And when we got to the bridge with the locks you said let’s go up here a minute. And I cried just at the sight of it. So many thousands of hopeful steel promises glittering at midnight in the rusting cold wind off the Seine. Undeterred. You asked me to marry you right then and I jumped and jumped and smashed your head into my stomach and groups walked by and watched and laughed and cooed at my tears. Who ever would have thought we would be here?

been thinking… 

Erica is the most amazing person I know.  My idea of telling tumblr that we were engaged was to post a picture from our trip that said “she said yes” followed by an extremely nerdy Star Trek reference, but of course she wrote something beautiful and heartfelt that made me think I couldn’t ever say enough to express my joy for this woman and this experience.

While she would have probably said yes if asked at our kitchen counter, or running late to a movie, I wanted to take her to Paris because a) it was also her birthday, and b) go big or go home, right?

But honestly, I would have spent every penny I had to take her to Paris.  If I could, I would spend all the money in the world on her.  I would buy her every whim without hesitation.  If I couldn’t take her to Paris I would have torn down the Eiffel tower bar by bar and rebuilt every piece of iron on our corner.  I would divert the Seine so it would flow down our street.  I would do anything for her because she is that incredible. 

I am the luckiest guy in the world.

posted 18 hours ago

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Varanasi - Part 2

We took an early morning boat ride along the ghats and got to see them from a distance.  People bathing, chatting, brushing their teeth, coming down to the river for blessings from the great mother Ganga.  Our barefoot guide told us stories all along the way.

Afterwards, for what seems like hours, we wandered the crooked curving streets of Varanasi, no bigger than alleyways, passing snaking lines of people, squeezing to the sides of buildings as massive crowds split us apart.  We shopped and were suffocated by the city, buried in its vibrancy.

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posted 6 days ago

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Varanasi - Part 1

The Varanasi airport is on the outskirts of town, and bigger than it needs to be.  Far from the crowds of the ghats, the place is surrounded by empty fields and tin-roofed shacks.  All around the airport are giant monoliths dispensing air.  Perhaps they are calling for their own pilgrimage.

The drive to the ghats is long and our car overheats and by the time we get to a place to stay we’re all too ready to drop our bags.  We take the suite at the top of the building because it is our last night in India and what’s a last night without a great view?

After a rest we venture out toward the river, in search of sacred steps.  Varanasi is one of the oldest cities in the world, they say, populated continuously since at least four thousand years ago.  It sits on the Hindu holy river the Ganges.  Each set of stairs is a ghat with it’s own name leading down to the river, a place where people can go to cleanse themselves, to be touched by the holy water of the river.  At the same time, the Ganges is one of the most polluted rivers in the world, as over 100 cities sit on its banks, dumping waste all along the way.  Hindus also burn their dead and spread the cremated remains in the river, although this is a very small percentage of the pollution.

We walked along the ghats, taking it all in, until we came to the first of the burning ghats, where they cremate the bodies.  And so we stopped and sat at this holy place and did not take pictures and did not raise our voices out of respect for what happens there.

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posted 1 week ago

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Just found the best of these videos: Shit Rick Astley Says

posted 1 week ago

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Speaking of Ben being close to people, he tells us he’s been in love four times. That’s a good amount, I like that. At least he wasn’t like “never,” or “once,” or “if only you understood French I could explain the dozens of loves I’ve possessed in my life, but English is not the language for this discussion.” Nope, he just straight-up says “Four.” Cool.

Also cool: Ben sent a girl home before the rose ceremony on some “I’m just not feeling this” shit. Big ups, Ben! This is what I’m talking about. What I’m not talking about is you being so easily manipulated by babytalking that you’d give someone a rose — particularly someone who unironically says “winning” after they manipulate you into giving them a rose. In other words, I don’t like you, Ben, when you like Courtney. Courtney is my sore spot, for sure. I feel like the things you like about everyone else make sense, even if they are boring things like “she’s beautiful” or whatever.

Clay Walker!? Who the FUCK is Clay Walker, Ben, and why is he playing a concert for us and how do you know the words to his songs? Ben, will you accept this rose? Back from me? I don’t want this rose anymore.

I like your suit and tie at this rose ceremony, I guess. I DO NOT like how we’re going to Puerto Rico next week. It’s starting to feel like you’re running from something, Ben. What is it? The Law? I kind of hope it’s The Law.

From Jane Marie’s brilliant Hairpin Bachelor reviews: Learning to Love Ben

So I may have given you the impression that I spend all of my time reading tragic books in a semi-dirty bathtub, organizing my candy collection and taking pictures of things I cook / climb on / find in our front yard. Not true, friends, not true. For instance, on some Monday nights, we now waste two hours love/hate watching The Bachelor. Giggling and and mocking and lamenting in ironic-but-sort-of-real captivation. It’s like a very sad, very fun, low brow anti-feminist MST3K. It also reminds me of how I can’t watch America’s Funniest Home Videos because I audibly gasp and verbally interact (OH NO! BE CAREFUL! THAT’S NOT LOAD BEARING - OOFFFF!) like a hillbilly or a well manipulated live studio audience.

So that’s the confession. For the first time ever, we’re watching The Bachelor. And enjoying it? I don’t know. Everything feels really confusing at this point in our lives. I thought I loved you Emily, but you were sort of not cool last night (even though Courtney IS the Devil). I do know that if I did a set of low lunges every time Ben said “This is someone I could see spending the rest of my life with” or a girl says “It’s been a really long time since I’ve felt this way about anyone,” I’d have the kind of ass you could sit a tea cup on, which is a life long dream.

Please, send help.

(via beenthinking)

Ugh!  Ben is the worst!  I know you probably haven’t been watching the Bachelor because you’re a moderately high-functioning adult or whatever, but the bachelor of the Bachelor this season is just such a bore!  Also, when all you can say about a girl is “Yeah, she’s beautiful” over and over again, you’re not into her!  Also, every single date is just a test for each girl.  Like, let’s see how you do climbing the golden gate bridge, lets see how you do fly fishing (fly fishing?!) blah blah.  It’s almost as if he’s so boring that in order to avoid conversation they (“they,” the Illuminati, Templars, or ABC’s producers.  You pick) make them do unfamiliar activities.  Also, if you notice he’s giving roses to the girls who most easily make out with him. (Note to all the ladies out there: if he can get the milk for free, he will most likely get milk from ALL THE COWS ON THE SHOW)

I’m really rooting for Kacie B. to go insanely possessive one night and cut off Courtenay’s head, holding it up and screaming “All the roses are mine, Ben!”  And then the dental hygienist wins, because of course there’s a dental hygienist.

posted 1 week ago

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discoverynews:

Spectacular Aurorae Erupt Over Norway
Over the weekend, the Earth’s magnetic field was struck by a coronal  mass ejection (CME). The CME — a vast bubble of solar plasma that had  erupted from the sun on Jan. 19 — took longer than expected to travel  through interplanetary space, but on Sunday it made contact.
keep reading

Oof, my heart. 

discoverynews:

Spectacular Aurorae Erupt Over Norway

Over the weekend, the Earth’s magnetic field was struck by a coronal mass ejection (CME). The CME — a vast bubble of solar plasma that had erupted from the sun on Jan. 19 — took longer than expected to travel through interplanetary space, but on Sunday it made contact.

keep reading

Oof, my heart. 

(via kateoplis)

posted 1 week ago

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Welcome to the IndieCade tumblr!

indiecade:

You can check out the main IndieCade site at www.indiecade.com, but we’ll be filling this space with info, photos, videos and more!

So if you’re a fan of indie games or any games, give us a follow and get ready to play!

Very excited to be running social media for IndieCade!  Give the tumblr a follow because you like me and like games and isn’t that enough in this day and age?

posted 1 week ago

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beenthinking:

Brunchtimes. (Taken with instagram)

beenthinking:

Brunchtimes. (Taken with instagram)

posted 1 week ago

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I like her because she spoke truth to power about KNOCKED UP.
I dislike her because she seems like an irritable bitch.
I like her because guys like me saying someone seems like an irritable bitch usually means someone is actually just a woman who says what she thinks.
I dislike her because she has terrible taste in projects.
I like her because she doesn’t give a FUUUUUUUUUUUUCK.

—Dan, RazzieWatcher

Grantland has a sort-of funny article up trying to figure out if people still hate Katherine Heigl (spoiler alert: I sure do.) and I thought this opinion was probably the smartest.  It’s entirely likely that the Hollywood machine (or any bloated machine) will make its best effort to make sure that none of their playthings speak out too much or get out of line, so when Heigl has legitimate criticism of Knocked Up we can cast her off as “an irritable bitch” and feel comfortable about it, even when she is just speaking her mind.

But then she seems to go out of her way to shit on other, less famous working people and continues to make movies that are even worse than Knocked Up w/r/t sexual stereotypes in popular culture.  So just because someone has a dissenting opinion doesn’t make them an asshole, and it’s probably especially a good idea to check that reaction when that someone is not a straight white male, but Katherine Heigl has dissenting opinions while also being an asshole.  And I think that is the problem.

Also, since Knocked Up, Heigl has made:

  • 27 Dresses
  • The Ugly Truth
  • Killers
  • Life as We Know It
  • New Year’s Eve
  • One for the Money (Which is the first Stephanie Plum book by Janet Evanovich?!  Which I have never read but my mom can whip through them at a speed which seems like 2 or 3 a day.  And which somehow makes me more sad that the movie version is starring someone as unmagnetic as Katherine Heigl (some of the above criticism included although if you really think about it she is in fact not a magnetic personality to watch on the screen)

posted 1 week ago

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flannelanimal:

Put together this illustration after seeing The Descendants this weekend.  Such a good movie. 

flannelanimal:

Put together this illustration after seeing The Descendants this weekend.  Such a good movie. 

posted 2 weeks ago

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