Category: Quotables
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To Be Happy at Home
“To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition” I don’t like to think about Covid times. I guess in a way I had it extra hard, because I was coming off a hip injury and then a hip surgery and recovery that already kept me limited to home for several years.…
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Tiny Experiments vs Setting Goals
I’m not sure why the idea of “setting goals” always felt awful to me. Maybe because it implies there’s something wrong with where I am. Maybe because the thought of working towards one thing feels stifling. It feels so wrong in our modern world to not enjoy the idea of goals, when all the world…
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When a Hurricane of Clichés Equals a Great Movie
Today, I’m going to talk about Casablanca. If you want to know more about why I care about Casablanca, check out my previous post, ‘Writing Reality – Or Escaping It‘. “Thus Casablanca is not just one film. It is many films, an anthology… And this is the reason it works, in spite of aesthetic theories…
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Join Mark Zuckerberg’s Book Club, Rediscover Why Books Matter
Mark Zuckerberg is starting a book club. A Facebook book club, which seems appropriate, considering he is Mark Zuckerberg. BUT he said one very insightful thing that should give everyone hope for millenials – we aren’t necessarily shallow, visual-obsessed youngsters with short attention spans. At least, maybe not if we join Mark’s book club. Here’s…
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How to Catch a Man 101: Show More Affection Than You Feel
AKA Dating Advice from Dear Jane Austen “There are very few of us who have heart enough to be really in love without encouragement,” [said Charlotte]. “In nine cases out of ten, a woman had better show more affection than she feels. Bingley likes your sister undoubtedly; but he may never do more than like…
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Update! And Quotes!
Whoa, haven’t blogged for a while! What’s been going on? Well, for one thing – I moved. A huge undertaking, as it turns also. Secondly – I got a new job. I now work in, wait for it… a library! How appropriate! (Where did I work before? Well, actually I sold computers for Microsoft. Turns…
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Deadlines, Oh Dear
“I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.” Douglas Adams (author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) Apparently this is me as well, even with arbitrary deadline I set for myself! In other words – no post on Stories and Stuff last Friday, even though I promised myself…
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Two Impossible Things to Get in Life
“You can’t get a cup of tea big enough, or a book long enough, to suit me.” -C. S. Lewis Don’t you love it when people know you enough to get you something for Christmas that’s just perfect? Here’s something that combines three things I love: C. S. Lewis, tea, and books. Isn’t it a great…
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Rebellion of the Starry-eyed Idealists–Let’s End the Irony!
The next real literary “rebels” in this country might well emerge as some weird bunch of “anti-rebels,” born oglers who dare to back away from ironic watching, who have the childish gall actually to endorse single-entendre values. Who treat old untrendy human troubles and emotions in U.S. life with reverence and conviction. Who eschew self-consciousness…
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Learn From the Pros – Read Like a Writer (Not A Reader)
When I teach literature I always tell them, these would-be writers (we don’t do workshops, we just read great books), I say, “When you read Pride and Prejudice, don’t if you’re a girl identify with Elizabeth Bennet, if you’re a boy with Darcy. Identify with the author, not with the characters.” All good readers do that…
Hmm... 