Luggage and Literature

The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. - St. Augustine

Friday Five 5-27-2016

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5This is the sixth installment in my new weekly series, called the Friday Five. In this series, I’ll tell you about five things that I love, whether they be books, travel, music, movies…or whatever. So without further ado, 5-27-2016’s Friday Five!

1–Duolingo. A friend of mine recently mentioned that he was using Duolingo to learn a language and really enjoyed it. Mike and I booked a trip to Guadeloupe, a French island in the Caribbean, so learning a bit of French seems like a good idea. And after a few days, I really like the (free) app. It’s simple, fun and I’m already 2% fluent in French.

2–Flamethrowing Guitar. Have you seen Mad Max Fury Road? If not, you really should! In any event, there is one particular character who plays a flamethrowing guitar on the front of one of the vehicles. It’s pretty crazy, because at the point when you first see this guy and this guitar, you realize that the movie soundtrack you’re hearing is also being heard by all of the characters in the movie. But it turns out that the flamethrowing guitar is REAL!! Check it out here.

3–Tim Ferriss. I read and enjoyed The Four Hour Workweek (check out my post on it here). This Freakonomics podcast (I know, I know, I keep including it, but I really do think it’s awesome) interviewed Tim Ferriss. So interesting.

4–Budapest by George Ezra. Such a great song. I recently downloaded it on Amazon Music and have been listening to it a lot. A great song if you have a bit of wanderlust.

5–The Americans on FX. This show is on Amazon Video. So good!

Friday Five 5-13-2016

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Five.This is the sixth installment in my new weekly series, called the Friday Five. In this series, I’ll tell you about five things that I love, whether they be books, travel, music, movies…or whatever. So without further ado, 5-13-2016’s Friday Five!

1–Malcolm Gladwell. Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt interviewed Malcolm Gladwell on the Freakonomics podcast. How cool is that! Such a great group of smart guys talking about really interesting stuff, including Anders Ericsson and why Gladwell says “Books are a pain in the ass.”  I’ve read and reviewed several of Gladwell’s books here on the blog, and have also read Freakonomics and Superfreakonomics (although that was before I started blogging). Love their stuff. Check out the podcast here!

2–Bob Dylan. Guys, I bought Bob Dylan tickets! I’m so, so excited. He’ll be playing in Lincoln at the Pinewood Bowl Theatre (which is an insanely cool outdoor venue). I’ve had two opportunities to see him perform and missed out previously, so I’m not going to miss out this time around.

3–Alex in Wanderland. I recently started regularly reading her blog, as she’s also a scuba diver. Great stuff, especially her recent trips to National Parks and renting a Jucy. You can read her blog here.

4–Love Yourself. I hate to admit it, but I kinda love this song by Justin Bieber, since I don’t really care for him. But whatever. It’s awesome. Maybe even cooler is Morgan Freeman doing Love Yourself, spoken word (check it out here).

5–Grit. Sorry about more Freakonomics, but lately I’ve really been loving their blog/podcast even more than usual. This post about getting more grit was also fascinating.

Friday Five 4-29-2016

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5This is the fifth installment in my new weekly series, called the Friday Five. In this series, I’ll tell you about five things that I love, whether they be books, travel, music, movies…or whatever. So without further ado, 4-29-2016’s Friday Five!

1–Celeste Barber. This Canadian comedian recreates famous people’s photos on her Instagram account. They are hilarious! Check them out here if you have a minute and need a laugh.

2–Chernobyl. I have this (probably completely irrational) desire to go to Chernobyl at some point in my life. I’m apparently not the only one, as Ashlea over at A Globe Well Travelled visited Prypyat and took some fantastic photos (check it out here). But now there’s a formerly top secret military base hidden in the Chernobyl exclusion zone that looks incredibly interesting too (check out Atlas Obscura for the story).  Fascinating!

3–Shinda the gorilla. Apparently a gorilla at the Prague Zoo, Shinda, was pregnant and none of the zoo keepers knew about it. So when she had a little miracle gorilla baby, it was quite a surprise. How cute!! Here’s the story and an adorable photo.

4–Freakonomics. I’ve been a big fan of the Freakonomics guys, Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt, for quite some time. I love their books and their podcasts. Mike and I even got to see them live in Rapid City when we were in law school. I really enjoyed their latest post, How to Become Great at Just About Anything. Fascinating stuff!

5–Penny counters. I don’t mean something to count pennies with, but rather countertops covered in pennies. I made one in my office building, as it’s a 1919 bank building, so it was fitting. I used these two DIY posts (here and here) as guides and inspiration, although I incorporated coins from my travels into my penny counter. I think it turned out extremely cool. I’ll update the post later with a photo for anyone who wants to see how mine turned out.

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