sun vs. son

"Like all of the pagan gods, [Jesus] was
a mythological figure. It was the political
establishment that sought to historize
the Jesus figure for social control".



"Religion can never reform mankind
because religion is slavery".

- Robert G. Ingersoll, 1833 - 1899

"We don't want to be unkind, but we want to be factual. We don't want to cause hurt feelings, but we want to be academically correct in what we understand and know to be true. Christianity just is not based on truth."

- Jordan Maxwell

from zeitgeist, the movie.

my internet

"1. My Internet doesn’t use flash, evahhh. Unless it’s a video, and then only for video.

2. My Internet prefers html text wherever possible.

3. My Internet lets me use my email address or my usual username as a username. It doesn’t give me one or make me create a new one.

4. My Internet lets me use a password entirely of my own choosing. It doesn’t make me add numbers or Capitals wH3re I don’t want them.

5. My Internet values simplicity and clarity over almost everything else.

6. My Internet prefers tools that I’m familiar with like Flickr, YouTube, iTunes, Google etc. It doesn’t reinvent convention for the sake of it.

7. My Internet has a screen resolution of 1024×768. Today. As I write this. That will change sooner than you think.

8. My Internet has absolute urls for everything.

9. My Internet may not have exactly the same colours as My Printed Matter.

10. If My Internet was forced to choose between speed and visual lushness, speed would win easily.

11. My Internet has no back, forward or print buttons. That’s what My Browser is for.

12. My Internet has contact details clearly accessible right from the word go.

13. My Internet will not work for everyone, everywhere, always, at the same time, all the time. It will especially not work for CEO’s Aunties.”

+++++++

(my 2 cents)

14. My internet does not resize my browser window, unless I do it myself.

15. My internet lets me know when a link is being used to carry a PDF. It always tells me that if I click there, something will be downloaded to my desktop. It also tells me the size.

16. My internet is not like high school. No more popular kids, no whuffies, no clicks. I'm too old for that, thank you very much.

17. My internet is borderless. It strives to make its content accessible to users from all over the world. It's not based on local memes and trendy behaviors.


[via]

funfuckingtastic

Now that you have my heart, I'm pretty much an empty cavity inside.

For lack of a better term, heartless.

i want to be him when i grow up

Dr. Ottenheimer did not offer any answers. He did not even help me discover my own answers. Instead, he helped me find questions I had never asked before. The answers to such questions were just more questions. And so he launched me on a lifelong quest, question after question after question.

Mike Wesch, 2008 U.S. Professor of the Year.


+++++++++


His blog: Digital Ethnography. You may know him from one of his videos on Youtube. He's fantastic beyond words and makes me believe that it's ok when the world seems fuzzy. Because it is. And it should be.

i'm totally gonna be in one of those when I get old

Senior Hip Hop Choir

[via]

happy period

Goes hand in hand with this old post :

Well, my time of the month is starting right now. As I type, I can already feel hormonal forces violently surging through my body. Just a few minutes from now, my body will adjust and I'll be transformed into what my husband likes to call 'an inbred hillbilly with knife skills.' Isn't the human body amazing?

beautiful rage against the dying of the light

click to enlarge

[via the fantastic Aurea Mediocritas]

can't get enough of her. where do i get one of these?

(seriously - I want a kid ASAP)

word

[via]

a brilliant moment by keith olberman, about proposition 8

observation

I spent days sat in a coffee shop sketching, looking at the subtleties of human behavior. The final product is a fully hand drawn animation that explores human interaction and visible emotional traits. - Tom Judd

african-this, african-that

...afro-this, afro-that (and the american “African American” is even worse) is a racist way of talking. An Egyptian is african. A boer from South Africa is too. The same applies to Tunisians, Moroccans, and Algerians. “African” does not mean “black”. But even if all africans were black, it would be racist to address such wide variation of people (even fenotypically speaking), originated from the biggest continent on Earth, by only one word. Yorubas are not bantu, malineses are not bundos, hausas are not gege. They are people with different histories and often tainted by millenary animosity. To call a mulatto – the child of a white american with a black Kenyan – an “African American” is a historical rudeness. Those expressions are “way worse than any other espontaneously adopted by people. Using them is adopting the vision of a slave trader.


"...afro-isso, afro-aquilo (e a forma americana “African- American” é ainda pior) é um modo racista de falar. Um egípcio é africano. Um bôer da África do Sul também. O mesmo para Tunisinos, Marroquinos e Argelinos. “Africano” não quer dizer “negro”. Mas mesmo que todos os africanos fossem pretos, seria racismo designar povos tão variados (inclusive fenotipicamente), oriundos do maior continente da Terra, por uma só palavra. Iorubanos não são bantos, malineses não são bundos, haussás não são gege. São povos com histórias diferentes e muitas vezes tingidas de inimizades milenares. Chamar um mulato filho de uma branca americana com um preto do Kênia de “African-American” é uma grosseria histórica. Essas expressões são “muito piores do que qualqer outra adotada espontaneamente pelas pessoas, como você diz. Usá-las é adotar o olhar do traficante de escravos."




(this is a quote by Caetano Veloso, posted yesterday on his blog, addressing IN FORM OF A POST (ah!) a comment made by my friend / twin, his #1 fan and follower, and now also – officially – the happiest man alive.)

the universe inside this rectangle is a thing of beauty

[via cameron moll]

almost true

[via Political Graffiti]

on repeat

hanging out with my girls, kira + jojo

That last one was Jordin and I playing "Where is Jordin?". Her reward is to hear "There she goes!".

Thank you Skype – you make being away from my best friend a little more bearable.

green halloween

One of my favorite blogs - Inhabitat - challenged its readers to get creative and resourceful with their Halloween costumes and go green. Here are my favorites:


The winner: Pollution-Poisoned Mermaid. Crafted from discarded plastic bags, items found around the house, and waste materials recovered by cleaning up the beach.


Cloth-Diapered Crazy Astronaut Lisa Nowak. (Again: cloth diapered.)

hey there, dolphin girl...

[via] Photos by Jamie Campbell

Bears is a series of portraits of ordinary teddy bears that have been turned inside out and stuffed, by the artist Kent Rogowski. (Why do I feel like this is animal cruelty??)

[via]

I've been working on a moodboard all day, and while doing some research I found these collages by Lilliana Pereira that left me completely inspired to try something different. She has tons of stuff on her flickr.

"you’re in a car with a beautiful boy, and you’re trying not to tell him that you love him, and you’re trying to choke down the feeling, and you’re trembling, but he reaches over and he touches you, and you feel your heart taking root in your body, like you’ve discovered something you don’t even have a name for."

it's complicated

"Only the young and stupid are confident about sex and romance. Do you think any of us know what we’re doing? Do you think there’s any way humans can love each other without complication? You should see how it happens in Bali, darling. All these Western men come here after they’ve made a mass of their lives back home, and they decide they’ve had it with Western women, and they go marry some tiny, sweet, obedient little Balinese teenage girl. I know what they’re thinking. They think this pretty little girl will make them happy, make their lives easy. But whenever I see it happen, I always want to say the same thing. Good luck. Because you still have a woman in front of you, my friend. And you are still a man. It’s still two human beings trying to get along, so it’s going to become complicated. And love is complicated. But still humans must try to love each other, darling. We must get our hearts broken sometimes. This is a good sign, having a broken heart. It means we have tried for something."

[via this is my heart. it is a good heart.]

happy people

"As an African-American, unapologetically I say that if I weren't strapped down to this desk, I'd get out and lead us in a Electric Slide right here in the studio."

- Tavis Smiley, on NBC News [via]



(I couldn't help myself. I had to post this video by the other king of Chicago, Mr. R. Kelly. If you really know Chicago, you know what I mean.)

press for change

[link]

indiana

I can now say I lived 7 great years of my life in a blue state.

Congratulation, Indiana. You have done me proud.

gabi

This is a post I found on Facebook by Gabrelle German, my best friend's sister. She's a 21 year-old girl, born in Gary, IN, who clearly understands the huge symbolic impact that having Obama as a president is going to have in America. Gabi, I'm proud to know you and your sister. Love you both.

"My President is a competent, qualified, intelligent BLACK MAN, and now not only is he "MY" President of choice, he is the official President of the United States of America.

Why is it so relevant to me and everyone else in the Black Community that our President is Black? Why does race matter? It matters because this means that our ancestors, and our relatives came all the way from being seen as property in this country, to running this country. It matters because it means that those of us who died for us to have a fair chance in this country have not died in vain. It shows incredible progress in this country and I am proud of you America!

It means so much to us because the media has chosen for so many years to make the Black Male the "scapegoat" for all the things wrong with this country. Majority of the time you see a black man in the media its negative. Now we have the most positive media coverage possible. One of our own has been chosen, not just by Black America, but by America as a whole to lead this country.

It matters because people still clinch their purses when Black Men walk pass, they still lock their doors when they pass their cars, it matters because I still get followed in stores because I'm expected to steal something. So this moment is a moment of great hope that these things will soon be a thing of the past, and it is a moment of great pride that one of our own has made it so far.

The Obama Family is another WONDERFUL aspect of the pride we feel. The first family gives black families everywhere a model to look up to. The relationship between Barack and his wife is AMAZING, and their relationship with their children is as well. They are not displaying a broken family, an absent father, a male bashing mother, and we need to see something other than those things.

So this note is way too long I'll just close with this statement: I've always known that Black Men were just as capable as any other person to lead this country and do great things, but now those Black men that doubted it have proof that they can and a reason to work toward it. They have a role model in Barack Obama and Black families have a role model in the Obama family and that is AMAZING!"

the first day of the rest of our lives

virgil o. stamps

It is such a pleasure for me to post about this. Not only the idea is incredibly awesome, the person behind the idea is just as cool (not to mention she's pretty much my hero).


Virgil O. Stamps is a letterpress laboratory that uses his Brooklyn neighborhood and surrounding boroughs as a source of inspiration and income, by recycling products that would usually be thrown away. All of his cards are backed by recycled chipboard from the nearby comic book store. Virgil can, of course, print on anything you like. Even regular paper. Or nice thick cotton paper. Sometimes you need to be normal—Virgil understands that and promises not to judge you.

Gunned: Shot up targets donated from a New York City gun range.

National Geographic: Pages torn from old National Geographic
magazines and backed by recycled chipboard.

++++++++++

Virgil O. is officially awesome: it's been featured on kottke.org and on NotCot.org.



++++++++++

Yay for Minus - the woman who gives me hope that any 33-year old kid can wear patriotic pajama pants for three days straight, and sometimes forget to wear socks when they go outside, and eat nothing but Cheetos and ham and cheese sandwiches, and like stained t-shirts and painted on pants, and not be friends with morning or alarm clocks, and wear mohawk hats and go to city hospitals for their sheer entertainment value, and still manage to make a living and sometimes pay rent and super-size (or “make it a large”) their value meals at McDonald’s!

sound design

His name: Daito Manabe. Weird and genius.

Redefining the existent media and technologies from unique angles, I have been active in the various fields, such as art, design, and even research and development. I produce the output of sounds, images, and light through analyzing and transforming the numerical values gained from a various sensors and input devices.

[via]

cultural literacy and the "i'm a PC" campaign

Here are some excerpts of a brilliant post by one of my favorites, Grant McCracken, on the Mac vs. PC phenomenon.



Our culture has long been predicated in a simple distinction between the mainstream and the avant garde. This construction helped us understand the bourgeoisie as a group of people committed to convention and la doxa. They are, so the stereotype tells us, nervous nellies who are most reluctant ever to depart from their slavish conformity. Thank God, says the stereotype, for the avant-garde. These are risk takers who care nothing for convention or materialism, who bravely throw their personal comfort and safety to the winds in pursuit of artistic truth and social justice. (...)

Sometime in the 1990s, something happened. Our two-part system exploded. Now in the place of an inside mainstream and an outside avant garde, there was a great fragmentation. The mainstream lost its ability to police the tastes and believes and behavior of most people. The avant-garde lost its ability to control the restless, experimental margin. Both hegemonies lost their coercive power. (...) In the place of our founding duality, there were many groups who deferred neither to the center or the margin They simply went their own way. Yes, of course, they could hear the impatient scolding that came from center and edge, but, no, they weren't much interested. They were now prepared to go their own way. Respectable? Who cared? Hip? Who cared? The distinction was dead. (...)

What I did not see was that there was a cultural opportunity. I did not see it, at least, until Crispin Porter + Bogusky rolled out there "I am a PC" spot. But of course. Why didn't I think of that! There was a third position, created by the great cultural flowering of the 1990s. If Apple was avant garde, the path was clear for Windows to be the new alternative to the alternative. It could step out of the old contest that left it a clueless and bumbling mainstream play. It could embrace the great cultural efflorescence that emerged of the1990s and make itself a brand too concerned with real difference to care about merely hip difference. It could embrace real diversity instead of the single, predictable difference that comes from being cool. It could embrace authenticity instead of a pose. (...)

This is what cultural literacy is good for.

he was a ventriloquist's dummy for halloween

That's what being a cool kid with cool parents living in Brooklyn will get you.

[via]

coffee drinkers, engage thyselves!

You may have seen this before, but if you haven't you should take a look. Starbucks has a site called "My Starbucks Idea" where it gives users/consumers the chance to contribute with ideas in order to improve the company's services, products and brand. Starbucks has put together a team called "Idea Partners", a group of employees from different areas of the company, to dedicate themselves to reviewing what's submitted to the website. Brad Stevens, marketing VP, is also part of the team.


The project includes the "Ideas in Action" blog, where users can keep up with the status of the suggestions given. It is divided in four main categories: Under Review, Reviewed, Coming Soon, and Launched. The "Idea Partners" talk about the suggestions, if an idea is feasible, how it would be feasible and when they will be available.



Here are some suggestions I found particularly interesting:

"Cup Discount - I'm psyched that Starbucks has started using more environmentally friendly, partially recycled cups -- but isn't using travel mugs the best way to reduce waste? Encourage customers to reduce & reuse by reimbursing them for the money they save by using their starbucks travel mugs."

"Free wifi - do it."

"Personalized Ordering - Since most people order their coffee the same particular way every time, I think it would be a good idea to create a database of customers and how they like their coffee. This way when they order they would only have to say their name and the sticker would print out how they like their coffee. It would save time for Starbucks to ask what the customer wants, when most times the customer orders the same item the same way; and it will save the customer from the repetition of repeating their favorite drink every time they visit the store. If the customer wanted something different than they normally get, they would just order normally instead of giving their name."

"Starbucks iPhone app - Apple sold over 1m iPhone 3G in 2 days. It would be great to have a Starbucks' ordering app - for free - so we all can order our favorite bevs without having to stand in line. I'd like to be able to have a favorite, use the GPS - or a list of my favorite locations - and just order it. Funds can be subtracted from my Starbucks card. A win for all as I'd use Starbucks a lot more if I could order this way vs. standing in line."

"Tip jars - please remove the tip jar from the counter. seriously, i just paid almost 3 dollars for a cup of coffee in a recession. the last thing i should see is a tip jar."