Memories & Journals [Thread]

This gentleman (I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt!) kept a journal from May 1965 to Sep 1966. He shares what it means to keep a diary.. and the disconance between his memories & the entries in the diary:

the entries in journal and my memories didn’t much resemble each other, except in flashes and images–still frames with fuzzy edges. Dark stuff, with no context. I was unable to read it in one sitting, and even then I had to go back over certain areas a few times to make myself focus. I am no longer simply the kid who wrote those things, did those things. I am that person with years, layers of experience and judgement added to the mix. Something like looking into the mirror, but your image doesn’t behave the way you’d like it to behave. Anyhow, my memory needed to be tweaked, and I’m glad I did it.

My Year of LIving with Joy, Until I Say Goodbye [Inspiration]

Susan Spencer-Wendel lives in reality — she’s a veteran journalist for the Palm Beach Post. 
It doesn’t take her long to figure out she has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS): Lou Gehrig’s disease.
She’s married, with three young kids. She’s 44 years old. 
She has a year to live.And not a pleasant year. 
Muscles weaken. Walking becomes impossible. Then swallowing becomes a challenge. Then breathing. In the end, the patient finds herself locked in a non-functioning body, waiting to die. 
Her husband tells her story in this short video. And here’s an excerpt from her book, which, by the way, she typed entirely with her right thumb on her iPhone.

Bull crap special: Management/ Success/ Leadership [Article]

There’s a reason that Scott Adams’ Dilbert cartoons resonate with most people working in industry (or even otherwise). Scott’s latest missive on his blog calls the bluff on “charisma”, “success”, “leadership”, & “management”. In true Scott Adams’ style, he backs it up with his reasoning.

Consider the thousands of different books on management/success/leadership. If any of this were real science, all managers would learn the same half-dozen secrets to success and go on to great things. The reality of the business world is more like infinite monkeys with typewriters. Sooner or later a monkey with an ass pimple will type something that makes sense and every management expert in the world will attribute the success to the ass pimple.

Marilyn Monroe’s library [Article]

Open Culture has an interesting article about Marilyn Monroe’s personal library – it was quite contrary to the “dumb blonde” image that may have been projected to the world. Of course, it is entirely plausible that the books in her library were a show-case item, never read.  The list of books that were auctioned off after her death  by Christies is catalogued at Library Thing

Earworm: When you can’t get that song out of your head [Video/ Article]

This is an animation of a phenomenon we all know:  no matter how hard you try to shake it off, you can’t get that song out of your head. Psychologists call this “earworm”, referring to the songs that arrive without permission & leave when we tell them to.
The video above, called Jazz that nobody asked for, is created by a Danish design agency called Benny Box. The  music that taunts the main character is “Quaker City Jazz” (1937) by Jan Savitt & His Top Hatters Orchestra.