Let's talk about a few things before I get to the links. (Or if you're boring you can just skip ahead.)
Namely, this article from New York Magazine, called "In Defense of Distraction," and how it relates to some things in my life.
The article is long - on purpose. It challenges you, in the first paragraph, to forgo your modern distractions (Twitter, e-mail, Facebook, the Crackberry/iPhone) and devote yourself to reading it. To focusing your entire, undivided attention on the article and what it has to say. Now, despite my opinion that the article is not well organized enough to relay its very powerful message in a powerful way (to my own half-assed attention span, it was mostly an ongoing meta-thought stream about attention and how we have none of it yet could have lots of it)... it does hit you hard. That is, if you make the effort to read all of it.
I'll be frank (or maybe Mary haha /overdone joke) - I had my own distractions while reading the article. My roommate came home and we talked about her miserable day, I had to blow my nose about five times because I'm sick, and that e-mail reflex whined at me to see if a job prospect had written me back yet.
But that's kind of the nature of things. I like to focus on the nose-blowing, the roommates. I mean, if I really devoted ALL my attention that article, my nasty post-flu snot would trickle to the back of my throat, compromising my immediate health! I had to succumb to that distraction, at least. And sometimes the main criminal distractions Anderson discusses, like e-mail and technology, are similarly life-necessary. Is it really wise to ignore the building blocks of our careers, our futures? I like to stay up to date on that distraction, myself.
Maybe my personal take-home revelation from the article is about living in the moment, how it can be dangerous but unavoidable. Even though that's not exactly what Anderson says. But personally, I enjoy living in the stupid mindless moment of things like these... our sorely belated Junk Drawer links.
- Death Row game. This is a well-designed, good-humored game if I ever saw one. It took me a long first try to figure out how to master the game, then a delightful second try to beat it. I don't often show my video-game nerd side, but I'm a sucker for a good RPG/story-based game. If it has minigames built in... I'm sold. Play Death Row! Don't judge it by its controversial premise.
- White Oleander by Janet Fitch. I read this book for the first time when I was a budding adolescent, 14 going on 15. It was touching and beautiful then, but I sped through it in a haze of emotional ignorance, and the only mark it left on me was its lyrical style. I've always valued lyricism above many things, so that was fine with me. But rereading it this past week, after almost six summers, I found a new tension and breathtaking connection in this novel. If you like stories about California, about mothers and daughters, about poetry and art, about women and men and life, read this. Read it.
- This blast from the past. I'm probably "uncool" for wanting to listen to the solo albums some of the old members made. But I don't care! When they were good, S Club was gooood. I got the urge to Google them while listening to this song:
- The Sims 3 torrent. You gotta be a little tech-savvy to download and do this right, but you can download The Sims 3 from an, ahem, questionable source, before the official release on June 2nd... or just buy it on Monday, since that's only 4 days away. I'll attest that I made a conscious effort to do this download safely, so I haven't had any problems. But you probably shouldn't mess up your computer if you don't know what you're doing.
- Straslin. I don't think I've linked my friend Iseul before (it's a pen name, I'm not used to calling her that!). This is her online comic, which she's drawing during her year abroad. Some of the literary and cultural references I don't get, but in general the comic is adorable and very Iseul-like!
- Empire Mag's Cryptic Canvas. 50 famous films hidden in a painting. Can you guess them all? I got to like 34 before having to search for hints. I'm sure you can do better!
