the everything notebook

"Do not feel absolutely certain of anything. Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every..."

Tue, 29 May 2012 23:56:27 -0500

“

Do not feel absolutely certain of anything.

Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.

Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.

Be scrupulously truthful, even if the truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.

”

- Bertrand Russell (via)

"The finished piece on its own, however, frequently acts as a seductive screen that distracts us from..."

Fri, 18 May 2012 00:01:34 -0500

“The finished piece on its own, however, frequently acts as a seductive screen that distracts us from this higher level of investigation. The allure of the veneer hides many of the choices (good and bad) that were a part of the construction; the seams are sanded out and all the lines made smooth. We are tempted by the quality of the work to ask how to reproduce its beauty. And how can you blame us? Beauty is palpable, while intentions and objectives are largely invisible.”

- FRANK CHIMERO

"The scientists describe thoughts of God as providing the mind with “important psychological..."

Sun, 13 May 2012 15:01:06 -0500

“The scientists describe thoughts of God as providing the mind with “important psychological nutrients” that “refuel” our inner resources…”

- JONAH LEHRER

"It is a dance of switching contexts, a pitter-patter pacing across the studio floor that produces a..."

Sat, 12 May 2012 15:04:19 -0500

“It is a dance of switching contexts, a pitter-patter pacing across the studio floor that produces a tight feedback loop between mark-making and mark-assessing. The artist, when near, is concerned with production; when far, he enters a mode of criticism where he judges the degree of benefit (or detriment) the previous choice has had on the full arrangement.”

- FRANK CHIMERO

"Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They..."

Fri, 11 May 2012 15:03:00 -0500

““Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home.””

- Anna Quindlen, How Reading Changed My Life (via katrissed)

half full

Thu, 10 May 2012 15:02:52 -0500

half full

"The more digital humanities associates itself with social media the better off it will be. Not..."

Wed, 09 May 2012 15:03:06 -0500

“The more digital humanities associates itself with social media the better off it will be. Not because social media is the only way to do digital scholarship, but because I think social media is the only way to do scholarship period. Yes it is true that there are hosts of scholars having scholarly discussions who are not on Twitter, but you know what, they better be, or they risk being made irrelevant. No this doesn’t mean that every scholar has to have a Twitter account, but it probably wouldn’t hurt, but it does mean that every scholar better be having their discussions in public on the web in these digital spaces for all to participate in.
…
Seriously, don’t tell me your project on using computers to “tag up Milton” is the new bold cutting edge future of humanities, or if it is the future of the humanities it is a future in which the humanities becomes increasingly irrelevant and faculty continue to complain at boorish parties how society marginalizes them, all the while reveling in said marginalization, wearing it as a badge of honor which purportedly proves their superiority on all matters cultural.”

- DAVE PARRY

"…because notions concerning the sanctity of language are intimately bound up with ideas of..."

Tue, 08 May 2012 15:01:21 -0500

“…because notions concerning the sanctity of language are intimately bound up with ideas of social order, typographic forms that deviate from a prescriptive discourse often incite suspicion on the part of those who wish to keep the boundaries of standardization intact.”

- KATIE SALEN

"What ends up happening in the world, on a very, very large level, has a lot to do with what people..."

Tue, 08 May 2012 09:41:58 -0500

“What ends up happening in the world, on a very, very large level, has a lot to do with what people believe will happen. Because these things are self-fulfilling — when enough people start to believe in a certain future outcome, their subconscious ends up acting on their behaviors, and that outcome ends up kind of happening. And so I think it’s so important to put forth beautiful, and also believable, visions of how things can be in the future, because then many people will believe in these things, and then those things will begin to come true.”

- Cowbird founder Jonathan Harris at the PSFK Conference. (via explore-blog)

everyone. everywhere…

Mon, 07 May 2012 19:38:25 -0500

everyone. everywhere…

"What you should prepare for is mess. Life’s a mess. You are not entitled to expect anything from it...."

Tue, 01 May 2012 15:08:35 -0500

“What you should prepare for is mess. Life’s a mess. You are not entitled to expect anything from it. Life is not fair. Everything does not balance out in the end. Life happens, and you have no control over it. Good and bad things happen to you day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment. … Don’t expect anything. Erase all life expectancies. Just live.”

- ADRIAN TAN

"… given that there are only 26 letters (and 21 consonants) in the alphabet, it is inevitable..."

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 15:06:22 -0500

“… given that there are only 26 letters (and 21 consonants) in the alphabet, it is inevitable that in a text of any size patterns of repetition and frequency will abound. The trick is to separate the patterns produced by the scarcity of alphabetic resources (patterns to which meaning can be imputed only arbitrarily) from the patterns designed by an author.”

- STANLEY FISH

"I went to a talk once by Elder Holland when he came to a stake conference in Mesa, Arizona. He told..."

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 15:06:46 -0500

“I went to a talk once by Elder Holland when he came to a stake conference in Mesa, Arizona. He told us that Heavenly Father loves broken things. He said that from broken sky comes rain, from broken earth comes grain, and from broken grain comes bread. He says Heavenly Father just loves broken things and when we bring Him our broken hearts, he takes such good care of them on his altars, he is so tender with them and if we sit really patiently and let him work with our broken hearts, he sends us off with a stronger heart than the one we had before it broke.”

- EMILY GROVER

"In our culture, not to know is to be at fault socially… People pretend to know lots of things they..."

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:07:30 -0500

“In our culture, not to know is to be at fault socially… People pretend to know lots of things they don’t know. Because the worst thing to do is appear to be uninformed about something, to not have an opinion… We should know the limits of our knowledge and understand what we don’t know, and be wiling to explore things we don’t know without feeling embarrassed of not knowing about them.”

- Sir Ken Robinson on the essential role of exploration in finding your element, which in turn changes everything. (via explore-blog)

"the right choices in language can somehow give birth to a unique and startling understanding of the..."

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 15:06:43 -0500

“the right choices in language can somehow give birth to a unique and startling understanding of the world. Sentences and language and what language gives birth to in fiction—atmosphere, voice—
become the focal point”

- JOHN WARNER

"The event of falling in love is of such a nature that we are right to reject as intolerable the idea..."

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 15:03:36 -0500

““The event of falling in love is of such a nature that we are right to reject as intolerable the idea that it should be transitory. In one high bound it has overleaped the massive of our selfhood; it has made appetite itself altruistic, tossed personal happiness aside as a triviality and planted the interests of another in the centre of our being. Spontaneously and without effort we have fulfilled the law (towards one person) by loving our neighbour as ourselves. It is an image, a foretaste, of what we must become to all if Love Himself rules in us without a rival. It is even (well used) a preparation for that.””

- C. S. Lewis

"In standard English usage, the proper names of national and religious groups are traditionally..."

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 15:04:21 -0500

“In standard English usage, the proper names of national and religious groups are traditionally marked with a capital letter. The rule is occasionally taken as a gesture of honor that can be bestowed or denied at the discretion of the writer or editor.”

- KATIE SALEN

"That is, let not great examples, or authorities, browbeat they reason into too great a diffidence fo..."

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 15:02:50 -0500

“That is, let not great examples, or authorities, browbeat they reason into too great a diffidence fo thyself: thyself so reverence, as to prefer the native growth of thy own mind to the richest import from abroad; such borrowed riches make us poor.”

- Encyclopaedia Britannica; or, a dictionary of arts and sciences, compiled upon a new plan. Edinburgh, 1771. 782pp. Vol. 1 of 3.

Photo

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 15:01:35 -0500

"…what I most long for is that good grammar becomes the height of fashion. I know not everyone..."

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 08:17:00 -0500

“…what I most long for is that good grammar becomes the height of fashion. I know not everyone shares this desire. Many times, I have been called a grammar Nazi. Can we discuss for a moment how wildly inappropriate it is to equate my love of grammar with one of the most evil movements in all of human history? I am a fan of hyperbole, but come on. The love of a well-placed semicolon does not a fascist make! Why must I be insulted for my love of spelling and sentence structure? Also, why don’t men find it sexy that I know how to diagram a sentence?”

- Mandi Harris, hello giggles