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Congrats to Jane(PS), who won Beyond Reckless (2nd ed) by Ava March!

Congrats to Shellirie, who won Base Over Apex (Kinky Cupid #2) by Kim Dare!

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Randonymity

• The view from my windows last Friday morning, after 10.5 inches/26.7 cm of snow overnight. That street lamp was confused for days – ice was blocking its light sensor, so it stayed lit through hours of bright sunshine.

• It doesn’t bode well when the icy conditions sign has slipped and fallen…

• If you like hockey and you’re not doing anything Friday, February 28 (aka today), at 8 pm CST, why not join the Goon rewatch party?

Contest(s)

• Blodeuedd’s giving away a three-pack of Kate Ashford books: Man of Honour, The Three Graces, and The Marriage Wager. Closes March 8.

Bookity

• New releases: Fiction Vixen (UF/romance), Literary Escapism (UF/PNR), and Tor.com (UF, genre benders, scifi, fantasy)

• Book and publishing news from Dear Author.

• Vacuous Minx on “credentialism and the internet”.

• “Is ‘happy for now’ happy enough for you?“

• Science finds that reading can reduce anxiety.

• Is there a relationship between book price and ratings?

• You can read some of the Nebula Award nominees for free online.

• Game of Thrones pop-up book.

• LEGO recreations of famous literary scenes. (And more!)

• Stories reduced to their main colors. (Thanks, Kristi!)

• Infographic of Kurt Vonnegut’s eight story shapes/types. (via mental_floss)

• 25 opening sentences diagrammed on a single poster.

• Book sculptures.

• Pride and Prejudice, mathematically.

• This would’ve been a helpful display when I worked at a bookstore. 🙂

• Not suitable for obsessively organized readers.

• They should probably just load ebooks on her phone.

• Sometimes there’s simply no deeper meaning.

Do, Learn, Think, Make

• “Playing Tetris may stop your food cravings“.

• Chipotle will soon have vegan tofu options all over the US.

• “Pizza math: A 12″ pizza is over twice as big as an 8″ pizza“.

• Dark chocolate is good for your heart.

• Forced arbitration is bad for consumers – why you should opt out. (Dropbox just added new terms of service that include forced arbitration, but at least they offer an online opt out.)

• Beijing’s air pollution is really bad. China’s air pollution is affecting Japan.

• “Keep the Cold War out of the Olympics“.

• More of that hilarious hockey primer. Websites for hockey news and information.

• Visualization of how many calories are in various Starbucks drinks. (via Consumerist)

• Time zones. (Hover your cursor additional text.)

• The home of time in the US.

• Rocket golf.

• “The science of sriracha“.

• Hmm. I wonder how the Great Lakes’ ice cover has progressed since this February 19 photo? (It was -11F/-23.9C with a -34F/-36.7C windchill when I woke up yesterday morning. Talk about a demotivator.)

• For the Twin Cities, it’s the coldest winter since 1979 and one of the coldest on record. (Yes, it really was colder and snowier when I was a kid, dammit.) Seems legit.

Cookity

• Decade-defining recipes: 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s. (Related: 1950s foods dinner party, via Emma Sea.)

• Espresso banana bread.

• Grilled chocolate sandwiches.

• Citrus fruit winter salad. (via The Kitchn)

• Toasted oatmeal with strawberry chia jam and coconut whipped cream. (via The Kitchn)

• Slow cooked Moroccan lentil soup. (via The Kitchn)

• Garlic shrimp and spinach tostada. (via The Kitchn)

• White chicken enchiladas with green chile sour cream sauce. (via The Kitchn)

• Stir-fry beef and broccoli. (via The Kitchn)

• Burrata BLT with spicy mayo. (via The Kitchn)

• Romaine salad with bacon, five-minute eggs, and pesto dressing.

• 9 chili recipes.

• 9 curry recipes.

• 13 eggs for dinner recipes.

• Blood orange Salty Dog. (via The Kitchn)

Gluten Free

• Pretzel turtle bars.

• Chocolate chip yogurt quick bread.

• Lemon poppyseed cookies. Lighter version.

• New Orleans-style beignets.

• Various Girl Scout-type cookies.

Crafty

• Make a custom collar for your cat.

• Learn how to arm knit.

• Arm knitting tutorial video – how to knit a scarf in 20 minutes. (via CRAFT)

Cool

• There might be Doctor Who-themed LEGO sets soon.

• More Olympic hockey hugs!

• 16 great things about George Takei.

• Classic paintings of London laid over modern street views.

• Linkity from kmkat.

Cool or Wha…?

• Sriracha-flavored Pringles.

• Metrodome implosion.

Wha…?

• “[A]rtisanal meat from celebrity tissue samples.“

• Sausages made with the aid of baby poop.

• “Neiman Marcus missed 60,000 alerts as hackers stole credit card info“.

• The relationship between selfies and lice…

• Gluten-free: you’re doing it wrong.

LOL

• Funny autocorrects from February.

• The Swedish Chef explains curling.

• What if Olympic speed skating was like Mario Kart?

• Entrepreneurial Girl Scout.

• Could be Chaos.

• *blink blink*

Teh Cute

• Moose and baby! Okapi and baby! Baby panda! Foxes! Foxes! Black kitten! Lioness and baby! Pygmy goat and babies! Baby Florida panther! Takin and baby! Sand cat and baby! Snow leopards and baby!

Reading Update

• Wait, wait, don’t tell me… 😉

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“…zzzzzzzzzzzzz…” -Chaos

Not that you can really tell in this picture, but his mouth is hanging open a bit. Classy! 🙂

Contest(s)

• Blodeuedd’s giving away a copy of Impossible Things by Kate Johnson. Closes February 19.

Bookity

• New releases and more: Fiction Vixen (UF/romance), Literary Escapism (UF/PNR), and All About Romance (romances)

• Book and publishing news from Dear Author.

• Ebook sales and earnings. (via Emma Sea)

• Critique of the aforementioned ebook sales and earnings report. (Thanks, Expy!)

• “Does length matter?“

• Heidi Cullinan and “death by promotion”.

• Becky Black shares some thoughts on freebies.

• Eden Winters contemplates success in writing.

• Based on your word choice, which writer are you? (Toni Morrison, apparently.)

• Bookity linkity from Smart Bitches.

• Yes, this.

• Paperback art.

• 11 book-shaped cakes.

Think, Do, Learn, Make

• See why vaccination is important.

• For another perspective on #sochiproblems… (via Wil Wheaton)

• Warroad, Minnesota, population 1800 – hockey Olympian hotspot. 🙂

• Relating stars to sand and vice versa.

• Kansas is planning to legalize anti-gay segregation. (via listedheart)

Cookity

• Tie-dye cheesecake. (via maderr)

• S’mores milkshake. (via The Kitchn)

• Brown butter cupcake brownies.

• 14 chocolate cakes.

• Spicy egg drop soup. (via The Kitchn)

• European coleslaw. (via The Kitchn)

• Steak salad with blue cheese, balsamic, and candied pecans. (via The Kitchn)

• Prosciutto-wrapped chicken with asparagus. (via The Kitchn)

• Thai red chicken curry. (via The Kitchn)

• Baked potato grilled cheese. (via The Kitchn)

• Apple and blueberry baked oatmeal. (via The Kitchn)

• Blueberry breakfast bars.

• Caramelized banana and chocolate chip breakfast bake. (via The Kitchn)

Gluten Free

• Grilled cheese croutons.

• Chocolate glazed cherry almond quick bread.

• Red velvet cupcakes with vanilla cream cheese frosting. (scroll down to the end of the post)

• Starbucks style chocolate caramel muffins.

• Salted caramel Nutella hot chocolate.

• Chocolate recipes.

Cool

• Mister Rogers Remixed – The Garden of Your Mind. (via barefoot-hearted)

• Aimee Mann singing about the common cold.

• Enterprise ring.

• Star Wars told via tapestry.

• If the Winter Olympics happened in Star Wars…

• What the Winter Olympics look like from the International Space Station.

• The 1932 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York.

• What Lake Superior looks like frozen.

• Linkity from kmkat.

• Hockey hugs!

Cool or Wha…?

• TARDIS boot slippers.

• Rechargeable LED cork that turns empty bottles into lamps.

• Toilet seat with built-in nightlight.

Wha…?

• What a house looks like after a cougar breaks in.

• Plowing snow with… fire.

• A sinkhole opened under the National Corvette Museum.

LOL

• Aw, have you ever seen a kitten feeling so sorry for itself?!

• 16 Valentine’s Day autocorrects.

• On important updates for your computer. (hover your cursor for additional text)

• May always used to do this, back when I had a shower curtain. Now I have glass shower doors, so both of the cats sit and stare at me…

• Ewww!

Teh Cute

• Baby lions! Kittens! Baby tiger! Black kitten! Baby leopards! Kitten! Kitten! Baby goat!

Reading Update

• Hockey fics! 😀

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“Where did the birds go?! I miss them…” -Mayhem

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Congrats to Sandi, who won Walk with Me (Home #7) by Cardeno C! Walk with Me is being released today by Dreamspinner Press.

Congrats to Julia, who won It’s All Geek to Me by JL Merrow! It’s All Geek to Me will be released by Riptide Publishing on February 10.

Congrats to Bobbie, who won One Good Deed by Andrew Grey! One Good Deed will be released by Dreamspinner Press on February 10.

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Randonymity

• The view from my living room window on January 30 – the grey stripe along the bottom is snow piled up on the window ledge outside (click to embiggen):

• This is a very good question…

Contest(s)

• Blodeuedd’s giving away a set of three books in the Cowboys & Brides series by Carolyn Brown, plus a cowboy charm. Closes February 8. US & Canada.

• Blodeuedd’s also giving away a copy of Under a Jeweled Sky by Alison McQueen. Closes February 8. US only.

Bookity

• New releases: Fiction Vixen (UF/romance) and Tor.com (PNR)

• Book and publishing news from Dear Author.

• Orannia’s hosting the 2014 M/M Romance Reading Challenge.

• Becky Black with writerly links.

• “The reader’s ever changing hard limits”.

• Vacuous Minx discusses notebooks (the kind you write in). She also wonders “where have all the readers gone”?

• “The self-pub ‘shit volcano’ will end“. “Debunking the ‘self-pub shit volcano’ – not shit, nor a problem, and [it is] not going away“.

• Lou Harper on the dirty truth of self-publishing.

• If you enjoy reading new scifi writers, download the 2014 Cambellian Anthology for free for a limited time.

• Listen to James Joyce read from Finnegan’s Wake and Ulysses.

• Neil Gaiman reading Green Eggs and Ham.

• Peter S. Beagle and George R.R. Martin meet.

• 10 literary holidays.

• Periodic table of storytelling.

Do, Think, Make, Learn

• Make a puzzle box toy for your cat.

• Make LEGO minifig soap. (via CRAFT)

• Baseball/comet equivalency.

• Real technologies predicted in Star Trek.

• Looks like scientists are pretty unified on global warming/global climate change.

• An overview of Olympic men’s hockey. And an overview of Olympic women’s hockey.

• 11 unusual February holidays.

• A map of the bus and train routes across the US.

• “What’s behind the IKEA Effect?” (via Wil Wheaton’s tumblr)

Cookity

• 10 warm breakfasts.

• Nutella espresso chocolate chip pancakes. (via The Kitchn)

• Double chocolate banana waffles. (via The Kitchn)

• Coconut lime quinoa breakfast bowl. (via The Kitchn)

• Chai spiced baked oatmeal.

• Nutella and strawberry heart-shaped pop tarts. (via The Kitchn)

• Nutella swirled banana cupcakes with peanut butter frosting. (via The Kitchn)

• Brown butter apple loaf.

• Salted caramel and vanilla bean custard tartlets. (via The Kitchn)

• Fiery garlic tofu. (via The Kitchn)

• Easy turkey chili with kale.

• Buffalo-style quinoa chili.

• Chicken and cashews with Chinese broccoli salad.

• Crisp tuna-cabbage salad.

• Spinach lasagna roll-ups.

• 10 cauliflower recipes.

Drinkity

• Nutella hot chocolate. (via The Kitchn)

• Fire cider.

• Blood orange rosemary cocktail. (via The Kitchn)

• 12 essential cocktails.

• 18 colorful cocktails.

Gluten Free

• Dairy-free strawberry cupcakes. (via The Kitchn)

• Stuffed red velvet cupcakes.

• Cinnamon roll sugar cookies.

• Chocolate turtle thumbprint cookies.

• Dairy-free blueberry vanilla cream scone.

• Stuffed soft breadsticks.

Crafty

• I-cord bind off tutorial. (via CRAFT)

Cool

• Flashback: Johnny Cash on Sesame Street.

• LEGO Escher.

• Deep Space Nine clock. (via The Mary Sue)

• Thor 2 gag reel.

• Patrick Stewart playing a dying moon rover.

• Astronomically accurate star map knit shawl.

• Crocheted Twelfth Doctor.

• Compare the cost of being various superheroes when they were created versus now.

• Not sure how long the new Google doodle will be up, but it’s a good one for the start of the Sochi Olympics, taking on Russia’s anti-gay laws.

• Linkity from kmkat.

Cool or Wha…?

• More 2014 Olympic uniforms.

• Weird water towers. (I grew up in Rochester, Minnesota, so that ear of corn water tower doesn’t look weird to me…)

• Unicorn high heels.

• Pillow that detects snoring and encourages you to roll over.

• 20-sided pecan pie. (via CRAFT)

• Piggy bank with smartphone integration.

• Street legal Little Tykes car.

Wha…?

• Kitten leotard.

• Red cabbage dress.

• Decapitated heads wedding cake.

• More problems from Sochi. (via mental_floss) (But here are some viral “photos from Sochi” that are fake.)

• Oh, and hey, apparently Russian officials are taking surveillance videos in the bathrooms in Sochi?! o.O

• Tumbleweeds bury a New Mexico city.

• Pizza perfume.

• Crocodile skin covered bicycle.

• Smartphone scent emitter.

LOL

• Penguin would like to science, please.

• What the Winter Olympics actually are.

• 10 amusing flowcharts.

• Downton Tabby.

• Simon’s Cat for Valentines.

• Sleepy!

Teh Cute

• Baby lions! Penguins and babies! Baby red pandas! Black kitten! Otter and baby! Lioness and baby! Fennec!

Reading Update

• Oh hockey fics, I love you so…

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“There really haven’t been enough stripey socks for me to park my butt on lately, Mom. Do something about that!” -Mayhem

Those are my SIL’s 2013 birthday socks, finished before her 2014 birthday at least…

Contest(s)

• Becky Black is giving away an ebook copy of her forthcoming m/m romance, Too Good a Man (Red Dragon #2). Closes 9 am GMT, February 4.

• Blodeuedd’s giving away a copy of Between a Rake and a Hard Place by Connie Mason and Mia Marlowe. Closes February 8. US & Canada.

• Blodeuedd’s also giving away a copy of Lord of the Hunt by Shona Husk. Closes February 8.

Bookity

• New releases: Fiction Vixen (UF/romance), Literary Escapism (UF/PNR), and Tor.com (UF, genre-benders, scifi, fantasy)

• Book and publishing news from Dear Author. (Dear Author is not going to be available on Friday, January 31…)

• Newbery and Caldecott winners.

• “What do readers want?“

• Breaking in a hardcover without cracking the spine.

• Infographic classifying types of book readers. (I have aspects of the hoarder, the re-reader (actually, I’d be a comfort read re-reader), ereader convert…)

• More clickbait book titles. (Or are these the same ones I’ve posted before?! It blurs…)

Think, Learn, Make, Do

• Newly discovered species of peacock spider. (Thanks, Cheryl!)

• Free workout posters will have you exercising like a warrior, superhero, or Jedi.

• What makes hiccup cures effective?

• There’s going to be a gluten-free Girl Scout cookie. (via mental_floss)

• US state stereotypes, per Google.

• This visualization of the polar vortex is rather pretty…

• The amount of snow it takes to cancel school across the US. (I think school’s been cancelled more times here this winter due to dangerous windchills instead of snow.)

• Make an earbud organizer.

• Do wearable fitness gadgets actually help people get fit, or are they just a temporary crutch?

Cookity

• Cauliflower fried “rice”. (via The Kitchn)

• Potato “nachos”. (via The Kitchn)

• Stuffed eggplant. (via The Kitchn)

• Garlicky roasted broccoli.

• Yellow lentil soup. (via The Kitchn)

• Sweet potato bisque. (via The Kitchn)

• Green omelette. (via The Kitchn)

• Asparagus morning scramble. (via The Kitchn)

• Kale and quinoa salad with dates, almonds, and citrus dressing.

• Vegan sloppy joes.

• Green bean and minced beef stir fry. (via The Kitchn)

• Savory maple and dijon slow-cooker pot roast.

• Spicy chickpea and sour tomato curry with pasta.

• Chickpeas and chorizo stew. (via The Kitchn)

• Chorizo nachos with queso fresco.

• Beetroot chocolate protein balls. (via The Kitchn)

• Vegan coconut almond chocolate chip ice cream.

• Toasted almond fortune cookies.

• 11 recipes using peanut butter.

Gluten Free

• Cauliflower fritters.

• Corn muffins with a Santa Fe twist.

• Double chocolate banana poppy seed bread.

• Soft vanilla swirl bread.

• Dark chocolate macadamia nut oat cookies.

• Starbucks-style oatmeal cookies.

Crafty

• Embroider some notebooks. (via CRAFT)

Cool

• Trailer for Neil deGrasse’s Tyson’s Carl Sagan’s Cosmos.

• Very short stop-motion animation of Darth Vader vs Albert Einstein.

• Map of the internet.

• Cylindra spice rack.

• Short animation called Love in the Time of Advertising.

• 13 quotes from Sir Patrick Stewart.

• Which fictional city should you live in? (I ended up with the Cloud City from Star Wars, which just… no.)

• Linkity from kmkat.

Wha…?

• They’re running out of time to finish up that Olympic village in Sochi…

• Chocolate toothpaste… from Crest.

• Flavor review of Mountain Dew Cheetos.

• Things people tried to bring on airplanes in 2013.

LOL

• Honest company slogans. (You are so busted, IKEA!)

• xkcd on cold. (hover your cursor for additional text)

• “What if the cable guy in p0rn was from Time Warner Cable?” (NSFW)

• Cats being afraid of things. (Thanks, Cheryl!) (That video reminded me of Chaos and the zucchini…)

• Oh oh…

• Yes.

Teh Cute

• Kitten! Zebra and baby! Sea otter and baby! Kitten! Baby lion!

Reading Update

• Hockey fics. 🙂

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“…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…” -Chaos

“…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…” -Mayhem

Bookity

• New releases: Fiction Vixen (UF/romance) and Literary Escapism (UF/PNR)

• Book and publishing news from Dear Author.

• Hunting Under Covers is a free collection of m/m romance, including one by Kaje Harper.

• “In the absence of traditional publishers“.

• Vacuous Minx on reading beyond where you’re comfortable.

• Kaetrin wonders if other have default heroes and heroines they picture when reading.

• “10 things you may not know about ebook prices“. (via Emma Sea)

• Story Surgeon sounds like fair use, but some writers think it’s actually copyright infringement.

• The entire text of The Hobbit on a single poster.

• Build some Tetris bookshelves. (via CRAFT)

• Make a ring from book pages and Mod Podge. (via CRAFT)

• Take a quiz to see if you can tell which quotes are from Sherlock Holmes and which are from Spock. (I got 90%)

• “7 Actually Useful Children’s Books for Twenty-Somethings“. (via Wil Wheaton)

• Smart Bitches with “10 things I hate about sex (scenes)”.

• Definitely a lot for one book to cover!

• Hipster Kindle.

Do, Think, Learn, Make

• US stamps increase from $0.46 to $0.49 on Sunday.

• Yet another type of card skimmer to be on the lookout for. I’ve given up using my debit card at all – if my card info gets nabbed, I’d much rather have it be Visa’s issue then to deal with the money being pulled out of my checking account and have to fight to get it back.

• What to do if you’re a victim of identity theft.

• The technologies that have been replaced by the smartphone.

• The state of homelessness in the US.

• The United Nations has included online privacy in its list of basic human rights.

• A comic explaining the history of the Global Strategic Maple Syrup Reserve.

• Apparently some formerly ok browser extensions have been acquired by adware and malware companies.

• How to practice empathy.

• Which countries drink the most tea?

• Astronomical vs meteorological winter. (via Yarnerinas)

• What if all the viruses in the world were collected into a single pile?

• Simon Draws: Tabby Cats.

Cookity

• Creme brulee cheesecake bars.

• Almost flourless chocolate cake.

• Coconut lover’s cake. (via The Kitchn)

• Sichuan peppercorn peanut brittle.

• 9 mushroom recipes.

• 12 dips and spreads.

• Warm squash and chickpea soup with tahini.

• Turkey tortilla soup.

• Turkey, avocado, and goat cheese panini. (via The Kitchn)

• BBQ chicken stuffed sweet potatoes. (via The Kitchn)

• Spicy shrimp and fish stew. (via The Kitchn)

• Pumpkin breakfast polenta.

• Apple pie oatmeal. (via The Kitchn)

Gluten Free

• Skillet brownies.

• Lighter banana cake.

• Carrot cake muffins.

• Cinnamon roll cupcakes.

• Milano-esque cookies with amaretto ganache filling.

• Honey bread.

• 30+ gf pizza crust recipes.

• Mulligatawny soup with jasmine rice.

Cool

• Hockey hugs!

• LEGOesque NHL figures.

• What if Game of Thrones was set in feudal Japan?

• The real Miss Officer reacts to her fame.

• Linkity from mrspao and kmkat.

Cool or Wha…?

• Mr Potato Head Homer Simpson.

• Cat butt heels.

• Celestial carpets.

• Extremely creepy carpet.

Wha…?

• Cookie Dough and “Marshmallow Crispy” flavored Oreos…

• Shrimp Mayonnaise Doritos.

• Beer-flavored jelly beans from JellyBelly.

• There is only one flavor of Froot Loops.

• Avert your eyes: “What the US Olympic teams will be wearing in Sochi“.

• Amazon’s patented a method of sending you things before you buy them.

• Mannequins in pubic wigs and underwear.

• “A ghost ship full of cannibal rats has disappeared in the Atlantic” and might be headed toward the UK.

LOL

• “The 22 Funniest Definitions Found on Urban Dictionary“. (via Megan Derr) (NSFW)

• “20 ways to survive in a horror movie“. Don’t click on the link to the original! It’s the commentary that makes this awesome. 🙂

• What an odd location to get married.

• Typical cattitude.

• Oh oh…

• Hmm.

Teh Cute

• Tiger and babies! Leopard and baby! Red panda!

Reading Update

• Hockey fics! You are sooooooo surprised. Not.

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*lurking* -Mayhem

Randonymity

• Thanks to everyone for the well wishes on Monday’s post. Turns out I have bursitis in my hip. Hopefully that cortisone shot kicks in soon…

Contest(s)

• Blodeuedd’s giving away a copy of Emma by Linda Mitchelmore. Closes January 18.

• Blodeuedd’s also giving away a copy of The Magic Between Us by Tammy Falkner. Closes January 25. US & Canada.

Bookity

• New releases: Fiction Vixen (UF/romance), Literary Escapism (UF/PNR), and AAR (romance)

• Book and publishing news from Dear Author.

• “Is there an ideal online community?“

• Becky Black lists 10 points that apparently every mainstream article about m/m romance is required to make.

• Some more on romance vs romantic from Vacuous Minx.

• Transitioning from iPhone to Android.

• Orannia’s hosting the 2014 Big Book Challenge.

• Pride & Prejudice proposal.

Think, Learn, Make, Do

• This really sums up Fahrenheit versus Celsius…

• “13 words of the year from other countries“.

• Countries by per capita coffee consumption.

• The most popular movie set in each US state.

• How the Chicago Blackhawks went from being named the worst sports franchise in North American sports in 2004 to having won two Stanley Cups in 2014.

• “95% of ATMs are still using Windows XP. No, really“.

• If all the tea in the world was dumped in the Great Lakes, what strength would the resulting tea be?

• “The batteries of the future could be powered by rhubarb“.

• Looking at London in 1927 and 2013.

Cookity

• Nutella.

• Chicken dum biryani. (via The Kitchn)

• Roasted tomato soup with Italian sausage. (via The Kitchn)

• Taco salad with homemade tortilla bowls. (via The Kitchn)

• Chicken and cabbage tacos with cilantro cream. (via The Kitchn)

• Roasted chicken breasts stuffed with goat cheese and garlic.

• Pasta with chickpeas.

• Lemony green salad with radicchio and pepitas.

• Mushroom risotto. (via The Kitchn)

• Griddled polenta cakes with goat cheese and raw kale salad.

• Baked chai spiced French toast.

• Coconut quinoa granola. (via The Kitchn)

• Drinkity

• Meyer lemon gin cocktail. (via The Kitchn)

• Vanilla grapefruit margaritas with a vanilla salt rim. (via The Kitchn)

Gluten Free

• Soft peanut butter cookies.

• Paleo Oreo-style cookies.

• Lighter chocolate muffins.

• Chocolate pull-apart bread.

• Vanilla cupcakes with mocha frosting.

• 10 decadent gluten free desserts.

Cool

• Cool photos of pond hockey – including one from Minneapolis!

• Photographer who adds herself to her childhood photos.

• Shark ice cubes.

• Hobbit dragon book sculpture.

• Stained glass movie posters.

• LEGO Downton Abbey.

• 11 unusual chandeliers.

• Linkity from kmkat.

• TARDIS shower curtain. (via The Mary Sue)

Cool or Wha…?

• Canadian zookeepers playing hockey with lions.

• Lightsaber gadget backup battery.

• Square rubber bands.

Wha…?

• Lemon Oreos.

• Turn your car into a tank.

• A romantic remake of 1984…

• The Fitbit Force causes contact dermatitis for some unfortunate people.

LOL

• Meanwhile, in the Midwest…

• 16 best December autocorrects.

• Random Oscar winner generator. (via The Mary Sue)

• Stephen Colbert is prepared for anachronistically inserted ads.

• I’m not sure it’s wise to outfit cats with armor…

• Portable cat traps.

• Uh oh…

• Kitten school vs puppy school.

Teh Cute

• Baby tigers! Baby cougar! Lions and babies! Baby cougars! Fennec!

Reading Update

• Hockey fics!!!!!

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That really doesn’t look comfortable, May…

Contest(s)

• Blodeuedd’s giving away a copy of Romancing the Soul by Sarah Tranter. Closes January 18.

Bookity

• New releases: Fiction Vixen (UF/romance), Tor.com (PNR), and Literary Escapism (UF/PNR)

• Book and publishing news from Dear Author.

• Book and writerly linkity from Becky Black.

• “The not-so-fine lines between critiquing and policing“.

• Vacuous Minx on “author, voice, text”.

• New words added to the OED in 2013.

• WordHippo sounds like a great online dictionary replacement.

• Getting started with fanfiction.

• “The incredible eccentricities of 20 great writers“.

• Bookity linkity from mental_floss.

Think, Do, Make, Learn

• Activity trackers seem to be the thing now – here are a few companies that are coming out with them soonishly: Razer, Sony, Casio, Mio, Epson, Garmin.

• Carl Sagan was a smart guy.

• Photos from a very cold Chicago.

• The importance of darkness for sleeping.

• Practical math shortcuts.

• If you used Yahoo from a PC between December 31 and January 3 and you were anywhere other than North America, Asia Pacific, and Latin America – you might have malware.

• Ever wondered about the calorie requirements of a T-Rex?

• If you get annoyed by people taking pictures instead of “experiencing”… (Hover your cursor for additional text.)

Cookity

• Vegan recipes.

• 10 vegetarian soups.

• 9 vegetable soups.

• 15 lunches for work that don’t need to be reheated.

• Rosemary tomato frittata. (via The Kitchn)

• Pink grapefruit, avocado, hazelnut, fig, and sage salad. (via The Kitchn)

• Crunchy cabbage salad with spicy peanut dressing. (via The Kitchn)

• White bean Swiss chard soup. (via The Kitchn)

• Manado spicy braised chicken. (via The Kitchn)

• Homemade fig newtons.

• Whiskey-sriracha caramel corn. (via CRAFT)

• Skinny pumpkin energy bites. (via CRAFT)

Gluten Free

• Crunchy chocolate chip cookies.

• Super fudgy brownies.

• Lemon-blueberry muffins, plus a lighter version.

• Peanut sauce.

Cool

• Button sculptures.

• The Simpsons LEGO set.

• Pictures of Niagara Falls in winter.

• Frozen soap bubbles.

• TARDIS yarn bowl.

• Make Doctor Who/TARDIS snow globes.

• Harry Potter travel posters. (via The Mary Sue)

• Game of Thrones Funko minis.

• Linkity from kmkat.

Cool or Wha…?

• TARDIS shower rack. (via The Mary Sue)

• Octopus chandelier. (via The Mary Sue)

• A very, very large Amazon box.

• Cookie Monster’s version of The Life of Pi.

Wha…?

• Mountain Dew Cheetos.

• Bluetooth toothbrush that will nag you to brush.

• Kraft is running out of Velveeta.

LOL

• Neil Patrick Harris had a margarita drinking contest with himself on vacation in Mexico.

• If my oven was at his eye level, Chaos would do the same.

• Smart cat!

• Ah, cats…

• *sigh*

Teh Cute

• Baby ocelot! Baby penguin! Baby buffalo! Lynx and babies! Black kittens! Ducklings! Penguins! Baby okapi! Baby lions!

Reading Update

• Hockey fics…

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“…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…” -Chaos

“…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…” -Mayhem

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Congrats to Kayla J, who won Galen and the Forest Lord (2nd ed) by Eden Winters!

Congrats to Cia N, Jennifer S, and Jess1, who won Behind the Curtain by Amy Lane! Behind the Curtain will be released by Dreamspinner Press on January 6.

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Randonymity

• Happy New Year to all of you! 🙂

• Seriously, I think I’m just going to hibernate until spring. My car’s already decided to do the same. *sigh*

• Brace yourselves – at the moment, I don’t have any contests on the schedule until early February. 🙂

Bookity

• New releases: Fiction Vixen (UF/romance) and Tor.com (SF, fantasy, UF, genre benders)

• Book and publishing news from Dear Author.

• Sherlock Holmes has been ruled to be in the public domain in the US.

• The Hockey RPF Holiday Exchange collection is live at AO3 now – 77 shiny new hockey fics to read!

• “Disrespecting your reading audience 101“.

• “Ten scientific non-fiction books to fire up your imagination“. (Emma Sea, I’m sure you’ve already read most of these!)

• Shortlist for the Bad Sex Awards 2013.

• 13 vintage posters promoting libraries.

• Book Hive interactive installation. (via Gizmodo)

• William Shakespeare’s Star Wars.

• The techno panic timeline. (Starts in 1494, but come on – there were people complaining about how writing/reading were going to destroy memory long before then.)

• Of course he doesn’t!

• Yes, this.

Think, Do, Make, Learn

• Chris Kluwe speaks out being released from the Vikings, which he suspects is because of his LGBTQ rights activism.

• The science of chocolate.

• The story of the inventor of the Etch A Sketch told via Etch A Sketch.

• How the internet is affecting human memory.

• If the world were a cube, how would gravity be different?

• What if humans kept growing at the same speed as during those first few months after birth?

• New Jersey, I think you’re being a bit ridiculous…

• Consumerist presents the 19 worst ads of 2013.

• 10 of the hundreds of new species found in 2013.

• xkcd welcomes 2014. (Make sure you hover your cursor for additional text.)

• Pop Tarts being made is hypnotic.

Cookity

• Sriracha.

• Coconut red lentil dal.

• Vegan salted dark chocolate nut bars.

• Maple cupcakes stacked with mini buttermilk pancakes. (via CRAFT)

• Impossible coconut pie. (via Bron’s Pinterest)

Gluten Free

• Best gf recipes of 2013.

• Cream puffs.

• Soft red velvet chocolate chip cookies.

• Champagne cake.

• Dairy-free hot cocoa with homemade marshmallows.

• Chicken chili with white beans, sweet potatoes, and lime.

Crafty

• Make a center-pull ball of yarn without a ball winder. (via CRAFT)

• Turn a sweater into leg warmers. (via CRAFT)

Cool

• My Little Cthulhu Pony.

• New Year’s with Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Patrick Stewart.

• Steampunk Star Wars.

• Stephen Colbert’s cameo in The Hobbit.

• The Hobbit story scarf. (via The Mary Sue)

• Ministry of Magic site that looks a lot like official UK government sites.

• A Lara Croft fan film.

• Scifi and fantasy with clickbait titles.

• 8 snow sculptures. Or how about a good ol’ Minnesota snow shark?

• Ah, Nathan Fillion.

• Astronaut selfie.

• Linkity from kmkat.

Cool or Wha…?

• Functional pickup truck made of ice.

• Skyscraper candles.

• 2013 in a minute.

Wha…?

• That there’s even a need for Atlanta to have to install urine detectors in the subway…

LOL

• 50 best autocorrects of 2013.

• Robin Hood: the drinking game.

• Bad kitties! (Thanks, Kate!)

• My, what sharp teeth you have…

• Oh oh…

Teh Cute

• Pretty bird! Penguins and baby! Hummingbird! Penguins! Tiger! Tiger!

Reading Update

• Hockey fics! 🙂

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“I’m incognito…” -Chaos