“You cannot be really first-rate at your work if your work is all you are.”

The commencement address is a special kind of modern communication art, and its greatest masterpieces tend to either become a book — take, for instance, David Foster Wallace on the meaning of life, Neil Gaiman on the resilience of the creative spirit, Ann Patchett on storytelling and belonging, and Joseph Brodsky on winning the game of life — or have originated from a book, such as Debbie Millman on courage and the creative life. One of the greatest commencement speeches of all time, however, has an unusual story that flies in the face of both traditional trajectories.

In 2000, Villanova University invited Pulitzer-Prize-winning author, journalist, and New York Times op-ed columnist Anna Quindlen to deliver the annual commencement address. But once the announcement was made, a group of conservative students staged a protest against Quindlen’s strong liberal views. The commencement was cancelled. “I don’t think you should have to walk through demonstrators to get to your college commencement,” Quindlen lamented. Rather than retreat, however, she emailed the undelivered commencement address to a Villanova graduate student who had expressed disappointment at the situation. Years before the social web as we know it today, the speech spread like wildfire across the internet. A few months later, Quindlen expanded it into the short and lovely book A Short Guide to a Happy Life (public library).

Quindlen begins:

I’ve never earned a doctorate, or even a master’s degree. I’m not an ethicist, or a philosopher, or an expert in any particular field… I can’t talk about the economy, or the universe, or academe, as academicians like to call where they work when they’re feeling kind of grand. I’m a novelist. My work is human nature. Real life is really all I know.

And know it she does:

Don’t ever confuse the two, your life and your work. That’s what I have to say. The second is only a part of the first. Don’t ever forget what a friend once wrote to Senator Paul Tsongas when the senator had decided not to run for reelection because he’d been diagnosed with cancer: “No man ever said on his deathbed I wish I had spent more time at the office.”

Don’t ever forget the words on a postcard that my father sent me last year: “If you win the rat race, you’re still a rat.”

Quindlen considers the question of the self and what makes us who we are, what makes us worthy of being. And while the great Annie Dillard may have cautioned to not “ever use the word ‘soul,’ if possible,” it seems impossible to address the question of what makes a meaningful life without addressing the human soul, which Quindlen does beautifully:

There are thousands of people out there with the same degree you have; when you get a job, there will be thousands of people doing what you want to do for a living. But you are the only person alive who has sole custody of your life. Your particular life. Your entire life. Not just your life at a desk, or your life on the bus, or in the car, or at the computer. Not just the life of your mind, but the life of your heart. Not just your bank account, but your soul.

People don’t talk about the soul very much anymore. It’s so much easier to write a résumé than to craft a spirit. But a résumé is cold comfort on a winter night, or when you’re sad, or broke, or lonely, or when you’ve gotten back the chest X ray and it doesn’t look so good, or when the doctor writes “prognosis, poor.”

Even those trying to find their purpose, even those engaged in fulfilling work, and even those of us lucky enough to have no separation between “life” and “work,” can get consumed by our modern cult of productivity. Quindlen’s words come as a vital reminder of what matters, what counts, what the true aliveness of life is:

You cannot be really first-rate at your work if your work is all you are.

So I suppose the best piece of advice I could give anyone is pretty simple: get a life. A real life, not a manic pursuit of the next promotion, the bigger paycheck, the larger house. Do you think you’d care so very much about those things if you developed an aneurysm one afternoon, or found a lump in your breast while in the shower?

Get a life in which you notice the smell of salt water pushing itself on a breeze over the dunes, a life in which you stop and watch how a red-tailed hawk circles over a pond and a stand of pines. Get a life in which you pay attention to the baby as she scowls with concentration when she tries to pick up a Cheerio with her thumb and first finger.

Turn off your cell phone. Turn off your regular phone, for that matter. Keep still. Be present.

Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love, and who love you. And remember that love is not leisure, it is work.

Here, Annie Dillard, who so memorably expounded the power of presence over productivity in the making of a rich life, would have agreed. For Quindlen, however, an even richer life than that of simply being present is one of being present with a palpable generosity of spirit towards the world:

Get a life in which you are generous. Look around at the azaleas making fuchsia star bursts in spring; look at a full moon hanging silver in a black sky on a cold night. And realize that life is glorious, and that you have no business taking it for granted. Care so deeply about its goodness that you want to spread it around. Take the money you would have spent on beers in a bar and give it to charity. Work in a soup kitchen. Tutor a seventh-grader.

All of us want to do well. But if we do not do good, too, then doing well will never be enough.

Quindlen, who had a jarring confrontation with the mortality paradox early in life — at nineteen, she lost her mother to ovarian cancer and spent her sophomore year of college administering morphine while her peers partied — considers the Alan Wattsian idea that putting at rest our resistance to the inevitability of death liberates us to be more alive. (Sarah Lewis put this beautifully when she observed, “When we surrender to the fact of death, not the idea of it, we gain license to live more fully, to see life differently.”) Quindlen reflects on the tragedy that split her life into a “before” and an “after”:

It is so easy to waste our lives: our days, our hours, our minutes. It is so easy to take for granted the pale new growth on an evergreen, the sheen of the limestone on Fifth Avenue, the color of our kids’ eyes, the way the melody in a symphony rises and falls and disappears and rises again. It is so easy to exist instead of live. Unless you know there is a clock ticking.

[…]

“Before” and “after” for me was not just before my mother’s illness and after her death. It was the dividing line between seeing the world in black and white, and in Technicolor. The lights came on, for the darkest possible reason.

And I went back to school and I looked around at all the kids I knew who found it kind of a drag and who weren’t sure if they could really hack it and who thought life was a bummer. And I knew that I had undergone a sea change. Because I was never again going to be able to see life as anything except a great gift.

“We have entered a new age of fulfillment, in which the great dream is to trade up from money to meaning,” philosopher Roman Krznaric wrote in his fantastic manifesto for finding meaningful work, but Quindlen reminds us that the luxury of seeking fulfillment rather than mere survival came at a price — and yet how easily we take it for granted:

It’s ironic that we forget so often how wonderful life really is. We have more time than ever before to remember it. The men and women of generations past had to work long, long hours to support lots and lots of children in tiny, tiny houses. The women worked in factories and sweatshops and then at home, too, with two bosses, the one who paid them, and the one they were married to, who didn’t. . . . Our jobs take too much out of us and don’t pay enough.

She continues:

Life is made up of moments, small pieces of glittering mica in a long stretch of gray cement. It would be wonderful if they came to us unsummoned, but particularly in lives as busy as the ones most of us lead now, that won’t happen. We have to teach ourselves how to make room for them, to love them, and to live, really live.

[…]

This is not a dress rehearsal, and that today is the only guarantee you get.

How, then, are we to fully inhabit the miracle of our existence, that cosmic accident by the grace of which we ended up alive, here, now? Quindlen offers a gateway to presence:

Consider the lilies of the field. Look at the fuzz on a baby’s ear. Read in the backyard with the sun on your face. Learn to be happy. And think of life as a terminal illness, because, if you do, you will live it with joy and passion, as it ought to be lived.

A Short Guide to a Happy Life is the kind of read that stays with you for a long time, the sort you revisit again and again when the ground beneath your feet shakes and you reach for a reminder of the solid center. Complement it with more fantastic commencement addresses by Bill Watterson, Joss Whedon, Oprah Winfrey, Ellen DeGeneres, Jacqueline Novogratz, Aaron Sorkin, Barack Obama, Ray Bradbury, J. K. Rowling, Steve Jobs, Robert Krulwich, Meryl Streep, and Jeff Bezos

Brain Pickings has a free weekly newsletter. It comes out on Sundays and offers the week’s best articles. Here’s what to expect. Like? Sign up.

Brain Pickings takes 450+ hours a month to curate and edit across the different platforms, and remains banner-free. If it brings you any joy and inspiration, please consider a modest donation – it lets me know I'm doing something right.

Two gorgeous Chinese red pandas happily play with one another in the snow at The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden. According to Thane Maynard, the Zoo’s Executive Director, red pandas absolutely thrive in cold weather.

Now winter time at the Cincinnati Zoo, conjures up ideas like polar bears or penguins, but we have all sorts of animals who love cold weather, including the Chinese red panda. Now red pandas look like big red raccoons, but they are actually cousins of the giant panda. They come from the some of same bamboo forests, in fact bamboo is a large part of their diet. They are arboreal, nocturnal and they are extremely good in the cold weather.

images via The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden

via Daily Mail

These awesome DIYs will make you glad that you lugged that 80 pound bag of concrete mix home. If you make all of them, it comes out to less than $2 per project.

A quick rundown of which concrete mix best suits your needs:

QUIKRETE® Concrete Mix in the yellow bag is a cheap versatile concrete mix that works well for these projects. The big advantage – other than price – is that it's easier to find in smaller 40 and 60 lbs bags, which are easier to carry. If you're making small, intricate pieces, you can strain out the large pieces of gravel.

homedepot.com / Via homedepot.com

QUIKRETE® 5000 Concrete Mix is a commercial grade blend of stone or gravel, sand and cement and is specially designed for higher early strength. This is the recommended concrete mix to use because of the high early strength and low price. It's great for making tables, pavers, stools, and lamps and is typically found in 80 lbs bags at Home Depot, but 60lb bags are also available.

homedepot.com / Via homedepot.com

QUIKRETE® Countertop Mix is a super, high performance mix that is worth the price. It has no large pieces of gravel or aggregate, which makes it great for small intricate pieces such as lamps and vases. It's easy to work with and comes in different colors. Most stores don’t carry it in-stock so call ahead to your local Home Depot to have it ordered for pick-up.

homedepot.com / Via homedepot.com

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From an email:

“This is a friendly reminder that the Rock ‘n’ Roll USA Marathon & CareFirst Rock ‘n’ Roll USA Half Marathon is coming up on Saturday, March 15, 2014.  Informational door hangers were distributed to residents, businesses and organizations along the route this last week and course signs have been placed on the designated course streets.

Visit our website to view an interactive course map and download PDF versions of the course map and road closure times.  If you are affiliated with a community group or business along the route, please share this information with your members and/or employees.“

This adorable snail tea cosy, made of yarn and a pair pipe cleaners, was designed by Anke Klempner. The pattern is available for purchase.

photos by Anke Klempner

via craftually eclectic, MAKE

"The situation is so dire that it caused me, a lazy, self-involved, generally self-medicated man-child to start an entire charity organization," Rogen said in a testimony on the economics and current state of research of Alzheimer's disease treatment and prevention. [ more › ]

Creatives and mental issues, like anxiety or depression, have been famously paired together for centuries. Gila Lyons explains in The Millions:

[Sigmund] Freud posited that artistic creativity is a product of neurosis; Marcel Proust claimed that, “everything great in the world is created by neurotics;” and Seneca quoted Aristotle as having said, “No great genius was without a mixture of insanity.”

It can be an (often terrifying) catch-22; do you need to be a little “mad” in order to be a great artist, and if you lose that madness, do you lose any of your creative spark? It’s an issue Lyons herself was dealing with when she started suffering intense anxiety and depression that was crippling her life, but (in the final year of her MFA) she was also terrified of losing her artistic edge.

I had heard of many artists who had gone mad or suffered from horrible depression, and took the popular prescription of the day, never to write or create again. Their troubling symptoms had been muted, but so had everything else, their thoughts, perceptions, libidos, and ability to access deep feelings. They reported feeling emotionally void, deadened, seeing life as if through a veil. 

In the end, Lyons decided to take the medication and get help. While she admits to a muting of the overwhelming need to create or sensory overloads, she also raises the question of if creating from a place like that is really any better or more productive than from a place of well-being.

I wouldn’t trade the happiness, the sense of balance, the self-reliance, or the improved relationships I’ve gained from medicine for writing. And perhaps I don’t have to decide between mental health and creativity. It seems that, whether mad or not, people are driven to create in order to understand something about themselves, the world, or their experiences and perceptions… It’s possible that the medicines I take could help me travel a clearer and more direct path to that place…

Read the rest of the article here.

Note: Depression is not something to be taken lightly. If you or someone you know needs help, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.

Hello Illustration Friday community!

We caught up with Rebecca Guay this week and she has tons of gems to share in her interview below. Rebecca is a hugely successful illustrator, fine artist and educator. She has done more Magic cards than anyone on the planet (pretty sure), multiple books and graphic novels, held her own gallery shows, and founded both the Illustration Master Class and Smart School. She is also one of the nicest most kind-hearted people I have ever met. I am very excited to share this interview because Rebecca has helped me immensely with my own career, and I think her words below will be useful to many of you.

Rebecca also just launched a Kickstarter for her Very Fancy art book, Evolution: the Art of Rebecca Guay. The book contains everything from her Magic card work to illustration to fine art. The books will be beautifully bound with red or gold dyed page edges. It is already funded, so buy with confidence.

And now, Rebecca Guay!

 

 

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Hi! Thanks for joining us on Illustration Friday, where we sketch to new words/topics every week. We like to draw on Fridays.

1. What do you do to keep up your chops when not working on client work?

This is a challenge for everyone! Most people don’t even consider that it is actually really really emotionally hard to sit down and work sometimes – and that more often than not you just have to put your butt in the chair and DO. I’ve often mentioned that quote by Picasso (I think!) “there’s such a thing as inspiration but it must find you working”  that could not be more true!!

Sometimes i just sit down with a book on tape and start – sometimes I set artificial deadlines – whatever it takes to get me working. Sometimes I take a week off too!!

2. Why did you become an illustrator? Why art, why not fine art, why not a designer?

I thought I would major in painting at Pratt but found out really quickly that in the late 80s the only teachers TEACHING  anyone how to paint something figurative or narrative in any way were the illustration professors! So I went into the COMD dept and majored in illustration. I know that the lines are ( gratifyingly) much more blurry across the genres now- illustrations and gallery- but they weren’t then. If you wanted to paint ANY kind of narrative or figures in any way at all with some real serious skill- it was only the illustration programs that seemed to produce the solid foundations. I have loved doing illustration over the last 21 years- adored so much- and I am equally adoring where artists can go within the gallery world – its an intoxicating time to create work.

I never ever wanted to be a designer- so that was never in question- My mom was one for the Boston Globe and she adored it- but I knew early it wouldn’t be for me. My helpless dramatic heart needed an outlet in paint.

3. How did you find your first client, or how did they find you?

My first real client fount me in an industry paper that used to get sent to publishers- I was a senior at Pratt and was chosen to have a small feature as an “up and comer”. Ron McCutchan from Cricket Magazine called and I did my first peace for cricket in 1992.

4. What were the biggest mistakes you made early in your career? What did you learn?

Even though I started to work pretty quickly and went fully freelance within 8 months of graduating I still regret that I did not have the social confidence to talk more and get to know my illustration community. Even when I was going to big parties when I was a penciller for DC comics -I wish I had spoken more – asked more questions of the great artists I was meeting. I was so nervous when I was introduced to Frank Miller at a DC party they I spilled a drink on his shoe and blurted an apology and ran away. So many missed opportunities! I was at small parties with everyone you could think of: Chris Claremont, Dave McKean, Neil Gaiman, so many others- I could have easily had more than one valuable chat with any of them MORE than once! But I was truly painfully shy – I did not discover myself socially within my artistic community until I was about 35!

Be inquisitive, ask questions, let people get to know you, and be  truly INTERESTED in THEM.

Oh yeah- and don’t book yourself up so heavily when you start to get busy that the work suffers. We ALL seem to do ihat early on– but try not to.

5. What advice would you give to up-and-coming illustrators who want to break in?

First- be really serious about where you need to beef up your portfolio and skills – do GREAT work. Go to all the industry shows all the events where you can meet people face to face, set up table give out cards sell prints at these shows, and go hang out after with the other artists. Always remain strong with your traditional paint skills – don’t  go all digital – it is cutting yourself off from a major source of income if you can’t sell paintings.

Get back to people promptly and very briefly. Beware of an email to an AD or editor that is longer than a well done paragraph.

The time to fix the problems with your portfolio is before you hand it to someone for their opinion – don’t apologize for failings that you know are in it while the AD is looking at it – if there are problems that you know are there then then fix them – apologizing for your portfolio in the moment is a baaad thing.

Be open to constructive critique.

Be fierce, friendly, sincere, KIND, do not trash people (dish a little maybe- but don’t trash anyone!!) and be diligent diligent diligent.

 

Rebecca’s Kickstarter book cover. There is still time to get your copy.

“Tiger Tiger”

Click here for PART ONE

I apologise this episode took so long – I really hate only updating once a fortnight. Besides the comic being quite detailed which took longer than an average Zen Pencils piece to complete – I’ve got a few other things happening which kind of threw a spanner in the works. Damn life – getting in the way of me sitting in my room drawing all day! I hope part three won’t take so long to be completed, but I can’t make any promises. Thanks for your patience.

As for the comic itself, I’ve had a lot of um … interesting feedback from part one. Appreciate all the constructive comments.

Lisa T. McElroy is a law professor who's spending a year at the University of Denver with her two kids, one in high school and one in middle school. She learned that she could opt her kids out of the standardized tests the school administered. So she did. What followed was a total educational freakout, as the principal, vice-principal and administration alternately cajoled and guilted her over her kids' non-participation in pedagogically suspect, meaningless, destructive high-stakes testing.

McElroy's story is a snapshot of an educational system in the process of implosion, driven by the ridiculous idea that schools are factories whose product is educated kids, and whose employees must be made "accountable" by measuring anything we can put a number on -- attendance and test-scores -- at the expense of actual educational outcomes.

Despite the fact that the best-performing educational systems in the world don't treat teachers as assembly line workers and kids as standardized injection molds to be squirted full of learning, the west continues to pursue this approach, scapegoating teachers' unions and pitting parents against them when the real enemy is the doomed idea that schools are a specialized kind of industrial plant -- and the project of selling off public schools to privatized educational corporations that collect public funds to educate kids, but only to the extent that this can be done without undermining their shareholders' interests.

When I answered that I very much appreciated her call but was going to stick by my decision, she offered several reasons why my daughter should take the test. First, taking TCAP (Transitional Colorado Assessment Program, the relatively new set of state standardized tests) would help my daughter on the ACT. Huh. Given that she’s only in seventh grade, I wasn’t buying that one. The principal then said that the test would show us how our daughter was doing academically. But we get a report card every six weeks, and we can follow her progress in real time through an online school portal that lists her grade on every assignment, so we’re all set in that regard. One more try. The test results, she said, reward teachers by showing them that they are doing a good job. My reaction: And seeing their students’ progress doesn’t?

But when the lawyer in me started pushing back, pointing out to the principal that none of her arguments was especially convincing, I got nowhere. Including off the phone. The principal kept going on. And on. And on. My daughter really should take it. She was the only child in the entire school who was opting out. She might feel weird, being different from all the other kids.

I Opted My Kids Out of Standardized Tests [Lisa T. McElroy/Slate]

(via Hacker News)

Furniture megaretailer Ikea just screwed up a product relaunch. Its legendary LP-sized Expedit bookshelves got a blink-and-you'll-miss-it redesign and a new name, Kallax. But somewhere between the slightly blander, money-saving look (the new version loses some of the outside "bezel"), the tiresome rebranding, and that unfortunate word "discontinue", all hell broke loose. Fast Co Design offers some suggestions on how to repackage a product without meeting fury.

I mean, if it's trying to save money (or the trees), can't IKEA just stuff the Expedit shelf bezel with horse meat?

In the short film The Poodle Trainer, director Vince Malone tells the story of Irina Markova, a talented Russian performer who has found comfort and acceptance in the world of the animals she trains.

In this intimate portrait of destiny, passion, and loss, Irina Markova, a solitary Russian poodle trainer, reveals her transcendent relationship with her dogs, the childhood tragedy that sparked a lifetime of working with animals, and the welcome isolation behind the red velvet curtains of the circus.

via Vimeo Staff Picks

Spillover, by David Quammen, is one of the best books I've read recently — all about how diseases make the jump from animals to people. Now, it's going to be a six-part TV special on (of all places) The Weather Channel.

Klemens Torggler , an Austrian artist, has created these splendid doors.

The Evolution Door is made up of four panels.

Via youtube.com

It's extremely soothing to watch.

Via youtube.com

Here's a variation on the system with rods and only two panels.

Via youtube.com

Mmm. So soothing.

youtube.com

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“A Game of Thrones” by Marc Simonetti

Winter is Coming is an upcoming group art show being hosted by author George R.R. Martin at Ltd. Art Gallery in Seattle. It will feature a collection of original artwork inspired by George’s epic series of fantasy novels, A Song of Ice and Fire. The art show will open on Saturday, March 1st, 2014 from 6 – 10 PM PST and run through Sunday, March 23rd. You can RSVP for the event online via Facebook.

An unparalleled collection of today’s top fantasy and pop artists will draw inspiration from the many characters and locations of this groundbreaking historical fantasy series to create truly unique original and limited edition artwork.

Here is a list of the featured artists:

Aaron Jasinski, Alexander Laccarino, AMOK, Augie Pagan, Barry Blankenship, Braden Duncan, Brian Ewing, Brian Rood, Bruce Yan, Camilla d’Errico, Carl Faulkner, Carolina Eade, Cody Vrosh, Conor Nolan, Craig Drake, Cris Griffin, David Kloc, Donato Giancola, Emiliz Tolibas, Guillame Morellec, Jae Drummond, Jarreau Wimberly, Jason Engle, Jen Zee, Jim Burns, Jonathan Bergeron, Jonathan Seright, Kali Ciesemier, Katie Wheeler, Lannie Pihajlic, Levi Hastings, Maj Askew, Marc Simonetti, Marco Cardonna, Mark Englert, Mark Evans, Marc Fishman, Meghan Stratman, Mick Minougue, Mike Moses, Nan Lawson, Nicolas Delort, Paul Ainsworth, Rhodora Jacob, Rich Werner, Ruel Pascual, Sam Bosma, Sam Wood, Sam Ho, Scott Campbell, Sean Closson, Siolo Thompson, Stacey Aoyama, and Primary Hughes.

“The King of Summers End” by Jason Engle

“Dragonstone” by Marco Cardonna

“The Path of Faith” by Nicholas Delort

“Daughter of the Kraken” by Cody Vrosh

“Taking the Black” by Mike Moses

images via io9 and credited artists

via io9

The anti-valentine printables are now on Etsy here. They are instantly downloadable files!
I also made a few little things to show you what else you can do with the Valentines. I like to print mine out on iron on paper, and I made a few dishtowels, made the images smaller and made some Valentine pin-backs, and goodie bags. You could also make a felt garland you could use year after year with the same technique. I hope the ideas inspire you!

More than 40 elementary school kids had their lunches taken away because they owed money on their meal accounts.

Uintah School District / Via Facebook: media

As many as 40 children at Uintah Elementary in Salt Lake City had their lunches seized and thrown away on Tuesday because their parents had fallen behind on payments.

"It was pretty traumatic and humiliating," said Erika Lukes, the mother of an 11-year-old whose lunch was taken away. Lukes told the Salt Lake City Tribune that as far as she knew, she was up-to-date with her payments. "I think it's despicable. These are young children that shouldn't be punished or humiliated for something the parents obviously need to clear up."

The large number of students with zero or negative balances at Uintah Elementary prompted the Salt Lake City school district to send a child nutrition manager to the school on Monday to resolve the issue. According to a statement on the district's website, school officials spent Monday calling parents to let them know that their children owed money for lunches. On Tuesday, although calls to parents continued, the district nutrition manager decided to withhold lunches from students who didn't have enough money in their accounts. "Unfortunately, children are served lunch before they get to the computer for payment" and students with a negative balance were forced to hand over their trays and watch as they were thrown away (district policy dictates that once food is served to one student, it cannot be served to another). Instead of Tuesday's meal of chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, and corn bread, the students whose accounts were in debt were given milk and a piece of fruit.

Fifth-grader Sophia Isom told KSL TV that the nutrition manager was checking each student's account as they went through the lunch line. "She took my lunch away and said, 'Go get a milk,' " Sophia said. "I came back and asked, 'What's going on?' Then she handed me an orange. She said, 'You don't have any money in your account so you can't get lunch.'" According to the Uintah school district website, elementary school lunches cost $1.90 per meal and parents are able to make payments towards their children's accounts online.

Salt Lake City's school district apologized to parents and students on Wednesday. "We understand the feelings of upset parents and students who say this was an embarrassing and humiliating situation. We again apologize and commit to working with parents in rectifying this situation and to ensuring students are never treated in this manner again." Since so many parents were surprised to learn they owed money to the school, the district says they plan to re-evaluate the way parents and students are informed about their account balances as the current practice of notes sent home and stamps on hands appears not to be working.

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The prognosis is guarded. [ more › ]

I’ve been wanting to do a real Dalai Lama quote ever since I discovered that my previous attempt was misattributed. This quote is taken from the Dalai Lama’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in 1989.

Normally when creating a comic, I start with a quote and work out a story from there. On the rare occasion, I’ve got the whole story figured out and then find a quote that suits it. This comic is one of those, where the story came to me while I was on holiday in Myanmar. The scenery and attractions I came across (along with all the Buddhist monks that walk the streets) sparked an idea for a story featuring my lil’ Shaolin Monk character. I plotted and storyboarded the whole comic before searching for a suitable Dalai Lama quote to match what I had drawn. The quote was perfect, as it not only matched the story, it was exactly what I was experiencing while traveling and meeting so many new people – we really are all the same under the surface.

You can see my previous Shaolin Monk comics here: Always Be Prepared. The Brick Walls. Sympathy For The Devil.

“Mom, can Tommy come over?” Oh god. Tommy.

The Garbage Disposal

They eat you out of house and home, then complain to their parents that you never fed them.

Warner Bros. / Via slantmagazine.com

The Overachiever

They're so high strung and future-focused that you wish they'd skip a class or two and hang out with the burnouts in the parking lot.

MTV Films / Via hollywood.com

The Insomniac

They keep you awake all night when sleeping over by running around every inch of your home.

20th Century Fox / Via perezhilton.com

The Kiss Ass

They think they've got you wrapped around their little finger but you can see right through them.

MCA Television / Via sitcomsonline.com

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Brené Brown is a professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work. She has dedicated her life to social work and studies vulnerability, courage, worthiness and shame.

Her fantastic 2010 TEDxHouston talk, The Power of Vulnerabilty, is one of the most popular TED talks with over 12 million views and led to Brown giving the final speech at a 2012 TED conference. That speech, Listening to Shame, is where the above quotes are taken from. Turns out Brown and I both love the same Teddy Roosevelt Man in the Arena quote. It’s literally the second quote I ever adapted into a comic (although it was posted as number 8) and remains one of my favourite quotes. In her speech, Brown tells of how that quote helped her during a difficult time amidst her own failures and setbacks (around the 12min mark). The fact that she references a quote I’ve already adapted in her own inspirational quote gave me the chance to get meta again and give a nod to my long-time readers who would recognise the first part of the comic.

RELATED COMICS: The Man in the Arena, Nature Loves Courage, The Fig Tree, Ultimate Self-Help Book.

- Brené Brown’s official website.
- Thanks to Mike, Saquib and Cynthia for sending me the TED talks.

777 6th Street, NW

From a press release:

“Flight, a wine bar owned and operated by husband and wife team, Swati Bose and Kabir Amir, will open at 777 6th Street, NW, Washington, DC on January 18, 2014. Bose, general manager and beverage director, together with Amir, has selected an approachable wine list featuring over 70 selections with 30 by the glass options. The extensive list of wines offers familiar varietals from boutique producers as well as labels from lesser-known regions around the world. The 60-seat wine bar will also serve shareable plates influenced by Executive Chef Bradley Curtis’ New England upbringing and love for Mediterranean flavors. Edit Lab at Streetsense, designers of Daikaya and Red Hen, among others, designed the space.

Flight’s wine list, organized by body and style versus region, offers mini tastes at 2.5 oz. pours, 5 ounce full-glass pours and by the bottle offerings. A restaurant-grade Coravin wine system allows for guests to taste more expensive bottles by the glass. While familiar wine regions are well-represented on the list, Bose and Amir have personally selected varietals from up and coming areas with long traditions of winemaking, like Greece, Hungary, Lebanon, Serbia, Slovenia and Virginia, to name a few. Tasting notes accompany each selection, along with interesting facts about the wine, varietal, winemaker or region.

A rotating flight of the week, priced at $18, will offer three tastes of a specific region, style or varietal of wine. The opening flight will feature a red, white and sparkling wine from the Jura region in France. A Moschito, made with crushed mint leaves and grappa, will be the first rendition of a weekly wine cocktail, which will be available for $9. Additional beverage options include domestic and international craft beers, aperitifs, digestifs, cider and spirits. Harney & Sons tea, La Colombe Coffee, and sodas from Q and Belvoir Fruit Farms are available under the ‘zero proof’ section of the menu. Happy hour at Flight will soon be offered Monday through Friday from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m., and on the weekends from 10:00 p.m. to close.

Executive Chef Bradley Curtis, formerly of DGS Delicatessen, Zaytinya and Graffiato has designed a menu of wine-friendly dishes. Highlights from Curtis’ opening menu include dishes like Lobster Bisque ($14) with Maine lobster, kombu, rockweed and spiked with sake; a “Fish” and Chip Basket ($11) with anchovies, fried clams, arbol chile tartar sauce and fermented potatoes, similar in taste to a salt and vinegar potato chip, and Beef with Moxie ($10) Moxie-braised short rib, with prunes, carrots and white pearl onions. Moxie is a gentian-based bitter soda popular in New England, which Curtis has shipped in from Maine.

Vegetarian options are varied and include Squash Dolmades with pepitas, raisins and orange yogurt; Stuffed Acorn Squash with white beans, swiss chard, roasted cherry tomatoes, cotija, and chili-lime dressing; Kale Salad with raw and blanched kale, pickled cranberries, Idiazibal, and bacon candied pecans. Desserts feature a dish inspired by a 100-year old recipe from Curtis’ grandmother, Tomato Soup Cake, made with a spicy rum raisin compote, toasted pecans and cream cheese frosting.

Low hanging clay lights, light ash wood accents, and a curving bar featuring backlit wine shelves create an intimate ambience reminiscent of a European neighborhood bar. The warm materials among the space reflect the winemaking process, from the clay of soils to the glass of bottles to the corks.

Flight is committed to sustainability and will use bio-based products, a grease filtration company, composting, and excess food donations at the end of service. In keeping with the theme of wine and sustainability, the flooring is made of cork, ensuring minimal heat loss and insulation. Flight is also an official cork recycling drop-off site for ReCork by Amorim. All wine corks will be recycled into shoes, flooring tiles, building insulation or automotive gaskets, instead of a landfill.”

A look at the menus:

Flight Food Menu (PDF)

Flight Wine & Beer Menu (PFF)

More photos after the jump.

6th Street looking north to H Street

Actor and comedian Zach Galifianakis will star in the pilot episode of an upcoming FX comedy show from Louie C.K. This is C.K.’s first project of the multi-series deal that his production company, Pig Newton, struck with FX Networks. According to The Hollywood Reporter, C.K. will co-write the project and executive produce alongside Galifianakis, Blair Breard, Dave Becky, Andrea Pett-Joseph, and Marc Gurvitz.

photo by Neil P. Mockford/Getty Images

via The Hollywood Reporter

3D Systems and the recently-acquired Sugar Lab have created a line of 3D printers that can print delicious sugar candies in a variety of geometric shapes and colors. The less expensive ChefJet can print different flavors in black and white, while the ChefJet Pro can print complex, multicolored patterns. The printers are expected to go on sale later in 2014, but colorful sour apple candies can already be purchased online at Cubify.

images via Cubify

via designboom

The MakerBot Digital Store is selling digital blueprints for 3D printing your own toys using the MakerBot Replicator 2 and the recently announced fifth generation MakerBot Replicator printers. So far Makerbot is selling six collections of figures: Chunky Trucks, Cosmic Cadets, Around Town, Dragons of Glastonbury, Famous Flyers, Pet Pals.

images via MakerBot

via Super Punch

If 19-year-old Jason Brown’s performance at the 2014 U.S. National Championships doesn’t get you pumped for the Olympics, nothing will.

There's a lot more where that came from, and it all involves Rivderdance-type music and a sparkly sequined green shirt. Watch here:

NBC

youtube.com / Via vardaesque.tumblr.com

Etsy seller Wearableplanter has a wide range of 3D printed planters: rings, jewelry -- even bicycle vases! They're intended for use with succulents, small flowers, and sprouts. They're watertight and translucent, and you can see the roots through the material.

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A Wearable Planter (via Wil Wheaton)

I learned resistor color code values as a kid by memorizing a racist mnemonic that a friend taught me. Today, there's a much better way. It's an app called Mho's Resistance, and it was created by our friends at Adafruit Industries!

WARNING! This game will teaches USEFUL SKILLS! Learn resistor values and have fun at the same time!

Complete real circuits & unlock a working electronic instrument - Mho's Resistance makes resistor color codes fun! Mho is a resistor who needs your help. Set Mho's color bands to the correct values in order to complete each circuit. But be careful, incorrect values will unleash the Blue Smoke Monster - not good!

Or - go head to head with a friend in Versus mode to see who can complete the most values before time runs out!

- Battle against time & complete circuits in Quest Mode

- 2-player Versus Mode over Bluetooth

- Sharpen your skills in Practice Mode w/ value labels & no time limit

- Groove to an all analog-synth soundtrack

- Learn a useful skill while playing a game!

Mho's Resistance iOS app: 99 cents

To celebrate the return of Sherlock series three, Leigh Lahav has created a funny video titled “Sherlock Spoils Everything” in which Sherlock and John catch up on all the TV they missed while he was supposedly dead. Of course, Sherlock spoils the season finales of Breaking Bad, Mad Men, and Gossip Girl long before they happen.

submitted via Laughing Squid Tips

When Canadian flute virtuoso Boujemaa Razgui flew to JFK en route to Boston, his 13 handmade flutes, made from rare reeds, did not arrive with him. They had been mistaken for bamboo by a US customs inspector who opened Razgui's luggage in transit, removed the instruments, and destroyed them. Razgui's been told to write a letter to the Department of Agriculture in DC if he has any further queries. (via Naked Capitalism)