Quote
May 30, 2012
3 notes
"So you look at your life, and the two countries that hold it, and realize that you are now two distinct people. As much as your countries represent and fulfill different parts of you and what you enjoy about life, as much as you have formed unbreakable bonds with people you love in both places, as much as you feel truly at home in either one, so you are divided in two. For the rest of your life, or at least it feels this way, you will spend your time in one naggingly longing for the other, and waiting until you can get back for at least a few weeks and dive back into the person you were back there. It takes so much to carve out a new life for yourself somewhere new, and it can’t die simply because you’ve moved over a few time zones. The people that took you into their country and became your new family, they aren’t going to mean any less to you when you’re far away.

When you live abroad, you realize that, no matter where you are, you will always be an ex-pat. There will always be a part of you that is far away from its home and is lying dormant until it can breathe and live in full color back in the country where it belongs. To live in a new place is a beautiful, thrilling thing, and it can show you that you can be whoever you want — on your own terms. It can give you the gift of freedom, of new beginnings, of curiosity and excitement. But to start over, to get on that plane, doesn’t come without a price. You cannot be in two places at once, and from now on, you will always lay awake on certain nights and think of all the things you’re missing out on back home."

—

Chelsea Fagan, “What Happens When You Live Abroad,” Thought Catalog,May 21, 2012

Which part of me is the one that’s feeling dirty about linking to something on Thought Catalog? And is it the same part of me that’s feeling even dirtier for relating to something on TC?

(via screwrocknroll)

So I’m just going to deal with relating to this by telling myself that if a broken clock can be right once a day, Thought Catalog can be right once a lifetime. I’m just a sucker for grocery-stores-in-foreign-countries references I guess:

Walking streets alone and eating dinner at tables for one — maybe with a book, maybe not — you’re left alone for hours, days on end with nothing but your own thoughts. You start talking to yourself, asking yourself questions and answering them, and taking in the day’s activities with a slowness and an appreciation that you’ve never before even attempted. Even just going to the grocery store — when in an exciting new place, when all by yourself, when in a new language — is a thrilling activity. And having to start from zero and rebuild everything, having to re-learn how to live and carry out every day activities like a child, fundamentally alters you.

Tags: expat life thought catalog travel

Photo
May 22, 2012
869 notes
soupsoup: via buzzfeed

soupsoup:

via buzzfeed

Photo
May 17, 2012
2,509 notes
islamiyet: ‘Sheikh Zayed Mosque’

islamiyet:

‘Sheikh Zayed Mosque’

(via fuckyeahmiddleeast)

Quote
May 17, 2012
437 notes
"The importance of learning to code isn’t so that everyone will write code, and bury the world under billions of lines of badly conceived Python, Java, and Ruby. The importance of code is that it’s a part of the world we live in. I’ve had enough of legislators who think the Internet is about tubes, who haven’t the slightest idea about legitimate uses for file transfer utilities, and no concept at all about what privacy (and the invasion of privacy) might mean in an online space. I’ve had enough of patent inspectors who approve patents for which prior art has existed for decades. And I’ve had enough of judges making rulings after listening to lawyers arguing about technologies they don’t understand. Learning to code won’t solve these problems, but coding does force engagement with technology on a level other than pure ignorance. Coding is a part of cultural competence, even if you never do it professionally. Alsup is a modern hero."

—

A federal judge learned to code - O’Reilly Radar (via everythingisdisrupted)

(via theatlantic)

Quote
May 16, 2012
156 notes
"Chicago is the most creative food spot, without a doubt. San Francisco has access to greater product, and New York ranks higher in terms of actual quantity, but Chicago has the best mix of chefs and supporting locals. Other cities couldn’t get away with what happens in this city."

—

Graham Elliot | via Eater

(via emphasisadded)

(via fuckkyeahchicago)

Photo
May 13, 2012
4,525 notes

(Source: ninasharpsrighthand)

Chat
May 09, 2012
1 note

GChats on Mad Men

  • me: betty is going to be back on mad men next week and i cant wait
  • Jill: i don't like fat betty
  • me: i know. but I love/hate betty and need to know what happens to her
  • so that when sally eventually kills her with a telephone cord, we'll feel like it was earned
  • Jill: haha
  • is anyone ever going to talk about pete and peggy
  • and their baby
  • me: no
  • Jill: but why!
  • i guess that's more realistic
  • but i want the drama
  • me: I am a liiiiiittle worried that pete is going to kill himself. But I'm hoping all the foreshadowing of that is actually just metaphorical about how he's ruining his life, slowly and deliberately.
  • Jill: [...] hmm i think that's right
  • he's too much of an ass to kill himself
  • and thinks too much of himself
  • me: I don't know. or maybe trudy will kill him. you know she's got it in her
  • Jill: you're thinking of annie
  • me: there was definitely a time where she laid down the law so hard the walls shook
  • also, she totally beat don at his own game to get him to go to that dinner
  • Jill: yes but now she wears a robe to drop pete off
  • lazy
  • me: you would wear pajamas every where if you could
  • Jill: true
  • ***
  • I'm just convinced that *someone* is going to die this season.

Tags: mad men gchat trudy campbell pete campbell betty draper betty francis

Link
May 09, 2012
35 notes
GOOD DEAL: Great Food Writing on The iPad

pricehike:

Together with The Bad Deal, we’re celebrating some kick butt food writing on the iPad, a nice little device that puts cookbooks into your hands by taking them off the coffee table. 

baddeal:

Modernist Cuisine, winner of the James Beard Foundation’s “cookbook of the year” award, is too cool for the iPad. It weights 51 pounds. In response, we at The Price Hike and The Bad Deal are celebrating awesome pieces of digital food writing that won’t break your back or your briefcase….

Oh no. I’m going to end up buying all of these because the iPad has become my new favorite kitchen tool.

Tags: food ipad kitchen cooking cookbooks books writing

Video
May 08, 2012
21 notes

madmenworld:

Mad Men Death Watch: The Many Death Symbols of Season Five

It’s easy to miss on a first or even second viewing, but this season’s script is saturated with death words, images, and references, using commonplace death idioms and metaphors to talk about daily, nonthreatening events. We knew Matthew Weiner was good, but we didn’t realize how good. He’s throwing death in our faces and we’re almost too close to see it. We just feel it. So, to show you how deeply embedded death is in this season, we’ve compiled a video below of Season 5’s oh-so-many death references (we couldn’t even fit them all!). We call it: Mad Men Death Watch.

(Source: thedailybeast.com)

Photo
May 02, 2012
3,932 notes

(Source: thetvscreen)