Sunday, May 4, 2008

We Haven't Come A Long Way, And Don't Call Us Baby

Excerpt from "High School Is Depressing" by hellonhairylegs at HellOnHairyLegs:

Women are a paragraph in every chapter or a chapter in every book.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Be Kind

Excerpt from "Dear Child: Don't Be A Hater" by Belinda at Ninja Poodles:

I want you to know that, in this wide, wide world, there is enough. There is enough success, enough goodness; there are enough blessings to go around. You don't need to take from someone else in order to have something for yourself, and you don't need to diminish anyone else to increase your own stature.

Monday, April 28, 2008

Light Sensitivity's Expensive

Excerpt from "Two Thousand Dollar Bike NUMBER TWO. Number One Got Stolen." by Erin at Out Of Character:

Strangely enough, the more I wear my glasses, the more I seem to rely on them to see shit. Which is fine, both my parents wear glasses, I'm 32-years-old, I think my delicate ego can digest the fact that these glasses serve a purpose other than banal fashion accessory. The problem is that if I take more than two steps outside during the day without sunglasses, my entire face tries to fold up like a clam shell; last week I attempted to check the mail without my sunglasses and I ended up crouched in the front yard with my fists balled into my eye sockets until dusk. It was a really unproductive way to spend ten hours.

Childhood Is Brilliant

Excerpt from "I Still Think Every Knock Is The Cops" at Cry It Out:

Like any other child, I played all manner of oddball, make-believe games. Dive ‘em. Catch ‘em. Hit ‘em. Even in the thick, lingering heat of summer, I would build a fort out of blankets, strap on a puffy snowsuit and play “astronaut” in what was essentially a make-believe space kiln. The only thing I remember about that game was an overwhelming swelter that must have burned off billions of brain cells with each new mission. Clearly, I played it a lot.

Saturday, April 26, 2008

You Old

Excerpt from "Painful Reality" at Witt And Wisdom:

Just in case you didn't have anything that depressed the SHIT out of you today.

Friday, April 18, 2008

What If...

Excerpt from "What Lessons Do You Want To Leave Your Children? by Alice Bradley at Wonderland:

Find people who you feel good around, smart and funny and kind, and don't let them go. Aim to be like them.

Sorrow And Depth

Excerpt from "Three Years" by Karla Cadeau at Untangling Knots:

Life is so short. Enfold yourself in all its vivid reality, embrace it, feel it, live it.

We're Raising Wimps

Excerpt from "Dangerous Toys: Dangerous? Or Just Toys?" by Dan at [redacted]:

I mean, I may not be remembering this properly, but I’m pretty sure that I had a toy that used actual gun powder. And look at me – I turned out fine. I have a blog for Christ’s sake.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Terrorizing Children Into Good Behaviour

Excerpt from "Baby Boo-Boo" by Sparkling Red at No More Casual Nonchalance:

As several hundred primary school children looked on in fascinated horror, the police would sit Baby Boo-Boo on an orange traffic cone. Then one of the cops would get into the squad car, rev the engine, and deliberately run her over.

She had a cavity inside her hollow body which they would pre-fill with cherry Kool-Aid, so after the car cleared the scene, she'd be left lying on the asphalt, limbs splayed, in a puddle of red liquid.

The Father

Excerpt from "Following Our Dreams All The Way Home" by Jen Lemen at Shutter Sisters:

The parts I do remember are like this. He is calling home. He is helping some homeless guy he just met. He is bringing home some Austrian backpackers who are shocked that they lock the churches here, and now they have nowhere to sleep. He is talking to the man who is determined to end his life. He is driving some guy to the emergency room, because he found him stabbed on the street. He is collecting wildflowers off the side of the highway, because they are beautiful. He is bringing home flowers for all of us, because we are his little women.

Turning Points

Excerpt from "Pivotal" by KristinD at Better Now:

The bus driver's eyes were brown, limpid, terrified. I heard a crack as my head went through the windshield and watched, as if outside myself, as I slid down the front of the bus and felt the grit of pebbled snow underneath my cheek.

Friday, March 28, 2008

Out Of The Mouths Of Babes

Excerpt from The Sense Of No Sense by Jennifer at Breed 'Em And Weep:

Pacing and Hand-Wringing, and Clinging to the Washer, an appliance I find I count on for moral support when times get rough. I clung to it in my birthday suit when I was in labor with Hattie, and it didn’t let me down—not then, nor this time. It is always cool and smooth on my cheek (any cheek I wish to press against it) and it never judges. Plus it makes wonderful sloshing sounds louder than my sloshy waterpark howling.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

naipaul in uganda

What about the critics? Do they bother (V.S. Naipaul)? “I am glad that people have given criticism to my works. It would be awful if the response I got was silence. I do not mind criticism because I seldom read it.”

Excerpt from 'Writer of Miguel Street Shares His Literary Skills' www.newvision.co.ug

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Addiction (aka A Love Story)

Excerpt from "The Prologue" by Tamara at Awkwardly Social:

It wasn’t romantic or sexy. It was a sad cliché slapped on top of a boring teenage sob story. And there I was, in the McDonald’s bathroom, snorting crystal meth off the back of the toilet.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

More Lurking Stories

Excerpt from an entry dated 2008-03-19 by Mimi at Mimi Smartypants:

I have already confessed to my fascination with messageboards populated by people who are very much unlike me. I love to soak up the insanity at mothering.com and the taxidermy forums, and now I am all about the Urbanbaby "community." It's fantastic. It is like watching a time-lapse photography slide show of decomposing meat.

Sex Toys And Babies

Excerpt from "Like Tupperware, But With Hot Pink Handcuffs" by Kate at Sweet | Salty:

We all stare blankly at this twenty-two year old with the dumbbell piercing through her tongue that makes her say "PENISHH" and "G-SHHPOT", mystified like we're at the zoo in front of some rare specimen of female except I can't figure out who's in the cage: us or her.

You're One Mean Slut

Excerpt from "What's eating you, Mother Nature? Is it us?" by Scott Feschuk at Macleans.ca:

I always pictured you as a nice lady, sauntering through idyllic forests, bluebirds chirping merrily as they fluttered around your head. Maybe you'd stop now and then to enjoy a leisurely cup of tea with other famed anthropomorphized figures such as Jack Frost or Andy Rooney. And then you'd be on your way to cuddle a cute bunny rabbit or make the sun shine out of Barack Obama's ass.

But it turns out you're one mean slut.

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Wackaloons

Excerpt from "Ridiculous Demented Right-Wing Wackaloon Theocratic Douchemonkeys Fuck Up Big Time" by PhysioProf at PhysioProf:

the name of the movie, Expelled, is supposed to be a reference to how these totally fucking awesome Jeebus-freak “scholars” have been “expelled” from the regular scientific community by nasty “evolutionists”, despite their brilliant insights into some goofy wacked-out Jeebus-freak crapola, and that it is TOTALLY UNFAIR that they have been expelled because their loonie-tune nonsense does not suit “evolutionist” dogma and is unpopular.

Friday, March 21, 2008

Get Your Creative Mind Going

Excerpt from "30 Tips To Rejuvinate Your Creativity" by Joel Falconer at Lifehack.org:

26. Treat creativity like an enemy in a strategy game; if one thing isn’t working, don’t keep trying until you give up. Try a new strategy. Run through the whole list, not just the first tip.

Bright Boy

Excerpt from "Heart Stopping" by Tracy Zollinger at Tiny Mantras:

Meanwhile, he would rather not wear any clothes around the house at all, thank you very much. Except for his frog boots, which go quite well with naked.