Tim's scrapbook

[timaldred]

“The concept of luck is very straightforward. Some people notice opportunities and others don’t.”

Richard Wiseman, author

[timaldred]

There's two little girls and they're in the kitchen with one orange. Dad comes in to see them fighting over the orange. Each gives their reasons about why they deserve the orange, and the father doesn't find either particularly compelling so he does the fairest thing he can think to do and cuts the orange in half. The next day, he comes up to the first sister and he says, 'how did it go?' and the sister says, 'I wanted the orange because I wanted to make juice and because I only had half an orange I could only make half as much juice.' Dad goes to the second sister and says, 'how did it go?' and the second sister says, 'I wanted the orange because I was baking a cake and I needed the rind, but because I only had half the orange I could only make half the cake I wanted to make.'

Misha Glouberman, author. [You Are Not So Smart #143.]

[timaldred]

"This is what will be the end of all wars: everybody is going to have a podcast and people are going to be so busy going on each other's podcasts that there'll be no crime, no violence."

Conan O’Brien, comedian. [Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend #3.]

[timaldred]

"I’m always amazed when someone new gets hooked on heroin. I’m, like, ‘Really? Is the jury still out on this?’”

Rob Zombie, musician. [Metal Hammer.]

[timaldred]

“My Mount Rushmore is me with four different expressions.”

🎧 Drake, Survival.

[timaldred]

“Make a difference today for someone who is fighting for their tomorrow. Every single person can be a difference-maker. You can be just a normal person who gets up every morning and goes to work, but you can be a difference-maker. Put a smile on someone's face. My kids, my friends, when they came to see me, not once did they ever have a frown on their face. So I urge everybody, if you have somebody out there who is suffering. It doesn't have to be cancer, it could be somebody not having a good day. It could be your mum, your dad. It could be your grandparents. What you say to them, the smile that you have on your face, that can be the difference in them making it to the next day.”

Jim Kelly, quarterback. [2018 ESPYS.]

[timaldred]

"No matter what you think of who Josh Hader was or what he said six or seven years ago, that version of Josh Hader is of far lesser significance than who he is now as an adult human. When you are 16, 17 or 18 years old you generally have not advanced to the point where, psychologically, you can fully understand the extent to which your words can actually hurt other people. And you are more likely to say things - not necessarily just for the shock value of them, but maybe just because 'oh, this is a taboo word and I'm free to use it and if somebody else minds then to hell with them, it doesn't really matter, just grow a thicker skin' - because you just haven't gained the worldly experience to have interacted with other communities, certainly other communities that are very different from your own, and known what those people have gone through."

Jeff Sullivan, blogger. [Effectively Wild #1245.]

[timaldred]

"The ultimate function of Twitter, like nearly all social-media platforms, is to make its users insecure, because insecurity compels engagement.”

David Zweig, author. [The New Yorker.]

[timaldred]

“Treat a man as he is and he'll remain as he is. Treat a man as what he could be and he will become what he should be.”

Peyton Manning, quarterback. [Retirement speech.]

[timaldred]

“He raised millions of dollars for the Jimmy Fund charity, and then he would also help others, like retired ballplayers who would run out of money. He would call them up and say that he was raising money for the Jimmy Fund. And the guy would say, ‘Jesus, Ted. You know, I’m tapped out. I can’t give you any money, sorry.’ And he’d say, ‘Goddamnit, this is Ted Williams. Write me a cheque for ten dollars.’ So the fellow would send the cheque and Ted would take the account number on the cheque and put a thousand dollars in the guy’s account.”

Ben Bradlee Jr on Ted Williams. [The Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived.]

[timaldred]

“The voice that we have in our heads that’s explaining our behaviour and telling us who we are and what we’re doing and why we think what we think and why we feel what we feel has no access to the parts of the brain that controls and generates why we do what we do and why we think what we think. So it’s basically making stuff up. We don’t know.”

Will Storr, author. [You Are Not So Smart #127.]

[timaldred]

"A man who views the world the same at 50 as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.”

Muhammad Ali, boxer.

[timaldred]

“You’re only as good as your options and your surroundings.”

Big Narstie, musician. [The Guardian.]

[timaldred]

“These last couple of presidential elections... you have to raise $1bn for a job that pays $400,000. There's so much money coming from special interest groups that politics are so corrupt now.”

Charles Barkley, basketball player. [The Axe Files.]

[timaldred]

The video's director arrives and tries in vain to talk Bergling into more screen time than the cameo he's agreed to. Next comes the stylist; the DJ balks at almost everything she suggests, politely but firmly. He won't wear a tweed jacket. He absolutely will not take off his backward baseball cap. And he refuses to wear anything but sneakers on camera, no matter how many times she asks him nicely to consider a pair of boots. "Why don't you wear the boots for one fucking shot?" the stylist snaps at last. "I don't want to," he says simply. "I do lots of things I don't want to do!" she cries, exasperated. Bergling shrugs. "But I don't have to."

Avicii, musician. [Rolling Stone 1200.]

[timaldred]

“At the end of your life you will never regret not having passed one more test, not winning one more verdict, or not closing one more deal. You will regret time not spent with a husband, a friend, a child or a parent.”

Barbara Bush, First Lady of the United States. [Reflections.]

[timaldred]

“You don’t want to be the guy that owns the boat. You wanna be the guy that has the friend that owns the boat. Let him deal with the docking fees and scraping the barnacles off. You just show up with a 12-pack and you’re the hero.”

Bill Burr, comedian.