Bookity

• New releases: AAR (romance) and Gizmodo (sff)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches. And some cover snark, too.
• Linkity from the Pen Addict. And the Buy Stamps edition.
• Linkity for Poetry Month (the day after Poetry Month ended, d’oh) from bookwyrmknits.
• Mary Oliver reciting “Wild Geese”.
• Preservation Week with Hennepin County Library.
• The Good Omens title sequence won three golds in the 2020 International Indigo Awards. I never skip the title sequence when I watch the show!
• Discworld is coming to tv.
• “Asexuality and the Baggins bachelors”.

Do, Make, Learn, Think

• Things to do if you’re bored.
• On owning (or rather, not owning) your ebooks and music.
• Keep busy helping scientists with research projects.
• Other video conferencing apps besides Zoom have privacy issues. And also, Google Meet will be free soon.
• Download and build free papercraft models of classic computers.
• “Only in 2020 could UFOs be confirmed and we are all unfazed”.
• Don’t jump.
• Mola mola.

Life in These Pandemic Times

• You can preorder Disney face masks.
• Me, masked.
• “Don’t let cognitive biases cause you to engage in risky public health behavior”.
• If you don’t read anything else from my post today, read the article to which he links.
• Good to remember. As is this.
• “Podcasts and webinars by subject matter experts.”
• “What we can learn from coziness culture about the art of staying home”.
• “A message of hope from Neil Gaiman”.
• “How coronavirus has changed Americans’ daily lives”.
• Why time has no meaning and we’re all so very tired.
• We’re trying.
• A positive spin on things.
• A sweet story of Tom Hanks, a kid named Corona, and a Smith Corona typewriter.
• One Brooklyn doctor’s coping method.
• Fanfiction is keeping many people sane right now. (via Book Riot) The Organization for Transformational Works (OTW), which runs AO3, just completed their April fund drive and exceeded their $130k goal by around $328k in five days.
• Linkity from kmkat. And more. And more!

Cookity

• 75+ dinner ideas for when you don’t want to cook.
• 17 “extra easy” dessert recipes.
• Strawberry rhubarb pie.

Gluten Free

• Brazilian cheese bread.
• Cream biscuits.

Artsy Crafty

• Knit a Doctor Who “Weeping Angel” scarf.
• Knitting linkity from kmkat.

Cool

• The cutest little bees you’ve ever seen.
• Centaur minifigs!
• Aspects of Barbie.

Cool or Wha…?

• Official Untitled Goose Game socks.

Wha…?

• Gerenuk.
• Online eye exams.
• The Flying Ford Pinto.

LOL

• NASA at home.
• “What’s something you can say during sex but also when you manage a brand Twitter account?” (NSFW)
• “A more accurate calendar for 2020 so far”.
• “Everyone’s an epidemiologist”. Hover cursor/long-press for caption.
• Flashback life hacks.
• “An advertisement for cats”.

Reading Update

• Rereading Good Omens fanfic. Reading too much news.

*zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…” -Mayhem

Thanks to my regular readers! I really appreciate your comments. Sending healthy thoughts out to all of you. 🙂

Bookity

• New releases: Tor.com (genre-benders, scifi, fantasy, YA SFF), Smart Bitches (romance), Gizmodo (SFF), AAR (romance)
• Linkity from the Pen Addict.
• Linkity from Smart Bitches (“Just good things”).
• Cover snark from Smart Bitches.
• 17 optimistic fantasies.
• “What to do if you CAN’T read right now”.
• Listen to LeVar Burton read Neil Gaiman.
• Watch Samuel L. Jackson read Stay the F— at Home.
• Other celebrities doing virtual story times.
• The illustrated “The Desk” by Stephen King (NOT HORROR).
• On the adults in Harry Potter.
• Simple and brilliant way to design fantasy world landmasses.
• Zoom/Lord of the Rings crossover.

Think, Learn, Make, Do

• How to be alone.
• “How to cope with isolation, according to an astronaut”.
• “It’s time to stop using your travel rewards credit card”.

Life in These Pandemic Times

• Yup. That’s what they’re really saying.
• “People’s lives or the economy – that’s a false dichotomy”.
• :facepalm:
• BOOM. And BOOM.
• Yes.
• If you don’t laugh, you’ll cry.
• SUE on the loose in the Chicago’s Field Museum.
• “I Won’t Go Out Today” – a quarantine lullaby.
• “Why you should keep a pandemic journal”.
• A letter from our future – author Francesca Melandri writing from Rome.
• “Why you should ignore all that coronavirus-inspired productivity pressure”.
• “When will grocery stores get back to normal?”
• Just another reason Hobby Lobby is awful. For shame, Michaels and Jo-Ann.

Cookity

• 10 easy 3-ingredient dinners.
• 10 dinner recipes using frozen vegetables.
• 40 simple recipes.
• Sweet potato coconut milk stew.
• Creamy white chicken caprese lasagna.

Gluten Free

• Sheet pan pancakes.
• Easy artisan bread.

Cool

• A brass quintet from the Minnesota Orchestra plays a socially distant tune.
• A fine Rube Goldberg machine indeed.
• Virtual Disney World.
• Linkity from kmkat.

Cool or Wha…?

• Cafe that makes it feel as if you’re in a cartoon.

Wha…?

• “Cops are wearing Covid-19 helmets as reality just gets weirder…”

LOL

• “Museum asks people to recreate paintings with stuff they can find at home”. Bored people getting creative!
• Untitled Goose gets artsy. (Start at the bottom for best effect.)
• Remember, one tiger length.
• Bubble people?
• Really good xkcd called “Pathogen Resistance”. Hover cursor/long-press for caption.

Reading Update

• Having trouble focusing to read, but I’m working on it.

*GLARING* -Mayhem

Um. Do you think Mayhem’s holding a grudge about me taking her in to the vet for her shots? And wow, was that bizarre – you park and call them. The tech calls and gets your info, then comes out to pick up your pet while you stay put. The vet examines your pet and calls you to discuss treatment, etc. Then reception calls to get your payment details and your pet is placed back in your vehicle with your receipt. Because the whole thing is somewhat disconcerting, I recommend writing things down and putting that in with the pet carrier for the tech.

Bookity

• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• Linkity from the Pen Addict.
• “Where to find free ebooks during the coronavirus shutdown”.
• Comforting things to read and watch (NPR).
• “Books in which no bad things happen”.
• “Books for when anxiety makes it hard to concentrate”.
• Daily Shakespeare readings from Sir Patrick Stewart.
• Some more tidbits about JRR Tolkien writing The Lord of the Rings.
• “Classic novels with added positivity”.

Think, Learn, Make, Do, STAY HOME

• “Physical distancing” is a more accurate term.
• “That discomfort you’re feeling is grief”. Some info on collective trauma.
• “Taking stock of strange days: The week that America changed”.
• “Why time no longer has meaning, according to science”.
• Really eerie and beautiful drone video of an empty Chicago.
• Drone videos of many more empty cities, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York City, and more.
• Yes.
• “We don’t need to spy on everyone to track the pandemic”.
• Snopes.com – real heroes.
• Stay home.
• If you want to better understand how staying home helps…
• From behind-the-scenes at a Dallas-Ft Worth grocery store.

Linkity from Angry Me

• The trolley problem.
• “It took a virus to show that our viciously greedy plutocracy is a moral atrocity.”
• Every time I think about this, I about ragesplode.
• BOOM.
• UGH.
• He’s a lying liar who lies. And HE is the dumb thing. Gosh, this is no surprise.
• People aren’t the problem. Capitalism is the problem.

Cookity

• 15 vegan slow cooker recipes.
• 17 simple soups.
• “20 ways to turn a baked potato into dinner”.
• One-pot creamy pumpkin pasta.

Gluten Free

• 20-minute chocolate lava cake.

Artsy Crafty

• Plague doctor crafts.
• Knit cat paws for your chairs.
• “Learning to knit and keeping in touch”.

Cool

• Michael Sheen reading “September 1, 1939” by WH Auden.
• “Covers from home: Music in a time of quarantine”.
• Emergency transmission from the Doctor (Who).
• Sculpture (make sure you press play).
• Mobius strip ship.
• Solar system art.
• Giant spooky animal art.
• The Uptown Theater gives excellent marquee.
• I wish.
• “If we could squeeze a galaxy, it would be this fluffy-looking one.”
• Chairs for dragons.

Wha…?

• “Taxidermy sheep cabinet based on the paintings of Salvador Dali”.

LOL

• Probably the most surreal supermarket ad EVER.
• I laughed out loud.
• “The New York Times is wrong, everyone wants to see your pet on video conference”.
• Collection of Covid-19 tweets – and a link to the previous ones at the bottom.
• Ouch!
• Monica Lewinsky wins the internet.
• “The reason I stayed in the house all day.”
• Time to double-check Revelations.
• When you look at it THAT way…
• This is now MY favorite gaming fact, too! Talk about thinking outside the box.
• If women’s products were marketed the same way Old Spice is…

Teh Cute

• This professor recording his classes. Black kitten!

“…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…” -Chaos

Bookity

• New releases: Smart Bitches (romance)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• Linkity from the Pen Addict.
• Quotes from Toni Morrison.
• “Neil Gaiman on notebooks and fountain pens“.
• Amusing bit from a letter between JRR Tolkien and WH Auden on the writing process.
• Celestial Harmonies, a Good Omens zine.
• What the Good Omens fandom is like.
• Read “Staying Behind”, a new short story by Ken Liu.
• Bookish cross stitch and embroidery.
• What if Mustrum Ridcully and Esmeralda Weatherwax were married?
• “‘Fandom Trumps Hate’ lets you bid on fanworks to support truly excellent causes”.

Learn, Do, Make, Think

• Um, what did they think would happen when the EU started negotiating trade agreements with the UK? A bit more detail.
• Behind the scenes of the original Star Wars movies.
• BOOM.
• “Which songs are definitely not about what people think they’re about?“
• Flashback to what people thought of YouTube at its beginning.

Cookity

• 57 winter soups.
• 10 quick, easy lunch recipes.
• 10 easy spaghetti squash recipes.
• Vegetarian pot pie.
• Easy rice pudding.
• Easy strawberry Eton mess.
• GF grasshopper brownies.

Artsy Crafty

• Knitting linkity from kmkat.

Cool

• Astronomical beadwork.
• I love this song.
• Creepy cool.

Cool or Wha…?

• Dalek coloring book.

Wha…?

• Most accursed cat bed ever?
• McDonald’s candles.
• “KidKraft playset connects with Alexa for baby’s first self-surveillance“.
• “The Boy Scouts just declared bankruptcy to avoid sex abuse lawsuits“.

LOL

• BOOM.
• Some Calvin & Hobbes.
• Candy hearts written by a neural net.
• It’s tough being an imaginary friend.
• How to improve Picard.
• Pretty much.

Reading Update
Good Omens fanfic, falalalalalala!

Skeptical panther princess has a skeptical. Also, her eyelash game is on point.