Friday Links 5/11

Happy Friday and Happy Mother’s Day weekend!
Do you have any plans?
In a few hours we (my parents and I) will be going up to Belfast, Maine to spend the weekend with my Aunt Susan and Bill, whose mother owns an alpaca farm.  There will be alpaca shearing, vegan food, and tactful discussions about Infinity War without mentioning to movie fan Bill (it’s so nice to be around other movie fans) that I never plan to see it.

I’ve been reading a lot, falling behind on the films I have checked out from the library, gardening for hours a day, and enjoying the springly weather. I also cooked some interesting pancakes yesterday so that  have foods when I return next week. I will report back.

What’s happening on the worldwide web?

• Speaking of movie people, this film looks like it could be amazing. Also really excited for The Seagull, an adaptation of one of the few Chekhov pieces I’e actually read.
• A beautiful essay that I’m at a loss as to how to describe.
• The Duchess of Northumberland sounds like a fun lady- she created the garden at Alnwick Castle, possible the deadliest garden in the world.
• How does Deadpool always win the promotion game? This is genius.
• One of the greatest things about being back in America is the access to SNL’s youtube uploads. I know the main story (DESERVEDLY) is the release of This is America by Donald Glover- but let’s not forget about the Barbie skit.
• #MeToo and Junot Diaz: Cycles of victimization and victimizing, sexual harassment, celebrity and race.
• When two celebrity ladies (internet fashion personae?) give birth in close succession and get together to share their experiences with the early days of motherhood.
• I love this Public Place Meditation Guide– it’s very closely related to some wisdom my mother shared with me years ago: practice seeing the divinity in everyone around you.
• A mathematical model may explain how two brains agree on the experiential profile of smells.
• Possibly the most charming interview I’ve ever seen. I think I may have just fallen in love with all three of these men.
• Have you liked any pages created by Russian bots?Ask Facebook.
• A complex algorithm predicts the likelihood of final season Game of Thrones deaths. Bye, Daenerys.
• An amazing photograph. I love whales.

Friday Fun Links 4/28

A Friday off, it’s just like last semester! Except this time it’s because I’m essentially done with my classes (except for an optional Music History session on Monday (at which I will be) and a mini English conference on Wednesday).  It’s really just reading period and exams from here on out.
This is the first time I’m finishing up a year of classes with no guarantee of further classes ahead of me.  School has always been a kind of constant expectation, and it’s very weird to, for the first time, not necessarily expect it to continue.

In short, I can feel the encroaching existential dread.
But, with every new milestone (last ballroom show, last day of classes, etc.) I’ve been buying myself a little present, usually about $10 or under.  So now I have a new rosewater facial toner which is quite lovely, and a few mL of Tubereuse by Mona di Orio awaiting me at home.
And yes, I know that my rampant consumerism is just a distraction, a search for a false sense of security to stave off my anxiety about my future.  But hey, at least, when the breakdown comes, I will smell good and have glowing skin. 😛