April Favorites : Podcasts, books, quotes, and shtuff!

April was a great month for morning fires with my Campfire Buddy!

I turned 39! Thanks to those who reached out. It always means a lot.

Here are a few favorites from the month!

Podcast:

The Power of Regret, with Dan Pink.

“Regrets,” Scott Erickson writes in “Say Yes: Discovering the Surprising Life Beyond the Death of a Dream, “are defined as a sense of loss, a disappointment in some kind of action or lack of action. The reason regrets are so poignant is that they point to our deepest longings - the path of desire that has been put in us to walk, the path we stopped walking because of fear, disappointment, unworthiness, or brokenheartedness.”

This podcast unpackages a great deal of how regret shapes our lives and impacts our decisions.

And after his World Regret Survey (19,000 responses over 109 countries), Daniel Pink found that there are four core things people all over the world regret, over and over again:

1. Foundation Regrets: If only I’d done the work - small decisions made early that accumulated into bigger consequences later, such as spending too much and saving too little.

2. Boldness Regrets: If only I’d taken the chance on asking that person out, started that new business, spoke up instead of staying silent, and travelled more.

3. Moral Regrets: If only I’d done the right thing.

4. Connection Regrets: If only I’d reached out to old friends and families who have drifted apart over the years, because of a disagreement or strife, and nothing was done to repair them.

Quote:

“Just as fire blows out candles, good deeds for the benefit of others destroy a selfish life.”

Book:

One of my favorites from the month, from April 23rd, reads, “Every great thing is done in a quiet, humble, simple way; to plow the land, to build houses, to breed cattle, even to think - you cannot do such things when there are thunder and lightning around you. Great and true things are always simple and humble.”

I love that.

Shows:

Just started Under the Banner of Heaven. I read the book years ago and was nervous about the show. As of episode 1, it seems to be a pretty fantastic, albeit difficult watch.

Audio Book:

Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Family
”The book examines the history of the Sackler family, including the founding of Purdue Pharma, their role in the marketing of pharmaceuticals, and the family's central role in the opioid epidemic” (via).

Terrifying, gripping, and deeply concerning. How can humans do such a thing? And how can big pharma and government agencies allow them to?

Story:

This one came to my from my friend Kevin Manno and his podcast, First Thing. In it he references Tuskegee Airman Victor W. Butler - the last surviving airman from the infamous Red Tails - and that he is turning 100 on May 21st! And all all he wants for his birthday are cards. He has also promised to read them all!

So my staff and I and the entire school of Chief Joseph Elementary will be sending him some. And I just love it.

Kevin even gave me a little shout-out on the following episode and my daughter’s face, as she heard him say my name, was pretty great - thanks Kevin! Keep doing great things, old friend.

If you would like weekly emails of Friday Thoughts, occasional posts of things that inspire me, and other such things, PLEASE BE SURE TO SCROLL DOWN AND SUBSCRIBE - THANKS FOR READING!

#doGREATthings

Give. Relate. Explore. Analyze. Try.

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-n- Stuff : Favorite Podcasts : Favorite Books

Stephen King's stories exist in the same universe

I've never been a huge Stephen King fan - I've only read a small handful of his novels, but I am a huge fan of his memoir, On Writing. It might even be in my top five of all time . . . including all genres. 

Non the less, I admire him immensely. His skill, his approach and dedication to the craft, and his imagination are, in many ways, unmatched. This short video only hints at the complexity of his mind, and the vast universe he has been able to create.

For more on . . .

-N- Stuff  :  Stephen King  :  Maps of favorite fictional worlds

100 Great Works of Dystopian Fiction: Tales About A World Gone Wrong

We may or may not be living in a dystopian age, but we are certainly living in an age of dystopias.

Vulture has compiled a list of 100 Great Works of Dystopian Fiction. Within the list you’ll "find the classics — your Orwells, Huxleys, and Atwoods — but you’ll also find a rising crop of new entries into the dystopian canon, from younger authors with fresher concerns about what, precisely, could spell our doom. 

You’ll find literary fiction (like Lord of the Flies - one my all-time favorites), young-adult works, graphic novels, realist tomes, some books written long ago, and others published in just the last few years

Dystopian literature, as described by Jenny C. Mann, is “The creation of alternate societies through the negation of despised aspects of the real world, the use of social engineering to make people ‘good,’ the difficulty of distinguishing between the civilized and the barbarous, the use of frame stories that pretend as if the document you are reading ‘really happened,’ the confusion of reality/fiction and truth/lies, the purpose of technology in a perfect society, and the question of who counts as ‘human.’” These books are all part of the same wary family and, taken as a whole, they provide a look not just at the power of a literary mode, but what we fear we are capable of."

Apparently, we capable of some pretty terrifying shit.

For more on . . .

-N- Stuff  :  Other Recommended Books  :  Stories that hold the Thread

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John Steinbeck: Nobel Prize Speech

The following is an abbreviation of the speech, but you can find it's entirety here.

Literature was not promulgated by a pale and emasculated critical priesthood singing their litanies in empty churches - nor is it a game for the cloistered elect, the tinhorn mendicants of low calorie despair.

Literature is as old as speech. It grew out of human need for it, and it has not changed except to become more needed.

The skalds, the bards, the writers are not separate and exclusive. From the beginning, their functions, their duties, their responsibilities have been decreed by our species.

Humanity has been passing through a gray and desolate time of confusion. My great predecessor, William Faulkner, speaking here, referred to it as a tragedy of universal fear so long sustained that there were no longer problems of the spirit, so that only the human heart in conflict with itself seemed worth writing about.

Faulkner, more than most men, was aware of human strength as well as of human weakness. He knew that the understanding and the resolution of fear are a large part of the writer's reason for being . . .

Furthermore, the writer is delegated to declare and to celebrate man's proven capacity for greatness of heart and spirit - for gallantry in defeat - for courage, compassion and love. 

In the endless war against weakness and despair, these are the bright rally-flags of hope and of emulation.

I hold that a writer who does not passionately believe in the perfectibility of man, has no dedication nor any membership in literature . . .

With humanity's long proud history of standing firm against natural enemies, sometimes in the face of almost certain defeat and extinction, we would be cowardly and stupid to leave the field on the eve of our greatest potential victory . . .

The danger and the glory and the choice rest finally in man. The test of his perfectibility is at hand.

Having taken Godlike power, we must seek in ourselves for the responsibility and the wisdom we once prayed some deity might have.

Man himself has become our greatest hazard and our only hope.

So that today, St. John the apostle may well be paraphrased ...

In the end is the Word, and the Word is Man - and the Word is with Men.

- John Steinbeck

Art is an attempt to answer the question, "What is it all about," and Steinbeck's answer is, "Man himself has become our greatest hazard and our only hope." His works are a fleshing out.

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There was an (ahem) operations error and it didn't go through (sorry about that).

For more on . . .

-N- Stuff  :  On Writing :  On Living

Dr. Seuss' Stories - N - Stuff

Theodor Seuss Geisel's works include several of the most popular children's books of all time, selling over 600 million copies and being translated into more than 20 languages by the time of his death (via). He's perhaps one of the most recognized authors of all time. Here are a few, possible, unknowns of Mr. Theodor Geisel:

 

1. The pen name “Dr. Seuss” began as a way to escape punishment in college.

In 1925, in the midst of the Prohibition Era, Seuss and his friends were caught drinking gin in his Dartmouth dormitory dorm, Nel said. As punishment, Seuss was stripped of his editorship at the college’s humor magazine, Jack-O-Lantern. However, he continued to publish work under a variety of pseudonyms, including “T. Seuss.” Several other varying monikers, such as “Dr. Theophrastus Seuss,” appeared over the years, which he eventually shortened to “Dr. Seuss” as his go-to professional pen name.

In 1961, with his book “Ten Apples Up on Top!,” Seuss began collaborating with illustrators for books he wrote. For these, he used the pseudonym “Theo. LeSieg,” which is “Geisel” spelled backward. He also published one book, 1975’s “Because a Little Bug Went Ka-Choo!!”, under the pen name “Rosetta Stone.” And although there’s no known evidence to support the claim, Nel said that Seuss meant to save his real name for the Great American Novel that he would one day write.

Instead, Seuss debuted the Cat and the Grinch the same year in 1957, two of his most famous characters. The Cat and the Grinch were also facets of the man, Nel said. The rule-breaking, mischievous Cat spoke to the author’s sense of play, while the Grinch represented the cantankerous part of Seuss’ personality.

He had a vanity license plate that read, “GRINCH,” Nel said (via).

2. He joined the war effort.

Beginning in 1941, Seuss produced political cartoons for the left-wing newspaper PM in New York. In those pages, he criticized the U.S. policy of isolationism, urging the country to enter World War II. He also lambasted anti-Semitism and racism, although his depictions of Japanese people with exaggerated racial features proved problematic (via).

By 1942, Seuss was keen on joining the navy, but was instead asked to make war propaganda films with Oscar-winning director Frank Capra. Joined by P.D. Eastman of “Go, Dog. Go!” fame, Mel Blanc and Chuck Jones among others, Seuss co-created Private Snafu (“Situation Normal, All Fouled Up”), a cartoon dolt in a military uniform meant to teach new recruits how to be a good soldier.

The black-and-white cartoon series was also off-color — and a hit with soldiers.

“It’s so cold, it would freeze the nuts off a jeep,” one cartoon begins.

3. His all-time best-selling book was created on a bet.

Dr. Seuss’ editor Bennett Cerf bet him he couldn’t write a book using 50 or fewer words. The result is 1960’s “Green Eggs and Ham.” Although the Cat and the Grinch are among Seuss’ most iconic characters, the story of Sam-I-Am trying to convince an unknown character to eat green eggs and ham has sold more than eight million copies since publication, according to a 2011 Publishers Weekly list.

Can you craft a best-seller with these 50 words?

a, am, and, anywhere, are, be, boat, box, car, could, dark, do, eat, eggs, fox, goat, good, green, ham, here, house, I, if, in, let, like, may, me, mouse, not, on, or, rain, Sam, say, see, so, thank, that, the, them, there, they, train, tree, try, will, with, would, you

4. He battled Shakespeare

One of my favorite stories is Sneetches. Because it's timeless.

THE SNEETCHES

by Theodor Geisel (1961)

Now, the Star-Belly Sneetches Had bellies with stars.
The Plain-Belly Sneetches Had none upon thars.

Those stars weren't so big. They were really so small
You might think such a thing wouldn't matter at all.
But, because they had stars, all the Star-Belly Sneetches Would brag, "We're the best kind of Sneetch on the beaches." With their snoots in the air, they would sniff and they'd snort “We'll have nothing to do with the Plain-Belly sort!"

And whenever they met some, when they were out walking, They'd hike right on past them without even talking.

When the Star-Belly children went out to play ball, Could a Plain-Belly get in the game...? Not at all. You could only play if your bellies had stars
And the Plain-Belly children had none upon thars.

When the Star-Belly Sneetches had frankfurter roasts Or picnics or parties or marshmallow toasts,
They never invited the Plain-Belly Sneetches.
They left them out cold, in the dark of the beaches. They kept them away. Never let them come near. And that's how they treated them year after year.

Then ONE day, it seems...while the Plain-Belly Sneetches Were moping and doping alone on the beaches,
Just sitting there wishing their bellies had stars...
A stranger zipped up in the strangest of cars!

"My friends," he announced in a voice clear and keen,
"My name is Sylvester McMonkey McBean.
And I've heard of your troubles. I've heard you're unhappy. But I can fix that. I'm the Fix-it-Up Chappie.

I've come here to help you. I have what you need. And my prices are low. And I work at great speed. And my work is one hundred per cent guaranteed!"

Then, quickly, Sylvester McMonkey McBean
Put together a very peculiar machine.
And he said, "You want stars like a Star-Belly Sneetch...? My friends, you can have them for three dollars each!”

“Just pay me your money and hop right aboard!"
So they clambered inside. Then the big machine roared
And it clonked. And it bonked. And it jerked. And it berked And it bopped them about. But the thing really worked! When the Plain-Belly Sneetches popped out, they had stars! They actually did. They had stars upon thars!

Then they yelled at the ones who had stars from the start, "We're exactly like you! You can't tell us apart.
We're all just the same, now, you snooty old smarties! And now we can go to your frankfurter parties."

"Good grief!" groaned the ones who had stars at the first. "We're still the best Sneetches and they are the worst. But, now, how in the world will we know," they all frowned, "If which kind is what, or the other way round?"

Then up came McBean with a very sly wink
And he said, "Things are not quite as bad as you think. So you don't know who's who. That’s perfectly true. But come with me, friends. Do you know what I'll do? I'll make you, again, the best Sneetches on beaches And all it will cost you is ten dollars eaches.”

Belly stars are no longer in style," said McBean.
"What you need is a trip through my Star-Off machine.
This wondrous contraption will take off your stars
So you won't look like Sneetches who have them on thars." And that handy machine
Working very precisely
Removed all the stars from their tummies quite nicely.

Then, with snoots in the air, they paraded about
And they opened their beaks and they let out a shout, "We know who is who! Now there isn't a doubt.
The best kind of Sneetches are Sneetches without!"

Then, of course, those with stars all got frightfully mad. To be wearing a star now was frightfully bad.
Then, of course, old Sylvester McMonkey McBean Invited them into his Star-Off Machine.

Then, of course from then on, as you probably guess, Things really got into a horrible mess.

All the rest of that day, on those wild screaming beaches, The Fix-it-Up Chappie kept fixing up Sneetches.
Off again! On again!

In again! Out again!
Through the machines they raced round and about again, Changing their stars every minute or two.
They kept paying money. They kept running through
Until neither the Plain nor the Star-Bellies knew
Whether this one was that one...or that one was this one Or which one was what one...or what one was who.

Then, when every last cent
Of their money was spent,
The Fix-it-Up Chappie packed up And he went.

And he laughed as he drove
In his car up the beach,
"They never will learn.
No. You can't teach a Sneetch!"

But McBean was quite wrong. I'm quite happy to say The Sneetches got really quite smart on that day, The day they decided that Sneetches are Sneetches And no kind of Sneetch is the best on the beaches. That day, all the Sneetches forgot about stars

And whether they had one, or not, upon thars. The end. 

The Butter Battle Books is another of my favorites, and equally timely. 

Pixar is offering free classes!

In partnership with Khan Academy, Pixar is offering a number of free online lessons in making 3D animated movies and, perhaps most importantly (at least for me) . . .  storytelling!!!  The project is called Pixar in a Box. Here’s an introductory video:

There are lessons on rendering, shading, crowds, virtual cameras, and many other topics, but the most accessible for people of all ages/interests is probably the lessons on The Art of Storytelling, which were just posted earlier this week. Here’s the introductory video for that, featuring Pete Docter, director of Up and Inside Out (via).

The first round of classes include:

And I gotta say, I'm pretty friggen stoked.  Thank you Jeff Birdsong for sharing this brilliant link!

 For more on . . .

On Stories  :  On Writing  :  -N- Stuff

Possible reading lists for 2017

Around the world in 80 books - Take a trip around the globe with these books from the eighty most populated countries in the world. 

A well rounded 2017 - A list of 12 books on three different tracks: Modern Classics, YA Novels for Adults too, and Genre Sampler Pack.

18 Books to fuel your wanderlust - both fiction and nonfiction, these books will inspire you to get off the couch and travel! But don't forget to bring a good book. 

37 books with mind-blowing plot twists - if you're into that sort of thing.

10 best selling (e)books from 2016 - if your feeling left out.

18 short classics you can read in one sitting - including publisher's descriptions, these books are 200 pages or less.

Or the book challenge, either a 26-book version or 56-book version (it's not too late to start).

Maps of Favorite Fictional Worlds

For months and years, sometimes decades, we live in these worlds - in both books and movies. But sometimes, its hard to connect the dots, of where each place is located, of what it looks like as a whole. Here are some great interpretations of our favorite worlds.

J.R.R. Tolkein

The Hobbit (from The Awl)

This map of Frodo’s journey if he had Google Maps (from Buzzfeed).

Suzanne Collins

Hunger Games (from Livejournal)

The Capitol is in Denver.

D12 is Appalachia.

D11 shares a border with D12, is one of the largest districts, is South of D12, and is primarily used for growing grain and produce.

D10 is primarily used for raising livestock. They do NOT process the livestock in D10. However, to feed an entire nation, D10 is likely another very large District.

D9 processes food for the Capitol and the tesserae; therefore, it likely shares borders with the food production Districts (D4, D10, D11).

D8 produces and treats textiles and is a factory District. It is POSSIBLE to reach D12 from D8 on foot over a course of weeks/months. Therefore, it does not cross a large body of water.

D7 specializes in lumber. It's probably large. It has no role in food processing or manufacture.

D6 works closely with the Capitol in the research and manufacture of drugs (morphling, medicines). It likely has close ties to D5 in the production of mutts.

D5 is entirely dependent on the Capitol, so it's probably somewhat nearby, and specializes in genetic research and manipulation. Because of the necessity of creative thought and intellect, it's most likely a smaller District so that it's easier to monitor and control.

D4 is the ocean. It does have a role in food production. It's very large. It is a Career District, so it likely is near the Capitol and has some self-sufficiency, but not enough that it doesn't engender loyalty. (Aside from that, D4 = perfect.)

D3 has extremely close ties to the Capitol and works with electronics and technology. It is likely small, the Capitol can closely monitor its scientific minds. It has no role in food manufacture or processing.

D2 specializes in weaponry, is the most loyal District (because the Capitol needs to keep its weapon specialists happy, non?), and has no role in food production. D2 also works in some minor Mining elements and trains Peacekeepers. The Panem railroad is easily accessible in D2.

D1 produces luxury goods for the Capitol -- INCLUDING having a diamond mine.  Kelsey Lake Diamond Mine is a defunct diamond mine in Colorado, USA. It is located in the State Line Kimberlite District, near the Wyoming border.

D13 specialized in nuclear power, shares a border with D12, is both visible and reachable from D12 by foot, and is North of West Virginia. Three Mile Island was in New YorkPennsylvania, and probably remained a nuclear reactor or was co-opted again as a reactor. D13 is small but mighty and is surrounded by Wilderness. It is self-sufficient.

A.A. Milne 

Winnie the Pooh (from the Awl)

L. Frank Baum

Wizard of Oz (from Buzzfeed)

from the awl

J.K. Rowling

Hogwarts (from tumbler)

from livejournal

William Goldman

The Princess Bride

Walt Disney

The location of Disney movies around the world (from buzzfeed)

George Orwell

1984 (from buzzfeed)

According to the Washington Post, sales of Orwell’s ‘1984’ have spiked since Kellyanne Conway’s ‘alternative facts’ speech. 

A map of the galaxy depicted in the Star Wars movies (from buzzfeed)

Mark Twain

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (from The Huffington Post)

And if they all existed together, as they often do in our minds and conversations, the world might look like this:

I love this <3 by ida-is-the-half-blood-prince on Polyvore

How to be brave: some stories about courage

Laura Olin runs the Everything Changes mailing list for The Awl and she asked her readers “about a time they’d been brave” (or perhaps when they’d wished they had been). Here are some of their answers.

I was raised in a pretty abusive household. When I was 14, I found a boarding school three thousand miles away, applied in secret, got a full scholarship, and left home. I haven’t lived at home since and have made it ten years later fully supporting myself in a city I love, a job I love, friends/community that I love. I sometimes think about that now, packing up everything and moving across the country without any support and building a new life for myself through a lot of luck and other people’s help, and know I probably couldn’t do it again. I left the worse place for paradise, both handed-out and self-made, and there’s nothing I’m prouder of.

Some regretted not having courage at times:

A few months ago, some coworkers made some antisemitic jokes in a team chat channel. I quit the channel and started looking for (and since found) a new job, but I didn’t say anything. I’ve thought about that time I didn’t say anything literally every day since. I wish I had been a better person.

Repost from Jason Kottke