God is talking to me even when I'm not listening.

Sweet affliction sweet affliction
Singing as I wade to heaven

(Susan Howe, The Midnight, page 20)

What pine tree wildeyed boy

(Susan Howe, The Midnight, page 10)

Like a magazine.
Like a soda machine.
Like Halloween.
Like a dryer sheet.
Like some vitamin C.
Like a maitre d.
Like pumpkin pie.
(Not some sweaty guy at the gym.)
Like a candy bar.
Like a rental car.
Like a cookie jar.
Like some fryin' dough.
Like a boat show.
Like Hoops & Yoyo.

I started the day out laughing.

Rise up this morning,
smile with the rising sun.
Three little birds
perch by my doorstep,
singing sweet songs
of melodies pure and true,
saying, "This is my message to you."

Singing, "Don't worry about a thing,
'cause every little thing is gonna be all right."

(Bob Marley, "Three Little Birds")

Flash.











THUNDER!

If you have love to give now, you give it now.

I finished watching Mulan today. I am the biggest cheesiest cheeseball ever.

"As Agreed,"
by Nathan Zach
(translated from Hebrew by Tsipi Keller)

Look, as we promised each other,
We changed nothing and the world
Is as wonderful as it was, the rain
Tarries this year, but it will come:
It will come as long as we're still here....

(Language for a New Century, edited by Tina Chang, Ravi Shankar and Nathalie Handal)

The truth--that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest human secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love.

(Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning, page 57)

It’s hard to stay mad when there’s so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I’m seeing it all at once, and it’s too much, and my heart fills up like a balloon that’s about to burst…

And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain. And I can’t feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life.

You have no idea what I’m talking about, I’m sure. But don’t worry. You will someday.

(American Beauty)

"She ran the back of her hand along the first shelf, listening to the shuffle of her fingernails gliding across the spinal cord of each book. It sounded like an instrument, or the notes of running feet."

(Marcus Zusak, The Book Thief, page 135)

"I think that Grace fulfilled you in a way you didn't even know you needed."

(Eli Stone, Season 2, Episode 1)

"He didn't have His Book written to be read by what must elect and choose, but by the heart, not by the wise of the earth because maybe they dont need it or maybe the wise no longer have any heart, but by the doomed and the lowly of the earth who have nothing else to read with but the heart. Because the men who wrote his Book for Him were writing about truth and there is only one truth and it covers all things that touch the heart."

(William Faulkner, "The Bear," Go Down, Moses)

After the dance, we left in Sam's pickup. Patrick was driving this time. As we were approaching the Fort Pitt Tunnel, Sam asked Patrick to pull to the side of the road. I didn't know what was going on. Sam then climbed into the back of the pickup, wearing nothing but her dance dress. She told Patrick to drive, and he got this smile on his face. I guess they had done this before.

Anyway, Patrick started driving really fast, and just before we got to the tunnel, Sam stood up, and the wind turned her dress into ocean waves. When we hit the tunnel, all the sound got scooped up into a vacuum, and it was replaced by a song on the tape player. A beautiful song called "Landslide." When we got out of the tunnel, Sam screamed this really fun scream, and there it was. Downtown. Lights on buildings and everything that makes you wonder. Sam sat down and started laughing. Patrick started laughing. I started laughing.

And in that moment, I swear we were infinite.

(Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower)

The ever so awesome Kristen Chenoweth of course. ;)

"To pray is also to breathe, and possibility is for the self what oxygen is for breathing." (Sickness Unto Death, page 40)

Without any training,
it's pouring, it's raining.
Training or a trade?
Hey, you bet I'm afraid.
Unequipped with a skill,
but I'm thrilled with the thrill!
Underskilled, unprepared,
hey, who wouldn't be scared?

Bring on the obstacles and burn me a bridge.
I'm not sure, should I call this a range or a ridge?
There ain't none too high if I'm up for the climb.
I'll go zero to sixty and stop on a dime.
A dime for a dozen if that's what you're after.
A moment of silence, a lifetime of laughter.

On the brighter side and on a happier note:
the noise, well, it's just love that gets caught in my throat.

The end of the line's not the end of the rope,
just a salesman selling a bucket of hope.
When the bucket gets kicked and my chips are all cashed,
my intentions, conventions are finally smashed.

- The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, "Noise Brigade"

esp ~ 3:45

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qx8yLvb0gZM

What do you do with telekinesis? Have a dance party!

The world is so beautiful sometimes I can hardly stand it!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=-6tzSd0Xufk

MOVE IT!!!

Joi de vivre!

I would be true, for there are those who trust me;
I would be pure, for there are those who care;
I would be strong, for there is much to suffer;
I would be brave, for there is much to dare.

I would be friend of all--the foe, the friendless;
I would be giving, and forget the gift;
I would be humble, for I know my weakness;
I would look up, and laugh, and love, and lift.

HOWARD ARNOLD WALTER

Because: I think we've all felt like the googly eyed man. And I also firmly believe that phone calls like the one at the end should be made at least once a week.

Because: The soaring, and listen for this part, "Dil ko banade jo patange saansein yeh teri woh hawaien hai." (Makes my heart fly like a kite, these are your breaths, your wind.)

Because: It's delightful. And everyone needs to lead a song and dance in the middle of a street once in their lifetime.

Incubation: A Space for Monsters
by Bhanu Kapil

"My mother, smiling euphorically, smoothed the aluminum foil over the pillow and went to sleep, dreaming of mechanical sheep flying through a sky of tungsten. Copper and tulle" (67).

Because: You're unbreakable, unmistakable, highly capable lady that's making loot, a living legend too. Just look what heaven do: send us an angel. And I thank you. (Hey Mama.)

Because: The Beatles, the silhouettes, Love, and can we add this hum to the collection?

Edward Monkton

Because: Charlie's laugh, British accents, inevitable sibling interaction

Also on the list of best hums in the world.
Wintley Phipps

A ship is expected to leave the Port of Oakland this week carrying 2,000 gallons of San Francisco's recycled paint bound for Zambia, Africa.

At least twice a year for the past half-dozen years, San Francisco's garbage company, Norcal Waste Systems, has sent the recycled paint to countries around the world. San Francisco is the first city - and apparently the only one - to do so. Mexico, El Salvador, Tonga, Fiji and Mali, among other countries, have received the paint.

The most-recent shipment should reach Zambia's capital and largest city, Lusaka, at the end of March, when it will be used to paint schools and hospitals. Many buildings put up by communities and international aid organizations need paint, which can be expensive and hard to come by.

A worker at San Francisco's hazardous-waste center, Mali-born Ousmane Sy, is helping to guide the project that has sent 25,000 gallons of recycled paint out of the country. His previous experience working with an international conservation group has helped the garbage company find contacts, obtain permits in foreign countries, and determine proper shipping routes.

Sy will fly to Zambia to help parcel out the paint in April.

"A 5-gallon bucket of paint at Home Depot costs $100. In Zambia, you can buy a lot with $100. Those folks live off $1 a day," he said.

Norcal has found 13 communities in Zambia where people plan to use the paint during the week Sy will be there. He plans to also make sure that money that would otherwise be used to buy paint will be spent on food, medicine and other items.

The paint comes from the thousands of gallons of extra paint that San Franciscans have dropped off at the city's hazardous-waste center on Tunnel Road. No counties allow residents or companies to toss unused paint into the regular garbage.

In San Francisco, workers have strained and sorted the paint into three useable colors - a shade of green, red and off-white.

And there is a lot of it.

"San Francisco is a really rich city. People bring us cans that are half full, three quarters full. Maybe they have bone-colored paint and decide they want white," said Robert Reed, spokesman for Norcal, the parent company of Sunset Scavenger Co. and Golden Gate Disposal and Recycling Co.

Much of the city's recycled paint stays in the Bay Area, and goes to local uses such as painting schools and covering graffiti. What can't be recycled is shipped to Southern California and used as an ingredient in cement.

It costs more to send it to the Southern California cement site than to ship it to other nations, Sy determined.

"We can save a little money and we can do a lot of good," he said.

Since 2002, Norcal has shipped two to three times a year with loads of 2,000 to 3,000 gallons each.

Sy said he doesn't know of anyone else providing such a service.

Sy, who moved to the United States in 1992, started working at SF Recycling and Disposal 10 years ago. His job is to ensure that Norcal companies comply with federal, state and city laws and regulations.

In Mali, he was a teacher and worked for five years with the International Union of Conservation of Nature, the IUCN, known as the World Conservation Union, based in Switzerland. The group had a land-management program in Mali sponsored by the United Nations, educating forest communities how to live with wildlife and the flora, Sy said.

Sy, who has a degree in social anthropology, also worked for the organization in Zambia, Guinea, Niger and Nigeria.

The local paint-distribution system relies on connections city workers have in places such as Mexico, Central America and Africa.

Although the paint is donated by Norcal, Sy pays his own way to visit the countries where the paint is used. While in Durango, Mexico, he visited seven communities over five days, he said.

"Oh, yes, definitely, they were happy to get the paint," he said. "Whatever money they save, they can buy school supplies, medicine and food."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/05/BACQUS02T.DTL&hw=recycled+paint+zambia&sn=001&sc=1000

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=155947&title=tim-gunn&byDate=true

Because: Why isn't everyone as reasonable as you as a human being?

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=155946&title=stephenconan&byDate=true

Because: 6:21, take it take it take it.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=8jIRO2IR0iM
Because: Jason Mraz has the sexiest hum in the world (though it's not showcased here), the harmony, bare feet, it's all about Love.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=dOdd7OoEoi4

Because: Random dancing in an office building, bursting into song, faith.

http://www.purevolume.com/videos/rockyvotolato/silvertrees
Because: Sprouts come up glowing, the invisible choir sings, harmonica, acoustic guitar.

Lyrics: I hear you call me, branches break in the wind / and through the leaves and concrete you're gonna grow into something that death can't steal / a garden that gives, sprouts come up glowing / fruits of jade and golden silver trees to mark the legacy of a life that finally learned what this means / the invisible choir sings you a voiceless lesson / so you'll always remember what grew out of decisions that death can't steal / lives that learned to give when it seemed there was nothing / oh, how much more it meant to those around we go / there's a rhythm soft and slow / you'll always hear the choir if you listen close

http://www.comedycentral.com/motherload/player.jhtml?ml_video=148027&is_large=true

If that link doesn't work, try this one:

http://www.milkandcookies.com/link/89440/detail/

Because: Stephen Colbert, Andrew Young, random skinny white guy with glasses, and the Harlem Gospel Choir.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5pwLzSBdBc