I am a lover of truth, a worshipper of freedom, a celebrant at the altar of language and purity and tolerance. That is my religion, and every day I am sorely, grossly, heinously and deeply offended, wounded, mortified and injured by a thousand different blasphemies against it. When the fundamental canons of truth, honesty, compassion and decency are hourly assaulted by fatuous bishops, pompous, illiberal and ignorant priests, politicians and prelates, sanctimonious censors, self-appointed moralists and busy-bodies, what recourse of ancient laws have I? None whatever. Nor would I ask for any. For unlike these blistering imbeciles my belief in my religion is strong and I know that lies will always fail and indecency and intolerance will always perish.

-Stephen Fry

Today's word of the day is "Interrobang":

Interrobang

-noun

a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.

Childhood, at its best, is a perpetual adventure, in the truest sense of that overtaxed word: a setting forth into trackless lands that might have come to existence the instant before you first laid eyes on them. 

- Michael Chabon

Haha...see what I did there?  Sick of Healthcare?  What a delicious bon mot!

Enough with the pleasantries.

Curious how all these Healthcare bills stack up? Want to know what each bill brings to the table? 

Click to read more ...

Today's word of the day is "Fructuous" -

Fructuous

Fruitful, productive

How come we don't always know when love begins, but we always know when it ends?

-L.A. Story

The Song: “Heresy” by Nine Inch Nails

The Event: Christian Youth Gathering in Colorado/I part ways with the church

I was brought up in the church and there was a custom that teens (aged 15-17) in my particular congregation would go out to Colorado during the summer for a weeklong gathering of teens from Congregational churches across the nation.  While I was a fairly religious person, I was by no means completely devout.  I had questions, and swore, and did all other manner of sinful things that proved I wasn’t living “right by the lord” – but at the age of 15, I felt like as long as I wasn’t harming anybody, I was doing OK.  One night, in our little group, a youth minister wanted to talk about how God is represented in music.  He did this by first playing some bland Christian rock song.  I’m sure there are some great Christian rock songs, but this one just hit all of the clichés – lyrics using the words “praise,” “light” and “raise up” a lot.  Not to mention just musically it was incredibly boring.  But people in my group were rocking out to it, clearly familiar with the song and loving it. 

Then, with a smile (and I’ll never forget this moment), he segued into the next song:

“Ok.  So there’s that version of how people talk about God in music.  Then there’s this slightly different version.”

Click to read more ...

Today's word of the day is scobberlotch:

Scobberlotch

to loaf around, doing nothing in particular

The future is already here - it is just unevenly distributed. 

-William Gibson

Today's Word of the Day is Munge:

Munge

1. A derogatory term meaning to imperfectly transform information.
2. A comprehensive rewrite of a routine, data structure or the whole program.

Everything is more complicated than you think. You only see a tenth of what is true. There are a million little strings attached to every choice you make; you can destroy your life every time you choose. But maybe you won't know for twenty years. And you may never ever trace it to its source. And you only get one chance to play it out. Just try and figure out your own divorce. And they say there is no fate, but there is: it's what you create.

And even though the world goes on for eons and eons, you are only here for a fraction of a fraction of a second. Most of your time is spent being dead or not yet born. But while alive, you wait in vain, wasting years, for a phone call or a letter or a look from someone or something to make it all right. And it never comes or it seems to but it doesn't really. And so you spend your time in vague regret or vaguer hope that something good will come along. Something to make you feel connected, something to make you feel whole, something to make you feel loved.

And the truth is I feel so angry, and the truth is I feel so fucking sad, and the truth is I've felt so fucking hurt for so fucking long and for just as long I've been pretending I'm OK, just to get along, just for, I don't know why, maybe because no one wants to hear about my misery, because they have their own. Well, fuck everybody. Amen.

-Synecdoche, New York

I enjoy "Lost."  True, I haven't always - looking at you Season 2! - but ever since the writers & producers have gotten together and fixed an endpoint to the series, I've felt like it's been on track and mostly an excellent and addictive show.  Good character work, interesting (nerdy) plot elements including time travel, alternate universes and possibly some supernatural aspects.

However, I can see why some people wouldn't like it.  It's serialized storytelling exhibiting the biggest clichés of that style - exaggerated cliff-hangers, constant evasion of directly answering questions, lots of back story and characters to keep track of in addition to a very intimidating mythology that permeates every episode.

And then there's the rabid fanbase, which can turn anyone off.  In this "letter" to rabid "Losties" - which I guess are the agreed upon sobriquet for devoted fans of "Lost" - this website decides to draw a line in the sand and calls out fans for their behavior.

However, I disagree!

Click to read more ...

Today's word of the day is Skimmington:

Skimmington

A word employed in the phrase, "To ride Skimmington"; that is to ride on a horse with a woman, but behind her, facing backward, carrying a distaff, and accompanied by a procession of jeering neighbors making mock music; a cavalcade in ridicule of a henpecked man. The custom was in vogue in parts of England.

I am but too conscious of the fact that we are born in an age when only the dull are treated seriously, and I live in terror of not being misunderstood.

-Oscar Wilde