Category: Uncategorized

The Burden of Someone Else’s Dream

When we lived in England my days had a familiar rhythm. Each morning, my mother flung open the curtains in my room, and I tugged my school jumper over my head and pulled on my skirt before tumbling downstairs to eat cereal with my younger brother Jon. After school, we’d play on the swing in our garden, or crouch at the far end of the stream to watch dragonflies hovering above the gold-green surface.

I was used to this rhythm; I liked it and thought it would never change. Until one morning over breakfast, my father announced that we were going to sail around the world.

I paused, a spoonful of cornflakes halfway to my mouth.

“We’re going to follow Captain Cook,” Dad said. “After all, we share the captain’s surname, so who better to do it?” He picked up his cigarette and leaned back in his seat.

“Are you joking?” I asked.

Next to me, Jon watched Dad, his lips parted.

“Not at all,” said my father, puffing out a cloud of smoke. “I’m deadly serious.”

“But why?”

“Well, someone needs to mark the 200th anniversary of Cook’s third voyage, don’t they?” he said, raising his eyebrows at my mother.

“Of course they do, Gordon,” said Mum, returning his smile.

‘Dad said: We’re going to follow Captain Cook’: how an endless round-the-world voyage stole my childhood
In 1976, Suzanne Heywood’s father decided to take the family on a three-year sailing ‘adventure’ – and then just kept going. It was a journey into fear, isolation and danger …

This is an excerpt from the book:
Wavewalker: Breaking Free
by Suzanne Heywood

Simple and Basic Honey Whole Wheat Bread

INGREDIENTS:
1 1/4 cups lukewarm water
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 cup honey
3 1/2 cups Whole Wheat Flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast

DIRECTIONS:
Knead the dough until it’s smooth and just slightly tacky, about 8 to 10 minutes. Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover, and let it rise until doubled in volume, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Deflate the dough and shape it to fit a greased 8 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ loaf pan. Let it rise, covered, until doubled, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Bake the bread in a preheated 375°F oven for 35 minutes.

via King Arthur Flour

Hidden Gem Subreddits

What are some hidden gem subreddits with plenty of stuff to binge read? from r/AskReddit

-eDgAR- 571  

Some of my favorites:

/r/LifeOfNorman – A subreddit about writing small, fictional tales about a fictional character named Norman; a rather unremarkable fellow

/r/UnresolvedMysteries – One of my favorite subs about mysterious cases that have yet to be solved

/r/AMADisasters – A sort of museum for AMAs that have gone totally wrong

/r/AteThePasta – When people fall for copypasta in the wild.

/r/DepthHub – A bit like /r/bestof for for really in-depth discussions.

/r/redditwritesseinfeld – A fun little sub where people write scenes from Seinfeld based on prompts

/r/TheGrittyPast – a great little subreddit about accounts from history not often talked about because of their tragic and often violent nature.

/r/HistoryAnecdotes – Pretty much speaks for itself, mostly content from the creator of the sub who also does TGP, but others contribute too

/r/FanTheories – A great sub full of some pretty great theories about movies, shows, and books

Three Types of Yes

I’ll let you in on a secret. There are actually three kinds of “Yes”: Counterfeit, Confirmation, and Commitment.

A counterfeit “yes” is one in which your counterpart plans on saying “no” but either feels “yes” is an easier escape route or just wants to disingenuously keep the conversation going to obtain more information or some other kind of edge.

A confirmation “yes” is generally innocent, a reflexive response to a black-or-white question; it’s sometimes used to lay a trap but mostly it’s just simple affirmation with no promise of action.

And a commitment “yes” is the real deal; it’s a true agreement that leads to action, a “yes” at the table that ends with a signature on the contract. The commitment “yes” is what you want, but the three types sound almost the same so you have to learn how to recognize which one is being used.

Voss, Chris; Raz, Tahl. Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It

Really Random Facts


What is most "why the f*** do you know that" fact? from AskReddit

HushUK
If you shake/jangle your keys at a moth, it will do a backflip (it’s a defence mechanism)

PityLeFool
The last person who died building the hoover dam was the son of the first person who died building it.

ele-lan
MLB umpires are required to wear black underwear in case their pants split during a game.

celestialdragonlord
Fidel Castro loved dairy so much that he invested in trying to breed a cow that could survive in the climate of Cuba and still produce a lot of milk. He failed over and over for years until one day a cow that was exactly to his specifications. She produced obscene, record breaking amounts of milk even for a regular cow and could live in Cuba’s sweltering climate. There were regular updates on her health in the Cuban national newspaper and he loved her so much that when she died he erected a huge marble statue of her in her honor.

PmMeRevolutionPlans
Ubre Blanca was her name

ugagradlady
Many deaths in the Middle Ages resulted from pigs wandering into peasant homes and eating babies out of their cradles.

ifuckedpongkrell
julius caesar’s soldiers used sing a marching song about how much caesar liked it up the ass

Minerx_Thomas_YT
Hedgehogs shit when they run fast therefore if sonic the hedgehog was real he would shite himself to death

WhyY_196
Male hedgehogs masturbate for pleasure and you have to be careful picking them up because sometimes they have semen on their feet. It’s something you have to look out for when you’re a hedgehog owner like myself.

AsphaltSommersaults
you can neutralize the smell of a rotting corpse by covering it with the ashes of a common camp fire! any wood ash should work, friends.

DGatsby
Saddam Hussein wrote a romance novel.

Guantanamo Mixtape

Here follows a sample of the songs played again and again at maximum volume to break the will of enemy combatants at Guantánamo Bay and other US detention centers around the world. In the context of harsh interrogation with no legal recourse or hope of freedom, these songs and others like them became the soundtrack of Hell for those subjected to them.

Christina Aguilera, “Dirrty”
Barney and Friends, “I Love You Song”
Deicide, “Fuck Your God”
Drowning Pool, “Bodies”
Eminem, “Kim”
Marilyn Manson, “The Beautiful People”
The “Meow Mix” Theme
Nine Inch Nails, “Somewhat Damaged”
Queen, “We Are the Champions”
Britney Spears, “. . . Baby One More Time”

Bruce, Scott G.
The Penguin Book of Hell