Sarah Jamison

topixoffbeat:

We paired some TNG characters with their dog counterparts. Click here for more!

Another thing I did for work! I made a few more, like Barclay, and they’re over here.

It’s not a cover but I’ll take it.

No one humped The Big Lebowski into widespread popularity, at least not that I can see. Lady Gaga, and Katy Perry, and Bieber, and Madonna, and lots of other people you could name are completely contrived assaults on your attention and your wallets. Lebowski is the other way ‘round. The audience demanded that the makers of the entertainment pay attention to it with as much vigor as they bring, well after the fact. I think Star Wars is kinda like it in a way; I’m fairly certain George Lucas thought he was making a trifle. It is a trifle, but it made a trillion or so. It’s not like Lebowski, though, because Lebowski is a good movie. But the subtexts and touchstones that resonate with the audience were likely hidden from the view of the makers in both cases. They discovered gold while scattershot mining for tin. (via Sippican Cottage: That Selfie Really Tied The Internet Together, DID IT NOT?)

Reader Kate G. emailed us about this episode, saying that “It involves Captain Picard making out in an olive green blazer(?) with some kind of pleating. I don’t know a lot about fashion, but it looks like he’s wearing armour made from a dead Komodo dragon.”

Kate, you had us at making out.

This episode is mostly about Picard’s relationship with the new head of the stellar cartography department, Lt. Daren. It opens with him being frustrated that he can’t get into the library or get any Earl Grey from the replicator:

Think about how you feel when Tumblr is down, then imagine that Tumblr is also Seamless

He’s rocking his Cool Picard Suede Jacket that we know from Darmok, since it’s 3am and he’s off-duty. He heads down to Stellar Cartography to see what’s up and encounters:

Lt. Beautiful, reporting for duty

Lt. Daren, the new officer in charge, greets him with a hairdo right out of Swing Kids and a couple of skeptical-looking staff members. I’m pretty sure that’s not Dean Winters there on the right, but it’s also not NOT Dean Winters. She offers Picard her special herbal tea blend in place of his regular choice:

What the fuck is this

It doesn’t go over well, but he’s still totally into her. Later, he tells Beverly about her over dinner:

I WILL CUT HER

Bev isn’t too keen on this interloper, but they head off to the concert in Ten-Forward anyway.

Oh GREAT she plays the goddamn PIANO too

Have you ever met the new S.O. of a person you have a crush on and they are just TOO FUCKING PERFECT? Like, she’s got incredible hair and is really talented and super nice and also feeds soup to orphans or some shit? That’s this woman. You try to hate her, BUT YOU CAN’T. 

Also, please note that Ensign Rio is here, wearing what appears to be the outfit she wore in Schisms.

Later, Picard is hanging out in some Cazh Duds:

I’m a tree, but what kind of tree

We’ve seen before that Picard favors a blousy, silky fabric in a top, and this one is no exception. 

Hmm? Yes, this top once belonged to Rue McLanahan

For his music date with Daren, Picard has chosen this double-lapel pajama top in a muted green, sort of what your great-aunt Beatrice might wear to the church social - but racier. That deep V!

Oh. Is this…a date?

Daren showed up in her uniform. Maybe this ISN’T a date??

That’s a date smile

Picard plays his flute - we all know where THAT came from - and Daren plays her weird little piano roll and they generally make beautiful music together. The couple that plays together, stays together, am I right ladies???? 

Not date hair

Daren’s hair is a little severe for a date, but she loves her a Front Puff, doesn’t she? We’ll see that every hairstyle she sports (and there are SEVERAL) includes a Gibson Girl level of front volume.

This scene goes on for a while. It’s just piano and flute. We get a lot of this:

Not mad at that

This is also the best shot of the subtle herringbone in JLP’s top. If I’m not mistaken (AND I’M NOT), this is the same top he wore in the previous episode, Starship Mine (aka Die Hard on The Enterprise). Even with UNLIMITED OPTIONS via the replicator - people still have their favorite shirts in the future. 

Daren needs to visit sick bay at one point, leading to this shot of “beautiful lady space spaniels” according to @kicksywicksy:

It’s a hair-off, y’all

Who will triumph in the contest for silkiest, most voluminous hair? I hate to tell you this, Bev, but Nella is giving you a run for your money. LOOK AT THAT AUBURN MAJESTY. I did find Bev’s spirit spaniel, though:

I am a medical doctor

Later, after Daren has made Bev HELLA JELLY with her luxuriant locks, she invites Picard on a date to a Jeffries tube:

Vents are so romantic

For the tube-date, Daren opts for what tipster Kate called a velvet snuggie, but will be revealed as, in fact, a chenille snuggie and matching leggings.

How high can I get my Front Puff? THIS HIGH

This appears to be chenille. How do I know? Because this was my favorite sweater in 5th grade:

Game recognize game

YEAH THAT’S A POLKA DOT SCRUNCHIE. 

Anyway, Lt. Daren looks like she is ready to do some SERIOUS lounging, possibly with an Olivia Pope-sized glass of red wine and her favorite Nicholas Sparks novel. Picard has also brought his soft pant A game:

Make it so(ft)

We’ve seen this top, or one of its brethren, before, in Captain’s Holiday. Whereas that version was a dusty blue, this one is a creamy beige print of some kind, the kind of thing Sigourney Weaver’s character in Working Girl might wear.

Let the river run

The date is happening in the Jeffries tubes because it’s the most acoustically perfect place on the ship.

Your lips are acoustically perfect

Also, it’s good for makeouts!!!

I could gaze into your Front Puff forever

Later, on the turbolift, we can get even more detail on Picard’s shimmering Cream of Wheat blouse and Daren’s watermelon chenille. Also, one more round of applause for dat hair:

I shall not rest until my hair has bested all other hair

The science officer in the back ain’t doing too shabby on hair volume either.

Another date means yet another hairstyle. This time, it’s long and loose:

My ready room has never been readier, or roomier

It’s hard to tell what she’s wearing, but the neckline is nice:

Replicator, more AquaNet

And she’s got a nice range of colors she’s rocking as well. This one is a simple Merona V-neck in currant.

Picard, for his part, is wearing yet another drapey blouse:

Going for the Prince’s mattress look

Dusty grape looks lovely on you, captain, as does what appears to be heavyweight spandex. ALL APPROVED.

So what happens now is that Lt. Daren is assigned to a potentially dangerous mission, one that requires her tallest hair yet:

Mission accepted

She beams down to the nearby planet to do some science, and ends up looking like this:

Hair report: still intact

For a second, Picard thinks she’s dead. But she’s not dead! Just super disheveled:

SOMEHOW HER HAIR IS EVEN TALLER

She’s great at her job. But Picard apparently LOVES her (though he’s known her, like, 3 days. Are space days different? Or are relationships in the future super-efficient like Abed and Rachel’s so that one month in space time is like one year in Earth time? YOU BARELY KNOW HER, DUDE). Anyway, they agree that one of them (GUESS WHICH) has to transfer, because he can’t be in a position to command her to possibly life-threatening jobs. 

It’s actually a really sad scene because they are like “we can still see each other! We can take leave at the same time” but you know they won’t. And they’ll fade into each others’ histories as a lovely memory to revisit on a rainy day. 

Between us, we have one normal person’s head of hair

But at least they had this time together, in the Jeffries tubes, where the acoustics are perfect.

ETA: several people have pointed out that the guest star in this episode, Wendy Hughes, recently died - she is lovely in this episode, and Australia has lost a wonderful actor. Her last appearance was on an episode of Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, which you should definitely watch ASAP.

peterfromtexas:

Gandalf checks his emails (behind the scenes in the set of the Hobbit)

(via minimally-invasive)

At first I was like 

But after a few weeks of drinking it

Submitted by [yourtoastisburnt}

(Normally I avoid reusing gifs, but this was just too good to pass up ;) )

Johnson & Johnson, Barnes & Noble, Dolce & Gabbana: the ampersand today is used primarily in business names, but that small character was once the 27^th part of the alphabet. Where did it come from though? The origin of its name is almost as bizarre as the name itself.

The shape of the character (&) predates the word ampersand by more than 1,500 years. In the first century, Roman scribes wrote in cursive, so when they wrote the Latin word et which means “and” they linked the e and t. Over time the combined letters came to signify the word “and” in English as well. Certain versions of the ampersand, like that in the font Caslon, clearly reveal the origin of the shape.

The word “ampersand” came many years later when “&” was actually part of the English alphabet. In the early 1800s, school children reciting their ABCs concluded the alphabet with the &. It would have been confusing to say “X, Y, Z, and.” Rather, the students said, “and per se and.” “Per se” means “by itself,” so the students were essentially saying, “X, Y, Z, and by itself and.” Over time, “and per se and” was slurred together into the word we use today: ampersand. When a word comes about from a mistaken pronunciation, it’s called a mondegreen. Find out why here.

(The ampersand is also used in an unusual configuration where it appears as “&c” and means etc. The ampersand does double work as the e and t.)

The ampersand isn’t the only former member of the alphabet. Learn what led to the extinction of the thorn and the wynn.

Are there other symbols or letters you would like to learn about? The most popular choice below will be our focus in the near future.

BY LISEL MUELLER

This is not fantasy, this is our life.
We are the characters
who have invaded the moon,
who cannot stop their computers.
We are the gods who can unmake
the world in seven days.

Both hands are stopped at noon.
We are beginning to live forever,
in lightweight, aluminum bodies
with numbers stamped on our backs.
We dial our words like Muzak.
We hear each other through water.

The genre is dead. Invent something new.
Invent a man and a woman
naked in a garden,
invent a child that will save the world,
a man who carries his father
out of a burning city.
Invent a spool of thread
that leads a hero to safety,
invent an island on which he abandons
the woman who saved his life
with no loss of sleep over his betrayal.

Invent us as we were
before our bodies glittered
and we stopped bleeding:
invent a shepherd who kills a giant,
a girl who grows into a tree,
a woman who refuses to turn
her back on the past and is changed to salt,
a boy who steals his brother’s birthright
and becomes the head of a nation.
Invent real tears, hard love,
slow-spoken, ancient words,
difficult as a child’s
first steps across a room.

Lisel Mueller, “The End of Science Fiction” from Alive Together: New and Selected Poems. Copyright © 1996 by Lisel Mueller. The End of Science Fiction by Lisel Mueller : The Poetry Foundation

endlesslydead:

avvkwardlyhot:

Why am I reblogging a picture of a capybara in a jacuzzi tub what is happening to my life

is no one going to comment on the frickin duck on the ledge?

or the cottage cheese?

what even is this picture?

(via hedgehogcalendar)

waitthisisntevenmybutt:

Any other hat is now obsolete because this majestic hat exists.

WANT

DAMN IT, BETH, ARE YOU BLATANTLY PRACTICING THE DARK ARTS  IN PLAIN VIEW OF THE NEIGHBORS? DO YOU WANT TO HAVE TO MOVE AGAIN? 

NO, HONEY. THIS IS JUST YOGA.

THAT’S NOT YOGA, BETH. I KNOW WHAT YOGA LOOKS LIKE.

ASHTANGA, MAYBE, OR HATHA, BUT THIS IS ADVANCED IYENGAR. MY CHAKRAS ARE WIDE OPEN OR WHATEVER.

YOU’RE LEVITATING, BETH, AND THERE ARE OBVIOUS SIGNS OF RITUAL SACRIFICE IN THE GARAGE.

SHHHHHH, HONEY. YOU’RE DISRUPTING MY CHI FLOW.