The Week: March 7, 2014

I don’t know if it’s just me, but lately, so much of what I read or see online feels charged with emotion. There’s no apathy. Nothing feels phoned-in. It’s … well, beautiful, I guess. Occasionally sad. Really intense.

As are a few of these links. I tried to throw a little levity in there, too, just to provide some balance. But even so, more than one of these might have sent me to “The Crying Place.” I hope you like them, nevertheless.

—————

Hieu Nguyen’s performance at the 2013 National Poetry Slam is so. damn. powerful. Watch it.

—————

One of the best essays on the topic of depression I’ve ever read: Miles and Miles of No Man’s Land.

—————

I am totally buying this theory about the secret identity of Andy’s mom in Toy Story (note: you need to have seen the second movie to really get what’s going on in the article).

—————

My in-laws are probably more interesting than your in-laws. Like my husband’s cousin, Daniel, whose commercial for his legal services in Pittsburgh is currently making the rounds.

—————

Reddit has a live-feed of the conflict in the Ukraine.

—————

The guys from Top Gear, a motorhome, and a huge cliff. Guess what happens.

—————

A new ad campaign from Save the Children aims to bring the Syrian conflict closer to home (spoiler: it works). It follows a little girl over the course of a year, for one second each day.

—————

Super excited about the release of Eliot Peper’s first novel, Uncommon Stock, for a lot of reasons. It’s a fiction book about startups, it’s from a first-time author, and it’s the first release by FG Press, a new publishing house that I … might be … working with in the future (eep).

—————

Fascinating. A reddit thread about weird things that Americans do that are taboo or strange in other countries. Not gonna lie: I have always thought (and still do think) that pb & j sandwiches are really weird.

—————

Victor Vasquez, a conductor on the 1 train in New York City, is brightening commuters’ days with his unscripted announcements.

—————