That Quote is Gold

[radiophile]

Well, I have said this in the past, so I hope i don’t bore you by repeating it, but I think that we live or die under the tyranny of perfection. Socially, we are pushed towards being perfect. Physically, beautiful to conform to standards that are cruel and uncommon, to behave and lead our lives in a certain way, to demonstrate to the world that we are happy and healthy and all full of sunshine. We are told to always smile and never sweat, by multiple commercials of shampoo or beer. And I feel that the most achievable goal of our lives is to have the freedom that imperfection gives us. And there is no better patron saint of imperfection than a monster. We will try really hard to be angels, but I think that a balanced, sane life is to accept the monstrosity in ourselves and others as part of what being human is. Imperfection, the acceptance of imperfection, leads to tolerance and liberates us from social models that I find horrible and oppressive.

Guillermo del Toro, on why he has always been intrigued by monsters [x] (via queerly-it-is)

[writingquotes-deactivated201509]

Every writer must be taught how to write every book she or he writes, and the teacher is always the book itself. Writing becomes good by accretion. It builds on itself; it picks up its own cues, it takes its own suggestions. You rarely if ever start out knowing exactly what you are doing or what is to come, and by the time you reach the middle, you rarely know how you are going to get out alive. The project must be your guide, and it will not be finished teaching you the job until the day you type the final page. Then, if you’re lucky, it will let you go.

Stephen Koch (via writingquotes)

[micdotcom]

Contraceptive protection is something every woman must have access to, to control her own destiny.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg just delivered the ultimate last word on the Hobby Lobby controversy (via micdotcom)

[micdotcom]

75%

That’s how many Americans don’t think they can live on the current minimum wage. It’s time to raise it. (via micdotcom)

I want to meet the 25% who say they can live on minimum wage. My guess? They have no idea.

[azspot]

And how hard is it to land even a minimum-wage job? This year, the Ivy League college admissions acceptance rate was 8.9%. Last year, when Walmart opened its first store in Washington, D.C., there were more than 23,000 applications for 600 jobs, which resulted in an acceptance rate of 2.6%, making the big box store about twice as selective as Harvard and five times as choosy as Cornell. Telling unemployed people to get off their couches (or out of the cars they live in or the shelters where they sleep) and get a job makes as much sense as telling them to go study at Harvard.

"Why Don’t the Unemployed Get Off Their Couches?" and Eight Other Critical Questions for Americans (via seriouslyamerica)

[aprocessofbecoming-deactivated2]

In the late 1970s, crack first came on the scene in the form of cocaine freebasing. Many of its users were stockbrokers and investment bankers, rock stars, Hollywood types, and a few pro athletes. Some of them began to get in trouble with this form of cocaine use, showing up in hospital emergency rooms and police stations. Congress passed new laws to extend health insurance coverage to include drug treatment. The treatment industry expanded the number of beds available. In the mid 1980s, crack use spread into America’s inner cities among impoverished African Americans and Latinos. Some of them began to get in trouble with this form of cocaine use, showing up in hospital emergency rooms and police stations. Congress passed new laws to extend the length of criminal sentences for crack offenses. The prison industry expanded the number of beds available.

Reinarman & Levine, 2004, as cited in Rosenblum & Travis, 2012 (via mycitynotforsaken)

[writingquotes-deactivated201509]

Writing is really just a matter of writing a lot, writing consistently and having faith that you’ll continue to get better and better. Sometimes, people think that if they don’t display great talent and have some success right away, they won’t succeed. But writing is about struggling through and learning and finding out what it is about writing itself that you really love.

Laura Kasischke (via writingquotes)

[writingquotes-deactivated201509]

A clear sentence is no accident.

William Zinsser (via writingquotes)

[shortformblog]

We hold that under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the United States Constitution, those who wish to marry a person of the same sex are entitled to exercise the same fundamental right as is recognized for persons who wish to marry a person of the opposite sex.

A federal appeals court in Denver, in a 2-1 decision upholding a lower court ruling finding Utah’s same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional and setting up a likely Supreme Court battle. This is a really big day for court decisions. (via shortformblog)

[sandandglass]

[chels]

Ultimately, you are going to do best at something you care deeply for. But you still have to grind it out. You can get into the mindset where the effort and sweat you put in doesn’t feel like a burden. Your career isn’t always a straight line. Sometimes you have to take a job to pay the bills. And sometimes you take a big risk, like building something called Tumblr.

President Obama to David Karp at the Tumblr Q&A on education and college affordability. (via whitehouse)

[agoracertamentesim-deactivated2]

The word failure is imperfect. Once we begin to transform it, it ceases to be that any longer.

Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Crucial Difference Between Success and Mastery | Brain Pickings (via sociolab)

[mediamattersforamerica]

Yes, the guy who used to run the cable industry’s lobbying arm is now running the agency tasked with regulating it. That is the equivalent of needing a babysitter, and hiring a dingo.

John Oliver, Last Week Tonight

Get the facts on net neutrality, or as John Oliver puts it, “preventing cable company f**kery.”

(via mediamattersforamerica)

[writingquotes-deactivated201509]

I write because I like to write. I find joy in the texture and tone and rhythm of words. It is a satisfaction like that which follows good and shared love.

John Steinbeck (via writingquotes)

[theweekmagazine]

The week’s best editorial cartoons

[azspot]

In life our first job is this, to divide and distinguish things into two categories: externals I cannot control, but the choices I make with regard to them I do control. Where will I find good and bad? In me, in my choices.

Epictetus (via azspot)

[becauseiamawoman-deactivated202]

We’re conditioned to believe that external validation is a necessary substitute for self-confidence. Furthermore, having any positivity toward yourself is deeply stigmatized, policed by accusations of narcissism and superficiality. The real anxiety with girls and selfies is that selfies might provide girls with the means to create their own positive image of themselves, thereby severely diluting the impact of outside opinion. If your confidence comes from within, you can’t be controlled as easily. While there are people who claim that the selfie is little more than a desperate cry for attention, the alternative of girls using selfies as an expression of independence is far more threatening.

Selfies and Misogyny: The Importance of Selfies as Self-Love — Everyday Feminism (via becauseiamawoman)