Schopenhauer

Schopenhauer puts life on the horns of a wretched dilemma, as we are supposedly trapped between pain and boredom.

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“The most general survey shows us that the two foes of human happiness are pain and boredom. We may go further, and say that in the degree in which we are fortunate enough to get away from the one, we approach the other. Life presents, in fact, a more or less violent oscillation between the two. [...] Needy surroundings and poverty produce pain; while, if a man is more than well off, he is bored.”

-- Arthur Schopenhauer, “The Wisdom of Life and Counsels and Maxims”

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Jennifer Love Huge-Tits

Her breasts are her best asset, Jennifer Love Hewitt is proudly boasting, and The Client List star said she’d love to get them insured for millions of dollars!

The nicely endowed 34-year-old actress, who wears a 36C bra, told USA Today in a video interview, “I need like, an insurance invitation. If somebody was like, ‘Hey, you know what? We would like to insure your boobs for $2.5 million dollars,’ I’d be like, ‘Do it. Love it! Why not?’ “ She pointed to her chest and laughed, “These things right here are worth $5 million!”

-- ONTD

Hey, those tits and her pretty face are what made her a millionaire actress.

Pi says, "Oh, and I suppose her obvious talent has nothing to do with it."

Daimon says, "No doubt that it is a significant factor, but it is the hotness and the boobies that sell it. Such is the world we live in."

Pi says, "It's a pretty fucked up world."

Daimon says, "Yet, we must live in it."

At least I can wank to her.

Daimon says, "That's why she makes the big bucks."

Owning Some of the Moon

Why would you want to buy a bridge when you can own land on the moon? You knew it was just a matter of time.

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The notion that one man can lay claim to all the extraterrestrial bodies in our little corner of the galaxy sounds preposterous. Yet Dennis M. Hope, 65, of Gardnerville, Nev., the subject of this Op-Doc video, believes just that. For three decades, he has built a thriving business by “selling” land plots in space, on places like the moon, Mars and Venus. Of course, he has no legal authority to do so. How does he get away with this? He told me that, back when he was a ventriloquist in the days before he “owned” the moon, his dummy taught him a valuable lesson: you can say anything you want to anybody as long as you smile.

-- Simon Ennis at The New York Times

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The First Draft

Some interesting discussion in a writer's column on how one should look upon the first draft when embarking on a novel.

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Ben Fountain, author of "Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk"

In the first draft I’m just trying to figure out what the story is or might be. I’m trying to learn the story, and trying to stay open to the possibilities that the original idea might be capable of generating. The only way to learn the story is by writing it, but how do you write it when you have only the vaguest notion of what the story is, and who the characters might be? That’s a problem. The problem, eh? The only way I learn it is by writing it line by line, page by page.

My expectations for first drafts are pretty low. I don’t worry about polishing the language at all, or fine-tuning character or plot. I’m basically just trying to figure out what the story might be.



Ramona Ausubel, author of "No One is Here is Except All of Us"

For me, the first draft is really just a big mud-rolling, dust-kicking, mess-making time in which my only job is to find the story’s heartbeat. I allow myself to invent characters without warning, drop them if they prove to be uninteresting, change the setting in the middle, experiment with point of view, etc. I figure that the body will grow up around the heart, that it’s always possible to bring all the various elements up and down, sculpt and polish, as long as I’ve got something that matters to me. The second draft (and the 3rd through 20th, Lord help me) involves getting out the tool belt and thinking like a carpenter. But the first draft is all dirt and water and seeds and, hopefully, a little magic. Of course, this method means that my first draft is almost unreadable. Maybe someday I’ll invent a way of making a slightly cleaner mess, but until then, I try to enjoy the muck.

-- TheMillions.com

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Monday, March 11, 2013

It was a mistake to drop the Daily Notes altogether. I weighted it down with my writerly ambitions, and when the enterprise collapsed under the weight of my absurd pretensions, I just walked away from it. However, the original idea is sound: to set aside a little time period to comment on the day. Even a life that is as empty and sterile as mine is good for a couple of lines per day, so that it is sheer laziness not to work those lines out. I hate to have a day go blank; it feels like a terrible waste. It is a lost day that is gone forever.

As for today, I am happy to say that the cracked corn was a big hit with the ducks this morning. I discovered that it is also good to toss onto the water and let the ducks eat as they float or swim along.

However, I need to find a cheaper source than Amazon. It would be nice if I could work it into the grocery list, but I am not sure that the Commissary even has a product that is suitable to my purposes. I am going to need to be a little venturesome and see what is possible. I do not want to give up almost half of my allowance for duck feed.