The Unscientific Method

A novel method for passing wondrous discovery and divers applications thereof

[great-and-small]

Need y’all to know that in the 1970’s a letter to the editor was published in Daily Telegraph where the author offhandedly used the phrase “Tolkien-like gloom” to describe an area with barren trees and JRRT himself wrote back an incensed rebuttal at the use of his name in a context that suggested anything negative about trees.

[great-and-small]

“I feel that it is unfair to use my name as an adjective qualifying ‘gloom’, especially in a context dealing with trees. In all my works I take the part of trees as against all their enemies”

He was like how dare you sir I am the biggest tree fan out there

[dwellsinparadise]

Pretend, for example, that you were born in Chicago and have never had the remotest desire to visit Hong Kong, which is only a name on a map for you; pretend that some convulsion, sometimes called accident, throws you into connection with a man or a woman who lives in Hong Kong; and that you fall in love. Hong Kong will immediately cease to be a name and become the center of your life. And you may never know how many people live in Hong Kong. But you will know that one man or one woman lives there without whom you cannot live. And this is how our lives are changed, and this is how we are redeemed.

What a journey this life is! Dependent, entirely, on things unseen. If your lover lives in Hong Kong and cannot get to Chicago, it will be necessary for you to go to Hong Kong. Perhaps you will spend your life there, and never see Chicago again. And you will, I assure you, as long as space and time divide you from anyone you love, discover a great deal about shipping routes, airlines, earth quake, famine, disease, and war. And you will always know what time it is in Hong Kong, for you love someone who lives there. And love will simply have no choice but to go into battle with space and time and, furthermore, to win.

—James Baldwin, The Price of the Ticket

[brightwalldarkroom]

Anneke Schwob on Peter Greenaway’s A Zed and Two Noughts

“Well, actually, if you’re any of the handful of friends I have individually sat down and forced to watch Z+00 over the past year and a bit, the questions are more likely to be: “What are we watching,” “Do we have to,” and “Is that man covered in snails and/or eating ground glass right now?” Peter Greenaway can be, as Elizabeth Cantwell (née Wilcox) has noted in these very pages, a profoundly alienating director. A Zed and Two Noughts is no less unpleasant than its follow-up, The Cook, the Thief, his Wife, and Her Lover, although that unpleasantness manifests along slightly different lines—less spousal abuse and more spoilage. Neither film is a strong candidate for a dinner-and-a-movie date. I owe a lot of people a lot of apologies, is all I’m saying.”

[theunscientificmethod]

Look it me 

[erina]

[psycholun4tic]

[doowopapocalypse-deactivated201]

A - If I’m in love. B - Who the last person I talked to on the phone was. C - How long it’s been since I’ve kissed. D - If I have a preference for boys or girls. E - How many holes I have in my ears. F - Give me any options, like ‘hot or cold?’ G - The last person I said ‘I love you’ to. H - The last person I hugged. I - The last time I felt jealous, and why. J - How old I am. K- What my full name is. L - If I have siblings. M - If I forgive betrayal. N - If you want to know how I treat my friends. O - If I like my school. P - What kind of music I like. Q - What the last party I went to was, and when the next will be. R - For me to tell 10 of my curiosities. S - 2 habits. T- 5 things I love unconditionally. U - How many texts I send daily. V - 3 big dreams. W - An idol. X - If I’ve done something I regret very much. Y - If I like my town and why. Z - Ask any question you want. 

Why the hell not.

[abloodymess]

i can party

[nesbittslimesoda-deactivated201]

Just bored enough and in need of some decompression time before doing “real” writing. Ask away I guess.

[minou]

I got to page 20 of my introduction tonight and I could use a little unholy terror right now. Let me just open this beer first.

[feralkwe-deactivated20210912]

Sure! Me or my characters, I suppose.

PS: Minou, you have no Ask feature enabled! 

[salt-water-chardonnay-blog-blog]

Ask me, as I may be pulling an ill-advised all-nighter having finally figured out how to get his fictiony thing that I’ve been picking at for a few weeks going.

[theunscientificmethod]

Play with meeeee. 

[bossypants]

[rollingsreliable]

#how much do I love this show for making a women’s studies class awesome instead of making it a joke

Yesss! And there was another dude in there! And nobody made a joke about taking the class to be surrounded by women! MEN OF THE WORLD: LEARN FROM PARKS AND REC.

[theunscientificmethod]

Parks & Rec, the most feminist show on television*. 

*And believe me, I realize that this is both awesome and a HUGE problem. 

[wanderingcalifornia]

[theunscientificmethod]

bedbugsbiting:

joetheblogger:

sierra-with-the-crazy-puggles:

blueandbluer:

midnight-naiad:

chupolitico:

Run For Your Lives is an apocalyptic 5K obstacle race. But you’re not just running against the clock — you’re running from brain-hungry, virus-spreading, bloody zombies.

I just discovered this and HAD to share it with you guys. The races take place in seven places all over the US, and one of them is located between Los Angeles and San Diego (South Temecula to be exact). Click this link (http://runforyourlives.com/locations/south-temecula-ca/) for all the info.

This is genius.

I’m forreal considering doing this. It’d be fun to do. And it’d be great exercise. I’d probably do the Atlanta date in March.

LOOK DFP WE AREN’T THE ONLY ONES WITH MOCK ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE IDEAS!

This is possibly the most fantastic thing I’ve ever heard of in my entire life.

I can’t even deal with this. I want to do this but I seriously suck at training. 

Oh yeah, this is happening.

If my knees ever get better I want to do something like this. Unfortunately, I hate running so I would probably give up halfway through and just join the zombies. That’s the way nature intended.

I desperately want to do this. Boston? May? Anyone? 

[sergeantprnz]

[theunscientificmethod]

jhameia:

zincfingers:

thordinson:aeromachia:sergeantprnz:

WHO NAMED THIS FLOWER

IT BARGES INTO ALL YOUR CONVERSATIONS

IT GIVES YOU A STUPID NICKNAME WHEN YOU’VE MET, LIKE, ONCE

IT WIGGLES ITS STAMENS AT YOU SUGGESTIVELY FOR NO REASON

IT IS: THE AGGRESSIVELY FORWARD BEARDED IRIS

#it’s the tony stark of flowers

in love with this flower oh my god

I just noticed the GUARANTEED TO GROW part of the label brb dying

OH HI WHAT ARE YOU READING? A BOOK? THAT'S NICE, I LIKE BOOKS. YOU LOOK SAD. GIVE ME A SMILE. YOU'RE REALLY PRETTY YOU SHOULD SMILE MORE. 

[lawyerupasshole-deactivated2011]

[theunscientificmethod]

I am still not 100% how I feel about the Girl With The Dragon Tattoo remake BUT I think I might want to marry the tagline and take it out for nice meals that I will pay for. 

[.gif is scenes (hardly discernible) from the GWTDT remake intercut with the tagline, which is: THE FEEL BAD MOVIE OF CHRISTMAS.]

[quichelotta]

[theunscientificmethod]

raani:

quite-likely:

It’s not that he’s black, it’s that he wears sunglasses. 

I guess the makeup/costume department can’t afford the “movie magic” required to divest Lenny of his sunglasses, what with the amount they are apparently spending on bronzer.

Cinna is not a softie. Has this person been reading the same book everyone else has or was it dipped in some sort of magical solution that magically makes them “nicer” and “softer”- which we all know is just code for “whiter”.

Well let's not forget that a not-insignificant percentage of the fans who were upset about Jennifer Lawrence's casting were unhappy not because of what the casting said about Hollywood's willingness to open the lead actress pool to POC (valid) but because Lawrence has naturally blonde, not brown hair (not valid). Hell, if they can't afford hair dye, then they'll never afford the MILLIONS OF DOLLARS NECESSARY to get Kravitz to take his sunglasses off. 

I feel like someone needs to change the tagline of this movie: "Coming in 2012....The Hunger Games: A Movie With A Costuming Budget."

[newsflick-blog]

[theunscientificmethod]

newsflick:

UPDATE: “Al Jazeera Breaking: Eyewitness confirms that over 200 Libyans have been massacred today alone in the city of Benghazi” -  @AlanFisher

[theunscientificmethod]

A Dialogue: 

You're upside down. 

...

You look like a dork. 

...

Oh, okay, don't let me disturb you then. 

...

Belly scritches? 

[Image desc. A black cat, upside down, with a foolish expression on his face.]

[kvetchlandia]

[theunscientificmethod]

kvetchlandia:

Dorothy Parker     Uncredited and Undated Photograph

“I’m never going to accomplish anything; that’s perfectly clear to me. I’m never going to be famous. My name will never be writ large on the roster of Those Who Do Things. I don’t do anything. Not one single thing. I used to bite my nails, but I don’t even do that any more.” Dorothy Parker, from ”The Little Hours,”  1939

If you subtract the wit and change the gender, you’d find, based upon this description, that I’m very much like Dorothy Parker.

Like many American teenagers, we had a yearbook, where we had a small amount of space dedicated to a relatively unflattering photograph of ourselves and an opportunity to air all the inside jokes that would surely be forgotten by the time we actually came to pick up the yearbooks, which wasn't until the November after we graduated. We also had room to choose a short inspirational quote which might accompany our pictures. @meretricula, I believe, got in some trouble for attempting to use a fragment of a Martial poem in the original Latin. 

This was mine. 

[Image desc. An iconic photograph of a young Dorothy Parker in a broad-brimmed black hat, looking over her shoulder and smiling.] 

[iwdrm]

[theunscientificmethod]

iwdrm:

“She’s young, she’s in high school, she’s sexually active, she’s taking drugs, she’s crying out for help. … Well damn Cooper, that really narrows it down, you’re talking about half the high school girls in America!”

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992)

[reasoningwithvampires]

[theunscientificmethod]

Perrrrfect.

[theunscientificmethod]

OMG WE KNOW YOU'RE TAKING GROSS YI. 

[lenore-beadsman-deactivated2014]

[theunscientificmethod]

lenorebeadsman:

“Casabianca,” Elizabeth Bishop (1936)