Quote for the day

"When we were children we were errant enough to wish to be birds for the day but there's nothing easier to lose than playfulness."

- Jim Harrison in True North

via Skoobwoman

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

"A playful path is the shortest road to happiness" and other unattributed quotes from the Oaqui

My email ebox was gifted today by the following message from The Oaqui:

My/our dear funsmith,

It is with a kind of cosmic schadenfreude, combined with a vague flavoring of comic weltschmerz that I/we note the repeated occurrence of unattributed misappropriations of Oaqui Oaisdom spread with remorseless abandon throughout both the Internet and/or web. To wit, e.g. the following pieces of poignant pith:

"Ask not what fun does for you.
Ask rather what you do for fun."

"The more fun you have, the greater your value to yourself and to your society. The more fun you share with others, the more fun you have."

"For every Way there's a way of following that Way that's fun"

"The Path that is best for you is the Path that keeps the best of you in play"

"...and the Truth will Make you Laugh."

"In the beginning it was fun. In the end, it was all for fun. And in between is where it tickles most."

"All for fun, and fun for all!"

"A Playful Path is the shortest road to happiness."

"Laugh longer, live louder."

"You can only have fun helping other people have fun if you're having fun doing it."

"Fun is better than winning."

"You ask: 'What is the Meaning of ME\WE?' I/we answer: 'When the will of the one is one with the will of the many."

"The more, come to think of it, the potentially merrier."

"It's more fun when you're not the only one having it."

"Happy are those who get to talk. Happier are those who get listened to."

"The purpose of fun is to have it."

"Fun is where it's at. That's why you have to be there."

"If it's not fun, tell me, why are you still playing?"

"Losing is hardly ever fun."

"Ask not what fun does for you, but what you do for fun!"

"In the beginning, it was fun."

"Might as well remove those doubts. Fun is what it's all about."

each and all of which are rightly and only attributable to The Oaqui.

Though I/we are roughly the equivalent of thrilled to discover the dissemination of the above hard-won truisms, we/I remain indignantly righteous in my/our demand for appropriate attribution.

Please take note and appropriate steps.

Appropriately yours,

The Oaqui

I can only echo the above.

Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Follow the fun!

I learned this:

Just For Fun is a book about when big business happens to people who care far more about creating than marketing, and who love what they do for its own sake. As such, it is not just a book about an alternative business model - the open source movement - but about an alternative affect, one that honors the joy of creative work more than the humorless pursuit of profit, and that sees fun, rather than power or money, as the proper goal of life.

And this:

Torvalds’ real genius lies not so much in his programming abilities, though those are extraordinary, but in his capacity for that thing so many of us never learn to do: have fun. Fun, Torvalds believes, is at heart very far from the frivolous thing capitalism and religion have made it out to be. Fun is, rather, the highest form of human behavior, the thing that comes after survival and community, the thing, in other words, that not only makes life worth living, but is - or ought to be - a lifestyle in itself.

from this highly reputable source.


- Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Ask not what fun does for you...

"Ask not what fun does for you.
Ask what you do for fun."

- Bernie DeKoven, funsmith