Carmina Burana

So there's a ballet called Carmina Burana by a guy named Carl Orff that tells the story of humanity from creation to apocalypse. It's pretty dark -- I've heard the text is based on the writings of apostate monks from the 13th century who abandoned their faith to live a life of wantonness.

If I was in an instrumental rock band (like Mogwai, Mono, or Explosions in the Sky or something), I would love to do an album and/or a live show that does the same thing, but stays true to the story of humanity the Bible tells. It's a powerful story and it could comfortably be divided into distinct songs -- Creation, Fall, Redemption, Restoration, for example. Maybe you could even combine it with live painting or at least a trippy video on a projector.

Teachers

Think of the best teacher you ever had in school. Could she successfully teach a class of 200? Or 500? Of course. She might have to figure out how to test/grade that many students, but she could definitely hold their attention and communicate clearly.

Now think of the worst teacher you ever had. Could he successfully teach a class of only 4 students? No. He was incompetent -- didn't matter how few students he had. Schools freak out about student:teacher ratios, but this ratio is not necessarily correlated to how much students actually learn.

Same goes for any kind of leader. A good leader can command an army; a bad leader can't control a boy scout patrol. Organizations (schools, churches, companies, etc.) should divide the people who need to be led by the number of leaders, not divide them into groups and then try to scrounge up people to lead them just for the sake of having convenient groups.

Celebrities

"When I asked Gawker managing editor Choire Sicha whether it was possible to ignore talentless celebrities, he responded with the remorse of a custodian of cultural decline: 'Everyone can, and should, be ignored. We were warned about this situation we find ourselves in by philosophers, and well before it happened. It's just too bad we weren't warned by celebrities, or we would have listened to them.'"
http://www.timeout.com/newyork/things-to-do/why-the-hipster-must-die

Odd Dance

"Punks wear their tattered threads and studded leather jackets with honor, priding themselves on their innovative and cheap methods of self-expression and rebellion. B-boys and b-girls announce themselves to anyone within earshot with baggy gear and boomboxes. But it is rare, if not impossible, to find an individual who will proclaim themself a proud hipster. It's an odd dance of self-identity – adamantly denying your existence while wearing clearly defined symbols that proclaims it."
http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/79/hipster.html

Lacanian

"The hipster is the child of the postmodern – a mixture of cynicism and rebellion, buried under conformism and apathy – everything taken at face value and rolled into one. In its self-centric dynamic it is obsessed with its own identity, yet it is defined by what it is not (hipsters deny being hipsters). Speaking philosophically hipsterdom raises a glass to the Lacanian lack, and it is good this way, for the hipster is the epitome of the marketing age, the ravaging consumerism and the celebration of desire. They are the product of marketing and also the source of it, they set trends and have trends fed back to them in a loop of fashion, obscure bands and indie clubs."
http://anticapitalists.org/2012/06/08/more-than-just-aesthetics/

Teeth

Whenever I was being particularly unpleasant, Mom always used to tell me "you can't treat people like that because one day you will say the wrong thing to the wrong person and they will beat your ass." Well that would be true in any situation except in the Church, where it is possible to live an entire lifetime being so heavily coddled that nobody ever tells you that you are a prick.

Christians are afraid to tell other Christians about major character flaws. We are good at expressing thoughts like "When you said x, it hurt my feelings because of y..." But we stay away from conversations like "Nobody wants to be around you because you have x issue and it drives people away." Christian conflict resolution materials insist that when confronting someone you should always focus on specific behaviors and not mention general patterns. But sometimes sin is general. Surely there are times when we must say not "When you interrupted me it made me feel disrespected" but instead "You do not respect the opinions of others, and until that changes nobody will want to be around you."

Non-Christians tend to be much more direct -- occasionally to the point of cruelty -- about such conversations, which makes for miserable middle/high school experiences. But these experiences often turn out well-adjusted adults. Without going through the brutal social boot camp of normal, unforgiving relationships early in life, many Christians enter their mid-20s completely unaware of major social hang-ups that their non-Christian peers had beat out of them in 9th grade.

Sometimes there really is a "plank in your brother's eye."

Coin

When you flip a coin, it will have either an even or an odd number of rotations. An even number of rotations will result in the side that was originally facing up, an odd number will result in the side that was originally facing down. Charting the possibilities if the original side is heads:

0 rotations = heads
1 rotation = tails
2 rotations = heads
3 rotations = tails
4 rotations = heads
etc.

So it looks to me like in the example above, heads is facing up as often as tails if the number of rotations is even, but more often than tails if the number of rotations is odd. Shouldn't this mean that whatever side starts face up should have a slightly higher chance of landing face up?

Normal

Being normal doesn't mean being similar to everybody around you.

Athlete

At 28 you should be a better athlete than you were at 18.

Skaters

Skaters who also do other things:

Jason Lee (aka the guy from "My Name Is Earl")
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tycWDOByM8c&

Matt Hensley (one of the most influential skaters ever and accordion player for Flogging Molly)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZSjy1AssM8&

Unreliable

Sometimes showing your superiors that you are a little unreliable is the only way to make sure they don't take advantage of you.

AM

"Oldies" music is designed to be listened to on AM radio. When you listen to it on CD, MP3, tape, FM radio, or even vinyl, you may be hearing a purer version of the song, but you aren't necessarily hearing it in the medium the artist intended.

Doctors

Doctors have one of the most respected professions in Western culture, but it seems like many (if not most) doctors I meet are really just trying to take advantage of sick people.

Photography

90% of the people who say they are into photography are really just rich people who bought themselves a nice camera. Of course a closeup of a flower or a black-and-white picture of a homeless person looks good if you take it on a $600 camera. Stop polluting the internet with crap photos in high definition and get a real hobby where you earn success instead of buying it.

Entropy

A closed system tends toward disorder. But only a closed system. Creationists forget this when they argue that entropy works against a naturalist explanation for the origin of life on Earth. The Earth is not a closed system because we constantly get energy from the sun. So it won't necessarily tend toward disorder overall.

Phonetic

English isn't a purely phonetic language because arabic numerals are not phonetic.

Cookie Monster

Cookie Monster is the simplest humor can get and still be funny.

Movements

Movements are characterized (at least in the 20th century in America) by a convergence of music, art, recreation, and ideology. If you want to see a movement, you can't just focus on ideology/beliefs.

Forgotten

Nobody ever remembers why a great piece of art was made, what it meant to it's creator, what it's purpose was, etc. Everybody just recognizes its brilliance.

Glassy Eyes

"Glassy Eyes" may be my favorite phrase in the English language.