…:weeping:

Bookity

• New releases: AAR (romance)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• Linkity from the Pen Addict.
• The latest plagiarism scandal in Romancelandia.
• Remember that fanfiction is “provided for free, but it is not produced for free”.
• 5 places to read romance short stories online for free.
• 15 poems about spring.
• 25 free plans for Little Free Libraries.
• Harry Potter cross stitch patterns.
• Bee with a book!

Do, Think, Make, Learn

• “Minnesota’s climate begins its descent toward an unrecognizable future“.
• A thumb-sized bee?!
• “How tiny mistakes cause huge disasters“.
• ZOOM!
• EPBOT on Mr Rogers.

Cookity

• Easy 30-minute chicken cacciatore.
• Palestinian red lentil and squash soup.
• Taiwanese beef noodle soup.
• 10 nourishing soups.
• 8 easy desserts with <= 5 ingredients.
• Five-minute peanut butter and jelly mug cake.
• Lemon bar cookies.

Gluten Free

• Chocolate chip cookies.

Artsy Crafty

• It’s time for Color Our Collections – go forth and download cool coloring pages from cultural institutions around the world.
• I am in one of these pictures from Monday’s meeting of the Twin Cities Visual Journaling Collective.
• Linkity from knittyBlog.
• Knitting linkity from kmkat.

Cool

• Once upon a time…
• Mary Oliver, “Questions”.
• Cats.

Cool or Wha…?

• “Rice” made out of chickpeas.
• Smart Bitches on ice hotels.

Wha…?

• “Charcoal activated vegan croissant“.
• (Allegedly) bricked tennis shoes.
• “FDA: Do not seek the blood of the young“.

LOL

• Cats talking like Victorian orphans.
• Cats vs calligraphers.
• Potentially NSFW Cake Wrecks.

Teh Cute

• Baby tapir!

Reading Update
Empire Games and Dark State (Empire Games 1-2) by Charles Stross. The first two books of a trilogy set in the Merchant Princes’ universe sustain the intrigue and suspense of the original series and contain many familiar faces. Now, here’s hoping I can remember all of the details long enough for the final book to be released…
An Unkindness of Magicians by Kat Howard. Very good story about the magical families who live in New York and their challenges to choose a new leader. If there are more books about this world, I will definitely read them!
Herding Cats (Sarah’s Scribbles #3) by Sarah Andersen. Funny and so very, very on point.
Mockingbird (Miriam Black #2) by Chuck Wendig. Decent dark urban fantasy about a psychic who can tell how people die if she touches them. I finished it, but I have no desire to read any more in this series.
Bloodshot and Hellbent (Cheshire Red Reports 1-2) by Cherie Priest. Good pair of books about a vampire who works as a thief and is used to going it alone… but that is definitely changing, rather to her chagrin. This was obviously intended to be a longer series, but… the second book came out in 2011, so it seems unlikely it will be continued. The second book concludes tidily, but there’s a larger story arc that’s left hanging.

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“…zzzzzzzzzz…” -Chaos

Not so easy to type with his head on my arm!

Welcome back to Art Journaling Monday! 🙂

• Scribbling.
• Costume connect.
• “The Revolution Starts Now“.
• More scribbling!
• Perspective dare.
• Funfetti bathroom.
• “Hey there, coffee girl“.
• “Fe-fi-fo-fum“.
• Stop the world.

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*intently focused on something outside in the fog* -Mayhem

Bookity

• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• Linkity from the Pen Addict.
• Smart Bitches on Madame Tussaud.
• Man with books.
• Oh, that brooding broody male protagonist!
• “Frankenstein the book is perhaps one of the greatest pieces of shade in literary history.“
• “any noun can become a verb if you don’t care enough“

Think, Learn, Do, Make

• NASA’s retrospective of some of Opportunity’s discoveries. A retrospective via Twitter. “…and it’s getting dark.” “We’ll go no more a-roving“. I’m not crying, you’re crying. The Mary Sue on Opportunity. It’s official. xkcd (hover cursor/long press for caption).
• “How AO3 built a nonprofit fanfiction empire and safe haven“.
• Polysyndeton.
• BOOM. Red hat symbolism. And what “woke” ads mean.
• Elizabeth Warren is running for president!
• Non-toxic pufferfish.
• Behind the whole “so much produce gets wasted because it’s ugly!!!!” thing.
• “Covering the Cuban Revolution with typewriters“.

Cookity

• Slow cooker buffalo chicken.
• Baked one-pan veggie curry.
• Tom kha kai.
• Slow cooker cinnamon rolls.
• Salted peanut butter pie.
• Frenk silk pie.
• Flourless chocolate cake.
• Hot chocolate cookies.

Gluten Free

• Naan bread.
• Chewy brownies.

Artsy Crafty

• Linkity from knittyBlog.
• Knitting linkity from kmkat. And more knitting linkity from kmkat.

Cool

• A very good quote from Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
• Don’t be disrespecting Gillian Anderson, yo.
• Some dancing Calvin & Hobbes.
• “The internet is full of ghosts.“
• Transformative street art. (Maybe a repeat?!)
• Dogs and bubbles.
• Cross stitch dragon.
• An animated LEGO fan film.
• I contributed the bit on party lines…
• Linkity from kmkat.

Cool or Wha…?

• A Very Large Snowman.

Wha…?

• This designer does not have cats.
• PhoneSoap.

LOL

• Using patio furniture to measure snow. Or perhaps a pink flamingo?
• February beach life in MN.
• How Minnesotans are waking up without coffee these days…
• A very short writing prompt and response.
• I’m pretty sure I’ve posted this, the best band post ever, but it made me laugh again, so! 🙂
• A very bad pun.
• On bees, from Cake Wrecks.
• On sharing options from xkcd. (Long press/hover cursor for caption.)

Teh Cute

• Cat with Very Fresh Kittens!

Reading Update
Fearless, In Shining Armor, and Legend Has It (Pax Arcana #3-5) by Elliott James. Good series about John Charming, former member of the Knights Templar, not-quite-werewolf, trouble magnet. Book 5 sort of felt like it could be the last book…
Charmed I’m Sure, Don’t Go Chasing Waterfalls, Pushing Luck, Surreal Estate, Dog-Gone, Bulls Rush In, Talking Dirty, and Low Elf Esteem (Pax Arcana .01 – .08) by Elliott James. These eight short stories are set before the five main Pax Arcana novels and tell the tale of how one John Charming ended up in bartending in Clayburg.
Sin & Shadows and Ghosts & Echoes, Gods & Monsters, and Lies & Omens (Shadows Inquiries 1-4) by Lyn Benedict. Decent urban fantasy series about a PI who’s kind of mean to everyone around her as she charges blindly forward… Also, this is an entire and complete series, which is nice.

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“When will the birds be back???” -Mayhem

Welcome back to Art Journaling Monday! 🙂

• The tyranny of perfection.
• Winter blues.
• Balloon talk.
• “…a simple song of freedom.“
• Conformity.
• Voice thing.
• “Control the body, control the mind.“
• “…be willing to work badly…“
• 42 dystopia.
• Zen doodle.
• Light shenanigans.
• Rainbow scribble doodle!

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“Feed me and I’ll let you live.” -Chaos

Bookity

• New releases: Smart Bitches (romance), Tor.com (genre-benders, young adult SFF, scifi, fantasy )
• Linkity from Smart Bitches. Some stock photo adventures from Smart Bitches. Cover snark from Smart Bitches.
• Linkity from The Pen Addict.
• Some quotes from Michelle Obama’s book.
• On librarians.
• Some insight into Professor Trelawney’s confusion over Harry’s birth date.
• The Buckbeak and Sirius Black conundrum.

Think, Learn, Make, Do

• It’s likely that colonization genocide caused the Little Ice Age of the 1600s.
• “Is sunscreen the new margarine?“
• Yes, Minnesota was home to the very first mall in the US. Sorry?
• From Rejected Princesses, the story of Nancy Augusta Wake.

Cookity

• Easy tater tot frittata.
• Easy butternut squash risotto.
• Jamaican peanut stew.
• Vanilla bean creme brulee for two.
• The Kitchn’s 10 most popular chocolate desserts.

Gluten Free

• Biscuits.
• Banana crumb cake.
• Frosted coconut cupcakes.

Artsy Crafty

• It is amazing and wonderful and terrible all at once that Shitpost Sampler exists.
• Linkity from knittyBlog.
• Knitting linkity from kmkat.

Cool

• A fitting punishment.
• “An artist animates over real life with sharpies, whiteout, & cels“.
• Some extra bits have been added to the temple of the small god story.
• BOOM.
• BOOM!
• “What if supernatural creatures don’t exist anymore? What if they did once, but through the years, they slowly mixed in with humans?“
• What if wizards had “the same trust in magic that software designers have in software”?
• “Sorcery hospital“.
• “Ominous positivity“.
• “Youth Talk“.
• Midwest gothic.
• Ice sculptures.
• Street art transformations.
• Short Star Wars films.
• Linkity from kmkat.

Wha…?

• “An authentic Titanic experience“.
• Creepy hockey water bottle.

LOL

• Bee optimized.
• Forbidden love – cat and heater.
• How sharing a bed with a cat feels.
• “Proposed new weather forecast symbols“.
• “Only Minnesotans will understand“.
• Could be Canada, could be Minnesota…

Reading Update
Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative by Austin Kleon. Pretty good (and very short) ebook that’s exactly what the title says.
Lies Sleeping (Peter Grant #7) by Ben Aaronovitch. Good continuation of the series – it’s all hands on deck trying to catch Faceless Man #2 (and Lesley) before they do Something Very Bad.
Water Weed (Rivers of London #6) by Ben Aaronovitch. Very good addition to the series. I hope everyone who read the Rivers of London series knows that the graphic novels aren’t standalone but actually develop the overarching story arc, too.
The Everything Box and The Wrong Dead Guy (Another Coop Heist 1-2) by Richard Kadrey. Ok series about magic-resistant thief Charlie Cooper and the Department of Peculiar Science.
Countdown City and World of Trouble (Last Policeman 2-3) by Ben H Winters. With only a few months to go before a surprise!asteroid takes out Earth, society has completely broken down but a former police detective hasn’t given up looking for answers.
Roses and Rot by Kat Howard. Very good story about two sisters who are accepted for a nine-month artists’ retreat and slowly realize they’re living in a faery tale.
Charming and Daring (Pax Arcana 1-2) by Elliott James. Good series about John Charming, former member of the Knights Templar, not-quite-werewolf, trouble magnet.
The Bullet Journal Method: Track the Past, Order the Present, Design the Future by Ryder Carroll. As you’d expect from the guy who came up with bullet journaling, this book has very clear how-to explanations and examples. The tone reminded me why I don’t read productivity books – they exhaust me.
Dot Journaling: A Practical Guide: How to Start and Keep the Planner, To-Do List, and Diary That’ll Actually Help You Get Your Life Together by Rachel Wilkerson Miller. reread. I reread this since I was reading The Bullet Journal Method – Miller’s book is a nice example of a slightly different way to bullet journal. And her many layout examples are frequently more helpful than those of The Bullet Journal Method.
The Sound of Paper by Julia Cameron. Abandoned because too much of the advice was higher power based.

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“…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…” -Mayhem