Archived

Occasionally NSFW.

[fanmixes]

is omgcatz down? would you guys know anything about that?

Yes, we’ve found out few days ago. I personally don’t know much about it, I looked on the internet for more info, but I had no luck. 

There are few alternative ways to download music from 8tracks, the easiest one would be via re-track, which works the same way omgcatz did. 

Claire

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I don't want to work with strangers or any kind of work where it includes customer service; argue over missing documents; deal with forged papers and liars; handle rude applicants; follow unreasonable and dump authority; or be responsible for bank transactions. I should find something that is suitable for the introvert in me. I like animals, nature, books and computers a lot better than humans, so!

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Whenever I have a fight with parents over the simple right of my freedom of movement and travel (or whatever other rights), I remind myself that what I have left is to work twice as hard, study twice as much, and invest more in genuine friendships to escape their black hole. Otherwise I’d rather not exist.

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“The way she put it was: "When you make love you're using up energy; and afterwards you feel happy and don't give a damn for anything. They can't bear you to feel like that. They want you to be bursting with energy all the time. All this marching up and down and cheering and waving flags is simply sex gone sour. If you're happy inside yourself, why should you get excited about Big Brother and the Three-Year Plans and the Two Minutes Hate and all the rest of their bloody rot?" That was very true, he thought. There was a direct intimate connection between chastity and political orthodoxy. For how could the fear, the hatred, and the lunatic credulity which the Party needed in its members be kept at the right pitch, except by bottling down some powerful instinct and using it as a driving force? The sex impulse was dangerous to the Party, and the Party had turned it to account. They had played a similar trick with the instinct of parenthood. The family could not actually be abolished, and, indeed, people were encouraged to be fond of their children, in almost the old-fashioned way. The children, on the other hand, were systematically turned against their parents and taught to spy on them and report their deviations. The family had become in effect an extension of the Thought Police. It was a device by means of which everyone could be surrounded night and day by informers who knew him intimately.”

— 1984, George Orwell, p.133

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Mental and emotional turmoil. The kind of change where old skin painfully sheds and new, more fit one gradually grows.

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Almost everything about Egyptian culture is poisonous to my mind and heart. I tried to find common ground with my place of birth, but there isn’t. I can’t force myself to belong.

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Every time I think my work or study load is too much, I remind myself of this American guy I met once who after submitting his Master's assignments, prepared right away an 8000-word paper in 8 days for a conference in Kurdistan before flying to Alexandria for his intensive Egyptian-Arabic course. He has studied only Standard Arabic for six years and loves Arabic grammar (!!!). Then, he is going to teach English for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon while learning the Levantine Arabic dialect before starting his third semester. Now that gives me some perspective!

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شرشحة بالإيطالي :D

فيما معناه “روحي في ستين داهية!” ـ

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Visit Original Link

Francoise Hardy - Peter und Lou <3

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"'Tutto ciò che possiamo fare è cercare di raggiungere la consapevolezza che siamo parte di questo imperscrutabile mistero che è il creato. Obbediamo alle sue leggi inconoscibili, ai suoi ritmi e ai suoi mutamenti. Siamo misteri tra i misteri.'  Federico Fellini lo scrive sotto il disegno che illustra il suo sogno del 20 agosto 84: si raffigura semisdraiato sotto un albero, il braccio alzato ad indicare stelle luminosissime che punteggiano d'oro un cielo dipinto in varie tonalità di un blu sempre brillante. Disegni di Federico Fellini tratti da 'Il libro dei sogni'" A rough English translation:

"'All that we can do is try to be aware of our being part of this unfathomable mystery that is the world. We obey its incognizable laws, its beats and its changes. We are mysteries among mysteries.'  wrote Federico Fellini below the drawing that illustrates his dream on 20th August, 1984. It shows a person lying under a tree, the arm pointing towards luminous stars that stipple the sky in gold, a sky which is painted in various shades of brilliant blue. Drawings of Federico Fellini from his book 'Il libro dei sogni' (The book of dreams)"

Source: www.treccani.it/magazine/cultura/Ai_riminesi_il_Libro_dei_sogni_e_altri_tesori_di_Fellini.html

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It feels so close and so far away. I believe I can be up for that challenge and deserve the chance, but still I feel just as much that it is far-fetched and too soon (and too good). Is that how it feels on the front line? Or is that just anxiety?

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Facebook timeline is full of news about rape-related issues, sexism and misogyny. That distresses me. Thinking about rape and sexual molestation brings too difficult mental images, and even though I have never been sexually assaulted—verbal harassment can't be exactly included—but merely reading in detail about such an incident or watching a graphic video like the infamous gang-rape in Tahrir last summer, creates inside me a kind of a false memory of having been through these experiences and trauma; that's a very strong feeling of empathy. So, I tried to google my fears into better understanding of this horrific behavior, but couldn't find interesting articles, studies or research papers about it yet. Then, I remembered an article Sam Harris has written before on violence, and my thoughts wandered to what he would have told me if I said I wanted to understand this rape issue in order to avoid it. And I simply imagined him, with a few simple and definite words, saying that in a real life-threatening situation, there is no way I could argue my way out of an assault and that "being deadly serious about protecting yourself"* is what matters most.

*Quote from Murakami's 1Q84

[explore-blog]

“I started leaving poems in her shoes in the morning. She had used the shoes as a form of quiet protest, so I decided I would use them to make a quiet stand for hope. When one of your primary strategies as a parent involves leaving Wendell Berry’s “Mad Farmer Liberation Front” in your child’s shoe, it’s clear things aren’t going well. What I wanted her to know is: People have been in pain before, struggled to find hope, and look what they’ve done with it. They made poetry that landed right in your shoe, the same shoe you didn’t wear for four months because of your despair. […] The most optimistic people often struggle the hardest. They can’t quite square what’s going on in the world with their beliefs, and the disparity is alarming.”

— Beautiful New York Times essay by Betsy MacWinnery about how she brought her daughter back from the brink of suicide with the poetry of Wendell Berry and Mary Oliver.

[explore-blog]

Beautiful read on our search for meaning and the limits of knowledge from astrophysicist Marcelo Gleiser. 

A few decades earlier, Richard Feynman articulated this sentiment elegantly in his “ode to a flower.”

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My New Photo Series Reveal A Mysterious Life Of An Egyptian Girl 

Whether she was just a cheeky little girl, the daughter of a genie or a dangerous psychopath, this beautifully mysterious 17 year old girl would always leave a footprint wherever she passes... read more

Very beautiful! Everything about it looks and feels beautiful.

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Bella Ciao

found out about this beautiful song thanks to recent Greek elections but i couldn't help but think of Shaimaa's death when this verse came up: "È questo il fiore del partigiano, morto per la libertà." (This is the flower of the partisan, who died for freedom)

[superbestiario]

“I saw that the camera could be a weapon against poverty, against racism, against all sorts of social wrongs. I knew at that point I had to have a camera.” – Gordon Parks

Segregation history, Gordon parks. 1956

[wilwheaton]

This isn’t ancient history. This was NORMAL and ACCEPTED in America in my parents’ lifetime. We still have a lot of work to do, to realize the promise of equality in this country.