- Power doesn't create great responsibility; great responsibility creates great power
- Confidence doesn't make you successful; successful behavior creates confidence
- Behavior doesn't rely on personality; behavior creates personality
The Decision that Separates Winners and Loosers
Late Afternoons In Farm Country
The grass covered hills
Get soothingly colored tan and mauve,
And hem-in plowed fields,
Whose freshly turned furrows
Look purple in late afternoon sunlight.
Sparse stands of trees caste shadows
That transmogrify into groups
Of weirdly shaped blotches
Marching across the valley,
Their pace quickening as the sun sets.
Sent via www.liquid.info
Get soothingly colored tan and mauve,
And hem-in plowed fields,
Whose freshly turned furrows
Look purple in late afternoon sunlight.
Sparse stands of trees caste shadows
That transmogrify into groups
Of weirdly shaped blotches
Marching across the valley,
Their pace quickening as the sun sets.
Sent via www.liquid.info
Katie Alice Greer on why all art is political – The Creative Independent
Katie Alice Greer on why all art is political – The Creative Independent: "I think if we’re going to have conversations about art, it’s best to avoid words like that, and actually explain why we think art is political, or art is beautiful, or art is important."
'via Blog this'
'via Blog this'
Kale, Cauliflower, Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, and Cabbage
These are most popular of the world's healthiest vegetables: kale, cauliflower, broccoli, brussels sprouts, and cabbage. They are called brassicas.
For a long time, brassicas had a mixed reputation. The rising popularity of brassicas is due to their extraordinary health benefits and also they can taste delicious when properly prepared, that is without death-by-boiling or burial under a blanket of cheese.
Roasted brassicas are awesome!
For a long time, brassicas had a mixed reputation. The rising popularity of brassicas is due to their extraordinary health benefits and also they can taste delicious when properly prepared, that is without death-by-boiling or burial under a blanket of cheese.
Roasted brassicas are awesome!
Writing and Work
It would seem that in brilliant writing what's at work is a brilliant mind. But what I have found more often than not is that the amount of work that goes into it is what is payed back; if you don't put in the work, you just don't get good writing.
Louis Pasteur said, "In the field of observation, chance favors the prepared mind." In writing, the mind is prepared by writing. That's the work. That is the hard and inglorious work that must precede any good writing.
Writing is such hard work, that I continually draw inspiration and encouragement from the likes of Samuel Beckett, "Ever tried, ever failed? No matter. Try again! Fail again! Fail better!"
Science takes a dry, clinical view of it; a failed experiment is just as valuable as a so-called successful experiment; either way information is obtained; more data; more knowledge. Progress.
And so it is with writing. You write something. It isn't right. You rewrite it. You get an idea in that process. It's like getting closer to a destination you can see it better as you get near, as you reach the crest of a certain hill, you can perfectly see what you need to do. But you have to go down into another dip and then up over another further hill. It is these ups and downs and the movement and the work of movement that makes the progress.
Anyone who's written much has usually asked themselves at some point, "why writing?" Who would want to be a writer?! It's such hard work. And it's all about the end product. The process itself is miserable. I've heard one journalist explain the process of writing as, "you bang your head against the screen until blood comes out. That's writing."
But for those of who have been bitten by the writing bug, what we become attached to is the idea of improvement, so that the process of arriving at the end product - a piece of writing - becomes less painful and more rewarding. Perhaps we will learn something. Learning something interesting that you would not have found out any other way makes the process by which you learned itself of value.
But for those of who have been bitten by the writing bug, what we become attached to is the idea of improvement, so that the process of arriving at the end product - a piece of writing - becomes less painful and more rewarding. Perhaps we will learn something. Learning something interesting that you would not have found out any other way makes the process by which you learned itself of value.
The Value of Hard Work
Are you willing to put in the work? That's the real question. Not what your talents are, despite what your aspirations or goals are, are you willing to do a lot of hard work? If the answer is yes, then you can achieve pretty much anything you think about.
Chili Peppers and Violent Video Games: A Comparison
When you bite into a chili pepper, or food laced with chili pepper, the brain registers "noxious heat*," interpreted as dangerous. When the brain through repeated exposure to chili, learns that there is no danger, the experience looses the unpleasant associations but retains the excitement, or "zest," as it is often referred to by food writers.
Violence, like sex, gets our attention. This has survival value. It also means that when we understand that that violence, as in a video game, is non-threatening, or threatening only to our avatar, but not to our physical self, then we enjoy the thrill of the violence vicariously. The experience looses any negative associations (in our brains) and retains the excitement and stress producing elements that make for engaging game play.
* http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10336113
Violence, like sex, gets our attention. This has survival value. It also means that when we understand that that violence, as in a video game, is non-threatening, or threatening only to our avatar, but not to our physical self, then we enjoy the thrill of the violence vicariously. The experience looses any negative associations (in our brains) and retains the excitement and stress producing elements that make for engaging game play.
* http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10336113
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