aquila_dominus

Tonight's dinner was a triumph of improvisation, ergo I want to record it before I forget the details of what went into the pot.

* 1 lb ground chicken

* 3 smallish cloves of garlic, minced. (For once, I did NOT salt-grind them.)

* One poblano pepper, chopped.

* One small yellow onion, similarly chopped.

* A drizzle of sesame oil. I'd guestimate between a teaspoon and two.

* One 15 oz can of tomatoes. (I used Muir Glen's fire roasted with green chiles, but you should use whatever you fancy.)

* One wee can of sliced black olives, drained of its brine.

* A cup, more or less, of chicken broth (I eyeballed this. Sorry for the inexactitude.)

* One cup of long grain brown rice.

* Black pepper (five grinds,) cumin ( a very light dusting over the top,) and crystalized garlic (a generous dusting over the top,) to taste.

Prep is ridiculously easy. In a very deep frying pan, saute the chicken, garlic, onions and pepper in the sesame oil. Once the chicken is not very pink anymore, add the rice, and saute for as long as it takes you to get your cans open, and your broth measured out. (The extra saute induces the dry rice to take up the liquid easier, which, being brown rice, it really could use the help.)

Dump the tomatoes into a two cup pyrex glass measure, and then add chicken broth to the tippy top. Dump that in, then splash another third cup or so in for good measure. (Consider using that to rinse the dregs out of the tomato can. Cos it's yummy, that's why.) Stir in the olives (which will bring all the boys to the yard with their saltiness,) Bring it to a boil, then down to a simmer, and cover the pan for 25 minutes. I put the dry spices in about fifteen minutes before serving, but really they can go in just about any time.

Overall simmering time was around half an hour to 40 minutes, with three stirrings in, and the lid left off for the last ten minutes.

Try not to be appalled by how much like boxed mix the result will look. Fact is, it tastes worlds beyond better. And what's more? Gluten free.

If you're a lightweight, you can replace the poblano pepper (which ain't that spicy, really,) with something like a Romano, Anaheim, or Cubanelle pepper. If you do it with a bell pepper though, I will scorn you from afar, so it's best you don't tell me that detail. However, as usual, I want to hear the REST of how it comes out if/when you try this in your own kitchens.

Om Nom, my darlings!

No, really. The bum says so!



(Thanks and a million more thanks to debitha for posting this. I lolled so hard I might have sporfled a little. Srsly.)

I am SO crushing on Enter the Haggis's newest disc, Gutter Anthems! We listened to it pretty much nonstop on the drive back from Boston, and sure enough, it's back in the player again this morning, with no sign of galling yet.

It was a strange venue -- all baby boomer, arts council sort of crowd, butts planted firmly in seats, and no room to get up and dance. NOT the kind of environment which comes naturally to EtH, or the HaggisHeads (the latter of which were moshing and jigging about in the corners anyhow, by the end of the show.) I bruised the everlovin out of my hand with all the clapping though, and that is a surefire sign of a great show. Brian, the great woobie, clearly has someone in his life who's Taking Care Of Him now -- he's put some flesh on his face and frame, and no longer looks starveling thin. Myself, I find it cute, but I know there are some who'll be having the "he got all fat!" reaction. I say fuck em and feed em fish heads; he looks HAPPY! And of course he's still musically brilliant, as well, going from fiddle to vocals to keyboards to rhythm guitar to percussion with misleading ease. Oh, I am quite content to fangirl him from afar, though it would be quite the fun thing to seissun with him just the once. I've no intention of working that closely with another genius again though. I've done my time in that salt mine, thanks!

So the concert was great, the company was great, both our overnight hosts, and our lunch date as well. It was great to see Spider doing so well, and to get to meet, and highly approve of Boy. The ride home was pretty as always, and filled with New Music, and once we got home, the Faithful were so happy to see us they decided to forego the Rite of Shunning altogether. So they were underfoot and Helpful while we made ourselves a supper out of brussels sprouts, shallotts, quinoa, and ham. And then we had DVR'd episodes of NCIS and Criminal Minds to get caught up on, and the cherry-on-top of an early bedtime, and our own bed to have it in.

Perfect Weekend. Yesh.

I even got some work done on Tempus Fugitive on the drive out there, so that's good.

And now Godric is holding down the arm of my chair, and conspicuously leaning on my elbow, since I won't let him sleep in my lap. Should I move my arm out from under him, he'd fall against my ribs without noticing, however should I use my elbow to nudge his arse back up onto the chair arm, he'd get offended and bail. Just like that. *sneerk* Kitties are so funny!

And best of all? Dominus is taking the week home from work. So I have companionship which is conversant in English! Woo Hoo!

My brother ODed again. My mom tried to wake him and couldn't, so she got my nephew R awake and called the paramedics. D, my brother, is back in the hospital again, and again, R is staying with me. I told my brother before that if he did this again, I was going to kill him. Now I have to figure out how.

The paramedics told my mom in front of R that they thought it was another drug overdose, so now R knows about it. He's livid. And yet, after we talked about it, he said he really doesn't want to go back to his mother, either. He asked, "is my dad going to jail?" He's not; not that I don't wish he would. Maybe that would teach him. Not that it ever has, before. But I told R no. The boys both helped me go through D's room for drugs. This time we couldn't find the methadone that my brother said he took. The boys found a marijuana stash, though. They were all keen to watch me flush it down the toilet until they discovered my brother's porn stash *facepalm*.

I'm so angry I can't even form a coherent sentence. I'm signing off.

!!!EIREE si tihs isht esuaceB ?SIHT gniod si ertupmoc ym yhw nialpxe ydobyna naC

You stay classy Harlequin! You stay classy!

What gets me, is that they've the nerve to be upset that the RWA's taken away thier princess points for that stunt. Did they somehow think that authors would APPROVE of Harlequin pimping (and yes, I mean that 'pimping' in the most denigrating way possible, by the way,) a brand new vanity press at its slushpile? Of COURSE the RWA's disgusted!

Harlequin's spin doctoring attemtp is even worse, given that it's more or less like Huggy Bear trying to deny the existence of his stable of whores to his wife when she busts him at work. It's a plain sign of disrespect, and I look forward with schadenfreude to Harlequin's authors jumping ship in hordes over it. (Not that that'll actually happen, of course. Authors are too desperate, generally, to continue seeing their works in print once they've got a taste of it. Still, chance would be a fine thing.)

In other news.

I lost yesterday to being eaten by a grue. I lost today to a migraine. I got more or less nothing done on either, and am therefore a Very Bad Girl. Now who's going to write my spanking? (Leers at Certain Demographic of my Flist.)

This weekend will involve a drive to Boston, during which I expect I shall write some. We're going to see Enter the Haggis, and that'll be a good pick up to wash the dirt off the shovel with which I'm burying the dismembered corpse of this past week. (And how's THAT for a metaphor? Cause I mean every word, thanks.)

So. I appear to have fallen off the NaNo wagon. Kind of. Except not in such a way that it means I'm not still working on Tempus Fugitive every day or anything.

I'm strangely at peace with this realization, actually. I had thought that if I pussed out on NaNo after having committed to doing it, that I would nosedive in my motivation, and wind up tanking or abandoning the book out of sheer self-disgust. However all that's happened, is that I actually seem to have internalized my ideal pace for this thing, and have managed to more or less divorce it from NaNo's daily grind mentality.

I do not seem to be a Death March sort of writer. That's not to say that the wordcount is anything unapproachable -- for Cod's sake, I wrote Tower of Air in one day, and that story was around 10,000 words. It's the every day without a break thing that seems to be the dealbreaker for me. It's too much like monogamy. That is, the 'you may only focus on this one thing, forever' vibe that makes my inner magpie screech and hurl itself against the bars.

The reason I didn't write yesterday had a lot to do with burnout. I discovered this when I stopped staring hatefully at the blank screen and flashing cursor, and just cracked open hobbitdragon's The Bondage of the Mind (which is the best Snarry I've read all year, by the way,) instead. I gave up. Did you catch that? I gave up on TF for the day, and went to read porn. And suddenly felt immeasurably better, and less like just hitting delete until the entire manuscript and all its generative notes were gone. (Lo, the healing power of pr0n...)

Then today, I woke up with a new take on the scene that had been flummoxing me yesterday. I spent most of today finishing the read (yeah, it WAS that good,) and letting that notion percolate in the back of my head, and then this evening, I started outlining it. Which turned halfway through the outline into proper prose, and even in its half-finished state, is still comfortably within wordcount for the night. Mind, that's WITH all the blogging and thread-debating I was doing today.

So... NaNo. Not exactly my thing. It's not quite as supportive as I'd imagined, what with everyone focused (rightly) on getting out their own wordcount, and therefore not able to talk much. And I do tend to obsess rather awfully about that bar graph on the 'writer's stats' page. However, it did absolutely serve its purpose. It kicked my arse into gear, and it made me get past that fight scene I had stalled out on months ago, and underway. And I intend to still make a concerted effort to have my wordcount at or over 50g by the end of the month, however there's no BLOODY way that number will mark the end of the novel. This is me, after all. My idea of a middling story is around 65,000! My current guestimate has Tempus Fugitive coming in somewhere between 120,000 and 150,000 words. Which is long, yes, but not out of the question for a first novel.

And I'm still going to maintain my wordcount on the NaNo site as I get sequential scenes finished. And I'm still going to be doing updates on cluewrites as I go along. (Although not today, because of that whole 'the first half of this scene is an outline' thing. I have to fix that first.) Only now I'm going to go ahead and let myself TAKE days off when I need them, and to read other things when my brain aches from all the sameness, or when my subconscious knows there's something off in the outline, but can't get its fingers round exactly what it is. (That happens to me a lot, I'm afraid. I have a plot sense that will sometimes just stop me DEAD until I figure out what aspect of the upcoming scene needs to change. It can be vexing when it hits me in the middle of a deadline crunch, but it's never steered me wrong yet.)

So la.

In other, related news, Mr. John Robert Rose, Fenris of the Blackwatch Council, has stepped up and made it known to me today that he is one FUCK of a sexy beast, and Mr. Remus Lupin only wishes he'd been this hot.

Hee!

Let's talk about insults, shall we?

One in particular, for today. Please tell me, in your own words, just what is meant when one is called a "slut".

I am aware that circumstances of activity, surroundings, and relationship to the speaker all have bearing on how the word gets used, and just how much of an insult it's meant to be, but let's discuss its worst first, shall we?

Linguistically and historically, a slut was a lazy maidservant. (This shows up in the word's Middle English origin, of slutte, or dirty) and through use, it expanded to include whores, prostitutes, and Ladies Of Negotiable Affection.

But what I want to know, is what's supposed to be meant by it -- really meant by it today. If some stranger spits the word at you on a bus, what's the first thing your brain's going to seize on as far as meaning? What would bring such a word from you, in anger, with intent to wound? What words go along with it, snugly nestled in the vocabulary arsenal like grenades in a belt? What softens it? What gives it teeth?

And -- this is the discussion part, -- how could we in the world who do not find sex and dirt equable, go about reclaiming the word from the public's vernacular of scorn? Has the process begun already? Even now, girls will sling 'slut' and 'ho' at their best friends by way of a compliment -- is that normalizing patriarchal attitudes of inherent female unworthiness, or is it pulling yet another bolt out of the old Scold's Mask?

Share me your thoughts; I really do want to know.

octopon - Pirates of DarkWater fandom asylum. Completed!

gotham_gazetteCompleted!</i>

vagrant_story - Vagrant Story fandom asylum. Pending/WIP.

Please keep in mind that I will be retiring Vagrant Story and Gotham Gazette if no further interest is shown.

And,

Please feel free to join commedia; a personal project of mine, aiming to review and analyze comics (and other selected media) that feature DC Comics' The Joker.

It is currently a WIP because I am still going through my 500+ hardcopy!issues collection. I do not download torrents/scans.

Two important polls need to be voted on, as seen here explaining two routes the asylum's project can take. IE: spoiler free reviews, spoilerific reviews, etc. This asylum will continue to be WIP until further interest is shown.

I am also open to affiliating with other comic book and/or Batman related asylums, except for RPGs.

http://asylums.insanejournal.com/labyrinthfans/

For fans of either David Bowie and Jennifer Connolly and Jim Henson and Brian Froud.

I am Colleen (ninetieschic) on this and Sam will probably choose some outlandish un.. no doubt lol.

see more Lol Celebs

Well THIS has been a rotten week already!

The bloody chiropractic appointment was the only thing to go well today.

I got to the coffeeshop to find that I'd forgot my computer cord, and only had 25% battery life left. So I did today's work on paper, in longhand, and yes, my wrist is killing me, thanks.

Then I met Dominus for dinner, just before he headed off to catch his plane... with his boss, so there wasn't even any real room for shmoopiness.

Drove half an hour home, only to realize that I left my glasses at the restaurant.

Was met by Godric upon arriving home, whose left foreleg has swollen to grotesque proportions in the space of one day. I found an abcess on his shoulder and picked it until it began to drain, but he's still going to have to go to the House Of Pain in the morning, so they can drain it properly, and get him on some antibiotics. Which means, because of the infection, I won't be able to get his shots updated until ANOTHER visit, with ANOTHER office fee. We've had a big orange tom that showed up this morning. I've never seen him before, but apparently Godric takes his existence personally. *Sigh* Well, at least he isn't in pain, although I'm not sure I want to know what that bastard's been eating if his bite is THAT septic!

So tomorrow is apparently going to be centered around running errands, instead of making up wordcount from this weekend.
Sorry NaNo.

So now I'm going to open Word, and transcribe today's work, and hope I can manage it without triggering a headache. Better than falling THAT much farther behind!

So one night, a space pod comes down, and lands in your backyard. It's about the size of a VW beetle, and as far as you can tell, it's got no weaponry. But it does have a video screen, which you see when the door appears in its side as you approach. There is a clearly non-human face on the screen, and you can hear its non-human language transposed under a computerized translator.

The alien tells you that it would like to meet a Human, but given the nature of terrestrial broadcasts, it is wary of risking an Earthside landing. Ergo, it has sent a taxi, (which is invisible to Earthly technology, so as not to draw unfortunate attention to its landing,) and it would like for you to make the selection of who that you know PERSONALLY, would best represent your Species.

You cannot go yourself.
You must know the person in question well enough to get them on the phone, and get them to agree before the taxi leaves, which it will do in ten hours. If necessary, you can send the taxi to meet your emmissary, but it will not open again for you, or for any other human.

Who do you choose?
Why?

Would you choose someone different if the taxi was the size of a bus, and bristling with weaponry?
Who?
Why?

Here are two story/art challenge communities for any of you who like to do such things.

First one is story_arc

Everyone has seen the various prompt communities. This one is for the writing/drawing of story arcs, or a multi-chaptered fic/picture series. Using the prompts, you work all of them into a single universe, as series of stories or artwork that relate to each other. Or, alternatively, into a single story, each prompt being used for a single chapter.

To some, that'll be easy. To others, it's a lot more challenging. You get a pick of prompts, and we welcome claims of all types. Pairings, threesomes/moresomes, single people, over all fandoms. Collaborations are welcomed, though we request that both parties join the com.

The second is mix_n_make

Everyone has that song that reminds them of a person, a fandom, a story or art idea just waiting to come forth.

Well, here at Mix n Make, we not only share that feeling, we encourage you to make the image in your brain a reality.

The goal: Make a playlist and write/draw what each song inspires of you. They can be as short as three songs, or as long as you want to make them. Not only can you share your favorite songs, but you can get those bunnies out of your brains and shared with the rest of us.


Come join us, we take all fandoms and original works.

I'd like to invite you to come share in these comms on IJ

beinghumanfic - Being Human - Discussion, general, hetero and slash fic & icons
crusoe_fic - Crusoe - Discussion, general, hetero and slash fic & icons
darkbluefic - Dark Blue - Discussion, general, hetero and slash fic & icons
darkfic - Dark Fic - multi- fandom stories with a dark side - Discussion, general, hetero and slash fic & icons
eastwickfic - Eastwick - Discussion, general, hetero and slash fic & icons
fastforward_fic - FastForward - Discussion, general, hetero and slash fic & icons
inplainsitefic - In Plain Sight - Discussion, general, hetero and slash fic & icons
inthedollhouse - In The Dollhouse - Discussion, general, hetero and slash fic & icons
lietomefic - Lie To Me - Discussion, general, hetero and slash fic & icons
makebelieve_ij - Makebelieve - multi- fandom - Discussion, general, hetero and slash fic & icons
minutefic - Minute Fic - multi- fandom - Discussion, general, hetero and slash fic & icons
ncislosangeles - NCIS Los Angeles - Discussion, general, hetero and slash fic & icons
promptsrus - Prompts R Us - multi- fandom - offers prompts for the curent fandoms as well as old and rare fandoms. Also many author choice prompts
psych_fic - Psych - Discussion, general, hetero and slash fic & icons
rifts_anomalies - Rifts & Anomalies - multi- fandom - shows dealing with time travel and spacial rifts - Discussion, general, hetero and slash fic & icons
riftsandanomali - Rifts And Anomalies - multi- fandom (This was a mispell, but...) - Discussion, general, hetero and slash fic & icons
sentinel_fic - The Sentinel - Discussion, general, hetero and slash fic & icons
theforgottenfic - The Forgotten - Discussion, general, hetero and slash fic & icons
thelistenerfic - The Listener - Discussion, general, hetero and slash fic & icons
thesuperheroes - The Superheroes - multi- fandom - Discussion, general, hetero and slash fic & icons
timeschildren - Children Of Time - multi- fandom focusing on Dr Who and the various spin offs - Discussion, general, hetero and slash fic & icons
torchwoodfic - Torchwood - Discussion, general, hetero and slash fic & icons
uncle_fantasies - Man From UNCLE - Discussion, general, hetero and slash fic & icons
whitecollarfic - White Collar - Discussion, general, hetero and slash fic & icons
xfilesfantasies - X-Files - Discussion, general, hetero and slash fic & icons
xmenfic - X-Men - Discussion, general, hetero and slash fic & icons

I cannot look at you today, you're being too horrible.

Alas, LJ-flavored corner of the world, between the BBS newsfeed, and people linking to stories of the horrible, too much of the horrible is bleeding over and showing up here. Ergo, I cannot look at you either. It's nothing personal, it's just that I had a good morning despite the rain, and if I waste this weekend in a funk due to world-horribleness, I'll also have wasted the only really decent Man-Time I'm going to get for a week, not to mention all of my momentum to continue writing.

Ergo, with appologies to those parts of LJ/IJ/DW land which are decidedly NOT horrible, I must still refrain.
If you'd like, though, please feel free to link me to things which are not horrible, or to relay stories and anecdotes of the same. I welcome your not-horrible, if you've got it to share. I just don't feel I've the heart to go digging for it today.

With love,
Me.

multi_fiction - Multiple Fandom Fanfiction Archive.

Looking for a place to post your fanfic? Have an idea for a fanfic? Know of a fic that is so good it deserves to be recced? Well, multi_fiction is the place for you.

We accept fanfic, challenges, and recs in any fandom, any pairing. We are indiscriminate with a lot of things. Just follow our posting rules and everything else goes.

~~~~~~

t_31_bang - T-31 And Counting....Bang!

A mini-big bang asylum, we have a 31 day schedule. Included in those 31 days is time for prompts acceptance, sign-ups, writing, and then posting. You have 20 days from the moment sign-ups close to write 5000 words, that's 250 words a day, on a prompt you select from a prompts post.

~~~~~~

heroes_fiction - Heroes Fiction.

Are you a fan of the NBC television/comic book/online series Heroes? This is a fanfiction asylum dedicated to the entire fandom. Any type of fic for it is allowed.

~~~~~~

sanctuaryforall - Sanctuary For All.

Helen Magnus set up the Sanctuary Network for the Abnormals of the world, carrying on the dream of her father that they might have a place to go. At sanctuaryforall, that fandom is alive and well. We accept anything based upon the show/webseries, from fic, to music videos, to icons and news.

~~~~~~

startrek_redux - Star Trek XI (Redux).

The new movie has inspired a resurgence in the flagging genre. Fanfic, fanart, icons, fanmixes, everything your heart can think of is accepted here, so long as it is based in part upon the movie.

~~~~~~

alikelyscenario - A Likely Scenario.

Needing inspiration to write? Well, this is a table challenge where we give you a table containing a scenario and five prompts. Once you sign up for one of our 21 tables, you write five drabbles/ficlets/vigenettes/fics for the five prompts based upon the scenario provided. Curious? Come on over and check us out.


Fanfiction: dreams put to words. Come experience it with us.
alikelyscenario ~!~ startrek_redux ~!~ sanctuaryforall ~!~ heroes_fiction ~!~ t_31_bang ~!~ multi_fiction

Written by Aimee Mullins, a runner who uses prosthetic legs to compete.

A squick warning though, for eye-phobes. There's a photo about halfway down, of Tiger Woods getting his LASIK treatment. I found it quite triggery, and had to scroll past it really fast, but I still think the article itself is well worth the moment's discomfort.

Racing on carbon fiber legs: How abled should we be?

Its that time again; keep in mind to always read the userinfo before joining an asylum. :)

graphix - a complete graphics asylum from icons to layouts.

ijelite - another complete graphic asylum (mostly icons & layouts)

iconism - an icon-only asylum

christians - a place for Christians and non-Christians alike to discuss the Christian faith and have fellowship.

addme - a place to meet other IJ users and gain a friends list!