loads of links i want to save

it's stormy and raining (to the surprise of no one) and this

italian cioccolata calda is the perfect antidote.
i put a spoonful of mascarpone in mine.

* * *

i've joined a book club whose sole mission is to read ulysses, so i went looking for help, since i'm finding that it's nearly impossible.  wanted to save those links here:

• wikihow's how to read ulysses - they have a lovely emphasis on enjoying the humor.
• overcoming the fear of reading ulysses
• "many novels are so challenging we never manage to finish them," rang a bell with me, thanks harvard
• how to read ulysses, this time from roddy doyle at the guardian
• also from the guardian, is ulysses the hardest novel to finish?
• more advice on how to read ulysses, on medium
• “there are two kinds of people. those that have read ulysses and those that haven't,” in the economist
• this crazy person read it in a week! 
• rereading ulysses (kinda counts for me, since i read some of it for a course 20 years ago)
• everything you need to enjoy reading ulysses (goodness knows i need this) - has loads of great links! 

* * *

very interesting look at letter locking.

* * *

this piece on brexit becoming reality is everything.

a collection of links i've been saving

i was rather chuffed to notice that i've surpassed 20,000 followers on pinterest.
i guess it's bound to happen when you've pinned 46,793 things.
only a few of which are duplicates.

* * *

higher self yoga, tantrum yoga, goat yoga

what will they think of next?

or have we reached peak namaste?

* * *

a deliciously biting review of a fancy paris restaurant.
some of the best writing you'll read today.

* * *

you should listen to the containers podcast.
it helped me understand globalization better.
and spoiler alert - there are ships!
the creator tells a bit about it here.
and one more piece about here.

* * *

speaking of podcasts,
i need to stop procrastinating and just make one already.

* * *

after reading about how the fda has opened up genetic testing
so companies can tell you, for example, whether you are at risk for late onset alzheimer's.
i'm thinking about having my personal genome mapped.
would you want to know?

* * *

a new carlsberg campaign revives
"probably the best beer in the world"
and features mads mikkelsen.
skål

* * *

maritime startups. interesting.


* * *

watching girlboss on netflix.
it's a bit like new girl with a nasty, unappealing main character.
it seems the guardian agrees.
what are you binge-watching these days?

as of right now

a most pathetic attempt at winter. big, wet flakes falling from the sky in clumps, to join puddles of slush on the ground. dismal. grey. depressing. this may be the reality of our winters now in a time of climate change. they say we've actually had such a shattering effect on the earth that we've entered a new epoch, the anthropocene. i hate to always talk about the weather, but it somehow looms large and always affects my mood and outlook on the world. on the bright side, at least it indicates a connection to nature.

* * *

as of right now...

current netflix obsession: person of interest
drinking: carrot and apple juice
enjoying: alone time
should not have: driven for 4 hours today. turns out my back's not ready for that
appreciating: the little wood burning stove care package husband made for me (split logs of just the right size, some small bits to get the fire started, firestarter blocks and matches in a cool basket made of a recycled tire)
in need of: lip stuff
missing: my aunt's funeral. my dad's older sister. and the person who taught me to drink white russians. she had a long and full life. i'm sad to miss out on the stories.
best new accessory: bose wireless headphones
disapproving of: the pressure the danish education system places on 14-year-olds to decide what they want to be when they grow up already at 14 (hell, i still don't know.)
need to stop: listening to true crime podcasts (sword and scale). i'm probably going to have nightmares.
need to start: going to yoga
thankful for: good friends
loving: foggy mornings

* * *

sean penn interviews el chapo, the mexican escape artist drug lord in rolling stone.

he may be a self-professed luddite, but he can write.

* * *

an interesting read on the facebook algorithm. 

but let's face it, they are still pretty evil.

* * *

war & peace - digested.

wouldn't it be cool to...

wouldn't it be cool...

...to create an art scavenger hunt (or maybe a lego scavenger hunt!).

...to have a folding bicycle.

...to revive theosophy. (or maybe i should just reread bulgakov while gazing up occasionally at a kandinsky in order to synthesize my logical and mystical knowledge.)

...to go to this exhibition of the works of hilma of klint at louisiana. (i was inspired by this article (for which you'll need to read danish).) (i'm linking to it mostly so i can find it again.)

...to look for moments of happiness every day and blog about it for 100 days like judith, james, isaac and rebecca? (well, to be fair, i haven't seen any posts written by rebecca, but she is only 9 months old, so i suppose that's fair enough.)

...to find mr. burns and complete my simpsons minifigures collection?

...if a bearded drag queen won the eurovision song contest? (oh wait, that happened.)

...to host a pecha kucha evening?

...get a good nights' sleep unmarred by dreams of horses retaining water, or falls from a 4 meter tall structure while sitting on a pallet or cats demanding to come in or out the bedroom window (that last bit isn't so much a dream as reality).

and on that note, i'll leave you to think of all the things you think would be cool...

what you let into your life

i was reading this piece on brainpickings about the greatest books of all time. i'm always impressed when someone claims they have cracked that list definitively. this particular compilation asked famous writers for their lists (who knows reading better than writers, after all?). i'm not sure that gets us truly closer to a definitive list, but with the help of averages and some statistics, the book apparently gives it a go. what interested me wasn't so much the lists, as a quote by austen kleon (or is it paula sher?) that postulates "you are a mashup of what you let into your life."

and that triggered something in me that's been simmering below the surface, just out of reach in my brain during this long, hot summer (i'm not complaining, it's the first summer ever in denmark in 15 years and i'm grateful for it). you are a mashup of what you let into your life. and what have i let in lately?

i think that ever since the thing with the station fell through once we saw the proposed contract from DSB (the danish railway, who owns the building), what i have let into my life is fear and disappointment and a vague feeling of someone having tried to put one over on me because they thought i was a stupid hick. i was so disappointed when i saw the ridiculous terms DSB wanted to impose on us that i couldn't even write about it here. but quick overview is: they expected that we, as renters, would be responsible for everything inside and outside the building, but we would have no say on anything and have to ask permission for every screw and nail we wished to put into the wall. but if they decided to put in new plumbing or rewire the place, or have a new roof put on, we would have to foot the bill - as mere renters. i've never seen anything like it. it was so far from something we could accept that we didn't even go back and try to negotiate. the price was right (it was, admittedly, a very affordable rent), but the terms were not. not even remotely. and somehow it feels like it crushed my spirit. and it made me feel like i was controlled by fear, because i was truly too afraid to enter into such a contract. but worst of all, i felt like they presented us with such terms because they thought that out here in the sticks we'd be stupid enough to go for them. or at the very least that they didn't really want to rent to us at all, but let us go through several weeks of charade, planning and hopes. all of which led to me feeling disappointed and somehow paralyzed by fears and not really knowing how to pick up the pieces.

add in then that i probably have borrelia, molly was seriously ill with mastitis, someone stole our chickens and i lost my beloved frankie cat, aside from the good weather, it's been a rather crap summer.

it's time to start mashing up something new - hanging out with people who give me energy and happiness and laughter, working on new projects which excite me, doing more of the things that nourish and less of the things that don't. moving forward. and to stop thinking about that stupid piss-taking DSB rental contract and just get over it. it probably wasn't personal, but it was so connected to dreams and plans that it certainly feels that way.

i think it's what's so empowering about the statement: you are a mashup of what you let into your life - what you let in is a choice, which means you can control it. i hereby take back control right now.

* * *

and talk about letting in something different, check out tom phillips' humument project.

so inspiring it makes me a little short of breath.

* * *

a not-so-rosy, but very interesting, take on the new domesticity.

and how sex & the city lost its feminism.
(i have to wonder if it ever really had it.)

* * *

the modern face of poverty or
how a member of the working poor in england is blogging her way to a better life.

a question of time

i measure time these lazy summer days in terms of kitten growth. little frieda has come quite a long way since she was born may 22. it makes time seem to pass very quickly when you think of it like that. but at the same time, these long, light days stretch out and it feels like there's time for everything you want to do. it's ok that it takes an hour and a half to pick strawberries, because it's ok to eat at 8 p.m. when it's so light. if it takes another hour or more to hull them and get them into the steamer, that's ok too. time feels like it's enough.

at the same time, i'm acutely aware that time is rushing forward. sabin is growing up and i don't know if i've properly enjoyed her as a non teenager. and now it's fast becoming too late for that. she'll be in the 7th grade in a few short weeks. did we do enough together? should i have kept her home, to spend time with her, instead of letting her go to a summer house with a friend this week? on the other hand, she needs that essential danish summer house experience and she's not going to get it from us.

the older i get, the more time seems to rush headlong forward. my daily photos serve as a memory for me and i am sometimes amazed when i look back and a particular photo was that long ago. often it seems like just yesterday. time gets warped somehow, bent in memory. can i really be this old? have i really lived here that long? was it really so long ago we went to morocco? or spain? or that we met? it was a lifetime ago and it feels like i only just blinked and all that time passed.

so i'm grateful for the summer slowdown of time. for it stretching out and becoming all i need right here and now. and for the golden light that stretches well into the evening. i'll take that for now and try to save it up for those long winter nights.

* * *

more on how we experience time.

* * *

i like this essay on the treyvon martin case.
it helped me understand.
and anyone who calls himself a digital humanist is cool in my book.

* * *

russian intelligence goes old school - with typewriters!

not particularly wordless wednesday

strangely, i don't really have a lot to say today, which is odd, because i've got tons of exciting things going on. developments towards that office/creative space that i've been wanting, plus some great projects on the horizon and some that are just finishing. lots of possibilities are hovering all around at the moment. i'm juggling approximately five great books at the moment. it's actually strange that i don't have loads to say about all of this, but i just don't, so i'm not going to force it. instead i'll share with you some really great links. click them, you won't regret it.

* * *

i like this.

and this.

* * *

and how amazing is this flat, abandoned untouched in paris for 70 years?

* * *

this makes me long for manila (and wow, what an inspiring woman!)

be sure to read the interview that comes after all the fabulous photos.

friday links and colored eggs

it's the long easter holiday in denmark. we're lazing around, trying to recover from this week's troglodyte encounter (and possibly a very late wednesday night involving too much red wine and then some ill-advised whiskey). wishing it would stop snowing, playing cards and ticket to ride. watching james bond. coloring eggs. cooking elaborate meals. and catching up on blogs and other online reading (hence all of the links below). happy easter, one and all! something of more substance soon...

* * *

are reader-specific books the future?

* * *

are windows people conservative and apple people liberal?

* * *

feeling inspired by mel's thoughts on being self-employed.

and loving her coach kylie's thoughts on creating a support ecosystem.

* * *

ogooglebar and other wonderful swedish words.

* * *

check out these fabulous zen painted stones.

yarn porn and a few interesting links

i've bought yarn for this.

at my local yarn & bra shop.

as one does.
i got extraordinarily sweet and helpful service.
this photo doesn't do the yarn justice.
it's still a bit too dark outside.
but i'm impatient.

edited: here's a bit better shot.
but it never did get that light today.

* * *

in light of recent intrigues events in the peyton place little town where i live, i thought that to comfort myself, i'd make a little list of the things i understand about danish culture after 15 years of living in the midst of it:

~ 

well, that was a short list. odd that one can become more bewildered as the years pass rather than more enlightened. actually, the problem isn't that i don't understand the danes, it's that i understand them very well and reject some of the tribe-like aspects of their cultural behavior. but that's something quite different. and it apparently provokes the hell out of them. 

* * *

i adore the oatmeal. this is a seriously well-done sponsor post.

* * *

the stern report got it wrong. it's way worse.

* * *

rather disturbing insight into hitler's life through his own home movies. 

i'm not sure what i make of it - i'm intrigued by the story of the search for them and the finding of them,

but disturbed by the idyllic scenes of the movies themselves.

it does make one understand hannah arendt's banality of evil all the more.

happy birthday, dad!

a big happy birthday to my dad!
he's a bit older today than he was in this photo (circa 1977).

this was back in the era when he proposed that the fence post should be the state tree of south dakota.
sadly, it didn't pass.

i also recall a bet paid in pennies on that very desk on the floor of the house.
it was some mound of pennies.

happy birthday, dad.

* * *

is food a narrative medium?
here's another opinion on the subject.

* * *

wine talk - it's so pretentious, but there's also something to it - thinking deeply about pleasure.

* * *

i have long wished that i was alive and in my prime in 1913.

(who knows, maybe i was?)

here's just another confirmation that it was The Year.

at least where art and culture were concerned.

i wonder if 2013 has the same potential?

somehow i doubt it.

* * *

so many people in the world with such amazing stories.

like bryan saunders, who has drawn 8700 self-portraits - some while on various drugs.

i wasn't sure whether to be in awe or horrified.

* * *

the v board on pinterest: of course it's vikings.

when rivers of ideas begin to flow

here's what happened with my green felted stone - in fact, in this shot, it's not even dry yet.  if you recall, i used lisa's stone felting tutorial. and i fussed about worried about over-thought pondered how to make it my own. with a little viking helleristning (petroglyph), i think i managed it. i'm not done with this idea yet.

* * *

i have spent a couple of very energizing days with a friend with whom i feel very much in synch. so many ideas surfaced and best of all, it feels like there is action and impetus behind the ideas, so some of them may even materialize. i had the strangest feeling after we met last friday (what i thought would be a 2-hour meeting turned into 5 because we were so crazy in flow)...it felt like a dam had been released inside me and all of the pent-up ideas and thoughts i had had in recent months just began to surface and tho' they were coming quickly, it feels like it's at a pace where i can grab and examine them. some of them had been there for awhile, but some were entirely new. it was positively elating. it's odd how you can get all blocked and not even realize it until you're not blocked anymore.

* * *

things i'm pondering:

what it might mean to be a social artist

community gardens.

art walls.

* * *

i think my keyboard may be menopausal - the period is getting pretty unpredictable.

sorry. bad joke. couldn't help myself.

* * *

what's your type?

find out here.

apparently i'm architype van doesburg (a brutally fair typeface).

play the game, if only to hear the narrator's awesome accent.

* * *

the p boards on pinterest: patchwork. peacocks. personal style. photos that make me think.

when the storm clouds lift

i have been a storm cloud all day. it's one of those days where everything just feels aggravating. it's not that anything exactly is wrong, it just that it feels frustrating and pointless. it's surely more a symptom of SAD more than PMS and the grey, grey day didn't help. it also didn't help that the car was making a strange rattling sound. 

but things are beginning to look up. that rattling was just a non-essential piece that had rusted itself loose. we've ordered a new one and i can drive it in the meantime. sabin's class is doing a nativity scene this evening and we'll eat æbleskiver and glögg. and then i got a sweet mail from a new friend who works at the farm where molly came from in minnesota. in it, she asked me what i love about living in denmark. and that really helped. because i wasn't feeling much in love with anything today.

so, things i currently love about denmark:

~ that knowing danish gives you at least some ability to understand swedish, norwegian, dutch and german. at least the written bits.

~ the daily show on only one day's delay.

~ that it's not that long 'til the solstice and the light begins to return.

~ great drama. 

~ that a new julekalendar starts on saturday. (that's a christmas program that airs a new episode every day 'til christmas).

~ that the danes think christmas is on the 24th. this normally bugs the hell out of me, but this time, i'm looking on it as hey, two christmas meals!

~ going to sabin's christmas program and laughing with some of the other parents.

~ P1 - denmark's answer to NPR, only even better.

~ ny nordisk mad (new nordic food).

so a big thank you to jessica for shining a little light of positivity on my afternoon. i really needed that.

* * *

this is great - a lioness photographs her own poo with a canon dslr.

* * *

BBC radio 4 podcast on øresundsbroen.

i love how the professor says that lund university was built to swedify (read: civilize) the danes.

* * *

articles on the new feminism keep cropping up. this time, about crafting.

and tho' i think the writing is absolute crap in that piece, there are some interesting things to ponder.

* * *

the l boards on pinterest: ladders, lego my lego, let's play (this is work-related), looks interesting (mostly stuff to read with the occasional film), lysthus (my coming backyard refuge).

in which she ponders writing and literary theory and feminism and doesn't come to any conclusions

i can tell you that when every experience is fodder for your character sketches, it makes meetings ever so much more amusing. even better when you can actually sit with your laptop and type the scenes in directly, a sort of simultaneous transcription. i'm gleeful. and leaning increasingly towards fiction rather than anthropology. but it's a fiction that will contain an awful lot of truth. i'm hoping a plot will develop out of the character sketches, as i've got no idea of one at this moment. i'm just riding the waves of inspiration. and figuring that writing it is the best way to make sense of it all.

* * *

i fear i may be a member of the theory generation.

we thought we were so smart.

and we still are.

but at what price?

* * *

one of my facebook friends shared a link to this blog, which suggests that there is a new era coming - one in which women will take the lead and heal the earth. while i think this is a wonderful (if fanciful and slightly new agey) notion, i wonder if this person has spent any time at all with groups of women. because there's no one more hard on one another than women. we do more to keep one another down than any man ever even thought of doing to us. there is more manipulative game-playing among groups of women than anywhere else. if we're not sneering at one another, sniping, talking behind one another's backs or outright treating one another as invisible when we feel threatened by another woman's intellect or viewpoint or very presence, then we're scheming and jockeying for position. it would take a miracle for women to truly embrace the role of healer and begin to heal through peace and love. there might be less bombs, but i am absolutely certain the number of poisonings would rise.

i should note that i am by no means anti-feminist and i most fervently wish that women would start working together and stop dragging one another down. it's just that when i look around me, right here in my own community, i don't see it happening anytime soon.

i think i like the brand of feminism and femininity presented here (and embodied in lady gaga) much better. as halberstam says: "Gaga Feminism as embodied in certain eclectic performers does not promote a new liberal version of femininity, rather it inhabits wild terrains of sonic and political chaos in order to bring new forms of politics, culture, and gender to life." that sounds much more interesting than the earth mother, sit in a circle and gaze at our vaginas kind.

* * *

sabin and i are madly in love with the mean kitty.

* * *

the k boards (sorry, there are no j boards) on pinterest: kitchen goodness (this is one of the early boards), kulturhus inspiration related to my involvement in my local community).

some fun links and video entertainment

scandinavia takes britain by storm
mostly thanks to forbrydelsen - the killing - so i give you a little lesson in danish:



* * *

"Now what I am calling Gaga here certainly derives from Lady Gaga and has everything to do with Lady Gaga but is not limited to Lady Gaga."

there's more where that came from.

so nice to know that postmodernism is still alive and well in the academy.

* * *

a very catchy song about dumb ways to die.

it will be going through your head the rest of the day.

in a good way.

* * *

the i boards on pinterest: i made this, informative infographics, inspiration (this is one of the early boards, i've since divided it extensively and safe this only for stuff i really think i'd make), installations.

monday ephemera

you know what can totally make your monday? when someone starts it off by saying, "if you tell me to jump, i'll say how high." in fact, i think that's set the tone for my whole week - it's going to be a good one.

gold's curio store, sante fe

wouldn't you like to visit this place?
perhaps take in the monster show?

colorado, a pioneer merchant

this photo makes me think you don't have to have everything perfectly in order to be able to get started. you should just jump right in.
that's another motto for my week.

 these photos are from this fascinating collection of images of america from 1897 to 1924 by the detroit photographic company.

* * *

last week, the voynich manuscript, this week, the book of kells.

* * *

if you really love words and writing and even reading, read this.  

it will make you want to wake your verbs right up.

* * *

the h boards on pinterest: hairy, halloween, helleristning, homesteading, house ideas (this was one of my first boards on pinterest), husband could make this (a personal favorite).

pinspiration no. 4 + a bit of randomness

we awoke to a sparkling frosty morning, so i had to run out and grab some bokeh. soon the frost will be totally gone and i won't have another chance for months and months. right? the frost will go soon, right?

then, i settled in with pinspiration no. 4 and a cup of tea. the sunshine was bright and kept beckoning me outdoors, so progress was slow.

our baby bunnies are 3 weeks old today and are VERY active now. i cannot tell you how much we enjoy our bunnies - way more than i ever would have imagined. and baby bunnies? they're like miniature, whole complete rabbits. perfection.

and my pinspiration no. 4 dragonfly. here's the beautiful original i was inspired by. it was hard to cut into the vintage cross stitch, but i like how it turned out, tho' it's far from the perfection of the originals by mr. finch. it's an interesting exercise to basically indulge in someone else's art. which in my view (and picasso's) is perfectly ok if you're not doing it for commercial gain. this, for me, was an exercise in forcing myself to cut into a vintage textile, as well as to find materials around me to work with...some waxed cord as feelers and some little wire legs. for the body i used a bit of cotton that was trimmed off some old curtains and had been soaked in black beans at one point. as you can tell, most of that "dye" rinsed out. it was a good exercise for me in many ways - both freeing and yet awkward. but it has pushed my thinking towards making something entirely my own.

but in the meantime, it looks very pretty on the branch i hung on the wall in the living room a few days ago. and i'm learning a whole lot from this making something i've pinned on pinterest thing.

* * *

i listened to this on repeat (more times than i care to admit):

it seems a little lame to be enamored of belgian house music, but there you have it.
i mean really, belgium?

* * *

and i'm longing for something like this in my community.
nice to know it's good to be bilingual.
and tho' we already knew it, it's hip to use natural dyes.
oddly, this seems like me. in danish.
and this is an interesting question to ponder.
ikea. more than just crack meatballs.
blown away by this work.

snowdrops already?

isn't it too early for snowdrops? i spotted this one in front of the house this morning during the 20 minutes of snow we've had this year. later, rain came and washed it all away. i do wish for a proper winter, but it looks like we won't get one this year. 

i've spent the bulk of this day knitting on my ever-longer rainbow scarf. i just keep knitting since i don't know how to cast off. i'm on my 3rd skein of yarn. i've also been watching those cadfael programs on youtube (on this channel). in 9 minute snippets. it suits me well. it speaks somehow to my attention span and allows me to jump up to change the laundry or get a cup of tea or nearly die of a coughing fit and then get back to it again. 

do you think it's normal to cough (really cough, this is not some wussy cough but the kind where you eventually just throw up from it) for three weeks?

*  *  *

there are pretty pictures of copenhagen on this blog. 

a lovely photos of spanish wine country here. 

and of course, there are always beautiful pictures here.

i especially love her review of a year in pictures. 

what are you looking at?

here's what i'm looking at:

this beautiful blog. 

and this one.

and the new skinny laminx catalog.

and i'm also...

coveting this magical mushroom.

reading the elegance of the hedgehog

(because we have a hedgehog.)

(tho' oddly there hasn't been a hedgehog in the story yet.)

(but it's beautiful anyway. i'm underlining every other line. in the library's book.)

dreaming about crocheting one of these.

* * *

hope you're spending your weekend wisely.

what is work?

all shall be illuminated...

sabin asked me this morning, "why don't you have a real work, mom?" and it really made me stop for a second and hold my breath. in her eyes, what constitutes a job is going to an office every day. what did i do to make that be her concept of what work is? she's growing up in a world where the concept of work is changing. work can be done online, from anywhere. your employer can be in another country or halfway across the world.  a lot more is being done on a freelance basis these days. so how do i explain that although i'm not going to an office on a daily basis, i am working? how to explain that today's work is a more ephemeral thing, with not much concrete to show for it at the end of the day? we're living in a so-called knowledge economy and very few of us actually MAKE things anymore in our daily work.

i think it's what attracts me to sewing and felting and crafting in general. i think we, as humans, WANT there to be something to show for what we've done at the end of the day. something other than an outbox full of emails, or another report. we want something in our hands that we can touch and see and show, as a physical object, to others. to leave a mark, for there to BE something there when we're finished. we want, in short, a less ephemeral existence (ironic, i know, as i'm putting these words out into the ether that is the internet).

i have this feeling that work is changing. and that it will be something completely different for sabin when she grows up. but i clearly have some way to go in preparing her for that. it will be interesting, because i'm not even sure myself what's next for me. i have these vague images of it and i'm working on making those more concrete, but i can't myself see where it will all end up.  so in the meantime, i leave words behind and i sew. and i hope that's enough.

*  *  *

if you'd like to read some beautiful thoughts about what's next, go here.

and if you're pondering the really big questions in life: big cartel or etsy? go here.

or if you'd like to read about our new adventures in beekeeping, go here.

loving friday

loving today.

loving soft braids.

loving this blog.

and this etsy shop.

(you can see they're related.)

still hanging out here an awful lot.

and still pretty jazzed about this.

but mostly, loving that it's friday.

happy weekend, one and all!