July 5, 2009
suicideblonde: Zipper bracelet

suicideblonde:

Zipper bracelet
TODAY’S THING THAT MAKES ME HAPPY = Good fortune!  I carried a small cabinet someone was throwing away / giving away up from the Dumpsters, and while I was cleaning it out, some things that had fallen underneath the drawer slid out, including one hundred dollars!  This is by far the most money I’ve ever found, and for someone with no income at the moment who’s starting a big job push after this weekend, greatly greatly appreciated.
MATILDA!!!!!!!!! via

MATILDA!!!!!!!!!

via

AWKWARD FAMILY PHOTO SUNDAY!  Don’t forget to wear pants this holiday weekend, folks! http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com

AWKWARD FAMILY PHOTO SUNDAY!  Don’t forget to wear pants this holiday weekend, folks!

http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com

I love ambigrams as much as the next person — even MORE, actually, quite possibly a lot more — but even I wouldn’t get something as ridiculous as the English alphabet tattooed on my flesh.
I love ambigrams as much as the next person — even MORE, actually, quite possibly a lot more — but even I wouldn’t get something as ridiculous as the English alphabet tattooed on my flesh.
July 4, 2009

thedailywhat:

Video Game IRL of the Day: The Mega64 crew traverses the perilous Oregon Trail, attempting to arrive safely at their destination without succumbing to the harshness of 19th century pioneer life.

[via.]

From Barbara Walter's Memoir AUDITION, a conversation between her grandmother Lillian and her cousin Shirley, on the morning of the day Lillian died.

  • Lillian: I am a virgin.
  • Shirley: How could you be, Grandma? You have seven children.
  • Lillian: I know. But I never participated.

TODAY’S THING THAT MAKES ME HAPPY = Not judging a book by its cover.  Two meatheads walked into the gym while my boyfriend and I were working out, immediately turned on the game and turned up the sound, and started shouting to each other (in that stereotypically dumb jock accent that’s a mix of New York, Boston, and too many blows to the head) about their workout routines.

I rolled my eyes and tried to concentrate on my workout as they yelled back and forth, but eventually, to my surprise, one asked the other:

“How was that ESPN audition you had last week?”

Turns out, at least one of them is an actor, a good one, who was with my boyfriend’s commercial talent agent for seven years, during which he booked eleven national spots and a bunch of TV.  And he co-wrote and performed a two-person play that won an NAACP Award a few years ago.  AND his day job is working in shelters and group homes, trying to help people turn their lives around.

Lots more than meets the eye, and someone I’d be interested in knowing.  Did he scream like a delighted child when Manny Ramirez hit a home run during his first at-bat since his suspension ended?  Yes.  But is there a helluva lot more to him?  Yes, that too.

“

In a thicket at the foot of the Himalayan Mountains there once lived a parrot together with many other animals and birds. One day a fire started… The parrot, feeling compassion for their fright and suffering, and wishing to repay the kindness he had received in the bamboo thicket where he could shelter himself, tried to do all he could to save them. He dipped himself in a pond nearby and flew over the fire and shook off the drops of water to extinguish the fire. He repeated this diligently with a heart of compassion out of gratitude to the thicket.

This spirit of kindness and self-sacrifice was noticed by a heavenly god who came down from the sky and said to the parrot: ‘You have a gallant mind, but what good do you expect to accomplish by a few drops of water against this great fire?’ The parrot answered: ‘There is nothing that cannot be accomplished by the spirit of gratitude and self-sacrifice. I will try over and over again and then over in the next life.’ The great god was impressed by the parrot’s spirit and together they extinguished the fire.

THE TEACHING OF BUDDHA.

At first read, this story makes me want to volunteer more, to remind everyone of the utter awesomeness that is KIVA (where, by the way, the $25 I loaned has helped a woman in Nicaragua buy grains and beans for her grocery business — and is already 30% repaid to me!) and to have hope for our world if enough people do enough little things.

But then I think that nothing I could do would ever be enough to actually make a dent in the world’s problems, and that there is no ‘great god’ to come along and fix things for us humans, no matter how noble individuals’ intentions are.

After all, later in the same holy book, it says, “Though thousands of people may have hard feelings and cherish ill-will toward Buddhist [believers], they can do no harm, for such harm is like a drop of poison in the waters of a great ocean.”

So if you (and thousands like you) work AGAINST Buddhism, it’s a drop in the ocean, but if you do GOOD, a few drops can change everything?  I’m not sure I buy it, except that it is absolutely true that it’s easier to destroy than to create, and so the effort put in for even a small positive change, a moment of help or hope, should be more noticeable…

I’m not by any means a follower of Buddhism, nor do I have a deep understanding of their beliefs, so don’t get me wrong; I’m just taking something I read in their teachings and trying to figure out how it applies to my life.

Even though I often get the feeling that the fire will consume us all before we can extinguish it, I will still do what I can to try to assuage it.  For me, that’s always related to how we poorly we treat each other, women, animals, and the planet.  Yes, I’ll remain vegan, but there is more to do additionally in service of a better world.

I’m more realist than cynic, I like to think.  Some days I’m not so sure, though.

Undercover investigation of LA vegan restaurants
Goddammit.  L.A. vegans, this and its follow up are absolute MUST READS.

Yay teal!

Fuck you, chartreuse.
TODAY’S THING THAT MAKES ME HAPPY = The new business manager of my big apartment complex just sent all residents a long letter that includes a smiley face.  Ridic.
July 3, 2009
Los Angeles. 4 am. This is my home.
Los Angeles. 4 am. This is my home.
July 2, 2009
TODAY’S THING THAT MAKES ME HAPPY = I’m on a set with cool talented people doing their jobs… About to do MY job: act! Hooray!!!!
TODAY’S THING THAT MAKES ME HAPPY = I’m on a set with cool talented people doing their jobs… About to do MY job: act! Hooray!!!!
TED TALK THURSDAY!  Mathematician and magician Arthur Benjamin suggests (in less than 3 minutes) we rethink what math we teach.