The machinery is always going.

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If you sleep. If the gears keep you awake, eventually they turn slower and creakier and heavier and more labourious. So the noise and the effort adds to the lists of things that go bump in the night and that keeps you from real rest. … but I would rather go mad from sleep deprivation than stop the works and walk around empty.

Heartless.

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There’s a difference between being heartless and using your heart less.

I knew it!

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Frida‘s story has been a personal anchor for me. Truthfully, it kinda borders on idol worship. I even carry a talisman of her to remind me of her strength, like some people draw from saints. In the film, before her heart fucks her for life, you meet her first boyfriend. He seems nice. After the accident that crippled her with pain he recommends she reads Schopenhauer to get her through being bed ridden. My heart lept when I heard it. She is So inspiring and I’ve admired his work for so long… I knew he was an important thinker from the first time I read The Vanity of Existence. I could feel it in my bones. And look, I was right!

Don’t expect from me…

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Slavoj Žižek, one of my favourite thinkers. I especially enjoy his sense of humour:

“Humanity is okay, but 99% of people are boring idiots.” 

And he can be suprisingly inspiring:

“I’m a pessimist in the sense that we are approaching dangerous times. But I’m an optimist for exactly the same reason. Pessimism means things are getting messy. Optimism means these are precisely the times when change is possible.”

…I can’t focus, I’m sorry…

I am far more freaked out about this week’s upcoming exams than my students seem to be. The irony is not lost on me, oh no, I am painfully aware that I wasn’t even nearly this stressed (or prepared!) for my own exams. Shit, I hope they’ve studied!

Play hard.

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Said Jack Nicholson.

Hope you had a lekker, leisurely, long weekend! Sundays can be a bit of a downer, but if you’re in tears by sunset – maybe it isn’t Monday’s fault? Maybe your life sucks… Changing my day job and doing something I love (even when it’s REALLY hard work) turned my Sundays around entirely. Anxiety can steal half of your weekend, and if you’re not careful, you might start to think that’s normal. Like it’s not bad enough they get the rest of your week for cheap! Reclaim your weekend! Rest and recreation is good for you, trust me.

She made it work.

weirdppl_smlShe was being modest.

“I’m just doing what I wanted to and what feels right and not settling for bullshit and it worked. How can they be mad at that?” – Janis Joplin

“She’s got an opinion about everything and states it forcefully, astutely, originally. When she really gets going she can weave her sentences into a stunning cascade of words that overwhelms anyone who disagrees with her.” – John Byrne Cook

“Rolling Stone ranked Joplin number 46 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time in 2004, and number 28 on its 2008 list of 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995.”

The later the hour – the lovelier the lunatic.

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Everybody might be crazy lately, but can anybody survive it? When you have a vision that won’t let you sleep, you might as well make an effort to make a success of it. Let the sun set on the sane, the later the hour – the lovelier the lunatic.

“The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don’t go back to sleep. You must ask for what you really want. Don’t go back to sleep.” – Rumi