Hello and welcome to the kottke.org newsletter, where you learn that although I think everything I post to kottke.org is interesting and worth your attention, I like some links juuuuust a little bit more than others. It's been awhile since the last issue, so there's both a lot here and a bunch of good stuff that didn't make it, which, handily, you can find on the website. Ok, here we go.

Lovely Architectural Watercolor Paintings of Hotel Rooms

Architect Kei Endo creates really lovely & precise watercolor paintings of hotel rooms that she's stayed in. She even renders the bath products with architectural detail.

Kottke.org Turned 24 Years Old

I've been publishing kottke.org for 24 years now and here's a post I wrote about the anniversary.

24 years ago, I published the first post on kottke.org and, aside from a few weeks-long stretches (including a two-month paternity break when my son was born), I just never stopped. 1998! The late 20th century, for god's sake. I write an anniversary post like this every year and I'm increasingly unsure how to think about the magnitude of that length of time - 24 years is just a few months away from being half of my life. Half. Of. My. Life. How? Why?!

Thanks to everyone for reading and especially all the kottke.org members for making it possible for me to keep publishing without compromise. If you'd like to become a member, step right this way.

Ukrainian Stamp Design Contest

Ukraine's post office held a design contest for a new stamp. During the invasion. The winning entry is a reference to the Snake Island soldiers saying "Russian warship, go fuck yourself."

Highlights from Patricia Lockwood's No One Is Talking About This

In No One Is Talking About This, Patricia Lockwood writes sharply and hilariously about being extremely online and the culture of the late 10s and early 20s. I collected some of my favorite passages from the book here.

Our mothers could not stop using horny emojis. They used the winking one with its tongue out on our birthdays, they sent us long rows of the spurting three droplets when it rained. We had told them a thousand times, but they never listened - as long as they lived and loved us, as long as they had split themselves open to have us, they would send us the peach in peach season. NEVER SEND ME THE EGGPLANT AGAIN, MOM! she texted. I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU'RE COOKING FOR DINNER!

Certain people were born with the internet inside them and suffered greatly from it.

The people who lived in the portal were often compared to those legendary experiment rats who kept hitting a button over and over to get a pellet. But at least the rats were getting a pellet, or the hope of a pellet, or the memory of a pellet. When we hit the button, all we were getting was to be more of a rat.

When Superheroes Graced Marvel's Annual Financial Reports

After Marvel IPO'd in 1991, the company sent out their quarterly and annual financial reports to shareholders in the form of comic books featuring Spider-Man, Hulk, Wolverine, and other Marvel characters.

The FBI Guide to Internet Slang

The FBI Guide to Internet Slang was released in response to a 2014 FOIA request and it's amazing. TOTES FRESH (totally precious), BMUS (beam me up, Scotty), and WYLABOCTGWTR (would you like a bowl of cream to go with that remark?). LOL.

Big Rings and Other Things

Absolutely beautiful slow motion footage of a cheetah running. Time kinda stopped for me while I was watching it.

11 rules for buying an ebike, and the 11 ebikes to buy now. I asked about ebikes on Twitter recently and got a bunch of good responses.

Framed: try to guess the movie from six successive screen captures. (Wordle but for movies, basically.)

Arrested Development's Bluth family and the Roy clan from Succession share some similarities (business-focused, rich, dysfunctional, sibling rivalry), so these two clever mashups of the shows are pretty hilarious.

Within the past 100 million years, an icy moon got too close to Saturn and the planet's gravity ripped it apart, forming the iconic rings. Here's How Saturn Got Its Rings.

I see these books everywhere and had to make a collection: book covers of all the f*cking books you see at the bookstore. Airport bookstores love these books!

A record album of 80s pop covers sung by Alvin & the Chipmunks (Walk Like an Egyptian, My Sharona, Always On My Mind) slowed down to 16 RPM is "secretly the most important postpunk/goth album ever recorded".

The cast of Galaxy Quest looks back on how the speech, mannerisms, and culture of the Thermian people were developed. One of the actors came up with the voice in an audition and the filmmakers & actors just ran with it.

Pixel Birds

A fun collection of pixel illustrations of birds, mammals, and dogs by @sy0sa. The scale of these is just perfect.

Have a happy and safe weekend, everyone.