Don't Give Up Access to Essential Info!

"People who do not read and do not demand a wide range of material to read, especially fiction, give up access to essential information about their world, about their relation to it and to themselves, and about how others think and feel."

- Joseph Gold. Read For Your Life: Literature as a Life Support System. pg 255

Very Inspiring Rap Performance

"Now if God is Love and hating is Satan
Thin type patience got me sitting here waiting
for the day when it's okay to love
when black men won't pretend that they're thugs,
when teachers and doctors get treated like celebrities,
you can get a job even if you got a felony
check out my melody, let's live in harmony
We in this together."


- Murs lyrics from the second verse of "Everything" from the album Murs for President

The Talk

"When I was 12, my mother gave me my sex talk. I'm not sure either of us has ever recovered."

- Angela narrating an episode of My So-Called Life

Story Gives Life Meaning

"Classical story design charts the vast interconnectedness of life from the obvious to the impenetrable, from the intimate to the epic, from individual identity to the international infosphere. It lays bare the network of chain-linked causalities that, when understood, gives life meaning."

- Robert McKee. Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principals of Screenwriting. ReganBooks: New York, 1997. pg 52

This is a great quote that can be paraphrased to "story gives life meaning." Perhaps it is not that simple, but I believe that story has a lot to say about the nature of reality.

Beatbox Choir

These guys sound pretty good until they start rapping. Still though, this clip made me stop and say "What!?!"

The beatboxing isn't very precise or complicated but the rhythm and harmonies are nice. This video is definitely worth checking out.

Know Where You Are Going

"People with goals succeed because they know where they are going."

- Earl Nightingale

Happy Monday Everyone!

"Stuff" that makes up "The News"

"The information, the content, or, if you will, the “stuff” that makes up what is called “the news of the day” did not exist – could not exist – in a world that lacked the media to give it expression. I do not mean that things like fires, wars, murders and love affairs did not, ever and always, happen in places all over the world. I mean that lacking a technology to advertise them, people could not attend to them, could not include them in their daily business. Such information could not exist as part of the content of the culture."

- Neil Postman. Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. Penguin Books 1985, 2005 edition. pg 7