Amber > Recent Status Updates

"Did you know that some people think just putting books with queer characters into schools will make kids queer? If being a boy or a girl is so built into us at birth - if it's not something we learn from everyone around us - then what are a few books going to do to change that? I don't think you can make anyone into anything unless the pieces were there to start with."

"Feminism is being exactly who you want to be because you want it for yourself. Not being something for someone else. Or society."

"A lot of the most banned books for kids are about things like racial injustice and, you guessed it, gender identity and sexuality."

Oh the irony, since I'm reading this for a challenge.

"That night his father went on the list." LOLOLOL I am absolutely loving this book so far! Sort of Hitchhiker's Guide meets a cozy mystery.

"I wanted to understand how an entire nation could be brainwashed and led by an individual who was clearly deranged."

"[My mother] was infusing me with the principle that even in the bleakest of times, we must not lose our own humanity, sensitivity, and sense of self-worth."

"My partner is a few hours away..."
"Can you call him?"
"Her," she corrected.
"Sorry to assume. Can you call her?"

PERFECT! Quick, easy, respectful.

On leadership: “there were so many things to do when you were in charge… he had imagined the freedom of being able to set his own schedule… it turned out he could advance such projects. He had the authority to set up experiments, divert resources. It was everything he needed, except time to attend in person.”

"And if a tool seemed broken at first glance, perhaps you were simply applying it to the wrong task."

"You just want to stop existing. You don't actually want to kill yourself, not on most days. But you figure it sure would be convenient if you weren't around anymore."

"Often people just wanted to know that they weren't fools or weaklings for coming in. They wanted to know their pains were real, and that there was something - even something small - that they could do about the problem. Simple affirmation could be worth more than medication."

"[Rick Perry] wrote that Texans preferred rolling blackouts to more government oversight of their energy market."

"The way he thought, breathed, even moved implicitly conveyed that today was a day of intelligence... he finally felt like himself after so many days trapped in the mausoleum of his own flesh, his mind like a master painter allowed only to whitewash walls."

“I don’t mind people believing what works for them, Uncle. That’s something nobody ever seems to understand - I have no stake in their beliefs.”

"These misbeliefs came in a range of flavors, from whimsical to warlike, but one thing was certain - our shared grasp on reality had slipped."

"[Cam Wright] was known for being shy, quiet, and private, but also straightforward, direct, and blunt when needed. He loved hunting on horseback in Ireland, racing his Alfa Romeo, and science that did not wait for any bureaucracy, even that of his bosses in the Royal Navy."

Change the list and this is my boss.

"Once Haldane found control of his tongue, he began bellowing once again that he was about to die, he was going to die, he was actively dying and that he had too many scientific papers to publish to be able to die."

"Diving... was about as sneaky as trying to creep a freight train covered in disco lights through Wesminster Abbey."

Last quote I was 'tism? YUP.
"Records... focus on the anecdotes of oddities and atypical traits. People who continue to propagate this message... fail or refust to accept that some minds work differently, yet still beautifully. That some people communicate using less expected patterns, but they still communicate. [These people] immortalize the bullying and torment after death."

I just love this description of Prof. Haldane: "6'1" and unintentionally, awkwardly, massively imposing, the blunt yet mostly affable middle-aged geneticist had broad shoulders, a hefty mustache, and a prominent bald forehead that forced his bushy eyebrows downward at the seeming expense of his eyes."

""It takes a village to raise Sam," Dolores once remarked after the four adults consulted on a Sam-related mini-crisis -- to which everyone echoed agreement."

"Observing her, listening to her story without a word of prompting, she strikes me as either on the verge of a nervous breakdown or a great personal liberation. Either was, it's sexy to watch."

"The engine of the Protestant Reformation wasn't work ethic so much as literacy."

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Improving depends not on the quantity of information you seek out, but the quality of the information you take in."

Filter wisely like a sponge, learn well.

"Procrastination is a common problem when you're pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone... your brain gets hijacked by an instant gratification monkey... all you have to show for your time is a profound sense of inadequacy and idleness. You've burned your self-esteem to ashes of shame."

"By age 25, students who HAPPENED to have had more experienced kindergarten teachers were earning significantly more money than their peers."

Emphasis mine.

Mind blown.

"The only thing that got him out of bed... was imagining pencil on paper... the scratching sound, the clean mineral smell, the dull pressure on fingertips as the graphite tip dragged dark, shiny lines across cool white paper, diminishing itself to a sweaty nub in the process, transubstantiating carbon into image, into word, into meaning."

Third reread in preparation for book 5 in December!

""I'm so tired." He didn't mean the physical fatigue, though 8 months eating leftovers had stolen much of the lean strength he'd cultivated while at war. He felt tired. Even when he got enough sleep. Even on those rare days when he wasn't hungry, cold, or stiff from a beating. So tired..."