What I Learned Today

What I learned on the 23rd day of January in 2012

I learned that the kid who sits next to me in my earliest class got 3 hours of sleep the night before courtesy of the NYG, has a nasty cold that makes his breathing sound like he smokes 3 packs a day, and that I am officially not attracted to guys that wear new balance sneakers at the age of 21.

I learned more about Hugo Chavez in 45 minutes than I ever expected to know, ever. I learned that the Bush administration can still amaze me in its audacious public hypocrisy, and that I am a victim because I didn’t know. I learned I will be doing a book report on North Korea with the nerdy cute guy with a strange patch of golden hair on the back of his head that has to be some genetic defect (and 4 others who don’t have nicknames yet).

I learned that Dr. Suess and his adorable rhymes obviously must not translate well in Italian, much to Lauren’s dismay (and just about every bookstore employee in a ten mile radius whom we harassed all afternoon trying to find Oh The Places You’ll Go)

I learned that there is a book out there that is some how summing up everything I have wanted to learn about spirituality, organized religion, history, and philosophy, like ever. And that it costs 11.50 with my student discount at the bookstore. And that it’s hard to put down.

I learned how I want to decorate my new bedroom. And who I want to come inside of it. And how I want to feel inside of it. And for the first time I don’t care what clothes I’m wearing, in this future vision of myself, or how much weight I’ve lost, or what color my hair is. I care about how I’m carrying myself despite all of those things. And I think that’s pretty cool.

I learn congress doesn’t abide by insider trading laws, that their is a 13 year old boy named Jacob about to graduate with honors from Purdue, that Qatar is the richest country in the world right now and their people get free everything, and that Angelina Jolie is pretty boring in interviews.

I would call this about a 9 out of 10 kind of day.

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what matters most is
how well you
walk through the
fire.

charles bukowski

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Roman Insomnia

I guess it could be worse. I could have a shitty American sleeping schedule. I could be sleeping next to a hospital in a stuffy room and listen to the constant blaring of sirens and tragedy and endings. Instead I can’t sleep in the eternal city. So I guess it could be worse. But sitting up alone late at night with no one to talk to and no one to think about is very lonely. I hate the book I’m reading. It’s vanilla. After reading a harrowing memoir and a unique exotic tale this Picoult is just not going to cut it.

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i’m addicted to thought catalog and this article is stellar

http://thoughtcatalog.com/2012/reasons-why-im-not-going-to-hold-you-after-sex/

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The One Person You Never Really Get Over by Ryan O’Connell

There will always be that one person you’ll never really get over. I know, I know, Connie Chung delivering groundbreaking news over here, but it’s true. Sure, you can go days, weeks, months, years without thinking of them but the second you see their face or their name gets mentioned in passing, your stomach drops and you feel like you could puke. You’ve lost control and all of these feelings suddenly rise to the surface to say, “Sup? Have you missed us?’ You’ll hate yourself for this, for all of it. You won’t be able to recognize why this one person can still garner this type of reaction. Why is your mind punking you? It almost feels like a betrayal. You want to give your emotions a stern talking to and say, “Um, hi. I thought we were over this? So why am I getting super nervous and spazzy at the mere mention of their name? You promised me that we were over this, brain. THANKS A LOT.

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Is there no one — is there no Republican that can be gracious and statesmanlike in this situation? We removed a dictator in six months, losing no American soldiers; spending, like, a billion dollars rather than a trillion dollars; and engendering what appears to goodwill to people who now have a prideful story of their own independence to tell — not to mention they have oil! They have oil! Anybody wanna give credit? (Rolls tape of GOP Senators Marco Rubio, Charles Grassley and John McCain giving credit to ‘France and Britain for their leadership.’)

What the fuck is wrong with you people? Are you that small? ‘We’ve really gotta give credit to the Chinese. Without the invention of gunpowder…’

JON STEWART, on the GOP’s refusal to give credit to Barack Obama for his foreign policy — which, in part, helped to hasten the downfall of Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi — on The Daily Show.

Dickheads will be dickheads.

(via inothernews)

453 notes

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inothernews:

Via the New York Times:

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2011 was awarded on Friday to three campaigning women from Africa and the Arab world in acknowledgment of their nonviolent role in promoting peace, democracy and gender equality. The winners were Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf — Africa’s first elected female president — her compatriot, peace activist Leymah Gbowee and Tawakul Karman of Yemen, a pro-democracy campaigner.

They were the first women to win the prize since Kenya’s Wangari Maathai, who died last month, was named as the laureate in 2004. Most of the recipients in the award’s 110-year history have been men, and the award seemed designed to give impetus to the cause for women’s rights around the world.

“We cannot achieve democracy and lasting peace in the world unless women obtain the same opportunities as men to influence developments at all levels of society,” said the citation read to reporters by Thorbjorn Jagland, a former Norwegian prime minister who heads the Oslo-based Nobel committee that chooses the winner of the $1.5 million prize.

In a subsequent interview, he described the prize as “a very important signal to women all over the world.”

As the prize was announced, Bushuben Keita, a spokesman for Mrs. Johnson Sirleaf’s Unity Party, declared: “We are dancing. This is the thing that we have been saying, progress has been made in Liberia. We’ve come through 14 years of war and we have come to sustained peace. We’ve already started dancing.”

…In Yemen, Ms. Karman, 32, sat in a tent where has been living since February as part of the sit-in organized to underscore demands for change. “This is the victory of our peaceful revolution,” she said. “I am so happy and I give this award to all of the youth and all of the women across the Arab world, in Egypt, in Tunisia.”

“We cannot build our country or any country in the world without peace,” she said.