Lesson #1793 - Mars

Jun. 20th, 2013 12:00 am
[syndicated profile] survivingtheworld_feed


I'm sure the robot would have figured this out by now if it wasn't so busy taking self-pictures of itself all the time. What a lazy robot.

TWO BIG ANNOUNCEMENTS TODAY: First and foremost, I'll be doing an AMA on Reddit today starting at 10 AM Eastern. I'll answer questions throughout the day, so feel free to swing by later if you can't make it early on.

Secondly, we're so close to the goal for the STW Page-A-Day Calendars Kickstarter that we'll make you an offer: if we can meet the goal by midnight Thursday (ET), then every backer who is receiving a physical reward will also receive a set of STW coasters with their reward! And what the heck, I'll also tape a one-man raptor version of Romeo and Juliet for all to enjoy. But only if we meet the goal by midnight! So if you've been waiting to become a contributor, this is the time to jump in. Thanks for your support!

PHD UNKNOWN - my other webcomic about fierce creatures, biology, and grad school
SCIENCE THE WORLD - research on STEM education open to all K-12 educators

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まるです。

Jun. 20th, 2013 09:13 am
[syndicated profile] maru_feed

Posted by mugumogu




おしゃぶりまる。
Hey Maru, is it your teething ring?



「ゴミ受けらぶ。」
Maru:[Yes, it is!]






Paris: Graffiti

Jun. 19th, 2013 03:55 pm
[syndicated profile] kcashore_feed

Posted by Kristin Cashore

At the flea markets de la porte de Clignancourt.


Outside the markets.



Skeleton grate. Somewhere in the 7th, I think....

On Quai de Jemmapes.

I think this was in Le Marais...

And this near Place de la Bastille.

This too.

Bring it all down on the side of love

Jun. 19th, 2013 04:37 pm
[syndicated profile] peacelovefree_feed

Posted by peace.love.free

TodayBring It All Down On The Side Of Love - a poem by Jeanette LeBlanc I bring it all down
on the side of love
and I’ll tell you now,
yes, you should fly across the country just
for 48 hours in her arms
spend your last dollar and borrow more
to get there

steal words from the past and
ink them along  your lower left rib
in a promise to never risk this.

then risk it.

let it get fucking messy.
get naked and swim around in the
havoc you’ve brought forth
by loving
claim fiercely only the brief moments
you are given.

then take more
take everything
take with relentless fury
take until the taking looks like giving
and the giving looks like a prayer.

love like holy looks when it says your name
like a confession booth redemption.
and like on your knees supplication
to gods you don’t believe in

then see what happens if you believe in them.

love like the cadence of poetry.
like nails down your back
like a battering ram
like a mother holds her child.
like a consecrated temple
and like a seedy hotel room affair.

love like everything depends on it.

because it does
and it doesn’t

so love them both
love wrong till it’s right
love like they tell you
you could not
should not
can not

and then do.

love like you had the chance and didn’t take it
love like you did and didn’t make it.
and in the quiet, desperate moments
before giving up everything.
love like you’re just about to come…
undone

now hold on.  don’t let go.

love with your hands
just like your grandparents, arthritic knuckles clasped tight on their 50th wedding anniversary
like a newborn baby
palm curled around your index finger with a  grip so fierce you’d swear he could hold the weight of the world.
then let it all fall down.
and love like a fist fight
like a palm reader
like fingers trailing across braille.
like rock paper scissors
and like sign language speaking silent truths from across a crowded room.

love with your mouth.
like the sweet expectation of  the moments before your very first kiss
and like the screaming match where you hurled words like they were the weapons that would set you free.
love like the taste dark chocolate and red wine mingling on your tongue
and licking a cherry popsicle on a hot summer day.
love like leaving bite marks on pale skin
and like swallowing bitter truths so you don’t hurt him anymore.

Love like the past
like wandering through an antique shop and feeling the whispers of long ago memories in dust of discarded things.
Like old, soft leather and the hard crack of a whip,
Like a long forgotten love letter slipped in the back of an old book.
Like a typewriter with sticky keys that keeps on spelling his name no matter how many times you tell them you’ve moved on.

love like the day you walked down the aisle and the day you signed the divorce papers
like the way you drew in that shaky breath right before she touched you for the first time and
like you stopped breathing the day he went away forever.
love like you haveall the answers to all the questions you’ve ever asked and like you’ll never know a single one.
love like a tangle of hands and mouths and limbs
that goes on forever
and like it all ends.  Right now.

so love in the brutal tearing apart of everything you’ve ever known.
and like your scattered pieces are finally being gathered together.
like your wholeness matters more than your goodness.

Love, your wholeness IS your goodness.

love like you loved Superman when you were five
like you loved New Kids On The Block when you were twelve
like you loved that boy in math class when you were 16
and that girl at the bus stop when you were 22.
love like you learned to love yourself yesterday
like the way you’ve found only yourself at the end
of every choice you’ve ever made.

love is at the end of every choice you ever made.

love like maybe possibly mmmmm ok,  sure. If you wanna?
love like Yes! Yes! Yes!
and like saying “Hell no. I am worth FAR more than that”
and meaning it.
love like long lost soulmates
and like fucking someone who
could not tell you your own name.

love, you need to know your own name.

love, you need to know your own name
so love like a car crash
like a hospital emergency room at 3am
like a war zone
like a bomb shelter.
like a selfishness
like a submission
like a saint
like a sinner
like happily ever after
and like the sweetest one night stand.

just love.
stop pretending you can’t,
stop pretending you don’t want to
stop listening to them when they tell you shouldn’t.
love because you must
because you can
because you don’t really have to

but by god, you know that you will.

bring it all
down
on the side of
love

Lesson #1792 - Clouds

Jun. 19th, 2013 12:00 am
[syndicated profile] survivingtheworld_feed


I am hereby the international naming authority for clouds. All clouds (unless they are part of a specific previously named storm system). Everywhere! Just ask, and I'll tell you what the clouds will be named for that day.

Cloud naming is a stretch goal for the STW Page-A-Day Calendars - potentially to be included on every page! I posted a number of examples the other day, and a raptor impression video as well. We're close to meeting our goal - help us make these calendars as amazing as they can be! Thanks!

PHD UNKNOWN - my other webcomic about fierce creatures, biology, and grad school
SCIENCE THE WORLD - research on STEM education open to all K-12 educators

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Lesson #1791 - Baby Movement

Jun. 18th, 2013 12:00 am
[syndicated profile] survivingtheworld_feed


"How in heck did you get up there? . . . and what were you planning to do once you got there? Wait, you can't answer me, you don't know words yet. Oh, stop smiling. I mean, dang it, you're too cute, I give up."

PAGE-A-DAY CALENDARS: Why should you order a calendar now? Well, there's a STW-inspired report card that would come with it, which will never otherwise be available. There are Kickstarter-only prints, and mallets that certainly will not be available later. So those might be a factor for you. And a limited number of calendars will be printed, so there may not be too many available for you to get later. But also, the more calendars ordered as part of the campaign now, the better off they will be - certain add-ons to each page themselves! The Kickstarter is going well, and I really appreciate everyone's support - just wanted to pitch you acting now rather than later. Thanks, everyone!

PHD UNKNOWN - my other webcomic about fierce creatures, biology, and grad school
SCIENCE THE WORLD - research on STEM education open to all K-12 educators

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まるです。

Jun. 18th, 2013 09:03 am
[syndicated profile] maru_feed

Posted by mugumogu






またたび茶でまるさんのティータイム。
It is teatime with Matatabi tea (Tea for cats).


Paris: Clocks. (And Snoods.)

Jun. 17th, 2013 10:55 am
[syndicated profile] kcashore_feed

Posted by Kristin Cashore

The Musée d'Orsay, which contains the world's largest collection of impressionist and
post-impressionist paintings, is in what used to be the Gare d'Orsay -- a Beaux-Arts train station
built at the turn of the 20th century. A number of the windows, like this one in the café, are clocks
(to show the time to the outside world).

 Here's another one in an anteroom adjacent to one of the galleries.

It's kinda amazing to see a view of Paris through an enormous clock.

Sacré-Coeur in Montmartre through a clock.

One more clock in the Musée d'Orsay.

Here's a clock on Boulevard du Palais on the Île de la Cité. Paris is divided in two by the Seine,
 and the Île de la Cité is a little island in the middle of the river. It's where Notre Dame is, and also
the Prefecture de Police, the Palais de Justice (which includes the Sainte Chapelle),
a hospital, and the Tribunal de Commerce. And the flower markets, and this clock.

This clock is on the face of the Church of Saint Paul-Saint Louis on Rue Saint-Antoine in the Marais district.

These next few were at the flea markets de la porte de Clignancourt.



In the Passage Jouffroy, 9th arrondissement.
(Jouffroy is one of the hidden covered passageways in Paris.)

Institut de France. Location of the Bibliothèque Mazarine.

One of two clocks on Saint-Ambroise, Boulevard Voltaire...

where both clocks are showing the wrong time --
and the towers are wearing snoods!

Parisian towers are so snoody.

Lesson #1790 - Brain Power

Jun. 17th, 2013 12:00 am
[syndicated profile] survivingtheworld_feed


Forget STEM curriculum, we have our solution! Electrical outlets implanted on every baby! Their math skills will save us all!

I LOVE CHARTS: I'll be guest-hosting their site today, with a number of pages being shown from the calendar. Speaking of . . .

STW PAGE-A-DAY CALENDARS: We're two-thirds of the way there! Thank you everyone for you support and for spreading the word!

PHD UNKNOWN - my other webcomic about fierce creatures, biology, and grad school
SCIENCE THE WORLD - research on STEM education open to all K-12 educators

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Granadas Millenium

Jun. 17th, 2013 12:47 am
[syndicated profile] googledoodles_feed

Granadas Millenium

Date: June 16, 2013


One of my favorite places I've ever visited: Granada, Spain.
Sketch from a rooftop patio overlooking the city, circa 2007
When it popped up in the pipeline as a potential Google Doodle celebrating the Granadas Millenium, I knew I had to do it. A fellow doodler was gracious enough to let me take the assignment off his hands, though it meant I had to juggle the deadline with a mildly interactive Father's Day doodle on the same day.
Another sketch from the rooftop. This view looks upward, revealing more houses winding their way up the hillside.

While the doodle acknowledges a festive occasion, I really wanted to highlight the amazing juxtapositions of the city itself: A majestic Moorish/Medieval stronghold against the stuccoed Spanish houses. The expanse of the Sierra Nevada mountain range against the narrow winding alleyways. The city itself is at once wonderfully alive and sleepy with plenty to do or not do. 




Location: Spain

Tags: winding alleyways, Sierra Nevada, Granada, Alhambra, stuccoed houses, Architecture, siesta

まるです。

Jun. 17th, 2013 09:05 am
[syndicated profile] maru_feed

Posted by mugumogu



「ゴミ箱らぶ。」
Maru:[I love trash box!]



今はまる専用。

[syndicated profile] survivingtheworld_feed


In case you don't believe in ghosts or believe in perpetuating belief in them, this way you can still use the sign!

STW PAGE-A-DAY CALENDARS: Thanks to everyone for your support with the campaign so far!

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[syndicated profile] survivingtheworld_feed


Don't ask me where you get the blood from. I just want to know where you get those amazing air conditioners from and how environmentally friendly they are.

STW PAGE-A-DAY CALENDARS: Past 60% - steadily getting there! If you haven't contributed yet, won't you look it over and consider it? Thanks!

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[syndicated profile] survivingtheworld_feed


I've covered this ground before, I think, but that doesn't make it less true. I would also accept being a giant intelligent platypus. And you would, too.

If you've got a question for recitation, send it on in with your name and location. Whichever one doesn't open a portal to a demon universe when read will be the one chosen and used!

STW PAGE-A-DAY CALENDARS: We've blown past 50% of the goal, so I made another raptor video for you to enjoy! Thanks to everyone who has contributed and helped spread the word. If you haven't backed it yet, won't you take a look at the rewards and consider it?

PHD UNKNOWN: Another new page is up for you to enjoy!




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Lesson #1786 - Cocktails

Jun. 13th, 2013 12:00 am
[syndicated profile] survivingtheworld_feed


I have only the best ideas.

STW CALENDARS: New original comics will now be included on every calendar! And right now, you can vote for the next raptor impression to be posted! Thanks to everyone for your support so far.




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まるです。

Jun. 14th, 2013 08:35 am
[syndicated profile] maru_feed

Posted by mugumogu




「ふふふ。まるはどこでしょう?」
Maru:[Hey, where am I?]



[syndicated profile] kcashore_feed

Posted by Kristin Cashore

I adore Bots High, which is a documentary about high school students in Miami building combat robots and competing in a national robotics competition. Incidentally, many, many of the robot engineers are girls. That's only one of the reasons to watch -- I love these kids, love their smarts, creativity, procrastination, anxiety, heart, the ways they take care of each other.

Wanting to read a novel that takes in Paris while I'm in Paris, I settled on Émile Zola's Au Bonheur des Dames ("The Ladies' Delight"), translated by Robin Buss. First published in 1883, it's about a fictional department store in the era when department stores were new to Paris; the store's brilliant, attractive, and dissolute owner, Octave Mouret; his staff, and in particular a strong young women of dignified purity named Denise Baudu; and all the small merchants in the neighborhood whose lives and livings are destroyed by the capitalist behemoth in their midst. It's repetitive, predictable (except when it's not!), preachy (but interestingly ambivalent!), packed with extreme figurative language, overflowing with excessive and flowery description, and about as believable as a fairy tale (though I won't say whether of the Disney or the dark variety). I LOVE it. A French friend tells me this is pretty much the only Zola book that isn't chock-a-block with depression and despair. I wish certain other depressing, despairing writers had written one (relatively) happy, cheerful book. Can you imagine if there were one happy, cheerful Edith Wharton book, or one chipper Henry James? I love Edith Wharton, don't get me wrong, but there isn't much mirth in her house. Anyhoo. This Zola has been the perfect read for me just now.

Finally, it's been ages -- ages! -- since I've posted some favorite 2CELLOS covers. Here are two heavy metal songs wonderfully well-suited to cello, for your enjoyment and also the enjoyment of your babies. (I've been receiving reports from friends that not only do they enjoy the 2CELLOS stuff but so do their babies. Happy babies! Just one more thing to love about 2CELLOS! ^_^)

Forthwith, a cover of Racer X's "Technical Difficulties" and one of Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt." (I think NIN's Downward Spiral counts as heavy metal, but "Hurt" has a real softness and lyricism to it, and the cello accentuates this -- while the lack of lyrics automatically strips out a lot of the angst. Google the original "Hurt" if you don't know it and are interested, but note it's not safe for work -- unless your workplace is okay with Trent Reznor singing about his crown of shit.) (ETA: Here's an unplugged version of "Hurt" with Reznor on piano that is safe for work  -- and also quite lovely! Though if you listen to this one, you NEED to listen to the original, just to appreciate the difference.) (Okay, I promise I'm done babbling about this now.) After that, I also embed Luka Sulic of 2CELLOS playing the theme to Schindler's List, with my parents, and listeners like them, in mind -- for those of you who might love cello, but not necessarily rock covers on cello. This theme has been overplayed, IMO, but this interpretation, truly gorgeous, lifted me out of my lethargy.






Lesson #1786 - Cocktails

Jun. 13th, 2013 12:00 am
[syndicated profile] survivingtheworld_feed


I have only the best ideas.

STW CALENDARS: New original comics will now be included on every calendar! And right now, you can vote for the next raptor impression to be posted! Thanks to everyone for your support so far.




Liked this lesson? Share this comic!

always, always, begin again

Jun. 12th, 2013 03:23 pm
[syndicated profile] peacelovefree_feed

Posted by peace.love.free

always-always-begin-againIt is all going to crash down
you know
everything
brick by brick
glass shattered
foundations
crumbled

there is no way to save this.

there
is
no
way
to
save
this.

the ending
was written
long before
you ever heard
the tentative starting notes
no last ditch efforts
no swan song redemption
there is no rescuing
to be done
here

so, let it fall
let it all come down
crumble like earth quake
like forest blaze
like armageddon times
stand amidst the rubble
with trembling legs
and stardust skin

survey the damage
hold your grief close
usher it inside
name it truth
and go ahead
let it twist you
it has to
there is no other way

there
is
no
other
way

fall to the ground
let it take you down
on your knees now
so that the debris presses deep
into tender bone
marks your skin
with the harsh truth of
never again

because this?
this was fated
like the falling was fated
like the bliss was fated
like that night where
infinity touched your soul
was going to happen
no matter what
you could not have changed things

you
could
not
have
changed
things.

it’s not just good things
and beginnings that are meant to be
sometimes
endings
are written first
and we live
just to catch up
to the inevitable
finish

you know this
you know it lover
you held on
you repaired
you patched
and you kept it all together
as long as you could

but
now it is time
to let it fall
to release fists clenched
tight around emptiness
to open
to let go
to admit
that it is done

now
it
is
finally
done

forgive yourself
this ending
this aching unmet dream
do not name it
failure
or
catastrophe
it is not
another mistake
for you to own

it is simply
is what
it is.
it is what must be
what was always
going to be.

lift your eyes
let it all out
all the full moon howl
and the primal wail and
the grief
you’ve kept locked
in bones.
let it all come
down now

let
it
all
come
down

release your walls
now
invite the potential
of wide
open spaces
all the way in
and know that
after endings
come the beginnings of things.

begin again, lover

always
always

begin again.

 

Lesson #1785 - Liquor

Jun. 12th, 2013 12:00 am
[syndicated profile] survivingtheworld_feed


"Amazingly, it still tastes like peat moss. Sticks to the tongue like the dickens, though."

STW PAGE-A-DAY CALENDARS: We're about 40% of the way there in the Kickstarter campaign already! So I made a velociraptor impression video for you to enjoy! Thanks for the support!




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まるです。

Jun. 12th, 2013 08:40 am

For Writers: A Quick Tip on Starting

Jun. 11th, 2013 05:47 am
[syndicated profile] kcashore_feed

Posted by Kristin Cashore

When writing, there's a danger in depending too much on preparation. Yes, preparation is important, but you're not going to figure everything out about a writing project before you start it. Part of the point is that you figure it out while doing it. You're planning a book, and you can't figure out the solution to a certain plot puzzle, or how one of your characters feels about something, or even what someone's name is? Maybe that means it's time to start writing. You're not completely ready? As with most things in life, if you wait until you're completely ready, you'll never start. Get a new definition for "ready." Just as courage often involves being scared to death, readiness often involves accepting that you don't really know what's going to happen. :)

I also advise tea and chocolate.

Lesson #1784 - Science, Part II

Jun. 11th, 2013 12:00 am
[syndicated profile] survivingtheworld_feed


Never stop dreaming, kids! Because if you give us a little bit of time and effort, we may be able to validate that ephemral thought nonsense into an honest theory. And then who knows what you'll think up next?

STW PAGE-A-DAY CALENDARS: The Kickstarter campaign is live! The rewards are pretty awesome - prints, slates, raptor impressions . . . maybe even your own mallet! What do you say?




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まるです。

Jun. 11th, 2013 09:30 am
[syndicated profile] maru_feed

Posted by mugumogu




まるさーん。そんな所で何やってるんですか?
Hey Maru, what are you doing threr?



「お昼寝中ですよ。お静かに。」
Maru:[Be quiet. I am sleeping.]


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