It’s a question I’ve been pretty consistently asking myself since I can remember. Who am I supposed to be? What do I need to do to be fulfilled and happy?
I feel like I’m getting closer, but every decision, every step, has so much weight attached to it, it’s difficult to move. For most of my twenties I was content with just living. Just being a young adult and being reckless and irresponsible. It’s a stage that I would say is pretty important in becoming a grown up, but also one that is very important to grow out of. Finally, after nearly a decade of reckless, irresponsibility it seemed appropriate to move on and dedicate my life to my life’s purpose. After some humming and hawing, it seemed that purpose would be writing.
That doesn’t really sound right, I think the purpose for everyone is the same–to create value and meaning in your life. You choice is the route you take to pursue that, I chose writing. What is appealing and kind of magical about writing is that you can apply it to anything. You get to spend your time becoming an expert in whatever it is your currently writing about and then you break it down into an easily digestible size and share it with people. The problem is, it’s kind of important sometimes that you choose a stream, that you have a field. Are you a science writer? A music writer? Politics, crime, war? That’s been the next stage, to find out what type or writer I am. But I don’t know, like I said, what drew me to it in the first place was the freedom to learn about anything and everything. It took me a decade to find out I was a writer, I don’t have another decade to learn what kind. I suppose that means I’ll just have to decide. I’ll have to make myself a certain type. One thing I know is I don’t want to be negative, I want to reveal things to people that will enrich their lives, not make them angry. I’m not so concerned with the pursuit of truth, I’m not even sure I really believe in truth.
What I’m interested in is culture, and cultural movements and the things that influence those things. I’m interested in people who do spectacular things–geniuses. I want to talk to geniuses and let them rub off on me a bit and tell their story so hopefully when someone is reading about it, they might confuse things for a little while and think I’m a genius too.
But where do you start? You can’t just start out at genius level, then there’s nowhere to go. Does that mean I start by interviewing totally average people? Who would read that?
This made the rounds a week ago and I admit, I was slow to post. But better late than never and a quick note to Cee Lo: Please make music, lots of it–because you are awesome.
In this video Annie Clark of St. Vincent does a stunning rendition of INXS’s “Never tear us apart.” It’s the latest in Beck’s ongoing Record Club project. Probably the best one yet too.
From the atrocious things to say bin, Johan Schlüter, a Danish anti-piracy lobbyist addressed a seminar in Stockholm in 2007. In his speech he expounded on his fondness for child pornography:
Child pornography is great. It is great because politicians understand child pornography. By playing that card, we can get them to act, and start blocking sites. And once they have done that, we can get them to start blocking file sharing sites.
The speech was only translated into English on April 27, but has since made a ripple on English sites. It’s amazing that there are smart, educated people in the world who think like this. Why must manipulation and misdirection be an accepted and expected way of conducting politics?
And I realize Schlüter is just trying to be controversial here, but what kind of clouded, short sighted mind could think it’s a good idea to publicly extol on the positive side of child pornography?
So, just say back in 2001, instead of buying that first generation ipod for $400 you took that money and bought yourself some Apple stock instead. Just say you resisted temptation and just left it there until say .. right now. Well, Apple stock is sitting at an all time high right now and Kyle Conroy has created a table following all of Apple’s releases since 1997 and what that money would be worth today. Pretty cool, just think, you could have $330,000 right now instead of that outdated Powerbook G3, ahh regret.
First off: Pronounciation. Personally, I have trouble even reading the word “Eyjafjallajökull” much less saying it. This seemingly random collection of letters is actually a literary ménage à trois, combining the Icelandic words for island(eyja), mountain(fjalla), and glacier(jökull). The name is actually representative of the glacier above the volcano, not the volcano itself, which is creatively and simply titled Eyjafjalla.
To assist in this very difficult pronounciation, here is a quick Youtube lesson, complete with catchy folksong. [via boingboing]
