February 2010
34 posts
regarding that thing I said about releasing...
I put together a compilation, but I’m really enjoying writing all these stories. I’m having too much fun.
So, there will be more stories up here this coming month. Exactly how many, I’m not sure.
For the record, the impending compilation will be called ‘Writing Fiction for Scientific Journals,’ and it’ll have two or three stories that I won’t post here.
...
one thing that is okay about the world:
unlike most things, the moon shines brighter as the day gets darker.
1 tag
'TRIVA ABOUT THE BRITISH NUCLEAR PROGRAM,' or,...
The tape starts off with a tap as I set it down on the table. You hear the faint beating of the spinning reel throughout the whole thing. A faint tap, tap, tap keeping a steady meter to the conversation. You hear the ever-present analog hiss. If you listen closely enough, you can hear the rain beating down on the slate roof of his cottage. That sound could be my imagination, though.
“Do you...
regarding melted snow, pt 2.
I think Winter is still here. Spring was just teasing us.
Things I Don't Understand And Definitely Am Not...
thingsidontunderstandand:
A LOT OF ART IS BORING
I was an intern. I read and replied to the slush pile stacks and also I opened the mail. This felt glamorous and grown up and a little gross.
I was in charge of rejection. Of only selectively passing things on.
But I was thrilled to commute to complete my tasks.
One day, a package arrived from Ryan McGinness, who is brilliant. It had...
“Education is the acquisition of the art of the utilisation of knowledge.”
– Alfred North Whitehead, Aims of Education (1929, p. 4). A mathematician-turned-philosopher. Not a well-known figure, but his contributions to mathematical logic have made possible the future we now inhabit.
“LH: But you don’t really know if it’s a God or not. Nobody really...”
– The Logic of Nonstandard English, William Labov. Labov studied African American vernacular grammar in the 60s. You pick up a lot of things when you study grammar, though.
regarding melted snow.
I can’t tell if Spring is starting, weather-wise and other-wise.
Some Danish fashion. →
Sorry. More Denmark today.
Kim Høltermand. A really, really good... →
Such quiet composition. I think you have to be Scandinavian or Japanese to compose photographs like that.
'I AM NOT A JOURNALIST.’ a work of fiction.
I realized how rarely I write letters when I grimaced after tasting the glue on the envelope. That glue tastes like rotten lemons. Or CVS-brand air freshener.
I record the number of words I write per week. I divide them into fiction and non-fiction.
FICTION: 355 NONFICTION: 843 NONFICTION: 121 FICTION: 638
A little pie chart shows me how much patience I have for reality.
And I sat in...
‘CHICAGO, I LOVE YOU,’ or, ‘DON'T HOLD YOUR OWN...
I walk through a spotless white hallway. The sterile walls glow with the light from the afternoon’s sun, glowing with the glistening light shimmering off of the city, and outside the window, a metallic rosebud blooms beneath a canopy of glass redwoods.
Inside the museum, I find a collection of photographs from the Columbian Exposition. In rich black-and-white, a statue of a woman hails...
'the first sex scene in scottish literature,' or,...
“…or that vice in grammar which imports the copulating of the masculine with the feminine gender.”
ragbag:
the following steamy scene was written by ragbag role model, thomas urquhart way back in sixteen fitty two. like all things urquhart, it combines latin and greek neologisms, absurd euphemisms, wildly elaborate sentences, obscure allusions, and circumlocutious syntax....
1 tag
'THIS MORNING AS MY DIARY HEARD IT'
This morning I just stared out the window. It was still dark when I woke up, so I walked to the kitchen. I sat down at the counter, and I laid my porcelain cup down. I watched the sun come up through the window, me and my cup of coffee, just looking out the window and thinking.
I thought about my son; about the men I did not marry; about the one I did; about the things I’ve done; about the things...
best stage direction of all time
ragbag:
“here satan letteth a fart”
found in english morality plays of the 16th century. (source)
manx, the language of love.
Chaarjyn
Manx Valentine’s day greetings
Some say that French is the language of love but I reckon that Manx can give it a run for its money; so why not add a certain style to your valentine’s day love by using some Gaelg/Manx.
Attached are the key phrases needed for all your Gaelic Loving. You can listen to the voice of Gaelic love; that’s to say me reading out these greetings on our website...
“The sun as the expression of old world energy is torn down from the heavens by...”
– El Lissitzy, on the future.
1 tag
Anonymous asked: Among the Mountains is such a mindfuck.
I wish I could find such fulfillment. Maybe we're not meant to find or give such a thing in the material world.
Oh - you can ignore this if you please; it's just the ramblings of a crazy man.
I wish I could find such fulfillment. Maybe we're not meant to find or give such a thing in the material world.
Oh - you can ignore this if you please; it's just the ramblings of a crazy man.
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'MY HOME, THE CANYONS,’ or, ‘SOMETHING I GENERALLY...
Sometimes when I close my eyes I imagine opening them again and seeing hawks circling, kind of like a little mobile of black cut-outs against a blue ceiling.
You don’t really understand the canyons until you see the hawks circling. You get it when you see them watching. And when you ask yourself, “what are they looking at?” And when you figure out the answer.
Once, I hiked up...
the best advice i'll get in a while.
Nick Merrill: i can't believe you convinced me to put buddhist psychology as #2 seminar.
Nick Merrill: watch me get it.
Ben Barad: here is the thing nick
Ben Barad: not everything you do in college has to advance your career
Ben Barad: some of it can be to advance your getting laid
Ben Barad: and let me tell you what my dad told me
Ben Barad: buddhism is the best icebreaker he ever got
Nick Merrill: really? how so?
Ben Barad: apparently the ladies love a man that meditates.
“An important aspect of design is the degree to which the object involves you in...”
– Brian Eno.
1 tag
'MY FATHER AS AN INVESTOR.'
My dad’s legs were crossed, one knee up on the coffee shop’s table, and he flipped through the Wall Street Journal, serene among the caffeinated chatter of the drugged-up patrons, all sipping hastily from paper cups.
“Well, we didn’t see that one coming, Henry, I’ll be honest with you.” He scratched his neck, but he kept this coy smirk on the whole time, like...
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'the kitchen, the moon, and dangerous things,' or,...
Most people who have studied French or Spanish in high school think of ‘gender’ in terms of male and female.
But how do languages decide what is male and what is female?
Spanish has ‘decided’ that ‘kitchen’ (la cochina) is feminine for reasons I should not have to explain.
Spanish has ‘decided’ that ‘bull’ (el torro) is masculine for...
“WL: What reason do people have … to work … harder than—than they...”
– From William Labov’s Charles Homer Haskins Prize Lecture. Labov studied dialectical differences, carefully compiling regional vowel shifts and consonant mutations to create his famous Atlas of North American English.
While studying the speech of Martha’s Vinyardians in the late 50s, he...
1 tag
comics and stories.
Happy February.
This month, I’m going to post super short stories all month. At least one per week, probably a good bit more.
All the stories are under 200 words. One is just over 100.
At the end of the month I’m going to release them all in a collection, plus a few other stories.
I’m also going to be releasing a comic I made a few years ago. It’s called The Incredible...