This Week - Oct 04, 2013

A not-insignificant number of the vehement New York lovers I know — especially the young twentysomethings — are actually pretty unhappy day to day. I picture the prom king’s girlfriend sitting near him at the party, ignored but still kind of proud to be in the room and on his arm — and incredibly defensive should you suggest she break up with him for someone who dotes on her more.

— Why I’m Glad I Quit New York at Age 24 (New York Magazine)

It seems coffee with strangers only serves one purpose: to make you into a more perfect connoisseur of self-consciousness. You know how it feels to hold your own self in one hand and drink from it. You know how it feels when it orbits the space between your lips and then runs down the back of your throat. And everything is ten times more palpable, like when they first invented Technicolor.

— What Happens When You Have Coffee With Strangers (Harris Sockel)

The thing about being an unstoppable force is that you can really only enjoy the experience of being one when you have something to bash yourself against. You need to have things trying to stop you so that you can get a better sense of how fast you are going as you smash through them. And whenever I was inside the dinosaur costume, that is the only thing I wanted to do.

— Menace (Hyperbole and a Half)

I miss writing. I used to do it a lot and enjoyed spilling the words trapped inside the darkness of my head into glowing pixels on someone else’s screen. Truth be told, since we’re being honest here, you and me, I also enjoyed the attention. Maybe that’s because I couldn’t handle it in real life, the part where people like you and want to be with you and understand you and still like you having understood you.

— The Search for Meaning in a World of Rampant Success and Overwhelming Misery (THE Lance Arthur)