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For people who want to learn, grow, get inspired, and stay silly.
Me & Ryan Gosling being very serious at the movies
I am very bad at not smiling on purpose. Sometimes, my friends and my dear Ry Ry decide that they want to see me try to frown, and the result is generally something like this. This particular instance, Ryan was unimpressed with my efforts. He thinks I can do better, but he is just blinded by the high esteem in which he holds me.
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Inspiration! Roundup: 1.7 billion ways to be Muslim, recommended reading, and lots of magic
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| This week's "I want to go to there": I suddenly find myself deeply desiring a return trip to the natural beauty of Tofino. (Possibly this has everything to do with yesterday's approval of the Kinder Morgan pipeline.) |
1.7 Billion Ways to be Muslim
Just like any religion, Muslims are a multi-faceted group of people. Here's a wonderful little intro video made by Vox highlighting all the different ways a person might live their Muslim faith.
Recommended Reading
Trying to expand your intake of culture beyond the default can be hard. First of all, if you're anything like me, you really want to see Dr. Strange and the new Gilmore Girls, and re-reading Harry Potter makes you feel safe and happy. There is only so much time and so much to take in. Plus, let's be honest, we have to work just a little bit harder to find things outside the default (that's why they're defaults), and nobody's got time for that.
That's why the internet is great! It's full of lists like this one, in the Guardian, collecting non-western books for students (and non-students) to read.
Magic Leap
This is by far one of the most incredible things I have ever seen.
Read more about Magic Leap in this Forbes article.
Su Blackwell Brings Books to Life
I am so in love with the magical artwork of Su Blackwell. She creates the most magical worlds out of paper and books.
A Harsh Reminder
Despite my love for inspiration, here's a harsh-but-true reminder about work, life, and creativity. It's not just about feeling good. Sometimes (or all the time) you just need to show up and start working.
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The Gilmore Girls: Winter to Summer
I have not yet watched the last episode of the new Gilmore Girls season. This is not stopping me from having thoughts and opinions:
(WARNING, SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS - not of the last episode, of course, but of everything up until then.)
DID THEY NOT GET THE RIGHTS TO THE THEME SONG???? This is very upsetting. The intros feel empty and sad.
Rory is... unimpressive. I'm not talking about the fact that she doesn't know what she's doing with her life or anything. I'm talking about the way she gives up so quickly on everything. She has the curse of the naturally gifted: she's used to working hard and then seeing success. When she doesn't, she crumbles because she is not used to meeting resistance.
Lane seems like she's still a pretty cool cat, but they gave her a truly unfortunate set of mom-bangs.
There is nothing more frustrating than watching a show where everyone is unhappy because everyone feels disconnected from everyone else, but they are disconnected and unhappy because they are all lying and keeping secrets from each other!
If Rory doesn't have a valid driver's licence, why does she keep driving everywhere????
People have aged reallllly unevenly. Zack looks like a tired old man! Oh, Zack! What happened to you? Meanwhile, Kirk is a total hottie!
It seems clear that they want to tell a story that stretches over all four episodes (or "seasons", but that is confusing parlance in TV-land where seasons refer to something very different), but that doesn't mean you can't have some closure at the end of each episode. Every other TV series does it, you did it in the past, you can, too!
For example: what is with this LETTER that Emily brought up once in therapy and then never got brought up again??? This better get cleared up in the final episode.
Alex Kingston! Alex Kingston is on the show! And she is cheeky and hilarious and I love her.
Rory is kind of a total jerk. She's got a boyfriend who she ignores and constantly forgets about and won't do the service of breaking up with and sleeps with a bunch of other people including an engaged Logan, who is also being a jerk here, but expectedly.
Will Lorelei ever not be able to suddenly need to go and do something dramatic?
If you're doing a TV show with a bad play in it, you don't need to show us the bad play for 15 minutes. It's okay for your episode to be 15 minutes shorter than you intended - this is Netflix, you're not trying to fill a fixed broadcast slot.
I miss Richard.
Paris continues to be one of the best, most interesting humans. Her bathroom freak out when she holds a door shut with her stiletto'd foot is one of the finest moments in television history.
Who on earth would let Paris talk to children????
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(WARNING, SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS - not of the last episode, of course, but of everything up until then.)
DID THEY NOT GET THE RIGHTS TO THE THEME SONG???? This is very upsetting. The intros feel empty and sad.
Rory is... unimpressive. I'm not talking about the fact that she doesn't know what she's doing with her life or anything. I'm talking about the way she gives up so quickly on everything. She has the curse of the naturally gifted: she's used to working hard and then seeing success. When she doesn't, she crumbles because she is not used to meeting resistance.
Lane seems like she's still a pretty cool cat, but they gave her a truly unfortunate set of mom-bangs.
There is nothing more frustrating than watching a show where everyone is unhappy because everyone feels disconnected from everyone else, but they are disconnected and unhappy because they are all lying and keeping secrets from each other!
If Rory doesn't have a valid driver's licence, why does she keep driving everywhere????
People have aged reallllly unevenly. Zack looks like a tired old man! Oh, Zack! What happened to you? Meanwhile, Kirk is a total hottie!
It seems clear that they want to tell a story that stretches over all four episodes (or "seasons", but that is confusing parlance in TV-land where seasons refer to something very different), but that doesn't mean you can't have some closure at the end of each episode. Every other TV series does it, you did it in the past, you can, too!
For example: what is with this LETTER that Emily brought up once in therapy and then never got brought up again??? This better get cleared up in the final episode.
Alex Kingston! Alex Kingston is on the show! And she is cheeky and hilarious and I love her.
Rory is kind of a total jerk. She's got a boyfriend who she ignores and constantly forgets about and won't do the service of breaking up with and sleeps with a bunch of other people including an engaged Logan, who is also being a jerk here, but expectedly.
Will Lorelei ever not be able to suddenly need to go and do something dramatic?
If you're doing a TV show with a bad play in it, you don't need to show us the bad play for 15 minutes. It's okay for your episode to be 15 minutes shorter than you intended - this is Netflix, you're not trying to fill a fixed broadcast slot.
I miss Richard.
Paris continues to be one of the best, most interesting humans. Her bathroom freak out when she holds a door shut with her stiletto'd foot is one of the finest moments in television history.
Who on earth would let Paris talk to children????
When you eat junk food like the Gilmores your insides die.
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Cute! Roundup: Cookies that bite, a puppy meets sand, and Percy's penguin "friend"
It's time for a little kitty throwback. I've introduced Percy, the kitty I had before Gertie, before. Here he is on the day we got him, with his favourite buddy (mostly for biting and scratching), Penguin.
Other Cuteness:
These cookies will bite you.
A puppy encounters sand for the first time.
Donkey in a hammock. DONKEY IN A HAMMOCK!
Otter cuddles.
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Other Cuteness:
These cookies will bite you.
A puppy encounters sand for the first time.
Donkey in a hammock. DONKEY IN A HAMMOCK!
Otter cuddles.
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Singalong! I Would Die for You by Jann Arden
This is one of those songs where the emotion of the song is bizarrely unmatched by the music video. Listening to the song makes me feel like clutching my chest, falling to my knees, and reaching out across a dark void. The video, on the other hand, features disjointed shots of lethargic couples and swimming babies while Jann rides a bus by herself.
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I WOULD DIE FOR YOU
by Jann Arden
I've never seen this kind of love
The kind that won't wash away
And then leave you in the dark
I would die for you
I would die for you
I would die for you
I've never kissed a sweeter mouth
I've never been swept away
It's what dreams are made up of
Don't you know I could not survive
Without you in my life
I would die for you
I would die for you
I would die for you
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah ya ya
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah ya ya
Yeah yeah yeah
I've never seen this kind of love
The kind that won't slip away
Yes I'm soaring through your heart
Don't you know I could not survive
Without you in my life
I would die for you
I would die for you
I would die for you
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah ya ya
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah ya ya
Yeah yeah yeah
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Learning! Roundup: Extended winters, sexism is still bad, better earthquake warnings, and more!
A Long December
Well, crap. Looks like climate change is not only giving us droughts and forest fires, but it's extending winters, as well. This is due to shifts in the polar vortex (a zone of cold air around the Arctic), thanks to sea ice loss.
Sexism is Bad for Men
It has long been the argument of feminism that the patriarchy hurts us all, not just women. Now we've got a bit of science to back us up: a new study shows that men who conform to masculinity norms have worse mental health than those who don't. These norms include everything from seeing themselves as "playboys" to desire to win to dominance to primacy of work.
New Earthquake Warnings
It looks like changes in gravity could provide better, faster, more accurate warnings of a coming earthquake than seismic changes. This could eventually lead to quicker warnings that might save lives.
The Six Possible Stories
As far back as the Old Testament, people have been complaining that there are no new ideas, only remixes (take a look at the existential Ecclesiastes if you want proof). An analysis of fictional stories has narrowed them all down to six emotional plot lines: rags to riches (rise), riches to rags (fall), man in a hole (fall-rise), Icarus (rise-fall), Cinderella (rise-fall-rise), and Oedipus (fall-rise-fall).
Emotions and Spatial Ability
Who would have thought that a person's emotional openness would relate to their ability to mentally rotate images? Not me! Turns out it does. One of the long-held differences between men and women has now been shown to be the result of social conditioning: women who suppress their emotions are just as good as men at mentally rotating images.
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Some November Blessings
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| "#blessed" by Raffi Asdourian |
For Americans, today is Thanksgiving, and thanks to globalization of culture, the rest of us hear about it incessantly. This really isn't such a bad thing. I always enjoy watching how sitcoms find excuses to keep their characters from going home over Thanksgiving,and any reminder to be grateful is useful.
Instead of sharing things I am thankful for, however, I decided instead to share some blessings for a cold, rainy fall that may or may not include family gatherings:
May your bike rides be sweat-free and your bike chain stay in place.
May the rain take pause the instant you leave your house, and refrain from restarting until you get home.
May your family argue only over who gets the last roll at dinner, until you realize that there are more rolls in the kitchen.
May your afternoon caffeine-intake give you just the right amount of boost to get through the day.
May the only emails you receive be from friends inviting you on a free trips.
May your avocados ripen one at a time instead of all at once.
May your Facebook feed be filled with the lives of your loved ones and not political articles.
May your bus show up exactly on time, unless you are running a minute late, and then may it also be a minute late and wait for you while you run up to the door.
May your pet, should you have one, greet you with love and poo where it is supposed to.
May your child, should you have one, also greet you with love and also poo where it is supposed to.
May your shoes never leak.
May your nail polish never chip.
May you find that thing that you can't remember where on earth it could be, but it has GOT to be around here somewhere.
May you walk into a room and remember why you went in there in the first place.
May your Netflix suggestions be just what you need.
May there be one last cookie in the tray and the ice cream tub not be empty.
May the last pair of clean underwear in your drawer NOT be the uncomfortable weird ones you put off wearing, but a cute and fun pair.
May the good cheese be on sale.
May the lights all turn green.
May the wind give your hair just the perfect amount of volume.
May you be able to squeeze one last plate into the dishwasher.
May your partner/child/roommate tidy up without being asked.
May you get hugged, but only if your a hugger. If not, then may nobody even try.
May your high fives land squarely and make a satisfying sound, without hurting your hand.
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Me & Ryan Gosling playing catch
Me and my guy Ry Ry like to play catch - we just play it a little different than everyone else. I yell "CATCH!" and then jump and he has to catch me. It works about 35% of the time.
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Inspiration! Roundup: Gryffindor-style awards for scientists, artist superpowers, jarred worlds, and hope
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| This week's "I want to go to there": Making something with my hands. |
If Scientists Were Gryffindors
Elizabeth Loftus has long been one of my favourite researchers. She has studied the incredible frailty of our memories and the unreliability of eyewitness testimony, and as a result, she has received bullying and death threats. Now she is the recipient of the John Maddox Prize, an award for bravery in standing up for science. Go Liz, go!
21 artists were asked what it means to be an artist now that Trump is president-elect. The resulting statements are beautiful, meaningful, challenging, and empowering to artists and non-artists alike.
"Everyone has different superpowers. For those whose superpower is helping people through their art, it’s important that they now put that superpower to use."Jarred Worlds
-Emma Sulkowicz
Check out this stunning artwork by Christoffer Relander, Jarred and Displaced. In it, he collects landscapes from his childhood home of Finland into jars, through double-exposure photography.
On Hope
Hope is a state of mind, not a state of the world
Either we have hope within us or we don’t.
Hope is not a prognostication—it’s an orientation of the spirit.
You can’t delegate that to anyone else.
Hope in this deep and powerful sense is not the same as joy
when things are going well,
or the willingness to invest in enterprises
that are obviously headed for early success,
but rather an ability to work for something to succeed.
Hope is definitely NOT the same as optimism.
It’s not the conviction that something will turn out well,
but the certainty that something makes sense,
regardless of how it turns out.
It is hope, above all, that gives us strength to live
and to continually try new things,
even in conditions that seem as hopeless as ours do, here and now.
In the face of this absurdity, life is too precious a thing
to permit its devaluation by living pointlessly, emptily,
without meaning, without love, and, finally, without hope.
– Vaclav Havel
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Would you rather?
Would you rather be able to speak to animals or speak every human language?
So much benefit to both scenarios...
Would you rather switch genders every time you sneezed or not be able to tell the difference between a baby and a muffin?
Confusing in the unconnectedness of the scenarios. Switching genders would get confusing, but might be good for decreasing gender bias in the world?
Would you rather know how you die, or when you will die?
Neither is not an acceptable answer! Ugh! I think when would be better? So that I'm not constantly afraid to do a certain thing? Except I'll probably just get cancer like most people.
Would you rather always give bad advice or always receive bad advice?
If I know the advice is bad then at least I know not to follow advice I'm given. I'm guessing in this scenario I don't get to know that, though. So then... I guess receive? Just so I'm not actively ruining peoples' lives? Maybe I'll figure out eventually that all the advice I'm getting is terrible?
Would you rather stay up all night with a crying baby or helping a very irritating person with a problem you think is stupid?
I think the baby? No, the irritating person. They are both horrible.
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Cute! Roundup: Save the kittens, babies in the rain, dancing polar bears
When you're rushing out the door, and then see your cat lying on your purse on the ground... naturally you pause to photograph her desperate attempt to keep you from leaving before shunting her out of the way and running away.
More Cuteness:
Don't forget to save your kitties!
This baby experiencing rain for the first time truly warmed my heart.
These kitties bopping their heads in unison is pretty incredible.
Dancing polar bears!!! (Okay, they aren't actually polar bears, but they are dancing and they are strangely adorable):
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More Cuteness:
Don't forget to save your kitties!
This baby experiencing rain for the first time truly warmed my heart.
These kitties bopping their heads in unison is pretty incredible.
Dancing polar bears!!! (Okay, they aren't actually polar bears, but they are dancing and they are strangely adorable):
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Singalong! Jackie's Strength by Tori Amos
I love this song, and right now I want to sing songs of a woman's strength.
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JACKIE'S STRENGTH
by Tori Amos
A bouvier till her wedding day
Shots rang out
The police came
Mama layed me on the front lawn
And prayed for Jackie's strength
Feeling old by 21
Never thought my day would come
My bridesmaids getting laid
I pray for Jackie's strength
Make me laugh
Say you know what you want
You said we were the real thing
So I show you some more and I learn
What black magic can do
Make me laugh
Say you know you can turn
Me into the real thing
So I show you some more
And I learn
Stickers licked on lunch boxes
Worshipping David Cassidy
Yeah I mooned him once
On Donna's box
She's still in recovery
Sleep-overs Beene's got some pot
You're only popular with anorexia
So I turn myself inside out
In hope someone will see
Make me laugh
Say you know what you want
You said we were the real thing
So I show you some more and I learn
What black magic can do
Make me laugh
Say you know you can turn
Me into the real thing
So I show you some more
And I learn
I got lost on my wedding day
Typical the police came
But virgins always get backstage
No matter what they've got to say
If you love enough you'll lie a lot
Guess they did in Camelot
Mama's waiting on my front lawn
I pray
I pray
I pray
For Jackie's strength
Make me laugh
Say you know what you want
You said we were the real thing
So I show you some more and I learn
Jackie's strength
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Learning! Roundup: Help Standing Rock, research on racism, reminiscence, sexy parasites, and priorities
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| Standing Rock Postcard. Photo Credit: The Boston Public Library |
How to Help Standing Rock
Want to do something to help the water protectors at Standing Rock? Me too! I wanted to buy one of those t-shirts (I really like this one), but couldn't find any evidence that the money from those sales actually goes to help the cause and the last thing I want to do is give my money to someone profiteering off a cause. Instead, here is a list of things that can be done to actually help, including donating money (like maybe the money I would have spent on a t-shirt, which isn't on the list).
What Research Says about Racism
Right now we're living in the age of the call out. When someone is being racist, sexist, xenophobic, homophobic, they get public attention, and shame, brought upon them. There is very little research out there so far on what will change peoples' attitudes, but what is borne out in the evidence is that calling someone a racist is the worst way to stop them from being racist. Empathy, on the other hand, is effective.
The Reminiscence Bump
In a rarely uncontested psychological phenomenon, humans remember things best when they happened between the ages of 15-25. It's called the "reminiscence bump". What isn't agreed upon is the reason it happens: is it because those ages are full of many life "firsts" (kiss, date, graduation, apartment)? Because that is a culturally-defined period of significance in one's life? Or, as new research suggests, is it because this is an age where we lay down memories that define who we are for the rest of our lives - a "crystallization period"?
Sexy Parasites
Okay, the parasites aren't sexy at all. But it seems that people who have the toxoplasma gondii parasite are more likely to be interested in more "adventurous" sexual practices, like bondage, zoophilia, and fetishism. However, the higher interest didn't actually lead to a higher likelihood to practice these things. It's a parasite of sexy fantasies, not follow-through.
Keep Your Genitals, Give Me Wifi
A new study shows that people would rather have wifi than sex, chocolate, or alcohol. I'm sure there will be tons of people sharing this, and commenting on how we are so addicted to our phones that we have misplaced our values (because obviously sex should always be the most important thing in our lives). To me this just means that we value interconnectedness, communication, entertainment, and productivity. Those are all pretty great things on their own, and combined, are kind of vital.
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