Today's word of the day is "affray."

Via This is Photobomb

Affray

1. a public fight; a noisy quarrel; brawl.
2. Law. the fighting of two or more persons in a public place.

People say that what we're all seeking is a meaning for life. I don't think that's what we're really seeking. I think what we're seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonance within our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive. That's what it's all finally about. 

- Joseph Campbell

Today's word of the day is "ennui."

Ennui

a feeling of utter weariness and discontent resulting from satiety or lack of interest; boredom: The endless lecture produced an unbearable ennui.

People talk about nightfall, or night falling, or dusk falling, and it's never seemed right to me. Perhaps they once meant befalling. As in night befalls. As in night happens. Perhaps they, whoever they were, thought of a falling sun. That might be it, except that that ought to give us dayfall. Day fell on Rupert the Bear. And we know, if we've ever read a book, that day doesn't fall or rise. It breaks. In books, day breaks, and night falls.

In life, night rises from the ground. The day hangs on for as long as it can, bright and eager, absolutely and positively the last guest to leave the party, while the ground darkens, oozing night around your ankles, swallowing for ever that dropped contact lens, making you miss that low catch in the gully on the last ball of the last over.

- Hugh Laurie

Today's word of the day is "prodigious."

Via Agent M

Prodigious

1. extraordinary in size, amount, extent, degree, force, etc.
2. wonderful or marvelous
3. abnormal; monstrous.
4. Obsolete - ominous.

The reason I don't worry about society is, nineteen people knocked down two buildings and killed thousands. Hundreds of people ran into those buildings to save them. I'll take those odds every fucking day. 

- Jon Stewart

Today's word of the day is "despondency."

via The Daily What

Despondency

state of being despondent; depression of spirits from loss of courage or hope; dejection.

Experience is not what happens to you; it is what you do with what happens to you.

- Aldous Huxley

Via Rate My Ink

Today's recommended comic book reading is The Exterminators by Simon Oliver & Tony Moore.

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Today's word of the day is "whimsy."

Whimsy

1. capricious humor or disposition; extravagant, fanciful, or excessively playful expression
2. an odd or fanciful notion.
3. anything odd or fanciful; a product of playful or capricious fancy

Well they are very frightening for me because their stupidity is so flat. You look into the eyes of a chicken and you lose yourself in a completely flat, frightening stupidity. They are like a great metaphor for me... I kind of love chicken, but they frighten me more than any other animal. 

- Werner Herzog on Chickens

DC Pierson's debut book, The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep and Never Had To, explores both the promise and pitfalls of insomnia along with the power and problems of imagination.  Pierson's novel looks at the world of two high school outcasts, united through the fake worlds they create, who quickly find themselves in situations that are rapidly getting out of control.  And while there's a lot of humor in Pierson's book - particularly in his (through the narrator, Darren) observations on human behavior - the book itself isn't just a lark: it's about regret, stupid drama, hormones, first experiences and finding out about who you really are - even when that answer isn't exactly to your liking.  In short, it's about growing up.

Insomnia is a helluva thing.  Your mind rattles on, refusing to let you slip away into the land of fantasy and confusion promised by falling asleep.  And while you may find yourself pursuing some random tangent or another - like finding out everything you can about the long forgotten cartoon show Kissyfur - you rarely get up to anything really productive.  You may read more, or watch more television or movies, but you're not working diligently on a cure for disease or a practical version of the flying car. 

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Today's word of the day is "devotee."

Devotee

1. A person who is greatly devoted to something
2. A person who is extremely devoted to a religion; a follower
3. An enthusiastic follower or fan

Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night, the ice weasels come.

- Matt Groening