an anthology of fictional plant species that exist beyond the realm of the real. … Fully illustrated in gorgeous full-color by Janet Chui, the specimen entries are by turns witty, hilarious, and very strange.
Also, I’ll be hosting the next Berry Go Round on September 28th. I can’t wait to see what interesting things get submitted!
I know you don’t look at my blogroll, so I thought I’d point you in the direction of a few blogs I really enjoy.
If you like plants, Seeds Aside is awesome (and has a great sense of humor). If you’re addicted to shoes, Manolo’s Shoe Blog points out the best. If you’re into art, Le territoire des sens finds some great pieces. If gender turns you on, you should be reading Sugarbutch Chronicles. If you’re going to grad school, or thinking about being an ecologist, Ruminations of an Aspiring Ecologist lets you know what you’re getting yourself into.
My housemate, Jane, is a wonderful artist and has this strange idea that everyone around her is some sort of artist, too. She hung up a large piece of paper in our kitchen and insists that visitors add something. I showed it to my brother who is staying with us this week:
It’s hard to imagine a good reason why, in these tight economic times, Congress would intentionally flush taxpayer dollars down the drain by spending them on disproven, ineffective abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. We are floored that they continue to ignore study after study, and the consensus of the public health community, all concluding that these programs censor vital health care information, teach gender stereotypes, discriminate against lesbian and gay teens, and in some cases promote religion in the classroom in violation of the Constitution.” (via Feministing)
Everyone knows that they’re going to die eventually, but most of the time we try really hard not to think about it. When we do think about it, we do things like eat more cookies and go shopping. But disease often forces us to confront our mortality. In portraits of the dying, the artist spoke with hospice patients, people who knew they were going to die and photographed them before and shortly after their deaths (via 3QD). In the Guardian, Susan Sontag’s son describes her attitude towards death (also via 3QD)
But no amount of familiarity could lessen the degree to which the idea of death was unbearable to her. In her eyes, mortality seemed as unjust as murder. Subjectively, there was simply no way she could ever accept it. I do not think this was denial in the ‘psychobabble’, Kübler-Ross sense. My mother was not insane; she knew perfectly well that she was going to die. It was just that she could never reconcile herself to the thought.
This guy hopping rocks in the Grand Canyon seems pretty comfortable with his mortality, though (3QD again).
You probably think I should put myself through school with work, applying for scholarships, etc. Well, I’ve got 3 well paying jobs and 1 not so well paying job,* a hefty fellowship, a scholarship worth a few hundred, a grant worth a few thousand, and I’ve still only got 1/2 of my cost of of attendance** covered. I’m going to school part time next semester and I’m spending the next two weeks of my life writing essays for still more scholarship applications (and going to work, of course).***
Sad, right? Tugging at your heartstrings? Desperate to help me go to school full time in the spring? I have a solution!
If you hate the drawings (don’t tell me about it, please), you can buy me presents to encourage me (or at least distract me from the ginormous bill I receive from NAU every semester).
**I’m out of state because living where it rains gives me migraines. It rains a lot in NC, not so much in AZ. Out of state students pay approximately 10 gazillion dollars in tuition.
***Wow! My summer vacation sounds just like winter break! I bet I’m going to have so much fun!!!
Biology in Science Fiction’s post on A Field Guide to Surreal Botany was featured in this month’s Berry Go Round. I am now desperate to read it:
