Lrbever

fish-with-a-knife:

The first cats of spring emerge

Now this was a pleasant surprise to find in my mailbox after a long day at work!

A little under two years ago—after the extremely successful Kickstarter campaign for the original Bronies: The Unexpected Fans of My Little Pon—an indiegogo for what was known then as Bronies: The Unreleased Tapes.

Unfortunately, the project kept seeing delay, after delay, after delay. Until finally the whole thing was released in 12 parts on youtube under the banner Bronies 2: More Unexpected Fans of My Little Pony.

So, for those of you who backed the campaigned, or pre-ordered the DVD separately after the fact, keep an eye on your mailbox! It should be showing up soon!

awwww-cute:

He likes to sleep like this 

[reddit]

If you find yourself collecting the Aurora plushies, Celestia has popped up over at Toy Fair 2015.  As with everything else announced there, expect her later in the year at some point to join that Luna you have.


Thanks to James for sending it!
Image Source

One of the PS Vita’s most darling indie games, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, is getting a massive overhaul in the middle of this year. Developer Edmund McMillen, also of Super Meat Boy fame, has broken down the contents of the incoming expansion, which he colorfully titles Afterbirth.

Thanks for that, McMillen. Here is what Afterbirth is going to include.

• 100+ new items
• a full new game mode that will totally change how you play
• 10 new challenges
• a new playable character
• a new alternate final chapter
• new alt floors
• new game endings
• new final bosses
• tons of new bosses and enemies
• new item pickups, cards, pills, etc.
• tons of new achievements and rewards for beating the game on hard
• new co-op babies
• new transformations

Overall, McMillen claims that the expansion will ”easily extend the gameplay time by another 100-200 hours.” In the meantime, Sony is having trouble getting its $60 AAA retail game The Order: 1886 to hit 3 hours of gameplay!

On top of the content, McMillen is also experimenting with different modes of play including a boss rush mode called “Sonic,” which gives the player 99 coins that scatter whenever damage is taken. In line with the classic Sonic the Hedgehog games, Isaac will have to scoop up as many as he can to survive another hit.

Other gameplay modes include a turbo mode, a blindfold mode, a mode which randomizes items upon each room change, and a ”High Rule” mode which will start Isaac off with a knife, shield and a boomerang. These might not make the expansion, but they are something he has been dabbling in recently.

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth has been a sensation for the indie gaming crowd, and many are reporting to have sunk several hundred hours into it. I’ve dabbled in it, and I can easily see the appeal, but I have yet to be captured like so many others have. The problem is I’ve only played it on the PlayStation 4, and it is clearly a game designed with a mobile “play anywhere at any time” mentality.

If I get this on my Vita, my guess is you could push back my entire backlog for yet another year.

Source: The Binding of Isaac

Via Grammarly –

In the the past 40 years, New Jersey resident Bill Bresnan has written over 10,000 love letters, notes and cards to his wife Kirsten – that’s almost one for each night of their marriage. The couple’s unique love story was recently covered by the media, and Bill and Kirsten, both 74, spoke about the secrets of their successful marriage.

The couple met when Bill was teaching a class back in 1974, and Kirsten happened to be his student. “She was this beautiful Northern European woman who struck me like a bolt of lightning,” Bill said in an interview with ABC News.

“Not long after meeting in class Kirsten and I began commuting to and from Long Island, together, on the Long Island Railroad.” And that’s when the practice of writing notes began. “We exchanged notes, drawings, and little scribblings on paper napkins over coffee on the train.”

Facebook on Thursday announced that it’s adding a new “Legacy Contact” option for its users that allows them to pick a special contact who will decide what to do with their Facebook page, profile, messages and more when you pass away. It also allows them to make your page a memorial for you, for others to visit and to remember you.

After someone has contacted Facebook alerting the company about a death, Facebook will turn control of the account to the pre-selected Legacy Contact. That person will be able to do the following, according to Facebook:

• Write a post to display at the top of the memorialized Timeline (for example, to announce a memorial service or share a special message)
• Respond to new friend requests from family members and friends who were not yet connected on Facebook
• Update the profile picture and cover photo

There’s still a level of privacy, however — your Legacy Contact won’t be able to actually log in as you and so won’t be able to view your private messages, Facebook explained. They can, however, download all of your photos — should you grant permission to do so — and posts, so that everything is saved for history. 

You don’t have to choose a Legacy Contact of course, and you can instead have Facebook delete everything when you pass away – throwing all of those memories into the wind.  It’s a neat idea, though. Who’s going to be my Legacy Contact?

Source: Facebook

submitted by Myrandall [link] [1 comment]

A few years ago, someone created a Facebook event page for “Jesus, Take the Wheel” Day. It encouraged Christian drivers to remove their hands for a total of five minutes on the highway on a particular day and let Jesus control the car.

That turned out to be a joke (thankfully), but Mississippi legislators may soon pass a very real bill that lets people get behind the wheel of a vehicle they have no business driving… as long as it’s church-owned:

House members on Thursday [Feb. 5] passed a bill exempting mid-sized church buses from the state’s commercial driver’s license requirements, prompting one lawmaker to call it the “Jesus Take the Wheel Act.”

The bill, HB 132, would help congregations lacking a CDL-certified driver transport up to 30 passengers in a church-owned vehicle…

…

Current law requires CDL-certified drivers for any vehicle transporting more than 16 passengers, including the driver. The bill would amend that law to exempt church buses designed to carry 30 passengers or less.

It’s a ridiculous and potentially-harmful exemption. Keep in mind that obtaining a CDL license isn’t that hard. You simply have to pass a written test, a driving test, and a physical exam.

True story: When I worked at a high school, I was trained to drive a mini-bus, just in case I ever needed to use one as a head coach. It required spending a little time behind the wheel (with supervision) and watching a best-practices video. There’s no way the school would have allowed me to drive the small bus without at least that basic training, because it would have put kids’ lives in jeopardy.

This Mississippi bill would let church leaders drive a much larger bus with absolutely no formal training at all. It’s religious privilege gone too far.

When contacted by The Clarion-Ledger, longtime CDL-certified driver Troy Coll of Hattiesburg called the measure potentially dangerous.

“I think this bill is trading the safety of everyone on the road for the convenience of those operating church vehicles,” Coll said. “Since the bill covers vehicles up to 30 passengers, we’re not just talking vans with extra rows of seats — these are buses, with long frames and much larger blind spots than passenger vehicles.”

If state officials care so little about the safety of passengers in these church-owned vehicles — and the people who have to be on the road with these drivers — they may as well just pass a bill allowing Jesus to take the wheel.

(Image via Shutterstock. Thanks to Brian for the link)

One more from the latest New Yorker:

sherlockandspockinthetardis:

This is the best spiderman movie ever 

[twitter]

Flourless Bacon Chocolate Cookies

One of my favorite cookies is the classic Flourless Chocolate Walnut Cookie recipe by renowned New York City patissier Francois Payard. Making the decision to baconify such a classic, traditional recipe was a daunting one, but the result was simply amazing. The sweet, nutty, rich chocolate flavor of these cookies are the perfect vehicle for adding the savory, smoky flavor of bacon.

Ideally, a flourless chocolate cookie should be a delectable combo of soft, chewy and slightly crisp textures. You’ll need high-quality, Dutch-process cocoa powder to deliver the rich, chocolatey flavor of these cookies. You won’t believe that there’s no flour or butter in them. In fact, there’s no dairy or gluten in these cookies, so if you know anyone who is on a gluten-free or dairy-free diet, pass this recipe along. It’s the perfect recipe for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day or make a batch for a birthday for a chocolate and bacon lover.

Adapted from this recipe by Francois Payard.

Makes sixteen 4-inch cookies
Ingredients:

½ cup cooked, finely chopped bacon
1 tsp. Wrights hickory liquid smoke (optional)
1/2 cup plus 3 Tbsp. Dutch-process cocoa powder
3 cups confectioners’ sugar
Pinch of salt
2 3/4 cups walnuts, toasted and roughly chopped
4 large egg whites, at room temperature
1 Tbsp. pure vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Place a rack each in the upper and bottom thirds of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F.

2. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

3. Combine the cocoa powder, confectioners’ sugar, salt, walnuts and cooked bacon bits in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed for 1 minute.

4. With the mixer running, slowly add the egg whites, vanilla and liquid smoke.

5. Mix on medium speed for 3 minutes, until the mixture has slightly thickened. Do not overmix it, or the egg whites will thicken too much.

6. With a 2-ounce cookie or ice cream scoop or a generous tablespoon, scoop the batter onto the prepared baking sheet, to make cookies that are 4 inches in diameter.

7. Scoop 5 cookies on each pan, about 3 inches apart so that they don’t stick when they spread. If you have extra batter, wait until the first batch of cookies is baked before scooping the next batch.

8. Put the cookies in the oven, and immediately lower the temperature to 320°F.

9. Bake for 14 to 16 minutes, or until small thin cracks appear on the surface of the cookies.

10. Switch the pans halfway through baking.

11. Pull the parchment paper with the cookies onto a wire cooling rack, and let cool completely before removing the cookies from the paper. Store in an airtight container for up to 2 days.

The post Flourless Bacon Chocolate Cookies appeared first on Bacon Today.

Not in the mood to do math or shuffle around pieces on a physical board? The Monopoly game on the Xbox Live Marketplace looks to be adding some My little Pony DLC soon.  The exact description:

The Rainbow power invades Monopoly! Add some fun, friendship and joy on your board with My Little Pony. This DLC contains a whole customized board with an animated token. It's time to saddle up for the rainbow power and Monopoly! 

 Can you keep friendships intact with a cutthroat game like this though?! I've seen many a bank be flipped when things were going badly. 

Find it over here. 

Thanks to James for the heads up.

Hope you all are ready with some warm clothes over there.  It's OCTAVIA time, and she's not messing around!

And I'll be sitting over here in my comfortable 75 degree Arizona. 

Meow meow meow.

submitted by Bluegodzill [link] [3 comments]

submitted by frostyuno [link] [3 comments]