catching up part 1: links

So, I've been AWOL for a week today as far as the internet is concerned. I sort of let things pile up to write about and have been overwhelmed by the idea of catching up, so I put it off... terrible idea.
So: part one. Links, because I have so many tabs open on my browser to share that my computer is getting unhappy.

• I am thinking about trying to bake my own bagels, because I've been eating a half bagel for breakfast every morning and they're pretty tasty, and then a recipe turned up on a blog, so now I'm really thinking about it.
• Some of these links have been here almost a week, and now I'm realizing that I'm in some sort of a baking mood, because I've also had these popovers staring at me for a week. Don't they look smashing?
• A highly entertaining look at hunting runaway hamsters.
• I've had friends lose jobs, friends, and opportunities for blogging (I suppose that begs the question - why do I blog if it's potentially career-wrecking? Oh, it's also potentially career-making. In my case I'm pretty sure it's career-neutral because I'm not particularly widely read or vitriolic, nor do my friends generally read it). This fellow worked in network television and was outright fired, no warning, for having a popular blog. His goodbye-job piece is an interesting read.
• I spent hours the other night reading financial columnist Penelope Trunk at Yahoo Finance. She's an interesting writer and likes particularly to blog about people just coming into the work force, trying to find work. She had a series of guest columns called Twentysomething that don't necessarily apply to me yet/ever, but they cover things like why straight A's aren't important unless you are going to grad school and how to deal with quarter-life crises, which are apparently endemic to millennials/Gen Y/the Nintendo Generation (that's me!) who are moving into the workforce. This lead to a lot of reading about "my" generation, which is apparently a generation of precious snowflakes who multitask and teambuild like nobody's business, but switch jobs at the drop of a hat and have a penchant for just not coming into work if we'd prefer to surf that day. Interesting.
• Also in the financial columns reading list was I Will Teach You to be Rich, a blog that mainly focuses on prioritizing, living beneath your means, and learning what money is and what it can do. It seems to be intended for twenty-somethings - millennials and Gen X - who are currently blowing their $60,000 a year on toys and trash, not starving students, but I can dream. I've linked to a sort of best-of page, not the front page, and I read all of them. Personal favourites: "How my friend spends $21,000 going out every year", "Set smaller goals: impress friends, get girls, lose weight", and possibly the best, "Barriers are your enemies".
• Olive bonsai!
• I'm thinking that Chickpea Gumbo might be on the menu this evening if I can find okra at the store.
• I have a serious crush on this apartment - the lighting! the floors! the space space space! - but I can't help but wonder what it looks like when it's not being photographed for newspaper profiles, what with the two kids living there.
• I rather like all of the pieces listed here, but number four, the leaning shelves/desk thing, has my heart aflutter. I wouldn't really be able to use it the way I use my current desk - I don't think it would support a sewing machine - and I don't have the room for a separate laptop desk, but it could make a rockin' setup for our TV. It's three sections, each of which are $130 USD, which is almost Ikea spectacular, too.