Inspired by Dave Fleet — and because it’s the holidays and I’m not ashamed to be too busy having fun to create original content — here are my top sixteen posts on i tell stories of 2008. (Yes, sixteen. Twelve wasn’t enough.)
These aren’t necessarily the most visited or commented-on posts; these are the ones that I like best.
You may agree, you may not agree. I’d encourage you to take a look through the archives if you’ve got some time. Tell me if I forgot something that really should have made this list.
The report released yesterday stated that there was an abundance of guns in our city’s public schools, that sexual assault and harassment is widespread, and that some schools are breeding grounds for gang violence. Color me naive, but apart from a few incidents that I knew of growing up, these kinds of concerns didn’t cross my mind when I was going to public school in Toronto.
At 28, Heath Ledger was much too young to die: he had enormous amounts of untapped potential. Most people will miss him because of his proven acting talent. I will miss him because he reminded me to take advantage of my own talent and potential.
I write love letters because I fall in love every day. Yesterday, I wrote a love letter on the back of a napkin to the waitress that smiled at me as she brought me my lunch. Last week, I wrote a love letter in chalk on the lamppost that broke my fall after I slipped on the ice. Just this morning, I wrote a love letter to the woman who answered my tech support call — and then read it aloud to her.
No one hears you when you say you’re sick of traveling. Sick of traveling: three words that make sense to people separately, but not in sequence. And they’re right — what am I talking about? What about being treated to fancy dinners at over-priced restaurants? And staying at hotels I could normally never afford? And watching rugby in crowded and rowdy bars? And having a choice of various kinds of bottles of water at ever meal?
The scary thing I need to admit now is that the mind of Sameer Vasta at the age of thirteen isn’t much different from the mind of Sameer Vasta at age twenty-six.
If you think about it, people who “don’t have enough time” to sleep a healthy amount are not the productivity machines we assume them to be. Instead, they’re just bad at time management.
So today, on Mother’s Day, and every day after this, I’m not going thank my mom for everything she has done for me. It just wouldn’t be enough. Instead, I’m going to show her the fruits of her labor; I’m going to prove to her that her hard work raising me resulted in a son that reflects the goodness and compassion that she emanates every day.
We, as humans or as robots, need to be reminded that we are not alone, that there is someone out there that wants to dance and watch Hello, Dolly with us on our iPods.
Cinema-going is not a task that can be done effectively with others. Far from it. Going to watch a film (especially a good one) is an activity best pursued alone and independently.
So there I was — with my tired and cold English, my rusty French, and my broken Spanish — standing in the middle of the intersection, luggage in tow, surrounded by three men who could only speak to one another through me.
It’s impossible not to be completely enamored with the whole concept of marriage: that two people can feel so strongly drawn to each other that they are willing to devote themselves to each other for life — or at least try to do just that. There’s so much beauty in that whole idea that I’m tearing up just writing about it now.
We throw valuable information away every second. Not all the information we receive will lead to great discoveries, but every piece of information that comes our way has the possibility to teach us new and exciting things if we just take it in instead of throwing it away.
Like Bill Murray, many consultants charge high rates to clients that can support those rates so that they can use some of their other time to evangelize for their passions like transit or the open web.
Fifteen stories below my window, a young boy reaches down to pick up a handful of greyish-white powder off the ground and comes up with a mitten-full of densely-packed snow. He cups his other mitten over the pile in his hand in an attempt to form a vaguely-spherical snowball ready to be thrown at the young girl in front of him.
And that’s my list for the year. What were your favorite posts from around the web that made you smile this year?
Miscellaneous thoughts and links for a Sunday morning. Mainly for those of you that don’t read Squandrous on a regular basis.
(Today’s thoughts are brought to you by the letter U.)
Un-Warren-ted.
Shepard Fairey’s art is featured on the cover of TIME for their Person of the Year issue. Fairey has also been tapped to create an inaugural poster for Obama’s big ceremony next month.
Fairey has some issues with regards to Obama’s decision to ask Rick Warren to deliver an invocation during the inauguration ceremony, but instead of complaining or boycotting, he’s taking a more generous and productive step. From his post:
While I’m on the subject of gay marriage, I will be donating a chunk of the proceeds from an inauguration poster of Obama I was asked to create to the movement to overturn Prop 8. At first I was considering pulling my inauguration poster, but I think re-directing funds from it to put into a cause I care about is actually more constructive.
I understand Obama’s decision to have a diversity of voices (even those that conflict with his own) at the inauguration, but I still cannot support any individual that does not believe in the core and basic fundamental concept of equal rights for all.
Inspired by Fairey, I’ve made a small donation to No On Prop 8 as my form of protest against Rick Warren’s prominence at the inauguration ceremony as well. After all, the best form of protest is one that actually helps to solve problems instead of causing more of them.
Sometimes, it’s that easy to make a difference in someone’s life.
Unconventional
I knew my friends Jessie and Chris were absolutely amazing photographers, but their forays into video are just as — if not even more — mindblowingly fun.
Love the vibrancy and playfulness of this video. Plus, you know it would be tons of fun play in paint like that.
Uplifting
This festive season, Stories of Giving helps you measure the success of the holidays not by the amount of gifts you got or by the amount of turkey you ate, but by the amount of difference you made in the lives of others.
I once fell in love with a young lady because of her love for tea.
It’s true. After all, I can’t think of any other drinks that are as passionate as a cup of tea. Just think of the sensual and sensuous words that are commonly associated with the beverage: steaming, blended, spicy, vibrant, aromatic, playful, hot, soothing, among many others.
People that are passionate about tea are generally passionate people in all other parts of their lives; tea is a subtle manifestation of their intensity and exuberance. A passion for tea is a passion for life.
DavidsTea
I met a few such passionate individuals today at DavidsTea in Toronto.
My friend Sherren insisted that I check out the new tea shop after our brunch on Queen Street, and I happily obliged. The woman has excellent taste, after all.
Inside, I found a group of people not only willing to share their knowledge and love of tea, but also extremely eager to learn more about their customers, slowly exploring their interests, tastes, activities, and of course, preferences in teas. They know all their repeat customers by name, and are quick to learn those of new customers.
I’ve been to a lot of tea shops in my time, and while most offer an extremely pleasant and personable experience, very few tea shops exude the passion for tea that I felt as soon as I walked into DavidsTea.
Is DavidsTea the best tea shop in Toronto? It may only be a few months old, but the answer is very intense and passionate yes.
I’m sending smiles and hugs to all of you today, whether or not you’re celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or anything else. I hope you all take the time to tell the people in your life that you love them and appreciate having them around.
This year, I plan on buying myself a few Christmas gifts:
We’d encourage all the students to assemble in the dining hall and serve hot cocoa and doughnuts and help them with the process of writing letters to governments and organizations in order to support Amnesty’s campaigns for human rights. We’d pick certain campaigns that we thought were relevant to the students, and educate them about the issues and encourage them to take action.
For most students, letter-writing nights were great social events where they got to do something good at the same time. For many of us, the letters felt like relatively insignificant demonstrations of solidarity with Amnesty International — important as a marker of support, but relatively ineffective at creating real change.
The video is part of a project by Amnesty International called Protect the Human, a site designed to “make it really easy to find human rights video, links and images from around the web.”
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted sixty years ago this month. It’s often easy to forget that there are still people out there in the world (and in our own backyards!) that are being denied the basic rights outlined in the Declaration.
It’s even easier to forget that our participation and action — gathering with friends to drink hot cocoa and write a letter can be a small but integral show of support — is truly powerful and can make a difference.
This video was the reminder I needed to spur me back into action.
Miscellaneous thoughts and links for a Sunday morning. Mainly for those of you that don’t read Squandrous on a regular basis.
Silent and Stupid
I can’t be the only person that thinks the Silent Keynote idea is absolutely ridiculous, right? Seriously? Apple has a right to stop attending MacWorld, and it has nothing to do with spurning its fans. It’s business. Also, by not attending MacWorld, Steve Jobs may be doing what Apple needs to do to stay relevant: being different. For more, check out Gruber’s most awesome post here.
Yes folks, that’s how groovy your next President is going to be. What’s even more impressive, however, is his checklist of what he wants to get done in his first two years of office. Among the highlights include: help the economy recover, create jobs, expand health care coverage, shift America to a new energy economy, revitalize public school systems, close down Guantánamo in a responsible way, put a clear end to torture, rebuild foreign alliances, and reinvigorate international institutions to deal with transnational threats like climate change.
This quote, however, is the most telling of Obama’s goals:
“Outside of specific policy measures, two years from now, I want the American people to be able to say, ‘Government’s not perfect; there are some things Obama does that get on my nerves. But you know what? I feel like the government’s working for me. I feel like it’s accountable. I feel like it’s transparent. I feel that I am well informed about what government actions are being taken. I feel that this is a President and an Administration that admits when it makes mistakes and adapts itself to new information.’”
Big goals from one bad mamma jamma.
The Year, Pictured
Almost everyone has seen these already, but for those of you that haven’t: The Big Picture is recapping the year using some of the greatest photos taken in 2008. The series of photos (being presented in three parts) range from beautiful to horrifying to humorous to uplifting. Check out Part One, Part Two and Part Three. In the photo above: “The head of a male student, still alive, trapped under the debris is pictured at the scene of the church school that collapsed on the outskirts of Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince, November 7, 2008.”
We don’t condone shoe throwing, but we prefer it to war.
I prefer a lot of things to war. Most things, in fact. Anyhoo, no matter what you may think about the shoe-thrower support network, you have to admit that some of the photos in the gallery are super cute.
Monopolized
My new personal quest in life is to make sure Hasbro allows Andy Mangold to make this repackaging (via) of my favorite board game of all time and then buy it for whatever it may end up costing.
As the self-proclaimed king of Monopoly — who else do you know that has played a game of Monopoly for 53 hours straight? — I deem this to be the best board game packaging ever.
Among those 73, there have been some gems. Instead of trying to enumerate the best of them, I want to share with you a short list of the films that I enjoyed this year and that I feel that you should watch if haven’t done so already.
I’ve learned that I haven’t fallen out of love with film — I have fallen in love with enjoying film instead of analyzing it.
The movies below aren’t necessarily the “best” films of the year when it comes to artistic merit. They aren’t all going to win Academy Awards or be on critics’ top ten lists. They are, however, movies that have struck a chord and have entertained considerably.
In the end, I feel that this is much more valuable to all of you, and to me as well, than any attempt to classify and order a so-called “best of” list based on arbitrary criteria. I hope you agree.
Film in 2008
Here’s my list of some of the movies that I enjoyed this year, in alphabetical order.
The Dark Knight: Never has the comic book movie been treated with such care, precision, and depth as it has here with Christopher Nolan’s new take on Batman. Heath Ledger is legendary in his performance as The Joker, but what truly stands out here is the examination of the internal struggles between good and bad and the fine line between them.
Hunger: British visual artist Steve McQueen’s exposé on the last six weeks in the life of Irish hunger striker Bobby Sands is powerful, difficult, wrenching — but also breathtakingly beautiful. Crafted with intricate attention to detail and a visual palette that attacks each scene with elaborate artistry, McQueen’s filmmaking debut blends beauty with despair in an inescapable way.
Medicine for Melancholy: Everyone has experienced the awkwardness that is the morning after a one-night stand. What Barry Jenkins’ film does is take that awkwardness and use it to build a story of friendship that is honest and real. The film may be too preachy at times, but in the end what draws me to it is the complete frankness with which he approaches the relationship between his two main characters — a relationship that many of us will be able to relate to.
Milk: Sean Penn is truly one of the greatest actors to grace the screen, and nowhere is this more evident than in Gus Van Sant’s film about Harvey Milk. The movie is worth watching for many reasons, but the most compelling reason is Penn’s nuanced and resonant performance. It’s always great to see a master at work.
Rachel Getting Married: If there’s anything that draws you to Jonathan Demme’s film other than Anne Hathaway’s tour-de-force performance as Kym — Hathaway continues to prove herself as one of the most talented and versatile actresses in Hollywood — it is probably the intimacy between the characters on the screen and you, the audience. There are few films today that engage the audience in such a powerful and pervasive way.
Slumdog Millionaire: Game shows, romance, and a rags-to-riches story are always great cinematic tropes, but Danny Boyle’s real success in this film is in the infusion of hope into the humor and drama that permeate every scene. A movie that fills even the most despairing scenes with hope is one that is guaranteed to lift the spirits.
Synechdoche, New York: You know a film is successful when you not only need to watch it several times to truly grasp its intricacies, but when you want to keep watching it because it keeps unveiling new surprises every time. A movie impossible to summarize, Charlie Kaufman’s directorial debut is bafflingly powerful and addictive.
WALL·E: The first third of this film — almost thirty minutes containing more humor than the entire golden age of physical comedy combined and more ill-fated romance than even the end of Casablanca — is a shining example of all that is good in cinema. Andrew Stanton’s animated lead robot portrays more emotion and is more human than the majority of the characters that we are forced to watch on the big screen these days.
That’s it for now. I’m sure I’ve missed a lot of great films here, so help me: what are some of the movies that you really enjoyed this year?
The average American emits 136 pounds of carbon dioxide each day. About 36 pounds come from driving, flying, and other travel. Another 22 pounds come from heating, cooling, and powering our homes. The final 78 pounds come from producing, transporting, and disposing of all the stuff we buy, and from shared services like schools and street lights.
It may not be much, but one day is a good start. If you’re not in time to redeem my gift of carbon neutrality, you can still do your part by helping support organizations like Brighter Planet that are making a positive impact on our planet.
And of course, by reducing your carbon footprint.
What are you doing every day to reduce your own personal carbon footprint?
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