sentimental geek

beckie: pleasedontsqueezetheshaman

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:35:35 -0500

pleasedontsqueezetheshaman

monday, november 30th, 2009

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:19:29 -0500

it’s cold in here. I’m wearing yoga pants, slippers, a long sleeved shirt, a brown hoodie my mother bought me at old navy last week that was accidently purchased from the men’s section and my Mao hat. The ever present hat. When I wear one, which is always these days, I see my father. Dinner has been eaten (brocollini-cannelli-bean rigatoni concoction from last night with two pieces of sourdough bread and milk) and I’m thinking about tea, more for the fact that it will keep my hands warm rather than the liquid itself. It’s vanilla chai bought in a super Walmart in Myrtle Beach and smells like cinnamon filled pastry. I don’t really want to move, my back still aches from the 17 hour trek from Myrtle Beach to New Hampshire on Saturday and I’m having a hard time finding a comfortable reading position on my futon, which is a pretty futile effort, since it is a FUTON and I believe that means “Uncomfortable As A Bus Stop Bench” in Scandinavian. But it is useful for visiting friends and allegedly, more comfortable than the floor.I have decided on resting my feet mon my ottoman’s shiny plastic surface with a blanket tucked up to my waist. I swallowed two Aleve’s with the rest of my milk to help ward off the dull ache in my lower back that is echoing in my head and has been since 9 AM this morning. Nine days off made me relaxed and detached and having to jump back into work again with both feet is jarring for the mind. It’s rediculous to think that in that time I forget how to do things, but I found myself pausing throughout the day to ponder whether or not I knew what I was doing. As I know longer have cable, I spend most of time reading. I havn’t devoured books this way in a very long time. When I was younger, I read and read and read and read anything I could until computer games, TV and internet slowly drained my brain and I could sit and watch infomercials for hours without flinching. I watch movies through Netflix but mostly, I’ve been reading and listening to music. I can’t read I’m listening to music with words. My paying-attention mind listens to the words and my not-paying-attention brain lets my eyes scan the words on the page but doesn’t absorb anything. So I listen to low tempo electronica—The Field, Ulrich Schanuss, The Sight Below, Ellen Allen. I am trying to smoke and read at the same time, which is nearly impossible and I shouldn’t do it anyway, smoking in the house and smoking in general. I’m reading my third book set in Africa this month—‘The Poisonwood Bible’ by Barbara Kingsolver and the ‘No.1 Ladies Detective Agency’ by *Alexander McCall Smith being the previous and ‘Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight’ by Alexandra Fuller. It is kind of a coincidence, since I did not know that the McCall Smith or Fuller books would be delivered to me via my boss from his wife, tightly packed with many others in a plastic grocery bag. I think I was in a good spot to read the last two after Poisonwood, since it is entirely heartbreaking and beautiful and puts you in the “Africa Mood”, fully immersing and transporting you to the continent. Like you are traveling and the books are all sites to see. I probably feel this way because I have itchy feet and my passport hasn’t been stamped in two years. I’m wary of the purposeful reading of books, the systematic crossing off of themes or countries or authors. I’d rather go with what I pick up, am given, find, check out. I don’t want to read so many like-minded books that it ruins the previous books for me. Arlo is rubbing his head and jaw against the edg of the ottoman and watching me with big, yellow eyes. He is a chubby Tom, ginger colored with a long tail and a swaying belly, kitten-faced. He walks with his shoulders slung low, like a lion on the sahara, although that is where the similarities end. He’s never killed anything bigger than the moths that sneak through cat-caused holes in the window screens and doesn’t stalk anything deadlier than the little fake fur mice I buy him in fives from PetCo. He seems to be rebelling from my babying, choosing to sleep by himself on the futon, running in when my alarm goes off to yowl from the floor or to hope up on the bed and stare until I get up. Lily is a wily, wirey calico with fawn colored legwarmer stripes on my legs and the mind of a very intelligent kidnegartner. She can kick around a jingly ball like a soccer ball, pick it up in her mouth and deposit it at your feet or on your lap. She can open doors, climb anything and unravel rolls and rolls of toliet paper. She is nervous and hesitantly affectionate, giving herself over to a get belly rub or a snuggle only sometimes. She follows me everywhere and sleeps at my head at night after she has stalked and terrorized poor, far Arlo, knocked a tiny piece of dust around the kitchen floor and sharpened her claws on the table I got from the president of the company. It is time for tea, it is time for me.

(via yimmyayo)

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 04:37:12 -0400

(via yimmyayo)

Why People Believe Invisible Agents Control the World

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 04:35:35 -0400

Why People Believe Invisible Agents Control the World:

psychotherapy:

unburyingthelead:

But we do something other animals do not do. As large-brained hominids with a developed cortex and a theory of mind—the capacity to be aware of such mental states as desires and intentions in both ourselves and others—we infer agency behind the patterns we observe in a practice I call “agenticity”: the tendency to believe that the world is controlled by invisible intentional agents. We believe that these intentional agents control the world, sometimes invisibly from the top down (as opposed to bottom-up causal randomness). Together patternicity and agenticity form the cognitive basis of shamanism, paganism, animism, polytheism, monotheism, and all modes of Old and New Age spiritualisms. […]

There is now substantial evidence from cognitive neuroscience that humans readily find patterns and impart agency to them, well documented in the new book SuperSense (HarperOne, 2009) by University of Bristol psychologist Bruce Hood. Examples: children believe that the sun can think and follows them around; because of such beliefs, they often add smiley faces on sketched suns. Adults typically refuse to wear a mass murderer’s sweater, believing that “evil” is a supernatural force that imparts its negative agency to the wearer (and, alternatively, that donning Mr. Rogers’s cardigan will make you a better person). A third of transplant patients believe that the donor’s personality is transplanted with the organ. Genital-shaped foods (bananas, oysters) are often believed to enhance sexual potency. Subjects watching geometric shapes with eye spots interacting on a computer screen conclude that they represent agents with moral intentions.

(via psychotherapy)

Sat, 25 Apr 2009 01:21:45 -0400

(via psychotherapy)

'It has received no answer. Nor will it ever.'

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 20:06:25 -0400

beckie:

youarebonbon:

declasse:

For the last 12 years, a single solitary whale whose vocalizations match no known living species has been tracked across the Northeast Pacific. Its wanderings match no known migratory patterns of any living whale species. Its vocalizations have also subtly deepened over the years, indicating that the whale is maturing and ageing. And, during the entire 12 year span that it has been tracked, it has been calling out for contact from others of its own kind.

(via yimmyayo)

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:02:34 -0400

(via yimmyayo)

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 22:34:03 -0400

(via yimmyayo)

via designyoutrust.com

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 23:46:32 -0400

via designyoutrust.com

Music CD Labeling System

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 22:00:49 -0400

Music CD Labeling System

How To Get Sick:

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 22:49:21 -0400

psychotherapy:

1. Don’t pay attention to your body. Eat plenty of junk food, drink too much, smoke too much, take drugs, have lots of unsafe sex with lots of different partners – and above all, feel guilty about it. If you are over-stressed and tired, ignore it and keep pushing yourself

2. Think of your life as meaningless and of little value

3. Do things you don’t like and avoid doing what you really want. Follow everyone else’s opinion and advice. See yourself as miserable and “stuck”.

4. Be resentful and hypocritical, especially toward yourself

5. Fill your mind with dreadful pictures, and then obsess over them. Worry most, if not all, of the time.

6. Avoid deep, lasting, intimate relationships.

7. Blame other people for all your problems

8. Do not express feelings and views openly and honestly. Others won’t appreciate it. If at all possible, do not even know what you own feelings are.

9. Shun anything that resembles a sense of humor; life is no laughing matter.

10. Avoid making any changes that would bring you greater satisfaction and joy.

(Source: Peace, Love and Healing – Bernie Siegel, MD)

i love you, ms leibovitz (via vanityfair.com)

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 22:46:21 -0400

i love you, ms leibovitz (via vanityfair.com)

Comedy’s New Legends | vanityfair.com

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 22:43:01 -0400

Comedy’s New Legends | vanityfair.com

"Do not assume that he who seeks to comfort you now, lives untroubled among the simple and quiet..."

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 22:40:03 -0400

“Do not assume that he who seeks to comfort you now, lives untroubled among the simple and quiet words that sometimes do you good. His life may also have much sadness and difficulty, that remains far beyond yours. Were it otherwise, he would never have been able to find these words.”

- Rainer Maria Rilke (via psychotherapy) (via beckie)

holga: alohanico: britticisms: via hydeordie Terence Koh...

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 00:07:36 -0500

holga:

alohanico:

britticisms:

via hydeordie

Terence Koh These Decades that We Never Sleep, Black Light 2004

Comprised of: crystal chandelier, paint, lollipops, vegetable matter, human and horse hair, mineral oil, rope from a ship found after midnight, glass shards, stones and artist’s blood and shit

"Four be the things I am wiser to know: Idleness, sorrow, a friend, and a foe. Four be the things..."

Sat, 10 Jan 2009 10:39:11 -0500

“

Four be the things I am wiser to know:
Idleness, sorrow, a friend, and a foe.

Four be the things I’d been better without:
Love, curiosity, freckles, and doubt.

Three be the things I shall never attain:
Envy, content, and sufficient champagne.

Three be the things I shall have till I die:
Laughter and hope and a sock in the eye.
- ‘Inventory’, Dorothy Parker

”

holga: Never Shake a Baby (by readysetinternet)

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 20:37:59 -0500

holga:

Never Shake a Baby (by readysetinternet)

holga: Kirsten Hassenfeld, paper chandeliers.

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 20:37:22 -0500

holga:

Kirsten Hassenfeld, paper chandeliers.

Denis Leary Remembers Denis Leary Movies from FOD Team

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 19:47:36 -0500

Denis Leary Remembers Denis Leary Movies from FOD Team

Â«?Â», Robert Stadlerâs question mark installation in Paris...

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 19:07:49 -0500

Â«?Â», Robert Stadlerâs question mark installation in Paris (via Dom Dada)

sentimental geek

beckie: pleasedontsqueezetheshaman

monday, november 30th, 2009

(via yimmyayo)

Why People Believe Invisible Agents Control the World

(via psychotherapy)

'It has received no answer. Nor will it ever.'

(via yimmyayo)

(via yimmyayo)

via designyoutrust.com

Music CD Labeling System

How To Get Sick:

i love you, ms leibovitz (via vanityfair.com)

Comedy’s New Legends | vanityfair.com

"Do not assume that he who seeks to comfort you now, lives untroubled among the simple and quiet..."

holga: alohanico: britticisms: via hydeordie Terence Koh...

"Four be the things I am wiser to know: Idleness, sorrow, a friend, and a foe. Four be the things..."

holga: Never Shake a Baby (by readysetinternet)

holga: Kirsten Hassenfeld, paper chandeliers.

Denis Leary Remembers Denis Leary Movies from FOD Team

Â«?Â», Robert Stadlerâs question mark installation in Paris...

Â«?Â», Robert Stadlerâs question mark installation in Paris...