"Greetings To The Universe In 55 Different Languages", A Poem Compiled Out Of Messages From The Voyager

Robert Frank Nude (Marie) with Cat, 1950

“X celebrity is the most beautiful woman in the world etc etc.” Uh no it’s my mom and also a random girl i saw while i was at work once

Finding my mom's doctoral essay

We make loads of jokes about boomers' incapability concerning tech, so I'd like to present a new aspect: The moment of bonding when showing your parents something they, too, can love about this new world.

My mom was just reminiscing about her student days, and I suggested we look up her doctoral work. She laughed and said she never published it, we wouldn't find it.

But there it was, first hit on Google Scholar. The quiet happy laugh of pride when she saw how many had cited her and used her work for further studies was... beautiful.

So next time you're loosing an argument against your scoffing dad about the merits of today's tech, try thinking of something he'd love about it. Maybe it's seeing a Cristal clear replay of a tennis match. Maybe it's connecting to other hobbyists on forums.

Yeah, the internet is a scary place. So, instead of giving up on it as a toxic swamp, how about we use the beautiful parts and make it habitable again :)

US Elevation.

by @cstats1

Carved this small gallery after filling the shell with resin first, to try and make smaller windows (so it won't break).

Vincent van Gogh. Evening Landscape, Nuenen, 1885.

oh, these blue-eyed boys, these firestorm boys with constellations in their teeth, these back alley boys with bloody knuckles and painted smirks, these snowfall boys with quiet rage and quieter hopes.

pity these blue-eyed boys gave mercy on these blue-eyed boys because the world will have no mercy for them and they are born with almost etched in their bones.

he almost loved him. he almost kissed him. he almost held him.

he almost followed him. he almost stopped him. he almost caught him.

he almost saved him. he almost made it. he almost came home.

he almost—      he almost—           they almost—

they almost had a chance.

german words i wish existed in english

a messy and incomplete list

nachvollziehen (v.) -- to understand, but less empathetic. i.e. i see the steps that brought you to that conclusion, but i don't understand you.

doch (interj.) -- you're wrong and really it's the opposite of what you said. often said with a healthy dose of sass. i.e. "this isn't a good movie." "doch. (it is)"

frech (adj.) -- somewhere between naughty and sassy and silly. when you're being a bit of a brat, you're being frech.

dreist (adj.) -- audacious, but far more colloquial. when you have the goddamn audacity, you are dreist. i.e. to park that far over the line is dreist as hell

heimat (n.) -- home, but stronger. a home is wherever you have built a life, but heimat is where your roots are. heimat is where you feel pangs of nostalgia when you go to visit your family for christmas and see the shop at the corner.

weltschmerz (n.) -- literally 'world-pain'. the world sucks and sometimes you just sit and feel the pain of it all. that's weltschmerz.

existenzberechtigung (n.) -- the right to exist, often in a comedic context. i.e. pineapple on pizza has absolutely no existenzberechtigung.

fernweh (n.) -- literally 'far-ache'. the opposite of homesickness, the desire to go far away. i guess wanderlust is similar, but that is also a german word, and this is more painful and visceral

schweigen (v./n.) -- the act of not speaking. silence, but more deliberate. the palpable feeling that people are withholding their voice.

verschlimmbesserung (n.) -- when an update with the intention of making something better actually just made it worse. looking at you @staff

Ocean Vuong, The Weight of Our Living: On Hope, Fire Escapes, and Visible Desperation