Friday Frivolity

I’ve come across a bunch of interesting things on the Internet lately and want to share some of them here.  Who knows, maybe I’ll make this a regular feature:  Stuff I Find On The Interwebs!  Here we go…

Corpse Flower at HMNS

• The Houston Museum of Natural Science has a corpse flower on display that they expect to bloom sometime this weekend!  I had never heard of such a thing, but it sounds amazing and bizarre and totally fascinating!  It’s a huge flower — HMNS’s is currently 5 feet tall — native to Sumatra that blooms very, very rarely.  HMNS has had theirs since 2004, and this is the first time it’s bloomed; only 28 have ever bloomed in the US.  It’s called the corpse flower because it smells like rotting flesh.  Yes, rotting flesh.  Lovely.  The odor aside, it still sounds incredible.  The photo above was taken within the last couple days; you can follow its progress on HMNS’s Flickr page.  When it blooms, the leafy-looking part around the middle opens up and is purple inside.  I’m not going to be able to see it, but maybe some of you can!

• I downloaded iMovie for iPhone the other day, and it is pretty cool.  I’ve never used iMovie before because I never had something that took very good video.  Now I want to come up with fun videos to make, but it turns out my daily life is kinda boring.  Tomorrow we’re heading to Florida for a vacation with Jose’s entire family. (Yes, all of them.) Maybe some videos then?

Typographic Print by Cameron Moll

• This typographic Colosseum print by Cameron Moll is amazing.  Even the small cropped version is incredible.  WANT.  Typographic art really appeals to me.  It requires a lot of creativity and some thinking-out-the-box.  It also has a technical quality to it that I like.

• I think I need to make these lemon raspberry bars like, tonight.  Yum.  These lemon curd parfaits look delicious as well.  I can’t resist citrus and berries.  Mmm.  Quite possibly my favorite!

• I started reading Dallas’s blog a few years ago and kept reading because she posts interesting things, like crafts she’s working on and great photography of various things.  (I’ve never met her, but she’s a friend of a friend.)  She and her husband currently live in Belgium, and she posted some great photos of the Tour de France, which passed through Brussels a few days ago. If I ever make a bucket list, seeing the Tour de France in person will be on it!

• When the Hornets came to Charlotte in 1989, we watched their NBA games religiously for years.  Recently, I’ve had a renewed interest in the NBA thanks to Jose.  But the spectacle of LeBron’s “decision” last night?  Disgusting. (I didn’t see it because I was watching the Tour de France, but couldn’t avoid it because the commercials for the sports show that followed the TdF mentioned it within 30 minutes of the announcement. Sheesh.)    What kind of ego must you have to think that his decision on what team to play for is THAT important?  I’m appalled by LeBron James.  I’m appalled by ESPN for agreeing to broadcast it.  I dislike LeBron even more than Kobe now.  And I REALLY don’t like Kobe, but at least he seems appreciative of the city and team that helped him build his career.  I’m not saying LeBron should have stayed in Cleveland; he’s got a right to move on.  But come on dude:  don’t crap on the people and team that helped you become who you are.  It’s BASKETBALL.  You’ve got another 10 years, if you’re lucky, before your career is over.  Then what?  You may be a gazillionaire, but you’re still a crappy person.  I hope you never win a championship.  Ever.