Mostly Mute Monday: The Largest Eruption in the Known Universe
“But this eruption is special, having been going on for hundreds of millions of years, due to the size of the eruption that’s many millions of light years across. If it were caused by accreting matter, it would have had to accrete nearly a billion solar masses worth of material. The combined radio (VLA), visible (Hubble) and X-ray (Chandra) data suggest another interpretation: an ultramassive black hole in excess of 10^10 solar masses powers the outburst.”
What’s causing this monstrosity at the heart of MS 0735.6+7421? Come find out on Mostly Mute Monday.
This one time I painted a living room with a girl.
This was a handful of years back. It was about eight months before the huge, flame-out of a breakup. That day, though? That day we painted the living room? It was pretty uneventful. We painted my parents living room for $50 between us and a pizza. That was it. I think we watched Anchorman or something after that.
But it still holds as on of the most indelible memories I have. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not still in love, it happened, it was good, it ended, and we’ve both moved on. But I’ll never forget that day. Because it’s never, in the long run, about the grand gestures. You can fly across the world and show up on her doorstep with a rose in your teeth and a ring in a little velvet box but I can guarantee you that - more often than not - she’s going to remember the time you built the birdhouse in the back yard, or what have you, a whole lot more.
Life wasn’t meant to be taken in large movements. The next day will inevitably arrive, you’ll sleep, and the moment will have passed. But when you have a hundred thousand small moments, you can step back and appreciate the picture a lot more than metaphorically blowing your load on some grand moment that, in all honesty, look, you’re not Bruce Fucking Springsteen, you’re not going to be able to blow everyone’s mind every single night. You’re not Romeo and/or Juliet. There’s no reason to drink the poison together in some flame-out gesture. So that leaves us with the small stuff. It’s all about the detail.
That’s what love is. Attention to detail.
And the moment will end. And then things will get boring. And it might get a little quiet. And it might all end horribly. And you might hate eachother at the end. And you might walk away from eachother one day and never speak again. But that’s just how it goes.
But she’ll remember the time you held the door open for her on your first date.
She’ll remember the time you laughed at her impression of the landlady.
She’ll remember the time you stayed up all night that first time.
She’ll remember the small things a lot longer than the big ones.But everything ends. And I’ll tell you why you have to make the small things, the small moments count so much more:
One day, probably a while longer from now, when old age takes ahold of someone, she might just only remember your smile. Everything you ever did together, every second, every moment, every beat, every morning spent in bed, every evening spent together on the sofa, all of that - gone. Everything you ever did will be reduced to the head of a pin. She won’t remember your name. She’ll just remember your smile, and she’ll smile. She won’t know why. It’s a base, gut reaction. But she’ll smile, uncontrollably, and it will come from somewhere so deep as to know that you touched her on a primal, honest, and true level that no scientist, scholar, or savant could ever begin to explain. There is no more. There is nothing else. There is just this: She’ll remember your smile, and she’ll smile.
And you know what? That’s all that really matters in the end.
I just cried at this
i’m now in tears.
Everytime i go in public
me: why is everyone glancing at me
me: is there something on me
me: do i look extra ugly today
me: is it my face
me: they're laughing at me on the inside
me: they all hate me
me: they're plotting my death
me: guess what i don't like any of you
do this for me to show u care
this situation is so scary. someone’s life can depend on a phone call
i remember this. i didn’t want to believe he took his life. i kept calling and calling but no answer…
this is probably the scariest thing I’ve ever had too do.
This is one of the scariest situations I’ve ever been in.
I’ve been on both sides of that phone call, I’ve called someone crying begging them to answer because I didn’t want to lose them, and I’ve called someone begging them to answer because I needed them, I needed someone to answer and remind me that someone cares enough about me to answer a phone. And when no one answers, no matter what side of the phone you’re on, you die inside.
