Monthly Archives: May 2022

midnight diner.

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it’s not really a weekend at the lake house

with a group of friends

until someone

finds whatever they can

late at night

to saw through the plastic

and chop off a chunk of something in the kitchen.

 

“midnight happiness is eating at 2am”

-paridhi sinha

not the light.

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when people continue to push the wrong button

over and over and over again

attempting to turn out the light

 opening the garage door instead

it’s clear they need more help

and calls for drastic measures.

they may not be sure what this is

but at least

they are now sure what it is not.

 

“there is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.”
-sir arthur conan doyle

“no mow,” said the bee.

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bee kind

“for this,
let gardens grow, where beelines end,
sighing in roses, saffron blooms, buddleia;
where bees pray on their knees, sing, praise
in pear trees, plum trees; bees
are the batteries of orchards, gardens, guard them.”
Carol Ann Duffy, The Bees

outhorse.

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icelandic horse types on giant keyboard

With remote work on the rise and email so easily accessible on smartphones, it’s become increasingly difficult to feel like you can truly unplug from your job—even when you’re on vacation. In a recent U.S. survey conducted by Visit Iceland, 45 percent of participants confessed to checking their work email during vacation. And because Visit Iceland doesn’t want you to check your work email during your Icelandic getaway, the organization has enlisted a few of the peaceful country’s most adorable horses to make sure you don’t.

First, team members created a fully functional  QWERTY keyboard that was large enough for the horses to prance across—and then they let them do exactly that. Afterwards, they used the nonsensical messages to create an  “Outhorse Your Email” service. Basically, you hire one of three hoofed office assistants available on the site. There’s Litla Stjarna frá Hvítarholti, a chestnut beauty who “types fast, but might take a nap”; Hrímnir frá Hvammi, an “assertive” and “efficient” shiny-haired gray horse; and Hekla frá Þorkellshóli, a “friendly” pinto horse who boasts an impressive knowledge of corporate buzzwords (not to mention an eye-catching black and white mane).

Once you choose a horse, all you have to do is enter your name, your email address, and the date of your final vacation day—and “Outhorse Your Email” will email you an out-of-office message partially written by your new Icelandic assistant. When you turn on automatic replies, copy and paste the message into the text box and put all work out of your mind. Your email correspondents would love to receive this:
outhorse your email OOO message“Our talented horses took naturally to the OutHorse Your Email service, tölting and galloping their way across the fields and creating a range of unique emails that will help holidaymakers enjoy their trip without any interruptions,” Horses of Iceland project manager Jelena Ohm said in a press release. “From curiosity, intelligence and independence, our horses are special for many reasons, and so now we can add email responders too.”

Aleksandra Layland, author

 

 

-ellen gutoskey, visit iceland, mental floss