Fanboy and aspiring author: usually in that order

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We now return you to your regularly scheduled post.

Exactly what it say on the tin, folks. This post is a big list of profound and/or funny quotes that I like. Looking for a way to make this a sort of 'sticky' post on both LJ and Facebook; can anyone help me with that?

ETA: I've cutified the bulk of the quotes, but I'm always bumping into newer quotes that I enjoy, so I'll try to keep a few fresh ones outside the cut as I come across them and once I get a few, I'll probably cycle older quotes under the cut with the newest quotes outside of it.

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"D'you know in 900 years of time and space, I've never met anyone who wasn't important before."
-The Doctor: Doctor Who-

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
-Martin Luther King, Jr.-

"Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane."
-Martin Luther King, Jr.-

"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
-Winston Churchill-

"Life ends when you stop dreaming. Love ends when you stop caring. Friendship ends when you stop sharing."
-Tyson Gentry-

"A man's as miserable as he thinks he is."
-Seneca-

"It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles."
-Machiavelli-

"A man has as many social selves as there are individuals who recognize him."
-William James-

"If you are lonely when you're alone, you are in bad company."
-Sartre-

"What do I care about Jupiter? Justice is a human issue, and I do not need a god to teach it to me."
-Sartre-

"There is no harm in repeating a good thing."
-Plato-

"It is not reason which is the guide of life, but custom."
-David Hume-

"It is impossible to begin to learn that which one thinks one already knows."
-Epicetus-

"Be yourself; everyone else is taken."
-Oscar Wilde-

( Cutified )

(For the first quotes post click here.)

Apparently the first post has become too full of text. Here begineth the second post. As with the first one, next time I add a batch of quotes, the old batch will be cycled below a cut. This will continue until that post is full as well.

"A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?"
-Albert Einstein-

"'I'm bored' is a useless thing to say. I mean, you live in a great, big, vast world that you've seen none percent of. Even the inside of your own mind is endless, it goes on forever, inwardly, do you understand? The fact that you're alive is amazing, so you don't get to say 'I'm bored.'"
-Louis C.K.-

"The only difference between the Republican and Democratic parties is the velocities with which their knees hit the floor when corporations knock on their door. That's the only difference."
-Ralph Nader-

"I'm getting fairly fed up with the word "polarizing" as it (falsely) infers there are only two points of view on any one topic."
-Damon Lindelof-

"A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves."
-Edward Murrow-

"There is but one cause of human failure. And that is man's lack of faith in his true Self."
-William James-

"Thinking, acting & speaking like Jesus are the easiest ways to get some Christian to call you a Socialist."
-John Fugelsang-

"It doesn't always pay to get up early. If you're a worm, you just get eaten by that early bird. So sleep in, worms."
-Stephen Colbert-

"Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere."
-Albert Einstein-

"The most perfect political community is one in which the middle class is in control, and outnumbers both of the other classes."
-Aristotle-

"Here’s to books, the cheapest vacation you can buy."
-Charlaine Harris-

"Food is not the enemy. Why fight with what you eat? Food is life. To be anal-retentive with it is a miserable existence."
-Twitter user: @electricspacegirl-

"If you make peaceful revolution impossible you make violent revolution inevitable"
-John F. Kennedy-

"Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it."
-John Lennon-

"If Megaupload can work out how to make $175 million from giving stuff away for free, why can't the content creators? Join the fucking dots."
-Shealan Forshaw-

"Girls should never be afraid to be smart."
-Emma Watson-

"It makes me sad that people can wear hate like a coat and call it morality in the name of their religion. Sad, sad times."
-Twitter user: @filmchick85-

"It’s not who you are that holds you back; it’s who you think you’re not."
-Unknown-

"There is a case for hating people. It's called history."
-Joss Whedon-

"When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross."
-Sinclair Lewis-

"The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it."
-Chinese Proverb-

( Oh look, a cut. )

You had one job.

All you had to do was have Schmosby cry during the toast, give one more big speech about life, have Tracy be touched by that speech, make a few jokes about other shows finales, have Robin and Barney stop by the train platform on their way out so they can play one more game of haaave you met Ted, do the scene with the yellow umbrella, have Ted give Tracy his boutonniere, and have a scene after the credits where Nick Fury asks Robin to join the Avengers Initiative.

And then leave the rest unsaid.

That was all you had to do.

...You didn't do that.

Now, maybe you're thinking, Nic are you just miffed because it wasn't what you expected to happen? And yes, that is a factor, but there are so many other reasons that I hate this finale.

The Eleventh Doctor's exit on Doctor Who wasn't quite what I expected and was slightly off-putting. But ultimately I got over it.

The ending of Chrono Cross wasn't quite what I expected and was slightly off-putting. But ulitmately I was okay with it.

The Arrested Development Season 4 finale wasn't quite what I expected and was slightly off-putting. But ultimately I enjoyed it.

The ending of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" books wasn't quite what I expected and was slightly off-putting. But ulitmately I thought it was fantastic.

The LOST finale wasn't quite what I expected and was slightly off-putting. But ultimately I really loved it.

The How I Met Your Mother finale was so far afield of what I was expecting that I felt more deeply betrayed and disappointed than I've felt in a long time.

In the past 365 days, my favorite comic book threw away 20 years of continuity by rebooting its entire universe, two Doctor Who specials passed without any exceptional new Murray Gold music, my mother didn't get me anything for my birthday or Christmas, and I took a job at Wal-Mart...but THIS FINALE is far and away the single most disappointing event I've experienced in the past 365 days.

( Proper spoilers begin here. )

But all they really had to do to make an entertaining episode of television...was just leave the rest unsaid.

But this wasn't a story they set out to tell; it was a trick they set out to play.

I'm not one to skip episodes when I rewatch things. I still watch "Reptile Boy," "Bad Eggs," and "Doublemeat Palace" when I go through Buffy. I still watch "Stage Fright" when I go through Dollhouse. I still watch "Expecting" and "She" when I got through Angel. I still watch "Fear Her" when I go through Doctor Who.

But I can vow here and now that I would sooner re-read the Buffy Season 8 comics than rewatch "Last Forever." And if you know me at all you know that I wound up violently disliking the Buffy Season 8 comics.

At least now I know how Barney feels when he watches The Karate Kid. This was the most haunting television finale it has ever been my displeasure to watch.

Some good did come out of it, though. I've set a goal for myself as a writer: to never write anything that is that much of a disappointment, that much of a transparent deception, that much of a dramatic departure from what came before. I may someday write something as unexpected, off-putting, and controversial as the LOST finale "The End." But I hope to never write anything so unwittingly under-thought as the How I Met Your Mother finale "Last Forever."

This is my work schedule for the week of Thanksgiving. At my second job. I don't know if I ever mentioned on here that I got a second job. I work for a very well-known company. Recently, they received some internet attention for their oh-so-philanthropic canned food drives for their own employees.

Now, this company has certain social media policies so I'll go ahead and put this here. DISCLAIMER: My views do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer or any affiliated parties.

I'd like to draw some attention to this schedule though. As this is my second job, it's only part time to make ends meet. Evidently, to them, part time means 40.5 hours in a week. I don't know what was going through the scheduler's mind when they had to override my availability parameters 11 times to put this schedule together. I've seen them edit schedules before (this is a recurring problem) and they literally have to clear a notification every time they override a parameter.

However, let's go beyond that. Even if I were a full-time associate, let's take a look at Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. On Wednesday I'm scheduled for a swing shift from 7am to 4pm and 5pm to 9pm. The early shift has a one hour meal. The "swing" of it could be seen as a second one hour meal, apart from the fact that these shifts almost never end at the time they're scheduled to end and that transportation takes time. 14 hours of work with 2 hours of meal time. 12 hours on the clock. (Though neither of those shifts will end at the time scheduled. The end result would be closer to 12.5 hours.)

Next, let's look at Thursday and Friday, with particular emphasis on the combination of the two. Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday. If you've worked out who my employer is, you know that both of these days are big for them. But let's not focus on the heavy traffic (yet); let's focus on the timing of it. 12pm to 4pm, 7pm to 12am, and then again from 5am the next morning to 1pm. That's a 25 hour period with three hours off for a theoretical Thanksgiving Dinner and 5 hours off for some theoretical sleep. Then let's factor in the fact that these shifts almost never end on time (on a good day, and these are big sale days) and the fact that transportation takes time. Even a generous estimate leaves only 2.5 hours for that Thanksgiving Dinner and 4.5 hours for that theoretical sleep...assuming I can immediately hit the bed in my work clothes and fall straight to sleep, then go back at 5am without so much as dragging a comb through my hair.

I understand that an employer is going to want all hands on deck for their big sale days, but this kind of schedule isn't even written for people. This schedule is written for numbers. You're not thinking "I'll schedule Nicholas til 12am and then again at 5am," when you write a schedule like this; you're not thinking about Nicholas at all. This schedule shows thought only for his cashier number, the number of hours, the number of customers in the store, the numbers on the dollar bills from those customers, ... and no thought at all for the person.

Now, in my position, having the first job to fall back on and everything, I intend to fight this. Since I'm supposed to be part time, I'll be fighting 10 of the 11 violations of my availabilty parameters (I'll ease up slightly for Black Friday). They can either change this schedule or lose an associate just in time for the holidays. But not everyone is in that kind of position. Worse still, they released this schedule a week later than they usually release the schedules and I can only assume that's a measure to make it even more difficult for people to change it. It's shady, underhanded, inconsiderate, cruel, and unusual, but they're going to get away with it. They know that most of their employees won't fight back...won't even question their schedules. Even the ones who have a mind to aren't in a position to do anything about it.

Now, this has been a lovely first draft of my resignation and all, but why am I posting it? Why am I telling you all this? Well, to raise awareness, I suppose. But there's also this:

Please, when you're shopping this holiday season, be mindful of the lights above the registers. That cashier probably only has 5 hours to go home and try to sleep before their next shift. If you make them work late, then you're cutting into that time. You might have to stand in line a few extra minutes if you pass up their lane, but they've turned their light out because it's time for them to go home. And if they're committed to their jobs then they still have to spray down the belt and scanner, put up some more bags, and take their box of plastic clothing hangers and unpurchased merchandise up to the service desk and sort it. Think about how you would feel if someone came to your job at the last minute and asked you to keep working. And then someone else lined up behind them. And then someone else behind them. Pay attention to the lights, be considerate, and be patient. Please.

"Mr. President, Parliamentary Inquiry. At what point must a female senator raise her hand or her voice in order to be recognized over the male colleagues in the room?"
-Leticia Van de Putte-

I've really been watching an odd mix of Doctor Who lately.

( lengthy mish-mash of thoughts below )