Favorite Quotes

Inspirational Quotes

I used to have a long ass ascii text file containing a bunch of quotes. Most were inspirational and motivational, others were just witty and hilarious. I have since lost that file so I figured I'd start compiling quotes again... this time in the blog. I bring you the first installment of suntzu's favorite quotes:

Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, architecture, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work and theft will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent. And don't bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: "It's not where you take things from - it's where you take them to."
-- Jim Jarmusch


The only person who can truly persuade you is yourself. You must turn the issues over in your mind at leisure, consider the many arguments, let them simmer, and after a long time turn your preferences into convictions
--Milton Friedman (from Capitalism and Freedom)

Generating a rapidly changing environment--that is, engaging in actively that is so quick it is disorienting and appears uncertain or ambiguous to the enemy--inhibits the adversary's ability to adapt and causes confusion and disorder that, in turn, causes an adversary to overreact or underreact. Boyd closed the briefing by saying the message is that whoever can handle the quickest rate of change is the one who survives.
--Robert Coram (from Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War)

I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.
-- Winston Churchill

Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps down new roads armed with nothing but their own vision.
-- Ayn Rand

It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.
-- Epictetus

When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this... you haven't.
--Robert Schuller

Many people suffer with their thoughts, not knowing that revealing them on paper, continuously over a two hour period, removes the stinging bitterness which they are tightly wrapped within.
-- Asmos

On the mountains of truth you can never climb in vain: either you will reach a point higher up today, or you will be training your powers so that you will be able to climb higher tomorrow.
-- Friedrich Nietzsche

He who hunts monsters should see to, that in the process, he does not become a monster himself.
-- Friedrich Nietzsche

The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.
-- Friedrich Nietzsche

Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.
-- Rumi

If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.
-Niccolo Machiavelli

The voyage of discovery lies not in finding new landscapes but in having new eyes.
-- Marcel Proust

The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; the wise grows it under his feet.
-- James Oppenheim

One should count each day a separate life.
-- Seneca

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
-- Albert Einstein

The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.
-- Albert Einstein

Courage is being scared to death--and saddling up anyway.
-- John Wayne

You are going to let the fear of poverty govern you life and your reward will be that you will eat, but you will not live.
-- George Bernard Shaw

The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible -- and achieve it, generation after generation.
-- Pearl S. Buck

It's kind of fun to do the impossible.
-- Walt Disney

You'll miss 100% of the shots you don't take.
-- Wayne Gretzky

Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once.
-- Julius Caesar, Act II, Scene II

Great minds discuss ideas;
Average minds discuss events;
Small minds discuss people--Eleanor Roosevelt

Intellectuals solve problems. Geniuses prevent them.--Albert Einstein

For you to insult me, I must first value your opinion.--unknown

I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.--Thomas Alva Edison

The sign of an intelligent people is their ability to control their emotions by the application of reason.--Marya Mannes

Intelligence is the ability to avoid doing work, yet getting the work done.
--Linus Torvalds

Too Dope

French-Canadian Beer

Yeah, that subject line boggles my mind too...

Contingencies have been removed. Praise the lawd. Knock on wood because we're not home free yet.

Anyways, upon receiving some good news I pick up my wife from work and ax her to grab sixer for me since I wanted to celebrate a bit. She comes out with a 4 pack of La Fin Du Monde. Naturally, I was pissed. First of all I asked for a sixer not quad-pack. Sheeeeit. Secondly, the beer sounded hella French. For godsakes the French don't make beer... Is this some sort of pseudo-Brandy-type of drank??

Let's just say my anger has since subsided midway through the 3rd beer. I'm officially tow-the-fuck-up. Good clean buzz.

The Five Principles of the Hacker Mindset

From the truest hacker of them all, Eric S.Raymond.

Note: Yes, I agree with all five principles. I would especially agree if I had an endless supply of money and all the time in the world.

The Five Principles of the Hacker Mindset

1. The world is full of fascinating problems waiting to be solved.

Being a hacker is lots of fun, but it's a kind of fun that takes lots of effort. The effort takes motivation. Successful athletes get their motivation from a kind of physical delight in making their bodies perform, in pushing themselves past their own physical limits. Similarly, to be a hacker you have to get a basic thrill from solving problems, sharpening your skills, and exercising your intelligence.

If you aren't the kind of person that feels this way naturally, you'll need to become one in order to make it as a hacker. Otherwise you'll find your hacking energy is sapped by distractions like sex, money, and social approval.

(You also have to develop a kind of faith in your own learning capacity — a belief that even though you may not know all of what you need to solve a problem, if you tackle just a piece of it and learn from that, you'll learn enough to solve the next piece — and so on, until you're done.)
2. No problem should ever have to be solved twice.

Creative brains are a valuable, limited resource. They shouldn't be wasted on re-inventing the wheel when there are so many fascinating new problems waiting out there.

To behave like a hacker, you have to believe that the thinking time of other hackers is precious — so much so that it's almost a moral duty for you to share information, solve problems and then give the solutions away just so other hackers can solve new problems instead of having to perpetually re-address old ones.

Note, however, that "No problem should ever have to be solved twice." does not imply that you have to consider all existing solutions sacred, or that there is only one right solution to any given problem. Often, we learn a lot about the problem that we didn't know before by studying the first cut at a solution. It's OK, and often necessary, to decide that we can do better. What's not OK is artificial technical, legal, or institutional barriers (like closed-source code) that prevent a good solution from being re-used and force people to re-invent wheels.

(You don't have to believe that you're obligated to give all your creative product away, though the hackers that do are the ones that get most respect from other hackers. It's consistent with hacker values to sell enough of it to keep you in food and rent and computers. It's fine to use your hacking skills to support a family or even get rich, as long as you don't forget your loyalty to your art and your fellow hackers while doing it.)
3. Boredom and drudgery are evil.

Hackers (and creative people in general) should never be bored or have to drudge at stupid repetitive work, because when this happens it means they aren't doing what only they can do — solve new problems. This wastefulness hurts everybody. Therefore boredom and drudgery are not just unpleasant but actually evil.

To behave like a hacker, you have to believe this enough to want to automate away the boring bits as much as possible, not just for yourself but for everybody else (especially other hackers).

(There is one apparent exception to this. Hackers will sometimes do things that may seem repetitive or boring to an observer as a mind-clearing exercise, or in order to acquire a skill or have some particular kind of experience you can't have otherwise. But this is by choice — nobody who can think should ever be forced into a situation that bores them.)
4. Freedom is good.

Hackers are naturally anti-authoritarian. Anyone who can give you orders can stop you from solving whatever problem you're being fascinated by — and, given the way authoritarian minds work, will generally find some appallingly stupid reason to do so. So the authoritarian attitude has to be fought wherever you find it, lest it smother you and other hackers.

(This isn't the same as fighting all authority. Children need to be guided and criminals restrained. A hacker may agree to accept some kinds of authority in order to get something he wants more than the time he spends following orders. But that's a limited, conscious bargain; the kind of personal surrender authoritarians want is not on offer.)

Authoritarians thrive on censorship and secrecy. And they distrust voluntary cooperation and information-sharing — they only like ‘cooperation’ that they control. So to behave like a hacker, you have to develop an instinctive hostility to censorship, secrecy, and the use of force or deception to compel responsible adults. And you have to be willing to act on that belief.
5. Attitude is no substitute for competence.

To be a hacker, you have to develop some of these attitudes. But copping an attitude alone won't make you a hacker, any more than it will make you a champion athlete or a rock star. Becoming a hacker will take intelligence, practice, dedication, and hard work.

Therefore, you have to learn to distrust attitude and respect competence of every kind. Hackers won't let posers waste their time, but they worship competence — especially competence at hacking, but competence at anything is valued. Competence at demanding skills that few can master is especially good, and competence at demanding skills that involve mental acuteness, craft, and concentration is best.

If you revere competence, you'll enjoy developing it in yourself — the hard work and dedication will become a kind of intense play rather than drudgery. That attitude is vital to becoming a hacker.

Word is Bond

Originally posted on Craig's List. Shamelessly copied from the TMMB.

The Truth About Women

by Unknown

I wasn't a sexist before I understood women. There was a time when I was blissfully ignorant.

I grew up watching Disney cartoons, I believed in romance and "true love conquers all" etc. I wanted to find a woman who could be my equal, my partner. I believed in finding that one true love and being committed to each other forever. You know, like in the marriage vows, "for better or for worse, through sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer" etc. And I believed that women basically wanted the same thing. Now I understand that this was only possible when society was structured to enforce it. Now that women are "liberated" (and thus at the mercy of their own emotions and baser instincts) this is mostly no longer possible in today's society. Victorian society, or many Arab societies, are examples of how society used to be structured to keep women as faithful as possible.

I'd like to point out that I am not a misogynist...I love women. But I AM a sexist, in the sense that I believe women are vastly different than men and, according to the standards that men hold for other men, women are inferior as well.

I must be a bitter loser, right? In fact, I enjoy more success with women than most of the men in this city. I have slept with over 200 women in my life. I am sleeping with 5 different women right now. They are all normal, healthy, well-adjusted, good-looking (8+ on the looks scale) professional women. (At least as normal and healthy and well-adjusted as women can be - most women have issues.) But that's not all. I can go out any night of the week and pick up a woman. I can pick her up in front of all her friends (with 80% efficiency for each approach.) Women will slip me their phone number when their boyfriend is in the bathroom. I can talk to women on the street or in the grocery store and within 30 minutes, I can usually have sex with them right there in my car or get them back to my place. If I have to settle for a phone number, and I meet her on another day, assuming she doesn't flake, I WILL @#%$ her that next day.

Let me point out right now that my Modus Operandi doesn't change in the slightest if she single or if she has a boyfriend or husband. I just do my normal routine and I @#%$ her. Sometimes she brings up the boyfriend so she won't feel guilty when I @#%$ her because now it's "my fault." Sometimes she hides it from me until after I've @#%$ her, then she admits it. I can't tell you how many times I've been laying next to some chick, all sweaty cause I just finished busting a nut all over her face or in her mouth or on her back, and suddenly her phone rings and she's on the phone with her man, giving him some bullshit story. This is with NO GUILT WHATSOEVER!!! The sweetest most innocent girls you ever laid eyes on, will cheat at the drop of a HAT. The one thing that most men value most - loyalty - is just not there with women. Women don't think in terms of honor, women don't say "word is bond;" women are basically emotionally driven. If they feel it, they do it, period. Then they rationalize it to themselves later. Nothing is more meaningful, or compelling, to a woman than (1) the way she feels and (2) learning more about her own inner self and having emotional realizations. That's why women love astrology, chick flicks, soap operas, stupid Cosmo quizes that supposedly reveal info about yourself, etc.

I must be really good looking, right? NOPE. My looks are marginal; I'm maybe a 7. I don't work out (though I'm not fat or anything.) In fact I didn't have any success with women until I was in my early 20's. That's when I decided to go out a lot and start trying to get laid... I was willing to face rejection a thousand times a night, and do it over and over, trying everything, until I got it right. I had to completely set my ego aside. I didn't get laid at all for the first few months. Then every now and then. Then pretty often. Then downright consistently! I'm in my early 30's now and I am basically a sexual god. I wouldn't have even believed this were possible when I was in high school. The ONLY factor that determined whether a woman would cheat was my own skill level. When my skills were poor, women @#%$ all over me. (Everyone knows how women think they have license to be rude bitches in social situations... in fact I understand and appreciate that behavior now.) But once my skills got good, I could @#%$ just about anyone's wife or girlfriend. And many times I didn't know they had a man until after I @#%$ them.

Look, I'm not saying that men are perfect, or whatever. Far from it. I'm just saying, I've spent a lot of my time studying women and interacting with them, and I know how they are. In fact, sometimes I hate knowing it. Sometimes I wish I had taken the blue pill, and never went down the rabbit hole, because now there's really no going back. I didn't want to believe these things... but how could I ever get married now? How could I ever be the chump who pays for everything and blissfully goes through life not worrying about his woman because he trusts her? Look, would you leave your dog alone with a steak? You can't hate the dog for doing what's in its nature. You can't trust a dog, BUT you can trust a dog to BE a dog. Some men are disloyal... but I could *never* trust a woman to be loyal. Some men are bad presidents...but I could *never* vote for a woman to be president. I can rarely expect a woman to regard her own promises as more important and compelling to her than the emotions she feels in the moment. She will rationalize it to herself later.

Here's an interesting fact. Did you know that the median 22 year old woman has TWICE as much sex as the median 22 year old man? You might ask, how is that possible? If a woman's having sex, doesn't that mean a man is having sex at the same time? And thus, shouldn't men be having just as much sex as women? NO...because most men hardly get laid, or if they do, it's because they "got lucky." But a small group of men get laid ALL THE TIME, and @#%$ LOTS AND LOTS of women! It's evolution at work. Women follow their emotions, and that leads them to sleep with men like me (who know how to control female emotions.) Women want the top man...so the top man fucks lots of women. That's right - the sexual revolution, feminism, etc has resulted in a return to harems. Women, at the mercy of their own emotions, are volunteering for the modern-day equivalent of harems. Lucky for me!! Heh.

You might say, "But...but...I'm so nice! I'm a nice guy!" Guess what? That's like a fat chick saying, "But I'm so smart!" As if those things have anything in the world to do with sexual attraction!

I'm going to give some tips here for the poor sucker guys who are posting online trying to get laid and who are spending hundreds / thousands of dollars on all those whores out there without getting any play. (You bitches know exactly what you're doing, and I'm on to your game!)

* Don't be sexually judgemental in any way. A woman's worst fear is to be perceived as a slut. She will suck your toes and take it in the ass if she thinks you don't view her poorly for it (and she knows her friends won't find out.)

* Don't get angry at her. Women know they have emotional outbursts and they need to trust that you can handle that. It's ok (and necessary) to occasionally put your foot down...just make sure she knows you are fully in control of yourself.

* Don't let her manipulate you or control you in any way. She will immediately lose all respect for you. Always be leading. It's just like dancing - women hate a man who can't lead.

* When first approaching a woman or a group, they tend to get a feeling like this is just your little scheme to get close to them, when you really just want something from them - like sex. (And they're right.) It's important to structure your body language and conversation so that they honestly don't believe you want something from them. They should feel like you are about to leave at any second.

* DON'T TRY TO IMPRESS HER IN ANY WAY. Don't show off. Don't talk about accomplishments or possessions. As soon as she perceives that you are trying to prove yourself to her, she loses all interest.

* Don't ignore her friends. A woman values her friend's opinions more than just about anything else in the world. Nothing matters to her more than what other women are thinking. Give her friends lots of attention and get everyone laughing. If one woman is feeling different than the others, she will drag them away. They will follow like a flock of pigeons. Society is the book of women. (Notice that men do NOT behave this way! Women are very different!)

* To get a woman attracted / emotionally vulnerable, give her lots of emotions and feelings. Don't just make her feel good. Make her feel good, and angry, and sad, and connected, and astonished, and intrigued, etc. Make her laugh. Tease her. Tell stories about your sick puppy. Tell her why things would never work out between the two of you. Call her a dork. If she gets heated up, she will start touching you...playfully push her away. If she calls you a jerk and punches your arm, you are doing it right. If she gives you that "I can't believe you just said that" look, do NOT back down, do not say "Oh I'm just kidding" or anything like that.

* As she gets more emotional, she will try to ruin things by throwing in logic. She will ask you if you are a player, or if you say this to all the girls, or whatever. The trick is this: Don't take it seriously by giving it some logical answer! That's right...women lose interest if you take them seriously!!! It's crazy but that's how they behave. Just blow it off or misinterpret what she's saying as though she is coming on to you. If you fail these tests, she will be gone so fast your head will spin.

* She will start asking you lots of questions. This is what chicks do when they suddenly find themselves attracted to a man they know nothing about. This is your chance to open up a little and also find out more about her and build a deeper connection. You have to do this, or she will flake later (even if you've kissed her!) Women are the worst flakes in the world! Don't make it too easy for her, make her work for it a bit. Then talk about connections and childhood memories and things you have in common, etc. She needs to feel that this is genuine. This is usually the time when I throw in a few fake vulnerabilities, like pretending I'm shy or insecure about something. I know it's @#%$ up but women need to see that there are at least a few small holes where they can sink their hooks in you. They get uneasy if you are too perfect.

* Make sure she gets the feeling that you have standards and that you are judging her based on them. Ask her questions that show her you are checking her out to see if she is up to snuff. Women don't like to feel like you are with them only because you can't do any better. They prefer to feel like you have high standards; you can get any chick you want, but you chose HER because she is SOOOO special and SOOOO different from all the others. Yeah, I know.

* Move her to different locations. Take her next door for a drink. Take her across the street to check out some art. The more locations the better.

* Take responsibility for every escalation. A woman will do just about anything as long as she doesn't have to feel like it was "her fault." Make it YOUR fault. Make it "just happen." She will rationalize it to herself later using the same bullshit generator that women use to flake out on dates at the last minute. Don't get her horny until you get her isolated. Believe me, emotional is better than horny.

* Keep the woman always swinging somewhere between validation and rejection. If she feels rejected, she drops out or gets REALLY MAD. And if she feels too validated, she will ditch you in a heartbeat. So push her away (emotionally) and then pull her back in.

* BELIEVE YOUR OWN BULLSHIT. Chicks do not look at your excuses and try to see if they are bullshit or not... because that is the logical thing to do, and chicks are not logical. Rather, what they do is see if YOU seem to believe your own bullshit when you say it. If you look like you do, then chances are, they will believe it too. So the key is to believe your own bullshit, and other aspects about yourself that you want the chick to believe about you too (alpha male..whatever)... because your own self beliefs for some reason will automatically 'impart' to the chick!

* One more thing...many guys make the mistake of listening to female romantic advice. Don't listen to them, THEY DON'T KNOW WTF THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT, and they WILL steer you wrong. They will tell you what they THINK they want, instead of what they actually RESPOND to. And furthermore, a large part of the female sexual experience IS the inability to admit these things BECAUSE they derive sexual pleasure from putting up resistance and being overwhelmed.

If you do things this way, after a few months practice you WILL get laid like a rock star. The guys who get laid are the ones who know what they are doing, because they have practiced on lots of women. Ironically, women are most attracted to the men who are most likely to @#%$ them and then dump them on their ass - because those are precisely the men who have so many other options because they practice on lots of women. That's why you always hear women bitching about how men are assholes that only want to @#%$ them and dump them - because those are the men that they gravitate to.

Women tend to wise up when they get towards their 30s, and they start looking for a nice wimpy beta male to settle down with and pay for all their @#%$. As they get older, they will get more and more desperate to find this guy. Once they do, they will cheat on him with an exciting fun guy like me. (But who wants to @#%$ some old chick in her 30's? That's what beta males are for! Heh)

Hey, don't blame me - I didn't make things the way they are. I was just a guy who wanted to get laid. And I do :-)

Whut it do, hyphy, gully, hoy, do mah

I've got this horribly annoying song entrenched in my head. It goes "there's no letter better than B. B is the best fuckin leeetter. Blah blah blah letter than B... there's no better fuckin leeeetter..."

It's performed by the damn Dixie Chicks on this Sesame Street DVD designed to assist in teaching toddlers the alphabet and my daughter starts dancing every time it's on. God bless. I'll keep hitting the 'previous' button cuz the cuteness makes up for the wackness every damn time. I used to dance to some wack shit too when I was knee high too.

I've dranken some high end scotch from a high end licor store in the Pac Heights district in SF so this turd-post comes with warning. Lindsey Lohan is too hot. Imagine making that h0e scream...

Sold the crib. Fannin to rent nice quaint abode in the blue collar burb of san brew fo a hot minute. Does David Carr wear panties under his uniform just every other week?? Did IBM hire eunuchs design their UNIX? Was Son-Jara of the ancient Manden(sondiata) a trickster?? Or is it his sis and his griot. Only time will tell... alot of time considering how long it takes that cum guzzler to reply to me. dontbelievethehypebeast.com rules.

What about this guy? Is he fucking serious? Did he really reach the 1 mil mark by buying walmart shoes for his entire family, paying 8 bux/month for cell phone service, and listening to Yanni?? Should I try and follow in this footsteps?? Fuck no. Balance my friend. When he's 60 and sporting velcro knockoff Clarks and his daughters are at the Kit Kat Club bouncing on my lap because their daddy never bought them overpriced fake Uggs from Target he'll agree too. Scrimpy-ass thirsty nuga.

Balance young grasshopper, balance. It's all about experiencing the best of both worlds.

CD Laddering

Look into this: 12 12 month CDs each maturing 1 month after the next.

Another example of CD laddering:

CD Amount Term Rate APY Maturity
1 $10,000 6.0 mo. 2.71% 2.74% May 17, 07
2 $10,000 12.0 mo. 3.63% 3.69% Nov 17, 07
3 $10,000 18.0 mo. 3.63% 3.69% May 17, 08
4 $10,000 24.0 mo. 3.83% 3.90% Nov 17, 08

Best Breakfast Burritos in SF?

Just a note. Try this breakfast burrito spot recommended by Mass Appeal Mag: Boogaloo's.

Jinx Removing

This Jawbreaker song has received about 90+ plays in the past couple of weeks. Why didn't I discover them earlier?

Jinx Removing
24 Hour Revenge Therapy LP/CD

Talked out and now I'm feeling crowded.
All the errands in the world
won't save us now.
Rained in and I won't come unclouded.
There's a stillness in the air.
I pray for sound.

We're too smart to watch TV.
We're too dumb to make believe
this is all we want from life.
And I'm too dumb to talk to you.
You're so quick to listen to me.
I'm saying nothing you don't know.
Nothing you don't know.

Walked out and I won't be rerouted.
If I don't go outside today,
I never will.
Too old not to get excited
about rain and roads, Egyptian ruins,
our first kiss.

We're too smart to watch TV.
We're too dumb to make believe
this is all we want from life.
And I'm too dumb to talk to you.
You're so quick to listen to me.
I'm saying nothing you don't know.
Nothing you don't know.

I love you more than I've ever loved
anyone before, or anyone to come.
Someone said your name, I thought of you alone.
I was just the same, twenty blocks away.

Blew twelve and kissed the thirteenth finger.
"Rabbit, rabbit," on the first.
I hold my breath.
Did tricks I hoped you wouldn't notice.
A superstitious hyperrealist.
I'll make you mine.

We're too smart to watch TV.
We're too dumb to make believe
this is all we want from life.
And I'm too dumb to talk to you.
You're so quick to listen to me.
I'm saying nothing you don't know.
Nothing you don't know.

I love you more than I've ever loved
anyone before, or anyone to come.
Someone said your name, I thought of you alone.
I was just the same, twenty blocks away.

What's Going On

Yup, it's been over three months since my last entry. Major changes. Uncertain future.

I remain undaunted and stoic.

In a nutshell:

- We've got another bun in the oven. A male bun so they say.
- Home is on the market since we need more space.
- We don't know where we're going to live after we sell. We may rent for awhile until the housing market stablizes.
- I have a nice promotion lined up in the near future (I hope).

So much for an eloquent return post.