Boyhood.

Tue, 8 Dec 2009
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Sounds familiar, though it is a story that is not entirely of my telling.

The rule is that when you have been absent from school, you have to bring a letter of excuse. He knows his mother’s standard letter by heart: “Please excuse John’s absence yesterday. He was suffering from a bad cold, and I thought it advisable for him to stay in bed. Yours faithfully.” He hands in these letters, which his mother writes as lies and which are read as lies, with an apprehensive heart.

When at the end of the year he counts the days he has missed, they come to almost one in three. Yet he still comes first in class. The conclusion he draws is that what goes on in the classroom is of no importance. He can always catch up at home. If he had his way, he would stay away from school all year, making an appearance only to write the examinations.

Nothing his teachers say is not already written in the textbook. He does not look down on them for that, nor do the other boys. In fact, he does not like it when, now and then, a teacher’s ignorance is exposed.

— Boyhood by J.M. Coetzee, pp. 107 – 108.

Stuff you must read today (Mon, 30 Nov 2009)

Mon, 30 Nov 2009
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  • How To Succeed Through Motivational Fear & Hunger

    • Slightly cliched, but I think we need to read these kind of stories once in a while.

  • The Church (not the Bible) discriminates against gays, says pastor

    • “The story of Sodom now linguistically linked to sodomy was an issue of inhospitality to visiting strangers. It is never an account about same-sex relations. It was as defined in Ezekial 16:47-50 as pride, gluttony, and prosperous ease and refusal to aid the poor and needy. Sodom is a symbol of God’s judgment rather than same-sex relations.”

  • The Bad Management Stimulus

    • “…bad management pushes a lot of capable people out of their day jobs, and those people go on to become entrepreneurs.

    …leaving a boss who is Satan’s learning-challenged little brother is relatively easy. And if the general economy isn’t serving up wonderful job opportunities at other companies (thanks in part to bad management) then you can see why people gravitate toward starting their own companies.”

  • Try to convey more in stage directions than is physically possible

    • “ENTER ALAN, WHO HAS JUST UNDERGONE A PROFOUNDLY MOVING RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE, CAUSING HIM TO SEE THE NATURE OF THE UNIVERSE UNFILTERED BY EMOTION OR DESIRE.”

  • Fri, 5 Jun 2009: Shallow dent, deep impression

    • “The dent was so tiny it was practically invisible if you did not know where to look. It was only about half an inch in length and was so shallow you had to put your finger there to feel the unevenness. It was difficult to see not only because of its size, but also because the car was covered with advertisement stickers that masked it.

    “And you want to charge me $100 for this?” I turned to him and asked.

    “Standard procedure,” he answered, looking at his sheet.”

  • For Indians Trained in the West, It Can Be Hard to Go Home

    • “India is “sitting on a huge opportunity” to create new businesses and tap into thousands of science and technology experts, Mr. Ayyadurai said, but a “feudal culture” is holding the country back.”