It's the how, not the what. The process, not the product. The struggle, not the achievement.

The how is critical, rather than the what. What is true? The characteristics of things/objects/phenomena aren't true or important to you, but the relation (or process) to the things are. The way we relate generates the significance. Objectivity doesn't mean anything to us as existing individuals. Maybe it does as speculators or abstract thinkers. Objective, external truths are irrelevant, indifferent, and you can't be passionate/inward about them. We should hold truths through appropriation. That maximizes our individual confrontation. Truths relate necessarily and essentially to the existing individual.

Can I be certain that the choices I make are really mine?

Aaron (to a couple of friends): The most important thing in Tae Kwon Do is to wear a cup.

[uncomfortable silence ensues]

Rosh (to Aaron): Have I kicked you in the groin before? [NB I trained with him at Duke]

There is no shortcut when making fresh gnocchi. Start making it *before* you're hungry.

One of the lines/ideas from "Troy" (which I'm not sure was in "The Illyad" or borrowed from somewhere else) is that the Gods envy us. Because we're mortal everything is more beautiful. Every day, every moment, could be our last. Because they can have everything forever, perhaps their experience of phenomena is the same every time. For us, because we change and our circumstances change, every time we eat something, or look at something, we experience it differently. If we look at a painting now, and at it again a year or a month from now, it's a different esthetic object. Because of the temporal aspect, we may perceive different connotations and interpret it differently. Gods would just see the same thing every time.

"May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds."
- Edward Abbey

I understand why people like to kiss and be kissed on the mouth, but I don't get why dogs like it too.

Evergreen (Dusted Remix)

'nuff said.

Have you ever seen a fighting rooster? I've seen a bunch in the Philippines, but I've never actually seen a fight. I hear that they have blades up to 4 inches long tied to their legs. Needless to say the fights don't last very long, and the losing side have fresh chicken for dinner that night. Because of the injuries, cocks rarely make it past their 2nd or 3rd fight. It is estimated that the number of roosters that fight and are killed in the Philippines is between 7 and 13 million each year. Is it cruel and barbaric? Does it provide a useful outlet for people to contain their feelings about a number of issues?

Whoever can start manufacturing foods with oxytocin, or foods that increase our oxytocin levels will be very rich... and very loved.

I know someone who's friend was engaged to be married. The bride-to-be went down to the Florida Keys for a bachelorette party. After a day or so, she telephoned her fiancee and told him that they weren't getting married as she met her "soulmate" in the Keys. How disturbing is that!

It is more important to know who you are than where you are going, for where you are going will change as the world around you changes. Core ideology endures as a source of guidance and inspiration.
- ideas in an article about the importance of building vision for companies.

For today's youth the question of where they are going is as, if not more, ephemeral/ambiguous than the question of who they are. This is largely but not solely because of the poor job market. It provides a host of challenges that people of previous generations never had to face.

I've been saying on and off for about 3 years that I'm going to stretch like crazy and be able to go down into the splits. Once and for all, I'm going to achieve it! I have to set a deadline... which is hard to do. I wonder if I can manage it in 4 months.

Do I or don't I have a valence for the stereotype of the exotic, sexually uncontrollable, insatiable, heterosexual male?

Coconut water.

"No knot unties itself"
- Stephen Sondheim, Into the Woods

"Man really attains the state of complete humanity when he produces, without being forced by physical need to sell himself as a commodity."
- Che Guevara

It is unfortunate that even for the well-off, so many things people do are because of physical needs (for food, shelter, etc). Even though we take 'civilized' jobs and aren't forced to work in the fields, what we do is just glorified labor. Society still has us by the short and curlies - most people would choke if they missed two or three paychecks. We sell ourselves to employers as we convey how we could add value to their company/organization, how we could be a valuable commodity. How many of us can really do what we want in life without there being a necessity for steady/substantial income?

If love or passion was the root of all our decisions, how many of us would end up as bankers or garbagemen? What would this world look like? If you shut out all elements other than your passions, if you put aside need for income, social desirability, need for power/status/recognition, family/societal pressures, etc, etc... what would you want to do? Is this a reasonable question to ask, or am I just young and idealistic? It seems that many people don't answer this question and are quick to get herded like sheep down one path or another.

"Che was the most complete human being of our age."
- Jean-Paul Sartre

Canadian researchers have found that loud, fast music cuts your reaction time when driving by up to 20 percent. Examples of songs that are particularly bad are "Firestarter" by The Prodigy, and "Red Alert" by Basement Jaxx.

"Artists, indeed, are lifted by the ideality of their pursuits a little way off the earth, and are therefore able to catch the evanescent fragrance that floats in the atmosphere of life above the heads of the ordinary crowd. Even if they seem endowed with little imagination individually, yet there is a property, a gift, a talisman, common to their class, entitling them to partake somewhat more bountifully than other people in the thin delights of moonshine and romance."

- from The Marble Faun by Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1859

Has anyone done anything for purely selfless reasons? This is a question we can't answer, since we can always find egoistic reasons to explain behavior.