A. King in Society

Advice for the modern consumer

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 01:24:11 -0500

Advice for the modern consumer

"Even now, after centuries of reductionist propaganda, the world is still intricate and vast, as dark..."

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 18:09:37 -0500

“

Even now, after centuries of reductionist propaganda, the world is still intricate and vast, as dark as it is light, a place of mystery, where we cannot do one thing without doing many things, or put two things together without putting many things together. Water quality, for example, cannot be improved without improving farming and forestry, but farming and forestry cannot be improved without improving the education of consumers — and so on.

The proper business of a human economy is to make one whole thing of ourselves and this world.

”

- Wendell Berry, from In Distrust of Movements

It’s just one of those days.

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 14:38:14 -0500

It’s just one of those days.

Tomorrow's R&T post is...

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 17:36:00 -0500

Tomorrow's R&T post is...:

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"We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us something is valuable,..."

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 16:17:00 -0500

“We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us something is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch. Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit.”

- E.E. Cummings

"What is deceptive, especially in the West, is our assumption that repetitive and mindless jobs are..."

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 20:59:07 -0500

““What is deceptive, especially in the West, is our assumption that repetitive and mindless jobs are dehumanizing. On the other hand, the jobs that require us to use the abilities that are uniquely human, we assume to be humanizing. This is not necessarily true. The determining factor is not so much the nature of our jobs, but for whom they serve. ‘Burnout’ is a result of consuming yourself for something other than yourself. You could be burnt out for an abstract concept, ideal, or even nothing (predicament). You end up burning yourself as fuel for something or someone else. This is what feels dehumanizing. In repetitive physical jobs, you could burn out your body for something other than yourself. In creative jobs, you could burn out your soul. Either way, it would be dehumanizing. Completely mindless jobs and incessantly mindful jobs could both be harmful to us.””

- Dsyke Suematsu from his white paper discussed at Why Ad People Burn Out.

Bokononism

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 16:02:05 -0400

Bokononism

Old-growth forests

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 15:42:20 -0400

Old-growth forests

"He who works with his hands is a laborer. He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman...."

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 08:00:06 -0400

“He who works with his hands is a laborer.
He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman.
He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist.”

- St. Francis of Assisi

“Symmetry”

Sun, 09 Oct 2011 16:10:31 -0400

“Symmetry”

"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model..."

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 08:00:06 -0400

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”

- Richard Buckminster Fuller

Love the Rainy Day Industries identity design, and how it...

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 15:57:00 -0400

Love the Rainy Day Industries identity design, and how it manages to be simultaneously melancholy and cheerful, and both professional and lo-fi.

Thank you, Steve. For your unreasonable dedication to things...

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 19:25:00 -0400

Thank you, Steve.

For your unreasonable dedication to things being better.
For your commitment to unachievable visions.
For your flaws, and your failings, and your triumphs.

(Photo via langer)

Pat Dryburgh caught me attempting a (failed) knock-out of Mike...

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 17:12:00 -0400

Pat Dryburgh caught me attempting a (failed) knock-out of Mike Precious earlier this afternoon. Shameful? Yes. (Animated GIF, by the way. If you can’t see it, click through.)

burnlikefabulous:

A swing and a miss.

“Mondrian? I eat Mondrian for breakfast.”

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 16:42:20 -0400

“Mondrian? I eat Mondrian for breakfast.”

Many of you have probably seen this already, but it’s...

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 16:00:00 -0400

Many of you have probably seen this already, but it’s worth watching again (and again.) It seems my friend Pat Dryburgh (a great web designer, by the way) is still waiting and training and anticipating the arrival of Lion and Siracusa’s review of the same. Be steadfast, Pat — we’re right there with you.

P.S. I loved that Merlin Mann referred to Pat as “a sexy Zach Galifianakis” on Back to Work.

I close my eyes and think of all the things I don’t want....

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 23:15:22 -0400

I close my eyes and think of all the things I don’t want. And visualise them rolling by, vacuum cleaners, 3-D TVs, new phones and cars and hand bags, a neat house in the suburbs. I think of how unhappy these things wold make me and then I am free. If you don’t want these things they can never truly have you. Then I think of wood and I think of my bones as wood, something slow and put here a long time ago.

— Robert Montgomery (See the rest of his Billboard Series)

"Make every detail perfect. Limit the number of details."

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 10:00:05 -0400

“Make every detail perfect. Limit the number of details.”

- @Jack

The Flickr vs. Twitter World Atlas — “See something or say...

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 23:49:00 -0400

The Flickr vs. Twitter World Atlas — “See something or say something” by Eric Fischer. (Blue is Twitter, red is Flickr, white is both. Toronto pictured above. via)

"Everyone sits in the prison of his own ideas. A human being is a part of the whole called by us..."

Sun, 03 Jul 2011 19:10:00 -0400

“Everyone sits in the prison of his own ideas. A human being is a part of the whole called by us “Universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”

- Albert Einstein