(no subject)

You know what you remind me of lately, Scorpio? You're like gourmet sea salt that has been hand-harvested on a warm, breezy afternoon in late summer from a pristine marsh in Brittany. You are, in other words, raw and elegant; you're primal and pure; you're a basic necessity but exquisitely unique. I trust that you will share your funky sublimity only with those who treat you as both a valuable spice and an essential condiment.


Have I ever mentioned I [hart] Free Will Astrology?

(no subject)

I don't mean to suggest they do this consciously. Some of them truly are little Machiavellis, but what I really mean here is that teenagers are always on duty as conformists.

For example, teenage kids pay a great deal of attention to clothes. They don't consciously dress to be popular. They dress to look good. But to who? To the other kids. Other kids' opinions become their definition of right, not just for clothes, but for almost everything they do, right down to the way they walk. And so every effort they make to do things ``right'' is also, consciously or not, an effort to be more popular.

—Paul Graham

My cousin is two years younger than I am. I once asked him why he spent so much money on designer clothes (thank the gods, paid for with his own money). He told me, "I know it's all a sham anyways, but I do it to fit in." I wonder how much of the system of popularity in high school is propped up by thinking like this.

I resisted being labeled as a nerd in high school and middle school, but now that I think about it, that's really what I was. For gods' sakes, in middle school I spent recess in the library reading Bulfinch's Mythology rather than play outside. And somehow, still, I think got off better than the popular kids.

(no subject)

Heeeeee!

Obviously drawn up by somebody who had a knowledge of current events; I doubt many Americans would know where the fuck we've bombed in Africa.

(no subject)

Apparently the Washington Post did an interview with the author of the Worst Book Ever Written. (Yes, I know they make you give up demographic info, but put in some fake information like I did.)

I tell Burrows that if he is willing to submit to an interview, I am willing to review his book at length in The Washington Post. The only catch, I said, is that I am going to say that it is, in my professional judgment, the worst novel ever published in the English language.

Silence.

"My review will reach 2 million people," I said.

"Okay," he said.

*cackles* And for more amusement, here's a really fucking funny review of a Terry Goodkind book that sounds like it might be the worst fantasy book ever written. (Oh wait. It's Terry Goodkind. The man who makes Robert Jordan readable by comparison. And no, despite the fact that I hate Robert Jordan, it will not stop me from reading newest Wheel of Time book.)

(no subject)

Next thing you know, we'll be bringing back liberty cabbage.

Only in the South people, only in the South.