damn is she completely useless. The girl is constantly fixing her hair or putting on makeup. She is extremely self-centered and has never once considered the needs or wants of anyone but herself. She is as dumb as a box of rocks, and I still find it surprising that she has enough brain power to continue to breathe.

  The next chick is completely the opposite. She might even be one of the smartest people on the planet. Her career opportunities are endless, and yet she is here with us. She is a zero on a scale of 1 to 10. I’m not sure she even showers, much less shaves her “womanly” parts. I think she might be a lesbian, because every time we drive by the hardware store, she moans like a cat in heat.

  But the jewel of the crowd has got to be the fucking stoner. And this guy is more than just your average pothead. In fact, he is baked before he comes to work, during work, and I’m sure after work. He probably hasn’t been sober anytime in the last ten years, and he’s only 22. He dresses like a beatnik throwback from the 1960’s, and to make things worse, he brings his big fucking dog to work. Every fucking day I have to look at this huge Great Dane walk around half-stoned from the second-hand smoke. Hell, sometimes I even think it’s trying to talk with its constant bellowing. Also, both of them are constantly hungry, requiring multiple stops to McDonalds and Burger King, every single fucking day.

  Anyway, I drive these fucktards around in my van and we solve mysteries and shit.

  Source

  Original Source

  04/06/10

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  Los Campesinos! - The Sea Is A Good Place To Think Of The Future

  
  

  04/05/10