This was a tough one — but necessary. It's not all doom and gloom though, we know what we need to do.
“Everything is set for us to win this future. WeThis was a tough one — but necessary. It's not all doom and gloom though, we know what we need to do.
“Everything is set for us to win this future. We have a plan. We know what to do. There is a path to sustainability. It is a path that could lead to a better future for all life on Earth. We must let our politicians and business leaders know that we understand this, that this vision for the future is not just something we need, it is something, above all, that we want.”...more
I don't think I was paying enough attention when he was president, but his actions in the Middle East, specificall2024 Update: I took a star away ...
I don't think I was paying enough attention when he was president, but his actions in the Middle East, specifically his drone wars in Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen as well as his recent propaganda statements regarding the ongoing genocide have made me look at him entirely differently. Not to mention, I just learned of his nickname: Barack'll Bomba Ya
On December 23, 2016, under the Obama Administration, the United States abstained from United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, which condemned Israeli settlement building in the occupied Palestinian territories as a violation of international law, effectively allowing it to pass.
Also — Obama’s actual record over his eight years in office makes him one of the most pro-Israeli American presidents since Harry S Truman. Obama gave Israel considerably more money and arms than any of his predecessors. He has fully lived up to America’s formal commitment to preserve Israel’s “qualitative military edge” by supplying his ally with ever more sophisticated weapons systems. His parting gift to Israel was a staggering military aid package of $38bn for the next 10 years. This represents an increase from the current $3.1 to $3.8bn per annum. It is also the largest military aid package from one country to another in the annals of human history. (The Guardian, 2017)
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An interesting view from behind the scenes of many historic moments. A bit dry and excessively detailed at points, but there was still warmth.
“But you don’t choose the time. The time chooses you. Either you seize what may turn out to be the only chance you have, or you decide you’re willing to live with the knowledge that the chance passed you by.”
Whatever you do won't be enough — try anyway....more
Short and sweet. Probably only a 3ish star read, but upped it to 4 because of the added poignancy reading it so close to his death.
He mentions his caShort and sweet. Probably only a 3ish star read, but upped it to 4 because of the added poignancy reading it so close to his death.
He mentions his cancer and his attitude for life ... and the coronavirus ... okay, I'm going to start crying now.
“... the longer I've lived with cancer, the more my definition of toughness has changed. I used to think not crying meant you were tough. Now I think crying means you're tough. It means you're strong enough to be honest and vulnerable. It means you're not pretending. And not pretending, being able to let your guard down and show people how you truly feel and admit that you're a wuss, is one of the toughest things a person can do.”
“Even if you are learning facts that you are not going to be able to use in your daily life, it enriches you – the fact itself just enriches you as a human being and broadens your outlook on life and makes you a more understanding and better person.”...more
“We cannot fully appreciate the light without the shadows. We have to be thrown off balance to find our footing. It’s better to jump than fall. And he“We cannot fully appreciate the light without the shadows. We have to be thrown off balance to find our footing. It’s better to jump than fall. And here I am.”
Kind of cheesy, but pretty fun and certainly entertaining.
"All destruction eventually leads to construction, all death eventually leads to birth, all pain eventually leads to pleasure. In this life or the next, what goes down will come up. It’s a matter of how we see the challenge in front of us and how we engage with it. Persist, pivot, or concede. It’s up to us, our choice every time.”
“Me? I haven't made all A's in the art of living. But I give a damn. And I'll take an experienced C over an ignorant A any day.”
“A denied expectation hurts more than a denied hope, while a fulfilled hope makes us happier than a fulfilled expectation.”...more
Excellent footnotes, and a rather bright, humorous and approachable look at the demise of the universe.
“In the meantime, we'll continue on, making newExcellent footnotes, and a rather bright, humorous and approachable look at the demise of the universe.
“In the meantime, we'll continue on, making new paths through the woods to see what we might find hiding there. Someday, deep in the unknown wilderness of the distant future, the Sun will expand, the Earth will die, and the cosmos itself will come to an end. In the meantime, we have the entire universe to explore, pushing our creativity to its limits to find new ways of knowing our cosmic home. We can learn and create extraordinary things, and we can share them with each other. And as long as we are thinking creatures, we will never stop asking: 'What comes next?'”...more
An inside look at Instagram — very interesting, and still shocking what people will “do for the 'Gram."
“The more you give up who you are to be liked bAn inside look at Instagram — very interesting, and still shocking what people will “do for the 'Gram."
“The more you give up who you are to be liked by other people, it’s a formula for chipping away at your soul. You become a product of what everyone else wants, and not who you’re supposed to be.”...more
“Between life and death there is a library, and within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you c“Between life and death there is a library, and within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be if you had made other choices… Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets?”
Magical, introspective take on the multiverse through the portal of a library.
Entertaining, but also felt like an adaptation of the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future.
Still, a very solid presentation and very beautifully written at points.
“It is easy to mourn the lives we aren't living. Easy to wish we'd developed other other talents, said yes to different offers. Easy to wish we'd worked harder, loved better, handled our finances more astutely, been more popular, stayed in the band, gone to Australia, said yes to the coffee or done more bloody yoga. It takes no effort to miss the friends we didn't make and the work we didn't do the people we didn't do and the people we didn't marry and the children we didn't have. It is not difficult to see yourself through the lens of other people, and to wish you were all the different kaleidoscopic versions of you they wanted you to be. It is easy to regret, and keep regretting, ad infinitum, until our time runs out. But it is not lives we regret not living that are the real problem. It is the regret itself. It's the regret that makes us shrivel and wither and feel like our own and other people's worst enemy. We can't tell if any of those other versions would of been better or worse. Those lives are happening, it is true, but you are happening as well, and that is the happening we have to focus on.”
“A person was like a city. You couldn't let a few less desirable parts put you off the whole. There may be bits you don't like, a few dodgy side streets and suburbs, but the good stuff makes it worth-while.”
“We only need to be one person. We only need to feel one existence. We don't have to do everything in order to be everything, because we are already infinite. While we are alive we always contain a future of multifarious possibility.”
“Maybe that's what all lives were, though. Maybe even the most seemingly perfectly intense or worthwhile lives ultimately felt the same. Acres of disappointment and monotony and hurts and rivalries but with flashes of wonder and beauty. Maybe that was the only meaning that mattered. To be the world, witnessing itself.”
“When you stay too long in a place, you forget just how big an expanse the world is. You get no sense of the length of those longitudes and latitudes. Just as, she supposed, it is hard to have a sense of the vastness inside any one person. But once you sense that vastness, once something reveals it, hope emerges, whether you want it to or not, and it clings to you as stubbornly as lichen clings to rock.”...more
Extremely melodramatic and melancholy ... much more depressing than I was expecting. Still, some excellent quotes:
“Nothing is so painful to the human Extremely melodramatic and melancholy ... much more depressing than I was expecting. Still, some excellent quotes:
“Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.”
“Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.”
“I do know that for the sympathy of one living being, I would make peace with all. I have love in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine and rage the likes of which you would not believe. If I cannot satisfy the one, I will indulge the other.”
“It is true, we shall be monsters, cut off from all the world; but on that account we shall be more attached to one another.”
Literally laughed out loud more than once. Satisfactorily entertaining, although by the end I was ready for it to be over and had kind of lost interesLiterally laughed out loud more than once. Satisfactorily entertaining, although by the end I was ready for it to be over and had kind of lost interest in her mocking American Pie. I think there was only one or two movies I hadn’t seen, but I can see this book not landing at all if you haven’t seen the majority.
“Of course, it must be acknowledged that The Fugitive is a movie all about men, where women don’t do very much except die or sometimes hold a clipboard. It’s all men who are the boss, but who is the most boss of the men??? Is it the Harrison Ford kind of boss or the Tommy Lee Jones kind of boss? They’re both your dad, but which is the best spanker????? This is allowed because in 1993 it was still okay to make movies all about men, as their contract wasn’t up yet.”...more
I was expecting a little more based on the hype, but to be honest, I’m not super familiar with Noah. Very random, yet satisfactory and insightful.
“We I was expecting a little more based on the hype, but to be honest, I’m not super familiar with Noah. Very random, yet satisfactory and insightful.
“We tell people to follow their dreams, but you can only dream of what you can imagine, and, depending on where you come from, your imagination can be quite limited.”
“Language, even more than color, defines who you are to people.”
“I don’t regret anything I’ve ever done in life, any choice that I’ve made. But I’m consumed with regret for the things I didn’t do, the choices I didn’t make, the things I didn’t say. We spend so much time being afraid of failure, afraid of rejection. But regret is the thing we should fear most. Failure is an answer. Rejection is an answer. Regret is an eternal question you will never have the answer to. “What if…” “If only…” “I wonder what would have…” You will never, never know, and it will haunt you for the rest of your days.”...more
Fun, campy “horror” set during the satanic panic of the 1980s. Not quite as good as *The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires,* but still veFun, campy “horror” set during the satanic panic of the 1980s. Not quite as good as *The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires,* but still very entertaining.
“There was no falling-out, no great tragedy, just a hundred thousand trivial moments they didn’t share, each one an inch of distance between them, and eventually those inches added up to miles.”
In her early 50s, Shapiro learns she is not the biological child of her father. Introspective and compelling narrative on identity. My first introductIn her early 50s, Shapiro learns she is not the biological child of her father. Introspective and compelling narrative on identity. My first introduction to Shapiro.
“To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest. To live fully is to be always in no-man’s-land.”
“The people who are with us by either happenstance or design during life-altering events become woven into the fabric of those events.”
“Throughout history, great philosophical minds have grappled with the nature of identity. What makes a person a person? What combination of memory, history, imagination, experience, subjectivity, genetic substance, and that ineffable thing called the soul makes us who we are? Is who we are the same as who we believe ourselves to be?”...more
Renowned Cambridge classicist considers how we view art. Short and sweet.
"So much depends on who is looking, from ancient master or ancient slave to eRenowned Cambridge classicist considers how we view art. Short and sweet.
"So much depends on who is looking, from ancient master or ancient slave to eighteenth-century connoisseur or twenty-first-century tourist. And so much depends on the context in which they look, whether ancient cemetery or temple, English stately home or modern museum. I am not sure that it is ever possible entirely to recreate the views of those who first saw classical art, and I am not sure that it is the be all and end all of our understanding anyway (the changing ways these objects have been seen through the centuries is an important part of their history too). But in *How Do We Look* I have tried to reflect the domestic ordinariness—and occasionally the flamboyance—of some ancient art, and I have tried to recapture something of 'the shock of the new.'"...more
Honest and raw, I knew almost nothing about Chang before I jumped in. Engaging and interesting, this one was a pleasant surprise.
“The paradox for theHonest and raw, I knew almost nothing about Chang before I jumped in. Engaging and interesting, this one was a pleasant surprise.
“The paradox for the workaholic is that rock bottom is the top of whatever profession they’re in.”
“When I started Momofuku, I killed the version of me that didn’t want to stick his neck out or take chances. Even in its larval stages, when it was more theory than restaurant, Momofuku was about carving out some form of identity for myself. It would be my way of rejecting what the tea leaves said about me. Work made me a different person. Work saved my life.”...more
This one will stick with you and probably choke you up a bit. Nothing like someone's deathbed musings to make you appreciate the life you have left.
“IThis one will stick with you and probably choke you up a bit. Nothing like someone's deathbed musings to make you appreciate the life you have left.
“I cannot pretend I am without fear. But my predominant feeling is one of gratitude. I have loved and been loved; I have been given much and I have given something in return; I have read and traveled and thought and written. I have had an intercourse with the world, the special intercourse of writers and readers.
Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure.”...more
A surprise skip-the-line I wasn't expecting, and much better than Practical Magic in my opinion—although I LOVE the movie with Nicole Kidman and SandrA surprise skip-the-line I wasn't expecting, and much better than Practical Magic in my opinion—although I LOVE the movie with Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock.
This book has everything you could want from a book about magic: Strong women, love, animal familiars, long journeys, challenges overcome, and beautiful settings in historic times.
My 10th Seth Godin book. He is fantastic at short little books that pack a powerful punch. I can see “Quit or be exceptional. Average is for losers.”
My 10th Seth Godin book. He is fantastic at short little books that pack a powerful punch. I can see myself revisiting this one, especially as it is so brief.
Knowing when to quit is an important skill. Hang in there when the payoff is great, but even winners throw in the towel from time to time.
“Persistent people are able to visualize the idea of light at the end of the tunnel when others can't see it.”...more
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