I Am Crying Omfg

Leaf bug (Phyllium giganteum)

https://instagram.com/p/BaezvltDV7z/

powerful

I can’t wait until our generation becomes teachers that actually know how to make a video full screen and get the gosh dang cursor out of the way

I told Miyazaki I love the “gratuitous motion” in his films; instead of every movement being dictated by the story, sometimes people will just sit for a moment, or they will sigh, or look in a running stream, or do something extra, not to advance the story but only to give the sense of time and place and who they are.

“We have a word for that in Japanese,” he said. “It’s called ma. Emptiness. It’s there intentionally.”

Is that like the “pillow words” that separate phrases in Japanese poetry?

“I don’t think it’s like the pillow word.” He clapped his hands three or four times. “The time in between my clapping is ma. If you just have non-stop action with no breathing space at all, it’s just busyness, But if you take a moment, then the tension building in the film can grow into a wider dimension. If you just have constant tension at 80 degrees all the time you just get numb.”

Which helps explain why Miyazaki’s films are more absorbing and involving than the frantic cheerful action in a lot of American animation. I asked him to explain that a little more.

“The people who make the movies are scared of silence, so they want to paper and plaster it over,” he said. “They’re worried that the audience will get bored. They might go up and get some popcorn.

But just because it’s 80 percent intense all the time doesn’t mean the kids are going to bless you with their concentration. What really matters is the underlying emotions–that you never let go of those.

— Roger Ebert in conversation with Hiyao Miyazaki

Ah yes red serif c is beating red sans-serif c in sports

One of my old partners got pulled in for an investigation today. The photo is not of him - it’s of a paramedic in California trying to eat something for the first time in nearly ten hours.

My old partner was told that a member of the public took photos of him and his current partner. My buddy was sleeping, and his partner was eating. This member of the public sent the photos with an email that both complained about how “unprofessional” it appeared - and a threat to send the photos to the media.

Thanks to Prop 11 in California, first responders no longer have a right to breaks. AMR lied to the public in a huge way. California was the only state where emergency crews had been granted a legal right to breaks to use the latrine and have a meal. Shifts run a minimum of 12 hours, often 24, and AMR runs their crews into the ground.

My buddy and his partner are in trouble because they were trying to get rest and food while posted on a street corner because we don’t get breaks. This is what AMR tells us to do. Please don’t see something like this and assume that we’re being lazy or not doing our jobs. Don’t take photos or send them to the press. That crew is probably exhausted and overworked.

Canada didn’t always have universal health care. The campaign started in the 1930s, but had immediate resistance from big business circles. It was initially implemented as an experiment in the province of Saskatchewan in 1947. 

After its incredible success, it finally went national in 1966. In the interim period, big business fought it at every step - referring to is as a communist conspiracy and a gateway to Soviet rule.

me, under a blanket: oh warm?