learningthroughourlives

[learningthroughourlives]

If I can butt in with a sugestion. You can donate money in their name to a charity related to their interests. Does he like animals? Find a local shelter that's accepting donations. Maybe he likes music, and so you could donate to a local theatre or a program for children who are learning it. The possibilities are endless.

I started doing this because a friend of mine once ''gifted'' me a donation to a dog shelter I volunteered at. I was so flattered they had payed attention when I spoke of it, and it went on to help a place I love very much.

Do you have any advice for choosing thoughtful Christmas presents? My partner says he doesn’t want anything but I still want to show the love and appreciation I have for him and I’m not sure what to get him : )

If someone doesn’t want a gift and you can’t think of anything in particular especially with the holidays being so close, I would recommend going for an act of convenience. Most men like that. Buy him his favorite body wash, deodorant, cologne, socks, candy, breakfast bars, lotion, toothpaste, energy drink, pens, supplements, etc (aka products that aren’t one-time purchases and you know he will need to rebuy them himself on a recurring basis), put them all in a basket, and tie the basket up in some cute cellophane wrapper with a bow. Let him know that you care about him and just wanted to make things easier for him so that he can save time when he runs out of his favorites again. It’s a sweet gesture. And you won’t have to wonder if he’ll like a New Product or if he’ll actually use it bc you already know the answer.

[learningthroughourlives]

instagram | floraliefarm

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instagram | foothillsflower

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SewBeautifulx on Etsy

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For my daughter the gardener by Ok-Commission979

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I suppose that’s what my father has been trying to do for years. Look how organized that is!

I have been watching a lot of Adam Savage’s Tested (the taller guy from Mythbusters to those who don’t know), expecially his weekly cave hangout. I don’t really know a lot about engenering or machinery but he’s all about creating in general and it’s so nice to watch someone be so passionate about things!

I really recomend!

[learningthroughourlives]

[learningthroughourlives]

La pluie de vos injures n'atteint point le parapluie de mon indifférence.

[learningthroughourlives]

i really wish pliny the elder were still alive just so i could see what kind of batshit ideas he’d come up with to handle the coronavirus

[learningthroughourlives]

me: you know that according to schrödinger, anything you put in a box is both dead AND alive

everyone at the funeral: *nervously stares at coffin*

[learningthroughourlives]

But there is a way to get a little culture and education while you’re confined to your home. According to Fast Company, Google Arts & Culture teamed up with over 500 museums and galleries around the world to bring anyone and everyone virtual tours and online exhibits of some of the most famous museums around the world..

Now, you get “go to the museum” and never have to leave your couch.

Google Arts & Culture’s collection includes the British Museum in London, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the Guggenheim in New York City, and literally hundreds of more places where you can gain knowledge about art, history, and science. This collection is especially good for students who are looking for ways to stay on top of their studies while schools are closed.

[learningthroughourlives]

I have been watching a lot of Adam Savage’s Tested (the taller guy from Mythbusters to those who don’t know), expecially his weekly cave hangout. I don’t really know a lot about engenering or machinery but he’s all about creating in general and it’s so nice to watch someone be so passionate about things!

I really recomend!

#adam savage #cave hangout #livestream #youtube

[learningthroughourlives]

Proleek Portal Tomb, Legananny Dolmen and Binder’s Cove Souterrain

On our short trip to Northern Ireland we ended up seeing prehistoric and historic sites (as usual) and these are three of them. 

The first one is just South of the border in the Republic of Ireland. Proleek (’obscure’) Portal Tomb is a large structure over twice my height, which was likely built by farming communities around 3000 BC and would have had a burial mound around it. The large stones served as an entrance to the tomb. 

The second one is called ‘Legananny Dolmen’ and is found in County Down. It is much smaller, but also impressively held up by pointy stone pillars. ‘Dolmen’ probably comes from the Breton word ‘tolmen’, meaning ‘stone table’, which refers to the flat stone on top. Again, built by the same type of people around 2500 BC to 2000 BC. The surrounding area derives its name from this dolmen, which means ‘The Pillar Stone of Anya’. Anya is a mythological mother goddess, who the legendary warrior Finn MacCool fell in love with.  

Just a few miles from Legananny Dolmen is a souterrain, known as ‘Binder’s Cove’ or locally as ‘Finnis Souterarrain’. This is probably a left-over from early medieval Christian times, when people lived in ring-forts. Souterrains generally ran below or near ring-forts and were likely designed to protect people from raids with a narrow entrance, which could be easily defended. This particular one is likely from the 5th century AD. The main tunnel is 30 meters long and about 1.5 meters high (ducking is essential) with some alcoves branching off, which may occasionally have been used for storage. 

Northern Ireland vlog on Youtube. 

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WWI Re-enactment

(Archaeologists fuckin' around on break)

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Homemade camera rig takes stunning close-up pictures of snowflakes

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Technicolor sequence from “The Phantom of the Opera.” (1925)

[learningthroughourlives]

highlights from the medieval scholars that took over my workplace today

so my campus is currently hosting an ENORMOUS conference of scholars who study medieval history. they’ve been completely flooding the tiny cafe where I work and drinking our coffee faster than we can make it, but the good news is that they provide some PRIME people watching, including: 

the fact that all of their name tags include pronouns so that I won’t feel bad assuming anyone’s gender in this post

the woman RANTING about one of her colleagues on the following grounds: “he thinks he understands it from some class he took in 1996! FUCK OFF, TOM.”

the man who was loudly and earnestly discussing the “influence of the Harry Potter fandom on our modern political discourse” while he got a soda 

before he was out the door he’d switched topics to his preferred methods for teaching students about elves 

the two nice extremely polite young British lads who I could not tell apart to save my life. their name tags indicated that they were apparently not twins, but cloning does not seem impossible.

the sheer number of people graciously volunteering to buy lunch for people they’ve just met 

an unexpected number of very handsome soft butch women involved in medieval studies. I am bisexual and weak.

the guy in the flannel shirt who had the coldest, softest, most feminine hands I’ve ever encountered. I fell in love with him for a good 60 seconds. I am bisexual and weak.

people who aren’t from America being cheerfully confused by our money, including my favorite, a Canadian woman who told me “I’m slow with American money because it’s all the same color.”

I’ve learned that people who aren’t going to be in the country for more than a few days don’t give a SHIT about their change and will toss all of it in the take a penny/leave a penny jar. I collected so many quarters, y’all.

also a nice British woman called it the penny pot, which is the cutest shit I’ve ever heard and absolutely its new name.

just in general the EXTREMELY good grace and patience with which everyone accepted that we only have 2 cashiers and that it takes about seven minutes to make more coffee.

SEVERAL times after I apologized for the coffee wait (because this is customer service and minor inconveniences mean we have to grovel) the response was ‘lmao no worries this just means I get a fresh pot’

a woman approached me to day with a fucking enamel pin of that old illustration of a nun gathering dicks from a tree (you know the one) and I said immediately “oh my god, is that a pin of the penis tree?” and she looked stoked and said “yes it is the penis tree! you’re only the second person to recognize it!” what kind of boring ass medieval scholars has she been hanging with???? she was probably so fucking excited to finally have company where she could wear that pin and nobody said anything??? rude.

you know, this one