Don't you love getting a Christmas card with a fun holiday portrait from your friends and family this time of year?
Even that melon-headed cousin of yours sends out a pic of their adorable family that makes you want to squee because their kids are so cute these days you wanna eat 'em all up!
Now in case you're wondering- these photos aren't from my melon-headed cousin, he's got more of a casaba melon thing going on with his pointy head, and they aren't from your cousin either.
These extra fresh portraits are from Max Siedentopf, and they're his sweet way of wishing you a Horribly Happy Holidays.
Max's photo series pokes fun at the sterotypical nature of most holiday photos, but if the sarcasm doesn't register just think of them as a holiday photo set from a family in the Witness Protection Program.
Secret Santa gift exchanges are a great idea on paper, and when the game is taken seriously by every participant and actually goes smoothly it's a fun way to surprise your co-workers with a little something special.
But the odds are stacked against a Secret Santa exchange going smoothly, especially in large offices where there are so many potential "gifts" sitting on every desk.
And, as this comic from Amir Khan shows, the gifts we receive from our Secret Santa are far too often for everyone but the recipient's enjoyment, leaving us feeling a bit Grinchy.
It seems fitting that this dumpster fire of a year spawned so many strange beauty trends, because people were searching for a bizarre look befitting their journey into the odd future.
Trend setters pulled geode lips, furry nails and knife eyeliner out of the 2016 dumpster fire, and scary glam became beauty's WTF inducing answer to the darkness enveloping the world.
So to close out the year in style The Try Guys sacrificed their faces, and their fingertips, so we can see what the latest beauty trends do to a perfectly fine face. (NSFW language)
The typical soft and smiley snowmen just don't seem appropriate for a year as messed up as 2016, so it's no surprise there have been way more horror snowmen going around the net this year than ever before.
Hopefully 2017 will be more pleasant than mean old 2016, but even if it is better all of these snowmen, snowwomen and snowchildren will be dead well before next Christmas.
And maybe that's the point of putting up a bloody and terrifying snowman in your yard- it helps you keep the forces of darkness at bay and celebrates the fleeting nature of life on Earth.
Humans should know better than to get involved in a fight between any wild animals, but an eel vs octopus battle sounds like something even sharks would avoid at all cost!
When snorkelers in Hanauma Bay, Oahu came across an underwater scrap between an aggressive moray eel and an octopus they stuck around and filmed the fight, but then the eel set its sights on the cameraman...
National Geographic shared the video online and asked marine biologist George Burgess from the Florida Museum of Natural History for his reactions to the video, which can be summed up in one quote- never piss off a moray eel.
Bananas don't have a very long shelf life, so using them in an art project seems like a bad idea unless the project has something to do with how quickly a banana will turn into a brown sack of mush.
But graphic designer Stephan Brusche thinks bananas make a great art medium so he doodles on them, and sometimes he cuts the peel to enhance the ink drawing in some way.
Stephan snaps a pic of each piece while the ink is wet and cuts are fresh, so he doesn't have to worry about the inevitable browning ruining an otherwise a-peeling artwork.
In the last five years SantaCon NYC has gone from being a fun Christmas-themed costume party in the streets to a full blown night of drunken debauchery and mayhem that would make Krampus proud.
And this year the drunken SantaCon crowd took their crusade to ruin Santa Claus for all children to the next level- by raiding and robbing a bar in New York's East Village neighborhood.
According to Paul O'Sullivan, owner of the One and One pub, a group of bad Santas entered the pub's lower lounge area around 2 p.m. and "managed to storm in, rob all the booze, smash up all the glassware and steal all the Christmas decorations," causing $5,000 in damages.
The Warriors is one of those classic movies that's hard to pin down- it's a dystopian action thriller that also perfectly captures elements of life in the NYC in the 70s and 80s.
But it's also a drama with a heroic underdog story, and certain scenes are downright terrifying, thereby giving it a horror edge.
But in the end The Warriors is a movie about street gangs, and 21 distinctly different gangs appear on screen in the movie, from the top dog Gramercy Riffs to the lowly Warriors, who are just trying to live long enough to make a name for themselves.
(The Gramercy Riffs) In the hierarchy of street gangs, The Gramercy Riffs are at the very top. And it’s their leader—Cyrus—who organizes the midnight summit in Van Cortlandt Park that sets off the plot.
(The Warriors) The titular gang from Coney Island set the pace and plot of the film, as they attempt to make their way from the Bronx to Brooklyn after being framed for the murder of Cyrus, The Gramercy Riffs’ leader. Unfortunately for The Warriors, they’re being pursued by the rest of the gangs on this list.
Most of the gangs in the movie, like the Riffs, Rogues and Turnbull AC's, are based on real life gangs, while other, more far out gangs like the Baseball Furies or The Hi-Hats, are there to give the movie a sci-fi edge.
(The Rogues) “The Rogues” is an appropriate name for this Hell’s Kitchen crew, as they operate by their own set of rules. It’s their leader, Luther, who is the real shooter, and also the first to point the finger at The Warriors. Luther also has a knack for offering up some of the film’s most memorable catchphrases. Though actor David Patrick Kelly has long been credited with improvising the now-famous “Waaaaarriors, come out to plaaaay” line, he insists it was Hill. “I’ll take credit for the bottles and how I said it,” Kelly told Entertainment Weekly in 2012. “But I remember him kicking in the lines.”
(Turnbull A.C.'s) The Turnbull AC’s are easy to recognize for two reasons: They’re all bald, and they ride around the city in an old bus. It’s that same bus that the gang uses to try and run down The Warriors shortly after the summit breaks up (the Turnbull AC’s are the first group The Warriors must face off against).
(Baseball Furies) The Baseball Furies take their identity seriously, with each member decked out in a Yankees-style baseball uniform. Which may not seem all that frightening ... until they whip out their baseball bats.
(The Hi-Hats) The SoHo-based Hi-Hats might be the best proof Hill has got that he intended for The Warriors to be a fantasy film. Because clowns are scary, and mimes are not.
But like many survival tips knowing what to do if attacked by a mountain lion is valuable advice you hope you'll never need but you'll be glad to know if you find yourself facing a cougar attack.
First and foremost you shouldn't run away, because running will only trigger the animal's predatory instincts and make you look like prey.
You're better off standing your ground, making lots of noise and trying to look intimidating, preferably with a big stick or whatever weapon you have on hand.
And if the cougar attacks fight back, because their self preservation instinct is likely to kick in and send them running back to the hills they came from!
Horses can be pretty silly when they're feeling hoofloose and fancy free, and they get even more squirrely when they have an animal buddy around to join in on the fun.
But they won't let just anyone see their playful side, and it seems some horses actually have a super duper silly side they don't even let their humans see- a wearing a chicken as a hat kinda silly side.
Nancy Elwood caught her horse hanging around with one of the chickens and couldn't believe her eyes, but according to the mare in the next stall the two do this sort of stuff all the time- and she wants in on the fun!
Tortoises use their tough skin and even tougher shells as tools for survival, and their hard exteriors tend to make people assume the tortoise inside the shell isn't a warm and tender creature.
Tortoises enjoy tactile sensations; rubbing, scratching, that kind of thing. So when we go in there with them and we’re engaging with them – we’ll kind of rub their shell, scratch their head a bit and when we do that, they extend that neck out and they’ll look like they’re enjoying it a little bit and that’s just something we do to interact with the tortoises on a daily basis.
And in case you also happen to be wondering what a tortoise's diet consists of here's another video made by Matt Evans that explains what goes in to a tortoise salad.
Everybody loves having a steaming hot mug of cocoa during those cold winter months, but over the years the convenience of always having instant hot cocoa mix on hand has taken a lot of the flavor out of our mug.
These instant mixes also include lots of unnecessary additives and preservatives that further muddy the flavor, so Alton Brown decided to take hot cocoa mix back to basics with this recipe:
Ingredients
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably Dutch process
2 1/2 cups nonfat dry milk powder
1 teaspoon fine-grain salt
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 pinch (or more to taste) ground cayenne pepper*, optional
Hot milk or water to serve
Instructions
Combine the confectioners' sugar, cocoa powder, milk powder, salt, cornstarch and cayenne in a large airtight container. Secure the lid and shake vigorously to combine, and remember to shake prior to every extraction.
To serve: Place 2 tablespoons of the mix in a mug and add about 2 fluid ounces hot water or milk. Stir to combine. Fill the mug with more hot water or milk and enjoy.
Reebok's Spartan Race is one of the most challenging physical competitions in the world, and many people enter just to see if they can actually make it through the whole course without breaking down.
These competitors then post the pics online hoping to hear encouraging words from their friends and family, and to encourage others to push themselves- Spartan style.
But the guy in the photos above should have known better than to post his Spartan Race pics on Facebook because his friends work in the visual fx industry- so they spirited him away from the Spartan Race and into a Photoshop Battle.
Hollywood said Liam Neeson was too much of a tough guy to play Santa Claus, because he lacks the jolliness, beard and belly needed to properly play the role.
But Stephen Colbert felt Liam's knack for making lists made him the perfect guy to play Saint Nick, so he asked him to do a bit for The Late Show and channel his inner mall Santa.
Superheroes don't just serve the community by cracking down on crime and taking out the supervillain trash- they also try to do a bit of community outreach whenever possible.
They help the less fortunate, escort kitties down from trees, bring lost kids and puppies home and provide the muscle for urban renewal programs.
But, as this comic by Mike Maihack shows, Batgirl and Supergirl like to do a different kind of community outreach around Christmas- by going out caroling!
