She Blinded Me With Library Science

May262012

May212012

In 2009 I made a list of things I wanted to do in two years. I remember remaking this list but can’t find it.

Original:

Here are some things I would like to do in the next 2 years:

1. Go to graduate school and finish with my Master’s. DONE

2. Visit Lowry Park Zoo, hopefully with Jake. DONE

3. Start a vegetable garden + compost pit.

4. Learn how to shoot a gun (in case of zombie outbreak).
5. Learn how to play chess and actually remember.
6. Learn how to knit and actually make something. Started not done.

7. Learn how to sew on one of my many inherited machines.
8. MAKE PICKLES DONE.

9. Craft more, especially make more altered books. DONE.

10. Learn how to fish.
11. Go camping more often. This happened once or twice more. Once when I had the flu.

12. Read as many books as possible. Happening.

13. Read critical theory.
14. Bake more. I bake every week. Strawberry rhubarb pie tomorrow!

15. Listen to Joni Mitchell, always.
16. Get a puppy.
17. Cook traditional Polish foods. DONE.

18. If/when I move out of my apt and into another keep it organized and clean.
19. Keep a list of all the books I read.
20. Kick soda and most junk food out of my life. I drink soda a lot less now than I did before.

21. Listen to way more Joni Mitchell, I’m in love.

Updated List 2012:

1. Learn how to decorate cakes and cupcakes.

2. Spend more time in Tampa.

3. Find a real job.

4. Stop being a packrat.

5. Make kimchi and other pickley things.

6. Get a cat/pup.

7. Be content and happy.

8. Travel to see my best friends.

I wrote the original list when I was probably the unhappiest I have ever been and now life is better than ever. I have reunited with two people I lost in 2008 and it has made me feel a lot happier. If I have learned anything in the past three years it’s that life is wonderful and it could always be much worse.

7PM

thedailywhat:

So This Happened of the Day: Narcissist chef Anthony Bourdain swung by the Great GoogaMooga Festival in Brooklyn over the weekend for a little Q&A — at which a little girl asked Bourdain how he’d cook a unicorn:

He would roast the loin, grill the legs, braise the forequarter and use the horn to pick your teeth with after the meal. For the record, unicorn marrow is delicious, he says.

Well, she asked. Not sure which is more creepy, though: Bourdain’s answer or a little girl who wants to cook a unicorn.

[blastr]

May142012

theatlantic:

If We Are What We Read, Who Are We, Exactly?

We love books for being books. But books are more than just words on pages, lovely or terrible adventures, weird imaginings, plot twists and romances and things that would never happen to us in real life and therefore we should read about. Books have the power to change us—but not just in our minds, apparently. According to research recently published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology by Geoff Kaufman of Tiltfactor Laboratories at Dartmouth College and Lisa Libby of Ohio State, the act of reading of and identifying with a fictional character means also that we tend to subconsciously adopt their behavior. In reading about our favorite characters, we may actually become more like them.

Read more at The Atlantic Wire. [Image: Shutterstock]

(via housingworksbookstore)

May62012