Little things make me happy

[locusimperium]

[swan-archive]

locusimperium:

A few years ago, when I was living in the housing co-op and looking for a quick cookie recipe, I came across a blog post for something called “Norwegian Christmas butter squares.” I’d never found anything like it before: it created rich, buttery and chewy cookies, like a vastly superior version of the holiday sugar cookies I’d eaten growing up. About a year ago I went looking for the recipe again, and failed to find it. The blog had been taken down, and it sent me into momentary panic. 

Luckily, I remembered enough to find it on the Wayback Machine, and quickly copied it into a file that I’ve saved ever since. I probably make these cookies about once a month, and they last about five days around my voracious husband - they’re fantastic with a cup of bitter coffee or tea. I’m skeptical that there is something distinctively Norwegian about these cookies, but they do seem like the perfect thing to eat on a cold day. 

Norwegian Christmas Butter Squares

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 egg 1 cup sugar 2 cups flour 1 tsp vanilla ½ tsp salt Turbinado/ Raw Sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Chill a 9x13″ baking pan in the freezer. Do not grease the pan.

Using a mixer, blend the butter, egg, sugar, and salt together until it is creamy.  Add the flour and vanilla and mix using your hands until the mixture holds together in large clumps. If it seems overly soft, add a little extra flour. 

Using your hands, press the dough out onto the chilled and ungreased baking sheet until it is even and ¼ inch thick.  Dust the top of the cookies evenly with raw sugar.

Bake at 400 degrees until the edges turn a golden brown, about 12-15 minutes. Remove from the oven. Let cool for about five minutes before cutting the cooked dough into squares. Remove the squares from the warm pan using a spatula.

[brawltogethernow]

So I tried this recipe.

And it is GREAT.

It basically makes the platonic ideal of commercial sugar cookies, only in bar form. When I give them to people (which I do a lot, because this is one of those simple recipes where the results seem very impressive), I just tell them they’re sugar cookie bars.

[davetheshady]

Life hack: add white chocolate chips and sea salt

[fandomsandfeminism]

What Happens When A Country Bans Spanking?

Researchers look at countries that have prohibited corporal punishment for kids and their rate of youth violence.

Now a new study looking at 400,000 youths from 88 countries around the world suggests such bans are making a difference in reducing youth violence. It marks the first systematic assessment of whether an association exists between a ban on corporal punishment and the frequency in which adolescents get into fights. 

[puolikarhu]

[F]or both boys and girls, [prof. Elizabeth Gershoff] said, “We found [spanking] linked to more aggression, more delinquent behavior, more mental health problems, worse relationships with parents, and putting the children at higher risk for physical abuse from their parents.”

“People often ask: Why didn’t you look for positive aspects?” she continued. “My answer is: We did, and there were none. We see consistently that the more children are spanked, the more behavioral problems they have in the years ahead.”

[juggalokomaeda]

Visit Original Link

i put “All I Want for Christmas is You” through a MIDI converter, and then back through an mp3 converter

the result is this garbage

[red3blog]

I’m driving myself up the wall because I swear I can hear the vocal line but I don’t know how that could be if it was truly converted to MIDI. Unless you can replicate speech sounds entirely with modulated MIDI notes, in which case I’m actually impressed with this tire fire of an MP3.

[staff]

[exeggcute]

the holiday season is almost upon us and I’d like to bring back this absolute fucking monstrosity of an audio file

[llleighsmith]

i told ya we’ve canceled discourse n we’ve moved on to homesteading skills

[smartmurderation]

it’s just choppin wood and harvesting vegetables and herbs from here on out

[llleighsmith]

amen!

[barbarianarchy-deactivated20200]

unironically this

[pinetreeanarchism]

[frederick-the-ii]

Please hit me with more homesteading concept drawings

[saltrat88]

[unclebeanbag]

[the-aspiring-maverick]

Good reference material here.

[flavoracle]

My brain during sane hours of the day: “I have a good job with benefits, a stable social network with supportive friends and family, and I’m a nerd who thrives on advanced technology. Also, I dislike the taste of fish.”

My brain on Tumblr at 3:30am: “Y’know, abandoning all technology and leaving civilization behind looks like a lot of fun! And I could teach the kids how to build a fish trap!”

[filibusterfrog]

thanks for playing

(Cantrip scars)  

(1st level spell scars)

(2nd level spell scars)

(3rd level spell scars)

(4th level spell scars)

(5th level spell scars)

(6th level spell scars)

(7th level spell scars)

(8th level spell scars)

>9th lv spell scars

[rubyvroom]

This was the crossword puzzle in the New York Times yesterday. 

Tausig’s crossword is a so-called Schrödinger puzzle, named for the physicist’s hypothetical cat that is at once both alive and dead. In a Schrödinger puzzle, select squares have more than one correct letter answer: They exist in two states at once. “Black Halloween animal,” for example, could be both BAT or CAT, yielding two different but perfectly correct puzzles. Only 10 such puzzles have now been published in Times history.

It’s the theme of Tausig’s puzzle, though, that makes it special. Four entries in Thursday’s crossword can include either an “F” or an “M.” Both are correct; neither is wrong. For example, “Part of a house” can be either ROOF or ROOM. The long “revealer” answer, tying those select entries together and spanning 11 squares smack-dab in the middle of the puzzle, is GENDER FLUID.

This puzzle, with “M”s and “F”s that aren’t fixed, is a masterful blend of subject and structure. “It potentially really evokes what gender fluidity is, which is not moving back and forth between two poles, but actually not being committed to either pole, and potentially existing in many states at different times,” Tausig said.

[mournjargon]

This is … really cool.

[half-ace]

i never really thought of crossword puzzles as an art form, but like… this is art.

[caw-chan-deactivated20190226]

You know I had to do it to ´em

[thisneedshelp]

I couldn’t find any guides online that were quite what I wanted, so I made one. I created them to be viewable on my phone, so these should work on any phone bigger than 5″! Together we can end window switching. Hope this helps someone else

[transiting]

don’t make other people’s decisions for them. apply for the job you don’t think you’ll get. let them decide if you have the skills they’re looking for. tell that person you like them even though you think they’re out of your league. let them decide if they like you. stop trying to predict and control everything. bring what you have to the table. let the rest go.

[stimman3000]

.

[closet-keys]

them: you don’t watch game of thrones?? really? how come?

me: 

[closet-keys]

@scarcity-of-cats @annajanes

It’s called Unconsenting Media 

[shelikestowakeupandjustfakeit]

Oh my god, this is going on my list along with doesthedogdie.com

[tzikeh]

Holy shit that’s useful

[elfgirleargasm-deactivated20241]

I probably won’t find myself using this but for my followers: if you can’t handle this shit, USE THIS. If you think a movie or tv show may be hard to watch, do your homework.

[gif87a-com]

[keegansucks]

Modern day love story

[grlcurves]

my WHOLE fucking heart

[southernbitchface]

Bitch!

[thelongshorts]

Oooop I ACTUALLY did another odd crossover??  - this time with Zelda and The Incredibles. - (a parody of the infamous “Where’s my super suit?”-scene)

[fillianore-moved]

so metropolitan museum of art has a register of books they’ve published that are out of print and that you can download for free! they’re mostly books on art, archeology, architecture, fashion and history and i just think that’s super useful and interesting so i wanted to share! you can find all of the books available here!

[doggosource]

spinning predicament

[a-grim-grinning-ghost]

they’re so dumb i love them!

[elosilla]

[ecchymosess]

UM EXCUSE ME THOS E ARE FUCKING PIXELS HOW

[street-trash]

Seize the Day was a calendar program made by in 1994 by Buena Vista software. It features graphics that at the time, were revolutionary because of the way they handled color cycling. These images were static bitmaps, but by changing color values, they appear animated. What is also impressive about these images is that they had full day night cycles built in, rendered also through color cycling. A few years ago, a html5 version was made. A copy was uncovered online and there is a way to use the program through DOSbox. As well, one of the original programmers for the project, Iam Gilman, has thought of the idea of remaking it, open sourced, for modern machines.

[xeppeli]

thanks for writing a more elaborate explanation. i’ve seen these pictures be spread like wildfire without mention of the technology behind it.

[catchymemes]

Instagram: @maloart