A powerful letter from a rap victim:
He is a lifetime sex registrant. That doesn’t expire. Just like what he did to me doesn’t expire, doesn’t just go away after a set number of years. It stays with me, it’s part of my identity, it has forever changed the way I carry myself, the way I live the rest of my life.
Just heartbreaking.
Elizabeth Warren advises students to “get ready” in her commencement address at Suffolk University. She also took a stab at Donald Trump. The seven-minute speech is worth-watching.
In “‘The Artist’s Way’ in an Age of Self-Promotion,” Carrie Battan points out Julia Cameron’s advice for staying creative:
At the core of the process is a ritual called “morning pages,” based on the belief that writing out three pages of free-form writing, in longhand, each morning, will unclog one’s mental and emotional channels of all the muck that gets in the way of being happy, productive, and creative. Simple enough.
I am definitely looking to read Cameron’s The Artist’s Way.
In “A Writer’s Justification,” Adam Ehrlich Sachs wrote a really long sentence:
Even if he succeeded in lining up all of his sentences on the right-hand margin of Word, he would then send the manuscript off to an agent who, with a single minor edit on page 1, would throw all of his painstaking formatting out of whack, unwittingly eliminating, with a well-intended keystroke, years of labor; and even if she edited nothing, his editor would probably edit something, and destroy everything; and even if his editor edited nothing, his copy editor would change a “1” to a “one,” and thereby destroy everything; and even if his copy editor destroyed nothing, the manuscript would then be typeset properly, his sentences would be lined up by a professional using the appropriate technology, by no means Microsoft Word, and his flush sentences would be jettisoned for the typesetter’s even flusher ones; and even if none of that happened, if his book were never properly typeset, if it were never copy edited, if it were never edited, even if he never found an agent, even if he self-published his book, simply uploaded his Word document to the Internet—even then no one would notice his meticulously, madly flush right-hand margin, since even he, while reading, paid almost no attention to the right-hand margin, ragged or justified, he paid almost no attention to it at all, a ragged right-hand margin never bothered him as a reader whatsoever, even though as a writer it was a scene of the most acute, unrelenting psychological drama.
Just brilliant.
Một bài nhạc mới mang âm hưởng Huế của nhạc sĩ Võ Tá Hân phổ thơ của Cao Nguyên. Nhạc phẩm được Diệu Hiền trình bài đẹp và thơ mộng. Mời nghe.
Our Fios Internet has been slowed and dropped constantly the past few months. I was hoping the router would fix itself so I don’t have to call Verizon’s customer service, but the problem has not been fixed and my wife kept pressing me to call so I did yesterday. I dialed 1-800-837-4966 and managed to get a representative after selecting some options. After taking down my account information and the issue, she transferred me to tech support. Again, after taking down my information and issue, anther representative transferred to Fios department. Again, after taking down my information and issue, anther representative transferred to Fios tech support. Then the Fios tech support transferred me back to the the same original options I first got when I dialed the 1-800 number. Wasting 45 minutes, I was led to nowhere and all I simply wanted was a new router.
The gout seems to subside today. I popped 4 pills of Tylenol yesterday, ate some steamed mung bean, and drank lots of water. Today a reader sent me a remedy for gout by mixing Apple Cider Vinegar with Tart Cherry Juice. He said it worked for him so I’ll definitely give it a try tonight even though it sounds pretty sour. I might mix it with some whiskey to help with the flavor. Just kidding.
Speaking of liquor, I still have unopened bottles of Hennessy Cognac XO, Patrón Silver Tequila, and Corralejo Blanco. What am I going to do with them?