Reading Update
Wildly into the Dark: Typewriter Poems and the Rattlings of a Curious Mind by Tyler Knott Gregson. Good collection of short poems that I didn’t quite connect with.
The Repurposed Library: 33 Craft Projects That Give Old Books New Life by Lisa Occhipinti. Very good look at how to transform old books into all sorts of things, such as lamps, a chandelier, a fireplace screen, an ebook reader cover, and more.
Collage Art: A Step-by-Step Guide and Showcase by Jennifer L Atkinson. Good collection of interesting collage techniques, including using collagraphy, woven paper, fabric, and assemblage. For a book from 1996, it definitely managed a mostly timeless feel.
the princess saves herself in this one by Amanda Lovelace. Very good, most likely haunting collection of poetry. Some of the poems resonated all too well.

“You stay right there, May.” -Chaos

“But WHY, big kitty??” -Mayhem

Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

Linkity apparently blinked and missed spring – suddenly it’s summer O.O

May 18, 2018 Chris 5 Comments

Bookity

Do, Learn, Make, Think

Very simple (in cartoon form) look at how statistics can be used to make things sound much better than they actually are.
“EST and EDT are different time zones“. (Hey, I work in telecom – time zones are a big deal!)
How to resize picture frames from the thrift store without a lot of tools.
A solution for warm weather thigh chafing.
What Nazism actually is.
You go, #ResistanceGenealogy!
“Why do we have butts?“
Be careful with your proximity keys, people! (The title’s kind of over-the-top, but there are some good points to remember in the article, so.)
“Is hummus good for you?“
“100,000 video game players helped prove Einstein wrong“.
How the brand-new expansion team Las Vegas Golden Knights got good enough to still be in the NHL Playoffs (3rd round). (Most successful expansion team of any sport, ever.)

Cookity

Gluten Free

Artsy Crafty

Cool

Cool or Wha…?

Wha…?

“Froot Loops are not all shaped like loops anymore“.
LaCroix swimwear.
Braspberries…

LOL

Teh Cute

Swans and cygnet! Black kitten!

Reading Update
Cowboys Are My Weakness by Pam Houston. Rereading is such a funny thing. I haven’t reread this for at least 20 years and remembered loving it – it really resonated with me then. Now? Not so much.
Once Upon a Piece of Paper: A Visual Guide to Collage Making by Andrea D’Aquino. Not much text at all, so it’s a fast read, and I got some great inspiration from it. But I can’t say that it was worth the price of purchase – maybe if I used every scrap of paper in the “paper to collage” pad that came with the book, but my track record on such things isn’t good.
My Monster Notebook by John Harris. Pretty good kids’ book about mythological monsters. (I have this to cut apart for collage and inadvertently read it.)

*staring into opposite distances* -Chaos & Mayhem

Small cat in the big cat bed, big cat in the small cat bed…

Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

In which linkity does not have a title

May 4, 2018 Chris 6 Comments

Bookity

New releases: Tor.com (scifi, fantasy) and Smart Bitches (romance)
Linkity from Smart Bitches.
Linkity from the Pen Addict.
Cover snark from Smart Bitches.
“18 powerful poetry books like Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur“.
50 books about nature and science.
100 fairy tale retellings.
“Five books about fandom“.
46 quotes from Octavia Butler.
Terry Pratchett’s notebooks from school.
38 bookish tshirts.

Think, Learn, Make, Do

Things you may not have known about the movie Jurassic Park.
If you’ve ever wondered whether vampires would prefer venous or arterial blood…
Yes, this. John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats nails it re the whole “incels” thing.
100 years of kitchen color trends.
Consumer Reports on vaccinations – both for kids and for adults.

Cookity

Gluten Free

Artsy Crafty

Cool

Cool or Wha…?

A conference table covered with a scene from Star Wars… made from 28,800 thumb tacks.

Wha…?

LOL

Teh Cute

Cute squeaky black kitty! Giant Eland and baby, plus sable antelope and baby!

Reading Update
Contents May Have Shifted: A Novel by Pam Houston. Very good story about a middle-aged creative writing instructor and outdoorswoman leading her life. The story unfolds in a series of vignettes – I thought that would annoy me, but it actually worked really well. Make sure you have a copy with the reading group guide in the back, so you can read “The Author on Her Work” after reading the book – it satisfyingly answered my questions about the story. 🙂

“TRYING TO SLEEP HERE.” -Chaos

Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

In which linkity lets you recover from last week’s “Wha…?” section

April 27, 2018 Chris 6 Comments

Bookity

Do, Think, Make, Learn

Cookity

Gluten Free

Artsy Crafty

Knitting linkity from kmkat.

Cool

Cool or Wha…?

Wha…?

“Fox is making a Choose Your Own Adventure movie the audience controls with smartphones“.

LOL

New Simon’s Cat film.
A new constellation!
Meteorologists. (Hover cursor/long-press for alt text.)
Misinterpretation. (Again with the hovering and all.)
Clutter. (Even more hovering.)
Being a Cake Wrecks reader. (NSFWish)

Teh Cute

Spring zoo babies! Baby fishing cat!

Reading Update
Creative Correspondence by Michael & Judy Jacobs. Good intro to making a variety of fun mail art. Includes directions for making paste paper – without having to cook paste.

“…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…” -Mayhem

You can see her fluffy white tummy tuft/bikini! 🙂

Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

In which linkity is hurtful to Minnesota

April 13, 2018 Chris 6 Comments

Hurtful, but true. STOP IT, MINNESOTA. (Another winter storm watch for this weekend! Total snow accumulation of 13 inches/33 cm possible…)

Bookity

New releases: Book Riot (audiobooks), AAR (romance), Smart Bitches (romance), and Tor.com (scifi, fantasy, genre-benders)
Linkity from Smart Bitches. More linkity from Smart Bitches.
Linkity from Inkophile.
Linkity from the Pen Addict.
Harry Potter-inspired photoshoot.
“The bodies of the girls who made me: Fanfic and the modern world” from Seanan McGuire.
Neil Gaiman on fanfiction – at least scroll down to the two small text chunks above the gif at the end, starting with “Then again…”

Think, Do, Learn, Make

Cookity

Gluten Free

Artsy Crafty

Definitely read this review before rushing out to buy the new Tombow Play Color Dot Markers. My favorite line: “Alas, I cannot dot all the things.”
Knitting linkity from kmkat.

Cool

Cool or Wha…?

“Harry Potter dream castle for sale in downtown Minneapolis” – and it’s right around the corner from the Minnesota Center for Book Arts! 🙂
LEGO mosaic of King Richard III.
Plush Dave Bowman (from 2001: A Space Odyssey).
MIT has a headset that listens to your thoughts.

Wha…?

LOL

Teh Cute

Kitten! Baby otters! Reindeer/caribou and baby! Baby clouded leopard! Sloth bear and babies!

Reading Update
The Art of Expressive Collage: Techniques for Creating with Paper and Glue by Crystal Neubauer. Reread: I appreciated this book more the second time and bumped my rating from three to four stars.

“Still no birds. Woe.” -Mayhem

Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

And linkity saw sunshine and it was good

March 30, 2018 Chris 8 Comments

Bookity

Linkity from Smart Bitches.
Linkity from the Pen Addict.
An intro to British cozy mysteries.
“Poems for when life is just hard“.
Bill Murray reading poetry. (via Book Riot)
Getting started with elfpunk. (Hmm, seems like the Borderlands series should’ve been mentioned…)
“Harry Potter and the battle for gun control“.
“Keeping a journal has real benefits, so choosing the right notebook for you is important“. (via Notebook Stories)
Oh, English.

Think, Do, Make, Learn

“A note about Russian propaganda on Tumblr“.
“I watched all 629 episodes of The Simpsons in a month. Here’s what I learned.” (via maderr)
Primer on David Bowie’s film career. (via Largehearted Boy)
“How ‘bad medicine’ dismisses and misdiagnoses women’s symptoms“. (via jmcbks)
Surprise – another human organ has been discovered.
“Your half-assed attempts at exercise are still really good for you“.
I am curious about the “Not-to-Do” list…
10-minute cleaning checklist (for unexpected company).
NASA astronauts answer questions about space.
“Why we finally feel betrayed by Facebook“.

Cookity

Gluten Free

Artsy Crafty

Cool

Listen to the water on the rocky shore of Lake Superior.
Minneapolis on St Patrick’s Day.
Rainbow pathway.
Spoken word by Shane Koyczan: “How to be a Person” and “Instructions for a Bad Day“.
(US) Regional gothic.
Linkity from kmkat.

Cool or Wha…?

Wha…?

LOL

Teh Cute

Bongo and baby! Baby penguin!

Reading Update
Collage Lab: 52 Experiments, Investigations, and Exploratory Projects by Bee Shay. Pretty much what it says on the tin! I liked the examples of the various experiments – I’ll definitely refer back to this one when I want to do a photo transfer using gel medium, for example. What I didn’t like was the tacit art knowledge that seemed to be required throughout the book. Reread: OMG, why not put the instructions in the same place for every lab?!

I call this one “Drowsing Chaotic Cat with Ears of Annoyance”.

Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

Linkity is just THRILLED to be under a winter storm warning

March 23, 2018 Chris 7 Comments

Learn a little bit more about me.

Bookity

Do, Make, Learn, Think

My money’s on Biden.
What Old Norse sounded like. (Blodeuedd, there’s a cowboy!)
Dick’s Sporting Goods takes a stand.
It’s not the fault of video games.
“We need to examine bias in how we talk about shooters and shooting victims“.
“18 thrilling stories you could only find on Tumblr“.
“What 100 calories of Easter candy looks like“.
Yesterday was World Poetry Day.
Check your smoke detectors…
Infant mortality by US state.
On STEM diversity.

Cookity

Gluten Free

Artsy Crafty

Knitting linkity from kmkat.

Cool

Cool or Wha…?

“‘Africa’ [by Toto] being played through a dead mall AP system“.

Wha…?

LOL

“The 11 seasons of Midwestern states“. SO TRUE.
“Doin’ Her Best Barbie“.
“The 1969 Easter Mass Incident“.
New Simon’s Cat!
Humor or simply truth: anxiety.
On being judgmental.

Teh Cute

Baby bat with the hiccups (video)! Polar bear and baby! Baby penguin! Dik-diks and baby!

Reading Update
Painting Your Way Out ofÂ Corner: The Art of Getting Unstuck by Barbara Diane Barry. Good book about using intuitive painting (whether or not you’ve ever painted before) to help you get past blocks in your life.

“Please bring back the birds, Mom. I miss them!” -Mayhem

(Soon. Very soon. I hope.)

Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

Linkity keeps drowsing off whilst typing, so that’s all for today, folks!

March 9, 2018 Chris 7 Comments

Bookity

New releases: Tor.com (scifi, fantasy)
Linkity from Smart Bitches.
“A condensed comic version of Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time“.
Winnie-the-Pooh quotes.
Jane Austen quotes.
Quotes about libraries.
Leia and Han as Beatrice and Benedick.
10 cool librarian shirts.
Haiku I wrote.

Do, Make, Learn, Think

“The real history of Daylight Savings Time“. Plus “How to fend off Daylight Savings Time fatigue“.
The NASA Guide to Air-Filtering Houseplants (plus a link to what plants are toxic to cats and dogs).
What’s up in NASA land for March.
Thundersnow (we had it earlier this week, too).
Some bad news about Omega3s.
Trailer for the Ruth Bader Ginsburg documentary.
A new penguin “supercolony” has been discovered.

Cookity

Gluten Free

Artsy Crafty

Cool

To remember.
Solar system and planets embroidery.
Walker Sculpture Garden in the snow.
Merriam-Webster’s time traveler page – what words were first used in print the same year you were born? For me: found poem, gastroesophageal reflux, big hair, bunny slope, art deco, multitasking, panic attack, paperless, ripple effect, unisex, zit… and many more.
Linkity from kmkat.

Cool or Wha…?

Wha…?

“Athletes are turning to leeches…”

LOL

Teh Cute

Baby penguins!

Reading Update
Art Journal Your Archetypes: Mixed-Media Techniques for Finding Yourself by Gabrielle Javier-Cerulli. My favorite part of this book was the archetypes quiz. I think that mine were spot on, too: artist, student, detective, engineer, rebel, scribe, and hermit.
Collage with Color: Create Unique, Expressive Collages in Vibrant Color by Jane Davies. Very good explanation of creating your own painted papers with watercolor and acrylic, then using those papers in collage. I liked the instruction parts of the book, but not so much the finished products.

“Are you sure those snowflakes aren’t really birds?!” -Mayhem

Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

Linkity is especially fond of today’s cat photo

March 2, 2018 Chris 8 Comments

After I continued to randomly mark large chunks of my feed as read trying to use the Feedly app for Android, I tried a bunch of other feed readers and have settled on Newsfold. It’s not fancy, but it does what I want a feed reader to do. So! *fingers crossed*

Bookity

Do, Think, Learn, Make

The history of the price tag.
“This mutant crayfish clones itself, and it’s taking over Europe“. That’s the amusing tumblr thread about it – here’s my fact checking link to Science.
We had a very snowy weekend here in Minneapolis. Very snowy.
“Bee stings and cow kicks kill way more Americans than sharks“.
A look at how different Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was from the rest of the Star Trek franchise.
Some journaling prompts from Lifehacker.
Good for you, Dick’s Sporting Goods.
Drunk History on Mister Rogers.
“Is coffee good for you?“
“Beyond hope and despair: Teaching climate change“.

Cookity

Gluten Free

Artsy Crafty

Knitting linkity from kmkat.

Cool

Cool or Wha…?

This is an interesting way to remember to do something… Wouldn’t it be easier to just set a reminder on your phone?!
Six degrees of Wikipedia.
Chopstick gallery.
Humorous horror short about a pet cemetery.

Wha…?

LOL

The stages of a cat yawn.
Dogs getting stuck in snow (video).
Interaction. (Hover/long-press cursor for caption.)
xkcd on The Simpsons. (Hover/long-press cursor for caption.)
Bill Murray, you might be onto something there re: the Olympics!
“This hero made himself a boyfriend out of boxed wine cartons“.
“If HAL9000 was Amazon.com’s Alexa“. (Thanks, Cheryl!) (vide0)

Teh Cute

Kittens (video)! Baby penguins! Baby penguin! Baby otter! Baby cheetahs!

Reading Update
The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere by Pico Iyer. Thoughtful look at being still and meditating, with unexpected Leonard Cohen.

“IÂ SAID I DON’T WANT MY PICTURE TAKEN!!!” -Chaos

“Oh s**t!!!” -Mayhem

Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

Linkity is trying to ignore the gently falling (again) snow

February 23, 2018 Chris 8 Comments

My usual mobile feed reader, gReader Pro, went wonky on me last weekend and wouldn’t connect to Feedly anymore. I switched to the Feedly Reader, which is ok, except… I keep making some motion that marks chunks of my feed as read and I can’t figure out how to turn that off. ARGH.

Bookity

Think, Make, Do, Learn

Congrats to the Team USA women’s hockey team!
“23 State Attorneys General sue the FCC to preserve Net Neutrality“. Very glad Minnesota’s AG was one of the 23.
Goodbye, Mars Phoenix Lander.
Thoughtful comic. (via maderr)
A brief history of the Walkman.
“Because unregulated capitalism values profit over human life and suffering“.
“How gender, language affect public discourse in the tRUMP era“.
“It’s time for the myth of the fanboy to fade“.
How cats defend their territory.
A bit about Swedish death cleaning.
“5 steps to strong bones“.
You can keep track of the Tesla Roadster on its journey.
“Learn computer concepts with IKEA-style diagrams“.

Cookity

Gluten Free

Quinoa stuffed cabbage rolls. (I must’ve missed the memo that it was cabbage recipe week on the internet.)
Air fryer buffalo cauliflower bites.
Healthy protein pancakes.

Artsy Crafty

Cool

Cool or Wha…?

Wha…?

LOL

Black kitty boys, whatcha gonna do…
xkcd on self-driving cars. (Hover cursor/long-press for caption.)

Teh Cute

“Zoos get into a brutal cute animal battle“. Tapir and baby!

Reading Update
Ask Me: 100 Essential Poems of William Stafford by William Stafford (Kim Stafford, ed). I had to jot down many phrases and entire poems in my notebook whilst reading this, and I’ve already made an art journal page for some of them…
Incredible Good Fortune: New Poems by Ursula K Le Guin. This was really mixed for me – I desperately wanted to love all of the poems, but only a few resonated with me.
Humans Wanted, edited by Vivian Caethe. Probably 2.5 stars. As with most collections, there were good stories and not-so-good stories. However, I don’t feel as if the book managed to capture the essence or magic of the “humans are so weird, but in a good way” post on tumblr. So if that’s what you’re hoping for….. 🙁

Stand-off/Stare-off on the exercise bike! O, teh dramaz!!!

Stumbling Over Chaos

Tag Archives: reviewettes

Whole lotta linkity goin’ on

Linkity apparently blinked and missed spring – suddenly it’s summer O.O

In which linkity does not have a title

In which linkity lets you recover from last week’s “Wha…?” section

In which linkity is hurtful to Minnesota

And linkity saw sunshine and it was good

Linkity is just THRILLED to be under a winter storm warning

Linkity keeps drowsing off whilst typing, so that’s all for today, folks!

Linkity is especially fond of today’s cat photo

Linkity is trying to ignore the gently falling (again) snow

Art journaling, reading, knitting, and cat parenting. It's a wild life.