Female asses are… mysterious creatures. ~David Attenborough

The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel. ~Steve Furtick

Acquire inner peace and a multitude will find their salvation near you. ~Catherine De Hueck Doherty

What makes you vulnerable makes you beautiful. ~Brené Brown

Watching the moon at dawn, solitary, mid-sky, I knew myself completely: no part left out. ~Izumi Shikibu

You’re going to mess up sometimes. But the good part is, you get to decide how you’re gonna mess it up. ~Marilyn Monroe

Self-respect is the fruit of discipline. ~Abraham Joshua Heschel

You are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing. ~E. E. Cummings

The most valuable possession you can own is an open heart. The most powerful weapon you can be is an instrument of peace. ~Carlos Santana

He has drawn back, only in order to have enough room for his leap. ~Friedrich Nietzsche

Much like how a flock of crows is called a “murder,” a collection of mistakes is called a “life.” ~Robert Bennett

When it comes right down to it, all you have is your self. Your self is a sun with a thousand rays. ~Picasso

When we are gentle with ourselves, we are naturally gentle with others. ~Sakyong

BUT FIRST, I would like to let you all know that I now have a Pinterest account, where there are many shiny things. Come see!

This Week’s Shinies:

• First Transgender to be Ordained as Catholic Priest – Progress! Huzzah!
• R’ha, a Scifi Short Film – This is freaking amaaazing! And NO HUMANS.
• Billions of Earthlike Planets in Milky Way – *geeks out!*
• The Rainbow Serpent…s
• World’s largest natural sound archive now fully digital and fully online.
• 1912’s Perfect Woman Was From Brooklyn, Weighed 171 Lbs, Had Pear-Shaped Body – This. Yes.
• A sweet, slightly sad comic about friend-love.
• MCA Hogarth’s Year Round-Up – If you want to know how an indie author/artist makes her monies, this is a refreshing insight into the work it takes.
• Draenei Barbershop, by Kyoht – Because I am still a WoW geek. =3
• How to say “Happy New Year!” in approximately a zillion languages. – I know it’s a bit belated, but I still think it’s awesome.
• Writing is for the Heart-Broken
• Tolkien on Language Invention
• Real Spaceman Tweets to Fake Spaceman, From Space – So much geekery, so much love.
• Female Parkour on Youtube – Jaw-droppingly, heart-stoppingly amazeballs.
• Moments That Restored Our Faith in Humanity – or made us cry like babies. Ahem.
• Supporting authors when your heart is bigger than your wallet
• Receive a personalized piece of new artwork in your mailbox every month! – An extremely affordable offering from a very talented artist!
• Tor Reviews Good Books – And Wants Recs – Specifically, in fact, recommendations of books by or featuring women and/or genderqueer people. :D!
• Real Book Tea – O_O
• A Quick Checklist for Books Reviews – Useful for those of us less-accustomed to leaving thinky reviews!
• WTF, Evolution – “Evolution, you are drunk. Go home.”

Current Earworm: Wolf by First Aid Kit. I cannot get this out of my head!

This Week’s Shinies:

• Dave’s Mapper – A dungeon/city/map generator with a great hand-drawn feel!
• Stars (requires Chrome!) – This is jaw-dropping and just… I LOVE SPACE YOU GUYS
• Celebrating Women in Tech: Grace Hopper – She invented the first code compiler!
• How eBooks Saved My Father’s Reading – This is a pretty awesome thing. :D
• Photos from Seattle’s First Day of Marriage Equality – Yep, I got misty-eyed.
• Hack The Cover – On designing a good ebook cover.
• Dogs Can Drive – Yes, literally. O_O!
• Cheetahs in Super Slow-Mo
• The Star Trek Medical Tricorder Is Real – !!! Why hello, Future, please do come in.

Current Earworm: Forever One by Kobra and the Lotus, thanks to my sister seeing them live as an opening band recently!

The Friday Quote:

Don’t let your struggle become your identity. ~Ralston Bowles

Instagrams of the Week:

In the spirit of the season! Our in-progress tree, and OH MY GOD IT SNOWED A TINY TINY BIT THIS IS INCREDIBLE BECAUSE IT’S TEXAS:

This Week’s Shinies:

• Sample Issue of New Language Magazine – *geeks out*
• Ancient Greek Sky vs Ancient Chinese Sky – Because starmaps are always beautiful, and the cultural differences are amazing.
• Lexember – A new conlang word every day for December! What’s not to love?
• Earthrise by MCAH – A new scifi serial, free to read and already awesome!
• Poseidon never looked this good.
• A very odd gait. – The video is… well, kind of surreal!
• This is your brain. This is your brain on harmony.
• World’s oldest D20.

The Friday Quote:

Life is like music; it must be composed by ear, feeling, and instinct, not by rule. ~Samuel Butler

Instagrams of the Week:

On the left, you have my friend from the third floor balcony of my workplace; on the right, you can see what a well-insulated nap I had! (Two dogs, two cats, one me, and one panda pillow.)

This Week’s Shinies:

• Swedish Toy Catalogue Delightfully Reverses Genders in Toy Ads – BEST. BEST BEST BEST.
• The Boy With Tape On His Face – Comedy… in silence! I love this.
• PVC Pipe Instrument – A guy makes an instrument out of PVP pipes and plays a ton of recognizable snippets from favorite songs. I WANT ONE OF THESE.

Current Earworm: “A Simple Song,” played on a five-octave mbira ohmygod.

The Friday Quote:

If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I see my life in terms of music. ~Albert Einstein

Instagrams of the Week:

We placed a new bead order from our wholesaler, and ohmygoodness. The photo on the left isn’t even showing all of them – there’s more in the box!

• Two lesbian YA eZines/anthologies now released! – I cannot even tell you how good the writing is, how open-hearted the authors are, and how much I loves these stories and this project.
• Take What You Need – Seen at a gas station. I love this.
• Discover your Elvish horoscope! – Yes, as in Tolkien’s elves. This is hilarious and great.
• Author Elizabeth Gilbert on creativity, anxiety, and genius.

Current Earworm: The entire OceanLab album called Sirens of the Sea, including Just Listen.

The Friday Quote:

You’re only given a little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it. ~Robin Williams

Instagrams of the Week:

A breath of fresh air.

• Where Do I Start Reading? – One of my favorite authors, MCA Hogarth, has a super-helpful page for those who want to dive into her works. \o/
• How I Learned A Language In 22 Hours – This was my introduction to…
• Memrise – Making memorization fun and gamelike!
• San Francisco Becomes First City To Offer Free Trans Surgery – *jawdrop* SanFran, you kick ass.
• 3 Jaguars Web Comic Kickstarter – Awesome for the art, the stories, and the author-artist. Also, jaguars!
• Combat Kitchenware – This is quite possibly the awesomest thing ever.
• Magicians – A Language-Learning RPG – Korean mythology and language, in convenient bite-sized RPG form. I could ask for nothing more!

Current Earworm: Melissa Ferrick: Headphones On – HOW HAVE I GONE THIS LONG WITHOUT KNOWING ABOUT THIS WOMAN HOLY CRIKEY

The Friday Quote:

Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens. ~Epictetus

Instagrams of the Week:

My redonkulously adorable dogs. BB on the left, Orion on the right.

• Illiterate Ethiopian children, given new tablets with zero instructions, hack them in five months. – We are some crazy-smart monkeys, guys.
• More People Should Write – This, so hard, this.
• Google’s Self-Learning Neural Network Knows What A Cat Is… Without Human Interference – Skynet, now with lolcats!
• What Kings Ate and Wizards Drank (by Krista D. Ball) – I admit, I love the sound of this, and want it. :D
• A message to everyone doing NaNoWriMo this year!
• Elephant Speaks Korean Outloud – Whaaaat. Awesome.
• Scientists further prove their geekery by naming new T-Rex-sized dinosaur after Sauron.
• Dad hacks Zelda to change Link’s sex so his 3 y/o daughter can play a female hero.
• Four teenaged African girls have created a urine-powered generator. – Amazing and useful.

Current Earworm: Miracle of Sound: Little Sister – This isn’t a new-to-me song, but I love the musicality, and it’s fun to sing with, so it gets to be this week’s earworm.

The Friday Quote:

Say good things to everyone. Treat everyone with total respect, and it will all come back. ~Bob Proctor

Instagrams of the Week:

Shots from my new workplace! On the left, faux-sunlight strips (picture taken at night! I LOVE THESE THINGS) and on the right, one of my cubicle companions with the spoils of (Nerf) war. :D

• “Ask Me About My T-Rex” t-shirt – I desperately need this.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Historical Artists – PRICELESS.
• Sunset at 30,000 Feet – not my instagram! but oh so lovely.
• Dice Rings Kickstarter – If nothing else, watch the video; it’s hilarious!
• Broad Spectrum Universe Sampler – Free fiction featuring fearless females? Yes please!
• This is the best version of the “whatever doesn’t kill me” quote yet.
• “In The Garden, I Did Not Sin” – Free lesbian short story! And, of course, beautifully written.

Current Earworm: Florence + The Machine: Seven Devils – This is the sole inspiration for my NaNoWriMo novel.

The Friday Quote:

Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely. ~Auguste Rodin

Instagrams of the Week:

In honor of NaNo, my writing buddies:

• The most adorable fruit bats in the world!
• Fabulous author-artist MCA Hogarth has just launched a how-to Kickstarter book with tons of data.
• The best-dressed Victorian centaur ever.
• A space weather forecast!
• Some fabulous free PDFs/books on ancient Egypt: from the Brooklyn Museum, from the Met Museum, and from the American University in Cairo Press. :D!

Current Earworm: Muse: Follow Me – I am so in love with this song right now.

The Friday Quote:

As a curse, “fuck you” is just so passé nowadays. I propose “may you never be fucked again” for greater offense. ~The Angsty Magician

Instagrams of the Week:

In honor of the season: the pumpkin my partner acquired, and our backyard trees.