I am daily affirmed in my belief that there's a collective well of inspiration from which we all fetch fragments. The artist needs only reach deep enough to find it. It's not as deep as I'd have thought, but it's by no means shallow.

When inspiration pops out of the ether, catch it and relay it. Because it does not go back to the source just because you failed to transmit it. Another, more wakeful one will do it for you, but not quite in the way that you would have.
Then you'll be left with the bitter taste of not having captured that idea in your own way.

I always think of what Gints Zilbalodis said:

"It takes time for your abilities and your skills to catch up with your taste."

Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.

-Ira Glass

"The world is a god having a nightmare."
Yeah, I can see that.

My friends and I have actually seen a lipstick stain on our teacher's collar. In middle school. And that's the least interesting story we got. We've lived fulfilling lives.

Consider me Catholic now.
#MotherChurch #DaPope

The woman is actually not Catholic but The Pope is against AI😊

Starry, starry night
Flaming flowers that brightly blaze
Swirling clouds in violet haze
Reflect in Vincent's eyes of china blue
Colors changing hue
Morning fields of amber grain
Weathered faces lined in pain
Are soothed beneath the artist's loving hand

Now I understand
What you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free
They would not listen, they did not know how
Perhaps they'll listen now

For they could not love you
But still your love was true
And when no hope was left in sight
On that starry, starry night
You took your life, as lovers often do
But I could have told you, Vincent

This world was never meant for one
As beautiful as you

-Don McLean, Vincent

Shadows on the hills
Sketch the trees and the daffodils
Catch the breeze and the winter chills
In colors on the snowy linen land

Remember there's probably someone out there who thinks Nightcrawler and Wolf of Wall street are inspirational. Take care.

I can rest easy knowing somebody used defenestration in a sentence. Even better, maybe GRRM killed off the character like that just to be able to use the word.

Defenestration: The act of throwing someone or something out of a window

i’m looking to clear out a massive pile of printed papers, essays, and self-printed literature/ philosophy readings that are taking up too much space around here. there’s no grand occasion or special event behind this it's just a routine decluttering, and instead of ወረቀቱ በኪሎ ተሽጦ ዳቦ ከሚጠቀለልበት, someone here might actually want to read them.

​a few quick details:

​what’s in the pile: a mix of philosophy texts, literary essays, and various books/readings i’ve printed out over time. (these are self-printed and bound copies, not store-bought published editions.)

​if anyone is interested in taking them off my hand @zablon_7