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superchartisland · 5 years

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Super Mario All Stars (Nintendo, SNES, 1993)

Any overall roadmap for this project (and my brother’s related predecessor) is very lightly sketched, but this is a useful point to reflect on it. We grew up playing Dizzy games; part of what we’re doing is trying to reclaim video game history as we and many other Brits lived it, to demonstrate how the American-led received wisdom is a rewriting of the record. All of my research suggests that we were in the majority there -- in the UK the NES didn’t get a look in, and we’re not going to properly encounter the Game Boy until it’s a decade old.

Even this first Nintendo direct encounter is somewhat of a guess. Super Mario All Stars was a documented best-seller for the SNES, but in an absence of evidence I don’t know for sure that it was big enough to be an overall UK #1. I remember hearing about it a lot at the time, and by then the SNES had had a chance to build an audience, but remember that this blog covers games which were a #1 but not necessarily always the #1. Yet at the same time as I refute the story that Nintendo swept in to replace a dying industry -- neither happened like that in the UK -- we’re pretty keen on many things Nintendo. I have a NES Classic Mini, SNES Classic Mini and a Famicom Classic Mini sitting under my TV: loving recreations of consoles which I never owned.

In the internet era, this kind of adoption of history is probably more common. When I wrote the first version of this post I had recently watched the period piece music video for Satellite Young’s “Don’t Graduate, Senpai!” and was overwhelmed with contented nostalgic feelings, left with the power of a glimpse into a familiar and loved past. All that despite the fact I’ve hardly ever listened to the Japanese genre that it takes after, City Pop, or watched shoujo anime, and never when I was growing up. The person who it is precision targeting isn’t me. But it needn't be. There can be a feeling that is just as real, but second hand, a gravity exerted on adjacent culture that was invisible until something made me look over and notice its force.

youtube

There are lots of ways that the influences on the song and video reached me. My partner did grow up with a lot of Japanese pop culture in Hong Kong, and talking with her about that and having watched a couple of episodes of Creamy Mami means having a feel for her fond memories. I have years of happily browsing tumblr gifsets of Sailor Moon, absorbing love for it and its place in culture. I can still get good use from a “but you didn’t do anything!” meme even if I’ve never actually watched the show. I’ve listened to 80s referencing music elsewhere, and modern Japanese music taking cues from City Pop, and that has added up to giving the sounds of the song a similar personal gravity.

And all of that has been made easier by the world getting smaller, by the internet giving providing an easy route to interests you share with people elsewhere in the world and from there to interests they share that you don’t. Look at it negatively, and it means a winning narrative can travel faster and become more comprehensive than ever, reaching into places where it doesn’t belong. But at the same time, it gives us a Japanese band and some Swedish animators uniting in their shared nostalgia, and it reaching out to me through next door culture which I’ve taken in via friends from all round the world, and me having feelings shared with those friends. That’s an amazing thing.

In common with most people I knew, we didn’t have the internet when Super Mario All Stars came out, and the world was still huge. Nintendo had other tools to work with, though. Their games were successful enough to reach out and have an outsized cultural impact beyond the limits of people actually playing them.

When I started primary school, before football stickers, there was a craze for Nintendo sticker books, and friends and I collected images of all of their games. People tried to negotiate enhanced swaps for stickers of Game Boy screenshots by maintaining that they were gold stickers, even more valuable than the special silver ones. I knew more about the characters and background for Mario through Saturday morning cartoons, and I remember watching American TV programmes where people competed through playing Super Mario Bros. levels. I assume it made it to the UK’s own Gamesmaster at some point too. And of course, many of the European games we were playing took their own influence from Nintendo. I may have been unaware of Metroid until years later, but hours spent playing Turrican still gave my first impressions of it that nostalgic gravity.

Mario was Nintendo’s most successful reach out to the wider culture, and that wider culture drove people back to Mario’s original form. That could work better for Nintendo if Mario games were easier to access, and so we get Super Mario All Stars. What to do when moving on from the NES to the SNES? Reissue, repackage, re-evaluate the games! Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 2, and Super Mario Bros. 3, now brought together in one place. With an extra track, no less, in the form of Japan’s very different Super Mario Bros. 2, new to the rest of the world and hence called The Lost Levels. From 2019 the very idea of levels being lost feels faintly absurd – someone will dig it out in a mod, or you can just log onto your alternate Japanese online console account, surely? I guess a handful of British people probably did own imported Famicoms even in 1993, but everyone else got their cross-fertilisation of culture mediated by Nintendo’s eccentric international release schedule.

Super Mario All Stars presents each game in its entirety, complete with newly upgraded graphics. Yet, in some way, the games seem to shrink in the transition. The act of selecting a game to play from a menu, turning them into pinned specimens labelled by year, emphasises the overall history and starts you off with a reminder that each world is only a part of a newly defined whole. Maybe that's why there is no Super Mario All Stars on the SNES Classic Mini, an assessment that the bird-inside-a-bird effect of featuring a retro collection on a retro collection would be that bit too spookily recursive.

And that idea of recursion is where the realisation struck me as I played Super Mario All Stars. It wasn't the first version of Mario I played, (it was the first Super Mario Bros. 3 that I ever played, though, the briefest of enchanting glimpses). But it feels absolutely right as my version of these games, even for Super Mario Bros. 2 where I'm pretty sure I'd never played this version before. The very sense of diminished scale, the way that All Stars exists as a Mario game aware that not only each individual game, but the games as a whole, are but a small part of the Mario out there in the world, feels totally fitting. The feeling runs through everything. The upscaled renditions of the music which expand on it but nonetheless can't escape how iconic the basic originals were. The decision to put Super Mario Bros.’ underwater waltz on the title screen with the new confidence that duh, it rules. The little portraits of what to expect that have been added to the start of each level, not spoilers but cute reminders. This is a Mario for the late to the party, an artefact of the games' immense second hand cultural gravity, reflected back into the games themselves. It's a sign of so much to come.

In reflection of it being the first time these games have come up on my route through history, here are miniature entries for each of the four games on Super Mario All Stars, pinned to one place:

Super Mario Bros.

It’s all about the movement. Specifically, the jump, the balletic means of progression which sits at the tempting boundary of predictability and control. It is not the only game jump, it was not the first game jump, but it is somehow still the Jump. When you press the jump button the moment stretches in time, a repeated joy that resounds slightly differently from Jump to Jump. Sometimes the Jump is relaxed, sometimes the Jump is tense, sometimes the Jump is a celebration of achievement. Gravity and momentum make their claim on you, and you must not reject them or bow to them, but turn towards them, take their hands, and dance. Only when you are the lead in the dance can it proceed in its full majesty. All of the subtle design, killer music and cleverly revealed secrets play their part too, of course. The richness of the world, day and night, water and dungeon, clouds and green groundclouds, isn’t to be underestimated. The dance wouldn’t be as kaleidoscopically beautiful without all of that. Fireworks might not always be necessary, but they are still fireworks. And yet it is the dance of the Jump that gives meaning to it all.

The Lost Levels

It’s common in games for many a character or object to be accompanied by its inverse, its mirror, its shadow. Maybe it’s a product of how games are made, were made, of the commonality of repetition and the short distance from repetition to repetition with a twist. Super Mario Bros. 2 (“The Lost Levels”) introduces one such shadow as almost its first move with the poison mushroom, power-up turned to power-down. It takes that to a whole new level with the negative warp zones: welcome to warp zone, now a trick on you. The whole game, in fact, is a cruel mirror held up to Super Mario Bros., a reflection that looks right but doesn’t wave back. Much of its cruelty comes from luring players into familiar actions and then turning them back against them. This game is a dance too, but it’s one where the floor is trying to throw you off, where the steps and flow that you have learned are not only impossible to use but will quicken your downfall. But for some people who already know the dance back to front, perhaps trying to freestyle your way through some spiky math-rock is an enjoyable next step.

Super Mario Bros. 2

It’s common in games for many a character or object to be accompanied by its inverse, its mirror, its shadow. Maybe it’s a product of how games are made, were made, of the commonality of repetition and the short distance from repetition to repetition with a twist. Super Mario Bros. 2 (“Super Mario Bros. USA”) is the Waluigi of early Mario games, a mirror of a mirror. It doesn’t focus on the shadows of objects and characters, though, but whole shadow worlds. Pick up a magical potion and you can open a door anywhere, take a subtle knife to the fabric of the universe, walk through the doorway and find yourself literally in shadow. Even outside of that mechanic, there are doors everywhere, and each one could go anywhere. This is the world of the subconsciousness, where possibilities extend to such things as a playable princess and gliding across the world on a gravity-resistant egg. Super Mario Bros. 2 is barely even a Mario game, and handles more awkwardly than one. Yet among all of its doors, it opens one to one of the series’s futures, platforming which is first and foremost a series of puzzles and doors to unlock.

Super Mario Bros. 3

This is the game where Mario learns to fly, tail flapping, on unseen wires in front of platforms casting shadows on a sky painted on sheets. The game is a show, and it’s some production. It has a cast of thousands and is the introduction point for almost as many iconic series images as the original. Its brilliance as sequel and as theatre is in taking the solid and dependable gameplay and mechanics of the original and using those as building blocks, the platforms of its stageset, then rearranging them. Each world rejigs and relights them and makes them interact with new props and characters for a set of dramatically different scenes. Water levels go from brief distractions to an entire world; the desert and an idyllic grassland emerge; World 7 turns off all of the lights to interact with the bare mechanics of pipes. The transitions between levels feel like curtains down and a chance to move things round. And then occasionally it breaks all the underlying rules and throws you into giant world or climbs up through the clouds, and there is nothing to do but laugh in delight. This is the game where Mario learns to fly.

SNES chart, Edge 004, January 1994

#every number one #retrogaming #SNES #Super Mario Bros.#Super Mario All Stars

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unwillingadventurer · 6 years

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Rules:

Answer the 11 questions you’ve been asked

Nominate 11 other bloggers

Ask your nominees 11 questions

Let them know you’ve nominated them

tagged by @ilwinsgarden. Thank you <3

1. What do you look forward to in 2019?

There’s nothing particularly big or exciting going on that we know of so we’re gonna try and look forward to the little things.

2. Is there something (craft, activity, whatever) you would like to try but didn’t have a chance (or courage or money or whatever) yet?

Katie- I’ve always wanted to learn to play a musical instrument but never had the money. Claire- Learn a language properly as I’ve forgotten all my school French but its a bit daunting now.

3. If you won (or inherit) a huge amount of money what would you do with it?

Katie- use it to help myself out this rut, maybe some self-publishing and more trips to the theatre. Claire- Use it for some life stuff that’s desperately needed but then some treats like fandom stuff/books/DVD’s.

4. Is there any place in the world you’d like to visit (and hadn’t been there yet)?

Oh loads of places. Anywhere with beautiful nature and museums and galleries, theatres, castles etc. We still want to go to Versailles one day.

5. Is there something (anything) that you use to cheer you up when you’re feeling down? (is the question understandable? %)) )

Normally we watch TV programmes like One era Who, Raffles, Whose Line is it Anyway, Frasier and lots of comedies and eat lots and lots of twiglets.

6. Do you follow some YouTuber (for inspiration, ideas, education, tutorials, whatever)? If not - do you watch YouTube sometimes and what kind of stuff for? (music, documents, short movies, etc.)

We don’t follow youtubers as such but we do watch vids on there, mostly finding clips from classic TV and film and finding anything relating to our fave actors, even if its a blurry two minute clip! Also, singers and musical things sometimes and we use it for karaoke too.

7. If you were a flower or animal (pick what’s closer to your heart :). Or answer with both :) ) what would it be?

Katie- a pigeon lol, really don’t know. Claire- An animal that’s small and quiet.

8. Do you like to take picture of yourself when you go to some trip?

Yeah, we take pictures of everything. We usually take a photo of ourselves everywhere we go.

9. Do you like to prepare things and pack the suitcase when you travel somewhere?

We always prepare and pack our own otherwise we’d get really nervous that we’d forgotten something important.

10. When was the last time you laugh very hard?

Can’t think of a specific time. We laugh at really random things so it could have been anything. It was probably when we watched Whose Line is it Anyway last and Tony Slattery said something rude and outrageous.

11. Do you enjoy playing board games? If so, what’s your favourite one?

Not so much anymore. We did when we were kids, loved Cluedo and we had this great one called ‘Escape from Atlantis’ that we played with our brother but we haven’t played a board game in ages.

Our questions

Do you remember your last dream, what was it about?

If you could make a fictional character come to life for a chat who would it be?

Do you collect anything?

Do you still have any of your childhood toys?

What small things make you smile?

Where is your favourite place to hang out near where you live?

If you could adapt any book into a TV series or Film what would you choose?

What’s the strangest compliment you’ve ever had?

Is there any time period in history you wish you could travel to if it were possible?

What are your fave quotes from life/TV/films/books etc?

Why do you think there are 11 questions in this?

Tagging @sciencefictionrenegade @the-prince-of-professors @regshoe @missanthropicprinciple @creative-writer

#question meme #:D

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therabulb · 3 years

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12 Proven Tips for Better Sleep

12 Proven Tips for Better Sleep You may have heard terms such as “life hacking” and “bio-optimizing” recently, as popular culture focuses on wellness. While these may be trendy buzzwords, the concept behind them – modifying habits and environment to maximize well-being – presents significant opportunities to improve our lives in multiple areas. One area that experts are now examining is the relationship between sleep quality and wellness. A good night’s sleep, they are finding, is extremely important for those who want to lose weight, improve memory, enhance athletic performance, increase productivity, or simply feel good. Many people in industrialized societies suffer from sleep disorders -- far more than are actually documented and studied. This is because folks often write off poor sleep as “just one of those things” and don’t consider it an important medical or health issue. Worse yet, they believe that there’s nothing they can really do about it. Actually, you have more control over the quality of your sleep than you might think. That is the realm of “sleep hygiene”, and the topic of this article. Researchers have identified many practices and habits that can help you maximize the benefits of your sleep cycle, even if you’re affected by conditions like insomnia or jet lag. There are many benefits to honing your sleep hygiene and putting together a routine that optimizes the quality of your resting hours. Poor sleep can cause weight gain, weaken the immune system, and impede memory and cognition during waking hours. Inversely, good sleep can help you eat less, exercise more, and feel better during the day. Here are twelve evidence-based tips for getting better sleep at night: #1 Avoid Chemicals that Interfere with Sleep We regularly ingest quite a few things that can have a negative effect on our sleep including alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine. Caffeine is a stimulant and probably the most commonly consumed substance that interferes with sleep quality. Caffeine is found in coffee, some teas, chocolate, soft drinks, certain pain relievers, and -- obviously -- energy drinks. Its stimulant effects typically last four to six hours, so researchers recommend against taking in caffeine within six hours of bedtime. Nicotine is also a stimulant and a barrier to good rest. Nicotine usually leaves the system more quickly than caffeine, so it’s recommended that users cut off all use of tobacco products about two hours before bed.The impact of alcohol on sleep is often misunderstood. While drinking alcohol makes many people drowsy, the depressant effect only lasts for a short time. After a few hours, alcohol acts as a stimulant, which is why people who use alcohol to fall asleep usually wake up during the night or suffer from poor quality sleep. Experts recommend consuming no more than two alcoholic beverages per day and not drinking any alcohol within three hours before bedtime. #2 Make Your Bedroom Sleep-Friendly To optimize your sleep, take a look at where you’re sleeping. The best rest can be found in a quiet, dark, and cool environment.Lower the volume of ambient noise with earplugs or a white noise generator. (While many people find it difficult to fall asleep without a TV or radio playing in the background, white noise can provide ambient sound without the risk of sound effects or volume changes that can wake you up suddenly.)Darkness is key, as our bodies use light as an indicator to wake up. Use heavy curtains, blackout shades, or an eye mask to block light while you slumber.Keep the temperature in your sleep space comfortably cool—between 60° and 75°F—and the room well ventilated. Keeping computers, TVs, and other non-sleep related items out of the room will strengthen the mental association between your bedroom and sleep. You may also want to consider barring any pets from the room if they have a habit of waking you up. #3 Establish a Pre-Sleep Routine The idea is to “wind down” your mind and body before it’s time to hit the mattress. Action movies and video games are stimulating and not conducive to this idea. Light reading has the opposite, calming effect on the mind and is the most recommended pre-sleep activity.Ease the transition into sleep time with a period of relaxing activities an hour or so before bed. Take a bath (the changes in body temperature promote drowsiness), read a book, or practice relaxation exercises. Avoid stressful, stimulating activities -- for those working from home, that includes finishing up that important report or responding to emails. #4 Go to Sleep When You’re Really Tired Struggling to fall asleep is an exercise in futility that leads to frustration. If you’re not asleep after 20 minutes, get out of bed, go to another room, and do something relaxing until you are tired enough to sleep. It’s very difficult to “fight” your way into sleep, as the increase in stress and worry will only keep you up longer. #5 Don’t Be a Nighttime Clock-Watcher Staring at a clock in your bedroom is another way to increase stress, making it harder to fall asleep. Turn your clock’s face away from you and fight the urge to keep mental tabs on the time. If you wake up in the middle of the night and can’t get back to sleep in about 20 minutes, get up and start a relaxing activity such as reading or listening to music. (Keep the lights dim, as bright lights will further stimulate you into wakefulness.) Once you feel drowsy again, return to bed. #6 Use Light to Your Advantage Your internal clock uses ambient natural light to govern its sleep-wake cycle. Let sunlight inside or go for a walk early in the morning. Exposure to sunlight (and the beneficial infrared light it brings) is healthy during the day. At night, it can confuse your internal clock and make it harder to fall asleep. You may have already heard that blue light is the worst in terms of confusing our internal clocks. Blue light is emitted in large amounts from electronic devices like smartphones and computers, which is why such devices are considered a major factor in the growing “poor sleep epidemic”. There are methods you can use to reduce nighttime blue light exposure including: Wear blue light-blocking glasses. These are especially useful if you’re using devices late into the evening. Use an app such as f.lux to block blue light emissions on your computer. Similar apps are available for smartphones. Cut off screen time and turn off bright lights two hours before heading to bed. #7 Keep Your Internal Clock Set with a Consistent Sleep Schedule Set patterns and routines are integral to sleep optimization. Sleeping on a schedule helps to ensure better quality and consistent rest.Going to bed and waking up at the same time each day sets your internal clock to expect sleep at a certain time each night. Monday morning “sleep hangovers” often occur because people tend to change their sleep habits on the weekends. Avoid this effect by keeping your sleep routine consistent day after day.Waking up at the same time each day is the most effective way to set your clock. Even if you did not sleep well the night before or went to bed late, the body will rebound more effectively if you wake up on schedule than if you sleep in. #8 Nap Early—Or Not at All Naps are part of some peoples’ daily routine. For others, they’re an occasional attempt at “catching up” on lost sleep. For those who find falling asleep or staying asleep through the night problematic, afternoon napping may be making the problem worse. Naps late in the day decrease the sleep drive, and therefore make it harder to fall asleep later in the evening. If you must nap, it’s recommended that you do so before 5 PM -- and keep the naps in the shorter, 20-minute-or-so range. #9 Avoid Eating Heavily Late in the Day Late meals have often been linked to insomnia. Finish dinner several hours before bedtime to avoid this risk. If you get hungry at night, don’t partake in a large meal. Choose small snacks that don’t trigger indigestion or discomfort (this varies from person to person). #10 Hydrate Properly The body loses a lot of moisture during sleep, which is why many people wake up thirsty every morning. Hydration is another key part of overall wellness, so try to drink enough fluids before bedtime to keep yourself from waking up parched. Balance this intake in such a way that you’re not woken up during the night to run to the bathroom. #11 Exercise -- But Not Before Bedtime! Exercise helps promote restful sleep by stimulating production of the stress hormone cortisol, which helps activate the alerting mechanism in the brain and increase the sleep drive. The drowsiness comes later, however, as most people will feel energized and wide awake for several hours after working out. To avoid this, exercise at least three hours before you’re planning to go to sleep. #12 Follow Through Some of these tips are easier to adopt than others. The key to success is often making small, iterative changes toward a goal rather than throwing your entire routine into upheaval in one fell swoop. The important thing is to stick with the changes, develop a sleep routine, and remain consistent day after day with your sleep hygiene. If your routine can’t be managed long-term, it won’t likely give you the results you’re looking for. Not all sleep problems are easily remedied with the environmental and lifestyle changes we discussed. If you take the above steps and still have trouble with sleep, consult with a medical professional or sleep specialist to determine if a sleep disorder such as apnea, restless legs syndrome, narcolepsy, or another clinical problem might be involved. from TheraBulb Blog https://www.therabulb.com/blogs/test/12-proven-tips-for-better-sleep via TheraBulb

#Infrared Light Therapy #Near infrared light bulbs #health

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awkwardplant · 6 years

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•Title: Grow Towards Light, chapter 1

•Genre: Young Adult/Fantasy (fantasy is later on)

•Summary: When spoiled Albin Lofgren is sent to Italy for his bad behavior, he is cursed by faeries and gains magical powers that he can’t use properly. (This chapter shows what he did to get sent to Italy)

•Words: 2629

•Work: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Og0Av9Qcc6YfcloU0hn9EdoyFwogmFtKd5WiE5vpZAk/edit?usp=sharing

•Note: this is my first draft, and I haven't written in a while

I’ll put the chapter under a cut in case the link doesn’t work. Please leave some constructive criticism! I’d love to know what you think :)

Grow Towards Light (Chapter 1)

“Hi Youtube, my name is Albin and- Wait, no, no. I can’t start with an introduction. I should play at the beginning, right?” Setting down his violin on a nearby chair, he walked over to the camera. He stopped the video, then started the recording again.

Albin returned to his previous position. He nestled onto the chinboard, hands on the bow and fingerboard, and began to play. Was his timing off? Did it sound right? His mind ran rampant with worries. So much so, that Albin came back to reality with a jolt upon hearing a wince-worthy shriek of notes.

He stared into space and groaned like one does upon waking up far too early. Then played a random selection of notes in quick succession and stopped. Again, he restarted the video.

Albin sighed as he returned to his position. “The world hates me but I hate it more.”

Sometimes you need to power through life with sheer spite. That’s the advice most people would take. For Albin, it was every second of every day. Because teenagers have that much bitterness. And for good reason! He’d been awake since 9am (what an early time) during summer vacation. And now he was attempting to upload another hit single to his Youtube account. If by “hit single” you meant a song with less than 20 views, like his many other videos. One day he’d make it big! But until then…

Beginning his 470th recording of the day, he heard it sounded better than the past attempts. It gave him the confidence to put his soul into the music, sway as he played, and ignore the worries that swept his mind. A warm glow of happiness began to bloom in his chest-

“Albin! You’ve been playing all morning. Dad says it’s MY turn to use the music room!” His older sister barged into the room and he balked. Because sure, that interruption at a crucial time was fine. Totally fine!

Grinding his teeth, Albin once again walked over to the camera and turned it off for the final time that day. Another day of wasted practice. He made sure to glare at his sister. But she was too busy destroying his eardrums with terrible saxophone music. Well, he always thought it was terrible, but her music awards… possibly said otherwise.

“Hm.” Alice paused and tilted her head in thought. “You know, I’d rather play my flute today. Is it here? Have the housekeepers unpacked it yet?”

“I don’t know..? I don’t play flute so generally I don’t keep an eye out for it when I go in here. To practice my violin.” Albin raised his instrument and eyebrow. “Sorry your search has turned out fluteless.”

Alice and the rest of his siblings had recently moved back into the mansion. There were still plenty of boxes that needed unpacked. Alice left the room. (Terrible audience, a waste of a pun.) Albin couldn’t stay in there any longer, so he returned his violin to the instrument shelf and went to the garden.

He passed under the arch of purple clematis and tiptoed over the river stepping stones. When he reached the tiered fountain he noticed: someone was in his gazebo. They were on the bench and reading a book, wearing close-fitting dungarees and a white t-shirt. A gardener? They were on duty and they had the nerve to laze around?! Albin knew his dad didn’t pay his workers cheap, he was a nice guy like that. He was going to confront the stranger! But... his mum called his name from the mansion.

That person could wait to get their scolding until Albin had a full stomach of food. But now was the time he’d been dreading: sitting down at the table for a family dinner.

Albin was not a fan of the recent increase of people at the dinner table. 8 people in total. 5 siblings was far too many. The good thing though, was that Lax med Västerbottensost was on the menu. The chef served the dish with a lemon slice each time. He remembered when it was just him and his dad, and he would eat the lemon with a straight face to shock his dad. He bit into a forkful of salmon, savouring the cheese sauce drizzled on the fish.

Silver cutlery clinked and the others around him made conversation. Albin noticed that his older brother was showing his dad a video on his phone. Tch. What happened to “no phones at the dinner-table”? Worst of all, his dad was… smiling. Quite a lot. He focused his gaze on the table’s decorative topiary tree. In the metal vase his reflection frowned back at him.

“And coach says if we make it to the finals, we’ll get to go to America!” Noel beamed.

His dad clapped Noel on the back and gulped down a spoonful of peas. “That’s great, son! What a super match, so intense. You’ve got to teach me some of those tricks. What’s the one where you kick the ball behind you and get it into the goal?”

“Oh, the Scissor Kick! You’ve got good taste Pa.” they laughed together.

Pa. More like: Pathetic. What a suck up! He couldn’t believe his dad was so easy to impress. Football? Anyone could kick a ball. Albin didn’t know what the Scissor Kick was, but it most likely looked cooler than it actually was. Sneaking a glance at his phone, Albin remembered he hadn’t been able to get a good recording of his violin that day. Damn Alice and her saxophone/flute nonsense.

Now all he had to do was sit there and eat. That was no fun. He could show his dad one of his older videos, one he hadn’t seen... But his dad was listening to Juni talk about some science fair she was going to attend.

Albin shrugged, pulling his iphone out anyway and laid it on the table so it played his song. It was a cover of his favourite TV series’ intro song. You couldn’t tell it was an anime song since it was being played in violin. (And everyone knows that a violin lead makes any song sound socially acceptable.) He continued eating as the song played, glancing at his busy dad every few moments.

But the song played the entire way through, and his dad hadn’t even looked at him, let alone spoken to him about his music. He turned the volume up and skipped to another song.

“Albin,” he perked up at the sound of his name. “What have I said about phones at the table?”

Albin’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “But Noel was showing you something on his phone-”

“Don’t give me cheek young man.” His dad chided.

He rolled his eyes. “Fine, fine.”

Turning the music off and slumping in his seat, he put his phone back into his pocket. Half a salmon left on his plate. And two spoonfuls of peas. Eh. Albin wasn’t hungry anymore. He excused himself from the table and slipped outside. Telling off that do-nothing gardener would cheer him up.

The stranger was exactly where Albin had left them. One leg off the bench and swinging it, as if they were in a hammock on a Hawaiian beach. Albin marched closer with a speech about hard work on his tongue. The person slapped their book shut and turned to face Albin: it was a boy who looked a little older than him.

“The youngest one from the mansion, huh?”

His surprise at the voice had Albin stop in his tracks. He slowed to a walk and peered at the boy. The dungarees he was wearing weren’t even dirty, they were a spotless blue denim. This guy hadn’t been working at all today!

“And you’re the lazy gardener, I suppose?” he challenged.

“What? No.” The boy turned away, reopening his book. Black, wavy hair rustled as he moved. “I don��t work here, my mum does. She couldn’t find me a decent ‘babysitter’ so I have to hang out here this summer.”

“You dress like a gardener though.”

The boy smoothed down his front and clicked his tongue. “That’s just my aesthetic. Bohemian, hipster, or something like that.”

“Sure, okay. Anyway. How did you know who I am if you don’t work here? Did your mum tell you about me?” Albin asked.

He felt like he was falling behind with every word the boy said; it was a race to see who was the coolest. Albin didn’t have an aesthetic. A denim hoodie and tan-brown skinny jeans didn’t fit into an aesthetic. His style was preppy or casual at best; and that was terrible.

“Sure did. A right goody two shoes with all the staff, even if you do have an attitude with ‘lazy’ people. You baked them all cookies last Christmas and gave a dreidel to someone, or something.” He clicked his tongue again.

Albin shrugged, not accepting that description of himself. “It’s an act. I can be rebellious when I want to. Like a few minutes ago at dinner, I had my phone out at the table. There’s a no phone rule.”

The boy walked out of the gazebo and stood in front of Albin. His blue eyes bore into Albin’s brown ones. “My name’s Elias. Been kicked out of every high-school in the county. I can teach you how to actually be rebellious. You in?”

Albin glanced away for a few moments. Could he really teach Albin how to be rebellious? Elias sure did seem the type to know. Albin wanted to learn: what was more rebellious than disobeying your dad? So he nodded.

Elias smirked and his eyes gleamed as though ice had glazed them. Albin knew that he had already lost whatever race he’d been imagining.

A few minutes later, Elias was opening the door to the music room and gesturing for Albin to go in. The dim light from beyond the two windows was the only light-source. Guitars lined the walls and the grand piano stood at the far end of the room like a silhouette. Despite everything he could see, the room looked empty.

Albin continued the conversation from their walk to the mansion. “It was so much better when it was me and my dad, you know?”

“Can’t relate.” Elias mumbled.

Then he picked up Alice’s flute, taking it out from its case. “This is your sister’s right? The one you said kicked you out the music room?” Albin nodded.

Elias handed him the instrument. “Break it.” He said.

“... What? Are you insane?”

“Nope, I've seen several psychologists. I’m mentally well, thank you for asking.”

Albin shook his head, running fingers through his hair, and he tripped over his own feet into a music stand. “You can’t be serious.” The stand rattled as he steadied it.

“Trust me. You’ll feel so much better. You won’t get caught, promise. Besides, you’re rich enough to replace a little flute. Right?” He circled around Albin and rested his hands on Albin’s shoulders.

“All those years with your dad, forgotten by him like it was nothing.” Elias whispered down into his ear. “Brothers and sisters, walking around here like they’ve always lived here. Treating you like a nuisance. A mother you can't stand for bringing all this chaos into your life, for turning you into a ghost in your own home.” He stood at full height. “Break the flute.”

The flute seemed to buzz under his fingertips, he was crushing it in his hands. The blood wasn’t reaching his fingers. His heart echoed in his chest.

“What if,” he breathed, “What if they hear it?”

“That’s why-” Elias’s hands left a swish of cold air on his shoulders as he left his side, searching the room. “We use a cushion in these kinds of situations.”

He began to walk, not quite aware of what he was doing. “The chair, at the back of the room. It’s cushioned.”

“Go then.”

“But-”

“Stop making excuses. That’s how you prevent yourself from living.” Elias clicked his tongue. “I’m only telling you to do this because there’s a lot of built up emotions in you. Gotta get them out somehow. And what better way is there than this to also get revenge on your family?”

Albin’s eyes widened.That’s what this is? Revenge... The word repeated itself, cascading down the walls of his mind. He lifted the flute up into the air, no backing out now, it hurtled towards the chair and crashed down with a thwack-

It didn’t break.

“Well, it’s dented, but we want it broken beyond repair.” Elias grabbed the flute from him. “Good try though.” he brought his knee to the instrument and snapped it in half. Just like that.

Then he began to tear off the valves, one by one. Albin could only watch in dull shock. His mind was still surging with the word revenge and a million other thoughts. What would Alice’s reaction be? How would everyone find out? What if someone had heard them? Albin glanced around, no-one but Elias was in the dark music room with him.

“There, that’s it done.” Elias dropped the instrument onto the floor. “Now let’s get out of here, through the window.”

“B-but this is the second floor!”

“I’ll catch you.”

Albin stumbled after Elias as he walked towards the window. “Are you serious?!”

“Always serious, kiddo.” Elias said. “Make sure you roll or you’ll break an arm!”

The next day, everyone in the mansion knew of Alice’s broken flute. She’d been sobbing and wailing through the corridors for hours on end. She refused her dad’s -Albin’s dad- offer to shop for a new flute. She missed every meal. When the butler was bringing her dinner to her room, Albin asked if he could do it instead. He wandered from the kitchen to her room, knocking on her door. His arm twinged in pain from the previous night’s fall.

“Alice? It’s Albin, do you mind if I come in?” He opened the door when there was no reply.

Alice was laying face down on her bed. She looked so small, in comparison to the white walls and high ceiling that made the room feel endless. Everything was displayed on shelves or tucked away in drawers. You could say it was Instagram ready. A small sob teared through her again, greeting him in the saddest way possible. He set her plate of comfort food on the nightstand.

“My instrument… they broke my instrument!” Alice cried into her pillow. “She was my lucky charm, i-if I had her I would always win my competitions...” She sat up to face him, glittering streaks of tears running down reddened cheeks. “There’s no flute that could replace her!”

“...Her?”

“My flute! Georgia!” Albin didn’t understand the point in naming an object, but he didn’t say this out loud. “It’s not fair. Who the hell would do this to her?!”

“I don’t know… I’m so sorry this happened.” Albin coughed away the lump growing in his throat.

Alice began to talk about the awards she’d won, told him stories about the competitions she’d been to. She hugged him, trying to pull him in as tight as possible. But he tapped her back and kindly pushed her away by the shoulders. Yeah, he wasn’t a fan of hugging people he barely knew. Alice returned to hugging her pillow.

But the best part: she had no idea it had been him and Elias. And she’d wallow in sadness long enough for him to catch up, and win some awards of his own!

That night he found Elias in Albin’s gazebo once again. He ran towards him in exhilaration, and shone a troublesome smile when Elias waved at him.

“What’s next?” Albin asked.

#writing #oc #original character #original fiction #chapter #how many buzzwords can i get in the tags...#please leave a comment i just want this story to be loved #plantpost

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thenighttcat · 4 years

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Sometimes in the afternoon you’re sitting in the office, and as the wind from the air-con blows you sigh, and it’s about as dreary a sound as any person has ever heard.

Now is one such afternoon.

There is nothing to do, nothing at all. Every so often my boss will rise from his seat and, instantly set into alert mode, my hand will be poised over the trackpad to switch screens. Perhaps he too knows it’s all a sad, pathetic show that I am putting up, and he is playing along as well. My sole colleague is a gentle, unassuming lady in her early thirties who actually has work to do. Witnessing my pitiful state, she offers me her spare earphones, as if to say, “maybe you can watch some youtube”. I politely decline. What goo

Maybe it’s something about my personality, an inherent disinclination towards hardship, that always ends me up in a lacklustre, monotonous job. An underachiever, that’s what it feels like I am.

Last night, I couldn’t sleep. I lay on my bed, wide awake as the time slipped away. Precious minutes and hours wasted just like that. I played a track from a free mindfulness app that is supposed to help lull you into slumber, but it was futile, as was soft instrumental music from Music Lab Collective. I fidgeted, I tossed, I threw off my blanket. It was bright outside when I opened the door, light spilling out of my sister’s bedroom. It’s her second week of work at her new company, a renowned law firm—that is renowned for overworking their employees—and she was still working.

“I can’t sleep, do you have melatonin?’ I asked.

She wheeled over to her mirrored cupboard and fetched me a green plastic bottle. I tipped a single pill out and downed it with water.

Melatonin goes well with TV, I thought, so I headed over to my dad’s study cum Netflix room to watch some television. I went for something boring, an Australian TV show about a global conglomerate’s scheme to control their minds and manipulate them for profits. The theme song was Another Brick in the Wall. “We don’t need no education...” droned a mechanical voice before I clicked SKIP INTRO.

I watched one episode, another one, and maybe another, I don’t remember. I go back to bed, still can’t sleep, the digits on the microwave clock keeps changing. I feel tired, I am in a daze; then, and even as I am writing now. Behind me in the meeting room, my boss is talking on the phone to another colleague who’s ill and isn’t in the office. Her last day is today, and he is giving her a verbal appraisal. I think to myself that I won’t be able to bear that if he did that on my last day. “Daniel you foul piece of shit, you can’t even do the few simple tasks I give you properly. Always making mistakes and screwing up our accounts, and you wonder why you’d not given any work to do…”

Oh no. Maybe I’ll fake Covid on my last day.

One hour and 17 minutes more. I am reminded of a period of time when I was relegated to the admin department when I was in the navy. It was a plastic clock that hung on the wall, the no-frills analogue kind. I think it had a seconds hand, because I vaguely recollect staring at it with such intensity as it crept agonisingly around the clock. One damn second at a time.

I hit a new low. Bored out of my mind, I began searching up a client online. I had spoken to her the day before and she possessed a careless beauty, paired with a silky voice. Typically I put my script up on the screen and most of the time I’m referring to it rather than looking at the client’s face, but this time round I found myself drawn to the live video of the beautiful client as she spoke in her absolutely wonderful voice. I discovered that she was a comms major who has her own podcast for female entrepreneurs, and recently she is dabbling in data analytics (well, dabbling probably isn’t the right word, she is taking an online Masters course or something like that, but for a girl so gorgeous dabbling feels like a suitably pretty word) and why am even writing about this, I shall stop. But she is really beautiful…too bad I’ll never see her again. Cue the song You’re Beautiful.

People are more nosy than you think. My colleague admitted today that when she learnt of my boss’s home address (she needed to arrange some documents to be sent), she went to Google it. Apparently it’s somewhere in Eunos. “Do you think he lives alone?” she mused. Neither of us had an answer.

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chrismalcolmhnd2c · 4 years

Text

Doorstep Portrait

©Annie Dresner

©Julie Michaelsen

“In time of test, family is best.” – Burmese Proverb.

Research the Narrative

In your workbook or blog, research Social Portraiture. There will be further tasks and support through the Contextual Studies class.

Tell the Story

Organise a group shot that will involve a minimum of three people.

Following restrictions imposed by lock down, photographers have been finding neW and inivitave ways to continue their practice of social photograhy, and in turn documenting the current situation.

You may interpret this brief in a variety of ways however the end product should display a group of sitters photographed safely on location.

The location will be the sitter’s residence or work place however consider the best place at the location to photograph the sitters. Windows, doorstep, garden shed? Have fun with the posing.

Good location, controlled lighting, co-ordinated styling, effective communication, and effective posing/composition will all add to the ‘experience’ for your sitters.

A parental consent form should also be created when any members of your group are under 16.

Edit and refine: Complete worksheet

These images should be of a quality suitable for a private client to purchase and print, retouching flaws, great composition, sharp and properly exposed.

Submission: One Final A3 folio print ready canvas with 2 significantly different images of the same group.

Initial research for Social Portraiture for “White Shirt”

https://chrismalcolmhnd2c.tumblr.com/tagged/white

Further research on Doorstep Portraiture

Coronavirus: Doorstep photo diaries capture life in lockdown

Published 21 May 2020

Magnus and Jenny have enjoyed spending more time together during the coronavirus lockdown.

Over the last eight weeks doorstep photos have provided some of the enduring images of Scotland's lockdown.

Families, couples and housemates are having socially-distant photographs taken at their front doors in an effort to record these unusual times.

Among those following the trend to create snapshots of modern life is Glasgow photographer Caro Weiss.

"I now have more than 100 shoots booked over the next four weeks," she said.

"I've done a great mix of people, artists, makers, couples, people with dogs, kids. I have been booked for an anniversary shoot, a 'should have been our wedding day' shoot, birthdays, and ones that friends have booked for their friends to cheer them up if they are finding it really tough.

"I can't wait to meet everyone. It's the highlight of my days now."

We asked some of her subjects to tell us about their lockdown experience.

Alison and Willie McBride

Alison and Willie McBride, both in their 60s, can't do their regular jobs at the moment.

"We've recently moved to this flat which fortunately has its own private garden which we are thankful for during lockdown and we spend time there reading and playing Scrabble. We sent our doorstep photos to our daughter and family living in America and our son, daughter-in-law and another daughter living in Manchester. We are trying to face this crisis with quiet resilience and the photos show a sense of being in it together and looking after each other."

Susanne Bell and Stephen Gallagher

Musicians Susanne Bell and Stephen Gallagher wanted to document lockdown with a growing bump.

"I'm currently 36 weeks pregnant and we wanted some photographs to document our lockdown with our growing bump! We've not been able to visit friends and family for three months now so we're really missing seeing them and showing off the baby bump. We are both musicians who play in bands and teach music so we are working from home with Stephen's son Johannes who is 12. We've been really lucky to have lots of musical instruments and projects to keep us busy. Stephen is in a band called Scaramanga and has been writing, recording (remotely) and releasing new music."

Jenny McLean and son Magnus

Jenny, 38, wanted to record Magnus' sixth birthday during the lockdown.

"We're coping well - we face Queen's Park, so we never feel too isolated with all the people coming and going for their daily exercise. We've kept busy through a combination of juggling work, craft projects, schoolwork and a worsening online shopping habit (I bought a 1960s swimsuit the other day… when I'm next going swimming, I have no idea!). We've been lucky to stay healthy throughout. It was Magnus's sixth birthday at the weekend so it seemed the perfect way to remember his day, and a time where - amidst the pandemic - I've felt really lucky to have more time with him, away from our usual busy lives."

Barbara Smith, Chris Macfarlane, Innes and Ishbel

Barbara, 37, Chris, 38, and their children Innes, 6, and Ishbel, 4, loved their "daft" photos.

"We are so pleased with our photos, they're so informal and more than a wee bit daft. Kids get big so quickly, it's a real treat to have a record of this time, even if it has been quite intense in parts! We are all healthy and enjoying having more family time, although I'm not sure I'm quite cut out for home schooling. I'm a wedding florist, so my business has been affected drastically, everything is either cancelled or postponed. Which at least means that I am able to take on childcare now that Chris has to work from home. He is a college tutor and is having to adapt to teaching his students online."

Cecilia Stamp, Greg Paterson and Leo

Cecilia Stamp is looking after her mum in nearby sheltered housing and has lost a family member to the virus.

"I'm a jeweller and I don't have full access to my workshop at the moment so I have been working as best I can but I really miss my workspace - especially as there's equipment I don't have at home. One of my main priorities has been looking after my mum who lives nearby in sheltered housing, doing food shops for her etc, as she can't go out. We've had a family member die from the virus down south, which was a huge shock as he was in good health, so it's been especially difficult for her too. We couldn't go to the funeral and trying to sort things remotely was a challenge."

Kenji Kitahama and Till Stowasser

Till, 42 and Kenji, 44, are both working from home.

"We're hanging in there and trying to make the best of the situation. We're very lucky in that both Till and I are able to work from home. Till is a professor and has been holding all of his lectures online since the beginning of March. I'm a bookbinder who makes bespoke photo albums and books. I run my small business from my home studio, so the lockdown hasn't affected my daily work routine a great deal. However, this is a time when I'm usually busy making wedding albums but since all of these celebrations have been cancelled or rescheduled, it's been a bit quieter. We're so grateful for all the frontline workers and of course, the postal service—who are making it possible to keep my little business afloat."

The McGarrigles

Eamon, 40 Claire, 40, Nancy, 5, and one-year-old Nena are getting used to sharing their space a lot more.

"We are currently adapting to the new way of life with Eamon now working from home. I'm no longer able to work as my place of work is temporarily closed due to Covid-19, so I am now attempting to be a home school teacher to Nancy who was in P1. We are missing our families and friends so much as we are both from Northern Ireland originally and have no family here in Glasgow. Our kids keep us sane and drive us mad in equal measures. I hope they will remember this time in their lives as the time we all got to hang out more, baked cakes, clapped with all our wonderful neighbours on a Thursday night and painted rainbows."

Terri Hawkins and Ernst

Terri Hawkins, 31 and Ernst Wolf, 2, have a flat full of flowers.

"I am a florist and rely mainly on weddings and events, so my business has been hugely affected. Me and my partner Angus fell through the cracks for government funding so we had major money panics. My business was the only way we could earn money, so we turned our living room into a dried flower workshop and came up with these flower arranging kits that people can make at home using dried flowers. They are great and keeping the whole family just afloat right now! Angus has started working for me, he's in charge of the logistics, computer stuff, ordering and I do all the making.

"Our house is a mess filled with flowers, our poor two-year-old has to watch TV every morning whilst we frantically work, we try and get it all done for lunch time then spend the day playing with our son Ernst! The online flower shop has been our families saviour, we are extremely grateful."

The Evans family - Mhairi, Maeve and Joe

Mhairi, 35, Joe, 36 and Maeve (who will be six next week) have made the best of a bad situation.

"Joe and I are working from home and juggling home schooling. We've all been lucky to be quite well but did have some mild symptoms near the beginning so went through isolation. It's pretty full on. Some days are fun, some days are really hard and we've all been up and down. Maeve is beginning to really miss her friends and her school. We're just trying to make the best of it but we miss our families and friends a lot. I have so much respect for all key workers and I'm happy to stay at home for as long as we have to if that keeps them safe."

Hazel Jane and George Windsor

Hazel Jane, 23 and Dr George Windsor, 29, had only moved in together in February and say their lockdown was a "cohabitation of fire".

"We're both lucky enough to continue working full-time from home throughout lockdown and we do this by rotating spaces between the kitchen table and the sofa. Neither of us have shown any symptoms so it's been a smooth ride in that sense, but we have certainly suffered the mental health dips that come with quarantine and won't be unhappy to see the end of it. We moved in together in February so this has been a cohabitation baptism of fire. Also, these are not the haircuts we went into quarantine with. Mine is now considerably longer, while George's DIY cut leaves lots to be desired."

Claire Jonston-Dawson, John and Eddy

Claire, 33, John, 30 and Eddy, 2 have enjoyed more time together in their "flat bubble".

"We co-own a tiny pizza restaurant with a friend, so life is completely different for us in lockdown as we are closed right now, and have been since mid-March. It has had its ups and downs, as we, like so many others, still wait to find out what financial help we're getting for our business, but restaurant aside we've adjusted to slower, much simpler days and getting to hang out together. And we know we are some of the lucky ones in this situation, so really just spend our days swinging from guilt to gratitude for our small but cosy flat bubble, to being overwhelmed and angry at the UK government."

Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-52706375

Further Research

Photographers taking 'doorstep portraits' capture candid picture of life in lockdown from Kent's towns and villages

By Sean Delaney

Published: 27 May 2020

Photographers across Kent are taking candid shots of households on their doorsteps in a bid to document precious family memories and drum up funds for the NHS.

The industry was among those hardest hit by the lockdown restrictions as studios, weddings and other public places were all deemed out of bounds.

Couple Charlie and Lauren Moore in Snodland Photo: Strawberry Photography

But now so-called "doorstep photoshoots" are providing families with the chance to capture some priceless memories during these difficult times.

It has also afforded snappers a safe space in which to engage with clients and neighbours while also bringing in some much needed cash for their businesses and the health service.

New mum Sarah Hunt is currently running her business Strawberry Photography from her home in Snodland.

The 32-year-old usually focusses on weddings but as these have all now been rescheduled until next year the doorstep project has been providing a new outlet in-between caring for her three month old daughter Margot.

Each session is conducted outside and in line with government guidelines on the two metre distance, although in reality Sarah says it’s closer to four or five metres because of the quality of her camera lens.

Tony Legg and Jane Pullinger-Legg who is a nurse assessor in the NHS Photo: Strawberry Photography

"It was a little bit slow at first. I think people couldn't quite grasp the idea of how it worked," she said.

Work soon began to pick up and Sarah has been booked in for various sessions around Snodland which she times around her baby's feeds.

"These have been a lot of fun and gone down really well," she said. "My approach is very relaxed and informal which enables me to create real and candid photos."

"I was doing virtual shoots and these were okay but they are just not the same as getting out and taking photos".

Sarah has snapped everyone from a funeral director to a nurse assessor and her pet pooches.

But a group she has taken shots of regularly is mums-to-be and includes one expecting mum who found out she was pregnant just days before going into lockdown.

Funeral director Gray Reigate, pictured with wife Zoe, daughter Molly and Boris the boxer Photo: Strawberry Photography

She said: "As well as family photoshoots, I have also photographed mums to be which has been so great as many of them have been in lockdown since the start of their pregnancies, so this has been a lovely way for them to show off their bumps.

"Otherwise there is going to be people being like 'oh my god' you're pregnant.

"Adapting my business to be able to create these images for people in these unprecedented times has been extremely rewarding – It's also great to just get back out there with my camera."

Payment is collected through contactless means and £5 from every shoot is donated to the NHS.

Sarah is also part of a team of Kent wedding suppliers who are putting on a wedding worth £35,000 for one lucky NHS worker.

The competition is the brainchild of Lou Finn, owner of Ashford-based Bake To The Future who has brought together 52 suppliers to donate their services for free.

The Champion family photo: Estelle Thompson Photography

Another photographer who has been doing her part for the NHS is Sevenoaks-based Estelle Thompson.

The 46-year-old has been capturing a frank snapshot of what lockdown life has been like in the small village of Fawkham in Longfield.

Estelle's calendar would usually be booked up with weddings and baby shoots at this time.

But when the Coronavirus struck her business Estelle Photography ground to a halt and as a self-employed worker says she did not qualify for government relief.

She wrote on her blog: "My heart broke every time a bride contacted me to discuss new dates for a wedding that was long awaited and now would be pushed back further."

Scarlett and Harry used the photos to wish their nanny a happy birthday, as they couldn't be with her. Photo: Estelle Thompson Photography

The snapper filled her time taking shots of her dogs and birds on the garden feeder but said nothing could match up to the joy of "capturing the personalities and cheeky smiles" of people.

"We are never photographers because it pays the bills, we are photographers because we love it," she said.

Estelle noticed people talking about a project in America called "Doorstep portraits" and decided to emulate it in her own tiny village by posting on the Fawkham community Facebook page.

The response was simply overwhelming, she says, with so many people wanting to be photographed – mostly to document what the current time is like for their children.

It was this which was to serve as her main motivator throughout the period, she adds "for those kids to be able to turn around to their own kids and show them this is what it was like".

In return Estelle asked villagers for a £10 pledge to the NHS and has now amassed more than £500 thanks to various generous donations.

Adele Barker is the new priest-in-charge at Saint Marys Photo: Estelle Thompson Photography

She said: "So, I had photographed the village, the people that live here, the rocks and the rainbows.

"It is kind of my gift, to the village that I love, where both my home and my business is."

She recalls how even her husband became a hero in the village after dressing up as a Tyrannosaurus Rex and surprising a three-year-old boy from afar while having his birthday party in lockdown.

The photographer says the idea has since "spiralled" into a time capsule, with her being asked to bury a USB containing some of the doorstep portraits.

She even snapped the new priest Adele Barker who arrived at the local church St Marys in Longfield not long before lockdown.

"So much has changed," she said. "If you look back now the first photo had daffodils, now there is blue bells."

Estelle's husband dressed up as a dinosaur to celebrate neighbour Josh who was celebrating his third birthday in lockdown Photo: Estelle Thompson Photography

But even though she misses her family and friends Estelle says she is incredibly grateful for her village neighbours.

She added: "The community during this time has just been incredible –to have their experience to document."

David and Jemma Rannard of Click:Create Rannard's Photography and Design have been offering to take family portraits outside homes but also to record important events during lockdown.

David said: "The family photos have really taken off. It is a way for people to keep in touch during these terrible times.

"When we realised people were making the effort to stage VE Day parties at home we thought it could be a natural extension of what we do."

David and Jemma Rannard and daughter Eva of Click:Create at Iwade offering VE Day photos on your doorstep

Wife Jemma, a graphic designer, is usually on hand and the couple now have an apprentice in the shape of their nine-year-old daughter Eva.

The couple charge £20 for a 10-minute photo shoot and donate £5 to the NHS.

It’s an emotional pledge for the family who sadly lost a friend to Covid-19.

And while offers of work are now coming in from different parts of the county the couple say they are having to decline them.

He explained: "It really only started as a bit of a service to villagers in Iwade where we live. We have done a few in Sittingbourne but I didn't think it was right for us to travel too far.

"It really angers me when people don't take this situation seriously and ignore the advice we are being given. The more we all sacrifice now, the quicker it will be over."

Source: https://www.kentonline.co.uk/authors/sean-delaney/

#doorstep

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jwuffygaming · 5 years

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James Wuffy’s Retro Adventure - Entry #0

Hey everyone!

I know not many peeps still use Tumblr, but I figured this was a good place to get started. I will explain the title soon enough, but here’s the reason why I’m making this series:

I like retro games. A lot. I like that a game can be good or fun (and preferably both!) regardless of:

how old it is;

how well-known it is;

hardware limitations of the time;

nostalgic value.

However, despite my fascination with old games, I have not actually beaten many of the classics. While I have played a few, I did so on console emulators, using save states.

For the uninitiated, save states are artificial save points that a player can create at any time when playing on an emulator. If they screw up, they can restore that save point, as if nothing bad happened.

This means I did not experience those games the way they were meant to be played. As such, I aim to fix this, and beat some of these classics properly:

if a game doesn’t have a save/password feature, I will beat it in one go;

if a game doesn’t store the number of lives/weapons/etc. I had upon saving or using a password, I will grind for them once more (foreshadowing~~~);

if I have to keep retrying over and over to get better at the game, so be it.

I intend on recreating the experience of playing on console, for better or for worse. Hence the name of the series, James Wuffy’s Retro Adventure. And I’m gonna be documenting my progress here, on this blog.

Being an introductory post (which is why it is entry #0), I wanted to briefly shame part of my gaming backstory, focusing on 4 games from my childhood.

So here we go!

A little backstory...

I was around 4 or 5 years old when I had my first gaming experience (I was born in 1990, for reference).

One of my grandparents’ neighbors had an NES, and she let me play on it.

The NES, or Nintendo Entertainment System, is an 8-bit console released in Europe in 1986. It was originally released in Japan in 1983, and there it was known as Famicom, or Nintendo Family Computer.

She had the 2-in-1 Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt cartridge and The Legend of Zelda. I can’t recall if she had any other games.

Funnily enough, another neighbor of my grandparents was my cousin, who had a bootleg NES console, with those multi-game cartridges. We were able to play dozens of games on it, it was a lot of fun.

Eventually, my parents bought me and my brother an NES. I was around 6 years old by then. The NES was pretty old at this point, and it came bundled with two games: The Hunt for Red October and Solomon’s Key.

For a while, these were the only two games I could get my hands on. I eventually moved to another house, and one of our neighbors had an NES too. He had two games that I had not yet played: Super Mario Bros 2 and Nintendo World Cup. He let me borrow those, and I had a lot of fun with them.

But let’s get into a bit more detail, shall we?

The Hunt for Red October

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The Hunt for Red October was tough. Its music isn’t catchy or upbeat, it’s downright eerie - fitting for the story’s atmosphere, but unpleasant to listen to for longs periods. It also has some pretty nifty cutscenes for NES standards.

The original book was published in 1984, and a movie based on it was released in 1990. The game came out in 1991, making it a “movie tie-in game”, which were notorious for being quickly-developed cash-grabs, riding on the popularity of the movie and having varying levels of quality. They did put some effort into it though, unlike most movie tie-in games of this era.

In this game, you control a submarine, and you can:

shoot forward with the A button;

shoot limited homing missiles with the B button;

collect items to replenish missiles and repair the sub, among other things;

camouflage yourself temporarily from enemy subs with the Select button;

fight a boss at the end of each stage.

You also take damage from touching walls and other obstacles, so you have to tread carefully.

The final level has a drastic change in gameplay style. It’s a platforming level where you control who I presume is the captain and have to kill enemies and disarm bombs that have been planted on the submarine. And this level drags on.

One time, my brother and I accidentally put in a “99 lives” code. We were never able to replicate, and upon looking it up online, I’ve no clue how we managed to even do it in the first place since it’s quite long.

We beat level after level, but you always start the final level with 5 lives, regardless of how many lives you had before. Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to beat the game.

But oh well, on to the next one!

Solomon’s Key

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Then, there was Solomon’s Key. This is one of those games where each level is equivalent to “one TV screen”. A lot of NES games were like that, at the beginning of the console’s lifespan.

You control Dana, a wizard that can create and destroy golden blocks with the A button (or bonk them with his head twice to destroy them) and throw fireballs with the B button when you have them in-store.

In terms of stages, you have:

48 regular stages: 4 stages per Zodiac constellation;

12 bonus stages - Hidden Room: these are unlocked by collecting a constellation item in each 4th level of a constellation;

3 secret stages - Room of Time, Room of Space, Princess Room: these are unlocked by collecting seals along the way. Doing so will replace 2 of the bonus stages with the Room of Time and the Room of Space;

1 final stage - Solomon’s Key

If you play the game casually, at most, you will complete all the regular stages, maybe a few bonus ones, and the final stage. This will grant you one of the game’s endings, but not the best one. You have to collect all the seals to be able to unlock and complete the secret stages. This is mandatory if you want the best ending.

However, these seals are hidden. When an item is hidden in a tile, you have to create and destroy a golden block on top of that tile, and then the item becomes visible. BUT, since there are no hints whatsoever as to which stages have seals, and in which tiles they are hidden, you’d have to create blocks in every single tile of every single stage to find them all on your own.

Do a little research instead: look up a walkthrough or use the video above, it’s the sensible thing to do.

The game is quite long and has no password system. There is a continue code, that allows you to continue up until stage 41. I don’t think my brother and I knew about this code at the time, so this is another game we didn’t beat. It’s still a pretty cool game though.

Nintendo World Cup

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Now, I don’t really like football. However, this game is seriously a lot of fun. Here are a few reasons why:

there are no yellow nor red cards, so you can tackle and slide into players as much as you want. In earlier matches, you can actually put the other players out of commission by tackling them over and over, and they just lie there on the field, KO’ed. Unfortunately, you cannot tackle players from stronger teams, so you’re stuck using the slide to steal the ball from them;

you can do super-powered kicks/headbutts, called Super Shots, which are harder for the goalkeepers to defend than regular shots. Any players hit by a Super Shot go flying around, which was always super fun to watch as a kid;

2 player matches, with exclusive football fields to pick from. You can go with the default grass field, a field with rocks that players trip on, an ice field where players that get tackled/slid into slide all over the place... it’s a lot of fun;

a password system, so you can resume your progress after turning the console off without a problem. And you could alter a couple of digits in the password to play with a different team as well.

I actually did beat this game as a kid. So many fond memories :3

Super Mario Bros 2

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Super Mario Bros 2 is by far the most well-known game in this list. It’s also infamous for being a reskin of a game never released outside of Japan called Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic. Supposedly, the original SMB 2 was deemed too difficult for Western audiences at the time, and Nintendo was afraid that it wouldn’t sell well overseas, especially after the first game in the series was such a big hit. So, they took Doki Doki Panic, which was an easier game, tinkered with its looks and released it as the official SMB 2 in America and Europe.

In this game, you can play as Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Princess Toadstool, as she was known at the time. Each has their own stats in terms of jumping capability and strength, this last one determining how fast a character can pick up enemies, objects, and vegetables. Every time you start a new stage, you get to pick which character to use:

Mario is the well-rounded character, with average jumping skill and strength;

Luigi jumps the highest and has a very floaty jump, staying in the air longer. This also means that he’s a little harder to do precise jumps with;

Toad jumps the lowest but is the strongest character, picking up things really fast and being the fastest when holding something;

Toadstool is the weakest character, but possesses the best aerial movement, since she can glide for a couple of seconds, allowing for long jumps and more precise landings. She’s the most beginner-friendly character, and thus, my main character of choice as a kid.

Every character can also duck for a few seconds until they start flashing. This allows them to do a high jump and reach high platforms. Without this jump, some characters wouldn’t be able to complete certain levels. At the time, I didn’t know this ability existed, and so I thought certain levels were only beatable if you picked Luigi.

There are also hidden warps in the game, that let you skip several stages ahead. I actually managed to discover these warps on my own, and I was pretty proud of myself :p. It was one of the first games I beat on the NES, if not the first one.

Last words

And with all that said, I think it’s about time I wrap things up here. I know it was a lot to get through, but hopefully, you enjoyed my ramblings :3. And maybe you’ll be interested in checking some of these games out yourself.

My next entry will be the proper beginning of the adventure.

Until next time!

#James Wuffy Retro Adventure #Retro Adventure #Gaming #Retro #The Hunt for Red October #Solomon's Key #Super Mario Bros 2 #Nintendo World Cup #NES

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kkoehn17 · 4 years

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Hello and welcome back to another edition of favorites!

I have officially given up on creative introductions.

Podcasts

I haven’t been in a huge podcast mood these past couple months, so not only am I behind on most of the shows that I already listen to, I haven’t been actively hunting for new ones either. That being said however, I did come across The Next Right Thing, which is a short, faith based podcast that, like the song in Frozen 2 (even though this podcast pre-dates the movie) encourages you to take one positive step forward. Almost all of the episode are less than 15 minutes, giving you a little burst of inspiration each week. Highly recommend!

Books

What I’ve been lacking in podcast motivation, I’ve definitely made up for in good books. First off, This is Going to Hurt, written by (now) TV writer Adam Kay. It chronicles his 6 years as a doctor and is full of hilarious, terrifying, and heart wrenching stories. As soon as I started it I recommended it to my mom so we could laugh and cringe our way through it together and we both loved it!

Next, A Very Punchable Face by Colin Jost. This is truly one of the funniest books I’ve ever read. I already loved Colin Jost from Saturday Night Live, but his wit and sense of humor shine in this memoir, and it was exactly what I needed during this crazy year. I listened to the audiobook which was fantastic, but if you are able, I’d recommend reading the eBook/physical copy, as there are tons of hilarious stories that have accompanying photographs I wish I could have seen.

And finally, Black Widow by Leslie Gray Streeter. The full title of the book is Black Widow: A Sad-Funny Journey Through Grief for People Who Normally Avoid Books with Words Like Journey in the Title, which is long, but accurate. After suddenly losing her husband to a heart attack, the author documents the next year of her life, somehow finding humor that can make you laugh out loud. As a writer, I greatly admired her ability to turn to writing during such a hard time, and then to have the courage to share it, it was a very inspiring, heartbreaking and heartwarming read.

TV Shows

I don’t know how many times my brother recommended Community before I finally started watching it, but I’d like to formally apologize for waiting so long. It is so funny, so smart, so clever, and it never fails to make me laugh. I’m genuinely bummed I didn’t watch this show when it was on the air, but I’m so glad I’m watching it now! (find it on Netflix)

Movies

I have been trading movie recommendations with a friend of mine and Enemy came up a couple weeks ago and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. What is it about, you might ask? I can’t tell you. Because 1) it’s really, truly, a you need to see it to believe it type of movie and 2) I’m still not really sure. I will say though, I found this article really helpful in the aftermath. (find it on Amazon)

Music

I don’t think I’m alone when I say that the main album that stole my heart over these last couple months is folklore by Taylor Swift. It was such a great surprise and a welcome comfort in this crazy times. I have fully embraced its rainy day attitude, even on the hottest of days in Southern California.

Alongside that, I have also had a handful of songs I’ve been playing on repeat, some summery, some sad, some comforting. A little bit of everything:

MadHappySad by BabyJake

Pretty Please by Dua Lipa

Catching Feelings by Drax Project & SIX60

Famous For (I Believe) by Tauren Wells & Jenn Johnson

Hurting by Kygo & Rhys Lewis

Closer by POWERS

Rager teenager! by Troye Sivan

Passerby by Patrick Droney

Waste of a Lime by Ingrid Andress

Fighting for Me by Riley Clemmons

These Amazon Shelves

I am a collector of vintage cameras, and I have long been looking for a way to properly display them and so I was very excited to find these frames on Amazon. They are affordable, easy to hang, and sturdy enough that I could set up my cameras without fear. I would also recommend some Museum Putty, which I used to stick the cameras to the shelves (and the wall) since California seems to be a little earthquake happy at the moment. (find them here)

Face Mask Applicators

I had heard rumblings about these guys around social media, but wasn’t sure if they were really worth the money. But upon finding a cheap two pack on Amazon, I pulled the trigger and can honestly say they are WORTH IT. They save product, help you apply masks more evenly, and make you feel like you are painting a masterpiece on your face, which is delightful. (find them here)

July/August Favorites Hello and welcome back to another edition of favorites! I have officially given up on creative introductions.

#a very punchable face colin jost #advice #amazon #black widow leslie gray streeter #blogging #community netflix #enemy movie #face mask applicators #Favorites #folklore taylor swift #july and august favorites #life #random #recommendations #shelves #the next right thing podcast #this is going to hurt adam kay

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networkingdefinition · 5 years

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January Quotes

Official Website: January Quotes

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• A lot of the listeners don’t realize that the Daytona 24 Hours is the most difficult race in the world. It’s 24 hours, a lot of darkness because it’s held at the end of January, so you’re talking about 13-14 hours of darkness. – Scott Pruett • A secret blueprint for US global domination reveals that President Bush and his cabinet were planning a premeditated attack on Iraq to secure regime change even before he took power in January 2001… It has been called a secret blueprint for US global domination. … A small group of people with a plan to remove Saddam Hussein long before George W. Bush was elected president. … And 9/11 provided the opportunity to set it in motion. Not since Mein Kampf has a geopolitical punch been so blatantly telegraphed years ahead of the blow. – Ted Koppel • A stock market decline is as routine as a January blizzard in Colorado. If you’re prepared, it can’t hurt you. A decline is a great opportunity to pick up the bargains left behind by investors who are fleeing the storm in panic. – Peter Lynch • A woman I loved [Andi Parhamovich] was killed in Baghdad in January 2007 – al-Qaeda in Iraq took credit for it … The memorial service with me crying over an empty coffin. – Michael Hastings • After I knock out Randy Couture, I’ll fight for the heavyweight title, the real heavyweight boxing title in October or November, come back and fight in the UFC in January or February. It doesn’t matter, I’m a two sport athlete. The oldest man to ever do that. – James Toney • After that transition to the White House, Donald Trump will settle in for his first day of work, January 21, 2017. He’s already proposed the actions he wants to take within his first 100 days in office, but which campaign promises can he realistically tackle in that time? – Hari Sreenivasan • After that transition to the White House, Donald Trump will settle in for his first day of work, January 21, 2017. He’s already proposed the actions he wants to take within his first 100 days in office, but which campaign promises can he realistically tackle in that time? – Hari Sreenivasan • ‘All in the Family’ took ten weeks to take off in 1971, and we were lucky to start in January, because if it had started in the regular fall season of 1970, I don’t know if we would have lasted. The ratings didn’t take off until the end of that fall season, when the other two networks ran out of fresh shows. – Norman Lear • An estimated 7 million illegal immigrants were residing in the United States in January 2000. This is double the size of the illegal immigrant population in January 1990 and constitutes 2.5 percent of the total U.S. population of just over 281 million – Gary Miller • And now, since I’ve been governor since last January, I have written numerous letters to the administration in regards to securing our borders with absolutely no response. So we have been facing this crisis, and it’s devastating the people of Arizona. And I feel as governor I have a responsibility to protect the citizens. – Jan Brewer • Are you such a dreamer To put the world to rights? I’ll stay home forever Where two and two always makes a five I’ll lay down the tracks Sandbag and hide January has April’s showers And two and two always makes a five It’s the devil’s way now There is no way out You can SCREAM and you can shout It is too late now Because… You have not been Payin’ attention! Payin’ attention! Payin’ attention! Payin’ attention! You have not been paying attention! – Thom Yorke • As far as sometimes being involved with different demonstrations, I did an anti-war protest in San Fran in January, and I’m standing there, amongst all these people, and it’s this great thing to see people being active and actually standing up for what they believe in and still letting the government know that there are people who will still sacrifice a portion of their day to stand up for what they care about, but I’m just thinking to myself, “God, man, these protests have been going on throughout I-don’t-even-know-how-many years, and here we are again.” – Mr. Lif • As my other obligations are beginning to take an inordinate amount of time, I have asked to step down as WMG’s board chairman, effective January 31, 2012. However, I will remain a director of the company and in that way, continue my association with Warner Music and its extraordinary people. – Edgar Bronfman, Jr. • At the end of October I started doing a bit more swimming and learning how to swim properly, because I hadn’t really done it since I was at school. Then I really accelerated in December and for the whole of January’s I’ve been doing at least one thing a day – normally a swim and a cycle, or a swim and a run, every single day. – Greg James

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• Blessing will happen to you and your family throughout the year because you faster in January. – Jentezen Franklin • Boots in January are always a good look, and some of the cutest ones I’ve seen lately were designed by Ivanka Trump, who knows a thing or two about style. – Gayle King • By the time I stepped down as Xerox’s CEO in 2009 – and as chairman in January 2010 – Xerox had become the vibrant, profitable and revitalized company that it still is today. What made the difference was a strong turnaround plan, dedicated people and a firm commitment from company leaders. – Anne M. Mulcahy • Certainly there is a depression I think a lot of Black folks are getting ready to have come January [2017] and that might be an interesting story to tell. – Ed Gordon • Come, ye cold winds, at January’s call, On whistling wings, and with white flakes bestrew The earth. – John Ruskin • Cultivo una rosa blanca, En julio como en enero, Para el amigo sincero Que me da su mano franca. Y para el cruel que me arranca El corazon con que vivo, Cardo ni oruga cultivo Cultivo una rosa blanca. I have a white rose to tend In July as in January; I give it to the true friend Who offers his frank hand to me. And to the cruel one whose blows Break the heart by which I live, Thistle nor thorn do I give: For him, too, I have a white rose. – Jose Marti • Dandelion wine. The words were summer on the tongue. The wine was summer caught and stoppered…sealed away for opening on a January day with snow falling fast and the sun unseen for weeks. – Ray Bradbury • December is the toughest month of the year. Others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, October, August, and February. – Mark Twain • Dieting on New Year’s Day isn’t a good idea as you can’t eat rationally but really need to be free to consume whatever is necessary, moment by moment, in order to ease your hangover. I think it would be much more sensible if resolutions began generally on January the second. – Helen Fielding • Dirty days hath September April June and November From January up to May The rain it raineth every day All the rest have thirty-one Without a blessed gleam of sun And if any of them had two-and-thirty They’d be just as wet and twice as dirty.”

“April hath put a spirit of youth in everything. – William Shakespeare • Donald Trump said that he would likely have a decision and an announcement by the end of January [2017] and that’ll obviously take a great deal of energy. It’s enormously important in the life of the Court and the life of the nation. – Mike Pence • Donald Trump said that he would likely have a decision and an announcement by the end of January [2017] and that’ll obviously take a great deal of energy. It’s enormously important in the life of the Court and the life of the nation. – Mike Pence • Early this morning, 1 January 2021, three minutes after midnight, the last human being to be born on earth was killed in a pub brawl in a suburb of Buenos Aires, aged twenty-five years, two months and twelve days. – P. D. James • Even though it was January, in Los Angeles it was beautiful and sunny and the blue skies were out and it was hot everyday, so I think it was just a product of our environment. And California to me as a concept or as an idea always seems like endless optimism and endless opportunity – when people think of California they think of palm trees and blue skies and gorgeous sunsets and beaches and everything else. But there’s also this weirdness to California, this darkness, it’s a place where people come to follow their dreams and sometimes don’t make it. – Mark Hoppus • Every man should be born again on the first day of January. Start with a fresh page. Take up one hole more in the buckle if necessary, or let down one, according to circumstances; but on the first of January let every man gird himself once more, with his face to the front, and take no interest in the things that were and are past. – Henry Ward Beecher • Every man should be born again on the first day of January. Start with a fresh page – Henry Ward Beecher • Feeling a little blue in January is normal. – Marilu Henner • Following 25 children for the TV series ‘Child of Our Time’ has been extraordinary. The BBC’s original plan was to commemorate the new millennium. What better way than to film a number of expectant mums from across the U.K.? Coming from widely different backgrounds, all were due to give birth on January 1, 2000. – Robert Winston • Frost in January minus 20 for a week. Dead birds frozen on the branch—they fall with the first thaw like ripe fruit—death-ripened. We shall all end like them—just a stain in the snow. – Lawrence Durrell • Government is saying to the average citizen every January 1: ‘For the next five months you’ll be working for us, for goals we shall determine. Is that clear? After May 5 you may look after your own needs and ambitions, but report back to us next January. Now move along.’ … If nearly half of what you make is spent by someone else, that means that half your work time is spent working for someone else. Call me a radical, but I think that comes dangerously close to being a form of indentured servitude. – Dick Armey • Having survived her 10th London winter (she got through January by assigning it “international month,” and amusing Moses and his big sister, Apple, 9, with a visiting Italian chef, Japanese anime screenings, and hand-rolled-sushi lessons, no less), Paltrow admits that her dreams of relocating the family to their recently acquired residence in Brentwood, California, are becoming ever more urgent. – Gwyneth Paltrow • Here Churchill repeats with approval a statement he had first made in January, 1930 “at a meeting at the Cannon Street Hotel.” “Sooner or later you will have to crush Gandhi and the Indian Congress and all they stand for.” – Winston Churchill • Honestly, I just go to restaurants to eat so I won’t die. If there was a pill I could take in January and then I wouldn’t have to eat again for the rest of the year, I would take it. Of course, I wouldn’t want to sacrifice my chocolate cake and ice cream. – Steven Wright • I actually looked up in my journal trying to figure out some dates and, in January 1991, America is about to go back into its first sort of actual war since Vietnam, with the Gulf War. It just seemed unbelievable at the time that this country would do that – which is funny to think about now. – Ian MacKaye • I am no more lonely than a single mullein or dandelion in a pasture, or a bean leaf, or sorrel, or a horse-fly, or a bumblebee. I am no more lonely than the Mill Brook, or a weathercock, or the north star, or the south wind, or an April shower, or a January thaw, or the first spider in a new house. – Henry David Thoreau • I arrived in San Francisco in January 1951. After the Second World War, the population was so uprooted. Soldiers came back home for brief periods and took off again. So the population was very fluid, and suddenly it was as if the continent tilted west. The whole population slid west. It took 10 years for America to coalesce into a new culture. And the new culture happened in San Francisco, not New York. – Lawrence Ferlinghetti • I began my pilgrimage on the first of January in 1953. It is my spiritual birthday of sorts. It was a period in which I was merged with the whole. No longer was I a seed buried under the ground, but I felt as a flower reaching out effortlessly toward the sun. – Peace Pilgrim • I co-pastor now, so I preach six months, then another guy preaches six months. So that’s really why I’m preparing for January, because I’ll finish in June; then I’ll be writing and doing other projects for the rest of the year. – Max Lucado • I co-pastor now, so I preach six months, then another guy preaches six months. So that’s really why I’m preparing for January, because I’ll finish in June; then I’ll be writing and doing other projects for the rest of the year. – Max Lucado • I do go back to Ireland, and I’ll probably be doing a film in Ireland in January, and I guess that kind of keeps me classified as ‘the Irish actor,’ but the last four or five projects that I’ve been in are either American or English, so I don’t feel terribly trapped in that. But sometimes, yeah, you would like to not be called ‘the Irish actor.’ You’d prefer to just be called ‘the actor.’ – Colm Meaney • I do not love you except because I love you; I go from loving to not loving you, From waiting to not waiting for you My heart moves from cold to fire. I love you only because it’s you the one I love; I hate you deeply, and hating you Bend to you, and the measure of my changing love for you Is that I do not see you but love you blindly. Maybe January light will consume My heart with its cruel Ray, stealing my key to true calm. In this part of the story I am the one who Dies, the only one, and I will die of love because I love you, Because I love you, Love, in fire and blood. – Pablo Neruda • I ended up meeting this guy Stefan Simchowitz, who produced Requiem for a Dream and also went to AFI. I randomly met him in Cannes. By September of 2000, we had made a deal with this company that he was working with. They merged with us and in January of 2001, we opened WireImage. It was pretty crazy because I only started shooting celebrity stuff in 1998 – literally two and a half years later, I’m opening this company. – Jeff Vespa • I got stopped in front of the bras in Victoria’s Secret; I get interrogated in airport bathrooms. I went to South Africa in January to see my family, and even there people would stop me and ask, “Sasha, who’s A?” Even my grandma. – Sasha Pieterse • I got stopped in front of the bras in Victoria’s Secret; I get interrogated in airport bathrooms. I went to South Africa in January to see my family, and even there people would stop me and ask, “Sasha, who’s A?” Even my grandma. – Sasha Pieterse • I guess I’m okay with that. But it’s not going to be easy for you. They don’t have a lot of fishing or mudding around here.” “I figured.” “And not a lot of beach volleyball, either. Especially in January.” “I guess I’ll have to make some sacrifices.” “Maybe if you’re lucky, we can find you some other ways to occupy your time.” – Nicholas Sparks • I have eight times online since January [2016] in which Hillary Clinton has had massive coughing fits in which she couldn’t complete her speech. I’ve seen her lifted onto airplanes. And I don’t know what’s wrong with her. – Rudy Giuliani • I have seen women looking at jewelry ads with a misty eye and one hand resting on the heart, and I only know what they’re feeling because that’s how I read the seed catalogs in January. – Barbara Kingsolver • I have to admit, in January and February I was in an absolute fuzz. I had no one on board. It wasn’t that I didn’t know what I was doing, but we didn’t have all the pieces put together. – Donna Shalala • I miss All Stars, by the way. I was just telling people: how am I going to get by until January? – Jason Wu • I miss everything about Chicago, except January and February. – Gary Cole • I started singing for The Phantom in January, and we started filming in October and I sang all the way through to the next June. In fact, I was singing for about two months before I even knew I had the role. – Gerard Butler • I started to call myself a “rational therapist” in January 1955; later I used the term “rational emotive.” Now I call myself a “rational emotive behavior therapist.” But from the start, I always included philosophic techniques as well as experiential, emotional and behavioral techniques. – Albert Ellis • I started to call myself a “rational therapist” in January 1955; later I used the term “rational emotive.” Now I call myself a “rational emotive behavior therapist.” But from the start, I always included philosophic techniques as well as experiential, emotional and behavioral techniques. – Albert Ellis • I think I can safely call 2012 average. Overall, it was a stronger year for nonfiction than fiction – a situation that would’ve surprised me back in January, when I was looking forward to big new novels from several authors I really love. – David Edelstein • I think I can safely call 2012 average. Overall, it was a stronger year for nonfiction than fiction – a situation that would’ve surprised me back in January, when I was looking forward to big new novels from several authors I really love. – David Edelstein • I traveled for seven years, and when I came back home I was completely lost. I didn’t know what to do with my life, so I decided to let people decide for me. For month I followed strangers on the street. For the pleasure of following, not because the party interested me. I photographed them without their knowledge, took note of their movements, and finally lost sight of them. At the end of January 1980, I chose a man and followed him to Venice. That’s how I started. That’s all. – Sophie Calle • I was born in my parents’ bedroom on January 16. The World Almanac says it was 1909. I say it was 1912. But what difference does it make as long as I feel 33? – Ethel Merman • I was born January 6, 1937, eight years after Wall Street crashed and two years before John Steinbeck published The Grapes of Wrath, his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about the plight of a family during the Great Depression. – Lou Holtz • I was born on the same day as Edgar Allan Poe and Dolly Parton: January 19. I am absolutely certain that this affects my writing in some way. – Eden Robinson • I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974. – Jeffrey Eugenides • I worked with my coach to develop some new spiral variations to make my program more interesting. Each one is different and you’ll have to wait until January to see them. – Sasha Cohen • I write one poem a year, usually in January or February. – Emily Susan Rapp • I, George Bush, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the decade beginning January 1, 1990, as the Decade of the Brain. – George H. W. Bush • If I had my way, I’d remove January from the calendar altogether and have an extra July instead. – Roald Dahl • If it’s January, I’m dead in three hours. But in June, I’d be hungry, but I’d make it out. I’d find my way without a map or compass. I say that with confidence. I can build a fire without a match. – Rob Corddry • If it’s January, I’m dead in three hours. But in June, I’d be hungry, but I’d make it out. I’d find my way without a map or compass. I say that with confidence. I can build a fire without a match. – Rob Corddry • If January is the month of change, February is the month of lasting change. January is for dreamers… February is for doers – – Marc Parent • If you go to Minnesota in January, you should know that it’s gonna be cold. You don’t panic when the thermometer falls below zero. – Peter Lynch • I’m not going to just take office in January, I’m going to take responsibility. – Mitt Romney • I’m right now wrapping up the sermon series on grace. I’d like to figure out what this next series will be in January. To do that, I’m going to come up with four or five really good ideas – at least that I think are really good ideas – and if I don’t sense God really highlighting one of those, I will go to the elders of our church and my co-pastors. – Max Lucado • I’m right now wrapping up the sermon series on grace. I’d like to figure out what this next series will be in January. To do that, I’m going to come up with four or five really good ideas – at least that I think are really good ideas – and if I don’t sense God really highlighting one of those, I will go to the elders of our church and my co-pastors. – Max Lucado • I’m trying to make it a little bit more personal this time. All my shows are hodge-podges, and this one is no exception but this one delves a little more deeper into my life and my world. Hopefully it’s funny. I did a version of this at Birdland last January and it’s similar-ish to what I’ve done before. But I’ve been working on it all year; I did it out here in Los Angeles in a theatre and kept developing it. Hopefully it’ll be better. – Jason Graae • I’m trying to make it a little bit more personal this time. All my shows are hodge-podges, and this one is no exception but this one delves a little more deeper into my life and my world. Hopefully it’s funny. I did a version of this at Birdland last January and it’s similar-ish to what I’ve done before. But I’ve been working on it all year; I did it out here in Los Angeles in a theatre and kept developing it. Hopefully it’ll be better. – Jason Graae • I’m used to a very busy schedule. Right now it revolves around training and preparing for Nationals in January. I’m usually at the rink from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. and then I attend public school for two hours, three times per week. – Sasha Cohen • In Chicago 3,000 people have been shot since January 1st. We’re not going to let that happen. Our inner cities are almost at an all-time low, run by the Democrats for sometimes more than a hundred years, chain unbroken. – Donald Trump • In Chicago, they’ve had thousands of shootings, thousands since January 1st [2016]. Is this a war-torn country? What are we doing? And we have to stop the violence. – Donald Trump • In early January I introduced my legislation, which, besides prohibiting Federal funding of human cloning, also expresses the sense of Congress that foreign nations should establish total prohibition on human cloning as well. – Cliff Stearns • In January 1912 Leonard proposed marriage. She was unable to answer directly and he pressed further in a passionate letter: ‘It isn’t, really it isnt, merely because you are so beautiful – though of course that is a large reason & so it should be – that I love you: it is your mind & your character – I have never known anyone like you in that – wont you believe me? – Jane Goldman • In January 1944 I was called up by the Forced Labor Service, but I deserted on October 10, 1944. – Gyorgy Ligeti • In January 1962, when I was the author of one and a half unperformed plays, I attended a student production of ‘The Birthday Party’ at the Victoria Rooms in Bristol. Just before it began, I realised that Harold Pinter was sitting in front of me. – Tom Stoppard • In January of 1969, after a meeting to discuss the leadership of UCLA’s new Afro-American Program, [Alprentice “Bunchy” Carter and John Huggins, Jr.] were murdered on campus by a rival black nationalist group, the United Slaves Organization. This shook up all the students, black and white, and made us all realize that what we were doing wasn’t just an academic exercise, but had repercussions in the real world. – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar • In January of 1969, after a meeting to discuss the leadership of UCLA’s new Afro-American Program, [Alprentice “Bunchy” Carter and John Huggins, Jr.] were murdered on campus by a rival black nationalist group, the United Slaves Organization. This shook up all the students, black and white, and made us all realize that what we were doing wasn’t just an academic exercise, but had repercussions in the real world. – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar • In January we start saving money, getting out of credit card debt, funding our retirement accounts, and we’re doing wonderful. Then, every single year like clockwork, starting in November, all of you fall into this trap that says, ‘I have to buy this gift… I can’t show up at this party and not have something for everybody. – Suze Orman • In March 2011 I’m trying to decide on a sermon series that I will preach in January 2012. So, I’m about six months out. – Max Lucado • In the Land of Toys, every day, except Sunday, is a Saturday. Vacation begins on the first of January and ends on the last day of December. That is the place for me! All countries should be like it! How happy we should all be! – Carlo Collodi • It [our best show] was this year, the 7th of January in Eilat, Israel; 6,000 people in the desert going absolutely mad! – Tiesto • It is deep January. The sky is hard. The stalks are firmly rooted in ice. – Wallace Stevens • It was February sixth: eight days until Valentine’s Day. I was dateless, as usual, deep in the vice grip of unrequited love. It was bad enough not having a boyfriend for New Year’s Eve. Now I had to cope with Valentine datelessness, feeling consummate social pressure from every retailer in America who stuck hearts and cupids in their windows by January second to rub it in. – Joan Bauer • It was Russia, January 5, 1943, and just another icy day. Out among the city and snow, there were dead Russians and Germans everywhere. Those who remained were firing into the blank pages in front of them. Three languages interwove. The Russian, the bullets, the German. – Markus Zusak • It’s best to think of these as two things – they’re related, but there’s different dynamics going on with each of them. A key difference is Abyei is contested territory. We still do not know whether Abyei is going to belong to the new country of South Sudan or effectively the new country of Sudan, the northern part. That was supposed to be decided by a referendum in January; that referendum never happened, so it was being dealt with through political negotiations. – Rebecca Hamilton • It’s only life. We all get through it. Not all of us complete the journey in the same condition. Along the way, some lose their legs or eyes in acidents or altercations, while others skate through the years with nothing worse to worry about than an occassional bad-hair day. I still possessed both legs and both eyes, and even my hair looked all right when I rose that Wednesday morning in late January. If I returned to bed sixteen hours later, having lost all my hair but nothing else, I would consider the day a triumph. Even minus a few teeth, I’d call it a triumph. – Dean Koontz • It’s the premium time, the fourth quarter. October, November, December and now, if you will, going over into the first quarter in January. But really, football, that’s when the interest is in the game. – Jerry Jones • I’ve been writing a book called The Economics of Innocent Fraud. I published part of it already in The Progressive (“Free Market Fraud,” January 1999). But I’ve been interrupted these last few months. It deals with all of the things we do, in an innocent way, to cover up the truth. – John Kenneth Galbraith • I’ve been writing a book called The Economics of Innocent Fraud. I published part of it already in The Progressive (“Free Market Fraud,” January 1999). But I’ve been interrupted these last few months. It deals with all of the things we do, in an innocent way, to cover up the truth. – John Kenneth Galbraith • I’ve lived in Washington now for 44 years, and that’s a lot of folly to witness up close. Whatever confidence and optimism I felt towards the central government when I got here on January 1, 1970 has pretty much dissipated at the hands of the government. – George Will • I’ve translated two of Bae’s novels, A Greater Music and Recitation, which are coming from Open Letter and Deep Vellum in October and January respectively. A Greater Music is a semi-autobiographical book centred on a Korean writer moving to Berlin, learning to live and even write in a foreign language. – Deborah Smith • I’ve translated two of Bae’s novels, A Greater Music and Recitation, which are coming from Open Letter and Deep Vellum in October and January respectively. A Greater Music is a semi-autobiographical book centred on a Korean writer moving to Berlin, learning to live and even write in a foreign language. – Deborah Smith • January 8 has been a lucky day for me. I have started all my books on that day, and all of them have been well received by the readers. I write eight to ten hours a day until I have a first draft, then I can relax a little. I am very disciplined. I write in silence and solitude. I light a candle to call inspiration and the muses, and I surround myself with pictures of the people I love, dead and alive. – Isabel Allende • January brings the snow, makes our feet and fingers glow. – Sara Coleridge • January cold and desolate; February dripping wet; March wind ranges; April changes; Birds sing in tune To flowers of May, And sunny June Brings longest day; In scorched July The storm-clouds fly, Lightning-torn; August bears corn, September fruit; In rough October Earth must disrobe her; Stars fall and shoot In keen November; And night is long And cold is strong In bleak December. – Christina Rossetti • January gray is here, like a sexton by her grave; February bears the bier, march with grief doth howl and rave, and April weeps — but, O ye hours! Follow with May’s fairest flowers. – Percy Bysshe Shelley • January is always a good month for behavioral economics: Few things illustrate self-control as vividly as New Year’s resolutions. February is even better, though, because it lets us study why so many of those resolutions are broken. – Sendhil Mullainathan • January is here, with eyes that keenly glow, A frost-mailed warrior striding a shadowy steed of snow. – Edgar Fawcett • January is my favorite month, when the light is plainest, least colored. And I like the feeling of beginnings. – Anne Truitt • January is the garbage can of movies in America, directly after all the Oscar contenders have been out. – Michael Caine • January is the month for dreaming. – Jean Hersey • January, month of empty pockets! let us endure this evil month, anxious as a theatrical producer’s forehead. – Sidonie Gabrielle Colette • January. It was all things. And it was one thing, like a solid door. Its cold sealed the city in a gray capsule. January was moments, and January was a year. January rained the moments down, and froze them in her memory: […]Every human action seemed to yield a magic. January was a two-faced month, jangling like jester’s bells, crackling like snow crust, pure as any beginning, grim as an old man, mysteriously familiar yet unknown, like a word one can almost but not quite define. – Patricia Highsmith • Just because Congress passes a law and says it’s all right to do a certain thing does not mean that it’s all right to do it. Abortion is still just as wrong today as it was the first day of January, 1973. – Shelton Smith • Last year was the fourth or fifth attempt to get fall launched till ‘American Idol’ comes in January. To be honest, the reality programming we had on last year was considered filler until we could get to the good stuff. It was meant to hopefully get us to January andor to November. To get past baseball. But (it) didn’t work very well. – Mike Darnell • Lets talk about the holidays, more specifically, consumption during the holidays. If it’s true that ‘We are what we eat,’ most of us would be unrecognizable during the period that ranges from the night before Thanksgiving through that day in early January when everyone decides to return to the gym. – Rachel Nichols • Look lak she been livin’ through uh hundred years in January without one day of spring. – Zora Neale Hurston • Lots of people go mad in January. Not as many as in May, of course. Nor June. But January is your third most common month for madness. – Karen Joy Fowler • Major league baseball players and owners should meet immediately to enact the standards that apply to the minor leagues, and if they don’t, I will have to introduce legislation that says professional sports will have minimum standards for testing. I’ll give them until January, and then I’ll introduce legislation. – John McCain

• My dad liked how January went with Jones. My sisters’ names are Jina and Jacey Jones. – January Jones • My last visit to China as secretary, January of 2011, I told President Hu Jintao, just like this, “President of the United States wanted me to tell you that we now consider North Korea a direct threat to the United States.” And it had no effect whatsoever. – Robert M. Gates • My most embarrassing moment was when I was a student at Tufts University and decided to go ‘streaking’ with a group of girls in the middle of January. Somehow I lost them and ended up being chased by the campus police. – Meredith Vieira • My question is what non-Microsoft browsers were you concerned about in January of 1996. – David Boies • My wife and I always have a winter holiday that I call the “fly and flop”. In January and February, you don’t want culture, you just want to get your bones warm and eat, drink, sleep. We usually go to the Caribbean. – Alan Titchmarsh • My wife and I always have a winter holiday that I call the “fly and flop”. In January and February, you don’t want culture, you just want to get your bones warm and eat, drink, sleep. We usually go to the Caribbean. – Alan Titchmarsh • No one ever regarded the first of January with indifference. – Charles Lamb • No one ever regarded the First of January with indifference. It is that from which all date their time, and count upon what is left. It is the nativity of our common Adam. – Charles Lamb • No one’s ever achieved financial fitness with a January resolution that’s abandoned by February. – Suze Orman • No other woman had that air of spring in January, that ever-bubbling fount of love and hope. – Rosalind Miles • Now, in New Jersey, we have more government workers per square mile than any state in America. But since I’ve been governor we now have fewer people on the state payroll at any time since Christie Whitman left office in January 2001. That’s the right direction, Mr. President, not the wrong direction. – Chris Christie • On January 1, 2006, Medicare will begin to offer a prescription drug benefit, and for the first time, it will place an emphasis on preventive care and early treatment of disease. – Michael C. Burgess • On January 10, 1963, I was sworn in as a lawyer, so next January 10 I will have practiced law for 40 years, and I’ve loved every minute of it. – Johnnie Cochran • On January 20, 2017, Trump will be sworn in as the 45th president of the United States, and he will be given the nuclear codes and the power to launch the U.S. nuclear arsenal, which is comprised of some 7,000 nuclear weapons. A military officer will always be close to Trump, carrying the nuclear codes in a briefcase known as the “football.” – David Krieger • On January 20, 2017, Trump will be sworn in as the 45th president of the United States, and he will be given the nuclear codes and the power to launch the U.S. nuclear arsenal, which is comprised of some 7,000 nuclear weapons. A military officer will always be close to Trump, carrying the nuclear codes in a briefcase known as the “football.” – David Krieger • On January 27, 2001, the focus of my career and the process of changing the desires of my heart all began. It was no longer about me but rather how I could impact others for the Kingdom. I officially was in the people business. That philosophy, combined with a warrior mentality, I believe, has endeared me to being labeled a positive clubhouse influence. – Tony Clark • On January 30, 1988, my twenty-seventh birthday, I became a strict vegetarian. I developed a passion for health and nutrition. My diet consists of fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts and legumes only, and has for the past 15 years now. – Dexter Scott King • One January day, thirty years ago, the little town of Hanover, anchored on a windy Nebraska tableland, was trying not to be blown away. – Willa Cather • One must have a mind of winter to regard the frost and the boughs of the pine trees, crusted with snow, And have been cold a long time, to behold the junipers, shagged with ice, the spruces, rough in the distant glitter of the January sun, and not to think of any misery in the sound of the wind, in the sound of a few leaves, which is the sound of the land, full of the same wind, blowing in the same bare place for the listener, who listens in the snow, and, nothing herself, beholds nothing that is not there, and the nothing that is. – Wallace Stevens • Our task force put to sea in early January 1942, to attack the Japanese in the Marshall and Gilbert islands, but the mission was called off on the eve of the attack. – Jack Adams • President Bush says now he is sticking to his plan for handing over power to the Iraqis on June 30. It’s also part of his plan to hand over power to John Kerry on January 20. – David Letterman • Scott Brown may be the last Republican to win a statewide fight in Massachusetts for a very long time. He caught the machine flat-footed in January 2010 when he out-hustled Martha Coakley and stole the Senate seat Ted Kennedy held all those years. And since then, the Democrats haven’t lost a single statewide fight. – Howie Carr • Senator [Tom] Cotton has campaigned on wanting to kill Obamacare. He voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act back in January, but he now says, despite these marathon all-night sessions going on in the House, Republicans need to do better, they need to start over, they need to come up with something that the Senate says will actually reduce prices for insurance and keep it affordable. – Rachel Maddow • Senator [Tom] Cotton has campaigned on wanting to kill Obamacare. He voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act back in January, but he now says, despite these marathon all-night sessions going on in the House, Republicans need to do better, they need to start over, they need to come up with something that the Senate says will actually reduce prices for insurance and keep it affordable. – Rachel Maddow • Sharks are as tough as those football fans who take their shirts off during games in Chicago in January, only more intelligent. – Dave Barry • Since January 1993 there have been 27 other countries not in the EU that have done better than the UK at exporting goods into the single market. – Boris Johnson • Since January 2002, when the United States began detaining at Guantanamo Bay enemy combatants captured in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other fronts in the war on terror, critics have complained of human rights abuses. – Linda Chavez • Since the Bush-Cheney Administration took office in January 2001, controlling the major oil and natural gas fields of the world had been the primary, though undeclared, priority of US foreign policy… Not only the invasion of Iraq, but also the toppling of the Taliban in Afghanistan, had nothing to do with ‘democracy,’ and everything to do with pipeline control across Central Asia and the militarization of the Middle East. – F. William Engdahl • Since the Kingstonfirst BID started in January 2005, retailers have enjoyed three years of impressive sales growth, which has taken many of us to the top of our peer group. The BID period has also seen Kingston rise to 12th place according to Experian, and 13th place according to the Javelin Venuescore, in their respective retail super leagues of UK town and city centres. I am confident the platform that our BID provides will allow us to continue to maintain Kingston as the place that people love to shop and visit. – David Barford • Since, O sweet Lord Jesus, Thou art the present portion of Thy people, favour us this year with such a sense of Thy preciousness, that from its first to its last day we may be glad and rejoice in Thee. Let January open with joy in the Lord, and December close with gladness in Jesus. – Charles Spurgeon • Summer is a promissory note signed in June, its long days spent and gone before you know it, and due to be repaid next January. – Hal Borland • Sunday, January 27, 1884. — There was another story in the paper a week or so since. A gentleman had a favourite cat whom he taught to sit at the dinner table where it behaved very well. He was in the habit of putting any scraps he left onto the cat’s plate. One day puss did not take his place punctually, but presently appeared with two mice, one of which it placed on its master’s plate, the other on its own. – Beatrix Potter • Take the entire 4.5-billion-year history of the earth and scale it down to a single year, with January 1 being the origin of the earth and midnight on December 31 being the present. Until June, the only organisms were single-celled microbes, such as algae, bacteria, and amoebae. The first animal with a head did not appear until October. The first human appears on December 31. We, like all the animals and plants that have ever lived, are recent crashers at the party of life on earth. – Neil Shubin • Thank god, and now all I have are, twenty one years together, in January and, you know, I, you know I forgot this all about things. And anyway the first place is good thing. – Olga Korbut • That many if not most people…who want fresh leafy greens in January buy them at the supermarket after they’ve been bleached and plastic-bag shipped from California or beyond is not a tribute to modern technology; it’s an unprecedented abdication of personal responsibility and a ubiquitous benchmark of abnormality. – Joel Salatin • The actual writing time is a lot shorter than the thinking time. I don’t do too many notes. I keep it mostly in my head. I usually start writing a new book around January, and it’s due October 1. – Harlan Coben • The answer is hard work. What are you doing on Christmas Eve? Are you riding your bike? January 1st – are you riding your bike? – Lance Armstrong • The answer is hard work. What are you doing on Christmas Eve? Are you riding your bike? January 1st – are you riding your bike? – Lance Armstrong • The band set up in January and just started rehearsing. If there was a song, we’d just rehearse it as a band, and it would get arranged as a band, and it got changed around a lot. – James Iha • The biggest roadblock to middle-class economic advancement is that governments confiscate more than a third of all family income. Each year the average American taxpayer works 127 days – from January 1 until May 7 – just to pay taxes. – Thomas DiLorenzo • The Emancipation Proclamation, signed by President Abraham Lincoln, was put into effect on January 1, 1863, but news of the Proclamation and enforcement did not reach Texas until after the end of the Civil War almost two years later. – Corrine Brown • The faster we grew, the more stores we had open, the more money we made. Employees move quickly up the ranks of a company that’s growing fast. Shareholders made a lot of money. If you invested $25,000 from January 1987 to January 1994, you’d have more than a million dollars. I get a lot of personal satisfaction from that. – Wayne Huizenga • The first thing [Donald Trump] does on January 20th is take an oath to defend and adhere to the Constitution of the United States. – Chuck Todd • The first thing [Donald Trump] does on January 20th is take an oath to defend and adhere to the Constitution of the United States. – Chuck Todd • The idea of negotiating with the President of the United States runs contrary to everything that the Republicans have done since January 20, 2009. – Keith Olbermann • The intelligent minority of this world will mark 1 January 2001 as the real beginning of the 21st century and the Third Millennium. – Arthur C. Clarke • The leaves hop, scraping on the ground. It is deep January. The sky is hard. The stalks are firmly rooted in ice. It is in this solitude, a syllable, Out of these gawky flitterings, Intones its single emptiness, The savagest hollow of winter-sound. – Wallace Stevens • The left keeps talking about impeachment. I mean, they were talking about impeachment before Donald Trump’s inauguration in 2017. And, you know, I think impeaching Obama in January probably would have been a mistake. – Ted Cruz • The left keeps talking about impeachment. I mean, they were talking about impeachment before Donald Trump’s inauguration in 2017. And, you know, I think impeaching Obama in January probably would have been a mistake. – Ted Cruz • The Lord IS my shepherd. Not was, not may be, nor will be. . . is my shepherd on Sunday, is on Monday, and is through every day of the week; is in January, is in December, and every month of the year, is at home, and is in China; is in peace, and is in war; in abundance, and in penury. – Hudson Taylor • The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. I call on Congress today to act immediately, to appropriate whatever is necessary to put armed police officers in every school – and to do it now, to make sure that blanket of safety is in place when our children return to school in January. – Wayne LaPierre • The result was, when Congress convened in January 1971, everyone was now an environmentalist. They had seen a new force, college students, who favored the environment. – Pete McCloskey • The shortest day has passed, and whatever nastiness of weather we may look forward to in January and February, at least we notice that the days are getting longer. Minute by minute they lengthen out. It takes some weeks before we become aware of the change. It is imperceptible even as the growth of a child, as you watch it day by day, until the moment comes when with a start of delighted surprise we realize that we can stay out of doors in a twilight lasting for another quarter of a precious hour. – Vita Sackville-West • The thousands small birds of January in their smooth soaring cloud finding the trees. – Naomi Shihab Nye • There are a lot of car bombs and roadside bombs, house bombs, even, in this city planted by ISIS. So – but it’s going to be a tough fight ahead, and the Iraqi generals expect to take the city back, the city of Ramadi, by mid-January. – Tom Bowman • There are two seasonal diversions that can ease the bite of any winter. One is the January thaw. The other is the seed catalogues. – Hal Borland • There have been nine Super Bowls in New Orleans, and not all of them have brought the best of luck to NFL Films. We got robbed twice there, got food poisoning, and my hotel room was broken into on the day the Bears played the Patriots in January 1986. – Steve Sabol • There is a shortage of teachers but the January 2001 schools census showed that teacher numbers were at their highest level than at any time since 1984 – and 11,000 higher than 1997. – Estelle Morris, Baroness Morris of Yardley • There is this expectation that as January 1st dawns, we’re going to do it differently. Moreover, there’s this kind of pressure, that even if I’ve been trying to be different for a while, January 1st, from here on in – I have to be different. There’s a cultural expectation, there’s a personal expectation. I think it’s worth just taking pause for a minute and talking about that. – Rod Stryker • There was no imminent threat. This was made up in Texas, announced in January to the Republican leadership that war was going to take place and was going to be good politically. This whole thing was a fraud. – Edward Kennedy • There’s one Baldessari work I genuinely love and would like to own, maybe because of my Midwestern roots and love of driving alone. ‘The backs of all the trucks passed while driving from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara, California, Sunday, 20 January 1963′ consists of a grid of 32 small color photographs depicting just what the title says. – Jerry Saltz • There’s something I love about how stark the contrast is between January and June in Sweden. In a way, I feel that time doesn’t exist in LA. Sometimes I don’t know if it’s February or April or October, because you’re always sitting outside on the same patio, and it’s 70 degrees. – Alexander Skarsgard • This because it is never really very cold in England. It is drizzly, and the wind will blow; hail happens, and there is a breed of Tuesday in January in which time creeps and no light comes and the air is full of water and nobody really loves anybody, but still a decent jumper and a waxen jacket lined with wool is sufficient for every weather England’s got to give. – Zadie Smith • This is a terrible hour, but it is often that darkest point which precedes the rise of day; that turn of the year when the icy January wind carries over the waste at once the dirge of departing winter, and the prophecy of coming spring. – Charlotte Bronte • This is the first time a newly inaugurated president has had any impact on a current budget.” What that means is that normally when a president’s inaugurated in January, the budget for the first calendar year of his term or the first nine months is already done. So from January 21st all the way ’til October when the new budget’s done, the president has to deal with the previous Congress’ budget and has nothing to say about it. What they’re saying is that Donald Trump has had a record-breaking, never-before-seen thing by having an impact on the budget in his first year. – Rush Limbaugh • This January, Kevin Costner will be honored by the Palm Springs International Film Festival for his contribution to film. This gives Costner just two months to make a contribution to film. – Tina Fey • Though he found that if you are stupid enough to bury a camera underground you won’t be taking many pictures with it afterwards. Thus the story has no picture book for the period May 10, 1991 – January 7, 1992. But this is not important. It is the experiences, the memories, the great triumphant joy of living to the fullest extent in which real meaning is found. God it’s great to be alive! Thank you. Thank you. – Jon Krakauer • Through the chill of December the early winter moans… but it’s that January wind that rattles old bones. – John Facenda • To read a poem in January is as lovely as to go for a walk in June – Jean-Paul Sartre • Today is one of those excellent January partly cloudies in which light chooses an unexpected part of the landscape to trick out in gilt, and then the shadow sweeps it away. You know you’re alive. You take huge steps, trying to feel the planet’s roundness arc between your feet. – Annie Dillard • Under current law, on January 1, 2013, there’s going to be a massive fiscal cliff of large spending cuts and tax increases. – Ben Bernanke • Up until the time Turner Broadcasting bought Hanna-Barbera, it was essentially an independent studio whose planning cycle had to be nine months. You got a pickup in January, and you put it on the air in September. That’s been the cycle. – Fred Seibert • Vladimir Lenin died in January, 1924; three months later [Joseph] Stalin expounded in writing Lenin’s conception of the proletarian revolution. – Leon Trotsky • We also need the provisions in the tax bill that will permit working mothers to increase the deduction from income tax liability for costs incurred in providing care for their children while the mothers are working. In October the Commission on the Status of Women will report to me. This problem should have a high priority, and I think that whatever we leave undone this year we must move on this in January. – John F. Kennedy • We are all of us, in this world, more or less like St. January, whom the inhabitants of Naples worship one day, and pelt with baked apples the next. – Sophie Swetchine • We are the last remaining country to allow ourselves two breaks in the season. You just have to look at England, Italy and Spain, they play right through the season. We on the other hand take six weeks off in the winter until the end of January, and that is a luxury. – Franz Beckenbauer • We get to see it! January 1st, 2000! We get to see… all those fundamentalist preachers having to do their backpedaling when the Armageddon doesn’t occur. – David Cross • We had a $10 billion budget deficit when we got here in January of 2003. We cut that budget deficit; we did not raise taxes; we came back in ’05, and we had an $8 billion surplus. That’s how fast it can happen. – Rick Perry • We spend January 1st walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives…not looking for flaws, but for potential. – Ellen Goodman • We spotted Beyoncé, January Jones, Rihanna and Carey Mulligan wearing the label [Karen Walker]. I was ecstatic, but I’m just as thrilled to see interesting girls wearing our product everywhere. It’s quite a buzz. – Karen Walker • Well, first of all, we’ve got to get away from being offended by the truth. We’ve seen a 41 percent increase in food stamp recipients across the United States of America since President Obama was sworn in in January 2009. That has nothing to do with black, white, Hispanic or whatever. It’s a fact, and we need to, you know, deal with that. – Allen West • We’re [with Donald Trump] working from Day 1, which will be [Monday, January 23 2017], the first full business day of the administration, to begin to roll back the unconstitutional executive orders and an avalanche of regulations that have been stifling growth and jobs in Indiana and across the economy. – Mike Pence • We’re [with Donald Trump] working from Day 1, which will be [Monday, January 23 2017], the first full business day of the administration, to begin to roll back the unconstitutional executive orders and an avalanche of regulations that have been stifling growth and jobs in Indiana and across the economy. – Mike Pence • We’ve got to look toward two years from now [January 2017] to at least provide some balance in congress. – Al Sharpton • We’ve got to look toward two years from now [January 2017] to at least provide some balance in congress. – Al Sharpton • When I got my statement in January, I was worth $2.2 billion. Then I got another statement in August that said I was worth $3.2 billion. So I figure it’s only nine months’ earnings, who cares? – Ted Turner • When I leave the office on January 20th, I will leave even more idealistic than I was the day I took the oath of office. – William J. Clinton • When I was 14 -years-old, I made this PowerPoint presentation, and I invited my parents into my room and gave them popcorn. It was called ‘Project Hollywood 2004′ and it worked. I moved to L.A. in January of 2004. – Emma Stone • When people tell me that I became President on January 20th, 1981, I feel I have to correct them. You don’t become President of the United States. You are given temporary custody of an institution called the Presidency, which belongs to our people. – Ronald Reagan • When the snow is still blowing against the window-pane in January and February and the wild winds are howling without, what pleasure it is to plan for summer that is to be. – Celia Thaxter • Without Valentine’s Day, February would be… well, January. – Jim Gaffigan • You look at the inner cities and you see bad education, no jobs, no safety. You walk to the grocery store with your child and you get shot. You walk outside to look and see what’s happening, and you get shot. In Chicago 3,000 people have been shot since January 1st. I am not going to let that happen. – Donald Trump • You look at the inner cities and you see bad education, no jobs, no safety. You walk to the grocery store with your child and you get shot. You walk outside to look and see what’s happening, and you get shot. In Chicago 3,000 people have been shot since January 1st. I am not going to let that happen. – Donald Trump • You sweat out the free agent thing in November, then you make the trades in December. Then you struggle to sign the guys left in January, and in February I get down to sewing all the new numbers on the uniforms. – Whitey Herzog • You’d be so lean, that blast of January Would blow you through and through. Now, my fair’st friend, I would I had some flowers o’ the spring that might Become your time of day. – William Shakespeare • Your hair is winter fire January embers My heart burns there, too. – Stephen King • You’ve got to be happy if they get your facts right. Since January I don’t think I’ve recognized a damned thing that I’ve filed. I just pour everything out of the boot. Otherwise you get a phone call at three in the morning asking why you left out that the candidate had his teeth drilled that morning. – John Lindsay

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equitiesstocks · 5 years

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January Quotes

Official Website: January Quotes

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“April hath put a spirit of youth in everything. – William Shakespeare • Donald Trump said that he would likely have a decision and an announcement by the end of January [2017] and that’ll obviously take a great deal of energy. It’s enormously important in the life of the Court and the life of the nation. – Mike Pence • Donald Trump said that he would likely have a decision and an announcement by the end of January [2017] and that’ll obviously take a great deal of energy. It’s enormously important in the life of the Court and the life of the nation. – Mike Pence • Early this morning, 1 January 2021, three minutes after midnight, the last human being to be born on earth was killed in a pub brawl in a suburb of Buenos Aires, aged twenty-five years, two months and twelve days. – P. D. James • Even though it was January, in Los Angeles it was beautiful and sunny and the blue skies were out and it was hot everyday, so I think it was just a product of our environment. And California to me as a concept or as an idea always seems like endless optimism and endless opportunity – when people think of California they think of palm trees and blue skies and gorgeous sunsets and beaches and everything else. But there’s also this weirdness to California, this darkness, it’s a place where people come to follow their dreams and sometimes don’t make it. – Mark Hoppus • Every man should be born again on the first day of January. Start with a fresh page. Take up one hole more in the buckle if necessary, or let down one, according to circumstances; but on the first of January let every man gird himself once more, with his face to the front, and take no interest in the things that were and are past. – Henry Ward Beecher • Every man should be born again on the first day of January. Start with a fresh page – Henry Ward Beecher • Feeling a little blue in January is normal. – Marilu Henner • Following 25 children for the TV series ‘Child of Our Time’ has been extraordinary. The BBC’s original plan was to commemorate the new millennium. What better way than to film a number of expectant mums from across the U.K.? Coming from widely different backgrounds, all were due to give birth on January 1, 2000. – Robert Winston • Frost in January minus 20 for a week. Dead birds frozen on the branch—they fall with the first thaw like ripe fruit—death-ripened. We shall all end like them—just a stain in the snow. – Lawrence Durrell • Government is saying to the average citizen every January 1: ‘For the next five months you’ll be working for us, for goals we shall determine. Is that clear? After May 5 you may look after your own needs and ambitions, but report back to us next January. Now move along.’ … If nearly half of what you make is spent by someone else, that means that half your work time is spent working for someone else. Call me a radical, but I think that comes dangerously close to being a form of indentured servitude. – Dick Armey • Having survived her 10th London winter (she got through January by assigning it “international month,” and amusing Moses and his big sister, Apple, 9, with a visiting Italian chef, Japanese anime screenings, and hand-rolled-sushi lessons, no less), Paltrow admits that her dreams of relocating the family to their recently acquired residence in Brentwood, California, are becoming ever more urgent. – Gwyneth Paltrow • Here Churchill repeats with approval a statement he had first made in January, 1930 “at a meeting at the Cannon Street Hotel.” “Sooner or later you will have to crush Gandhi and the Indian Congress and all they stand for.” – Winston Churchill • Honestly, I just go to restaurants to eat so I won’t die. If there was a pill I could take in January and then I wouldn’t have to eat again for the rest of the year, I would take it. Of course, I wouldn’t want to sacrifice my chocolate cake and ice cream. – Steven Wright • I actually looked up in my journal trying to figure out some dates and, in January 1991, America is about to go back into its first sort of actual war since Vietnam, with the Gulf War. It just seemed unbelievable at the time that this country would do that – which is funny to think about now. – Ian MacKaye • I am no more lonely than a single mullein or dandelion in a pasture, or a bean leaf, or sorrel, or a horse-fly, or a bumblebee. I am no more lonely than the Mill Brook, or a weathercock, or the north star, or the south wind, or an April shower, or a January thaw, or the first spider in a new house. – Henry David Thoreau • I arrived in San Francisco in January 1951. After the Second World War, the population was so uprooted. Soldiers came back home for brief periods and took off again. So the population was very fluid, and suddenly it was as if the continent tilted west. The whole population slid west. It took 10 years for America to coalesce into a new culture. And the new culture happened in San Francisco, not New York. – Lawrence Ferlinghetti • I began my pilgrimage on the first of January in 1953. It is my spiritual birthday of sorts. It was a period in which I was merged with the whole. No longer was I a seed buried under the ground, but I felt as a flower reaching out effortlessly toward the sun. – Peace Pilgrim • I co-pastor now, so I preach six months, then another guy preaches six months. So that’s really why I’m preparing for January, because I’ll finish in June; then I’ll be writing and doing other projects for the rest of the year. – Max Lucado • I co-pastor now, so I preach six months, then another guy preaches six months. So that’s really why I’m preparing for January, because I’ll finish in June; then I’ll be writing and doing other projects for the rest of the year. – Max Lucado • I do go back to Ireland, and I’ll probably be doing a film in Ireland in January, and I guess that kind of keeps me classified as ‘the Irish actor,’ but the last four or five projects that I’ve been in are either American or English, so I don’t feel terribly trapped in that. But sometimes, yeah, you would like to not be called ‘the Irish actor.’ You’d prefer to just be called ‘the actor.’ – Colm Meaney • I do not love you except because I love you; I go from loving to not loving you, From waiting to not waiting for you My heart moves from cold to fire. I love you only because it’s you the one I love; I hate you deeply, and hating you Bend to you, and the measure of my changing love for you Is that I do not see you but love you blindly. Maybe January light will consume My heart with its cruel Ray, stealing my key to true calm. In this part of the story I am the one who Dies, the only one, and I will die of love because I love you, Because I love you, Love, in fire and blood. – Pablo Neruda • I ended up meeting this guy Stefan Simchowitz, who produced Requiem for a Dream and also went to AFI. I randomly met him in Cannes. By September of 2000, we had made a deal with this company that he was working with. They merged with us and in January of 2001, we opened WireImage. It was pretty crazy because I only started shooting celebrity stuff in 1998 – literally two and a half years later, I’m opening this company. – Jeff Vespa • I got stopped in front of the bras in Victoria’s Secret; I get interrogated in airport bathrooms. I went to South Africa in January to see my family, and even there people would stop me and ask, “Sasha, who’s A?” Even my grandma. – Sasha Pieterse • I got stopped in front of the bras in Victoria’s Secret; I get interrogated in airport bathrooms. I went to South Africa in January to see my family, and even there people would stop me and ask, “Sasha, who’s A?” Even my grandma. – Sasha Pieterse • I guess I’m okay with that. But it’s not going to be easy for you. They don’t have a lot of fishing or mudding around here.” “I figured.” “And not a lot of beach volleyball, either. Especially in January.” “I guess I’ll have to make some sacrifices.” “Maybe if you’re lucky, we can find you some other ways to occupy your time.” – Nicholas Sparks • I have eight times online since January [2016] in which Hillary Clinton has had massive coughing fits in which she couldn’t complete her speech. I’ve seen her lifted onto airplanes. And I don’t know what’s wrong with her. – Rudy Giuliani • I have seen women looking at jewelry ads with a misty eye and one hand resting on the heart, and I only know what they’re feeling because that’s how I read the seed catalogs in January. – Barbara Kingsolver • I have to admit, in January and February I was in an absolute fuzz. I had no one on board. It wasn’t that I didn’t know what I was doing, but we didn’t have all the pieces put together. – Donna Shalala • I miss All Stars, by the way. I was just telling people: how am I going to get by until January? – Jason Wu • I miss everything about Chicago, except January and February. – Gary Cole • I started singing for The Phantom in January, and we started filming in October and I sang all the way through to the next June. In fact, I was singing for about two months before I even knew I had the role. – Gerard Butler • I started to call myself a “rational therapist” in January 1955; later I used the term “rational emotive.” Now I call myself a “rational emotive behavior therapist.” But from the start, I always included philosophic techniques as well as experiential, emotional and behavioral techniques. – Albert Ellis • I started to call myself a “rational therapist” in January 1955; later I used the term “rational emotive.” Now I call myself a “rational emotive behavior therapist.” But from the start, I always included philosophic techniques as well as experiential, emotional and behavioral techniques. – Albert Ellis • I think I can safely call 2012 average. Overall, it was a stronger year for nonfiction than fiction – a situation that would’ve surprised me back in January, when I was looking forward to big new novels from several authors I really love. – David Edelstein • I think I can safely call 2012 average. Overall, it was a stronger year for nonfiction than fiction – a situation that would’ve surprised me back in January, when I was looking forward to big new novels from several authors I really love. – David Edelstein • I traveled for seven years, and when I came back home I was completely lost. I didn’t know what to do with my life, so I decided to let people decide for me. For month I followed strangers on the street. For the pleasure of following, not because the party interested me. I photographed them without their knowledge, took note of their movements, and finally lost sight of them. At the end of January 1980, I chose a man and followed him to Venice. That’s how I started. That’s all. – Sophie Calle • I was born in my parents’ bedroom on January 16. The World Almanac says it was 1909. I say it was 1912. But what difference does it make as long as I feel 33? – Ethel Merman • I was born January 6, 1937, eight years after Wall Street crashed and two years before John Steinbeck published The Grapes of Wrath, his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about the plight of a family during the Great Depression. – Lou Holtz • I was born on the same day as Edgar Allan Poe and Dolly Parton: January 19. I am absolutely certain that this affects my writing in some way. – Eden Robinson • I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974. – Jeffrey Eugenides • I worked with my coach to develop some new spiral variations to make my program more interesting. Each one is different and you’ll have to wait until January to see them. – Sasha Cohen • I write one poem a year, usually in January or February. – Emily Susan Rapp • I, George Bush, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the decade beginning January 1, 1990, as the Decade of the Brain. – George H. W. Bush • If I had my way, I’d remove January from the calendar altogether and have an extra July instead. – Roald Dahl • If it’s January, I’m dead in three hours. But in June, I’d be hungry, but I’d make it out. I’d find my way without a map or compass. I say that with confidence. I can build a fire without a match. – Rob Corddry • If it’s January, I’m dead in three hours. But in June, I’d be hungry, but I’d make it out. I’d find my way without a map or compass. I say that with confidence. I can build a fire without a match. – Rob Corddry • If January is the month of change, February is the month of lasting change. January is for dreamers… February is for doers – – Marc Parent • If you go to Minnesota in January, you should know that it’s gonna be cold. You don’t panic when the thermometer falls below zero. – Peter Lynch • I’m not going to just take office in January, I’m going to take responsibility. – Mitt Romney • I’m right now wrapping up the sermon series on grace. I’d like to figure out what this next series will be in January. To do that, I’m going to come up with four or five really good ideas – at least that I think are really good ideas – and if I don’t sense God really highlighting one of those, I will go to the elders of our church and my co-pastors. – Max Lucado • I’m right now wrapping up the sermon series on grace. I’d like to figure out what this next series will be in January. To do that, I’m going to come up with four or five really good ideas – at least that I think are really good ideas – and if I don’t sense God really highlighting one of those, I will go to the elders of our church and my co-pastors. – Max Lucado • I’m trying to make it a little bit more personal this time. All my shows are hodge-podges, and this one is no exception but this one delves a little more deeper into my life and my world. Hopefully it’s funny. I did a version of this at Birdland last January and it’s similar-ish to what I’ve done before. But I’ve been working on it all year; I did it out here in Los Angeles in a theatre and kept developing it. Hopefully it’ll be better. – Jason Graae • I’m trying to make it a little bit more personal this time. All my shows are hodge-podges, and this one is no exception but this one delves a little more deeper into my life and my world. Hopefully it’s funny. I did a version of this at Birdland last January and it’s similar-ish to what I’ve done before. But I’ve been working on it all year; I did it out here in Los Angeles in a theatre and kept developing it. Hopefully it’ll be better. – Jason Graae • I’m used to a very busy schedule. Right now it revolves around training and preparing for Nationals in January. I’m usually at the rink from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. and then I attend public school for two hours, three times per week. – Sasha Cohen • In Chicago 3,000 people have been shot since January 1st. We’re not going to let that happen. Our inner cities are almost at an all-time low, run by the Democrats for sometimes more than a hundred years, chain unbroken. – Donald Trump • In Chicago, they’ve had thousands of shootings, thousands since January 1st [2016]. Is this a war-torn country? What are we doing? And we have to stop the violence. – Donald Trump • In early January I introduced my legislation, which, besides prohibiting Federal funding of human cloning, also expresses the sense of Congress that foreign nations should establish total prohibition on human cloning as well. – Cliff Stearns • In January 1912 Leonard proposed marriage. She was unable to answer directly and he pressed further in a passionate letter: ‘It isn’t, really it isnt, merely because you are so beautiful – though of course that is a large reason & so it should be – that I love you: it is your mind & your character – I have never known anyone like you in that – wont you believe me? – Jane Goldman • In January 1944 I was called up by the Forced Labor Service, but I deserted on October 10, 1944. – Gyorgy Ligeti • In January 1962, when I was the author of one and a half unperformed plays, I attended a student production of ‘The Birthday Party’ at the Victoria Rooms in Bristol. Just before it began, I realised that Harold Pinter was sitting in front of me. – Tom Stoppard • In January of 1969, after a meeting to discuss the leadership of UCLA’s new Afro-American Program, [Alprentice “Bunchy” Carter and John Huggins, Jr.] were murdered on campus by a rival black nationalist group, the United Slaves Organization. This shook up all the students, black and white, and made us all realize that what we were doing wasn’t just an academic exercise, but had repercussions in the real world. – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar • In January of 1969, after a meeting to discuss the leadership of UCLA’s new Afro-American Program, [Alprentice “Bunchy” Carter and John Huggins, Jr.] were murdered on campus by a rival black nationalist group, the United Slaves Organization. This shook up all the students, black and white, and made us all realize that what we were doing wasn’t just an academic exercise, but had repercussions in the real world. – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar • In January we start saving money, getting out of credit card debt, funding our retirement accounts, and we’re doing wonderful. Then, every single year like clockwork, starting in November, all of you fall into this trap that says, ‘I have to buy this gift… I can’t show up at this party and not have something for everybody. – Suze Orman • In March 2011 I’m trying to decide on a sermon series that I will preach in January 2012. So, I’m about six months out. – Max Lucado • In the Land of Toys, every day, except Sunday, is a Saturday. Vacation begins on the first of January and ends on the last day of December. That is the place for me! All countries should be like it! How happy we should all be! – Carlo Collodi • It [our best show] was this year, the 7th of January in Eilat, Israel; 6,000 people in the desert going absolutely mad! – Tiesto • It is deep January. The sky is hard. The stalks are firmly rooted in ice. – Wallace Stevens • It was February sixth: eight days until Valentine’s Day. I was dateless, as usual, deep in the vice grip of unrequited love. It was bad enough not having a boyfriend for New Year’s Eve. Now I had to cope with Valentine datelessness, feeling consummate social pressure from every retailer in America who stuck hearts and cupids in their windows by January second to rub it in. – Joan Bauer • It was Russia, January 5, 1943, and just another icy day. Out among the city and snow, there were dead Russians and Germans everywhere. Those who remained were firing into the blank pages in front of them. Three languages interwove. The Russian, the bullets, the German. – Markus Zusak • It’s best to think of these as two things – they’re related, but there��s different dynamics going on with each of them. A key difference is Abyei is contested territory. We still do not know whether Abyei is going to belong to the new country of South Sudan or effectively the new country of Sudan, the northern part. That was supposed to be decided by a referendum in January; that referendum never happened, so it was being dealt with through political negotiations. – Rebecca Hamilton • It’s only life. We all get through it. Not all of us complete the journey in the same condition. Along the way, some lose their legs or eyes in acidents or altercations, while others skate through the years with nothing worse to worry about than an occassional bad-hair day. I still possessed both legs and both eyes, and even my hair looked all right when I rose that Wednesday morning in late January. If I returned to bed sixteen hours later, having lost all my hair but nothing else, I would consider the day a triumph. Even minus a few teeth, I’d call it a triumph. – Dean Koontz • It’s the premium time, the fourth quarter. October, November, December and now, if you will, going over into the first quarter in January. But really, football, that’s when the interest is in the game. – Jerry Jones • I’ve been writing a book called The Economics of Innocent Fraud. I published part of it already in The Progressive (“Free Market Fraud,” January 1999). But I’ve been interrupted these last few months. It deals with all of the things we do, in an innocent way, to cover up the truth. – John Kenneth Galbraith • I’ve been writing a book called The Economics of Innocent Fraud. I published part of it already in The Progressive (“Free Market Fraud,” January 1999). But I’ve been interrupted these last few months. It deals with all of the things we do, in an innocent way, to cover up the truth. – John Kenneth Galbraith • I’ve lived in Washington now for 44 years, and that’s a lot of folly to witness up close. Whatever confidence and optimism I felt towards the central government when I got here on January 1, 1970 has pretty much dissipated at the hands of the government. – George Will • I’ve translated two of Bae’s novels, A Greater Music and Recitation, which are coming from Open Letter and Deep Vellum in October and January respectively. A Greater Music is a semi-autobiographical book centred on a Korean writer moving to Berlin, learning to live and even write in a foreign language. – Deborah Smith • I’ve translated two of Bae’s novels, A Greater Music and Recitation, which are coming from Open Letter and Deep Vellum in October and January respectively. A Greater Music is a semi-autobiographical book centred on a Korean writer moving to Berlin, learning to live and even write in a foreign language. – Deborah Smith • January 8 has been a lucky day for me. I have started all my books on that day, and all of them have been well received by the readers. I write eight to ten hours a day until I have a first draft, then I can relax a little. I am very disciplined. I write in silence and solitude. I light a candle to call inspiration and the muses, and I surround myself with pictures of the people I love, dead and alive. – Isabel Allende • January brings the snow, makes our feet and fingers glow. – Sara Coleridge • January cold and desolate; February dripping wet; March wind ranges; April changes; Birds sing in tune To flowers of May, And sunny June Brings longest day; In scorched July The storm-clouds fly, Lightning-torn; August bears corn, September fruit; In rough October Earth must disrobe her; Stars fall and shoot In keen November; And night is long And cold is strong In bleak December. – Christina Rossetti • January gray is here, like a sexton by her grave; February bears the bier, march with grief doth howl and rave, and April weeps — but, O ye hours! Follow with May’s fairest flowers. – Percy Bysshe Shelley • January is always a good month for behavioral economics: Few things illustrate self-control as vividly as New Year’s resolutions. February is even better, though, because it lets us study why so many of those resolutions are broken. – Sendhil Mullainathan • January is here, with eyes that keenly glow, A frost-mailed warrior striding a shadowy steed of snow. – Edgar Fawcett • January is my favorite month, when the light is plainest, least colored. And I like the feeling of beginnings. – Anne Truitt • January is the garbage can of movies in America, directly after all the Oscar contenders have been out. – Michael Caine • January is the month for dreaming. – Jean Hersey • January, month of empty pockets! let us endure this evil month, anxious as a theatrical producer’s forehead. – Sidonie Gabrielle Colette • January. It was all things. And it was one thing, like a solid door. Its cold sealed the city in a gray capsule. January was moments, and January was a year. January rained the moments down, and froze them in her memory: […]Every human action seemed to yield a magic. January was a two-faced month, jangling like jester’s bells, crackling like snow crust, pure as any beginning, grim as an old man, mysteriously familiar yet unknown, like a word one can almost but not quite define. – Patricia Highsmith • Just because Congress passes a law and says it’s all right to do a certain thing does not mean that it’s all right to do it. Abortion is still just as wrong today as it was the first day of January, 1973. – Shelton Smith • Last year was the fourth or fifth attempt to get fall launched till ‘American Idol’ comes in January. To be honest, the reality programming we had on last year was considered filler until we could get to the good stuff. It was meant to hopefully get us to January andor to November. To get past baseball. But (it) didn’t work very well. – Mike Darnell • Lets talk about the holidays, more specifically, consumption during the holidays. If it’s true that ‘We are what we eat,’ most of us would be unrecognizable during the period that ranges from the night before Thanksgiving through that day in early January when everyone decides to return to the gym. – Rachel Nichols • Look lak she been livin’ through uh hundred years in January without one day of spring. – Zora Neale Hurston • Lots of people go mad in January. Not as many as in May, of course. Nor June. But January is your third most common month for madness. – Karen Joy Fowler • Major league baseball players and owners should meet immediately to enact the standards that apply to the minor leagues, and if they don’t, I will have to introduce legislation that says professional sports will have minimum standards for testing. I’ll give them until January, and then I’ll introduce legislation. – John McCain

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