Success

"That man is a success who has lived well, laughed often and loved much; who has gained the respect of intelligent men and the love of children; who has filled his niche and accomplished his task; who leaves the world better than he found it, whether by an improved poppy, a perfect poem or a rescued soul; who never lacked appreciation of earth's beauty or failed to express it; who looed for the best in others and gave the best he had."

- Robert Louis Stevenson

"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the grey twilight that knows not victory nor defeat."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Every year I live I am more convinced that the waste of life lies in the love we have not given, the powers we have not used, the selfish prudence that will risk nothing, and which, shirking pain, misses happiness as well. No one ever yet was poor in the long run for having once in a lifetime 'let out all the length of all the reins.'"

- Mary Cholmondeley

"A Bag of Tools"

"Isn't it strange
That princes and kings,
And clowns that caper
In sawdust rings,
And common people
Like you and me
Are builders for eternity?

Each is given a bag of tools,
A shapeless mass,
A book of rules;
and each must make
A stumbling-block
Or a stepping stone."

-R. L. Sharpe

"Today is, for all we know, the opportunity and occasion of our lives. On what we do or say today may depend the success and completeness of our entire life-struggle. It is for us, therefore, to use every moment of today as if our very eternity were dependent on its words and deeds."

-Henry Clay Trumbull

"I Drew the Coffin": The "Oblique Strategies" of Marshall McLuhan

I just posted a long item on Metafilter about my discovery online of an important set of playing cards created by Marshall McLuhan (who presciently coined the phrases "the medium is the message" and "global village").

Enjoy!

At right, one of my favorites of the cards.
(I love the fact he's wearing academic regalia!)

Newsflash - "Tiny duckling has rare mutation: 4 legs"

I've got just one word for you... CONFIT!! :-)
Plus, the "teabag quote of the day":

Wisdom steeps in youthful moments. - Numi Organic Teas

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Different people have different guiding principles... For example, one of my favorite individuals is personally beholden to "harmony". For myself, if there's any such principle for me, it'd be love. Life is too short not to love all you can... That's why this is one of my favorite days of the year!

Maybe the more cynical might think though that it has more to do with this quote from Robert Frost than anything else: "Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired."

But I think Shakespeare summed it up best!

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle's compass come:

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

"Michellaneous" Links, incl. Venice & Mythbusters!

It's been a while since I had time/stuff to post... and this morning I have a little bit of both! So here we go...

First of all, for everybody, Rick Steves writes about Venice's greatest institution next to Saint Mark's Basilica... the Venetian "pub crawl." (Funny thing is, he doesn't mention names of places, but from their descriptions I know exactly which ones he's talking about!) Then, the top crime neighborhood in the world isn't in Sao Paulo or Lagos. It's the Vatican!

Next, for Vippy Zippy, Economics in One Lesson!

For PlanetTom, the erstwhile Wesley Crusher recounts specific episodes of ST: TNG with tongue firmly in cheek at TV Squad.

For philosopher Marky-J, What We Don't Know and Mike Love's Geneaology of Influence, from "a philosophy buff who is researching data visualization, has developed an amazing Wikipedia hack... Genealogy of Influence allows you to visually trace the connections between the most influential writers, artists, philosophers, scientists, and mathematicians of Western culture." Lastly, but not leastly, Scientist develops caffeinated doughnuts!

My most recent entry for "Retired Facebook Quotes":

• "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." - Albert Einstein
• "The Brain is wider than the Sky-For- put them side by side-The one the other will containWith ease- and You- beside." - Emily Dickinson
• "What if everything is an illusion and nothing exists? In that case, I definitely overpaid for my carpet" - Woody Allen

And the mega-galactic super-link of the day: EVERY Mythbusters Myth ON ONE PAGE!
(I like the 55 that were actually confirmed myself!!)

Lazy Day Links for Friends

• QUOTE OF THE DAY: "George Orwell once said: '[Political] prose consists less and less of words chosen for the sake of their meaning, and more and more of phrases tacked together like the sections of a prefabricated hen-house.'" (via The Presurfer for Unca Bill)

• "A fantastic article over at "The Neurophilosopher's Blog" on augmented cognition - technology that integrates with our cognitive abilities to extend our capabilities (via Mind Hacks). Plus, at right, a t-shirt for Beatles and Darwin fan and philosophe Marky-J (via Boing Boing).

• The Sushi FAQ (for Tony-Cannoli)

At left, family dog Bella enjoys a little lounging on my sister's bed over Christmas... They don't call the bed (and the dog) queens for nothing!

Retired Quotes from Facebook

Time to retire these latest Facebook quotes... but to commemorate them one last time before I do! (Some could seem familiar, since they have already appeared on "MMC"...)

• "Things ain't what they used to be and never were." -Will Rogers
  "Isn't it strange that we talk least about the things we think about most?" -Charles Lindbergh
• "Two weaknesses leaning together create a strength. Therefore the half of the world leaning against the other becomes firm." -Leonardo da Vinci
• 'Be not afraid of growing slowly; be afraid only of standing still.' - Chinese proverb
• "Without new experiences, something inside of us sleeps. the sleeper must awaken." -Frank Herbert
• "The world is not respectable; it is mortal, tormented, confused, deluded forever; but it is shot through with beauty, with love, with glints of courage and laughter; and in these, the spirit blooms." -George Santayana
• "Look to this day for it is life. In its brief course lie all the realities and truths of existence, the joy of growth, the glory of action, the splendor of beauty... Today, well lived, makes every yesterday a memory of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well, therefore, to this day..." - Ancient Sanskrit Proverb
• "May the sun bring you new energy by day, may the moon softly restore you by night, may the rain wash away your worries, may the breeze blow new strength into your being. May you walk through the world and know its beauty all the days of your life." - Apache Blessing
• "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate." --Stephen Wright

Retired Facebook Favorite Quotes

Just reading some Leonardo da Vinci, and thought I'd change my "Favorite Quotes" on Facebook...

Here are the retirees, some of which have already appeared previously on "MMC":

• "Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects." -Will Rogers, humorist
• "We can do no great things, only small things with great love." -Mother Teresa
• "In the end we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught." -Baba Dioum, Senegalese environmentalist
• "Aim for success, not perfection. Never give up your right to be wrong, because then you will lose the ability to learn new things and move forward with your life." - Dr. David M. Burns
• "Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.... Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be kind, conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings -- that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide." - Buddha
• "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle." -Philo of Alexandria, ancient philosopher
• "I feel the vacuum, the loneliness, the silence, the dehydration of the soul as people who desperately want to save our constitution, our country and planet still wander the street without knowing how to say hi to one another." -Sam Smith
• "The mind, once expanded to the dimensions of bigger ideas, never returns to its original size." -Oliver Wendell Holmes
• "A book ought to be the ax to break the frozen sea within us." -Anton Chekhov
• "Being a graduate student is like becoming all of the Seven Dwarves. In the beginning you're Dopey and Bashful. In the middle, you are usually sick (Sneezy), tired (Sleepy), and irritable (Grumpy). But at the end, they call you Doc, and then you're Happy." -Ronald T. Azuma, CS Engineer
• "The trouble with eating Italian food is that five or six days later you're hungry again." - George Miller

Previously retired Facebook quotes:

• "Sacred cows make the best hamburger." - Mark Twain
• "Get not your friends by bare compliments, but by giving them sensible tokens of your love." -Socrates
• "Indifference to the wonder of being is the root of all sin." -Abraham Heschel, Rabbi, Professor, Holocaust survivor
• "Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." - Groucho Marx
• "Either that wallpaper goes or I do." - Oscar Wilde, last words.

Quote of the Day...

"In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice; in practice, there is."

- Chuck Reid

(Anybody know who this guy is???)