Graduation Advice

"Read obituaries. They are just like biographies, only shorter. They remind us that interesting, successful people rarely lead orderly, linear lives." -from a WSJ article titled "10 Things Your Commencement Speaker Won't Tell You." My second-favorite piece of advice: "Don't try to be great. Being great involves luck and other circumstances beyond your control. The less you think about being great, the more likely it is to happen. And if it doesn't, there is absolutely nothing wrong with being solid."

Mighty Mo.

"It's a wonder how someone who has seen both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans can enjoy looking at the muddy Missouri River." -great line from this week's Vox feature (which I critiqued on Friday -- great to be back in the J-School!).

C is for Cookie

Courtesy of NPR

Bold

"Darling, don't let's ever be afraid of things. It's such dreadful slavery. Let's be daring and adventurous and expectant. Let's dance to meet life and all it can bring to us, even if it brings scads of trouble and typhoid and twins!" -Anne of Windy Poplars

Fat Cat

Winkley's cousin.

Smarter All the Time

"You're always building new mental muscles. You start out on a new beat or a new story as ignorant as a child, and within a few weeks or months you're an expert." -excerpt from a Forbes article about why journalism is actually an awesome career.

Iceberg

Caption Contest?

As seen in Star Valley, Arizona.

At Altitude

As seen near Arizona's Highline Trail.

Quiet

Forever

Staying Sane

West

"May all your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view...where something strange and more beautiful and full of wonder than your deepest dreams awaits you." -Edward Abbey

Offline

Staying Alive

"Kudos to Columbia -- America's Hardest-Working Town!" -good ol' CoMo ranks No. 1 on Parade magazine's list of American's hardest working towns.

I'm definitely doing my part to contribute to that reputation...

New

"Let every tree
burst into blossom
whatever the season.
Let the snow melt
mild as milk
and the new rain wash
the gutters clean
of last year's
prophecies." -Linda Pastan

Freedom

"If you don't take money, they can't tell you what to do." -in the documentary Bill Cunningham New York, fashion photog Bill Cunningham explains why he ripped up his checks from Details magazine.

C'mon, Ladies

"We only judge what's on the table." -quote in an article titled "How 25 National Magazine Award Nominations Went to 25 Male Writers."

Read All About It

Going

"Walking has become a lost mode, perceived as not a legitimate way to travel but a necessary adjunct to one's car journey, a hobby, or something that people without cars -- those pitiable 'vulnerable road users,' as they are called with charitable condescension -- do." -nice piece from Slate called "The Crisis in American Walking."

Yay, LA

"Los Alamos, ranked the wealthiest county in the nation by the U.S. Census Bureau, was also ranked the healthiest county in the nation." -New Mexico Business Weekly

Sweet Tooth

"I'm going to have ice cream after my dessert." -two-year-old Cece. Like the way she thinks.

Bunny Day

Being

"When one has weighed the sun in the balance, and measured the steps of the moon, and mapped out the seven heavens, there still remains oneself. Who can calculate the orbit of his own soul?" -Oscar Wilde

Tailgate Love

MU parking garage.

Struggle

"I laid down on the side of the trail and slept for 20 minutes. It was the worst run of my life." -Shawn describes a 20-mile (turned 15.5 mile) run gone wrong.

Kindness

The Grind

"One forges one's style on the terrible anvil of daily deadlines...The artists is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work." -Emile Zola

Goodnight

"Even if we only talk for  second, I go to bed feeling loved. And at the end of the day, that is always enough." -from a Thought Catalog post titled "How to Make a Long-Distance Relationship Work."

No Joke

"In the corridor of the third floor of Academic Hall, European armies have made radical changes in their maneuvers. The French apparently have given up the war and have fled to the western coast of France. The English have disappeared entirely. All the German forces of the western theater are quartered in Paris. In the east, the Austrian and German forces are massed in the lowlands of Prussia, surrounded by Russian and Servian [sic] troops. A few Servians are left as garrisons along the frontier. One lone Austrian army corps has escaped and is now stationed in the middle of the North Sea. The havoc is attributed to some April Fool prank." -from a April 1, 1915 University Missourian article titled “Jokers Annihilate Armies: April-Fool Pranks Play Havoc With European War Map.”