User Profile

Personal LJ: neverbendeasy

...

Metamorphoses

Take anything, nothing shall be denied,
Except what you desire, which if you knew
It is a curse, my Phaethon, and not
The honor and hope within your mind.

Shall I betray my father's kingdom, crown
To shield an alien hero in my bed,
Then see him set his sails and make away
With some new bride? And I, Medea, pitiful,
Alone?

Many things unhinge the virgin mind.

Staring does not satisfy desire.

White Oleander

I thought clay must feel happy in the good potter's hand.

I felt my guilt like a brand.

And I tried not to make it worse by asking for things, pulling her down with my thoughts. I had seen girls clamor for new clothes and complain about what their mothers made for dinner. I was always mortified. Didn't they know they were tying their mothers to the ground? Weren't chains ashamed of their prisoners?

Men, no matter how unappealing, each imagine he is somehow worthy.

Never apologize, never explain.

I was blissfully invisible again.

She wore L'Air du Temps, out of place as a wildflower in a war zone.

"You cut off your hair. Why'd you do that? It was pretty."
"Attracted attention," I said.
"I thought girls liked that."

I smiled, felt the bitter aftertaste in my mouth. This boy might know a lot about cruelty and waste, but he didn't know a thing about beauty. How could he? He was used to that skin, people turning away, not seeing the fire in his lucid brown eyes. I could tell, he imagined beauty, attention, what would feel like love.

"Sometimes it hurts more than it helps," I said.
"You've never been ugly." The boy looked down at his hand filling the blank spaces in a science fiction scene.

"Someone like you, you wouldn't let me touch you, would you?"

"I don't let anyone touch me," I finally said.

Ghost In The Shell

To be human, is to continually change. Your desire to remain as you are is what ultimately limits you.

"As an autonomous life form, I request political asylum!"

"A life form? Ridiculous! You're merely a self preserving program!"

"By that argument, I submit the DNA you carry is nothing more than a self preserving program itself. Life is like a node on the flow of information. As a species of life that carries DNA as its memory system man gains his individuality from the memories he carries. While memories may as well be the same as fantasy, it is by these memories that mankind exists."

"Nonsense! No matter what you say, you've no proof that you're a life form!"

"It is impossible to prove such a thing especially since modern science cannot define what life is."

Postcards from No Man's Land

Machines are very well, but not when they were once human beings.

Act normal, because that is crazy enough.

So, you see why I like the history of art. It's the study of how to observe life with complete attention. It's the history of love.

Hille:
for you
earth plays
sky tunes
water sings
stones rock
time burns
fire quenches
in me:
Jacob

In small proportions we just beauties see;
And in short measures life may perfect be.

Andromeda Strain

Both man and bacteria had gotten used to each other, had developed a kind of mutual immunity. Each adapted to the other. And this, in turn, for a very good reason. It was a principle of biology that evolution was directed toward increased reproductive potential. A man easily killed by bacteria was poorly adapted; he didn’t live long enough to reproduce. A bacteria that killed its host was also poorly adapted. Because any parasite that kills its host is a failure. It must die when the host dies.

Biology, as George Wald had said, was a unique science because it could not define its subject matter. Nobody had a definition for life. Nobody knew what it was, really. The old definitions were worthless. One could always find exceptions.

There are no truths there are only stories. Suzuki proverb.

The Messenger Theory. Let’s say an [alien] culture wishes to scan the universe. They wish to spew out information, clues to their existence in every direction. What is the best way to do this? Radio? Hardly—radio is too slow. Strong signals weaken within a few miles. TV is even worse. Light rays are fantastically expensive to generate. Besides expense, all these methods suffer the traditional drawback to radiation, namely decreasing strength with distance. A light bulb may be unbearably bright at ten feet; it may be powerful at a thousand feet; it may be visible at ten miles. But in a million miles, it is completely obscure, because radiant energy decreases according to the fourth power of radius. A simple, unbeatable law of physics. So you do not use physics to carry your signal. You use biology. John R. Samuels

Assume that you have a road with a sharp corner. Now assume that you have two automobiles, a sports car and a large truck. When the truck tries to go around the corner, it slips off the road; but the sports car manages easily. Why? The sports car is lighter, and smaller, and faster; it is better suited to tight, sharp curves. On large, gentle curves, the automobiles will perform equally well, but on sharp curves, the sports car will do better.
In the same way, an electron microscope will hold the road better than a light microscope. All objects are made of corners and edges. The electron wavelength is smaller than the quantum of light. It cuts the corners closer, follows the road better, and outlines it more precisely. With a light microscope---like a truck—you can follow only a large road. In microscopic terms this means that only a large object with large edges and gentle curves: cells, nuclei. But an electron microscope can follow all the minor routes, the byroads, and can outline very small structures within the cell—mitochondria, ribosomes, membranes, reticula.
In actual practice there were several drawbacks to the electron microscope, which counterbalanced its great powers of magnification. For one thing, because it used electrons instead of light, the inside of the microscope had to be a vacuum. This meant it was impossible to examine living creatures. But the most serious drawback had to do with the sections of specimen. These were extremely thin, making it difficult to get good 3D concepts of the object under study.


It was impossible to say why, but it was known that the cerebral vessels are peculiar in several respects. For instance, under circumstances in which normal body vessels dilate or contract—such as extreme cold or exercise—the brain vasculature does not change, but maintains a steady, constant blood supply to the brain. In exercise, the blood supply to muscle might increase five to twenty times. But the brain always has a steady flow: whether its owner is taking an exam or a nap, chopping wood or watching TV. The brain receives the same amount of blood every minute, hour, day.

The Great Gatsby

Everyone suspects himself of at last one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known.

Fahrenheit 451

Do you know why books such as this are so important? Because they have quality. And what does quality mean? To me it means texture. This book has pores. It has features. This book can go under the microscope. You’d find life under the glass, streaming past in infinite profusion. The more pores, the more truthfully recorded details of life per square inch you can get on a sheet of paper, the more “literary” you are. That’s my definition, anyway. Telling detail. Fresh detail. The good writers touch life often. The mediocre ones run a quick hand over her. The bad ones rape her and leave her for the flies.

In silence our stage-whisper might carry.

Extra, Extra

Kat: Wooow. My layout was so good that you cussed at it. Hah.

I am a lover, not a drinker.

My liver and I have this understanding.

Friends (26):

Friend of (14):