Keep A Peek

Every atom in your body came from a star that exploded. And the atoms in your left hand probably came from a different star than your right hand. It really is the most poetic thing I know about physics.

You are all stardust.

You couldn’t be here if stars hadn’t exploded. Because the elements, the carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, iron, all the things that matter for evolution weren’t created at the beginning of time. They were created in the nuclear furnaces of stars. And the only way they could get into your body is if the stars were kind enough to explode.

So forget Jesus. The stars died so you could be here today.

- Lawrence Krauss, A universe from nothing.

“You are so shy that you always need someone to kick you in the ass from behind.”

- BG

. . . imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, ‘This is an interesting world I find myself in, an interesting hole I find myself in, fits me rather neatly, doesn’t it? In fact it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!’ This is such a powerful idea that as the sun rises in the sky and the air heats up and as, gradually, the puddle gets smaller and smaller, it’s still frantically hanging on to the notion that everything’s going to be all right, because this world was meant to have him in it, was built to have him in it; so the moment he disappears catches him rather by surprise. I think this may be something we need to be on the watch out for.

- Douglas Adams

In case I haven’t made it clear before, I love Douglas Adams. Puddle-thinking and all. Yesterday I woke up thinking, yes, today. Today I am gonna get a water gun. Nothing metaphorical there. And then I couldn’t find it, I spent hours trotting up and down tortury lane and the damn gun eluded me. I accepted defeat without much coaxing, which surprises me a lil. Two hours later I was having hot chocolate and sandwich, and the world seemed just like it was before I decided to get a water gun. Maybe even a little better, because I relaxed and laid back, because I took an unexpected turn, because I opened up a new eye, because I gave up control. Nothing revolutionary there, of course. I merely wondered about things for a while, like… choices and circumstances, and what if I had stubbornly pursued a water gun.

My existential crisis just got to a whole new satirical level.

[When Vonnegut tells his wife he's going out to buy an envelope] Oh, she says, well, you’re not a poor man. You know, why don’t you go online and buy a hundred envelopes and put them in the closet? And so I pretend not to hear her. And go out to get an envelope because I’m going to have a hell of a good time in the process of buying one envelope. I meet a lot of people. And, see some great looking babes. And a fire engine goes by. And I give them the thumbs up. And, and ask a woman what kind of dog that is. And, and I don’t know. The moral of the story is, is we’re here on Earth to fart around. And, of course, the computers will do us out of that. And, what the computer people don’t realize, or they don’t care, is we’re dancing animals. You know, we love to move around. And, we’re not supposed to dance at all anymore.

- Kurt Vonnegut

I asked my friends the other day, “Besides technology, can you think of anything else that has improved in our world over the last hundred year?” The answer I got was silence and uncomfortable smile.

It saddens me a little.

Where is home? I’ve wondered where home is, and I realized, it’s not Mars or someplace like that, it’s Indianapolis when I was nine years old. I had a brother and a sister, a cat and a dog, and a mother and a father and uncles and aunts. And there’s no way I can get there again.

- Kurt Vonnegut

I wish I have his capacity to feel, and the ability to write how I feel. When I am reading a master, I wonder what goes on in his mind, and what has the world come to today. We are living in a time of prosperity and advancement, but the greatest writers are the ones who lived in anything but. They are the ones with inspiring stories to tell and their words are simple but powerful. Sometimes when I read them, I yearn for the same experience but deep down inside, I know that the peaceful life I have now is an expensive luxury that millions have given up their lives to fight for. No wonder science fiction and fantasy writers are earning big bucks nowadays, because we don’t have the extravagance of war-time experience anymore. Har har.

Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you’ve got about a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies — “God damn it, you’ve got to be kind”

- Kurt Vonnegut

If I were to have kids some day, that is exactly what I will tell them.

Life is occupied in both perpetuating itself and surpassing itself; if all it does is maintaining itself, then living is merely not dying.

- Simone de Beauvoir

One of the most prominent female philosopher/writer in recent history, I think Simone de Beauvoir portrays someone that I want to be. Intrinsically. Some things changed along the way, I am not sure what (or rather, too coward to admit them) but reading about her is pleasant. In a comforting way.

One’s life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation and compassion.

-Simone de Beauvoir

And who says idealism is a fault?