We are living in a different world

Leave it to me to keep silent until something important happens. I think this qualifies as something more than just important, however. It's true that I have never been much of one for politics, but this time I felt that every voice needed to be used in order to really make that difference. I voted at 9AM before work, and around 9PM was when I turned on the tv before leaving work and learned the real news. Customers had come in and given me hints here and there; one lady told me it was a dead heat in the popular vote, and not a dead heat in the electoral. She wouldn't tell me who was winning, but I also didn't want to hear. I didn't want to tell anyone who I voted for, because it might not come true. Like a fortune cookie. But it did come true. At home we watched the speeches and the last poll results. Idaho (of course) is still dominated by Republicans. But the Barackstar gave one of the greatest speeches I've ever heard (which isn't saying much considering I haven't heard too many speeches). It's right on the front page of YouTube if you missed it for some arcane reason. I haven't yet read my feeds for the day; with all the politically charged webcomics and one-sided local news feeds, I'm not sure I really want to. I just know that everyone had an I've Voted sticker (except me, stupid small town), and almost everyone I spoke more than three sentences to asked me if I had as well. Everyone wanted to make sure that the work was being done, and that no one was slacking off. People have said they don't want to vote because they don't want to be responsible for whatever happens with either candidate. That makes sense only to a small point. I voted for the Big O because I felt he was the best man for the job. Literally. However, he is firmly pro-choice. That is an important issue in my family, to the point that my lovely wife decided to definitely not vote for him. However, her other choice was the secondhand Dubyah clone and his Alaskan princess. She definitely wasn't going to vote for him either. So instead, she voted for Bob Barr. Who in the world is Bob Barr, you ask? Oh, just one of the four other people who ran for president. True, there was absolutely zero chance that he would win. But he tried nonetheless. He and his other running mates were there to let people know that there is always another choice. You don't have to be restricted to just Elephant or Donkey. Your choice doesn't have to be limited in that stupid, dividing way. Vote because you want to. Vote because (literally) the world depends on it. We can speculate all day about what would have happened if McCain had won, but he didn't. We don't have to consign ourselves to another abysmal period in our history. Everyone who took to the polls yesterday can look back and say that they were responsible for helping to change things. Because I think things will. Barring assassination or sudden heart attack, but even then, Joe Not The Plumber would step in. And if he was taken out, then Speaker Whats-his-face. And if they were taken out, then Dirk Kempthorne would be president. And I could proudly say that I had made a pizza for the President. But that will never happen.

Free Rice

This is an ingenious little site that everyone should take a few minutes to visit. It's a simple word definition game (no dictionary.com, now) that donates 20 grains of rice for every word you guess correctly. There's no limit, of course. That's approximately 29,000 grains in a pound, and so far they've raised 30 billion grains. That works out to a nice million pounds since last October. Anything to help others, I say. Everyone have a good last day of April!

FreeRice.com Total- 1440 grains
----------------
Now playing: Cassius - Toop Toop
via FoxyTunes

"Copies"

Just great. My very observant and righteous hartandhunter noticed that the seller from which we obtained our “copy” of R.O.D. The TV had a lot of comments claiming they were selling bootleg versions. After a little bit of research, I discovered that not only R.O.D, but also our copies of Trigun and Last Exile are all bootleg copies, sold illegally out of Hong Kong. I’m ready to call up the FBI and serve my three years in prison, but I don’t think that would really accomplish anything, and I doubt they would accept my scandalous confession. All it does is make me realize there’s a big problem. If you’ve ever looked up complete sets of an anime series and seen the $30 3-disc import versions, DON’T BUY THEM. Import is apparently a sanitized word for bootleg nowadays. Copyright pirates are just importers. They aren’t doing anything wrong. *sigh* Amazon is supposed to be an upstanding symbol of electronic commerce, but it can’t police every single item sold under it’s banner. Same thing with half.com, where we got Last Exile and Trigun. People are selling these materials without probably knowing what they are, and passing on the infection to as many people that buy them. I’m considering tossing our copies down the garbage chute, unless I can find another method for disposing of them. In the research I was doing, I found a lot of forum posts saying things like “buying bootlegs are okay, cause the anime companies charge too much. $30 us for one dvd times six/seven? thats ridiculous!!!1!” Okay, whatever. If (when) I write a book, it comes out on pieces of paper and someone buys a copy and that’s over. An anime series is thirteen hours of fully animated material, often with cgi bits, and not one but two sets of recorded dialogue. Think of the payroll for the artists, the animators, the producers, sound effects, composers, English and Japanese voice actors and seiyus, advertising, DVD manufacturing, licenses for all the countries it’s released in, and royalties to the original manga creator (usually). In finality, $150 for a complete set isn’t enough. We should be paying twice that just to cover their expenses, but we’re not. And no one seems to be grateful at all. The anime industry is cutting us even more slack by releasing “slimpack” editions with all seven original discs in smaller packaging for a third of the price. The Anime Legends label is doing this with all sorts of series in an effort to win back the money from professional bootleggers. That is where your money needs to go. Not to some scumbag in Hong Kong or Taiwan that won’t pass on a penny (or yen) of anything they make to the people who truly deserve it.


Excellent resources and further reading:


The Pirate Anime FAQ- Information about all manner of illegitimate anime products, including logo identifiers for DVD's. Bad fx, bad.


An eBay guide to bootleg DVD's- Shows pictures of the fancy, but wholly piratical fold-out packaging.

July

Because I probably won't post again until August. Production on the Vagrant Chronicles comic is coming along well, or as well as can be expected when both the artists work full time now. Things are going slowly by comparison, but you can't really compare to other people like the artists on deviantART. They're somehow able to get out all these fabulous things and still have the money to pay for The Internet. It's just a matter of perspective, I think.

All those shirts that say things like "No One Cares About Your Blog" really make sense when you think about it. The only reason people really read blogs is when the writer is doing something interesting. I'm not doing anything particularly interesting right now, and hence, no readers. But when things really start rolling around here, people will flock in and have something more interesting to read.

Word of advice, don't wash your keyboard. Especially if its one of the ancient wireless types that has a protrusion on the front because they didn't have good RF transmitter technology. Water appears to make it die horribly. Enter the USB keyboard instead!

I've really been geeking out over the Wii and the DS lately (or, as hardcore Wikipedia readers call them, the Revolution and the Nitro). I don't have either of them, since certain things tend to be more important, like finding a comfortable place to live. But some day soon I'll be chopping and frying with Cooking Mama and looking like a total nerd. It really seems like Nintendo has once again revolutionized the home gaming market (no pun intended). The Wiimote involves so much more movement and coordination than any other controller I think ever. Add to that the Virtual Console, and the stakes start getting really high. The PS3 may have super awesome 1080i HD Progressive whatever, but how can that compare to downloading Kirby Super Star and Mario RPG and playing them legally on your TV? It's like I used to say when I worked in Electronics at Wal-Mart. People asked me what the differences between the three consoles were (then PS2, Xbox, and Cube). The answer is still the same, though. The Wii is designed for families and younger players. The Xbox 360 is for graphics and performance fiends. The PS3 is made for people who want both, but never really excels in either respect. Not that I'm bashing the Playstation or anything. I'm a proud owner of a granny PS2 that I bought specifically to play Kingdom Hearts when it came out. I do feel though, that the PS3 is just more of the same, and not anything really interesting. I mean come on. $600? No.

Sitting on Nothing

"Is it death that makes a soul black?"
"No, its our sins. Death is our first step towards being Holy."

I tried setting up my old grandma PS2 online today, and it worked like bells and whistles. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to actually play anything. Arc the Lad: End of Darkness? Server shut down. Champions of Norrath the first? No one was online. I mean, no one. Amplitude? My fabulous, sonic crack cocaine? Servers shut down in February. Of this year. I was two damn months off. That's quite frustrating. Oh well, hopefully one of the upcoming Guitar Heroes will have online play and I can freq out about it then. (That was a joke, get it?)

Hartandhunter is out of town this weekend, and that leaves me all the freaking time in the world to do what I need to do. Which, oddly enough, is a lot of stuff. I started by reconfiguring our entire computer, and went on to download a bunch of Google Desktop gadgets and make a veritable mess of things. Don't worry, honey, I'll have it all cleaned up by the time you get back.

Going on The Internet for long periods of time is kind of like watching TV for me, something that I haven't partaken of in ages. Whenever I watched, I would just plug my brain in and zone out. Three, four hours later I would suddenly realize that I had gotten absolutely nothing done, and was quite cranky for it. The Internet has replaced that plug-in factor for me. There is so much stuff available on The Internet, and the more I search, the more I find. Like searching for a portable computing device. I had a Handspring Visor a long time ago, and used it until the screen broke, or something. Its been notebooks and pencils since then, but recently I've had the itch to get something tiny and electronic to keep up with this modern era. I've been eyeing the Sony Clie PEG-UX50 for a long time now, and the more I searched for Palm OS devices, the more I kept coming back to it, realizing it was just what I wanted (mostly because it has a decent keyboard). Then I discovered UMPC's. Oh crap. There are so many different options out there, and the more I researched each one, the more other options I discovered. It gets quite overwhelming, especially when you visit Dynamism. Its easy to get sucked in.

In other news, we visited the bustling metropolis of Ephrata, Washington last weekend for my grandfather-in-law's funeral. I only had the fortune of meeting him once, so I wasn't too shaken up by the whole deal. Oddly enough, he passed away on my wife's youngest cousin's birthday. Anyway, the whole deal made everyone in our family think honestly about death, something that not many of them had before. I know that I want to be cremated, and put in the smallest urn possible. I'm quite concerned with waste, so if I end up taking more room than I need to once I'm dead, then I'll be quite mad. Besides, I've always wondered what happens when cemeteries become full. I don't want to contribute to that any more than I have to.

So, what's next? I managed to squeak out another story, and I hope to make three more by the time this weekend is done. That's dandy, as long as DragonFable doesn't get in my way...

Oh, and the quote thingy. A leftover from deviantART. Feel free to add anything you think is interesting or poignant.

Training

Today a train came through town. Not one of the noisy freight trains, but a real historical piece, this one. It was the Union Pacific #844 steam locomotive hauling more than a dozen cars and stopping at the old train depot in town. The one that isn't used except for weddings anymore.

It was quite an interesting piece of history, to be sure. I happen to really like trains, which is odd when you think about it. Trains are such a man thing, and I have about as few man characteristics as a man could have. And yet I'm fascinated by them. Wild ARMs had a lot to do with it I'm sure, and I certainly can't deny that was one of the big inspirations for The Train Robbery itself. Jumping aboard one of the great iron machines that can ferry goods and people across the land carries a great deal of mystery and mysticism. Train travel is really part of the essence of Vagrancy, and I hope to add more trains in future stories, and be able to use the railtrams when the opportunities arise.

The train was also the main transportation in Dark Cloud 2. I really like that game. There, the railroad represented freedom, of industry and travel, and was the first thing to be re-opened after Max escaped the town and learned the truth about the world. The train was a way to reconnect the lands and bring people back out into the world. And then, of course, there was the Ixion.

That's one of the other bizarre things I noticed recently. I use mythology from this world in my stories, specifically with the Astrea, and many other authors and game designers do the same thing. But games like Final Fantasy don't really stick to the original mythology. Shiva, for example, is a man, first of all, and has nothing to do with ice. Quetzalcoatl isn't a thunder bird at all, but if you asked most common gamers, they'd probably argue with you, because if the game says so, it must be true. This was all sparked by Carbuncle, which is actually a creature from South American myth that had a jewel in its forehead. If you look through this article, actually, you'll find a great deal of mythical monsters that have been taken by games and changed into something completely different. So when people take these re-interpretations as the original fact, what does that mean? Does it mean that one day Cait Sith will only be remembered as a cat and moogle doll, or will people remember the original myth of the Scottish cat faeries?

Probably not, but it makes you think. And, trains are awesome. The Union Pacific Steam homepage is here, and one of the cars on the 844 has a GPS installed, meaning you can track its progress as it crosses the United States. You can see where it is here.

For more pictures of the train and the depot, check it out.

And, I also made a quite fancy photomanipulation of the train itself.


Old Timey Train Timey by ~mechanicalman on deviantART

First Post- Internet Radio

Congratulations to me. My first post ever. Kind of. Anyway, what better time to draw people's attention to something that needs to be noticed? Anyone who has listened to Internet Radio recently has more than likely noticed the large ads decrying the recent retroactive royalty rate hike. On a roll, there. Basically, Congress has decided that Internet Radio is a bad idea, and is trying to squash all small companies out of business by increasing the fees they pay to recording labels by 300-1200%. Not kidding here. What's more, the payments would be retroactive to last year. In the words of Egon Spengler, it would be bad. So, what else would the studious people of the net do but fight back. Savenetradio.org is one of the sites pioneering this revolution, and provides nice and simple ways to contact your local representatives to tell them that this is all a load of shit. I don't know how effective this will be, though. I once set an email to my local Senator without my knowledge. That was pretty weird.

One of the other interesting things I've noticed is that there haven't been any news stories from the mainstream media about this. Us bloggers, we're all over it. But CNN, BBC, Reuters, etc? Nothing. Why's that maybe? Perhaps because they are owned by major media companies who stand to get this 1200% royalty increase. Why would they want to report about something that is good for them, and even better if it goes away and no one thinks about it? Alright now, less of the complaining blog. More of the neutrality.

It's good to see that we can do something about this, though. Net radio companies like Live365 were ordered to pay by 15 May, and have already had that deadline extended to 15 June. If we keep on the people in charge like this, then hopefully it will go away altogether. We'll see, though.

Anyways, yay to me for getting this thing done finally. Here's to it becoming a regular occurence, yes?

Quote Factory

Want to add a quote to the list? Post it in a comment!

Game:

Tifa: "Did you sleep well?" Cloud: "Next to you, who wouldn't?" Final Fantasy VII


"It isn't cheating unless you are caught." Jotaro Kujo, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure


"Damn! That was cool!" Jack Van Burace, Wild ARMs


"We may be pirates, but we're not barbarians. We'll let them keep the toilet paper." Teisel Bonne, Megaman Legends 2


"Coward! Ye are a stain on the escutcheon of our order." Father Duane, Vagrant Story


"You humans are truly unusual living beings, aren't chu? You're all like shattered fragments of a mirror." Chu-Chu in Shevat, Xenogears


"I know of your pathetic pedigree. It lightens my mood to think of it, actually." Zohar Metatron, Silhouette Mirage


"Two attributes... just like me... But I'm cute and kind and strong and smart and sweet and humble. So what's wrong with Zohar?" Shyna Nera Shyna, Silhouette Mirage


"Tis not prophesie nor speculation, tis historie!" Harle, Chrono Cross


"Do you think Leena thpontaneouthry combuthted? Me wonder if she'th okay?" Poshul, Chrono Cross


"I am the wind! Whoosh!" Mune, Chrono Trigger


"Sea bears foam, sleep bears dreams. Both end in the same way. CRASSH!" Owl Statue, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening


"This'll be as easy as falling out of bed!" Max, Advance Wars


"I gotta believe!" Parappa, PaRappa the Rappa


"What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets." Lord Dracula, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night


"Somebody set up us the bomb." Mechanic, Zero Wing


"All your base are belong to us." Katz, Zero Wing


"Let's mosey." Cloud Strife, Final Fantasy VII


"Let's mosey." Squall Leonhart, Final Fantasy VIII


"I - LOVE - HOTDOGS!" Zell Dincht, Final Fantasy VIII


"Pick spot. Shut up. Wait." Kimahri, Final Fantasy X


"You always said I looked grumpy, but those were the best days of my life." Lulu, Final Fantasy X


"Needles! I hate needles!" Rikku, Final Fantasy X


Sam: "My little buddy needs to use the facilities." Max: "Facilities be damned, I need a bathroom!" Sam & Max: Hit the Road


Sam: "I've got something in my eye." Max: "Try digging it out with a fork. That always works for me." Sam & Max: Hit the Road


"Don't get smart with me, bub, or my partner'll floss every last crevice on his body with your whiskers." Sam, Sam & Max: Hit the Road


"Life is a stewed peach in a lot of syrup, ukyo." Ukyo, Samurai Showdown


"I wanna be a blitzball when I grow up!" Kid in Kilika, Final Fantasy X


"I am NOT a PET!" Hanpan, Wild ARMs


"I AM the reinforcements." Ashley Riot, Vagrant Story


"Al Bhed tested, Brother approved!" Rikku, Final Fantasy X-2


"I don't like your plan. It sucks." Yuna, Final Fantasy X-2


"That was mercy. This is discipline." Mrs. Tilsit, Musashi: Samurai Legend


"All right! Break out the books! School's in session!" Musashi, Musashi: Samurai Legend


MOMO: "I'm built a lot tougher than I look!" Ziggy: "I'm built as tough as I look." Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille Zur Macht


"I am the hart, and you are the hunter." Sydney Losstarot, Vagrant Story


"He's ALWAYS been a bitter, humorless lump of anti-humanity. I love it." Cephas, Alundra


"Eternal damnation is to be expected as retribution at some point, eh Alundra?" Septimus, Alundra


"It's a big, bad 11 on the sphincter-pucker meter." Bonaire, Alundra


"Aaargh! Death has returned!" Juste Belmont, Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance


"Dammit! No mercy for you!" Juste Belmont, Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance


"My life is a chip in your pot!" Setzer Gabbiani, Kingdom Hearts 2


"Might be tough if one more shows up." Cloud Strife, Kingdom Hearts 2


"There's nothing I don't cherish!" Cloud Strife, Final Fantasy 7- Advent Children


"Aint it the truth?" Lucca, Chrono Trigger


"Open your heart to the Darkness." Ansem the Seeker, Kingdom Hearts


Roxas: "Maybe you forgot, we're broke." Hayner: "Maybe you forgot, I'm smart!" Kingdom Hearts 2


Will Turner: "Do you think they're going to hurt the people in the town?" Jack Sparrow: "No, they're bringin' em flowers, mate." Kingdom Hearts 2


"I told them they sent the wrong guy!" Demyx, Kingdom Hearts 2


"Got it memorized?" Axel, Kingdom Hearts 2


"Riku? Are you jealous of Sora?" Xemnas, Kingdom Hearts 2


"I'm looking for a guy with spiky hair... Spikier." Tifa Lockheart, Kingdom Hearts 2


"Roxas! This man speaks nonsense!" DiZ, Kingdom Hearts 2


"Oh, Light!" Trevor Belmont, Castlevania: Curse of Darkness


"Holy titanic tuna! What is this thing?!!" Shyna Nera Shyna, Silhouette Mirage


"What the heck ARE you? The smiley face from Hell?" Shyna Nera Shyna, Silhouette Mirage


"Heal-thy? Got a nice ring to it." Doan, Chrono Trigger


"Failure to comply will result in the destruction of this window." KOS-MOS, Xenosaga, Episode 1: Der Wille Zur Macht


"I can't believe I just handed over top-secret company info to the Federation without permission... I am SO fired..." Shion Uzuki, Xenosaga, Episode 1: Der Wille Zur Macht


"Don't eat that frozen food like it is so delicious! Doesn't it make you want to cry having to each such food?" Mr. Prog in KitchenComp, Megaman Battle Network 5: Team Colonel


"Flowers suck, and for that, they must burn!" Dudley, Steambot Chronicles
"Sweet ride, huh? Yeah..." Vanilla Bean, Steambot Chronicles


"Once an active OldMine, now it's completely abandoned." Yai, Megaman Battle Network 5: Team Colonel


"Oh, you mean, no humiliation at all? But I was so relishing the thought..." Banon, Musashi: Samurai Legend


"I'm Italian! The only thing I'm afraid of is my momma when she's angry!" Beck, Front Mission 4

"My spear, your head. Let's make it happen." Scorpio, Devil Kings

Book/Manga/Comic:

"...now children are jangling the keys to the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law!" John Proctor, The Crucible


"And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye." The fox, The Little Prince


"Red and blue and green rabbits, Lennie. Millions of 'em." George, Of Mice and Men


"So much subtler is the human mind than the outside tissues which make a sort of blazonry or clock-face for it." George Eliot, Middlemarch


"Well, I must endure the presence of two or three caterpillars if I wish to become acquainted with the butterflies." The flower, The Little Prince


"Who is the third who walks always beside you? When I count, there are only you and I together. But when I look ahead up the white road, there is always another one walking beside you. Gliding wrapt in a brown mantle, hooded. I do not know whether a man or a woman .--But who is that on the other side of you?" T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land


"'I ought not to have listened to her,' he confided to me one day. 'One never ought to listen to the flowers. One should simply look at them and breathe their fragrance.'" The Little Prince


"To be nobody but yourself, in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else, means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop fighting." e.e. cummings


"Well, for instance, when I left her to-day, she put her arms around me and felt my shoulder blades, to see if my wings were strong, she said. 'The bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings. It is a sad spectacle to see the weaklings bruised, exhausted, fluttering back to earth.'" Edna Pontellier, The Awakening


"He whose (desires) are few gets them; he whose (desires) are many goes astray." Lao-Tzu


"Don't you ever get taken that way? When I can't see myself I begin to wonder if I really and truly exist. I pat myself just to make sure, but it doesn't help much." Estelle Rigault, No Exit


"You can't let your heart go bad like that, like sour milk. There's always the chance you'll want to use it later." Halimeda Noline, Animal Dreams


"'The seat of human emotion should be the liver'... I understand exactly. Once in ER I saw a woman who'd been stabbed everywhere, most severely the liver. It's an organ with the consistency of layer upon layer of wet Kleenex. Every attempt at repair just opens new holes that tear and bleed. You try and close the wound with fresh wounds, and you try and you try and you don't give up until there's nothing left." Cosima Noline, Animal Dreams


"There's no such thing as absolute right. It's the world that's right, not you and me." Daisy, Rhinoceros


"I realized then that when people are happy they become kind." Jung Chang, Wild Swans


"When I read in Gulliver's Travels about the emperor who 'published an Edict, commanding all his Subjects, upon great Penalties, to break the smaller End of their Eggs,' I wondered if Swift had been to China." Jung Chang, Wild Swans


"That's what Paradise is- never knowing the difference." Joseph Heller, Something Happpened


"If you don't get your rights in one world, you will find them in another." Cacambo, Candide


"Many a proverb has its opposite in the national vocabulary, so that often one discovers dueling platitudes. Too many cooks spoil the broth, but many hands make light work. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, but out of sight, out of mind. You're never too old to learn, unless you happen to be an old dog trying to learn new tricks." E. D. Hirsch Jr., Cultural Literacy


Movie/TV/Anime:

"We're the most wanted criminals in the universe, and we spent the last of our money on a karaoke machine?" Princess Ayeka, Tenchi Universe


"The truth isn't always wrapped up in a neat little package you can carry in your wallet." Trent, Daria


"It's like the book says, we may be through with the past, but the past ain't through with us." Jimmy Gator, Magnolia


"Its been swell, but the swelling's gone down." Rebecca, Tank Girl


"Extreme, but better than ignoring it." Gren, Iria: Zeiram the Animation


"It's nice to look up at the sky, but we should watch where we're stepping." Jim Hawkins, Outlaw Star


"Lets do this like Buddhists." The Homestar Runner


"I don't like him. He reads minds." Sid, Ice Age


"I'll be sure to include that in my plan for an ideal life" Gene Starwind, Outlaw Star


"It was so funny I boiled water in my bellybutton and now its teatime!" Kabapu, Excel Saga


"You wanna see if the carpet matches the drapes, huh?" Sha Gojyo, Saiyuki


"Your breath smells like ass!" Son Goku, Saiyuki

"I have to clean the room... I have to clean the room..." Maggie Mui, R.O.D. the TV

"Sorry about that whole death thing. Something I can read in the meantime?" Nenene Sumerigawa, imitating Yomiko Readman, R.O.D. the TV

Real People:

"Don't expect miracles, demand progress." Dr. T. Mooney, Educator


"A stoplight that goes go." Ms. Olic-Hamilton, Educator


"Lasagna and garlic bread go together like... air and air. " hartandhunter


"If all you do is complain about people, it reflects on yourself." OneDogWalking


"I don't care if the cat is white or black, so long as it catches the mouse it is a good cat." Deng Xiaoping, Chinese Leader


"Tell me what you eat, and I'll tell you who you are." Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, Epicure


"A meal without cheese is like a beautiful woman with one eye." Brillat-Savarin, Epicure


"I would rather believe that a cow could fly than a friend would lie to me." St. Thomas Aquinas


"Colorless green ideas sleep furiously." Noam Chomsky, Linguist

"The mystic breaks your heart, the genius breaks your neck." Immanuel Kant, Philosopher


"Its like trying to poison a television set." hartandhunter


"Shutting up" mechanicalman


hartandhunter "Ring around the rosy doesn't make any sense. Pockets full of posies? There's no water in your pocket!" mechanicalman "There is if you're a fish..."


"In art there are no upper or lower classes. That is why it has the power to educate and cultivate...The key to social progress is not merely to supply sufficient food and drink, but to provide good spiritual nourishment for the people of all classes. As far as art goes, nothing is too refined or lofty for the people. Quite the contrary: people hunger and thirst for the best. Just provide funds that are sufficient for the finest artistic expressions, and it will enable the masses to share the highest artistic enjoyment. It is never a question of lowering art for the people. No, a thousand times no! But of elevating the people to art!" Edvard Greig, Composer


"Those persons who suffer from indigestion, or who become drunk, are utterly ignorant of the true principles of eating and drinking." Brillat-Savarin, Epicure




Want to add a quote to the list? Post it in a comment!