Saturday morning quotes

I’m putting this up on Friday, so I might be still asleep this morning (Saturday), but here’s another round of quotes that I particularly liked.

“Despite what you may believe, you can disappoint people and still be good enough. You can make mistakes and still be capable and talented. You can let people down and still be worthwhile and deserving of love. Everyone has disappointed someone they care about. Everyone messes up, lets people down, and makes mistakes. Not because we’re inadequate or fundamentally inept, but because we’re imperfect and fundamentally human. Expecting anything different is setting yourself up for failure.” -Daniell Koepke

“A woman can hide her love for forty years, but she cannot hide her hatred for more than an hour.” -Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib-عليه السلام

“Dreaming is not only an act of communication; it is also an aesthetic activity, a game of the imagination, a game that is a value in itself. Our dreams prove that to imagine – to dream about things that have not happened – is among mankind’s deepest needs.” -Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness Of Being

“With the upcoming fourth season of A Game of Thrones about to hit TV screens, you will soon see ‘If you like reading GRR Martin, why not try these authors?’ displays going up in bookshops. I will give a book of mine, of their choice, to the first person who can send me a photo of such a display that isn’t entirely composed of male authors. Because I’ve yet to see one. I have challenged staff in bookshops about this, to be told ‘women don’t write epic fantasy’ Ahem, with 15 novels published, I beg to differ. And we read it too.

“But that’s not what the onlooker sees in the media, in reviews, in the supposedly book-trade-professional articles in The Guardian which repeatedly discuss epic fantasy without ever once mentioning a female author. That onlooker who’s working in a bookshop and making key decisions about what’s for sale, sees a male readership for grimdark books about blokes in cloaks written by authors like Macho McHackenslay. So that’s what goes in display, often at discount, at the front of the store. So that’s what people see first and so that’s what sells most copies.” –Juliet E. McKenna being brilliant (so what else is new) on the SFWA shoutback, public perceptions of the field, and equal access to offensiveness, sexism and idiocy.

“My GPA shouldn’t have to suffer for “diversity” in literature.” -White woman in my class, who had difficulty reading literature by people of color because of their “uneducated sounding writing” and “difficult to relate to life experiences”  (via sinidentidades)

“Ellen Page said she’d been scared to reveal her truth, and in response way too many people responded with, ”In other news, the sky is blue.” The fact that so many felt comfortable being that rude to someone who’d just publicly shared a private struggle speaks volumes about how important they consider the issues of gay women to be. We should be wary of these people. People like them are why so many believe this country is post-racial or post-feminist when this country is racist as fuck and hates women.” -From A Tale Of Two Ellens | Autostraddle

“If you point out casual racism on a regular basis, you’re going to get a lot of people whining that you’re too ‘politically correct,’ which is not a phrase that actually means anything anymore, besides saying of its speaker, ‘I am nostalgic for a time when I could be as racist as I wanted and nobody bugged me about it and thus I would like you to just shut up now you dumb person with your stupid thinky brain thoughts trying to infiltrate the hostile and unmovable lump of granite I replaced my mind with.’” –Casual Racism is Not My Spirit Animal

 

A quotable Friday

A few quotes I’ve found that have been quite interesting and thought I’d share.

“If you have cancer, you get flowers, visitors and compassion. If you have a mental illness, you get plastic utensils, isolation and fear. If you survive cancer, most people consider you a hero and inspiration, and they tell you so. If you survive a mental illness, most people consider you a feeble-minded degenerate and an embarrassment, and they wouldn’t dare tell you so.” -Haldol and Hyacinths, by Melody Moezzi – page 216

“I love bookshelves, and stacks of books, spines, typography, and the feel of pages between my fingertips. I love bookmarks, and old bindings, and stars in margins next to beautiful passages. I love exuberant underlinings that recall to me a swoon of language-love from a long-ago reading, something I hoped to remember. I love book plates, and inscriptions in gifts from loved ones, I love author signatures, and I love books sitting around reminding me of them, being present in my life, being. I love books.” -Laini Taylor (author of Daughter of Smoke & Bone and Days of Blood & Starlight)

“First…. Many Indigenous Nations have calendars which have been counting the years for a very long time. I am aware that the calendar of the Mohawk Indian Nation has been counting the winters for over 33,120 years. This pre-dates the so-called ‘land-bridge’ of the Bering Strait theory, unless, of course, the Bering Strait scientists decide to move their interestingly illusive time period for “early migration” of Indians back to 40,000 years! Many American Indian early histories tell of events that took place on this Turtle continent (North America) long before any so-called ice age. But, for political reasons, these histories have been mostly ignored. You see, the Bering Strait, in truth, is a theory that was born of the politics and propaganda of early America. In the midst of the American ‘Manifest Destiny’ social climate, the Bering Strait theory provided a ‘scientific’ means to justify the taking of ancestral Indian lands. In short, the mythical theory eased the conscience, as it was a way for land hungry immigrants to believe that, because Indian people were only ‘recent inhabitants’ of this land , it was not really their ‘homeland’. Therefore Indians were, in their minds, not any more the ‘original people’ of this land than they were. This was, and still is, the political power of the infamous ‘Bering Strait theory’.” -The B.S. (Bering Strait) Myth, By John Two-Hawks

 

The Heroic League Project: Writing Teaser

“The word you’re looking for, Lieutenant, is Medusa,” Amanda said without hesitation. “In fact, THE Medusa.” She sat behind the desk with her hands clasped together like a doctor who was giving some promising news to a patient. “Lieutenant, perhaps you should sit down.” I snapped to reality (if you could call it that) and finally sat down again. Nothing in my military training prepared me for this. “I know you have a thousand questions, Lieutenant, and all will be answered in time,” Amanda said in her most reassuring voice. “As for me, yes, I am Medusa. It’s taken me a thousand years to be able to talk about what happened to me. I am the one who was raped by Poseidon. I was cursed by the gods and forced to live in exile. What isn’t true is that Perseus killing me.” She paused, smiling slightly as though she were thinking back to an old memory. “Though, the wordsmiths, scribes, heralds and bards did a good enough job changing the story to sound more heroic. They also managed to leave out the rather embarrassing event that took place to Perseus. Good thing he had children before meeting me.” She left that little tidbit of information up for interpretation, though I had a feeling I knew what she meant.

from my current writing in the Heroic League Project, Of Hawks and Kestrels.  Lieutenant Naomi Simonson (nee Running Cloud), is ushered into the office of Assistant Director Amanda, the second in charge of a branch of CSIS called The Paranormal Division.  Naomi and the man who escorted her, Timothy Michaels, are the only two humans who are members of the agency.  Naomi will eventually be given the code name the Grey Kestrel.  This takes place only a few months before the events in the book Canyons of Steel.

 

Quotes and replies

Over the past few days, I’ve found a few interesting quotes which I’ve had to comment on and add to the discussion on Tumblr.  I’ll post the quote along with the reply, and give a link to the entire discussion.  Here’s a couple I thought I’d share.

“We can’t jump off bridges anymore because our iPhones will get ruined. We can’t take skinny dips in the ocean, because there’s no service on the beach and adventures aren’t real unless they’re on Instagram. Technology has doomed the spontaneity of adventure and we’re helping destroy it every time we Google, check-in, and hashtag.” ~Jeremy Glass, We Can’t Get Lost Anymore (further discussion here)

You know what, I wish I had the capability of adventuring and seeing new places.  But to be honest, an adventure for me is getting the courage to walk out my door just to go to work.

If it wasn’t for places like Google maps or Tumblr or Instagram or Flickr, I’d never see some of the beautiful things in the world.  Because the world actually terrifies me.  People that post things on social media are sharing experiences with everyone.

“Geek culture often focusses on an experience of being victimised by some mythical mainstream, when really geeks tend to be some of the most socioeconomically advantaged people on earth. At times, “geek” seems like an oppositional identity, formed on perceived exclusion for liking what is in reality a diverse assemblage of interests, interests that most modern people share at least a few of. When people get defensive about the borders of geek culture, they are getting defensive about a perceived loss of privilege: they are getting angry about having to share space with people who have been denied the ability to make enough disposable income to participate in mass fantasy (namely women and people of colour, who have exploited as sources of free labour for white males for generations). The angry geeks are getting angry at being forced to participate in real meritocracy, for the first time.” ~(via hyggehaven) (further discussion found here)

What geek culture should be is the joy of sharing the love of something.  You love something, you find someone else who loves that thing, and you share in that thing with them.  It can create some incredible friendships.

Sadly, geek culture hasn’t really embraced that.  Geek culture has become something that excludes people, with the premise on questioning whether or not they really actually do like something, or it they are in fact being fake.  This is a common practice by those who have a great deal of male white privilege.  It’s especially used against women, people of colour, and a high number of women of colour.  The common mantra by male white geeks is, you aren’t a geek unless you’re a dude and you’re white.  Oh they don’t say it publicly, but the continued questioning of women and people of colour as to why they like a thing (such as attempting to show how much they don’t know about a thing) often is proof that they wish their little club to be exclusionary as possible.

It’s a great deal of cognitive dissonance, because while they make these questions, they lament that there aren’t enough women who like the thing they like.  Or that the thing they like isn’t recognized by the main stream.

White male geeks are probably the best example of modern day hipsters.

 

 

Sleep

To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub

~To Be Or Not To Be, Hamlet; Shakespear, 1602

I’ve been finding the past few days I’ve been getting to sleep a lot earlier than I used to.  Used to be I’d drag my butt to bed around midnight.  The past few nights that’s been around 10:30, which is fine, by that time it’s dark out and I’m tired.  I used to get tired and push it back, then finding my second wind and really screwing up my sleep schedule.  The worst was when I was much younger and would proudly attempt all nighters, especially when I had to work the next day.  I’ve tried that since, finding that I usually give up by the time 3 in the morning rolls around.  I’d like to note, I never try this when I have to work the next day.

But I’ve also noticed I feel a lot more refreshed in the morning.  An hour or two extra sleep really feels good, and I’m even able to get up at 5:30 in the morning.  I normally have my alarm set for that, and will wake up and hit snooze several times before finally getting up because I really need to use the facilities.

It’s also doing something else, and that’s helping me get some work done.  By work, I mean writing.  There’s other work that I do that I get done, but that’s the everyday mundane work that needs to be done, like dishes, laundry, vacuuming, cleaning windows, dusting and so on.  But it’s helping a bit with my writing.  I know, this whole thing I’ve discovered is contrary to some of the advice of published authors of the past.  An example is several suggest being shit faced drunk.  If I ever get that way, I can’t lift my hand, not even to think about writing.  I did it once, mind you.  I wrote about 5,000 words in one alcohol induced haze, then crashed into my bed at about 4 in the morning.  I awoke the next day to reread what I’d written, and in a hangover fog I thought it might be salvageable.  By the time the fog lifted and moved on, I realized there was no salvaging that train wreck of a word jumble.  One non coherent sentence flowing into an unrelated non coherent sentence.  That’s not to include how many spelling errors there were.

And I will say this now, no, I did not keep that jumbled mass of incoherent rambling.  It went to the dust bin rather quickly.  I mean dust bin quite literally, because I was typing it out on an old Underwood typewriter.  Ah, the good ol’ days.

So three things I can suggest if you sit down to write; get lots of sleep, eat a good meal before (or while) you write, and have a small recording device handy if you come up with an idea but area far away from pen and paper or computer.  Record your idea and transcribe later after you’ve had a nap from that plate of fettuccine Alfredo you just finished.

 

Wednesday morning quote-fest

On stories:

“All good stories deserve embellishment.” ~Gandalf, from The Hobbit, by J. R. R. Tolkien

“Cherish your wilderness.” ~Maxine Kumin! The poet, novelist, and essayist is a Pulitzer Prize winner and a former Poet Laureate.

“Fiction is dangerous, of course, because it lets you go inside someone else’s head.” ~Neil Gaiman, “Why Fiction is Dangerous” Book Expo America 2013

On books:

“A book is really like a lover. It arranges itself in your life in a way that is beautiful.” ~Maurice Sendak, author and illustrator of Where The Wild Things Are

“I read a book one day and my whole life was changed.” ~Orhan Pamuk, the Nobel Prize-winning Turkish writer was born in Istanbul, June 7, 1952.

On art:

“Art and love are the same thing: It’s the process of seeing yourself in things that are not you.” ~Chuck Klosterman! The journalist and essayist was born in Breckenridge, Minnesota.

On women:

“Forty-seven percent of all players are women, and women over 18 years of age are one of the industry’s fastest growing demographics. … Today, adult women represent a greater portion of the game-playing population (31 percent) than boys age 17 or younger (19 percent).” ~The Entertainment Software Association – Game Player Data

“It’s fascinating how many people think “free speech” means women are required to listen to their abuse.” ~Amanda Marcotte

 

Quotables

I haven’t done this for a time.  So here’s a round of quotable quotes.

I don’t know who my grandfather was; I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be.  – Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1865

Nothing is ever lost by courtesy.  It’s the cheapest of the pleasures, costs nothing and conveys much.  It pleases him who gives and him who receives, and thus, like mercy, is twice blessed. -author unknown

You never have to change what you see – only the way you see it. -author unknown

You can live to be a hundred if you give up all the things that make you want to live to be a hundred.  Woody Allen

The world would be better off if people tried to become better.  And people would become better if they stopped trying to be better off. ~Peter Maurin

The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience. –Harper Lee

 

Dubious quote is dubious

There was no graphic which fit with this topic, so have some exoplanets!

The other day, this quote or inspirational drivel came across my desk:

The secret of good living is not to do what one likes, but to like what one has to do. ~James M. Barrie

Really?  Like what I have to do?  Sometimes I have to do laundry.  I don’t necessarily like it, but I also don’t hate it.  It’s just something that has to be done.  Same with doing the dishes or vacuuming.  I don’t necessarily like doing those things, but I have to do it in order to keep a neat and tidy place.

Liking what you do is half the battle to having a good and successful life.  If you do what you like, if you manage to be one of those lucky or privileged enough to get a job in a field you really like, then you’re full steam ahead.  But if you’ve got a crumby job, and you have to do it, there’s no amount of philosophical bullshit that will make you like it.  Especially if it’s a crappy job, if the manager is sort of a bully, if your co-workers are all boring and listless.  None of that will help you with liking your job.  And that doesn’t even cover pay wage.  Poor, minimum wages don’t make one feel empowered.  “Wow!  I work at a minimum job, and I feel empowered to make the $10.00 an hour in order to just get by.”  That’s what the minimum around here is.  It gets even worse in places that are lower, or, as I’ve seen in many places, no minimum wage at all.

I’m not gonna turn my life into some Disney Princess film (though, I’m pretty confident I could pass as a decent Disney Princess, beard and all) and sing every time I have to do a load of laundry or clean my bathroom.  There’s no fucking birds landing on my balcony as I dust my living room.  And even if there were, my only response would be to shoo them all away before they shit on my balcony.  Funny how birds don’t take into consideration that they’d be more accepted if they didn’t shit all over everything.

But really, I’m sorry to the original author who tried in vain to make a philosophical, and inspirational comment, and have it fall flat.  Because as far as I’m concerned I’d rather do what I like than like what I have to do.  I’d rather write and have all my creative ideas flow onto paper (both physical and digital).  As it is, the things I often have to do are completely draining on me at times.  So no offense, dubious inspirational quote, but I’m going to call bullshit on you.

And to end off this topic, here’s a picture of a smiling Arctic Fox.

 

31 Days of Ghosts: Poetry and Quotes for Halloween

The first set of quotes, and some poems, for this week will be all about Halloween.  And there’s a lot!  All of them culled from The Quote Garden which included some poems by Nicholas Gordon from poemsforfree.com.

Stir the fire till it lowe
How like a queen comes forth the lonely Moon
From the slow opening curtains of the clouds
Walking in beauty to her midnight throne! ~George Croly

True love is like ghosts, which everyone talks about but few have seen.  ~Author Unknown

Backward, turn backward,
O Time, in your flight
make me a child again
just for to-night! ~Elizabeth Akers Allen

They that are born on Halloween shall see more than other folk.  ~Saying of unknown origin

You wouldn’t believe
On All Hallow Eve
What lots of fun we can make,
With apples to bob,
And nuts on the hob,
And a ring-and-thimble cake. ~Carolyn Wells

Being in a band you can wear whatever you want – it’s like an excuse for Halloween everyday.  ~Gwen Stefani

On Halloween, witches come true;
Wild ghosts escape from dreams.
Each monster dances in the park…. ~Nicholas Gordon, poemsforfree.com

A house is never still in darkness to those who listen intently; there is a whispering in distant chambers, an unearthly hand presses the snib of the window, the latch rises.  Ghosts were created when the first man awoke in the night.  ~J.M. Barrie

 

Thursday quotations

As always, not quotes about Thursday, but quotes I found and posted now on a Thursday.  Thursday quotations is a much easier title than “quotes I round and am posting up on a Thursday”.  See?  The former just sort of rolls off the tongue easier.  Anway, here we go.

I love books. I like that the moment you open one and sink into it you can escape from the world, into a story that’s way more interesting than yours will ever be.” ~Elizbeth Scott, Bloom

The miracle of gratitude is that it shifts your perception to such an extent that it changes the world you see. ~Dr. Robert Holden

A ‘bit of love’ is the only bit that will put a bridle on the tongue. ~Beck

If you even dream of beating me, you’d better wake up and apologize. ~Muhammad Ali