Contest(s)

• Blodeuedd’s giving away a copy of Gentlemen Prefer Mischief by Emily Greenwood. Closes January 4. US & Canada.

Bookity

• New releases: Fiction Vixen (UF/romance)

• Book and publishing news from Dear Author.

• Amazon might be cracking down on “cryptozoological erotica”.

• KJ Charles writes about editing.

• The latest version of Calibre allows you to edit DRM-free books. That will be very handy for when italics run amok in AO3 works!

• The Encyclopedia Britannica become landscape art. (via Gizmodo)

Think, Learn, Make, Do

• Alan Turing has finally been pardoned.

• “The map of the world if every country’s population matched its size”.

• Check for potentially bad drug combinations.

• Water temperature doesn’t really matter when washing your hands.

• Make a lap desk for traveling.

• “A brief history of felines on film”.

• 100 images from 2013.

• “The history and future of everything“. (via Sploid)

Cookity

• Eggnog doughnut muffins.

• Pumpkin bread.

• Orange sriracha chicken satay with peanut sauce. (via The Kitchn)

Drinkity

• Vanilla bean whiskey cocktail. (via CRAFT)

• Spiked chocolate truffle hot cocoa.

Gluten Free

• Tips for baking gf cookies, plus a few recipes.

• Soft chocolate cutout sugar cookies.

• Crispy rice treats.

• Cranberry bread.

• Cinnamon rolls.

Crafty

• Knit a pie crust. (via CRAFT)

• Knit Cheryl’s chic Salzburg hat.

Cool

• NHL ref with mutant powers!

• Cardboard Box Office.

• Spacecraft fairy tale.

• Scifi travel posters. (via The Mary Sue)

Cool or Wha…?

• 10 memorable things from 2013, recreated in Play-Doh.

• Dry erase notebook.

• Star Wars Christmas sweater.

• Geeky aprons.

Wha…?

• A series of stock photos about Shakespeare being confused by technology.

LOL

• Grrr.

• 25 Christmas autocorrects.

• Tired of your cats knocking over the Christmas tree?

• This kitty has skillz!

• Every. Single. Time.

• Aw, poor kitty.

• Hmm. I am suspicious.

• There’s a story behind this picture…

• Sort of a Misadventure, I guess.

Teh Cute

• Baby lions! Black kitten! Penguins and babies! Lioness and baby! Zebra and baby! Baby ocelot!

Reading Update
The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum by Temple Grandin & Richard Panek. Very good nonfiction look at how thinking about autism has changed as our understanding of neurology and brain chemistry has increased. For me, the second part of the book (“Rethinking the Autistic Brain”) was far more interesting and useful than the neurology/brain chemistry first part. Just because people with autism think differently doesn’t mean that our thinking is wrong. It’s just different. And if researchers develop a “cure” for autism, what will be lost? There’s evidence suggesting that people such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo had high-functioning autism, as well as probably Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, etc. That doesn’t seem like “wrong” or “broken” thinking to me.

I’m glad that I’m old enough (47) that I made it through the education system as a “weird smart kid” instead of as someone with a disability, and that I learned I could take care of and support myself. All of it was through a pretty non-standard path, which I’m not sure would be an option today. My pattern-matching brain and ability to look at problems in a way that’s completely different from the way my coworkers do is valued by the company I’ve worked for for over 17 years.

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Flashback to a few months ago, when there were leaves and green things… *sigh*

“SquirrelSquirrelSquirrelSquirrelSquirrelSquirrelSquirrelSquirrelSquirrelSquirrel!” -Chaos