Limbo

If there’s one thing that stands out about Thomas Ikimi’s first feature film “Limbo”, it’s that despite of (or perhaps because of?) being shot on digital black and white video, this is one impressive looking film. Ikimi clearly has a good eye for frame composition, and there’s an innate intelligence on the screen and laudable ambition behind the script that you just don’t see a lot in low-budget independent films. Purportedly made for under $10,000, “Limbo” makes a fine first feature, even if it does get a bit ponderous at times, and the middle is not quite as sharp as the rest of the film.

Christopher Russo stars as the improbably named Adam Moses, a lawyer with a shady past who comes into possession of incriminating evidence against a crime boss. When the Mafioso’s attempts to pay for said evidence is spurned, the service of a notorious assassin who never misses is called for. Lured to a city rooftop, Adam is subsequently shot, but death doesn’t come. Instead, our man wakes up from the assassination attempt, unharmed, and for reasons unknown, finds himself stuck in a seemingly endless loop that repeats itself every hour, leaving only Adam to remember the hour previous.

Although the world continues on, resetting every hour, Adam remembers everything that has transpired. His only clue is the attempt on his life, which sends him in search of answers. Adam believes that the answers lie in his capturing of the elusive assassin. Or does it? Is Adam dead, and somehow existing only in limbo, trapped between Heaven and Hell? If that’s the case, why does a woman named Rebecca (Etya Dudko), who Adam first meets in a bar, also seems to be stuck in limbo as he?

For much of its first hour, and despite occurrences of a fantastical element like a time loop, “Limbo” is fashioned very much like an old fashion detective story, the noir qualities of those old stories made even more obvious by the black and white. It’s only later on when, in a spurt of manic anger, Adam kills a homeless man, that the film takes on more overt philosophical intentions. And because “Limbo” (purposely) has none of the whimsical of the similarly themed “Groundhog Day”, Adam’s actions do not involve hitting on the pretty girl in hopes of getting laid, but rather trying to keep himself from continually killing that mugger who keeps trying to mug him, or harming that prostitute who refuses to “just talk”.

God, religion, the nature of man’s free will, and what one should or should not do if there were no consequence to his actions, all come to the fore before all is said and done. These are, without a doubt, pretty heady topics, and Ikimi certainly knows more than his share of Philosophy 101. “Limbo” is indeed a very intellectual film, and if one were uninterested in the subject, one might be inclined to calling Ikimi and his movie overly pretentious. Then again, the fact that the film knows its subject very well would seem to indicate that “Limbo” is very much a heartfelt approach to, as well as a genuine attempt to explore, the subject matter at hand.

A major plus for “Limbo” is leading man Christopher Russo, who carries the entire film from beginning to end like a champ. Russo is a fine actor, and to watch the character slowly unravel from a man who thought he had left his checkered past behind to a man who slowly comes to embrace what he once was, you can’t help but wonder why this guy hasn’t done anything major yet. Less successful are the rest of the cast, but because Ikimi’s script is so Adam-centric, this isn’t an insult. Etya Dudko has little to do as Rebecca. Likewise with John Holt, as a stranger who seems to know what’s going on, or perhaps he’s just crazy.

Another sign of “Limbo’s” success is that you wouldn’t know the film was low-budget if nobody told you. It is that visually impressive, not an easy feat considering the digital video format, which has never been all that kind to visually-inclined filmmaking. Ikimi and company have a fantastic understanding of cinematic aesthetics, and take every natural advantage supplied by the choice to use black and white. Despite some slow spots in the middle, it’s startling how good “Limbo” is, especially for a first feature shot on a meager budget. Mark Thomas Ikimi as a filmmaker to watch.

You can watch/download it here..http://www.jaman.com/movie/Limbo/0QtZDraGdlOk/

A SOULFUL RELATIONSHIP

A SOULFUL RELATIONSHIP

by Ronald McFadden

f you're not married yet, share this with a friend.

If you are married, share it with your spouse or other married couples and reflect on it.

An African proverb states, "Before you get married, keep both eyes open, and after you marry, close one eye."

Before you get involved and make a commitment to someone, don't let lust, desperation, immaturity, ignorance, pressure from others or a low self-esteem, make you blind to warning signs.

Keep your eyes open, and don't fool yourself that you can change someone or that which you see as faults aren't really important.

Once you decide to commit to someone, over time his or her flaws, vulnerabilities, pet peeves, and differences will become more obvious.

If you love your mate and want the relationship to grow and evolve, you've got to learn to close one eye and not let every little thing bother you.

You and your mate have many different expectations, emotional needs, values, dreams, weaknesses, and strengths.

You are two unique individual children of God who have decided to share a life together.

Neither of you are perfect, but are you perfect for each other?

Do you bring out the best in each other?

Do you compliment and compromise with each other, or do you compete, compare, and control?

What do you bring to the relationship?

Do you bring past relationships, past hurt, past mistrust, past pain?

You can't take someone to the altar to alter him or her.

You can't make someone love you or make someone stay.

If you develop self-esteem, spiritual discernment, and "a life", you won't find yourself making someone else responsible for your happiness or responsible for your pain.

Manipulation, control, jealousy, neediness, and selfishness are not the ingredients of a thriving, healthy, loving and lasting relationship!

Seeking status, sex, wealth, and security are the wrong reasons to be in a relationship.

What keeps a relationship strong?

Communication, intimacy, trust, a sense of humor, sharing household tasks, some getaway time without business or children and daily exchanges (a meal, shared activity, a hug, a call, a touch, a note).

Leave a nice message on the voicemail or send an email.

Share common goals and interests.

Learn each other's family situation.

Respect his / her parents...regardless.

Don't put pressure on each other for material goods.

Remember "for richer or for poorer..."

If these qualities are missing, the relationship will erode as resentment, withdrawal, abuse, neglect, dishonesty, and pain replace the passion.

The difference between 'United' and 'Untied' is where you put the " i "

"Beyond Salmon"

I stumbled across a delightful blog by a very delightful lady,Helen Rennie.I use the words "delightful lady" to describe someone whom I have never met or even communicated through the net and whose blog i came upon just 5 mins ago of my blogging on her blog, for the simple reason that 5 mins of skimming through her blog,her passion and love for what she does for a living shone through it.She is a culinary instructor.No big deal one might opine.Read her profile in her blog,the link of which I have given in the title...and you will know just what I am talking about here.




Bon Appetit

“The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination”

J.K. Rowling, author of the best-selling Harry Potter book series, delivers her Commencement Address, “The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination,” at the Annual Meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association.

http://harvardmagazine.com/go/jkrowling.html

On a tangential note...how come all the Ivy league business schools invite world famous people who haven't ever studied at the aforementioned schools,who haven't even finished college (well most of them) to deliver the key note address to their students on importance of dreaming,achieving goals...basically being successful and also loving what they do? I mean students dream about getting into these Ivy leagues and after slogging their gluteus maximus off for their graduation,end up being told on THEIR day that they were better off dreaming elsewhere.....
Harvard even has a case study in their curriculum on........"What they dont teach you at Harvard business school" byMark McCormack.

Go on folks...dream...and if you can make gallons of green-backs through it...tell me your secret:)

DIY

For all you DIY's out there and believe me there ARE certain things which one is better of DIY than OUT-SOURCING them. lolll.The above link dares to answer all the queries one might have,in high quality video presentation.I use th word "dare" literally 'cos this is one portal which makes no bones about the fact that some of their "solutions" are down right moronic.In fact they seem to be pretty smug about it and have passed it on as some kind of Kafkaesque humor (what, you nerds don't believe that Kafka had a sense of humor??).

So go on folks,be a true blue DIY expert..:P

So you want to be more creative - by Hugh McLeod

So you want to be more creative, in art, in business, whatever. Here are some tips that have worked for me over the years:

1. Ignore everybody.

2. The idea doesn't have to be big. It just has to change the world.

3. Put the hours in.

4. If your biz plan depends on you suddenly being "discovered" by some big shot, your plan will probably fail.

5. You are responsible for your own experience.

6. Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten.

7. Keep your day job.

8. Companies that squelch creativity can no longer compete with companies that champion creativity.

9. Everybody has their own private Mount Everest they were put on this earth to climb.

10. The more talented somebody is, the less they need the props.

11. Don't try to stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds altogether.

12. If you accept the pain, it cannot hurt you.

13. Never compare your inside with somebody else's outside.

14. Dying young is overrated.

15. The most important thing a creative person can learn professionally is where to draw the red line that separates what you are willing to do, and what you are not.

16. The world is changing.

17. Merit can be bought. Passion can't.

18. Avoid the Watercooler Gang.

19. Sing in your own voice.

20. The choice of media is irrelevant.

21. Selling out is harder than it looks.

22. Nobody cares. Do it for yourself.

23. Worrying about "Commercial vs. Artistic" is a complete waste of time.

24. Don't worry about finding inspiration. It comes eventually.

25. You have to find your own schtick.

26. Write from the heart.

27. The best way to get approval is not to need it.

28. Power is never given. Power is taken.

29. Whatever choice you make, The Devil gets his due eventually.

30. The hardest part of being creative is getting used to it.

31. Remain frugal.

Eight simple anger management tips

One of the biggest obstacles to personal and career success is anger. When we fail to control our anger, we suffer several blows:

• Anger impedes our ability to be happy, because anger and happiness are incompatible.
  
• Anger sends marriages and other family relationships off-course.
  
• Anger reduces our social skills, compromising other relationships, too.
  
• Anger means lost business, because it destroys relationships.
  
• Anger also means losing business that you could have won in a more gracious mood.
  
• Anger leads to increased stress (ironic, since stress often increases anger).
  
• We make mistakes when we are angry, because anger makes it harder to process information.
  

People are beginning to wake up to the dangers of anger and the need for anger management skills and strategies. Many people find anger easy to control. Yes, they do get angry. Everybody does. But some people find anger easier to manage than others. More people need to develop anger management skills.

For those who have a tough time controlling their anger, an anger management plan might help. Think of this as your emotional control class, and try these self-help anger management tips:

ANGER MANAGEMENT TIP #1
Ask yourself this question: "Will the object of my anger matter ten years from now?" Chances are, you will see things from a calmer perspective.

ANGER MANAGEMENT TIP #2
Ask yourself: "What is the worst consequence of the object of my anger?" If someone cut in front of you at the book store check-out, you will probably find that three minutes is not such a big deal.

ANGER MANAGEMENT TIP #3
Imagine yourself doing the same thing. Come on, admit that you sometimes cut in front of another driver, too ... sometimes by accident. Do you get angry at yourself?

ANGER MANAGEMENT TIP #4
Ask yourself this question: "Did that person do this to me on purpose?" In many cases, you will see that they were just careless or in a rush, and really did not mean you any harm.

ANGER MANAGEMENT TIP #5
Try counting to ten before saying anything. This may not address the anger directly, but it can minimize the damage you will do while angry.

ANGER MANAGEMENT TIP #6
Try some "new and improved" variations of counting to ten. For instance, try counting to ten with a deep slow breathe in between each number. Deep breathing -- from your diaphragm -- helps people relax.

ANGER MANAGEMENT TIP #7
Or try pacing your numbers as you count. The old "one-steamboat-two-steamboat, etc." trick seems kind of lame to me. Steamboats are not the best devices to reduce your steam. How about "One-chocolate-ice-cream-two-chocolate-ice-cream", or use something else that you find either pleasant or humorous.

ANGER MANAGEMENT TIP #8
Visualize a relaxing experience. Close your eyes, and travel there in your mind. Make it your stress-free oasis.

If these tips do not help and you still feel you lack sufficient anger management skills, you might need some professional help, either in the form of a therapist specializing in anger management or a coach with a strong background in psychology.

"Mostly Harmless"

"One of the extraordinary things about life is the sort of places it’s prepared to put up with living. Anywhere it can get some kind of a grip, whether it’s the intoxicating seas of Santraginus V, where the fish never seem to care whatever the heck kind of direction they swim in. the fire storms of Frastra, where, they say, life begins at 40,000 degrees, or just burrowing around in the lower intestine of a rat for the sheer unadulterated hell of it, life will always find a way of hanging on in somewhere."

"It will even live in New York, though it’s hard to know why."

"Very little of (the subject of parallel universes) is, however, at all comprehensible to anyone below the level of Advanced God, and since it is well established that all known gods came into existence a good three millionths of a second after the Universe began rather than, as they usually claimed, the previous week, they already have a great deal of explaining to do as it is, and are therefore not available for comment on matters of deep physics at this time."

"The first thing to realize about parallel universes ... is that they are not parallel."

"It is also important to realize that they are not, strictly speaking, universes either, but it is easiest if you don’t try to realize that until a little later, after you’ve realized that everything you’ve realized up to that moment is not true."

"The reason they are not universes is that any given universe is not actually a thing as such, but is just a way of looking at what is technically known as the WSOGMM, or a Whole Sort of General Mish Mash. The Whole Sort of General Mish Mash doesn’t actually exist either, but is just the sum total of all the different ways there would be of looking at it if it did."

"Now logic is a wonderful thing but it has, as the processes of evolution discovered, certain drawbacks."

"Anything that thinks logically can be fooled by something else that thinks as logically as it does. The easiest way to fool a completely logical robot is to feed it the same stimulus sequence over and over again so it gets locked in a loop."

"Hmmm. Well, I think we’ve sorted all that out now. If you’d like to know, I can tell you that in your universe you move freely in three dimensions that you call space. You move in a straight line in a fourth, which you call time, and stay rooted to one place in a fifth, which is the first fundamental of probability. After that it gets a bit complicated, and there’s all sorts of stuff going on in dimensions thirteen to twenty-two that you really wouldn’t want to know about. All you really need to know for the moment is that the universe is a lot more complicated than you might think, even if you start from a position of thinking it’s pretty damn complicated in the first place."

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy-quotes

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (11 March 1952 - 11 May 2001) Started as a comedy radio play on the BBC and expanded into a TV series, a series of novels, and a feature film. The story follows the adventures of Arthur Dent, the last human who hitched a ride off Earth moments before it was destroyed to make way for an interstellar bypass.

• "This planet [earth] has - or rather had - a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movement of small green pieces of paper, which was odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy"

• "And then, one Thursday, nearly two thousand years after one man had been nailed to a tree for saying how great it would be to be nice to people for a change..."
• "This must be Thursday," said Arthur musing to himself, sinking low over his beer, "I never could get the hang of Thursdays."

• "Six pints of bitter," said Ford Prefect to the barman of the Horse and Groom. "And quickly please, the world's about to end."

• "Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so." -Ford Prefect

• "Time affords us the ability to blame past errors on others while whole heartedly pronouncing our future successes." - Ford Prefect
• "[The Guide] says that the best drink in existence is the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster. It says that the effect of a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster is like having your brains smashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped round a large gold brick."
• "How do you feel?" he [Ford Prefect] asked.
  "Like a military academy," said Arthur, "bits of me keep on passing out."

• Ford stood up. "We're safe," he said.
  "Oh good," said Arthur.
  "We're in a small galley cabin," said Ford, "in one of the spaceships of the Vogon Constructor Fleet."
  "Ah," said Arthur, "this is obviously some strange usage of the word safe that I wasn't previously aware of."
• "You know," said Arthur, "it's at times like this, when I'm trapped in a Vogon airlock with a man from Betelgeuse, and about to die of asphyxiation in deep space that I really wish I'd listened to what my mother told me when I was young."
  [Ford Prefect:] "Why, what did she tell you?"
  "I don't know, I didn't listen."
• "Please do not be alarmed," it said, "by anything you see or hear around you. You are bound to feel some initial ill effects as you have been rescued from certain death at an improbability level of two to the power two hundred and seventy-six thousand to against--possibly much higher. We are now cruising at a level of two to the power of twenty-five thousand to one against and falling, and we will be restoring normality just as soon as we are sure of what is normal anyway."
• "One of the major difficulties Trillian experienced in her relationship with Zaphod was learning to distinguish between him pretending to be stupid just to get people off their guard, pretending to be stupid because he couldn't be bothered to think and wanted someone else to do it for him, pretending to be outrageously stupid to hide that fact that he actually didn't understand what was going on, and really being genuinely stupid. He was so renowned for being amazingly clever and quite clearly was so - but not all the time, which obviously worried him, hence the act. He preferred people to be puzzled rather than contemptuous. This above all appeared to Trillian to be genuinely stupid..."
• He [Arthur] had an odd feeling of being like a man in the act of adultery who is surprised when the woman's husband wanders into the room, changes his trousers, passes a few idle remarks about the weather and leaves again.
• For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much - the wheel, New York, wars and so on - whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man - for precisely the same reasons.

• Curiously enough, the dolphins had long known of the impending destruction of the planet Earth and had made many attempts to alert mankind of the danger; but most of their communications were misinterpreted as amusing attempts to punch footballs or whistle for tidbits, so they eventually gave up and left the Earth by their own means shortly before the Vogons arrived.

• [...] in fact the message was this: So long, and thanks for all the fish. - Final message from the Dolphins, as they escape just prior to Earth's destruction,
• "Look," said Arthur, "would it save you a lot of time if I just gave up and went mad now?" -

• Looking up into the night sky is looking into infinity - distance is incomprehensible and therefore meaningless.
• Forty-two," said Deep Thought, with infinite majesty and calm.
• The answer to "the Great Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything",
• "Simple. I got very bored and depressed, so I went and plugged myself in to its external computer feed. I talked to the computer at great length and explained my view of the Universe to it," said Marvin.
  "And what happened?" pressed Ford.
  "It committed suicide," said Marvin and stalked off back to the Heart of Gold. -

• "What's up?" [asked Ford.]
  "I don't know," said Marvin, "I've never been there."
• There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.
  There is another [theory] which states that this has already happened.
• The story so far:
  In the beginning the Universe was created.
  This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.
• Quite how Zaphod Beeblebrox arrived at the idea of holding a seance at this point is something he was never quite clear on.
  Obviously the subject of death was in the air, but more as something to be avoided than harped upon.
  Possibly the horror that Zaphod experienced at the prospect of being reunited with his deceased relatives led on to the thought that they might just feel the same way about him and, what's more, be able to do something about helping to postpone this reunion.
• "Concentrate," hissed Zaphod, "on his name."
  "What is it?" asked Arthur.
  "Zaphod Beeblebrox the Fourth."
  "What?"
  "Zaphod Beeblebrox the Fourth. Concentrate!"
  "The Fourth?"
  "Yeah. Listen, I'm Zaphod Beeblebrox, my father was Zaphod Beeblebrox the Second, my grandfather Zaphod Beeblebrox the Third..."
  "What?"
  "There was an accident with a contraceptive and a time machine. Now concentrate."
• "Well, just who do you think you are, honey?" flounced the insect quivering its wings in rage, "Zaphod Beeblebrox or something?"
  "Count the heads," said Zaphod in a low rasp.
  The insect blinked at him. It blinked at him again.
  "You are Zaphod Beeblebrox?" it squeaked.
  "Yeah," said Zaphod, "but don't shout it out or they'll all want one."
  "The Zaphod Beeblebrox?"
  "No, just a Zaphod Beeblebrox, didn't you hear I come in six packs?"
  "But sir, I heard you were dead."
  "That's right, I just haven't stopped moving yet."

• 'Yet Unnamed Man': "Beeblebrox, over here!"
  "No," called Zaphod. "Beeblebrox over here! Who are you?"
  "A friend!" Shouted back the man. He ran toward Zaphod.
  "Oh yeah?" said Zaphod. "Anyone's friend in particular, or just generally well-disposed to people?""
• "If I ever meet myself," said Zaphod, "I'll hit myself so hard I won't know what's hit me." - The Restaurant at the End of the Universe,
• "I am the main Dish of the Day. May I interest you in parts of my body?" - The Dish of the Day serving itself
• It is known that there are an infinite number of worlds, simply because there is an infinite amount of space for them to be in. However, not every one of them is inhabited. Therefore, there must be a finite number of inhabited worlds. Any finite number divided by infinity is as near to nothing as makes no odds, so the average population of all the planets in the Universe can be said to be zero. From this it follows that the population of the whole Universe is also zero, and that any people you may meet from time to time are merely the products of a deranged imagination.
• On Earth – when there had been an Earth, before it was demolished to make way for a new hyperspace bypass – the problem had been with cars. The disadvantages involved in pulling lots of black sticky slime from out of the ground where it had been safely hidden out of harm's way, turning it into tar to cover the land with, smoke to fill the air with and pouring the rest into the sea, all seemed to outweigh the advantages of being able to get more quickly from one place to another – particularly when the place you arrived at had probably become, as a result of this, very similar to the place you had left, i.e. covered with tar, full of smoke and short of fish
• The major problem — one of the major problems, for there are several — one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.
  
  To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who most want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job. To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem.
• "How can I tell," said the man, "that the past isn't a fiction designed to account for the discrepancy between my immediate physical sensations and my state of mind?" - The Ruler of the Universe
• On being left in a parking lot for 500 million years: "The first ten million years were the worst. And the second ten million years, they were the worst too. The third ten million years I didn't enjoy at all. After that I went into sort of a decline" - Marvin The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
• Marvin: "I am at a rough estimate thirty billion times more intelligent than you. Let me give you an example. Think of a number, any number."
  Zem: "Er, five."
  Marvin: "Wrong. You see?"
  The mattress was much impressed by this and realised that it was in the presence of a not unremarkable mind. -- Life, the Universe and Everything
• "He hoped and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife. Then he realized there was a contradiction involved here and merely hoped that there wasn't an afterlife." - Arthur, before nearly destroying the Universe.
• "There is an art to flying, or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. Clearly, it is this second part, the missing, that provides the difficulties."
• The problem is, or rather one of the problems, for there are many, a sizable number of which are continually clogging up the civil, commercial, and criminal courts in all areas of the Galaxy, and especially, where possible, the more corrupt ones, this. The previous sentence makes sense. That is not the problem. This is: Change. Read it through again and you'll get it.
• The sign said:
  Hold stick near centre of its length. Moisten pointed end in mouth. Insert in tooth space, blunt end next to gum. Use gentle in-out motion.
  'It seemed to me,' said Wonko the Sane, 'that any civilization that had so far lost its head as to need to include a set of detailed instructions for use in a packet of toothpicks, was no longer a civilization in which I could live and stay sane.' - c. 31; Wonko the Sane telling Arthur and Fenchurch about the Asylum
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy [...] says of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation products that 'it is very easy to be blinded to the essential uselessness of them by the sense of achievement you get from getting them to work at all.'
  'In other words - and this is the rock solid principle on which the whole of the Corporation's Galaxy-wide success is founded - their fundamental design flaws are completely hidden by their superficial design flaws.' -
• Anything that happens, happens.
• Anything that, in happening, causes something else to happen, causes something else to happen.
• Anything that, in happening, causes itself to happen again, happens again.
• It doesn't necessarily do it in chronological order, though.
• It wasn't merely that their left hand didn't always know what their right hand was doing, so to speak; quite often their right hand had a pretty hazy notion as well.
• The thing he realized about the windows was this: because they had been converted into openable windows after they had first been designed to be impregnable, they were, in fact, much less secure than if they had been designed as openable windows in the first place.
• A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof was to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.
• The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair.
• "I seem to be having this tremendous difficulty with my lifestyle. As soon as I reach some kind of definite policy about what is my kind of music and my kind of restaurant and my kind of overdraft, people start blowing up my kind of planet and throwing me out of their kind of spaceships!" - The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Radio Shows, Fit the Fourth
• Life, as many people have spotted, is, of course, terribly unfair. For instance, the first time the Heart of Gold ever crossed the galaxy the massive improbability field it generated caused two-hundred-and-thirty-nine thousand lightly-fried eggs to materialise in a large, wobbly heap on the famine-struck land of Poghril in the Pansel system. The whole Poghril tribe had just died out from famine, except for one man who died of cholesterol-poisoning some weeks later. The Poghrils, always a pessimistic race, had a little riddle, the asking of which used to give them the only tiny twinges of pleasure they ever experienced. One Poghril would ask another Poghril, “Why is life like hanging upside down with your head in a bucket of hyena offal?” To which the second Poghril would reply “I don’t know, why is life like hanging upside down with your head in a bucket of hyena offal?” To which the first Poghril would reply, “I don’t know either - wretched isn’t it?” (Fit the Ninth)
• What to do if you find yourself stuck in a crack in the ground underneath a giant boulder you can't move with no hope of rescue:
  Consider how lucky you are that life has been good to you so far.
  Alternatively, if life hasn't been good to you so far (which, given your current circumstances, seems more likely):
  Consider how lucky you are that it won't be troubling you much longer.
• 
  

Self-Reliance-4

Virtues are, in the popular estimate, rather the exception than the rule. There is the man and his virtues. Men do what is called a good action, as some piece of courage or charity, much as they would pay a fine in expiation of daily non-appearance on parade. Their works are done as an apology or extenuation of their living in the world, — as invalids and the insane pay a high board. Their virtues are penances. I do not wish to expiate, but to live. My life is for itself and not for a spectacle. I much prefer that it should be of a lower strain, so it be genuine and equal, than that it should be glittering and unsteady. I wish it to be sound and sweet, and not to need diet and bleeding. I ask primary evidence that you are a man, and refuse this appeal from the man to his actions. I know that for myself it makes no difference whether I do or forbear those actions which are reckoned excellent. I cannot consent to pay for a privilege where I have intrinsic right. Few and mean as my gifts may be, I actually am, and do not need for my own assurance or the assurance of my fellows any secondary testimony.

What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is the harder, because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.

Self-Reliance-3

Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events. Great men have always done so, and confided themselves childlike to the genius of their age, betraying their perception that the absolutely trustworthy was seated at their heart, working through their hands, predominating in all their being. And we are now men, and must accept in the highest mind the same transcendent destiny; and not minors and invalids in a protected corner, not cowards fleeing before a revolution, but guides, redeemers, and benefactors, obeying the Almighty effort, and advancing on Chaos and the Dark.

Self-Reliance-2

There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried. Not for nothing one face, one character, one fact, makes much impression on him, and another none. This sculpture in the memory is not without preestablished harmony. The eye was placed where one ray should fall, that it might testify of that particular ray. We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents. It may be safely trusted as proportionate and of good issues, so it be faithfully imparted, but God will not have his work made manifest by cowards. A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise, shall give him no peace. It is a deliverance which does not deliver. In the attempt his genius deserts him; no muse befriends; no invention, no hope.

Self-Reliance

I read the other day some verses written by an eminent painter which were original and not conventional. The soul always hears an admonition in such lines, let the subject be what it may. The sentiment they instil is of more value than any thought they may contain. To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, — that is genius. Speak your latent conviction, and it shall be the universal sense; for the inmost in due time becomes the outmost,—— and our first thought is rendered back to us by the trumpets of the Last Judgment. Familiar as the voice of the mind is to each, the highest merit we ascribe to Moses, Plato, and Milton is, that they set at naught books and traditions, and spoke not what men but what they thought. A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his. In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty. Great works of art have no more affecting lesson for us than this. They teach us to abide by our spontaneous impression with good-humored inflexibility then most when the whole cry of voices is on the other side. Else, to-morrow a stranger will say with masterly good sense precisely what we have thought and felt all the time, and we shall be forced to take with shame our own opinion from another.

Epilogue to Beaumont and Fletcher's Honest Man's Fortune

"Man is his own star; and the soul that can
Render an honest and a perfect man,
Commands all light, all influence, all fate;
Nothing to him falls early or too late.
Our acts our angels are, or good or ill,
Our fatal shadows that walk by us still."

Face of Kingfisher