• Still chugging along, even slightly ahead on my word count, for NaNoWriMo.
• No linkity next week, November 23, due to the Thanksgiving holiday here in the US.
• Not sure if there will be linkity on the 30th – it really depends on how NaNo is going at that point! 🙂

Bookity

• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• Cover snark from Smart Bitches.
• Linkity from the Pen Addict.
• If you like serialized reading, you might like Radish.
• Gift ideas for readers.
• tRUMP’s terrible presidency book club.
• NaNoWriMo Day 8.
• Canon vs fanfic.
• The Marauders work to find a loophole in the “no student out of bed” rule.
• Tam Lin is “Beauty & the Beast’s older cooler cousin”.
• Writer’s block.

Learn, Do, Make, Think

• Letterlocking. (Thanks, Emma!)
• “The guiding principles of social justice are aimed at correcting and dismantling systems. Stop using them to dismantle people.“
• Is kindness contagious?
• My new Representative, Ilhan Omar.
• “What happens after an entire town burns to the ground?“
• “CNN meteorologist explains why…tRUMP is so wrong about California’s wildfires“.
• The way chip cards have been implemented in the US hasn’t led to less credit card fraud.
• The Humongous Fungus might be bigger than previously thought.
• “Please get some exercise, any exercise at all, new federal guidelines plead“.
• Stan Lee has died. Tor.com. The Mary Sue.
• Have you tried a “To Don’t” list?

Cookity

• 10 easy casseroles.
• Chickpea casserole with lemon, herbs, and shallots.
• One-pan cheesy chicken, broccoli, and quinoa.
• Flamin’ Hot Cheetos fried chicken bites.
• Brown sugar pound cake.
• Pumpkin icebox cake.
• Easy 5-ingredient pumpkin pie.
• No-bake 5-ingredient whipped pumpkin cheesecake.
• Pumpkin cobbler.

Gluten Free

• Cake mix chocolate chip cookies.

Artsy Crafty

• Scandal in the “yarner” community!
• Linkity from knittyBlog.
• Knitting linkity from kmkat.

Cool

• Yes, this. Stupid early snow.
• Proof Public (Minneapolis) is having an open house on November 18.
• “The ubiquity of smartphones“. (Thanks, Emma!)

Wha…?

• “How is that even something you find out you can do“.
• Nevada elected a dead brothel owner to office.

LOL

• “Lesser-acknowledged varieties of film appreciation“.
• The Museum of English Rural Life has a great online persona.

Teh Cute

• Tiger and baby!

Reading Update
The Labyrinth Index (Laundry Files #9) by Charles Stross. Ack. These are so complex now that I almost need to reread the entire series when each new book comes out. Mental note to do that before the next one… This one was mainly from Mhari’s POV after the shocking developments of book 8 have had a chance to sink in a little bit.

“Back off, Mom! Sheesh!” -Mayhem

Bookity

• New releases: Smart Bitches (romance) and AAR (romance)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• Linkity from the Pen Addict.
• Linkity from Inkophile.
• Quotes from Ursula K Le Guin. Her legacy.
• “How to set up a Little Free Library in your neighborhood“.
• “Lloyd Alexander’s Chronicles of Prydain tells a fresh story with old tropes“.
• “If Harry had gotten a less conventional, but more loving family…“
• Another version of Rapunzel.
• A man builds a humble temple in his field…
• Quite the lineup this amateur cricket team had.
• On how many more distractions writers face now than, say, Charles Dickens did.
• Book-themed cupcake liners.

Think, Learn, Make, Do

• “The cognitive biases that convince you the world is falling apart“.
• It’s the 235th anniversary of the first piloted balloon flight.
• That time Abraham Lincoln was almost in a broadsword duel.
• There are blue bees in the world! I had no idea.
• “Universities didn’t ‘turn left’; they stayed committed to rational thought”.
• The State of the Union address broke a fact-checking site. Stephen Colbert and Trevor Noah’s analysis of said address.
• “…the real-world logistics of fighting in a ball gown”, using Disney princesses as examples.
• Is Minneapolis a “new American style hub”?
• Mediterranean cruise timelapse.
• Tom Hanks will star as Mister Rogers.

Cookity

• Green vegetable slow cooker soup.
• Slow cooker vegetarian chili.
• 10 healthy vegetarian dinners.
• Mexican restaurant style cauliflower rice.
• 10 cauliflower recipes.
• 20 salmon recipes.
• Acorn squash egg-in-a-hole.
• New Mexico green chile cheeseburgers in queso.
• Loaded savory breakfast muffins.
• How to make a Minnesota classic: the Juicy Lucy.
• Customizable everyday cake.
• Bittersweet chocolate pudding.

Gluten Free

• Three-ingredient oatmeal cookies.
• Flourless butterless poppy seed cake.
• Vegan pancakes.

Artsy Crafty

• The Snowfire DK Blanket is gorgeous… and I’m absolutely sure that it exceeds my acceptable level of fiddliness for knitting.
• Tips for finding your art journaling style.
• I am agog at how steady this artist’s hands are.
• Knitting linkity from kmkat.

Cool

• Gryphons of various types.
• Lovely photo of downtown Minneapolis.
• This is a feeling that never goes away, no matter how many years you live here.
• If werewolf films were written by women…
• Darth Vader visits some distant relatives for Life Day…
• Scientists reviewing Amazon products that they’ve used in their work.
• Ha! I appreciate the Guggenheim’s sense of humor.
• Linkity from kmkat.

Cool or Wha…?

• Disco ball inside a light bulb.
• A Wrinkle in Time Barbie dolls.

Wha…?

• Watermelon car.
• “United Airlines prevents woman from traveling with emotional support peacock“.
• Replica video store.

LOL

• The importance of the Oxford comma.
• Spacing is also important.
• Hugh Jackman when asked, “Won’t you miss looking like Wolverine?”
• Diving would be VERY DANGEROUS.
• If Quentin Tarantino made Star Trek…
• Autocorrect and work.
• Cake Wrecks and The Princess Bride.

Teh Cute

• Black cats or Toothless?
• The happiest and most ridiculous raccoon?

Reading Update
The Merchant’s War (Merchant Princes #4) by Charles Stross. I think I’m going to use my status update from finishing this book as my review: “OMG, another cliffhanger. I have the next two ebooks on hand (bless you, library), but I have to sleep. And these are not short books. But the suspense! At least I know things have to be tied up by the end of the next two books, since that ends the series…
The Revolution Business (Merchant Princes #5) by Charles Stross. How can the intensity just continue to build like this?! Anyway, yeah, another cliffhanger, so make sure you have the next book on hand.
The Trade of Queens (Merchant Princes #6) by Charles Stross. This was a white-knuckle read right until the very end! Whew. It feels like this series was heavily influenced by the way the world turned after 9/11… Also, willful ignorance and refusing to change/adapt can be extraordinarily dangerous to those around you…

“It’s your fault he’s like this, Mom.” -Mayhem

“What’s a cat gotta do to get fed around here?!?!??????” -Chaos

Bookity

• New releases: Tor.com (genre benders, scifi, fantasy) and Smart Bitches (romance)
• Cover snark from Smart Bitches.
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• Linkity from Inkophile.
• The Merriam-Webster Dictionary trolling tRUMP on Twitter…
• “Cheeky library signs”.
• Yeah, pretty much. On 1984 being a surprise best seller.
• Book dinosaurs.

Do, Make, Think, Learn

• Airport protests. (via darkhorse99)
• On the dangers of saying tRUMP must have a narcissistic personality disorder.
• “Art is a political act”.
• I myself am a new ACLU member…
• Some of February’s unusual holidays.
• “Security and the internet of things”.
• “Your bra size is a myth”.

Cookity

• Garlicky steak and veggie bowls.
• Korean-style beef and broccoli bowl.
• Taco casserole.
• Oven-baked green bean fries.
• 25 “cozy” breakfast recipes.
• Chocolate sweet potato frosting.

Gluten Free

• Paleo granola.
• Crepes.
• Chocolate banana bread.

Artsy Crafty

• Knitting linkity from knittyBlog.
• Knitting linkity from kmkat.

Cool

• “Milliners for the Resistance”.
• The Minneapolis City Hall looks sort of malevolent in this tRUMP protest photo.
• Resist.
• Vintage posters for national parks.
• Nature sculptures made from old cds.
• Mountain of cats.
• Linkity from kmkat.

Wha…?

• “US bacon reserves hit 50-year low“. (We have bacon reserves?!)
• Kit Kat sushi.
• Sesame Street tRUMP.
• It was apparently all Delta’s fault.
• $18,000 coffee maker.
• Add a tiny soundproof room to your life.

LOL

• Dear kitties…
• Michelle Obama!
• xkcd with sugar equivalencies… (Hover/long-press for additional text.)
• Comparing birds/planes/Superman. (Hover/long-press for additional text.)
• Funny short scifi film.
• Lord Dampnut. 🙂
• Trying to take your cat to the vet.
• Autocorrect and cake.

Teh Cute

• Otters and babies! Bird imitating R2D2! Baby bat! Baby polar bear!

Reading Update
Wireless by Charles Stross. Good collection of scifi short stories, including one from the Laundry Files (which I’d already read as a separate ebook). Some of these were mindbending. As always with Stross, I skimmed all of the technobabble and jargon. 🙂
The Atrocity Archives (Laundry Files #1), The Concrete Jungle (Laundry Files #1.5), The Jennifer Morgue (Laundry Files #2), Down on the Farm (Laundry Files #2.5), and Equoid (Laundry Files #2.9) by Charles Stross. Rereading the Laundry Files, which are mostly from the first-person point-of-view of applied computational demonologist Bob. I’m just linking to the series on Goodreads – if you’re curious, you can find my reviews from there. 🙂

“…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…” -Chaos

Congrats to Karen M, who won The Rainbow League series by Kate McMurray – including the third book, The Long Slide Home, which is being released today by Dreamspinner Press.

Randonymity

• Art journal pages.

Bookity

• New releases: Fiction Vixen (romance), AAR (romance), and Dear Author (romance)
• Book and publishing news from Dear Author.
• Writerly and bookity linkity from Becky Black.
• “World’s coolest bookstores“. (via Book Riot)
• “100 actual titles of real eighteenth century novels“. (via demotu)
• But it will be glorious until he figures it out!
• Take this quiz to get a ranking of your preferred fanfic tropes.

Think, Learn, Make, Do

• The 11 nations of the US and their different cultures. (via wilwheaton)
• “Bill Nye explains the science behind exploding spaghetti“.
• The first entire octopus gene has been sequenced. Octopus with unusual mating habits. Octopus that’s unusually social in the lab.
• “Watch an Amazon fulfillment center in action“.
• “20 strange things found lurking in the sewer“.
• Learn 15 things about Oreos.
• How much more sick do families with kids get than the rest of us?
• Best political ad ever?

Cookity

• 16 blueberry recipes.
• 20 recipes using peanut butter.
• Spicy Thai salad.
• Sri racha-lime corn salad.
• Slow cooker chicken burrito bowls.
• Crustless quiche with summer vegetables.
• Tostadas with smoky sweet corn hummus. (via The Kitchn)
• Chocolate zucchini muffins.
• Espresso fudge brownies with mocha swirl cookie dough. (via anna-sugarfairy)
• S’mores brownies.
• Chocolate overload s’mores cheesecake. (via The Kitchn)
• Orange Julius.

Gluten Free

• Savory fresh corn cakes.
• Key lime pie bars.

Cool

• A new music video from Chris Hadfield for “Feet Up”.
• Video of the moon transiting the earth.
• International Space Station photobomb.
• Photos of the Perseid meteor shower.
• Explore the surface of Mars.
• Short film about a woman stuck in a time loop.
• 20 minutes of kite flying in a minute.
• Baby hummingbird live video stream.
• Tea dragons. (via Tor.com)
• Vincent van Buffalo.

Cool or Wha…?

• Girl Scout cookie flavored granola bars.
• “6 bizarre museums you can visit from the comfort of your desk“.
• A kindergarten shaped like a cat.

Wha…?

• Wheaties beer.
• Pecan pie M&Ms.
• Ramen ice cream.
• Laptop scratching post.
• iRobot automatic lawnmower.
• Foot orgasm symptom.
• Apparently you can still request trial by combat in New York.

LOL

• What it’s like to be an introvert. (Thanks, Jase!)
• This cat’s living the dream.
• Oh oh.

Teh Cute

• Baby red pandas! Lions and babies! Moose!

Reading Update
The Annihilation Score (Laundry Files #6) by Charles Stross. A very good addition to the series, this book was from Mo’s perspective (instead of Bob’s) as her life changes direction abruptly – possibly more than once even. Life is unpredictable when you wield a possessed violin made from human bone… I can’t help but notice that many of the lower ratings on Goodreads are from men and have to wonder a bit about that, what with this book having a strong female protagonist. :/

“Why are all of you upside down again?! You’re just so silly!” -Mayhem