Friday Five

A bit generous with the ‘five’ this week. More like 5 topics rather than just 5 links. Oh well, my reading rabbit-holes are your gain.

Despite, or as a result of this hyper-connected future we live in, loneliness is apparently on the rise. The Danish have set up an organisation called Ventilen which brings people together to help the lonely build human connections. Along similar lines, in Perth, there’s also a group called the Perth Active Depression Support Group who, along with Befriend, organise a monthly games night amongst other community initiatives to bring people together socially. Belonging is so important to community and identity, so even if you’re not involved with these groups yourselves, it’s great to signal-boost them for those who may find them valuable.

I’m no stranger to Imposter Syndrome, and this article helps to put some of the doubt into perspective: The Psychological Reason You See Yourself Worse than You Really Are.

As a lover of technology in all its incarnations, 100 Cars That Changed How We Drive is a great read. See how cars changed over time reflecting our needs and the evolution of technology. Although I’m not a great fan of the Back to the Future franchise, I’m still a little nerd-proud that the DeLorean was the signature car of my year.

Coming from a background where our ancestry isn’t as well documented as those from western backgrounds (got to give props to church records, genealogy research can be nigh on impossible without them), I sometimes envy those who can trace their families back generations and across multiple countries. I make do by living vicariously through others who are able to find out more about those who came before them. And of course, coming from one of the colonies, you get to read cool things like A Brief History of Eurasians in Sarawak.

We’re not related in any way, but when I was little I was fascinated by these distinctly western sounding names that were highly visible in street and building names. Reading about the history of these families and their contextually exotic names is always interesting to me, and the one that used to intrigue me the most was the Marjoribanks. Primarily because it isn’t pronounced the way it is spelled. They are an interesting clan though, and they even have a website for their various chapters around the world. It tickles me that a family name is unique to the point of having clans and chapters. Want to see more fun and counterintuitive names? Wiki has a List of names in English with counterintuitive pronunciations.