Break me

Yesterday, February 21st, marked 60 years since the martyrdom of Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X) in 1965—one of my greatest idols.

Here are some of his most iconic photographs, along with my personal copy of his autobiography—crammed with bookmarks marking the passages that continue to inspire me.

Things I like; my improvised brush holder.

Today, 14 years ago, a revolution full of hope and emotions began. That year, I almost flunked school-mind racing, adrenaline rushing. This is me in Tahrir Square, amidst the will of the people. Today, nothing remains of it except memories of hope and this shirt I wear, which has become commemorative.

In a universe where Adam Sandler is Michael Newman and Christopher Walken is a science fictional inventor being able to play with time and space is named Morty, we have to think, is this some sort of a different version of Morty Smith from Rick and Morty? For starters Morty has always had his Rick and therefore has always had his ways through time and space manipulation. For second, there are versions of Morty in Rick and Morty in which we know of that are geniuses themselves such as Genius Morty or President and Evil Morty, so it‘s not far fetched that there is one working in a secret lab selling the “Universal Remote“

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[The Hangover Mosaic]:

I was watching the first sequel of The Hangover before bed for some laughs and to unwind when I had to pause for a second to appreciate this scene-frame. The Wolfpack was standing in the reception lobby of Las Vegas' Caesars Palace in front of a majestic mosaic of what appears to be Apollo and his chariots. I sent a message to Caesars Palace's official Instagram account, and 36 minutes later, they replied with the name of the responsible studio: Mural Arts; I bet they got that question a lot.

This studio was founded by professional mural painters Les Seymour and Brenda Cole Seymour 25 years ago.

Check out their website and portfolio to see their incredible work.

https://www.muralarts.com/

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Today I paint the date of which Austria opposed a ceasefire in Gaza in a UN vote against the whole world on the back of my Austrian passport. Making sure everytime I use it I remember.

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Went to bed and started reminiscing about the pink elephant scene in Disney’s Dumbo (1941) and how genius it is.

Did a little research when I woke up and found out that Salvador Dalí apparently contributed to this surreal scene. According to Disney historian Didier Ghez in one of his books, Dalí worked on some of the designs in Dumbo. Without official movie credits or specific mentions of which designs, people have fairly assumed his contribution was made in this particular scene, as it has his signature style written all over it.

The last time I watched this scene was probably two decades ago, but I still remember vividly how it felt. I still can’t explain it—creepy? Scary? Funny? I don’t know. It was just weird, but you couldn’t look away.

One of Dalí’s famous paintings, The Elephants (1948) may resemble the scene for its dreamlike composition, but I find these lithographs of his even more resembling.

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„Wikipedia is the best thing ever.

Anyone in the world can write anything they want about any subject, so you know you are getting the best possible information."

The satirical line from Michael Scott may be the most profound thing I've ever heard. It took me only a hundred viewings of the series to realise its genius.

Wikipedia, which has always been stigmatized as unreliable or an unscholastic source of knowledge and is probably the reason most of us have had our lazy' school work not accepted by our teachers.

However, we mayn times fail to recognise that Wikipedia represents history's first-ever globally collective Encyclopedia- remarkable achievement for humanity. Is there a more theoretically unbiased, agenda-less, and unifying strategy for knowledge archiving?

The very thing that has provoked skepticism is very the thing that should actually be celebrated.

Wikipedia serves as a symbol of unity, bringing all of us together.

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8. Justice: Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.

9. Moderation: Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.

10. Cleanliness: Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation.

11. Tranquility: Be not disturbed at trifles or at accidents common or unavoidable.

12. Chastity: Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another's peace or reputation.

13. Humility: Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

1. Temperance: Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.

2. Silence: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.

3. Order: Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.

4. Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought;

perform without fail what you resolve.

5. Frugality: Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing.

6. Industry: Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.

7. Sincerity: Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.

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The fear of missing out has been prevalent for a while and it's acronym FOMO, a sister of the long dead YOLO, is known by almost anyone from millennials to gen-Zs. However, I'm noticing a subtle spread of a new social fear; the fear of being 'cringe!

FOBC is the new FOMO

Let me explain. With the Covid outbreak following two years of lockdown, social media has reached a new level of consumption and engagement. This includes the emergence of a new social media giant named TikTok.

The pandemic era, propelled by boredom, social restrictions, and quarantine, nudged society toward the digital playground, compensating for the parks and playgrounds that were once spaces for letting loose and goofing around. This shift resulted in a surge of constant online posting, interaction, and participation in rapidly emerging trends. The bar for content creator success hit new heights, generating a surplus of internet influencers.

As life post-lockdown returned to normal routines and people became busier, the tolerance for lame or quirky content decreased. People who recall Robert Lewandowski's 2020 TikToks today will understand my point.

Since then, we've been ensnared in a battle between oversharing and keeping to ourselves, especially with the stakes of the digital realm being so high. On one side of the coin lies genuine success and self-respect for fearlessly being yourself, while on the other side, there's the risk of becoming an internet troll and losing self-respect in a different way.

As a sufferer of this fear myself, I remind myself of two things:

1- Creation>Consumption.

When you create you are on the opposite side of the spectrum from consumption. In our capitalistic world, with so few opportunities outside a consumption state, if creating online content is one of them, then delve into it. In the worst-case scenario, creating cringe content is still better than consuming it.

2- I remind myself of history's greats. Those who were far from perfect on day one but stayed true regardless.

How would their messy social media feeds look like today? What's the amount of character development they would have unapologetically embraced and displayed?

Be you.