Meaning in Mourning

I feel a darkness in my heart since the tragedy in Norway. Fratricide creates a sort of emptiness and awkwardness, conjuring uncomfortable questions about the capacity of human beings and design flaws in the master plan.

I found this quote that helped me feel a little less lost for the moment:

"On earth, God is trying to evolve the universal art of right living by encouraging in men's hearts feelings of brotherhood and appreciation for others.

He has therefore permitted no nation to be complete in itself. To the members of each race He has given some special aptitude, some unique genius, with which they may make a distinctive contribution to the world civilization.

Peace on earth will be hastened by a constructive exchange among nations of their best features. Ignoring the faults of a race, we should discern and emulate its virtues. It is important to note that the great saints of history have personified the ideals of all lands, and have embodied the highest aspirations of all religions." -Paramahansa Yogananda

Mixed metaphors

I love mixed metaphors: a quintessential breakdown of the English language, a moment where words fail to convey their figurative meaning and you end up with an often hilarious surrealist image.


Understanding metaphor is a crucial element of learning another language. The cultural beliefs, context, and unspoken understanding wrapped up in metaphor can leave the foreigner totally lost. I remember being taught not only metaphors in Swahili but also the nature of not saying exactly what you're thinking. Taking a round-about way of saying something can be both more polite and an art form. 


I love metaphors because the beauty of sharing an indescribable feeling with another person is a part of human existence I crave.


Here are some of my favorite mixed metaphors, uncredited (out of love for you, Mom):


"Do you follow where I'm coming from?"
(From "do you follow me? and "do you see where I'm coming from?"


"Button your seatbelts"
(From "fasten your seatbelts" and "button up your britches")


"You're blowing their trumpet?" 
(From "blowing smoke up their ass" and "toot their own horn.")


"A heart as big as gold."
(From "a heart like a lion" or "a heart as big as Texas" and "good as gold.")

"Biting the hand that rocks the cradle"

(From "Don't bite the hand that feeds you" and "don't rock the boat" and maybe "robbing the cradle"

"It's like water under a ducks back."
(From "It's like water under a bridge", "It's like oil off a ducks back" and "below the belt.")

good god

god is good.

this is all I've got.
backlogged.
you can tell a lot about a person by what they capitalize when they aren't thinking about it.
i once tested in the 70th percentile for capitalization. my mom was flabbergasted at my shocking and abrupt ineptitude. i thought it was the most hilarious thing!

new york city, where you can drink the tap water.
and brush elbows with one thousand people every day.

Five Year Diary

To record your daily happenings...


And be able to go back 2.5 years and say "where was I when.."


To go back a year ago and find out "what was I thinking!?"


To go back to your last birthday and find out what you wore...


To go back 5 years and see who you were.

Buy it from Gravel and Gold.

Art is either Plagiarism or Revolution...

said Gauguin.


Ai Wei Wei inspires a fire inside me. He lives free of fear, full of his truth. In China they call him (loose translation) "Ai God."  

He recently created 100 million porcelain sunflower seeds for a piece at the Tate. "It's a work about mass production and repeatedly accumulating the small effort of individuals to become a massive, useless piece of work," he says. "China is blindly producing for the demands of the market . . . My work very much relates to this blind production of things. I'm part of it, which is a bit of a nonsense." 

A new doc on his life I can't wait to see:

Check out a slide show of his art here 

This is my life...

Multiple Intelligence

I thought I'd never say this but, I miss riding the subway. I miss the "people-watching, the musical performances, the spontaneous moments of humanity coming together in pain/anguish/joy. But mostly I miss the reading. 


For some reason I wasn't a big head phone user. At the time, I was unaware of the bacteria-increase caused by headphone use, so it wasn't for health reasons as much as safety reasons. I like to have my ears checking for warning sounds while taking the G train late at night to far corners of Brooklyn, even if everything between those ears is checked out.


I read self-help books. Good pieces of fiction I'd missed in school. And every New Yorker magazine. 


I still read before bed, on the weekends, on the occasional airplane. But not at the rate I used to. 


Now, while I commute I listen to podcasts of various sorts, This American Life, RadioLab, Stuff You Missed in History Class and the like. This new experience makes me wonder if audible version of literature and news will be the norm in the future. For  those of us whose primary learning style is not verbal, (but rather musical, visual, and interpersonal) alternatives to the traditional ways of learning are increasingly useful. Take a multiple intelligence test here to find out what your strengths are.