Not-So Dickensian Hard Times

In hard times, people often look for support in dusty places. Some people go to church, or the library, or the bar.

Sometimes, hard times become difficult times. Sometimes, difficult times turn into terrible times. But almost always, terribly difficult hard times wear themselves out.

You know why?

Homeostasis.

You know why else?

The Law of Conservation and Isaac Newton's Laws of Motion.

Look: Everything always wants to get somewhere else. Everything can't stop moving and shifting and being--AND--Nothing can ever be destroyed. So: Things scientifically and empirically have to get better. Plants and animals and people and weather and sewage and everything all want to go somewhere else. Hard times are a chance to see homeostasis up close and personal.

Ugh. Science is so emotional sometimes.

Ways to Learn About People

1. By how they load the dishwasher

2. By how well they can walk down 7th Avenue with an umbrella

3. By their toilet paper roll replacement speed




More to come.

"Everybody is a Genius,

But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree,

It will live its whole life believing it is stupid."


-Albert Einstein

Me Vs Us Vs Them

 me:  i think, in a lot of ways, the internet is our generation's mode of rebellion

like, only the real cool kids wrote poetry, and then played good music, and then protested, and then skate boarded, and then used the internet

 Elisabeth:  yes, totally

it's our generation's way of being like, THIS IS ME AND WHY I AM SPECIAL

 Elisabeth:  PLEASE THINK I AM COOL

 me:  the difference is that with the other rebellions, it was like an us vs them

and now it's like a me vs them

which is shittier, i think

 Elisabeth:   there is certainly some aspect of community to the blogosphere

but it's really more like, "oh i'm going to participate in this community so as to get more people to look at my personal corner of the internet"

 Sent at 1:00 PM on Wednesday

 Elisabeth:  but, yes, i think the overall tone of our generation is "i am mad because i did not personally get all of the awesome that was promised me as a child, now that i am a disillusioned grownup, hear me roar impotently via twitter"

Feelings About Thoughts

"But something occurred to me as I sped through that dirty 

shroud of fog, something Vonnegut has been trying to 

explain to the rest of us for most of his life. And that is this: 




Despair is a form of hope. It is an acknowledgment of the 


distance between ourselves and our appointed happiness.



At certain moments, it is reason enough to live." 



-(Not that you asked) Rants, Exploits, and Obsessions by 

Steve Almond