"I wake up for myself."

Jonah Grant, smart kid:

Since adopting the philosophy of high school being a day job, my happiness with school has increased exponentially. I find that I no longer have any sort of regard for any of the social stigmas of high school and that any stresses over assignments have become accomplishable tasks that, in due time, will pass.

Wake up early before school or work. Run a mile. Walk your dog. Make breakfast. Break your cycle. Breaking your cycle changes the way you look at things, and in turn the things you look at change.

The Future of the Bookstore

For a bookstore to remain successful, it must improve “the experience of buying books,” says Alex Lifschutz, an architect whose London-based practice is designing the new Foyles. He suggests an array of approaches: “small, quiet spaces cocooned with books; larger spaces where one can dwell and read; other larger but still intimate spaces where one can hear talks from authors about books, literature, science, travel and cookery.” The atmosphere is vital, he adds. Exteriors must buzz with activity, entrances must be full of eye-catching presentations and a bar and café is essential.

The element missing from all of the proposals laid out here is personalization; character. Atmosphere is vital, but that atmosphere doesn’t have to be the same in every store, everywhere — and shouldn’t be. Bookstores tried that approach in the ’90s. It was called Borders, and it didn’t last (despite a cafe in every store).

The bookstores that continue to succeed do so because they offer something that isn’t easily duplicated, online or elsewhere: personality. Whether that personality manifests in the staff, selection, or the physical space, the atmosphere should be a reflection of it, not a formula of cafes and lectures that happened to work for one particular store.

(Source: casualoptimist.com)

Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us

If you are confused by the notion that those least able to pay are the ones singled out to pay the highest rates, welcome to the American medical marketplace.

I literally shook as I read Steven Brill’s epic breakdown of inflated medical expenses — not because I was angry (though I was), but because there is nothing —nothing — that terrifies me more than the American healthcare system.

Statistically speaking, you might encounter some pretty heinous stuff over the course of a typical human lifespan in this country. You might be struck in a car accident, be gunned down in an elementary school or movie theater, blown up in an office building. You might, but you probably won’t.

But as it stands today, you are almost certain, pratically guaranteed, to get fucked by healthcare bills at some point. It’s just a question of how badly. 

(Source: thefeature.net)

The Hourchive: Movie Directors: Auteurs | Ep #61

As mentioned in this week’s podcast, whenever I see a new Quentin Tarantino film, I watch for a scene similar to one in most of his movies where the main character, often looking into a mirror, gives him- or herself a pep talk in the midst of a pivotal moment. It happens in Reservoir Dogs when Tim Roth heads out of his apartment and goes to meet his new partners in crime as Mr. Orange for the first time. In Pulp Fiction, Vincent Vega dictates exactly what he’s going to do (and implies, by extension, what he is definitely not going to do) with Marcellus Wallace’s wife. Following her escape from a coma ward in Kill Bill Vol. 1, The Bride crawls into the backseat of a car and convinces her unresponsive legs to start working again by talking to herself. 

These are all good scenes, but my favorite take is in Jackie Brown (coincidentally, my favorite Tarantino movie). 

The scenes in Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill feel like movie scenes. They are conspicuously framed and shot. The moment when Jackie catches her reflection in the fitting room somehow seems more real, random; just a little askew. Travolta and Uma have all the time they need to complete their monologues, but Jackie’s moment of introspection is fleeting, interrupted. It’s clear what’s going through the minds of Mr. Orange and Vincent and the Bride, but what about Jackie? Is she having second thoughts? Does she reach a decision before it’s time to move along, or does life pull her away from her thoughts before she’s finished — the way it sometimes does to us? 

Ugly and Mean

James Reeves stops for gas and stares down disillusionment.

Standing in the grass near every highway ramp, there’s a man holding a cardboard sign. Sometimes it says veteran, sometimes it says father, it always says hungry. I give him a dollar. I try to do this every day, but I know that it’s nothing. I hate these moments when my nation not only looks ugly and mean, but it feels like a mirror.

Chuck Wendig on Coffee

I like good coffee. I grind it and brew it myself. I’ll French Press some motherfucking bean juice now and again, but I don’t get crazy about it. I don’t require my coffee to be run through the intestinal tract of a rare Sumatran rat-monkey, but if you try to serve me Keurig coffee in one of those little pre-configured K-Cups, I’ll break all your fingers with my back teeth.