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Single life, the myth

If magazines and television shows are to be believed, being single and female is like a long, drunken day at Disneyland. And in the magic shoe kingdom, you don’t walk the least bit funny in four-inch heels.

Single life, the reality

Being single today has very little to do with romantic weekend getaways, and a lot to do with doubt, fear, panic, insecurity, self-loathing, boredom, frustration, and mewling on the phone to anyone who will listen.

Marriage

Why tie the knot, when you can simply leave the rope slung casually over your throat?

Optimism

Some day your prince will come. And if he doesn’t, some other dude will.

Optimism, desperate

If it weren’t for so-called “bad” relationships, many of us would have no relationships at all.

Self-blame

Love is a nightmare of compromise and generosity. Still, when it goes wrong, when it fails to appear, or when it comes home blind drunk at three A.M. and pees on the bed, we experience disappointment and a crushing sense of failure.

Flexibility

Luckily, relationships are nonbonding and therefore marvelously flexible. If you find that you have accidentally committed to the wrong person, you may scrap the commitment and commit again with total impunity.

Standards

A general rule of thumb when it comes to looking for love in the modern world is to stop being so picky.
http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/review.asp?id=73370&back=http://www.newcity.com
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"There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit -- immortal horrors or everlasting splendours."

The Weight of Glory

quotes

Jan. 6th, 2003 10:22 am
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A preoccupation with the future not only prevents us from seeing the
present as it is but often prompts us to rearrange the past.
-- Eric Hoffer, The Passionate State of Mind, 1954

Cynicism is not realistic and tough. It's unrealistic and kind of
cowardly because it means you don't have to try.
-- Peggy Noonan, in Good Housekeeping

I'm never going to be famous. My name will never be writ large on the
roster of Those Who Do Things. I don't do any thing. Not one single
thing. I used to bite my nails, but I don't even do that any more.
-- Dorothy Parker, Here Lies (1939), "The Little Hours"
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"In the lives of children, pumpkins can turn into coaches, mice and rats into human beings. When we grow up, we learn that it's far more common for human beings to turn into rats."
Gregory Maguire, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

Galinda seemed to give up. She leaned her head back on the velvet cushions of the swing and said, "Boq, you know despite myself I think you're a little sweet. You're a little sweet and you're a little charming and you're a little maddening and you're a little habit-forming."
Boq held his breath.
"But you're little!" she concluded. "You're a Munchkin, for god's sake!"
He kissed her, he kissed her, he kissed her, little by little by little.
- Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West


Was it an accident I saw that, Fiyero wondered,
looking at the manager with new eyes.
Or is it just that the world unwraps itself to you,
again and again, as soon as you are ready to see it anew?.

GM, Wicked

The more civilized we become, the more horrendous our entertainments.
GM, Wicked
mercifulserpent: (Default)
So I went over much grass and many flowers and among all kinds of wholesome and delectable trees till lo! in a narrow place between two rocks there came to meet me a great Lion. The speed of him was like the ostrich, and his size was an elephant's; his hair was like pure gold and the brightness of his eyes, like gold that is liquid in the furnace. He was more terrible than the Flaming Mountain of Lagour, and in beauty he surpassed all that is in the world, even as the rose in bloom surpasses the dust of the desert. Then I fell at his feet and thought, Surely this is the hour of death, for the Lion (who is worthy of all honour) will know that I have served Tash all my days and not him. Nevertheless, it is better to see the Lion and die than to be Tisroc of the world and live and not to have seen him. But the Glorious One bent down his golden head and touched my forehead with his tongue and said, Son, thou art welcome. But I said, Alas, Lord, I am no son of Thine but the servant of Tash. He answered, Child, all the service thou has done to Tash, I account as service done to me. Then by reason of my great desire for wisdom and understanding, I overcame my fear and questioned the Glorious One and said, Lord, is it then true, as the Ape said, that thou and Tash are one? The Lion growled so that the earth shook (but his wrath was not against me) and said, It is false. Not because he and I are one, but because we are opposites. I take to me the services which thou hast done to him, for I and he are of such different kinds that no service which is vile can be done to me, and none which is not vile can be done to him. Therefore if a man swear by Tash and keep his oath for the oath's sake, it is by me that he has truly sworn, though he know it not, and it is I who reward him. And if any man do a cruelty in my name, then though he says the name Aslan, it is Tash whom he serves and by Tash his deed is accepted."
The Last Battle, by C. S. Lewis

when i was in catholic school, that quote got me in so much trouble... heh.

cs lewis

Dec. 20th, 2002 09:33 pm
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"There!" said several voices. "It isn't an animal at all. It's not alive."
"I tell you, it is an animal," said the Bulldog. "Smell it for yourself."
"Smelling isn't everything," said the Elephant.
"Why," said the Bulldog, "if a fellow can't trust his nose, what is he to trust?"
"Well, his brains perhaps," she replied mildly.

C. S. Lewis in The Magician's Nephew

"Then it was you who wounded Aravis?"
"It was I."
"But what for?"
"Child, I am telling you your story, not hers. I tell no-one any story but his own."

in The Horse and his Boy, by C. S. Lewis.
mercifulserpent: (Default)
"When I brought out my notebook, Derrida got upset. He felt turning our discussion into an interview would ruin it.
After he was offered banana bread, however, and tried it for the first time, he loved it so much that he pointed to me and said, 'You can write that. I love banana bread.' So I did, not because it's interesting but because he was motioning somewhat threateningly for a 72-year-old Frenchman. Then he told me I could ask him 'facts.' I reminded him that his writing argues that facts don't exist, which didn't go over well. Deconstructionist jokes, it turns out, have a really high bar."
- Joel Stein
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"When a word ceases to be a term of description and becomes merely a term of praise, it no longer tells you facts about the object: it only tells you about the speaker's attitude toward that object."

Mere Christianity

quotes

Nov. 25th, 2002 01:01 pm
mercifulserpent: (Default)
A handful of patience is worth more than a bushel of brains.
-- Dutch Proverb

It is in his pleasure that a man really lives; it is from his leisure
that he constructs the true fabric of self.
-- Agnes Repplier

Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than
you need.
-- Kahlil Gibran

To believe in God or in a guiding force because someone tells you to is
the height of stupidity. We are given senses to receive our information
within. With our own eyes we see, and with our own skin we feel. With
our intelligence, it is intended that we understand. But each person
must puzzle it out for himself or herself.
-- Sophy Burnham

nietzsche

Nov. 6th, 2002 09:49 am
mercifulserpent: (Default)
Friedrich Nietzsche - Eternal Recurrence
From The Gay Science
341. The greatest stress

What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you in your loneliest loneliness and say to you: "This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unutterably small or great in your life will have to return to you, all in the same succession and sequence—even this spider and this moonlight between the trees, and even this moment and I myself. The eternal hourglass of existence is turned upside down again and again, and you with it, speck of dust!"

Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him: "You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine." If this thought gained possession of you, it would change you as you are or perhaps crush you. The question in each and every thing, "Do you desire this once more, and innumerable times more?" would lie upon your actions as the greatest weight. Or how well disposed would you have to become to yourself and to life to crave nothing more fervently than this ultimate eternal confirmation and seal?

quotes

Oct. 30th, 2002 08:31 pm
mercifulserpent: (Default)
I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish that
He didn't trust me so much.
-- Mother Teresa

Self-development is a higher duty than self-sacrifice.
-- Elizabeth Cady Stanton

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which
you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself,
'I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes
along.' You must do the thing you think you cannot do.
-- Eleanor Roosevelt

Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate
prejudices - just recognize them.
-- Edward R. Murrow, television broadcast, December 31, 1955

quotes

Oct. 24th, 2002 02:15 pm
mercifulserpent: (Default)
There is no need to go to India or anywhere else to find peace. You
will find that deep place of silence right in your room, your garden or
even your bathtub.
-- Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which
ones to keep.
-- Scott Adams, 'The Dilbert Principle'

America is a vast conspiracy to make you happy.
-- John Updike, Problems and Other Stories

Maps encourage boldness. They're like cryptic love letters. They make
anything seem possible.
-- Mark Jenkins, "To Timbuktu"

the bicycle

Oct. 3rd, 2002 01:04 pm
mercifulserpent: (Default)
The Zen master met with three students who rode bicycles to the Zendo.

He asked the first student, "Why do you ride your bicycle?"

The student replied, "Master, I ride my bicycle to save energy and use less gasoline."

"Very commendable, young Student, very thrifty."

The Master turned to the second student and asked, "Why do you ride your bicycle?"

The student replied, "Master, I ride my bicycle for the fresh air and exercise."

"You are blessed," replied the Master, " you will live a long and healthy life."

Finally, the Master turned to the third student and asked, "Why do you ride your bicycle?"

The third student replied, "Master, I ride my bicycle to ride my bicycle."

The Zen master knelt and said, "I am your student."
mercifulserpent: (Default)
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): You have underestimated how
much happiness you are capable of attracting into your life.
Believe it or not, this artificially low expectation has cheated you out of your fair share of joy, pleasure, fulfillment, and a sense of meaning. Your assignment for the next four weeks is to jack up your levels of happiness by at least 20 percent. Work hard at this task, Taurus -- at least as hard as you do at your job. (The greater your effort, the more cosmic assistance you'll receive.) To get started, divest yourself of a mediocre thrill that distracts you from an intelligence-building excitement.
mercifulserpent: (Default)
"I used to dream of slaying monsters," he went on. "And I
used to fear that the days of adventures were all past. I
longed for magic and mystery and fabulous beasts. But it
never occurred to me before: If my wish came true, and I
went out and killed all the dragons and griffons that there
were, I would be destroying the very thing I longed for.

"I don't say," he added, "that I would like things to be as
they were in the old days: monsters roaming around freely,
terrorizing people and carrying maidens and little children
off to be eaten. But it seems . . . it seems there ought to
be some sort of middle ground between utter chaos and a
world that is safe and colorless and dull, without even the
possibility of peril, or wonder, or surprises.

"I don't know," he said, "that I want to live in a world
without griffons."

The Work of the Sun
The Green Lion Trilogy
Teresa Edgerton
mercifulserpent: (Default)
"The others have gone," she said. "They are scattered to the woods they came from, no two together, and men will not catch sight of them much more easily than if they were still in the sea. I will go back to my forest too, but I do not know if I will live contentedly there, or anywhere. I have been mortal, and some part of me is mortal yet. I am full of tears and hunger and the fear of death, though I cannot weep, and I want nothing, and I cannot die. I am not like the others now, for no unicorn was ever born who could regret, but I do. I regret."





tlu
mercifulserpent: (Default)
Fighting in an army is a psychotic condition encouraged by a rule-of-thumb psychological technique discovered independently by every son-of-a-bitch conqueror who ever brought a backward people out of a comfortable, civilized state of nonentity (Chaka Zulu, Attila, Bismark, etc.) and started them slaughtering their neighbors. I don't approve of people who encourage psychoses in their fellow human beings. You probably do. Cure yourself of that habit.
from You: Beast by Chad C. Mulligan





so i finished that today. duuuuude. that book was awesome. i'm not normally a big fan of "classic" sci fi from before the eighties -- i'm an enlightened black person and i can tell you the roots of the stereotypes found therein. kind of. and why would i read sci fi that's like as bigoted as real life? but zanzibar amazed me. the only thing that really gave away the WHEN of when it was written was the terms used for black people... which were AfrAms, coloured, negro, and blacks, aframs being the term used by the nice characters and others being used by the not nice ones. also sometimes people used "brown nose." but that was the only thing that made me realize that this book was not written at the same time as say david brin's *earth* or william's *otherland* series.

bamboozled

Apr. 24th, 2002 09:45 am
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Cousins, I want all of you to go to
your windows. Go to your windows
and yell, scream with all the life
you can muster up inside your
assaulted, bruised amd battered
bodies.


I'm sick and tired of being a
nigger and I'm not gonna take it
anymore.
mercifulserpent: (Default)
deliriouspomo: I don't know what it is, but every time I see a white guy walking towards me, I tense up. My heart starts racing, and I immediately begin to look for an escape route and a means to defend myself. I kick myself for even being in this part of town after dark. Didn't I notice the suspicious gangs of white people lurking on every street corner, drinking Starbucks and wearing their gang colors of Gap turquoise or J Crew mauve? What an idiot! Now the white person is coming closer, closer - and then - whew! He walks by without harming me, and I breathe a sigh of relief. White people scare the crap out of me. This may be hard for you to understand - considering that I am white - but then again, my color gives me a certain insight. For instance, I find myself pretty scary a lot of the time, so I know what I'm talking about.
mercifulserpent: (Default)
If Los Angeles is a woman reclining billboard model and the San Fernando Valley is her teenybopper sister, then New York is their cousin. Her hair is dyed autumn red or aubergine or Egyptian henna, depending on her mood. Her skin is pale as frost and she wears beautiful Jil Sander suits and Prada pumps on which she walks faster than a speeding taxi (when it is caught in rush hour, that is). Her lips are some unlikely shade of copper or violet, courtesy of her local MAC drag queen makeup consultant. She is always carrying bags of clothes, bouquets of roses, take-out Chinese containers, or bagels. Museum tags fill her pockets and purses, along with perfume samples and invitations to art gallery openings. When she is walking to work, to ward off bums or psychos, her face resembles the Statue of Liberty, but at home in her candlelit, dove-colored apartment, the stony look fades away and she smiles like the sterling roses she has bought for herself to make up for the fact that she is single and her feet are sore.

- from I Was a Teenage Fairy by Francesca Lia Block



Maybe Mab was real. Maybe she was the fury, the courage, the sex. Whatever Mab had been, now, joined with her tiny winged red-haired biscuit, Mab was the love, flying through the night like an errant star that had longed to know, even briefly, what make planet Earth's children weep and sing. - I Was A Teenage Fairy by Francesca Lia Block


Barbie was no longer afraid of anything. It was like the thing Mab had said about belief. The belief is sometimes the biggest part of it all. You can choose to believe in your published book being held in the loving hands of strangers, your name tattooed forever on the heart of the one you adore; you can choose to believe in tiny red-haired pesk piskies - all the things 'they' may tell you not to believe in. But who are they anyway? What do they know? What makes them any more real? And now, Barbie realized, I am telling Mab to believe. I am telling Belief herself to believe. - I Was A Teenage Fairy by Francesca Lia Block

la.

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