I’m back! 🙂 My class (printing ephemera on the platen press) was great fun. I printed a LOT of stickers. A LOT.

Bookity

• New releases: Tor.com (genre-benders, scifi, fantasy) and Smart Bitches (romance)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches. And more linkity from Smart Bitches. And more.
• Linkity from Inkophile.
• Linkity from the Pen Addict.
• “10 minutes with Andy Weir“.
• Quotes from and tidbits about James Baldwin.
• When 1984 is getting a little too real…
• To remember, about fairy tales and life.
• DIY book sleeves.
• Dragon bookends.
• Book holders and stands.
• On linguistics in Lord of the Rings (humor).
• “Homophones, weakly“.
• The Jane Austen board game (humor).

Think, Make, Do, Learn

• Good to remember.
• Where the money from #mprraccoon swag is going.
• If you’ve ever wondered what hockey teams do with all of those hat trick hats…
• Advice from a member of the WWII Norwegian Resistance.
• Some anti-fascist cartoons from Dr Seuss.
• On the importance of the White House stenographer.
• “IKEA’s newest catalog challenges the ‘myth of minimalism’“.
• Remember when Robert Downey Jr used to sing on Ally McBeal?
• A random about me meme.

Cookity

• Easy muesli.
• Ideas for healthy work lunches.
• Greek chicken grain bowl.
• Easy taco slaw.
• Easy cast iron skillet strawberry pie.
• S’Mores bark.

Gluten Free

• Beef and broccoli Buddha bowls.
• Spicy Thai chicken and brown rice bowls.
• Quinoa summer stirfry.
• Spinach and feta frittata.
• Blueberry cornbread.
• Blueberry scones.
• Breakfast bars.
• Easy muffins.
• “The best gluten-free snacks to pack in a lunch box“.

Artsy Crafty

• Another semester’s syllabus from thenearsightedmonkey.
• Knitting linkity from kmkat.

Cool

• The return of Jean-Luc Picard!
• Trippy photo of the Manitou River.
• What if Darth Vader visited Owen and Beru on Life Day?
• What if Thor visited Mr Rogers?
• 10 hopeful quotes from Mr Rogers. 25 quotes from Mr Rogers.
• More “humans in space” fic.
• What if humans are tiny compared to other races out in space?
• Mosaic of Minnesota bedrock.
• Yes.
• Linkity from kmkat.

Cool or Wha…?

• “Meat” by Terry Bisson.
• That is too many ducklings. Put some back.

Wha…?

• I just…
• Motorized handheld dish scrubber.
• “1935 Streamlined Car of the Future“.
• “Eating beef jerky may be linked to manic episodes in some people“.

LOL

• Fanfic trope Venn diagram.
• Meanwhile, at the hardware store…
• “Who knew, not Windows.“
• Relatable post-it comics.
• Cake Wrecky abs cakes.
• I have done this.
• …same.

Teh Cute

• Baby mountain lion! Soggy black kitten! Baby cheetahs! Leopard and babies! Snow leopard and babies! Baby penguin! Baby red panda! Tiger! Tiger and babies! Baby red pandas!

Reading Update
Foolsgold: Making Something from Nothing and Freeing Your Creative Process by Susan G Wooldridge. This was good (it’s bristling with post-it flags), but not as good as Poemcrazy. It does tackle tough subjects, such loss, grieving, and feeling stuck.
The Sketchbook Project World Tour by Steven Peterman & Shane Zucker. A look at pages from Sketchbook Project sketchbooks from all over the world. It was interesting to see what people had done to their books, but also was such a fast read I’m really glad I got it from the library.
Dragonhaven by Robin McKinley. Very good first-person tale of 14-year old Jake, who lives on one of the world’s few dragon preserve parks, and who manages to accidentally and irrevocably change his life on his first solo trip into the park. (Dragons are originally from Australia, so think about the implications for dragon physiology. I’ll wait.)
The Invisible Library (The Invisible Library #1) by Genevieve Cogman. Very good urban fantasy about about a Librarian who gets assigned a very odd trainee on her next world walking mission. (This was recommended by Charles Stross in a post at tor.com about books vaguely similar to the Laundry Files.)
The Masked City (The Invisible Library #2) by Genevieve Cogman. The abruptness of the very close to being a cliffie but not quite ending annoyed me. Fortunately I had the next book checked out already.
The Burning Page (The Invisible Library #3) by Genevieve Cogman. Very good, very thrilling continuation of the series. Kept me up way too late on a work night.
The Lost Plot (The Invisible Library #4) by Genevieve Cogman. Another thriller! This actually felt as if it could be the end of the series. Or not. I think I’d be ok with it ending here.

*sleepy* -Mayhem

Does she look 12 to you?! She sure doesn’t to me.

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No fancy sorting, sorry.

• Cool mural that I must stop and see when I am in St Paul sometime.
• Murals in Minneapolis.
• Frostbeard Studio (“home of the original book-themed candle”) tells the story behind their mural.
• Sailboats as concept art.
• Minneapolis City Hall right before the torrential rain hit Thursday evening.
• “Why does Google Earth show a plane at the bottom of Lake Harriet?“
• A story of a name and a Fae.
• “au [alternate universe] where the trojan war is a party menelaus throws to win back his girlfriend who left him for some douchebag and he ropes all his friends into helping him and wacky shenanigans happen and a running gag is that odysseus doesn’t even want to be there he’s got shit to do and at the end he gets stuck in traffic on the way home” (So far there is just one part to this.)
• “Anonymous asked: what about susan who got married and had a child while in narnia, and then returned to england as a child, a whole life and family left behind?“
• What if the hobbits were raccoons instead? (So. Funny.)
• Harry Potter just needs to get away from things for a little bit…
• Imagine the Ministry receiving Harry Potter’s auror application.
• “She’s an earth goddess of the new age who’s domain is spinning and weaving but specifically spinning and weaving giant structural steel cables for construction and other industrial purposes”.
• Black cat and goose. I have questions!
• “An entomologist rates ant emojis“.
• Matchy matchy!
• “Remember Kiwi and his goth gf?“
• Koi mosaic.
• Oh snap.
• On the importance of mermaids and cyborgs to disabled people.
• Miniatures.
• Amazingly realistic felt cat portraits. YouTube tutorials. (Thanks, Cheryl!)
• Snow leopards really like holding their tails in their mouths.
• Some flat Earth humor.
• Linkity from kmkat. Knitting linkity from kmkat.

“Mom fed us THREE HOURS LATE last night. I am scarred from the experience. Look at how traumatized I am!!” -Chaos

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…which means more likely than not, there won’t be linkity again until August 9. Although I might manage SOMETHING to break up that month. We’ll see how it goes! 🙂

Bookity

• New releases: Smart Bitches (romance) and io9 (scifi/fantasy)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• Linkity from the Pen Addict.
• “What the Laura Ingalls Wilder award name change means – and what it doesn’t“.
• Neil Gaiman says goodbye to Harlan Ellison.
• “What rereading Black Beauty taught me about social justice“.
• 50 books about music.
• What if Lizzie Bennet came “from a family of mechanics but left the family business to become a cop”?
• How story ideas look in your head vs how they look on paper, visualized using Starry Night.

Think, Learn, Do, Make

• Clarification of what cultural appropriation actually is.
• NASA things for July.
• Learn all about ceiling fans.
• That time Ben Franklin and John Adams had to share a bed.
• That time the Ottoman Sultan wrote to some Ukrainian cossacks and demanded they submit.
• “Whiny baby tRUMP balloon set to greet the president when he visits London“.
• Yeah, you have some wacky weather when you’re in the middle of a continental landmass.

Cookity

• 10 easy chicken dinner recipes.
• Sheet-pan honey dijon chicken and vegetables.
• Vegetable breakfast hash.
• Zucchini burrito bowls. (via The Kitchn)
• Garlicky marinated mushrooms.
• Corn recipes.
• Blueberry recipes.
• Blueberry crumb bars.
• Food processor pound cake.
• Best chocolate cake. (via jmcbks)

Gluten Free

• Pan de bono.

Artsy Crafty

• Knitting linkity from kmkat.

Cool

• We have a few bridges here.
• SO MUCH YES!
• Why you should love Prince Eric from The Little Mermaid.
• “Ballet dancers in random situations“.
• Astronaut tweets (from 2014).
• Linkity from kmkat.

Cool or Wha…?

• Fruit tart cat bed.
• For those of you who’ve always wanted to live in a Gothic church.
• Moth and butterfly fiber sculptures.

Wha…?

• Huh. Apparently I missed a second civil war on Wednesday.
• A FOX News broadcaster “claims immigrants are sucking up the finite resource that is love“. Maybe I just need to rename this section “Extended facepalm”…
• Automatic sand printer.

LOL

• “A sitcom about the modern Greek gods where everyone is wildly miscast. Zeus is played by Michael Cera.“
• For bad days.
• Creativity.
• Darn those “freeloaders who just wan to cheat the government out of wasps”!
• “Lycanthropy is a feminist issue“.
• New Simon’s Cat short called “The Snip”.
• “What do cupcake theft and goat-keeping have in common?“
• Masters of Mansplaining.

Teh Cute

• Noses of cats! Penguins and a cardinal! Black kitten! Wolverine and babies! Mountain goat and baby! Scottish wildcat and babies!

Reading Update
Poemcrazy: Freeing your life with words by Susan G. Wooldridge. I liked this a lot – particularly how accessible Wooldridge makes poetry and word play to everyone. Wooldridge’s “word tickets” sounded an awful lot like Magnetic Poetry to me, and based on the original publication date, she was probably writing this around the time the original Magnetic Poetry set was released (but probably before it was widespread).
No Time to Spare: Thinking about What Matters by Ursula K Le Guin. Initially, I was quite enjoying this one, but then I hit a rather curmudgeonly bit and set it aside, never to pick it up again.

“I am dying of hunger. Please feed me.” -Chaos

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Bookity

• New releases: Tor.com (scifi, fantasy, genre-benders) and AAR (romance).
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• Cover snark from Smart Bitches.
• Linkity from the Pen Addict.
• “Octavia Butler will change the way you look at genre fiction“.
• RIP, Harlan Ellison.
• An interview with Ben Aaronovitch (from the back of The Furthest Station paperback).
• Some writing advice.
• “Yup, sometimes your favorite children’s books are racist“.
• Book-themed fabrics.
• 25 floating bookshelves.
• The novelist submits her completed manuscript…
• Signs you’re a bookworm.
• I absolutely could not handle working this poor publisher’s social media account.

Think, Do, Make, Learn

• Implications of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement.
• Stupid dense breasts – some info from Consumer Reports on what you should do if you, like me, have them.
• Foods to avoid eating on an airplane.
• Check your combo smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, as a few brands have been found to be faulty.
• Design tricks companies use to get you to give them your data.
• Crows might be better toolmakers than realized.

Cookity

• Caprese stuffed portobellos. (via The Kitchn)
• Honey garlic baked cauliflower bites. (via The Kitchn)
• Chilled zucchini noodle salad.
• 12 one-skillet meals.
• Buffalo chicken dip.
• Bourbon snickerdoodle blondies.
• 7 dairy-free ice creams to make at home.

Gluten Free

• No-bake single-serving chocolate and peanut butter cookie. (Only gluten-free if you use gluten-free oats.)

Artsy Crafty

• Sew an 8-foot long squid pillow.
• Make boiled books.

Cool

• 35W Bridge in Minneapolis (Pride edition).
• Wabasha Street Bridge in St Paul (Pride edition).
• If there were forests instead of oceans…
• Yes.

Cool or Wha…?

• Jell-O now sell edible building block kits.

Wha…?

• My brain hurts just from reading this.
• When Godwin himself says Godwin’s Law no longer applies… Godwin’s Law refresher.

LOL

• That last picture!
• The life of a cat.
• If you want to liven up your visits to the gym…
• Signs you’re not getting enough sleep.
• “Thorough analysis“. (Hover cursor/long-press to read the caption.)

Teh Cute

• Yak and babies! Baby leopards!

Reading Update
Tales of Suspense: Hawkeye and the Winter Soldier by Rosenberg, Foreman, & Rosenberg. Dammit, Tumblr, I don’t even go here! D’oh. Yeah, I saw some snippets of this on Tumblr and was intrigued by the dynamic between Hawkeye and Bucky. Considering 99% of what I know about the Avengers is from Tumblr, it was pretty good. 😀

“I’m meeeeltingggggg…” -Mayhem

(Good thing we have wall air conditioners!)

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Reading Update

• New releases: Smart Bitches (romance)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• Linkity from the Pen Addict.
• On reviewing books online. (via Sunita)
• Ray Bradbury quotes.
• Some spelling humor, coffee mug style.
• Lovely art and bookish quotes. Maybe I’ve already used this one before, but oh well. 🙂
• Geode and agate bookends.
• 10 funny poems about life and love.
• Hennepin County Library links to LGBTQIA+ resources.
• President Obama’s recent reading list.

Think, Learn, Make, Do

• “The science behind the summer solstice“.
• Moths who use the planet’s magnetic field to navigate at night.
• How a fire pole between the Earth and the Moon would (or wouldn’t) work…
• “Why it’s harder to think in the summer heat“.
• Brilliantly simple climate visualization.
• “Why ‘finding your passion’ isn’t enough“.
• Koko the gorilla is dead.
• Hotspots of antivaxxers.
• Truly, this is the darkest timeline.
• “What is a constitutional crisis?“
• On “Freddish, the special language Mr Rogers used when talking to children”.
• “Won’t You Be My Neighbor? review: Kindness shouldn’t feel this subversive“.

Cookity

• Balsamic chicken Cobb salad. (via The Kitchn)
• 25 Mediterranean recipes.
• 20 recipes using black beans.
• 10 easy grilled chicken recipes.
• Tofu tikka masala.
• Three-ingredient strawberry nice cream.
• Grilled Rice Krispie treats.
• Orange-scented olive oil cake.
• “Chocolate and sea salt-covered, super-sized Pocky sticks“.

Gluten Free

• Edible cookie dough.

Artsy Crafty

• “Sketchbooks help you remember“.

Cool

• An interesting story started by writing-prompt-s. And another!
• You can reach the roof! (Plus a new recap of the saga of #mprraccoon.)
• Scrabble tile rack lamp.
• The New Zealand All Blacks and Black Ferns rugby teams’ new jerseys stretch to reveal rainbow colors to promote diversity.
• Yes, thank you so much, friends who live in my computer! 🙂
• “You are no more or less special than anyone else“.

Cool or Wha…?

• Maple cotton candy.
• The Saint Paul Saints are going to play as the Saint Paul Raccoons on June 26…
• HAL 9000 USB stick.
• Flying, hands-free umbrella.

Wha…?

• Australian “Antarctic researchers are having more solstice fun than you”. Um, just no. That is crazy!
• Grapes that taste like cotton candy. (Presumably NOT like maple-flavored cotton candy.)
• Scratch’n’sniff stamps.

LOL

• “Nude vampire with gloves“. (Completely safe for work.)
• xkcd on GDPR. (Right-click/long-press for caption.)

Teh Cute

• Kitten! Baby owl! Sitatunga and baby! Mountain goat and baby! Baby feathertail gliders!

Reading Update
Journal Spilling: Mixed-Media Techniques for Free Expression by Diana Trout. Reread. I might like this more than I did the first time I read it three years ago! Original review: Very good overview of art journaling techniques, complete with prompts at the end. “Spilling” refers to writing (or creating an art entry) without thinking about it – basically stream-of-consciousness. I liked this book enough that I’ve ordered a used copy for myself.

*being beautiful* -Mayhem

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