Julian Jimenez

In 2008, scientists out of the University of Vermont’s Complex Systems Center invented the Hedonometer, a tool that aggregates word data from online tweets and blogs to determine the general mood of society as a whole. They determined the amount of happiness in the world could be quantified by examining the online dialogue, and assigning numerical values on a scale of ten to a list of 10,000 hand selected words. If we were using more positive words in our texts, like “love,” or “laugh,” the...

2020 has been exhausting, hasn’t it? Protests and pandemics; Murder hornets and threats of war. Hell, we’re barely into hurricane season, and every time I see a breaking news alert on TV now I sigh and think to myself, “WTF now?” Certainly, it’s been incredible to see how these calls to act against injustice have mobilized the nation. But it’s upsetting and draining and I can’t even watch the news anymore. There’s that undeniable frustration when it feels like marching for a cause never seems...

“When you do a bad tattoo, people hate you for the rest of your life,” said Mel Black, a musician and tattoo artist working out of Flying Squid Ink in Houston. “But you know what? Bread and butter: fixing bad tattoos. All day. I could have an entire portfolio of just reworks and cover-ups. People don’t like spending money and so they get cheap shit they think is good and then one day they’re like ‘Oh shit, I have this garbage on my arm that’s representing me? I’m not a garbage person, I’m a...