Everyone thinks they know themselves. After all, we live in the back alleys of our minds smelling the same soup every day. But how self-aware are we really? Are we like my Uncle Clem who seems mindless that his house smells like dog urine? Do we get so used to ourselves that we can’t smell what is obvious to everyone else?

While Washington poured billions into propping up the banks and financial institutions that brought our economy to its knees, the Chinese spent their stimulus billions on an epic 19,000 miles of new railroad track. Nearly half of that total will go towards completing a web of more than 42 inter-province hyperspeed rail lines that will link almost every major city in the country. The fastest of the new trains travel at 229 miles per hour. So China comes out of the economic crisis with a rail system that will be the envy of the world.
Quotation from Graydon Carter, Wild on the Street, Vanity Fair

“You have a good one” is akin to saying “Have a Nice Day.”
Isn’t it ironic that “A Good One” is also a congratulatory phrase used when someone tells a “Good Joke?”

Men are most apt to believe what they least understand.
Quotation from Michel Eyquem, Of Cripples

A reader left a comment here yesterday: “Yeah, yeah. Let’s shower each other with compliments. You scratch my back, I will scratch yours. All are happy. I’m fed up with the over-sugarness in the photo-blogosphere. “Brilliant!”, “Incredible!”, “Great!” … blah.”
Having grown up in a negative household, I prefer having my back scratched. Too much sugar is preferable to sourness and the occasional bitter taste that life insists on feeding us. But, dear reader, I appreciate the honest comment. Thanks!

They loved my friend Adam
But he always got caught.
Man, that kid made fucking up look cool.
Aren’t we all so cool now? No.
Lyrics from Something Corporate, Cavanaugh Park

Actually, I did receive a generous donation (Thanks Sara!). Now all I need is an agent, a patron or a corporate sponsor. Or a sugar daddy cookie.

I stood almost motionless on a box in harvard square, painted white, relinquishing my fate and income to the goodwill and honor of the passers-by. I spent years gradually building up a tolerance to the inbuilt shame that society puts on laying your hat/tipjar on the ground and asking the public to support your art…
Quotation from Amanda Palmer, Dresden Dolls

An attribute expresses a value and is associated with a person. Attributes provide a default value, but in most cases, individuals can revise an attribute’s default value. Custom attributes become personal extensions, often visible even if one doesn’t have intimate access to the user’s default.

Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose,
Loveliness extreme.
Extra gaiters,
Loveliness extreme.
Sweetest ice-cream.
Pages ages page ages page ages.
Poem by Gertrude Stein, Sacred Emily

It was Al Bundy on the television show Married With Children that ruined it. He burned into the American consciousness the impression that only fat women wear muumuus. In reality, the muumuu is comfortable to wear in hot weather because it hangs loosely from the shoulders, much like the roomy Hawaiian shirt for men.

I don’t want to look like a weirdo. I’ll just go with a muumuu.
Quotation from Homer Simpson, The Simpsons

I hate the supermarket. I always wind up in the two-thousand-items-or-less aisle behind some ugly lady in a muumuu and curlers.
Quotation from Al Bundy, Married With Children

Goodbye isn’t good enough. When people are compelled to add an additional “You have a nice one” upon parting, smile brightly and reply “thank you!”

FAREWELL! thou art too dear for my possessing
And like enough thou know’st thy estimate:
The charter of thy worth gives thee releasing;
My bonds in thee are all determinate.
Sonnet LXXXVII by William Shakespeare, Farewell! thou art too dear for my possessing

When we ask “what can I do to make others like me more,”
what we’re really saying is “can I make myself a better person?”
Others can act as mirrors, but change comes from within.

Next time you feel like it’s just one of those days
When you just can’t seem to win
If things don’t turn out the way you plan,
Figure something else out
Don’t stay down, try again, yeah
Nobody’s Perfect, no no, nobody’s perfect
Lyrics from Hannah Montana, Nobody’s Perfect