esther

This Tumblr consists of cheesy quotes, gifs of SHINee, fangirl Taylor Swift moments, geeky things like Pokemon, milk tea, and my occasional philosophical musings.

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The gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope. — Tim Keller

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Album art that I've liked

Was re-listening to Switchfoot's Vice Verses the other day and it inspired me to revive my Tumblr.

The high-action I-attacked-my-canvas sort

Switchfoot has always had great album art, but I particularly enjoy Vice Verses because of they way it utilizes the canvas border, and the violent marker strokes that someone used to write the words.

The meticulousy measured sort

The single art for NCT Us 7th Sense at first glance is just a bunch of lines, but if you look closer, it spells out "NCT U," with the "U" in red. I find this so minimalistically elegant, and everything carefully measured to line up perfectly. However, I wonder if the red color might feel a tad basic. Their fanbase color is neon green, which would've given this a slightly more edgy, cyber feeling.

The chef-kiss Photoshop sort

Nothing really to it—just appreciating good Photoshop skillz.

The son-of-man-I'm-Rene-Magritte sort

The significance of The Son of Man is how it makes you feel unsettled and frustrated that you can't see someone's face when it's supposed to be a self-portrait. Similarly, Troy Sivan's Bloom seems simple at first glance. The act of turning around makes this photograph just interesting enough to make you pause and think for a moment.

Another for this category—Ariana Grande's Sweetener.

The i-gotta-express-myself sort

I've always admired Mike Shinoda, an artist through and through. Not only does he make music, but he's a visual artist and I love seeing someone expressing themselves in every medium for an album.

Another one I really like is John Mayer's Born and Raised. This one was commissioned artwork, so a different situation compared to Fort Minor, but the amount of detail & care in this piece of art is simply breathtaking.

The dripping-with-meaning sort

You just see something like Rihanna's Anti and think—that's gotta have a meaning. You can slightly make out a poem by Chloe Mitchell in braille. It reads: “I sometimes fear that I am misunderstood. It is simply because what I want to say, what I need to say, won’t be heard.” 

It's literally two glasses. And it's literally the glasses that John Lennon was wearing when he was murdered.

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it’s a jam

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Just as when two clashing musical notes played together force a piece of music forward, so discord in our thoughts, ideas, and values compel us to think, reevaluate, and criticise. Consistency is the playground of dull minds.

Yuval Noah Harari in Sapiens

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I was browsing for a stud finder 

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While sharing the story behind “Get Your Wish” on Song Exploder: 

My own desire for attention, success, and love from strangers—it feels like a monster that I manage. Who doesn’t desire love? Who doesn’t feel good when somebody tells them that they did a good job? It’s part of me, and it’s not my favorite part of me. I fear it at times. So my story that I’m cured of wanting attention, that’s just not real life. But I see as an upward spiral. As long as you’re generally moving in the right direction, that’s something you can feel proud of. 

—Porter Robinson

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Lost in an image, in a dream But there's no one there to wake her up And the world is spinning, and she keeps on winning But tell me, what happens when it stops?

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So I was watching two streamers make a wisdomous assertion about the English language

Tina: That bird flied away. Flew? Flied?

Wendy: He flied away.

Tina: It's "flew"?

Wendy: He--he--flew... wait, is "flied" not a word?

Tina: It's "flew!" She flew away. He flew away. But it's not he "flied" away.

Wendy: I guess you're right.

Tina: English is a dumb language anyways. I have abandoned all English. You know, I used to try to be as proper as I could in middle school, and now I just don't care anymore.

Wendy: *agreement noises*

Tina: How will the language ever change if I don't make the first steps?

Wendy: True.

Tina: I have to be a pioneer of the vernacular. It's my duty as an English-speaking citizen. I gotta make new words up so that one day they might exist. Ya know what I'm sayin'?

Wendy: Mmhmm.

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addicted to this song

[catscafecomics]

I am trying.

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omg this is me

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Real worship defies definition, it can only be experienced. Worship was never intended by God to be the discussion of textbooks but rather the communion with God experienced by His loved ones.

Morris Smith

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What you do speaks so loudly, I can’t hear what you’re saying.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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I think I’m now qualified to rant about this

The other day I was re-watching The Office and there’s a scene where somebody calls Michael on his cell phone and the audience hears that his embarrassing ringtone is “My Humps” by The Black Eyed Peas. 

This song was originally released when I was a wee 14-year old. For those of you that don’t know, the lyrics are roughly: 

My hump, my hump, my hump, my hump You love my lady lumps Tryin' a feel my hump hump Lookin' at my lump lump In the back and in the front

Wow I feel revolted just knowing these words are now in my Tumblr. My 14-year old peers were not unaware what “hump” and “lump” are referring to, and this song was played by popular radio stations almost nonstop (we didn’t have music streaming yet). 

And it was a very “giggly” song, like as a tween you hear these lyrics and giggle about it, and secretly feel cool because you’re listening to such a mature, sexy song. I never felt cool. I just felt very, very confused how you could refer to a person’s anatomy with the word “lumps.” I felt confused because I respected (a little bit, not a lot) Will.I.Am and Fergie as songwriters, and yet they’d produce a song like this. It’d be one thing to hear a gross man write a song like this, but Fergie herself was saying these words out of her own lips—it was weird to hear a woman disrespecting her own body like that.

Even so, I gave them the benefit of the doubt. I told myself: It’s probably because I’m just 14, haven’t even finished high school yet. One day when I’m more mature, and the concepts of sex & boobs don’t automatically make me feel embarrassed, maybe I’ll learn to appreciate the more mature aspects of this song. 

Hello, it’s been 15 years, and I still hate this song. It’s a terrible song. It’s not sexy. It’s hilarious that it’s Michael Scott’s ringtone. 

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It’s so good as an angsty pop punk song

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Wouldn’t have imagined the bridge could be more epic than it already was 

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I so admire that she wrote a hopeful song. That takes so much strength. 

See you in my memory

I might be reaching, but in a way, I “feel” Jonghyun in the lyrics, in the color of that microphone. His friends remembering him and expressing it in their own way, it’s beautiful.