Scrapalope

Just a bunch of scraps and curated...Tumblry stuffs.

[jakeberabbit]

3 Movies: Shine / Ambulance / Beetlejuice

Capsule reviews for the first movies I saw this year: Shine, Ambulance, and Beetlejuice

Shine (1996) Starring Geoffrey Rush, Noah Taylor, John Gielgud, and Lynn Redgrave Written by Jan Sardi, from a story by Scott Hicks Directed by Scott Hicks If this movie doesn’t make you respect Rachmaninoff, I don’t know what will. Shine tells the (supposedly) true story of pianist David Helfgott, who overcame a severe upbringing and a lifelong struggle with mental illness to find his way…

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[jakeberabbit]

True Blue in Red States

After a few conversations about race with the Arkansas in-laws, I've found more dialogue is as necessary as it is exhausting. Hot take incoming. >.>

I’m back from a trip to Arkansas, where the last of my husband’s four brothers got married! He’s the oldest in a large family of seven children, all of whom have strong personalities and deeply-held beliefs. One brother loves hunting; one sister is super-athletic; another sibling voted for Trump; yet another is a staunch Christian conservative; and one is also gay, married to a Vietnamese…

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[jakeberabbit]

New Tattoo! (CW: Suicide)

Just a tiny bit of ink, no big deal

I’m traveling home today from a week-long visit with the in-laws, but it’s also been two whole weeks since I’ve checked in here. I don’t feel pressure to keep the Content Monster fed, but it’s also important to me that I try to keep a regular practice of writing and posting. So — my apologies for not giving all of you a heads up that I would be a bit too busy to post for a couple weeks this…

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[jakeberabbit]

The Vow

The vows I make are a big part of my New Year's ritual every year. Here they are!

We’ve reviewed the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path, two core principles of Buddhism. From these two ideas there’s a whole universe of interpretations, additions, and expansions. Every time Buddhism is introduced to a new culture, it tends to adapt towards the specific pressures that exist at that time. Tibetan Buddhism is different from the Zen Buddhism of Japan, the Pure Land…

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[jakeberabbit]

The Path

Ready for 2400 words about the Noble Eightfold Path? No? Sorry about that, here it is anyway.

I find it’s a good idea whenever you’re setting out on a new endeavor to take stock of where you’re going, why you’re going there and what you want to do on the way. The new year is a new endeavor of sorts, so before diving into any major goals I want to pause for a little bit and review a few ideals at the foundation of my philosophy. Being a Buddhist, that would be the Four Noble Truths and…

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[jakeberabbit]

The Truths

The annual review of a few fundamental Buddhist concepts. Everything changes, even our understanding.

Happy New Year to all of you! It is a time of fresh starts and renewal for me. I love viewing the new year as a fresh piece of paper, a time to construct the next 12 months with focused intentionality. As part of that, I’ve found it’s useful to revisit the foundations of my beliefs — without a solid understanding of what I believe and why, it can be a bit more difficult to anchor my intentions in…

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[jakeberabbit]

Constant Change

You never know where the next opportunity to spiral is going to come from...

In the relative chaos of the past two years, my job has been mercifully stable. I work for a Silicon Valley tech company, and I honestly feel lucky to be here. The company was founded with a mission I care about. The people I work with are smart and diverse and awesome, and I can be myself while I do my job — more or less. I get paid well enough, and there’s room for me to grow as much as I want…

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[jakeberabbit]

Christopher Columbus Ain't Shit

Let's learn about cultural appropriation, and also why it's very important to say "Fuck Christopher Columbus" today!

Today is Indigenous Peoples’ Day here in the United States (and possibly other countries), though in a lot of places the holiday is still known as Christopher Columbus Day. As you might suspect, it’s a controversial time. Columbus Day was originally meant to commemorate the “discovery” of America way back when, even though there were already roughly 1 million people living here at the time. After…

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[jakeberabbit]

Bagel? Googly Eye?

The struggle with impermanence is real.

Kurt Vonnegut was the first writer to make me really feel nihilism where I lived. Cat’s Cradle is an early novel of his most famous for the form of its world’s destroyer — ice-nine, a form of water that freezes at room temperature. But what makes it linger in my mind after reading it 20 years ago is how much of a sucker-punch the ending is. It made me think that Vonnegut must not have a very high…

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[jakeberabbit]

The Balancing Dance

Perfection is impossible, but it's something we all want to achieve. How do we balance this drive with the fact that we're so very imperfect? ME NOT KNOW.

I’ve always wanted to be a more conscientious person — the kind of rabbit who sends “thank you” cards when someone’s done him a good turn; or surprises his friends, neighbors, and regular acquaintances with a thoughtful gift on a birthday or holiday; someone who remembers the names of coworkers’ children or pets, and asks after their well-being. I like the idea of making these small gestures a…

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[jakeberabbit]

3 Movies: Nope / 3000 Years of Longing / Bullet Train

I saw three movies. In a theatre! Here is what I thought of "Nope", "3000 Years of Longing", and "Bullet Train".

Nope (2022) Written and directed by Jordan Peele Starring Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Steven Yeun Rated R. 130 minutes. The cool thing about a Jordan Peele movie is the conversation it inspires is just as fun as the movie itself. What do you think that meant? Why was this plot device included? What’s the connection with this unrelated but equally weird thing? Peele’s stories are fertile…

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[jakeberabbit]

Block by Block

In which I try to untangle the mental knot snarling in my head for the past six years.

It’s hard to talk about why I stopped writing. Not because I don’t understand it, but because there’s this fear that writing it down and posting it up for everyone to see will reveal some fundamental weakness on my part. When you live with the brain that I do, you learn not to trust your feelings. They can be either too big or too little for any given situation, so I rely on the perspective of…

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[jakeberabbit]

Life, the Universe, and Everything

I'm back! Sort of. The Writing Desk will be a bit scattered as a I rethink a few things. Thanks for your patience!

I turned 42 years old nine days ago. The old folk wisdom says that this will be the beginning of my sixth cycle of brand new cells, as the body completely replaces itself roughly every seven years. It’s a fun idea, and a handy way of looking back at different stages of your life over time. How has my life changed since the last time I was a “brand new person” at the age of 35? What are the things…

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[jakeberabbit]

Zen Check 2022: Samadhi

Let's take a hard look at the state of my mental discipline at the beginning of the year. I'll try hard not to flinch.

I like to set my intention through this first week of 2022 by reviewing my understanding of the Noble Eightfold Path, being a Zen Buddhist and all. On Monday I went over the first of the Threefold Division, sila (or ethics). That blog post was unforgivably dry reading it over — sorry about that. I’m still nervous about writing words that other people see, so I’m a little rusty. Today, let’s talk…

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[jakeberabbit]

Zen Check 2022: Sila

Don't mind me, just doing a quick gut-check on whether I'm walking the walk when it comes to Buddhist principles....

Happy New Year, everyone! I thought I would start the blog this year by doing a gut check on a few fundamentals. I identify as a Zen Buddhist, meaning that I adhere to the principles of both Zen AND Buddhism. Especially in the United States, Zen has become its own discipline — a way of thinking about the world that doesn’t necessarily depend on the Four Noble Truths or the Eightfold Path. The…

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[jakeberabbit]

Kwanzaa 2021: Imani (Faith)

2016 broke something within me, and it's taken a long six years to put it back together. My faith is not the same as it was -- it can't be -- but that fire shines a little more steadily now. Imani closes out Kwanzaa this year:

I lost my faith in humanity on the night of November 8th, 2016. It was the end of a terrible year of campaigning where Donald Trump had harassed his way to the GOP nomination despite — or perhaps because of, in hindsight — his egregious temperament. I had thought he’d demonstrated his unfitness to be President by being openly racist, misogynist, and willing to abuse any power he could get a hold…

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[jakeberabbit]

Kwanzaa 2021: Kuumba (Creativity)

Creativity is our single best antidote to despair when facing our collective future. We can't create a better world if we can't imagine one.

Facing the challenges of the next 20 years is going to require some ingenious creativity on our part. The government’s response to climate change, pandemics, wealth inequality, crippling debt, institutional racism, and revitalizing urban blight has sent a clear message we should embrace going into 2022: we’re on our own, and it’s up to us to adapt to what’s coming. This is a sobering thought, but…

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