Unrealistic Expectations

They manifest themselves in many different ways, no doubt, but this may be a triumph of the genre. Though this runs a close second and, perhaps importantly, has all the indicia of being a serious offer (i.e., there's contact info).

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From McSweeney's: SOCIAL MEDIA INTERN WANTED AT THE NIGHT’S WATCH

End of the world news

I finished Station Eleven yesterday, and will go ahead and reveal that I thought it was great. Some interesting echoes from our past reading list. I may not be able to make the next book club, though, because I'll have a hard time exiting my fortified basement and making my way past the water jugs and bags of rice to get to the front door, and then I won't want to tear through the caulk, duct tape, and plastic wrap to go outside.

Just to freak myself out further (and maybe to get a better grip on some of the related science issues) I've started David Quammen's Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic. It's about as frightening as you probably imagine. But Quammen's a fantastic writer, and I'm looking forward to finishing it. In case I haven't mentioned it eight or nine times already, he wrote one of my favorite books ever: The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction. The history and future of evolution, extinction, islands, and more. Read it if you haven't. 

I Can't Stand it, I Know you Planned it

Well, this is everything.

Nightmare on Ulm Street

I checked my spammy email account (a holdover from 1997 when Yahoo actually meant something), and saw the email in the screenshot below. I caught a whiff of our last book in there. I mean, I didn't even know I had a "home page" beyond the Google search box that appears when I open Chrome.  Perhaps I'll start getting emails from myself. 

Game of Star Wars

Needs some droids. Otherwise, this series of GOT/Star Wars mashups is perfect.

LEEEEEEROY JENKINS!!

I did a little further reading in Wikipedia, and it turns out I got a few things wrong in my hasty summary of this fantastic story. So go, watch the video, read the article, and then you'll understand my new Risk war cry. (And maybe why Andrew likes to get chicken.)

(Image from this story, which is also fun.)

And if you want to dive deep, there's this 2007 Westword piece.