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I went to the MoMA and…”saw a coat closet trash and two water fouintains I’m very disapointed I did not see  a dinosaur you call your self a museum!” [MoMA]

Cute alert: Goose looks after blind dog [Metro]

Apparently, James Frey will be a guest on the final Oprah [NYPost]

Most Americans can’t name a GOP presidential candidate [CBS]

Notes from Chris

CHART: Gay marriage opponents now in minority [FiveThirtyEight]

Curious what $110 of Lucky Charms marshmallows looks like? [Reddit]

Some fascinating facts about Mr. Rogers [Tumblr]

This is a video of little boys with incredible dance skills [YouTube]

Last Friday, I challenged all of our readers to write a sestina. I expect many of you discovered just how difficult this form can be. I’d like to highlight the poem I received from Paul Gallear of Wolverhampton, UK. Paul is one of the voices behind the Artsy Does It blog and you can follow him @paulgallear.

I’m a dirty-shirted mess.
My eyes are heavy and thick
With fatigue; I’ve not slept for days
And I’ve never been so tired.
All I need to do is sleep,
Long and deep and numb.

My thoughts are thoughtless, numb;
My skin, greasy; my hair, a mess.
Things change without sleep:
I’ve become listless, thick
And stupid – I’m idiot tired,
Living in a stunned daze.

Time moves from hours to days
And perspective becomes numb.
Beyond tired.
My mind begins to mess
Around. There’s a kind of thick
Which only comes from lack of sleep.

I daydream of sleep.
Waiting – the hours the days
Crawl as though caught in thick
Honey, drowsy, lethargic and numb.
While they are mired in that mess,
I grow more weary, more tired.

One day, I won’t be tired.
The time will come for sleep.
When I am enough of a mess,
And my dignity went days
Ago, I won’t care. I’ll be numb
And sleep will be long and thick.

I hope the night is black and thick
And that even the moon and the stars are tired.
They can make their lights numb
And pale to help me sleep.
The sun will shorten the days
To help me out of this mess

If the night is thick, I’ll sleep.
I’m so tired, it’ll be for days.
Until then, I’m one numb mess.

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By Michelle Rafferty

As most of you probably know by now, there’s a new stage in life – emerging adulthood, or for the purposes of this post, the unmarried young adult. Marriage is getting pushed off (26 is now the average age for women, 28 for men) which means…more premarital sex than ever!

According to sociologists, emerging adults are all part of a sexual market in which the “cost” of sex for men and women in heterosexual relationships is pretty different. Out of this disparity has risen the theory of “sexual economics,” which I recently read up on in Premarital Sex in America: How Young Americans Meet, Mate, and Think about Marrying. At first glance women appeared to be the clear losers in this market. See this passage:

Sexual economics theory would argue that sex is about acquiring valued “resources” at least as much as it is about seeking pleasure. When most people think of women trading sex for resources, they think of prostitution and money as the terms of exchange. But this theory encourages us to think far more broadly about the resources that the average woman values and attempts to acquire in return for sex – things like love, attention, status, self-esteem, affection, commitment, and feelings of emotional union. Within many emerging adults’ relationships, orgasms are not often traded equally.

Basically, the sexual economics theory says that while women and men are doing the same thing during sex, socially they are doing two different things. Women can and do enjoy sex, but they also have an agenda, while men…just want to have sex. Which to me just seemed, well, sad. Hadn’t women all finally agreed that a man can’t ever make you happy, only you can? But the more I read up on the theory of sexual economics, the less cut-and-dry it became. Women might use sex to get commitment, but they’re also getting things like advanced degrees and independent financial stability  - which also play a role in this new sexual economy. This led me to ask: are men really the clear winners in this game? I scoured the countless studies and interviews in Premartial Sex in America and came up with the following chart to sort all the data out.

Wins in the Emerging Adult Sexual Market by Gender

Tally:
Women &

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It's a large investment.

I just spent $80 on 9 tubes of watercolor paint. Nine. Seems like a small number for that price, but I believe it's worth the investment.

I have been using student grade Winsor & Newton watercolors for years, and have a few professional/artist grade tubes. The idea of spending $10 on one 5ml tube of paint just didn't compute. Until I got the Daniel Smith Try It Dot pages. These are AWESOME!

Over 200 colors, all there to try out and use. The real deal in trial size. Genius. It is because of these sheets did I finally come to realize, as a professional, how much I needed professional grade watercolors.

They're smooth like silk, mix without a hitch, and the colors are so gorgeous! I then decided to purchase. But the price tag was still making my stomach turn. So expensive!

This led me to an entire week of studying and figuring out which colors to purchase. The DS dot sheets were key to this. They're the only professional grade paints I have right now. To help I found a great website that makes watercolor paints into science called HandPrint.

I don't understand much in science, but he had a large section on palette color choices. All of the research was done for me, and they listed which colors were the best to have in every palette....colors that make all of the "convenience" colors (sap green, turquoise, violets, etc.).

That's what I needed, the foundation colors. From there I could at least start, then purchase as needed the extra colors.

I also came upon an exercise to help decide which colors to have in your palette. A color chart. As one of my students yesterday best said "A multiplication chart but with color." Exactly!

Here's the blog link: Ask Susie - http://ask-susie.blogspot.com/2009/01/make-your-own-color-chart-for.html

Tho the woman who suggested the chart used only 7 colors, I ended up having 13. I wanted to see and be exactly sure what I was going to spend my money on.

This was grueling but totally surprising and fun seeing what two colors made what. I was pretty amazed at the little knowledge I had about color mixing.

Here are the colors I ended up purchasing:

Phthalo Blue GS - DS
Phthalo Green BS - WN
Cobalt Blue - WN
Quinacridone Rose - DS
Perylene Maroon - DS
Burnt Sienna - WN
Cadmium Scarlet - WN
Yellow Ochre - WN
Benzimida Yellow (Winsor Yellow) - WN

* DS = Daniel Smith; WN = Winsor & Newton

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