April 2011
51 posts
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"If all else fails, flask it."
-Piece of advice I just received. I want it on my tombstone.
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Trapeze? Check. Net? Not so much.
Sometimes knowing that no one—no one—has your back just makes it all the more exhilarating when you pull off that blindfolded triple-flip in midair.
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I don't think "Inbox" means what you think it...
On those rare and fleeting occasions when I actually achieve the near-mythical “Inbox Zero,” I allow myself to celebrate only until the moment I realize that I still have a dozen Twitter DMs and private Tumblr “questions” in need of responses.
The average duration of that celebratory period is about four seconds.
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The Passive-Aggressive Anarchist: episode 1
“No, that’s OK, Carl. I didn’t want to smash any of those big windows. It’s not like I brought these bricks all the way from home or anything. You go ahead and smash them all yourself. No, it’s fine, really. I’ll just kick over this little plastic box with the alt-weeklies in it. I didn’t want to get glass all over me anyway.”
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What?
Really?
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It's a good thing our Freedom Bombs only kill the...
At least 25 people have been killed in a US drone strike in the troubled Pakistani tribal region of North Waziristan, officials told the BBC.
Missiles were fired on a large compound in the town of Spinwam, but five women and four children in a nearby house were also killed.
Oops. I guess a 36% rate of civilian casualties is acceptable now, so long as we’re hitting at least a couple of...
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The Three Initiates
He’d been talking for five full minutes—mostly in circles—but I couldn’t bring myself to hang up the phone. It wasn’t so much what he was saying, but how. Something about his voice wasn’t right. He spoke precise, unaccented English. A little too precise, maybe. It sounded almost constructed. Artificial. Inorganic, even.
“I do hope you see my point, Mr. Dundee,” the man said.
“I’m not at all sure...
Pharmaceutical cagematch
Tonight, in my body, the Ambien Walrus will go head-to-head with the Adderall Ocelot.
Stay tuned!
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I don't much care for Nick Hornby novels.
There, I’ve said it.
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imperfectreflections asked: What are some of your favourite non-writing things to do?
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wordishness asked: <p><ol><li>When is the book coming out?</li>
<li>What’s your favorite guilty-pleasure movie?</li>
<li>What’s your favorite chewing gum? Why? Show your work.</li>
<li>Am I out of questions now? The answer is ‘yes.’</li>
</ol></p>
<li>What’s your favorite guilty-pleasure movie?</li>
<li>What’s your favorite chewing gum? Why? Show your work.</li>
<li>Am I out of questions now? The answer is ‘yes.’</li>
</ol></p>
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In my sleep last night, I imagined I got a boat...
My god, even my dreams are insufferably nerdy.
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My day so far
Coffee, Wittgenstein and Galileo and Lenny Bruce, idle chatter, overdue responses, choosing shoes, handling contractors, eight paragraphs of consciousness, two lines of sorrow, one signature with a fountain pen, Fuji negatives, quick photograph, not enough stretching, an unexpected gift, pondering, worrying, wondering, connecting dots, a ‘eureka’ moment fizzles, cleaning up a spill, envying...
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Platform rickets
Tumblr is sort of like that kid you knew when you were in first grade. He was just like everyone else and was very popular, but then in the second grade, he was suddenly walking funny and his arms just sort of dangled in an odd way.
By the third grade, he had braces on his legs and Kenny armband crutches. You still liked him and rooted for him, even though it frustrated the snot out of you to...
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"The Claws of Mississippi"
“A writer,” William Faulkner once said, “must teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid.”
What no one seems to remember is what he said immediately after that, which was, “OH MY FUCKING GOD THERE IS A TIGER IN THE HOUSE. HOW DID A TIGER GET IN HERE? SWEET MOTHER OF MERCY GET ME AWAY FROM THE TIGER!”
And now you know what my work day was like....
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Word count
Just out of curiosity, what do you think is the minimum number of words a piece should/must contain before I can legitimately tag it with #long reads?
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Crypto
Reblogging this old story because it pleases me.
ministryofapostrophes:
I used to get teased in school because my name is Irv and the other kids said that’s a stupid old man’s name. Washington Irving Visser is a hard name and it took me a long time to learn how to spell it all out.
Mom told me that Washington Irving was a writer and then I learned about him last year in the fifth grade so I...
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"Harry Reid and I fought hard to bring you this...
That’s what Obama should have said, were he being completely honest.
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Reminder for myself, once again:
Never write for free. Even as a favor.
Don’t do it. Ever.
Ever ever ever ever ever.
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The Masters
The Masters Tournament of golf begins today. So at the risk of spoiling the “action” for some of you, if you don’t have time to tune into the television coverage, let me tell you precisely what is going to take place:
[ whispering ]
Guy hits a little ball, walks a hundred yards.
[ whispering ]
Guy hits a little ball, walks a hundred yards.
[ commercials for things you...
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Collections
ministryofapostrophes:
I was in Chicago for the better part of 1912. Mostly to stir up trouble at the Republican National Convention, but also because I needed to personally take care of some… collections that were seriously overdue. (I’d been waiting for that bastard Mussao for six months before his wife helped me collect. She even set the poor scoundrel on fire after she shot him - an...
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Dear Tumblr:
I do not like that there is no way for me to tell if someone “liked” an original post of mine, or a reblog of a reblog of that post.
It’s a minor point of no real importance in the grand scheme of things, but still. It would be nice to occasionally discern who saw and liked the original content versus those who reflexively ‘hearted’ it because it had someone...
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Melancholy yet bromidic quote about the ultimate futility of life from some...
– Some author that you think looks good on your shelf in a battered paperback Penguin Classics edition you bought in the same thrift shop as the smelly hat you’re currently wearing
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I am about to go on an angry drunken unfollowing...
No hard feelings.
[ hic ]