It’s been a day and a half and practically all I’ve done this year is eat vegetables and swim in the ocean. I also, less virtuously, went to a rodeo yesterday, which is not the most animal-centric choice but SUPER interesting and it filled my cup of niche worlds in which the people in it are obsessed, so*.
Conversation on entry:
It’s the new year! Here is what is in and what is out
IN
Melty face emoticon
Peach coloured clothing
MSG – I bloody love it
Drawing, cartoons and comics
Wearing a wetsuit in the ocean
Wearing swimmers in the ocean
Thank you notes, even if I’m waiting until after holidays to write them
Free to air tv
OUT
Clenched face emoticon
Cheezels
Saying namaste in yoga
Below Deck (all of them, sadly)
Dresses, but only because I can’t find any that I like
Hayu (reality TV app), because it never works
Audible
Very interesting things
Cookie Cutter Shark
The Whippet is my absolute favourite newsletter and through it, I discovered the cookie cutter shark. I think about this animal all the time. Look at it! It’s parasitic, it uses those vice-like teeth to bite into passing fish:
A bitten animal:
In defence of birds
I don’t love birds but I really want to. Do they fly for fun or just to get from A to B?
According to a massive scientific / very good / highly reputable research study (cited in this podcast, def worth listening to) seeing or hearing birds for ONE second improves your day for up to eight hours**.
To that end, here are some bird noises I recorded at 5am this morning:
(TBH, at the time, hearing them didn’t feel day improving, it felt a lot like irritation)
Favourite comic I made on the holidays so far
Links and things I am obsessed with
Book on how to draw by Quentin Blake
Nina Kenwood’s list of book recommendations (Nina Kenwood in general, probably). It’s been been my go for reading these holidays
Found this novel in an op shop, chick lit at its finest (better than Binchy!)
On the aforementioned topic of fish, it is one of my life goals to see a blobfish
I could eat these chips forever
Oh, and you haven’t listened to The First Time podcast summer series, this is a great spot to begin
*I think it’s the last year they’re ever having it, which appeases the guilt somewhat. Plus, no animals were hurt but one human was, which anti-rodeo types can claim as karma and I will see as a bit of bad luck/stupidity.
**Really only semi-relevant: A friend and I went to look at an apartment to rent years ago and it was TERRIBLE. Like, the most depressing place ever. Tiny, dirty, etc but the lowpoint was the two sad looking pigeons, living in a small cage in the lounge room. Point is — hearing /seeing birds might be good for people but maybe not so good for birds?