Asterisk

“Years ago I worried a lot about whether I was an interesting person. I’m still not all that interesting, but I don’t worry about it anymore because I would rather use that worry time for sleep.”

–Mia-cha’

I’d rather sleep than do other things in the world. I can sleep for the longest stretches. But I can also force myself to wake up when I really need to do something for that day. So you can tell how important something is to me by my ability to wake up for it. Or it could just be a really cold morning.

However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light.

(Jack Cheng)

I once knew a woman who liked to imagine Love in the guise of a sturdy dog, one that would always chase down the stick after it was thrown and return with his ears flopping around happily. Completely loyal, completely unconditional. And I laughed at her, because even I knew that love is not like that. Love is a delicate thing that needs to be cosseted and protected. Love is not robust and love is not unyielding. Love can crumble under a few harsh words, or be tossed away with a handful of careless actions. Love isn’t a steadfast dog at all; love is more like a pygmy mouse lemur.

Yes that’s exactly what love is: a tiny, jittery primate with eyes that are permanently peeled open in fear. For those of you who cannot quite picture a pygmy mouse lemur, imagine a miniature Don Knotts or Steve Buscemi wearing a fur coat. Imagine the cutest animal you can, after it has been squeezed so hard that all its stuffing has been pushed up into an oversized head and its eyes are now popping out in overflow. The lemur looks so vulnerable that one cannot help but worry that predator might swoop in at any instant to snatch it away.

(The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson via Jonathan Carroll)

We know carrots are good for you, right? People have been eating them for a long time and the assumption was that what was good in cancer preventing in the carrot was the beta carotene. What makes it orange. So we extracted that and we made these supplement pills and we gave them to people and low and behold in certain populations like people who drink a lot would get sicker, were more likely to get cancer on beta carotene and the scientists kind of scratched their head. There is a couple of explanations. We don’t know. But one may be that the beta carotene is not the key ingredient. You know there are 50 other carotenes in carrots.

Food is incredibly complex. It’s a wilderness, you know, we don’t know what’s going on deep in the soul of a carrot. And we shouldn’t kid ourselves to think we can reduce it to these chemicals. It also may be some synergies between different thing. Beta carotene is also found in the company of chlorophyll, maybe it’s that combination that contributes to health. The point is we don’t, as eaters, need to know what makes carrots work. We can eat carrots, they taste good, they’re good for you. It’s that simple.

(The Soul of a Carrot via Signals vs Noise)

On a totally unrelated note: It’s x days to my x^th birthday (the ordinal suffix should be a hint). Sigh. This book goes into my wishlist.

Your best work is your expression of yourself. Now you may not be the greatest at it, but when you do it, you’re the only expert in it.

–Frank Gehry

And if you happen to have talent you take that technique somewhere with your talent and you create new things. There is no way that we can escape ourselves.

–Jacques Pepin

You have to be taught to hate.

–Dave Brubeck

Don’t be too ambitious. Do the most important thing you can think of doing every year and then your career will take care of itself.

–Henry Kissinger

(Wisdom)

I just tweaked this.

This is not an endorsement for Noynoy Aquino, just an endorsement for Glee. Don’t stop believin’!

• …a group of introductory or navigational aids.

• …represents a section of a page that consists of content that is tangentially related to the content around it, and which could be considered separate from that content.

• …used to group a set of h1–h6 elements when the heading has multiple levels, such as subheadings, alternative titles, or taglines.

• …typically contains information about its section such as who wrote it, links to related documents, copyright data, and the like.

• …some flow content, optionally with a caption, that is self-contained and is typically referenced as a single unit from the main flow of the document.

• …a section of a page that links to other pages or to parts within the page: a section with navigation links.

• …a thematic grouping of content, typically with a heading, possibly with a footer.

• …a section of a page that consists of a composition that forms an independent part of a document, page, or site.

• …additional information or controls which the user can obtain on demand.

Answers:

Read the rest of this entry »

Edit: Found a GIF!

Laying blanket
Fluffing clouds
Growing grass
Buttering sandwiches
Coloring sky
Blooming blossoms
Floating kites
Cueing bird songs
Stealing picnik basket

Will add more if I find new ones.

Since it’s almost time for a quarterlife crisis: 30 Things Every Woman Should Have and Should Know by the Time She’s 30:

By 30, you should have:

1. One old boyfriend you can imagine going back to and one who reminds you of how far you’ve come.
2. A decent piece of furniture not previously owned by anyone else in your family.
3. Something perfect to wear if the employer or man of your dreams wants to see you in an hour.
4. A purse, a suitcase and an umbrella you’re not ashamed to be seen carrying.
5. A youth you’re content to move beyond.
6. A past juicy enough that you’re looking forward to retelling it in your old age.
7. The realization that you are actually going to have an old age—and some money set aside to help fund it.
8. An e-mail address, a voice mailbox and a bank account—all of which nobody has access to but you.
9. A résumé that is not even the slightest bit padded.
10. One friend who always makes you laugh and one who lets you cry.
11. A set of screwdrivers, a cordless drill and a black lace bra.
12. Something ridiculously expensive that you bought for yourself, just because you deserve it.
13. The belief that you deserve it.
14. A skin-care regimen, an exercise routine and a plan for dealing with those few other facets of life that don’t get better after 30.
15. A solid start on a satisfying career, a satisfying relationship and all those other facets of life that do get better.

By 30, you should know:

1. How to fall in love without losing yourself.
2. How you feel about having kids.
3. How to quit a job, break up with a man and confront a friend without ruining the friendship.
4. When to try harder and when to walk away.
5. How to kiss in a way that communicates perfectly what you would and wouldn’t like to happen next.
6. The names of: the secretary of state, your great-grandmother and the best tailor in town.
7. How to live alone, even if you don’t like to.
8. How to take control of your own birthday.
9. That you can’t change the length of your calves, the width of your hips or the nature of your parents.
10. That your childhood may not have been perfect, but it’s over.
11. What you would and wouldn’t do for money or love.
12. That nobody gets away with smoking, drinking, doing drugs or not flossing for very long.
13. Who you can trust, who you can’t and why you shouldn’t take it personally.
14. Not to apologize for something that isn’t your fault.
15. Why they say life begins at 30.

(Via Helga)

Another problem for web designers; it’s not a field that confers tremendous respect, even if you say you are just a designer there is a great deal more respect that comes with it than if you say you are a web designer.”

(Jeffrey Zeldman via Sam Brown)

HOW WEB 2 ARE YOU? I got 28/33. Darn.

What I missed:

8. Zimbra
16. Boxee
19. Rapleaf
21. Edocr
27. Yuuguu

I’ve been amazed at how often those outside the discipline of design assume that what designers do is decoration. Good design is problem solving.

(Jeffrey Veen)

Design is the fundamental soul of a human-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service.

(Steve Jobs)

Design is the method of putting form and content together. Design, just as art, has multiple definitions; there is no single definition. Design can be art. Design can be aesthetics. Design is so simple, that’s why it is so complicated.

(Paul Rand)

Abridged version of the information overload that can fill a whole browser.

(Patrick Moberg)

Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works." — Steve Jobs, The New York Times, 2003

(Swiss Miss)

On creativity:

Everyone’s creative. There’s no such thing as “Creatives”.

(Michael Lebowitz via Swiss Miss)

On beauty:

Walang taong pangit. Nagkataon lang… yung itsura nila, di pa uso. (There are no ugly people. It just so happens their looks are not yet fashionable.)

(SMS via Ria Jose)

You may not for any reason leave your seat to visit the bathroom at any juncture during the film, from the point of the display of certification to the moment the lights come up. If you cannot hold it in that long, you must either provide yourself a colostomy bag (or equivalent) or simply not visit the pictures.

(Vitamin Briefcase via The Big Noob)

More here.