Content Catnip
Quirky Internet Wunderkammer
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Comforting Thought
Bite-sized comfort and spirituality in a turmultuous world
Comforting Thought: Inner Peace and Not Harming Others
“It is to the benefit of your inner peacenot to harm otherslet this truth settle into your mindand awaken when things get toughwhen you thinkrevenge will calm your heartor erase the pain you have feltrememberwhen you thinkspreading the turmoil you feelwill ease the fire burning inside of yourememberwhen you thinkmaking life harder for someone elsewill…
Albert Camus: A society based on symbols is an artificial society
“Consumer society can be defined as a society in which objects disappear and are replaced by symbols. When the ruling class no longer measures its wealth in acres of land or gold bars, but rather by how many digits ideally correspond to a certain number of financial transactions, then that society immediately links itself to…
Comforting Thought: No is also an action
“no” is also an action let it be your own approval of disapproval wear it around your neck as you lift your chin to turn away even if your skin feels different even if “yes” tries to follow up the back of your throat”
good grief, brianna pastor #poetry #sadness #healing #PTSD #creativity #growth #psychology…
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Ancient Word of the Day
Words dredged up from the pelagic zone of language
Ancient Word: Pellucid
#Pellucid: An adjective meaning “transparent, translucent, admitting the passage of light.” Originating from the 1610s, from #Latin pellucidus #etymology #ancientwords #words #light #shine
Ancient Word of the Day: Pianissimo
“The voice that speaks in him, speaks low, but he who listens with a third ear hears also what is expressed almost noiselessly, what is said #pianissimo.” #etymology #words #storytelling #music #ancient
Ancient Word of the Day: Sansai
Sansai. n. ‘mountain vegetables’ from Japanese. Sansai grow wild in marshlands, and grasslands, or in the forest. Japanese people have been gathering wild food to cook with since ancient times. In fact, wild plants or Sansai have helped Japanese when food has been scarce because of drought or some other natural disaster. When food was…
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10 Cool Things I Found On the Internet
A weekly palate cleanser of quirky wonder
10 Interesting Things I Found on the Internet 163
Wholesome Meme: Appreciate Where You Are Now Rare Historical Photo: African American maid, does the food for the family who employs her, 1950s. kodachrome shot It wasn’t so long ago was it? It explains a lot about why the racists are in power there now, the people in this image and their children are still…
10 Interesting Things I Found on the Internet 162
How #animals interact with the soil, a vintage beer vending machine, $Tokyo #techno, creepy-cute stop-motion #animation, in the train driver’s seat in the Swiss Alps, sweet miso tarte tatin and much more…enjoy friends! 🥳 🎉
10 Interesting Things I Found on the Internet 161
See a mini pony take his first shy steps on specially made legs, a Gibson Girl riding a lobster, some serene paintings by Iris Scott and some frenetic modern punk music. It’s all here. Enjoy edition #92!
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Book Reviews
Mind-expanding fantasy, quirky history books and more
Book Review: The Isle of Dogs by Daniel Davies
The Isle of Dogs is a strange slippery novel that plunges deep into the sexual underbelly of #Britain. The Isle of Dogs explores sexual encounters between anonymous people in the shadows and margins of a surveillance-heavy society. #Sex #Sexuality #Novel #Book #BookReview #Review #DanielDavies #IsleofDogs
Book Review: Flesh by David Szalay
David #Szalay’s sixth #novel, #Flesh, is a provocative, vulnerable and deeply moving portrait of one man’s life shaped by circumstance, sexual entrapment and unresolved childhood trauma. #masculinity #books #Bookreview #review
Book Review Rental Person Who Does Nothing by Shoji Morimoto
One man’s quiet resistance and fascinating real-world study of human beings and the connections they forge with each other. This highly amusing and entertaining book tells the story of Late-Stage Capitalism from within a series of vignettes. #Capitalism #Biography #Social #Psychology #Experiment #Politics #Relationships #Emotions #Tokyo #Culture #Japan
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Artists, Writers & Musicians In Their Own Words
Unique and inspiring art by interesting people
Artists and Writers In Their Own Words: Jane Cornwell
Jane Cornwell creates soothing and emotional art that speaks to the soul I was accepted for Glasgow School of Art age 16 and I loved it… I have a notebook from school, age 5, with a little drawing of me standing at an easel. I’ve always had a compulsive need to draw, paint and make…
Artists and Writers In Their Own Words: Wayne Wolfson
Northern Californian artist and writer Wayne H.W. Wolfson is completely self-taught and has had an expansive career. He has amassed a large body of work in a riot of colours and eclectic styles. This makes him one of the most striking, interesting and chameleon-like artists around. I have written and compulsively doodled since my earliest…
Artists & Writers in their Own Words: Monica Olivia
Introducing my poetic, spiritual, wise and beautiful friend from Norwegian Lapland Monica Olivia. She is a self-taught Sámi artist who makes art of mind-blowing beauty using a palette of vivid hues found in the most northerly regions of the earth. Monica also has a spiritually nourishing and beautiful blog ‘Ask the Mountains’ where she writes…
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The Natural World
Organisms, real, imagined, extinct and extant.
The city of the future
How would you design the city of the future? My city of the future would be designed to facilitate ongoing and sensible growth within the planet’s ecological boundaries. It would use recycled water and make use of solar and wind energy instead of fossil fuels. People’s innovation using AI and biotechnology would mean we manufacture…
Travel: Koishikawa Korakuen Gardens
In the Koishikawa Korakuen Gardens is an Edo era (Tokyo) garden of hushed quiet contemplation amidst the bombastic, rushing and striving modern world
Beach walking and native birds
What do you love about where you live? I love living right next to the beach and being able to walk there each day. There are egrets, rosellas, cocakatoos, gallahs, Australian crows, rainbow lorikeets, tawny frogmouths, dusky moorhens, superb fairy wrens. All flitter and flirt through the brush and low lying bushes near the beach with…
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Te Ao Māori
All about the indigenous culture of Aotearoa, New Zealand
Dolphins as Taniwha in New Zealand
Dolphins are mystical beings full of intelligence, compassion and consciousness. For different Māori iwi, dolphins hold sacred significance and they are known as taniwha. They are considered tapu (sacred) and possessing a powerful mauri (lifeforce). What are Taniwha? Taniwha (pron. tan-ee-far) are mysterious creatures that dwell in the sea, rivers, lakes or in caves. They…
Short Story: Awhiina finds her orb
In the heart of the Pacific, there lies an island so remote it is whispered about like a myth. This island, cloaked in lush greenery and bordered by the endless blue, is home to Awhiina, a woman of quiet strength and profound connection to the natural world around her. Awhiina lived in a small village,…
Words and Music: Kua rongo ake au
Kua rongo ake au…. Kia kaha rā te puāwaitanga o tōu kaha Kei konā rā te puāwaitanga o tōu rangatirangatanga I have learned that… We can enjoy our jobs by changing our attitude Always do more than what you’re paid for, One day you’ll be paid for more than you do Kua rongo ake au…
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Content Catnip TV
Transportative videos made by Content Catnip
Travel: Oeshiki Festival of Light, Ikegami Tokyo
Oeskiki is an annual buddhist festival held on the 13th of October that commemorates the death of Nichiren in 1282. He was a revered buddhist teacher who lived during the Kamakura period, about 700 years ago. Although celebrated throughout Japan, the main Oeshiki festival is held at Ikegami Honmonji Temple located in the Ota ward…
Travel: Kolejcowo is a cute and creepy version of Poland in miniature
When I was in Poland in 2019, I didn’t hesitate to visit the Kolejcowo in Świebodzki Station in Wrocław. This is the largest model railway in Poland, but also a rather amazing depiction of how life in Poland actually looks. Everything, right down to the petrol stations, graffiti, and the shops actually exists in real…
Content Catnip TV: Team Lab Borderless, Tokyo
TeamLab Borderless in Tokyo is a remarkable audio-visual attraction in Tokyo and a must-see in the city if you ever visit. It’s on expansive, harbour-facing area of Odaiba which is encircled by the very scenic train ride, along with excellent shopping centre Diver City, which features a showcase level of award-winning ramen restaurants from throughout…
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Travel Tales
Nostalgic travel from the time before ‘you know what‘ happened
Cosy Asakusa, Tokyo by night
People were nestled in their own little womb-like worlds of ramen and Izakaya meals, chugging on massive oversized beers in big jugs. Sheltered and obscured by plastic curtains and held up by plastic chairs. #Tokyo #TravelStories #shortstory #writing #travel
Who made the world?
Who made the world? The billowing clouds heading southward. The pillowed reef and a thousand animals beneath my feet. Who made the wind bracing my ankles. The shadows behind and through it all. Who makes the light dance in one part of the world. While other places cut like a frozen blade through flesh. Who…
Australia: Twenty Seven Summer Views
I enjoy taking photos, even though I mostly never have a good camera with me and so I need to capture moments on my Samsung. I enjoy capturing these moments forever in time. This reminds me of how I felt at the moment of taking the picture and the. So here are some photos I’ve…
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Obscure Music
Unusual little-heard music to inspire creativity
Album of the Year: Cartoon Darkness by Amyl and the Sniffers
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Genre: Punk, Thrash Metal Label: Rough Trade Review in one word: Exhilarating I don’t often review music, yet as I clean my house, go on walks, work, have friends around, hang out with my partner or read books…well I’m constantly listening to something! So here it goes – my favourite album of 2024 dropped only a…
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Quirky History
Lesser-known morsels of olden day stuff
In praise of Japan’s most majestic cat, circa 889 A.D
In the year 889 A.D, the 23 year old Emperor of Japan writes a journal entry filled with awe and gushing praise for his beloved cat. “On the 6th Day of the 2nd Month of the First Year of the Kampo era. Taking a moment of my free time, I wish to express my joy…
All technology is a double-edged sword
What technology would you be better off without, why? I’m trying to think over a consumer technology that is definitively and conclusively bad, but can’t think of one. Each innovation has brought an equal share of good and bad. Ride-sharing apps: The good: consumer convenience, ability to not own a vehicle, better for the environment…
Every Picture Tells A Story: Strong Dogs on Antarctic Expedition (1911)
Photographer Frank Hurley snaps his whimsical and wise looking Greenland esquimaux #dogs named Basilisk and Ginger during an #Antarctic expedition between 1911-1914. Image discovered via the State Library of New South Wales. #snow #adventure #old #photo
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