i am me

China's gender imbalance has left current bachelors a supply and demand problem

Mon, 21 Jun 2010 22:53:00 -0700

China's gender imbalance has left current bachelors a supply and demand problem:

“I’m 25 years old, looking for a boyfriend…. I want you to have an apartment and a car…. The apartment has to be built after 2000 and the car has to be better than a minivan”

audio recording of David Foster Wallace's Kenyon commencement speech

Wed, 16 Jun 2010 21:28:49 -0700

audio recording of David Foster Wallace's Kenyon commencement speech:

chirp:

I’ve read this speech probably a million times, and I will listen to it a million times more.

I don’t remember how many friends I’ve told you need to read this speech. Now you can listen to it, partly, if you don’t buy it.

Computer gamers 'have reactions of pilots but bodies of chain smokers'

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 16:24:00 -0700

Computer gamers 'have reactions of pilots but bodies of chain smokers' :

In a test to determine whether playing computer games could be a sport, academics compared professional gamers and professional athletes. They found that one group doesn’t live with their mothers.

Off Runway, Brazilian Beauty Goes Beyond Blond - NYTimes.com

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 14:55:00 -0700

Off Runway, Brazilian Beauty Goes Beyond Blond - NYTimes.com:

Alisson Chornak is one of many model scouts who prowl southern rural brazillian schools looking for the next Gisele Bundchen. She was discovered she was 13, while Alessandra Ambrosio was 12 when she was found. Is this the dream job for pedophiles?

BBC News - Newsnight - Life inside the North Korean bubble

Sat, 05 Jun 2010 13:22:07 -0700

BBC News - Newsnight - Life inside the North Korean bubble:

The video is a great piece on the state of North Korean life today, although when you watch it, it may seem like we are existing in wholly different eras.

Caught in the oil - The Big Picture - Boston.com

Fri, 04 Jun 2010 10:24:57 -0700

Caught in the oil - The Big Picture - Boston.com

"Life’s not fair."

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 16:03:16 -0700

“Life’s not fair.”

- Scar, from The Lion King

Buy.com Makes Its Biggest Sale Yet: Itself

Fri, 21 May 2010 15:20:18 -0700

Buy.com Makes Its Biggest Sale Yet: Itself:

I like this headline.

Incredible Nike advertisement by Alejandro González Iñárritu...

Fri, 21 May 2010 14:47:00 -0700

Incredible Nike advertisement by Alejandro González Iñárritu that features cameos by people whose names would spoil how incredible this advertisement is.

This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life by David Foster Wallace

Fri, 21 May 2010 13:47:00 -0700

You would think that this is a collection of David Foster Wallace’s thoughts on living and life. It is not. I found this little book on the counter at Moe’s Books and opened it up to find one essay, the transcript of his commencement speech at Kenyon College. Wallace’s one speech has been segmented, cut up, such that it fills the 144 pages of a hardcover book that sells for $14.99. This means that every few sentences, sometimes every sentence, has its own page, and they’re centered and framed like notes of chicken soup inspiration. To me it’s a disappointment to see such a cash grab by his estate to market this to graduating students. Wallace did not orate as a series of quotes, in a series of pauses, as “some thoughts” to be read here and there. This was Wallace’s heartfelt argument on how to live, and how do we choose how to live, spilled in long form, and should be read as such. David Foster Wallace’s insightful speech has been republished, edited, at WSJ, and the full version can be found at moreintelligentlife.

WNYC - Radiolab: Choice (November 14, 2008)

Thu, 06 May 2010 09:56:56 -0700

WNYC - Radiolab: Choice (November 14, 2008):

Radiolab’s show on Choice

Apparently there’s been a action film boom over in...

Tue, 04 May 2010 09:56:08 -0700

Apparently there’s been a action film boom over in Vietnam. This is the trailer for Clash, which showed at the Tribeca Film Festival 2010. Here is how reviewer Andrew O’Hehir summed it:

It’s a high-octane martial-arts ass-kicker built around an overly complicated criminal scheme, a leggy heroine who looks great in a ball gown and chops down French musclemen with her awesome kickboxing moves, and a soundtrack fueled by slammin’ Vietnamese hip-hop. Yeah — I actually said “Vietnamese hip-hop.”

american-apologies: Watch Obama do stand-up at the White House...

Sun, 02 May 2010 16:46:46 -0700

american-apologies:

Watch Obama do stand-up at the White House Correspondents Dinner. Hilarity ensues.

Epicurious has a series of videos on what you need to know to...

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 12:03:00 -0700

Epicurious has a series of videos on what you need to know to brew all kinds of coffee and espresso drinks. One crucial guide to me is how to steam milk, as shown by a man declared as CHAMPION BARISTA. I’ve had a recent addiction to lattes, something that Starbucks, with a store located two footsteps away from my work, never seems to get right. Even worse, they use a whole vat of scalded steamed milk, assuring that I’m not the only one with the same experience.

Often after lunches at ferry plaza, I stop by Pier 3 at The Plant cafe, where the barista there steams milk in individual portions, then stares at the tin for when the milk settles just so.

The small, cool contest has begun over at apartment therapy. My...

Wed, 21 Apr 2010 15:29:00 -0700

The small, cool contest has begun over at apartment therapy. My favorite section is the teeny tiny division where apartments must be under 400 square feet. At first I thought only 400 square feet? Does your bath tub double as a dish washing basin and a bed?

And yet, I admire the bare necessity that would seem uncomfortable to those who require in their lives walk in closets and his and hers sinks.

"Penguin Group Australia is pulping 7,000 copies of The Pasta Bible cookbook because the recipe for..."

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 16:54:07 -0700

“Penguin Group Australia is pulping 7,000 copies of The Pasta Bible cookbook because the recipe for tagliatelle with sardines and prosciutto called for sprinkling the dish with “salt and freshly ground black people.””

- You Don’t Say: The $18,000 typo

"Humans, Hickling said, have a fundamental need to create and maintain a narrative for their lives in..."

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 15:17:00 -0700

“Humans, Hickling said, have a fundamental need to create and maintain a narrative for their lives in which the universe is not implacable and heartless, that terrible things do not happen at random, and that catastrophe can be avoided if you are vigilant and responsible.”

- Fatal Distraction: Forgetting a Child in the Backseat of a Car Is a Horrifying Mistake. Is It a Crime? Gene Weingarten

Video

Sun, 28 Mar 2010 19:54:37 -0700

Coffee.

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 11:43:35 -0700

Coffee.

"I just remember, you know, I was kneeling. You know, I wasn’t laying down or anything. And he..."

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:59:00 -0800

“I just remember, you know, I was kneeling. You know, I wasn’t laying down or anything. And he just kind of fell into my arms”

- A woman who did not know she was pregnant, which seems not as uncommon as you think.