Better Living Through Literature
Words + Projects + Stuff I Like
1. More hating on AI? Don’t mind if I do!
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2. “But Karen,” you may be asking, “What about hating on American politics?” We have that, too!
3. Please enjoy “the 74 most incredible lines in Moby-Dick.” I thought this one was fantastic: “I looked around me tranquilly and contentedly, like a quiet ghost with a clean conscience sitting inside the bars of a snug family vault.”
1. One of my current interests (cough hyperfixations cough) is finding fabric in weird camo patterns. Except I almost bought some fabric in a Waffen SS pattern (“Platanenmuster“) before I googled it and realized it was Nazi, so now Camopedia is my best friend. Currently on the hunt for emerald Guyana tiger stripe!
2. Another encyclopedia for a long-running interest: the Japanese Woodblock Print Search. Search 223,000 images or upload an image to get a match.
3. Something to think about if you’re headed to the pool in the near future:
1. A surprisingly interesting look at envelope security patterns–it goes from their history into collections into architecture. (This is the same place that linked me to stick figures in peril a few weeks ago.)
2. Word of the day: Ossicone, “columnar or conical skin-covered bone structures on the heads of giraffes, male okapi, and some of their extinct relatives.”
3. I will always watch old ladies lift heavy weights, because it me, as the kids say. Way to go, Grandmother!
1. You want to click through to Train Jazz, a data visualization that sets NYC subway trains to music: “Every dot is a real subway train. Eight hundred of them, give or take, form a small jazz combo (walking bass, piano, sax, vibes, brushes) that has been playing without pause for over a hundred years.”
2. Speaking of jazz, now that I’m an ⋆˙⟡ audiophile.✦ ݁˖ , I’m Howard breaking into scat at any given moment.
@jazzmemesofficial 😏 Do you fear jazz? 😏 Tag a friend that doesn’t like jazz or hasn’t given it a chance 👉🏼😂 How many people say they “hate jazz” when they’ve never even listened to more than a couple minutes of it? 🤔 Comment why you think people fear jazz or have a bad impression of it before they even give it a real chance! 🧐 We are almost at 200 Members in our online jazz guitar academy @chasesguitaracademy ! 🙌 Get the best jazz guitar education, learn from the modern guitar greats, and access over 100 lessons on improvisation, harmony, theory, solo guitar, and more! Check the link in bio to sign up 👍 #themightyboosh #drums #piano #saxophone #drummer #singer #vocals #vocalist #jazz #vibe #musician #college #jazzdrums #jazzmaster #jazz #igers #bass ♬ original sound – Jazz Memes
3. I can’t stop laughing at this. Maybe because of that first comment–“i think the issue is maybe you dont feel good”
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1. Happy May Day, comrades! Today’s fact: there are maybe 1,000 billionaires in the US; there are 174 million workers. 
2. Something to listen to as you participate in the GENERAL STRIKE today: A YouTube DJ spinning “Soviet & Socialistic Grooves from 60s-70s.” The whole channel rocks, I’ve been listening to sets all week. (That same DJ has a set with 78s!)
3. Check out the Busy Beaver Button Museum, whose mission “is to share as much American history as possible through pin-back buttons.” It’s really easy to get sucked in to all the different categories and I love the format of just, “Look at all these buttons!”
1. You too might get sucked in to the Flickr group “Stick Figures in Peril,” featuring warning signs from around the globe. 
2. Take one minute and 25 seconds to hear Ray Bradbury telling you to read every day.
3. This is how I feel about parallel parking, too: 
1. Tomorrow is Record Store Day and I’m going to hope that not everyone wants R. Carlos Nakai’s Canyon Trilogy on vinyl (for the first time!) and try my luck in the afternoon, vs lining up at an ungodly hour in the morning. I also have my eye on some jazz and soul. We’ll see!
2. Here for this: The mystery of the lost Roman herb
3. I haven’t gotten in any water out in nature in a long time and I can tell. Maybe I need to find a waterfall this weekend:
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1. How have I never heard of Tony Hart before now? He had a children’s art show in Britain and he’s a delight. Watch him draw with PASS-tels.
2. “There’s still some good in the world, Mr. Frodo.” Hiker’s dog lost in a wild New Zealand forest rescued by helicopter after strangers fund search
3. This sounds like a fantastic movie idea. 
1. I might be a little too excited about a woman in a rocket named after the moon goddess, but in our theme of space and parodies this week: Shoot Men Into Space. Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” for 2026.
2. Via Robin Sloan, the JR Kuyushi Railway Company site. Look at those trains! Let’s book the one that goes to the hot springs.
3. This is absolutely what Toyotas would sound like:
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1. This was fascinating: Why So Many Control Rooms Were Seafoam Green. It covers color theorist Faber Birren, the Manhattan Project, and mid-century industrial design.
2. We didn’t have as much client feedback as expected on a big project, so this has been me all week:
3. But because it’s been a slow week, I’ve been hanging out in the basement with all my sewing and records:
