Watch Neil Gaiman’s inspiring commencement speech about succeeding in the arts.
There’s some of the best freelancer advice in here that I’ve ever heard.
Some people are just causeless rebels Maheen, I think your name should be illegitimi non caborundum
- Ramzi, one of my favorite people in this world as well as the most brilliant person I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing
This just in…
Posted by thirdeyeviews | Filed under poor fly,i'm coming for you boo,i got yo back,
On July 27th, 2012 I will be presenting a research project at the Leadership Alliance National Symposium at Harvard University.
So yeah. That just happened.
In other news, have you ever wanted to save a fly as your friend madly chases it with a slipper in one hand and an enraged look on their face, all while you silently observe the insanity of the situation from afar?
Yeah man.
Me too.
This is how I feel right now.
Hey guys, this is my dad.
Also where I get ma swag from. Sorry, had to.
My earliest memories of my father are of him dancing to ABBA while getting ready to go to work in the morning. Prancing around while tying his tie, singing along, “Don’t go, wasting your emoootions. Lay all your lovvve on meee” pausing to tickle and kiss me before he left. Second memory is him laughing his ass off when I lost my first tooth. With good reason. I was in preschool, writing some story about a dragon warrior princess, chewing on my tongue as I always did, when I felt something wiggle and come loose. Out came my tooth. I was mortified. I thought I was dying. I did not know teeth falling was a regular thing. I slipped it into my desk and finished my story. Then I went up to my teacher to show her my story, and my tooth. Only I didn’t tell her it was my tooth. “Miss, I found this in my desk.” Naturally when my teacher told my dad, he was in hysterics. It’s still his favourite story to tell.
I don’t get to see him as often as I wish. He’s always traveling, working, lecturing, being awesome. When I was a kid I sometimes blamed him for not being around as much. But to this day he has never laid a hand on me or raised his voice and he was always willing to give up anything to make sure I was okay. One time I was going through a really tough time where I shut down because something really terrible had happened and I didn’t talk to anyone for six months. Locked myself in my room, buried myself in my work and was silent for a very long time. I literally stopped talking. Not once in those six months did my dad leave the house. He worked from home and told his associates to fax him anything that they needed his signature on. I can’t count how many endless meetings he had on our dining table because as long as I was hiding in that room with the door locked behind me, he refused to leave. I’m still not sure how after those six tiring months he managed to even keep his job. Life played its course and everything worked out, but that’s when I first discovered what I now know: When push comes to shove, my dad will always sacrifice anything for me. At times when I felt the world was against me, when nothing made sense, when I almost dropped out of university, when my Mom got sick and everything started to spiral out of control, when Georgetown didn’t work out the way I had dreamed it would, my dad was my oasis, my island, my place of refuge. His faith in me never wavered. Even when I lost all motivation, even when I made mistakes, even when I was a selfish daughter - he gave more.
17 days till I’m home and what I’m anticipating the most(secondary to the bear hug and tears my Mama receives me with) is the first morning after I get there. My dad and I have a long standing tradition where we wake up at the crack of dawn, he makes breakfast and I make coffee, we proceed out on to the porch and for the next 5-6 hours we just enjoy the weather and talk. About everything.
I love you, Baba. Through some demographic/biological/lucky coincidence, I got to be your daughter, and I couldn’t have asked for better DNA. If I ever bear my own mini-human beings, I hope I can be as patient as you, as kind as you, as selfless as you, as loving as you. As kickass-omelette-making as you.
(Source: 6od)
Romney’s family misspell their last name in the greatest Freudian slip in history.
(Source: memewhore)
New viral campaign for The Dark Knight Rises
totalfilmThe Dark Knight Rises has been fairly quiet on the publicity front over the last few months, but the film’s viral campaign appears to have clicked back into gear with the official website displaying a new wanted poster for Batman…
The Making of a Syrian Dissident: A Personal Journey
Posted by thirdeyeviews
Very important article on Syria.
ispu:
In August 2011, my older brother Yassein—a businessman who is in no way politically involved—was praying inside the Mustafa Mosque in Daraya, southwest of Damascus, while a protest was happening outside. Security forces moved in to disperse the demonstration, arresting Yassein, who had not been participating. After his arrest, he was taken to the headquarters of Syrian Airforce Security. (Airforce Security is known for brutally torturing dissidents; it was responsible for the mutilation and killing of 13-year-old Hamza al-Khateeb at the outset of the uprising last year.) My brother has been held incommunicado ever since.
That I have been spared Yassein’s fate—indeed, a fate perhaps even worse than his—is only because I left Syria years ago, after years of active political opposition. My current distance from my country has undoubtedly preserved my safety. But it has not at all changed my assessment of the Assad regime’s terrors: Instead, it has only made me more determined in my opposition to Assad’s rule, and more hopeful that its end is near. Indeed, I am confident that my difficult personal journey—from domestic political reformer to leader of a government-in-exile—will one day tell a tale of redemption.
My favorite man.
Just keep going
Posted by thirdeyeviews | Filed under Tonight was that kinda night,
There are few things in this world that a hot shower, good music, a long walk around town, and reading highlighted passages from your favorite poems and novels can’t fix.
hiiiPower[ed]
Posted by thirdeyeviews | Filed under Thoughts,
There is so much that our hurt can teach us.
At this point, it’s almost as if everyone’s just struggling to be heard. To be taken seriously. They just want to know that they matter.
Even then, the pursuit of being appreciated by family, friends, co-workers, classmates, and peers definitely takes a toll on the soul. For the life of me, I can’t understand just why. For the longest time I’ve taken anything that has been said to me as well as any action that dismisses my worth as a human being and used it to fuel my ambition. And I shouldn’t even have to apologize for that. Because getting hurt helps us get up much faster the next time around. It helps us filter out people and keep the ones that challenge, motivate, and inspire us around. Trust, I’ve spent my whole life pushing people away yet the ones who were worth going back to always got the call. Why? Because they cared. Everyone else is just fluff temporarily taking up space in your life. I never understand the disagreements people get into over petty things. Really, choose your battles means so much more at 20, doesn’t it? The problem is that we all claim to care about each other yet we never show it. As if it’s something that is understood. False. Something to think about? I think one of the best moments in my life in the last year was one of my closest friends, out of nowhere and amidst a laughing fit, telling me that she appreciated our friendship. I know, emotions. Gross. But it’s worth it.
Maybe it’s not about getting our voice heard after all. Perhaps it’s just that we look around and want what everyone else has but don’t really know why. Or we don’t want to fight for it. We want it because it’s something to have? Not good enough. I’ve realized being content with your life is being content with you life choices. It’s having a plan, as complicated as it may be. I’ve subscribed for the longest time to my plan that I want to work at a think tank on political issues regarding the Middle East region, be Batman’s sidekick, get a ph.D, work in Pakistan on a grassroots level, make my Dad proud, and help fund my friend’s dreams. I’ve never thought it won’t happen. I’ve always thought that at least in the face of everything, I’ve somehow managed to keep going. You’re right. Some of those things might not happen. Hell, people change. Things change. Our ideas and perceptions of the world are constantly evolving and what I want today maybe I won’t necessarily prioritize a couple years down the line. Have I questioned my dreams? Of course. Has it hindered the process of getting there? Only enough to make me realize why I wanted all those things in the first place.
You get on with life. Even if no one takes you seriously. You do it anyways. Live long enough to take it all back. I’ve always said that if you can wake up in the morning and find a reason to keep going then you’re doing something right. If that’s not the case, take some time to yourself and figure it out. If anything, that confusion and frustration ends up defining us the most because we’re forced to ask ourselves what’s worth it and what’s just really not anymore. Why aren’t we constantly fascinated by the power that we all have? The one that allows us to create our lives as we learn and grow.
Ya know?
Thinking out loud while on the bus to Alexandria. Tis all.
Absolutely love this video.
Of Monsters and Men - Little Talks
I assume everyone thinks this
Salima: Maybe we talk too much shit about people
Me: Haha, I really don't though. Do you?
Salima: I don't know. I can't tell the difference between talking shit and psychoanalyzing people
Me: Psychoanalyzing is to help them and done internally
Salima: Yeah, but that's if you do anything about it
Me: Do you psychoanalyze me? What are your findings? Also, the only person I talk shit about is my roommate. :p
Salima: That's still talking shit nigga
Me: I know
Salima: I don't bother psychoanalyzing you, I don't want to give myself a migraine
One of the rooms in my future apartment will have that floor pattern. Guaranteed.
Maheen, political enthusiast and an avid literature junkie.
