Tag: Friday

Britain, Humor, Linkstorm, London, Weekend

Friday Links (Grinch Edition)

“What fresh hill is this?”
– Dorothy Parker

This week has been alternately delightful and rough. Behold your links. As a bonus, here, have a shot of Trafalgar square all gussied up for the holiday while I make up behind work and plan my weekend escapes.

This huge fir is a gift from Norway. A heartwarming thing that I need to be in a better mood to appreciate than this week has bestowed upon me.
This huge fir is a gift from Norway. A heartwarming thing that I need to be in a better mood to appreciate than this week has bestowed upon me.

The Hairpin is starting a series called Internet Work and Invisible Labor, about the work that goes into web production. Their first interview is the Fug Girls (whom I love!), but I’m curious to see who else they get involved in this since this is the field I’ve moved into – though not yet in anything half as prestigious – and I think it’s interesting how some people don’t see what I do (content creation, content marketing, media strategy) as work. Writing is a lot of work, it’s not easy and making a successful career at it is damn hard sometimes. (Caitlin Kelly wrote about this too, lately.)

I truly believe that Benedict Cumberbatch is one of the British-est names ever devised, right up there was Alistair Fothergill. Enjoy, therefore, this thing I found. (Bumblebee Vegemite! Also I’m seriously excited for series three of Sherlock.)

This is just a commercial, but it sums up the problem succinctly

Here’s your tumblr find of the week. Nothing but London gorgeousness through and through.

I like complex mathematics boiled down (honest to goodness, the analogy that got the theory of space time and quantum mechanics into my head was a loaf of bread and a block of Swiss cheese), so it’s oddly comforting to know that we rank somewhere between a banana and potato at birth.

A ridiculously good read about the development of the retail mannequin, of all things. Miss Modesty, a seemingly drunken hostess, gender bending, history -it’s like Shakespeare up in here!

For the headline alone you should read this. But also enjoy the astronomical odds.

Get closer.

How gorgeous are these boxes?

This week’s been frantic, so this short article on busy people and their weekends was a timely reminder.

ETA: A surprise Beyonce album dropped today! Frankly, I kind of like the surprise nature of it, it’s a refreshing change to the hype and buildup you often get (though I readily admit only a mega performer could probably pull it off). Beyonce makes up a significant portion of my workout mixes, it must be said.

Humor, Linkstorm, London, Weekend

Friday Links

“He had been walking for a long time, ever since dark in fact, and dark falls soon in December.”
― Charlotte Riddell

I need to get out of the house or I’m going to go stir crazy! It’s been one of those work weeks where I’ve been largely glued to my chair with last minute assignments – most of them really fun and interesting, but the pace has been frantic. So today I’ll try to get a bit of Christmas shopping done and get out in the fresh air to enjoy the holiday mood before going back to work. Hopefully while there’s still daylight. Which, as it happens fades in about five hours so if you’ll excuse me, here are your links and have a good weekend, ducklings!

First and foremost, a great and important man passed away yesterday. It’s stunning what he took on, stood up to, and overcame in his lifetime. Racism is alive and well, but in many parts of the world the institutionalized power it once held is broken because of his work.

Like many people, I’ve found several of the Old Spice campaigns hilarious, and an inside look at how they make them does nothing to lessen my enthusiasm. More creative than I realized!

tumblr find of the week, this fabulous thing! Trust me, spend some time going through a few pages, it’s incredibly clever!

This thing is the eel’s hips! (h/t Jessica)

I admit I know nothing about the process, but I’m sure there must be not a few unsubtle distinctions between corks and babies! Also, childbirth altogether is such an odd and dangerous process still that it’s a bit mindblowing to me. I’m not a little baffled that, evolutionarily speaking, the method we’ve got the best we’ve managed so far, I’d like to have gone through a couple more prototypes personally.

My adoration of emeralds is sufficiently documented, so other prelude to this article is unnecessary.

Ah, that happy time of year has come again when the mavens, gurus, or just blowhards of pop culture start compiling anthologies of what happened and we might not admit it but we’re somewhat shocked to realize that a few things that seem really distant aren’t at all. Here’s the first of many, kittens, a pop music mashup. (Seriously, Harlem Shake everywhere, that was this year? I could have sworn it was last…)

Had I but cash and cash enough, this would be my holiday party dress this year. Minions wishing to make my Christmas dreams come true may post it to Keepdreamingkid Lane, Wishfulshire.

Ladies and gentlemen, the isle of my birth and the sole issue it’s famous for.

Alas the year of emerald green is almost no more. Thus hath Pantone spoken.

Holidays, Humor, Husband, Linkstorm, London, Weekend

Friday Links (High Geekery Edition)

“I celebrated Thanksgiving in an old-fashioned way. I invited everyone in my neighborhood to my house, we had an enormous feast, and then I killed them and took their land.”
― Jon Stewart

Hope American minions had a delightful holiday! I went to an American service at St. Paul’s Cathedral headed by the US Ambassador and his family and then spent the rest of the day doing some Christmas shopping. An intensely Protestant sermon was preached which infuriated my Catholic seatmate, yet electrified the couple who walked down the cathedral steps next to me – so even the tradition of being surrounded by people disagreeing fiercely was upheld! A fortifying plum and almond tart at Liberty saw me through until I had leftover curry for dinner. Jeff meanwhile wrestled with an uncooperative rental bowtie for his tux before heading off to his office’s Christmas party in Bloomsbury. (A visual representation of our differences can be found here. Along with other general London goodness.) An unconventional but very nice holiday all around.

Alas ’tis not a holiday over here so I still have to be productive. Here are your links (actually pretty well connected to a theme this week) and enjoy the weekend!

Apparently my name is Grey Selkirk. Which sounds rather sleek and deadly to be honest. Now, which district would I belong to? Having not read the series I rely on you, gentle readers, to let me know (looking at you, Janssen).

Let’s continue with the geekery, shall we? Hello, sweetie. I got River Song!

All communication technology changes language, but the internet allows us to track it in ways we haven’t exactly used before. Meme language interests me.

tumblr find of the week – first drafts are utterly dreadful. My just finished one is unusually bad, I think. Pearl clutchers disregard the title.

In lady news – awesome.

We’re debating adding Monty’s Python’s Live (mostly) Show to our theatre schedule. Even if we don’t, I just have to say that the registration site is morbidly hilarious. (ETA: this thing sold out in 45 seconds. I’m impressed.)

People, inherently decent.

Fair warning, this is a pen commercial. It’s also downright impressive.

I have nothing but respect for this woman and the legal lengths she went to. Admittedly I have mixed feelings on a lot of hacking culture (which I admit I don’t understand all the nuances of and probably could learn a lot more of), and I take privacy issues very seriously, but  the fact that this site is no more should be cause for celebration.

Quentin Blake, illustrator of Roald Dahl fame graced Stylist (one of London’s many free and gorgeous mags) with drawings of some of his favorite authors.

Humor, Linkstorm, Weekend

Friday Links (Slightly Grumpy Edition)

“The night is the hardest time to be alive and 4am knows all my secrets.”
― Poppy Z. Brite

This week has been frantic, kittens! Some major freelance projects (websites, social media campaigns, political/economic theory research, oh my!) have meant a series of very late nights for me. Jeff and I started going back to the gym and my muscles are throwing a lactic acid temper tantrum accordingly. Also I received my annual reminder why you should never engage in the comments in most forums – occasionally I forget this essential life skill and need a refresher course. I’m really quite tired and just a teeny bit crabby. On the other hand, the links this week are pretty fun and should perk even a sourpuss like me right up while I get a couple more big projects done before the weekend starts.

Fun little insight into your Facebook postings.

Damn it, science!

How posh are you? “Science” has a way to quantify anything.

An unbelievably good story from an unbelievably hellish place.

This week’s I Want To Go To There is…

If you can get past the sometimes hilarious amounts of body oil, I found this post on a book about the bodies of Olympic Athletes to be pretty interesting. I’m very much from the “fit looks different on every body differently” perspective, but it was interesting to see how different trainings for different events and athletic careers mold bodies in totally different ways.

Job hunting mantras!

Leonardo da Vinci invented what I believed is scientifically classified as A Freaking Lot of Stuff. I’ve been really lucky to see many of his artistic works and I’m tangentially familiar with many of his experimental inventions and inquiries. But I am downright mad that it took us 500 years to follow up with this particular idea because it’s gorgeous.

I knew about the lighthouse beacons, but I didn’t know anything about these.

Winter is coming, pumpkins. I’ve bought and lit the spice and citrus smelling candles, and it’s actually near freezing some mornings. As an ode, here’s some beautiful close ups of snowflakes – h/t to Jessica!

I profiled one of his videos a while back, but Thug Notes has become one of my favorite YouTube channels. Jeff found an interview with the creator and it’s worth a read.

Love this design upgrade at Cup of Jo – it should inspire me to do something with our flat, but mostly it convinces me I don’t have a designer’s flair at all!

Humor, Linkstorm, London, Weekend

Friday Links
“I do like escapism. I like going to the movies on a Friday night and seeing something fun.”
– Charlie Kaufman

Yesterday was Jeff’s birthday, he’s solidly late 20s now! Yesterday we did dinner at Scoff and Banter to celebrate, tomorrow we’re going to see this to continue celebrating, which we’ve been looking forward to for month (and had to book months in advance to avoid paying a kidney each). We tend to stretch birthdays out a bit, sans shame. That’s our weekend, what are yours looking like, ducklings? Here are your links!

I have, as you know a deep and abiding interest in all things cheese related.

The Lady sums it up. Lady Edith, who, by the way American minions who have not already pirated it, is killing it on the style front this series in Downtown Abbey would approve. More I cannot on the DA front, but that I have opinions on this season.

Book teas!

This book sounds fascinating, I’m adding it to the To Read list at once!

Ralph Lauren has released images for the Winter 2014 Olympic uniforms. I’m not loving the trousers but I think the coats are great.

Modern dandy portraits. Very nice indeed.

A couple of week ago, Mozart. This week, Beethoven.

This photo is making the social media rounds and I thought it worth sharing again. Caption: “A little break from our crying child. Once I took this picture I teared up with the realization of what my wife was going through.

Someday it will swallow the solar system and engulf it in blazing fury…but until then it is stunning, isn’t it?

This group concept (though sounding, as one commenter rather hilariously put it, a bit like The Hunger Games), actually makes a lot of sense to me. As an American citizen who grew up both internationally and all over the country, I’ve often found the best way to explain the US to some outsiders is to portray the states and the broader areas they are grouped in as something like different countries. Complete with dialects, cultural priorities, and in some places racial and ethnic majorities and minorities. Apart from anything else, it’s a good way to explain why our government is as dysfunctional as it can be. When you stop thinking of the US as one country but several trying (or sometimes refusing) to work together, a lot of things about it make more sense.

These photos – I want to go to there!

Humor, Linkstorm, London, Weekend

Friday Links (A Blustery Day Edition)

“Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet.”
― Roger Miller

Just a few this week because it’s a very blustery and rainy day and I’m behind on projects that must get done before the weekend. Jeff and I will take but a quick evening break tonight to wander down Regent Street, now positively awash in yuletide goodness. Since we’re past bonfire night and Thanksgiving is rather up in the air, it’s seasonally appropriate. Next up, Christmas carols! …Also, I should probably get shopping…

A while back we brought you Star Wars as done by Shakespeare, I’ll now just leave this right there.

Columns – written and otherwise.

Thoughts on writing and rewriting from The Lady. Helpful in trying to produce a first draft.

Twitter feed find, if the Tudors tweeted. (Woof, say that five times fast.)

This headline. Guys, this headline! (#AndMyAxe)

To say that words fail me would be inadequate. On the other hand, a guy from the state I just moved is achieving a degree of internet notoriety for offering $5,000 to anyone who introduces him to the woman he eventually marries. Love is not dead!

Far overdue, but good!

My retail temptation store has followed me across the Atlantic. Is nowhere safe?!

Humor, Linkstorm, London, Weekend

Friday Links (This Girl is On Fi-hyah, Edition)
“Nobody gets a nervous breakdown or a heart attack from selling kerosene to gentle country folk from the back of a tanker in Somerset.”
– Roald Dahl
Covent Garden has had its Christmas decor up for a bit, but in view of the fact that there is no Thanksgiving here, I'll allow it in November
Covent Garden has had its Christmas decor up for a bit, but in view of the fact that there is no Thanksgiving here, I’ll allow it in November

I was in a bit of a funk this week, ducklings. So I gave myself leave to (temporarily) neglect you while I found some equilibrium. It was also the week of Jeff’s first three certifying exams (he passed with flying colors) so things were understandably a bit tense so we preferred to hang out in Covent Garden with each other of an evening than anything else. But a good dose of perspective from a friend has quite busted me out of my three day break.

So far today I’ve done laundry, worked out, sent out a small but decent batch of cold emails for editorial work, put in some work on a novel (yeah, I’m one of those. Blame buddy and future YA bestselling author Caitlin Jacobs), did some freelance work, submitted a couple invoices, and did a load of washing up. I’m feeling downright energetic! This evening I plan on dragging Jeff to the British Museum to check out their Beyond El Dorado exhibit, and then possibly wander a bit in Westminster to take in some November. Here are your links, tell me what you’re up to this weekend!

I confess I might have squeed a little…but these are awfully cute creations.

Wow…heartbreaking and beautiful (h/t Caitlin Kelly)

These shoes are all kinds of great.

The kingdom was briefly in peril it seems, but crisis has been averted.

You must admit, his outlook is very soothing. Also, Jeff thinks he’s the greatest painter that ever graced the earth. In his words, “He paints with a freaking knife!”

Halloween is but one day behind us. Here’s something historical and grisly for you.

Gardening for the win! (h/t Kerry)

It might be All Saints Day, but Kate Beaton’s holiday quizzes always require sharing.

Guard your gardens!

Leaving aside that CNN’s headlines are looking more and more like Buzzfeed, this gallery pleases me. I wonder what the leg wraps are meant to achieve.

Humor, Linkstorm, Weekend

Friday Links

“London, London, London town,
You can toughen up or get thrown around.”
― Kano

Weighing the options of how to make a resume more visually interesting while doing laundry. The domestic/professional divide! Here are you links, kittens, and tell me what you’re up to this weekend.

Last week of October, or so our courtyard tells me.
Last week of October, or so our courtyard tells me.

First up, the fabulous Caitlin Kelly is offering a series of webinar courses to develop or hone your skills as a writer or freelancer. I seriously cannot recommend her tutelage enough, Caitlin is not just unbelievably knowledgeable and talented, she’s an excellent teacher who knows how to guide and inspire as well.  The contact information for the series is available at the link.

Someone literally told me not too long ago that I couldn’t be a feminist and also good person. Aside from the headdesk that my whole soul engaged in, here’s a visual response from the UN illustrating what some people, who are apparently better persons than I, think about half of the world’s population.

People liked the Bill Watterson speech that an admirer animated and I shared last week, so I thought I’d just mention that he’s (Bill Watterson) has given an incredibly rare interview to Mental Floss. I have no idea where I can get my hands on a copy over here, so stateside minions get on this please! The excerpt alone is interesting. I admire Watterson’s take on his creation and how fiercely he’s protected it in the medium he intended it to be displayed in. I can’t even image how much money he’s turned down over the years, but he fought and won the battle over his vision. Respect.

Interesting article. It talks about how infertility is has historically been viewed as a female issue, and how that attitude influences treatments even today, and even when the medical science shows that infertility affects both males and females pretty equally. I’ve had a number of female friends and acquaintances struggle with getting pregnant and in all their cases they had to deal with pressures and expectations, including medical, that they all mentioned didn’t seem to fall on their husbands.

These are…gruesomely…Halloween appropriate.

Something of a personal mantra, lately.

Pearl clutchers, this might cause some consternation so be warned, but I think this list of reasons for admittance to a 19th century asylum is fascinating. Novel reading? And that ultimate of vague diagnoses, women troubles?  Thinking too much about politics? Welp, see ya, kids.

I insist you stop what you are doing and admire these book edge designs!

Where do you belong, mood-wise?

What a gallery!

Humor, Linkstorm, London, Weekend

Friday Links

“Movies will make you famous; Television will make you rich; But theatre will make you good.”
― Terrence Mann

It’s going to be a good weekend, kittens, I can feel it. Apart from anything else, we’re going to see Edward II, by Christopher Marlowe tomorrow evening. I’ve got projects and applications still to get through, though,  so here are you links and be good!

First off, cast your vote. I found this at Borough Market. Try or avoid?
First off, cast your vote. I found this at Borough Market. Try or avoid?

‘Cause the afterlife ain’t no place to be if you don’t got swag.

Really interesting! Sort of a US version of the genetics map I saw at Science Uncovered a couple of weeks ago.

Beautiful photos but awfully sad.

Oh yes, someday this will be me.

Speaking of the afterlife, we’ve somewhat cute-d it up, but lest we forget Halloween has a creepy, ghostly, barriers between the world coming down sort of history that should be respected. This new trend of cute (or heaven help us, sexy) costumes is a fairly new thing… (h/t Jessica)

I’ll just leave this thing from Bill Watterson right here.

I know I’m not even in the country or anything, but I hate “Black Friday” with a vengeance, so you can only imagine my thoughts on Black Thursday – previously known as the single American holiday dedicated to gratitude and celebrating what we already have.

How weirdly fabulous is this ring?!

Looking for a superbly lovely Instagram feed? Let me make you known (if you aren’t already) to Stone Fox Bride, their non-traditional “[censored] weddings” attitude, and their never ending supply of out of the box engagement and wedding rings. Magpies rejoice!

Tumblr find of the week, the name sums it up.

Good grief, this unexpected mayor has been through a lot!

I’ll take this house, please.

Humor, Linkstorm, London, Weekend

Friday Links

“Love doesn’t think like that. All right, it’s blind as a bat–‘
‘Bats have radar. Yours doesn’t seem to be working.”
― Iris Murdoch, The Sea, the Sea

It’s been a long couple of weeks, more on that later this weekend, but tonight Jeff and I are getting dressed up and going out! We’ve got tickets to Die Fledermaus and I can’t wait. But until then I’ve got a couple of projects and a cover letter to perfect. (How exactly does one make a major organization fall madly in love with one via note?) I may even try to cram in a museum or two over the weekend as well and hopefully a Skype date with the clan.

Die Fledermaus
It’s like Chicago and Christopher Nolan had an illegitimate love child, how could we not? (image via)

This may be one of the sweetest things I’ve ever seen.

Celebrating today as the International Day of the Girl Child. In some places girls are aborted before they are born, in others they are abandoned after birth, in others they are married off at horrifically young ages, in others they are beaten and neglected, in others they have no rights to their own bodies as individuals, and in others they are actively targeted and hunted for trying to go to school. Even in highly developed countries girls are at higher levels of risk for sexual crime, gender based violence, high drop out rates, and more limited work opportunities than their male counterparts. Speaking up for girls matters.

Thoughts on Photoshopping.

Does what it says on the tin. US Government Shutdown inspired pickup lines.

A new podcast find.

Punctuation is very important. I don’t get too riled up personally (professionally is another matter), but I know there are minions out there who go absolutely mental over an incorrect apostrophe.

Great find from Jessica! Black and white vs. color photos are interesting to me. For some reason, even though I know better, the B&W sometimes has a quality that makes the events and people they portray seem so much more long ago than they actually are, as if they are a bit removed from reality and more in the way of fiction. The clothes may look different and the technology is new, but the people and the world is largely the same. And really the people portrayed here didn’t really live that long ago. Many children of Civil War soldiers were alive in the 1950s, the decade my own parents were born.  But somehow color makes them seem more present and real sometimes. That picture of Mark Twain, for example, could have been taken yesterday in the garden.

Need a freelance editor? I know a girl…

In the spirit of Halloween, I’m not sure what the scariest book I’ve ever read was textually speaking, but I remember reading Dracula as a teenager and having to turn the book face down on the other side of my room from my bed, close my eyes, turn out the lights and hop into bed in one bound (because monsters, duh) all because the cover of the book freaked me out so badly. It portrayed no suave debonair vampire, but showed a withered face and body with particularly long fingers and horrible staring eyes. What can I say, I have a very active pre-bed-time imagination.

Awkward.