Contest(s)

• Becky Black’s giving away ebook and paperback copies of her books. Closes 18:00 GMT on January 14.

Bookity

• New releases: Fiction Vixen (romance), Tor.com (PNR), and Dear Author (romance)
• Book and publishing news from Dear Author.
• The New York Public Library added nearly 200,000 public domain images.
• The Three Laws of Fandom.
• The caption makes it.

Think, Do, Make, Learn

• I’ve totally seen these guys around.
• Badass wildlife watchers and photographers.
• I’m pretty sure that “New Zealand” is not a verb.
• Make yourself a magic mirror.
• Some of January’s unusual holidays.
• “25 things turning 25 in 2016“.
• The seventh row of the periodic table of elements is now complete.
• How depression is different from sadness.
• Air travel changes in 2016.
• Map of the universe.
• “Evolution explained as hilariously as possible“.
• Time to formalize the Anthropocene epoch?
• California declares a state of emergency for a massive natural gas leak that started in October 2015.

Cookity

• 16 healthier comfort food recipes.
• 13 lunch salads.
• Roasted butternut squash mole enchiladas. (via The Kitchn)
• Jicama shrimp salad.
• Sesame chicken celery root salad.
• Kohlrabi bistro salad.
• Thai chicken pasta salad. (via The Kitchn)
• Wild rice burgers.
• Snickerdoodle cupcakes. (via mackinnons)
• Oreo lava cakes. (via mackinnons)
• One-ingredient chocolate mousse.

Gluten Free

• Gluten-Free Goddess’ favorite winter recipes.
• Chili.
• Cauliflower tortillas.
• Baked “fried” chicken.

Artsy Crafty

• Knitting linkity from kmkat.

Cool

• Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Patrick Stewart on New Year’s Eve.
• Star Wars and Calvin & Hobbes mashup.
• Scrap metal sculptures.
• Love this bridge and poem.
• Some good words to start off 2016.
• Supercut of 2015’s rocket launches.
• Timelapse of storms on the high plains.
• Photos of a snowy owl taken by a traffic camera.
• Linkity from kmkat.

Cool or Wha…?

• 60 years of space junk accumulating in a minute.
• LEGO Cheerios machine.
• Smart frying pan.
• Bamboo and glass toaster.
• Inflatable hoodie.

Wha…?

• Oh, Alabama.
• “You can now make a LEGO head in your own image“.
• “Google Translate doesn’t call Russia Mordor. Anymore.“
• Pan with compartments so you can cook your eggs, bacon, pancakes, etc, simultaneously.
• Top hat with GPS.

LOL

• Meanwhile, on Lord of the Rings…
• xkcd on 2016. (Hover cursor/Long-press for the caption.)
• How to make reading the news more fun. (Hover cursor/Long-press for the caption.)
• Oh oh. (Hover cursor/Long-press for the caption.)

Teh Cute

• Baby tiger!

Reading Update
Stamp Stencil Paint: Making Extraordinary Patterned Projects by Hand by Anna Joyce. Ok look at embellishing decorative items by carving your own stamps, cutting your own stencils, and painting. I skimmed a lot of this one – I was hoping to pick up some tips on stamp carving or stencil making, but didn’t really.
The Art of Mistakes: Unexpected Painting Techniques and the Practice of Creative Thinking by Melanie Rothschild. Very good thoughts about creativity and the importance of playing and feeling free to make mistakes to the creative process. The section of art projects to help develop techniques for creative artistic play and experimentation felt like the weakest part of the book to me – I think the section could’ve been better integrated so its purpose was much more clear. That bit notwithstanding, this is one I’ll pick up used so I can reread and highlight all the quotes I jotted down during my first read. 🙂

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*all the judging* -Chaos and Mayhem