Club Unicorn

Fascinating post by a gay Mormon man who has been happily married to a woman for ten years.

I had a little bit of trouble wrapping my head around "gay" and "extremely healthy and robust sex life [with someone of the opposite gender]," but understood it better when I tried to imagine whether I could have a similar relationship with a woman if I felt with all my heart that it was the "right" thing to do (another hard concept to wrap my head around).  I think I could.

Art by Nagai Hideyuki

These are pretty neat.  It would be interesting to see a video where the camera circles one of these pieces, to see what it looks like when you're not at the right angle.

Art by David Fullarton

I Can't Apologize Enough
 
What I Do at Work When I'm Supposed to Be Working

Humidity

... is an East Coast phenomenon I'd forgotten during my time out west.  I keep on looking in the mirror and wondering why my face is so shiny and my hair is so frizzy.

Also forgotten: that you can wear shorts and short-sleeved shirts at night here.

Strawberry rhubarb

I heard somewhere that strawberry and rhubarb actually aren't meant to go together and have different growing seasons, but that there is a variety of rhubarb called "strawberry rhubarb" because of its color, and people started making recipes containing strawberry and rhubarb because they thought both were supposed to be included.

News in Slow Spanish

During my commute, I've been listening to this podcast called "News in Slow Spanish." (I think they also have News in Slow French.) They speak Spanish about half the normal speed, so it's much easier to understand if you're less-than-fluent. There are two people talking and after each news segment they have a conversation about it. In the second half of the podcast, they also have sections on grammar ("una sección fascinante y estimulante!"), common phrases, and myths and legends from Latin America.

I learned that "abeja" means "bee." I was so confused because they joked that a spelling bee winner had "worked hard like a little [abeja]" and went on to say other things about "abejas" but I thought they said "oveja" which means sheep. I kept listening to that part, trying to understand it. Now I know: abeja, oveja. Not the same.

There was also an interesting story on the myths and legends part called "La Sagrada Hoja de Coca" (the sacred coca leaf). The Sun God couldn't stop a tribe in the Andes from getting invaded by the Spanish conquistadors, but he did give them the gift of the coca leaf to alleviate their pain and give them peace. It was a gift that the conquistadors could not take away because it would have the opposite effect on them.

Portrait of Lotte

Everyone else in the world has probably already seen this video (which is described as "viral," after all), but I saw it for the first time today.  One of the things that struck me most is how the girl can look so much older and younger within the same biological year.

WE MUST GET RID OF OUR WINDOW FAN IMMEDIATELY.

Shocking news from South Korea!

Moto Kitchen

"Square watermelons are really cool because you take a watermelon, put it into a plastic box and play classical music on opposing sides of the watermelon. The audio vibrations will actually straighten out the water molecules that match the earth's magnetic polarity. It produces a watermelon that some say is 50 to 80 percent sweeter than a regular watermelon."


Huh?


A kitchen lab farm does sound pretty awesome, though.

Bowl of Worms

I kind of want to try this.  But I don't want to eat them.

Tuesday Night Fever

On the way to the airport to pick up my sister last Tuesday night, S and I were listening to a 70's radio station.  I saw the airport exit coming up on the right and pointed to the sign.  S didn't respond.  I pointed again, more insistently.  We missed the exit.

Me: "Why didn't you take the airport exit??"
S: "What?  I thought you were disco dancing!"

Ponytail

http://eatmorebikes.tumblr.com/post/24843519211

The Incredibly Attractive Student Population at MIT, etc.

Really liking this year's MIT commencement address...

Story rules

From the Pixar blog, via Metafilter.

Authenticity

Insightful comment on Apartment Therapy (original post links to NYT article about excessive use of props in decor):

I read an interesting book called The Authenticity Hoax that I think hits some of the same themes as this article. We're living in a time when people are striving to be authentic -- picking unique vintage props and "curating" them -- yet also painstakingly documenting it all for other peoples' consumption. How authentic can the efforts be when it's all for the praise and approval of others? Clearly it's more nuanced than that, but the overall impact of blogging on or daily lives probably can't even be calculated right now.

I'm also always curious how history will remember this time. When someone throws a 2010's party decades from now, will they mockingly decorate with globes and serve drinks in mason jars?

Putting together outfits

I love this idea of putting outfits together by picking out a group of core items and then mixing them in different ways, but I don't think I'll ever be organized (or care) enough to actually plan all these things out in advance.