Safety Pin Review buttons: one for ALL my book bags! woot woot.
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nerdygeekchick:
deandalecommunitycolledean:
socialistexan:
adrianshhh:
Amusing Ourselves to Death by Stuart McMillen (May 2009)
Aldous Huxley (Author: “Brave New World”) vs. George Orwell (Author: Nineteen Eighty-Four
One of my personal favorite things to ever find on the internet.
And the most terrifying thing is that you can see both happening to us right now.
O.O
(via rosietheriveter01)
Source: aisle7
Hey Guys!
I’m giving away 6 copies of my book (Shenanigans!) on Goodreads! Enter between now and April 15th if you’d like a shot at getting one. I’m even signing them (if that matters to you at all)!!
And anyway, who doesn’t like free stuff?
[Extra linky: t.co/HhxTBlvZ]
Source: CategoryThirteen.com
theatlantic:
The E-Reader of 1935
Source: theatlantic
That’s right! The Specter Lit Podcast has a new episode up on iTunes. Go check it out!
passportharlem:
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones;
So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:
If it were so, it was a grievous…
Source: passportharlem
In mid-July 1956, the Louisiana legislature — reacting to various federal mandates to integrate its schools and other institutions — voted to bar interracial athletic contests, including activities like dancing and pastimes like cards, dice and checkers. The legislation also ordered segregated seating at athletic events.
Soon after, these reactionary racists were in the dustbin of history. It occurs to me that soon today’s bigots - anti-gay, anti-women’s rights, anti-family, anti-American - will soon be on that same dustbin. They’re getting desperate out there.
Happy Ides of March!
Link
comicallyvintage:
I Had Hoped… I Had Dreamed….
Dreams of becoming an Amazon Bestseller…dashed.
Source: comicallyvintage
We’re certain that this is how Jonathan Franzen wakes up every morning.
(via awesomephilia)
Source: ForGIFs.com
Last August I earned my master’s degree from Northwestern University. I have now been unemployed for six months. I realize now that life with a liberal arts degree is self-inflicted. It turns out that few job descriptions list a base understanding of semiotics or rote memorization of the oeuvre of Alfred Lord Tennyson under necessary Skills/Qualifications…
It seemed like worthwhile knowledge for those of us naive enough to believe English, history and philosophy were rewarding academic pursuits. What else could allow me to play the sophisticate at parties, wearing tweed jackets, or quoting Nietzsche on nihilism when someone asks if I’ve seen last week’s episode of “The Walking Dead.” What I didn’t realize is that first you must earn the money to buy that tweed jacket, which is damn expensive.
Tyler Moss, Trials of a Stay-at-Home Boyfriend
Man is this depressing. I majored in political science with a concentration in political theory. I got out hoping to go to work for a legislator or go to work in municipal government. That didn’t happen. Now I’m in law school. How naive I was back then.
I suppose what is most painful about this is the fact that I can’t imagine myself having pursued another degree that would’ve been any more “marketable.” I minored in History, which frankly, has the same or lesser pecuniary prospects. And a philosophy major wouldn’t have helped me much unless I intended to pursue it in grad school (which I didn’t). I thought seriously about pursuing a Music degree, but I would’ve needed to pick up piano relatively fast, and I didn’t think I had it in me. Which is a shame, because I can see myself teaching music, either at the secondary or collegiate level, and loving the heck out of it. But none of these degrees are all that lucrative on their own. Still, I wouldn’t trade my undergraduate degree for the world. As it happens, the world just doesn’t feel the same about my undergraduate degree.
I guess in the end, I should just feel blessed to have multiple interests that I could have pursued with equal vigor. Not everyone has that option. My roommate and I always joked that philosophy is the “most important useless thing a human being can pursue.” I believe that still. Philosophy, history, the arts…more often than not, these things won’t provide you a living. But they can help you live. That’s got to count for something. At any rate, I need to believe it does.
(via letterstomycountry)
Wow, this is so relevant to my last post about the value/purpose of education. Is a college education for the average young person today only about marketability? It seems like it would be safe to say that degrees are no longer for ‘cultivating one’s own intellect and imagination’ or fostering our humanity, but rather for finding a job so we can be a good little public slave.
(via mindbabies)
Damnit I wish people would stop thinking of liberal arts degrees in such limited terms. I have a BA in English (cue the music) but it doesn’t quite suck to be me. Sure, I can diagram a sentence, or break down literary movements, but I also learned how to write, edit, and do research (and when Thomas Pynchon is on your assigned reading list, you really do have to do research just to understand what the fuck you’re reading). I’ve been a technical editor/writer at the same company for the past 4.5 years (which, yeah, is too long), and been their online content manager for the past 3.
When I graduated, I had a moment of panic too; a “oh shit, my degree taught me nothing” moment, and wound up in sales for two years. Which helped pay the bills while my band went through a rotation of drummers and bassists and never really gigged outside of Athens, GA, but also quickly taught me that a lot of other college grads cannot write for shit. My boss at one company noticed this, and tapped me to write their software user manual, and I found out there was a whole other world of possible jobs for I and my BA in English that didn’t involve teaching HS, or going back to school, getting a PhD, and teaching college students.
(via shorterexcerpts)
Reblogged for the commentary.
Look, people: All the debate about “useless degrees” is just noise.
When you were getting that piece of paper, what were you learning and experiencing? What conversations did you have with your professors? What applicable skills did you learn?
With which campus organizations did you get involved? Did any of your positions in those organizations involve you doing work that fits under the aegis of a post-education career path? Example: I wrote for the student newspaper and the yearbook. I picked up journalism credits for my resume and writing samples for a portfolio. I worked constantly with editors and designers, picking up skills along the way—skills I could include on my resume.
In graduate school while pursuing a “useless” MFA I nabbed a campus job writing press releases and alumni magazine stories for the