joecatholic:

Our society is obsessed with talking about sex, regardless if you’re having it or not. Take for instance the recent March cover of People magazine, which featured the title, “Bachelor’s Sean & Catherine, Waiting for Our Wedding night.” To make things a bit clearer, they added below the title, “No sex until ‘I do.’” The cover may intrigue those who scratch their heads, wondering in earnest why anyone would (gasp) wait to have sex.

Read More:  http://www.lifenews.com/2013/03/27/virginity-is-a-sacred-choice-not-a-shameful-status/

(via betweenpartandmeet)

dedicating-my-life-to-god:

Catholics should begin and end their prayers with the Sign of the Cross and should cross themselves when passing a church to honor Jesus in the Tabernacle, and upon entering a church. The sign is made, too, in times of trouble or fear (e.g., when receiving bad…

girlwiththebr0kensmile:

(Source: aubridoodlebug, via thefreshprinceofinaba)

(Source: osgiliaths, via xthephoenixqueen)

(Source: sheandherdarkness, via whitewingedalbatross)

emmyc:

potatofarmgirl:

cliobablio:

The Wedding Industry.

Nice.

Literally can’t stand to watch even the littlest bit of wedding shows because the attitude and behaviors of the brides always makes me so infuriated.

I wish there was a wedding show about cool low-budget weddings for nice people who just want to party with their friends and family in the name of ~love~

(Source: cliobablio)

“We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much. We have multiplied our possessions but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often. We’ve learned how to make a living but not a life. We’ve added years to life, not life to years.”

~George Carlin

(Source: karankapila, via whitewingedalbatross)

superlark:

It’s been a while since I’ve drawn a life comic. I think I’ve gotten rusty because this is kind of icky, but here is something that happened to me recently.

life:

In light of recent rumors and heightened fears around nuclear weapons — from rumblings of rogue nations seeking arsenals to the specter of terrorists acquiring “dirty bombs” — LIFE.com recalls the horrors visited upon Hiroshima and Nagasaki when the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on those cities during WWII.  Approximately 80,000 people were killed outright in Hiroshima; 60,000 more died of injury and radiation by the end of the year.

Pictured: A victim of the 1945 atomic attack on the city of Hiroshima displays his burn scars two years later.

see more — Fallout: After a Nuclear Attack

lindseykatelove:

sincerelyrichard:

ausphynx:

gioespinuevaa:

heyyyerica:

denisecua:

The Story of Kyle

One day, when I was a freshman in high school, I saw a kid from my class walking home from school. His name was Kyle. It looked like he was carrying all of his books. I thought to myself, “Why would anyone bring home all his books on a Friday? He must really be a nerd.”

I had quite a weekend planned (parties and a football game with my friends tomorrow afternoon), so I shrugged my shoulders and went on. As I was walking, I saw a bunch of kids running toward him. They ran at him, knocking all his books out of his arms and tripping him so he landed in the dirt. His glasses went flying, and I saw them land in the grass about ten feet from him. He looked up, and I saw this terrible sadness in his eyes.

My heart went out to him. So I jogged over to him, and as he crawled around looking for his glasses, I saw a tear in his eye. As I handed him his glasses, I said, “Those guys are jerks. They really should get lives.” He looked at me and said, “Hey thanks!” There was a big smile on his face. It was one of those smiles that showed real gratitude.

I helped him pick up his books and asked him where he lived. As it turned out, he lived near me, so I asked him why I had never seen him before. He said he had gone to private school before now. I would have never hung out with a private school kid before, but we talked all the way home, and I carried his books.

He turned out to be a pretty cool kid. I asked him if he wanted to play football on Saturday with me and my friends. He said yes.

We hung out all weekend, and the more I got to know Kyle, the more I liked him. And my friends thought the same of him. Monday morning came, and there was Kyle with the huge stack of books again. I stopped him and said, “Boy, you are gonna really build some serious muscles with this pile of books everyday!” He just laughed and handed me half the books.

Over the next four years, Kyle and I became best friends. When we were seniors, we began to think about college. Kyle decided on Georgetown, and I was going to Duke. I knew that we would always be friends, that the miles would never be a problem. He was going to be a doctor, and I was going for business on a football scholarship.

Kyle was valedictorian of our class. I teased him all the time about being a nerd. He had to prepare a speech for graduation. I was so glad it wasn’t me having to get up there and speak.

On graduation day, I saw Kyle. He looked great. He was one of those guys that really found himself during high school. He filled out and actually looked good in glasses. He had more dates than me and all the girls loved him! Boy, sometimes I was jealous. Today was one of those days. I could see that he was nervous about his speech, so I smacked him on the back and said, “Hey, big guy, you’ll be great!” He looked at me with one of those looks (the really grateful one) and smiled. “Thanks,” he said.

As he started his speech, he cleared his throat, and began. “Graduation is a time to thank those who helped you make it through those tough years. Your parents, your teachers, your siblings, maybe a coach — but mostly your friends. I am here to tell all of you that being a friend to someone is the best gift you can give them. I am going to tell you a story.” I just looked at my friend with disbelief as he told the story of the first day we met. He had planned to kill himself over the weekend. He talked of how he had cleaned out his locker so his mom wouldn’t have to do it later and was carrying his stuff home. He looked hard at me and gave me a little smile. “Thankfully, I was saved. My friend saved me from doing the unspeakable.”

I heard the gasp go through the crowd as this handsome, popular boy told us all about his weakest moment. I saw his mom and dad looking at me and smiling that same grateful smile. Not until that moment did I realize its depth.

Never underestimate the power of your actions. With one small gesture, you can change a person’s life.

I love everything about this.

I teared up. I love every single thing about this. ♥

That’s amazing. <3

totally teared up — this is absolutely beautiful :)

(via teaocoffay)

melmyfinger:

Old People Line Up To Clean Radiation in Japan

Mr. Yamada:

“I am 72 and on average I probably have 13 to 15 years left to live. Even if I were exposed to radiation, cancer could take 20 or 30 years or longer to develop. Therefore us older ones have less chance of getting cancer.”

Basically a group of 200+ retirees are volunteering to expose themselves to high levels of radiation so the younger men and women don’t have to.

Making the ultimate sacrifice to protect the lives of their children, and their children’s children. <3

(Source: BBC via Gizmodo)

(via melmyfinger)

brain-food:

In May of this year, Pixar animator Austin Madison kindly hand-wrote the following open letter to aspiring artists, in a bid to inspire them through times of creative drought. It’s a lovely, eloquent letter, and in fact contains advice valuable to people in many a creative field. It was written as a contribution to the Animator Letters Project.

Transcript

PIXAR

May 17, 2011

To Whom it May Inspire, 

I, like many of you artists out there, constantly shift between two states. The first (and far more preferable of the two) is white-hot, “in the zone” seat-of-the-pants, firing on all cylinders creative mode. This is when you lay your pen down and the ideas pour out like wine from a royal chalice! This happens about 3% of the time. 

The other 97% of the time I am in the frustrated, struggling, office-corner-full-of-crumpled-up-paper mode. The important thing is to slog diligently through this quagmire of discouragement and despair. Put on some audio commentary and listen to the stories of professionals who have been making films for decades going through the same slings and arrows of outrageous production problems. 

In a word: PERSIST.

PERSIST on telling your story. PERSIST on reaching your audience. PERSIST on staying true to your vision. Remember what Peter Jackson said, “Pain is temporary. Film is forever.” And he of all people should know. 

So next time you hit writer’s block, or your computer crashes and you lose an entire night’s work because you didn’t hit save (always hit save), just remember: you’re never far from that next burst of divine creativity. Work through that 97% of murky abyssmal mediocrity to get to that 3% which everyone will remember you for!

I guarantee you, the art will be well worth the work! 

Your friend and mine, 

Austin Madison

“ADVENTURE IS OUT THERE!”

(via Letters of Notes; Animated Letters Project) 

Because all of my friends in the arts need to read this. 

(via newworldfool)

(via etiquetteforalady)

mols:

I believe in the magic of books. I believe that during certain periods in our lives we are drawn to particular books— whether it be strolling down the aisle of a secondhand bookshop with no particular idea of what we want and suddenly finding the most perfect, most wonderfully suitable book…