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“Back on the ship this evening: I was trading stories with students. I talked with Vin Hayes, a University of Delaware student; his friend Alex Malvezzi, who attends Quinnipiac University; and Scott, who had caught my eye during dinner (I watched him smear a huge dollop of peanut butter on his Granny Smith apple).
Alex told me that last night he and Vin were at one of the dockside bars. Sometime around 1:30 a.m., he was approached by a Russian man from Moscow who spoke English. Another Russian man nearby, who spoke no English, wanted to arm-wrestle Alex. Would that be okay? Alex hesitated but after a few moments agreed. Then, he saw the Russian man taking off his shirt.
Alex didn’t need a translator to understand the rule. So he proceeded to remove his own shirt. With that, the match began. The Russian man was strong, but Alex finally prevailed. With the Muscovite translating, the Russian man then said he wanted a rematch, this time with the other (left) arm. Alex said okay. He won again. The Russian looked at him and said, “Respect.” Meanwhile, Alex said, some American students watching the match began chanting, “USA! USA!”
Nearby, Vin was oblivious to the drama in which his friend had a starring role. He was too busy watching one of the bridges over the Neva River go up to allow ships to pass. Only when he turned away from the bridge and saw his friend putting his shirt back on did Vin realize something interesting had just happened.
― UVA Today Blogs: Semester at Sea » How It Works
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“I often just sit and look out my office window for a long time, thinking. Why does this look so terrible, why can’t we do this or that?
― Talking About Design - WSJ.com
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While uploading some photos from my sister’s graduation I noticed that Flickr has a status update in the title area of the page. It is small features like these that make the differance in internet based products.
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David Sedaris: 97% True + 3% Fake = Non-Fiction ↪
pile:
mpile:
Has anyone noticed how much people are talking about the definition of fiction these days? They are done getting upset at non-fiction being fiction and have started getting worried about fiction really being exaggerated non-fiction. But I don’t get why they are so up in arms––It’s always been like that. Hemingway had one love story and he wrote it over and over because it was what happened to him and he couldn’t get over it. Fitzgerald, too.
I think the problem is we just know way more about writer’s personal lives now so this bothers us, maybe takes some of the magic out of it. But I don’t think it should. Fiction is supposed to make sense of reality, find some beauty or lesson in it when life is to complicated to figure out on your own. It’s never just made up. It’s always non-fiction to some extent. Isn’t that why people read it?
Come on people! Next to Chuck Klosterman David writes some of the best books I’ve ever read.
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Apple, please make this with a built in touch pad just like my laptop, it would be great not to need a mouse.