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I usually ignore the salt measurements except when baking, and just salt to taste, but that's because I've been cooking since I've been old enough to drag a chair to the stove and push vegetables around on a skillet. This is potentially disastrous to people who don't know as much about cooking!

Sometimes your recipes call for a specific type of salt - and there could be an actual reason why. Not if it's trendy salt, usually, but if it's "sea salt," Diamond kosher salt, or Morton's kosher salt, there's a specific reason and you should actually pay attention. Who knew?

I mean, I've been cooking for multiple decades and I had no fucking clue before this morning, so if you didn't know, don't feel bad! Hell, Bon Appetit magazine didn't even know until 2013, and they're goddamn Bon Appetit gourmet magazine.

This is going to make a world of difference in my pickling, that's for sure. No wonder my pickled turnips always turn out too salty.

The Kosher Salt Question

Tagline: Prized for its purity and flaky texture, kosher salt has been a home-cooking standard for decades. But the two major brands, Diamond Crystal and Morton, are very different products. Your ruined meatballs can attest.

Crossposts: http://havocthecat.insanejournal.com/389132.html

zhelana

Watch on YouTube

zhelana

If you had the option to be rich and famous would you take it?

Yes, I think so. I like the way certain rich and famous people play with their fans on twitter. And I'd like to be able to get a message out to millions of people at once.

( the rest )

umadoshi

mini_wrimo is open for signups until October 30!

Fannish/Geeky Things/SFF

"Hero-Princess-General Carrie Fisher Once Delivered a Cow Tongue to a Predatory Hollywood Exec". [The Mary Sue]

"Carrie Fisher Insisted That Leia’s Last Jedi Arc Honor All The “Girls Who Grew up Watching Star Wars”". [The Mary Sue]

"Who are Tessa Thompson’s LADY LIBERATORS?" "The Marvel Cinematic Universe has realigned how Hollywood thinks of blockbusters, franchises, and comic book movies. Though the films have been groundbreaking at the box office, it’s been nine years since Marvel Studios began the MCU and they’re still two years away from having a solo female led movie on our screens.

But if Thor: Ragnarok’s Tessa Thompson has anything to do with it, that’s not going to stand. During a recent press conference for Taika Waititi’s much anticipated Thor film, Thompson regaled us with a rad story about confronting Kevin Feige with the possibility of an all-female Marvel movie."

A discussion on N.K. Jemisin's Facebook about the "magic system" (scare quotes hers) in the Broken Earth books. Spoilers!

Abigail Nussbaum on N.K. Jemisin's The Stone Sky.

Cute Stuff

"If You Ever Feel Sad, These 10+ Highland Cattle Calves Will Make You Smile".

September LaPerm pics from

naye. These posts are always great, but I think this one is even better than usual.

Miscellaneous

"We Don't Do That Here". "I have a handful of “magic” phrases that have made my professional career easier. Things like “you are not your code” and my preferred way to say no: “that doesn’t work for me.” These are tools in my interpersonal skills toolbox. I find myself uttering phrases like, “right or effective, choose one” at least once a week. This week I realized I had another magic phrase, “we don’t do that here.”"

Brian Fies' "A Fire Story" is a short comic about him and his wife being burned out of their home in the wildfires.

"Art Inspired by Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities". (I haven't read the book, but the art is really neat.)

"Photographer Gets Bitten By A Deadly Black Mamba, Still Manages To Finish The Photoshoot". (Many beautiful snake photos!)

"Native-Land.ca: Our home on native land". Searchable map of North America's First Nations territories and pre-colonial histories. "There are over 630 different First Nations in Canada (and many more in the USA) and I am not sure of the right process to map territories, languages, and treaties respectfully - and I'm not even sure if it is possible to do respectfully. I am not at all sure about the right way to go about this project, so I would very much appreciate your input."

"Creating Gender Liberatory Singing Spaces: A Transgender Voice Teacher’s Recommendations for Working with Transgender Singers".

Via

dine, "Pumpkin Spice and Needles: Bookish Autumn Cross Stitch Patterns".

"Video game developers confess their hidden tricks at last".

Via

alisanne, "Why Do We Cook So Many Foods at 350 Degrees?" [Mental Floss]

zhelana

Ah, finally some seasonable weather! It was comfortable this afternoon, but if I had stayed out longer than just getting the mail this evening, I would have wanted a hoodie. So it's about perfect out. Yay!

I did finally get back to sleep this morning - at 7:30. Then I had to wake up at 9:45 for Tara, but when I did that she texted me that she was going to be here at 10:30, so I went back to sleep for half an hour. She finally showed up at 11 talking about how her cats had worms and she was up all night dealing with it. I did notice she answered my text very late last night, so yeah. Anyway, she cleaned Kevin's office and worked some in mine. Kevin's office looks amazing. Mine still needs work. The bedroom still needs to be done, too. Hopefully she can make some progress on that on Wednesday.

Tara saw that today was trash day, and took all the trash including the sofa cushions up to the street. Apparently our trash guy was rather rude to her when he told her you need an appointment to pick up more trash than will fit in a trash can. Then he left it all there, including the actual trash can, and recycling bin. What an ass. And what a stupid rule. Tara said hopefully her husband will come and pick up our trash and take it to his storage unit's dumpster so it's not sitting in front of my house. I don't know what I'm going to do if he doesn't come.

I practically had to chase Tara out of my house at 2:30, which I had warned her about when she asked if she could work today. This is probably why she forgot to tell me I had a package, and the package was left on the sofa. Unfortunately, the package was a box of chocolate bars, and the dog got into it and ate about 3 snickers bars. So far he shows no ill effect (I'm not sure if I want effect or affect there. I have sent the question to my grammar guru, AKA Victor lol). I'm keeping an eye on him and will rush him to the vet if he starts puking or having diarrhea or something. Also, the dog bit me when I tried to take a snickers bar away from him when I got home. It didn't break skin, but it hurt, and there's a bruise.

But anyway, the reason I had to rush Tara out of my house is that I had to go meet Addie for bat mitzvah tutoring. We talked for a little before we got started because she said she knew nothing about me and thought that was weird - I guess it is. Usually she knows the kids she works with for years, some of them she even tutored their parents for their bar/bat mitzvahs. We learned the 3rd set of cantillation marks, which I really struggled with. She says she's going to make me a recording of herself chanting my Torah portion so I can practice with her, which will be good.

I stopped by my parents' house to make sure their pool was still full since last time they went on vacation it was sucking in air for a while. It was still at the dirty line on the edge of the pool, so I was thankful (since I didn't have a book to read while I waited for it to fill if I had to do that), and came home. I made us a pizza for dinner, which was tasty. Then I cleaned up everything Tara left on my chair in the office that she wasn't sure if I wanted to throw away or not (it was mostly empty boxes from buggy's boxes, and I threw most of it away but my bow was also there (?) and one or two other things I actually did want to keep).

So it's only 8:30 now, which is pretty early for me to write an entry. I think I'm going to figure out what's going on in NaNoLanta chat which has been beeping up a storm the entire time I've been trying to write this, and then maybe read something, or something.

yhlee

One of my favorite songs is The Bloody Lovelies' "Hologram" [YouTube, about 3:30] and while I normally don't care about lyrics, this is one of the times that I wish I could understand them all. I own the physical CD and the booklet-thing doesn't come with lyrics, nor have I been able to find lyrics online.

Is anyone willing to listen to the song and transcribe the lyrics in comments? I would be happy to write you a flashfic to a prompt of your choosing. :]

(Based on the snippets of lyrics I do understand, I consider this to be the unofficial theme song of Revenant Gun, LOL.)

ETA: ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: Playing ping pong while the cat is lounging on the ping pong table. This lasted until a stray ping pong ball, uh, caught her in the snoot, at which point she scurried under the table...

Current Mood: curious

reynardine

Bob got in a new fez today (an early birthday present). He is so adorkable. He has a number of fezzes--when he remembers, he wears them when he is running tabletop games.

bob_pumpkin_fez

Current Mood: amused
Current Location: My Lair

lunabee34

Gospel by Wilton Barnhardt

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Let me begin with the obligatory statement (seriously, check the other reviews) that Dan Brown wakes at night and cries into his pillow because nothing he's written has come even close to being as good as Gospel.

The novel takes place in the 80s and concerns an aging, male academic and a young, floundering, female grad student on the search for The Gospel of Matthias; the modern day search is interspersed with chapters of the gospel they're trying to find and translate. I read this for the first time as a grad student (somewhere between 2001-2003), and it blew me away. I was studying to convert to Catholicsm at the time, and I'd been reading a lot of Elaine Pagels (gnostic gospels) and hagiographies of saints and the history of Christianity and medieval mystics, and this book was just fascinating. It's heavily footnoted (and while the narrative is fictional as well as the gospel itself, the footnoted information is factual according to the author as is all the currents events stuff happening in the novel and much of the theological conversation the characters have). This was the first time I heard of the cult of Mithra or of Catherine of Siena wearing Jesus's foreskin as a magical wedding ring (naturally, it was invisible to everyone but Catherine).

On re-read, my love for this book is only slightly diminished. The Gospel of Matthias is both hilarious (unintentionally so because Matthias does not get what's happening around him half the time; he's constantly misinterpreting events) and ultimately moving because it's the quest of a man who'd been a minor disciple, only in the presence of Jesus a few time and mostly chosen because he's rich and can bankroll the ministry, to recover his lost faith.

Most of the book is the characters having theological arguments, telling theological dirty jokes, and cataloging all the bizarre anecdata of the Catholic Church. Those parts are still fun.

I like that the book turns the usual narrative about an aging male academic and his female grad student groupie on its head. Dr. O'Hanrahan is full of man pain; he's a womanizer and a drinker, and he lost his wife and kid in tragic accidents, and he's angry and disappointed that he never wrote that bestseller or made a huge mark on the academy despite all his promise--and the whole point of the book is that all his existential angst and nearly all of his problems are of his own making and he's reaping the consequences of his choices. Also, he and Lucy never have a romantic relationship (although the book seems to be going there a couple times, and I started to get nervous on this re-read because I couldn't remember that trajectory).

God gets a voice in this book; he speaks in parentheticals which are amusing and beautiful and full of mercy for his creation. I really like that authorial choice.

Having grown up in the community, I appreciate the depiction of Evangelical Christianity in all its tacky glory at the end of the novel. Considering the times we currently live in, that depiction seems eerily prescient.

I have some issues with the way that Lucy is presented: concerned about her weight and her virginity and etc. I also have some issues with the way race is handled at times. On the whole, I think this book does a good job of presenting multiple points of view about religion, however.

Definitely recommend this book, but it's a time investment at over 700 pages (with lots of eensy footnotes).

View all my reviews

Crossposts: https://lunabee34.livejournal.com/533056.html

butterflydreaming

This morning I rescued a moth that was drowning in a dog dish. For whatever reason it matters a lot to me that I was there to see him frantically paddling, the way he calmed as soon as I put the flower stem next to him, how he crawled right on to it.

Even if they can't feel despair, everything just wants to live, right?

The moth may die anyway due to the dunking. He won't be able to fly, and it's a cold morning. But at least he didn't drown in a fcking dirty dog bowl outside a grocery store, with creatures going by, unaware of his distress.

In other news, I'm having a new life experience. I've been sick, and have lost my voice pretty much entirely. It's day 2. I made the first smart self-care decision in five days, in that I took a sick day off work. If I hadn't worked until I was fatigued on Friday and Saturday, I would almost certainly still have a voice now and maybe be over this cold/flu, too.

kore

FEATURING GIL-SCOTT HERON NO LESS

Watch on YouTube

//just lies in bed watching it repeatedly

Current Mood: enthralled

reynardine

Latest on Dad--he is in the ICU again. He does have some kind of infection and so it's anti-biotics, plus fluids because he's so dehydrated. Per my mom, he doesn't feel any better this morning. My brother took the day off and is with them. Mom is supposed to call me with any news.

Current Mood: anxious
Current Location: My Lair

zhelana

23. A song that everybody should listen to:

Watch on YouTube

( the rest )

zhelana

Do you like your style? Do you want to change it? What would you change it to?

Of course I like my style. If I didn't, it wouldn't be my style, now would it?

( the rest )

zhelana

This morning I woke up unprompted at 9:45. I was thinking about going to Pride, but then I got a reminder from FB that I said I'd go to archery. I debated for a while, and was almost mentally blocked by the idea of missing either. Then I decided to go to archery, because the potential to make friends was greater. I drove over to Windy Hill, and we set up the archery range and shot a few rounds. Then we did two royal rounds - the first starting from 20 and moving back to 40. The second starting from 40 and moving up to 20. I scored 11 on the first and 29 on the second. I dunno if moving forward is good for me or if I just had a better idea what I had to do on the second round, but that's pretty impressive change right there. Right before the timed round of the second royal round, my shoulder yelled stop. I did the timed round anyway, but then, stopped and sat in the back with Mara who was arguing with someone who is wrong on the internet.

Mara is trying to provide a place to send scrolls when you die so you can will them to her if no one in your family would value them. Someone in Atlantia was trying to argue that scrolls belong to the kingdom and must be returned when you die, and then in the same breath argued that they belonged to the scribe who made them and should be returned there when you die. Mara agreed that returning the art to the scribe, if the scribe was still active, alive, and wanted them, was a good thing to do, but failing that, someone might need something to do with their scrolls. What she's doing is a last ditch effort to keep scrolls out of landfills. I think it's commendable.

I came home to a text from Donna cancelling walkies because she had insomnia. So I took a shower, and ordered dinner, and went to bed. Seriously, I was asleep at 7pm, and slept until 2am. Now I've slept 7 hours, and I'm not sure I can sleep more, but it's only 2am. Tara comes at 10, so I may be in for a long day.

reynardine

My mother called about 6 pm. She took Dad to the emergency room. He was supposed to have a heart procedure on Monday (delayed from last week because he had a cold), but evidently he's much sicker than that. Sick enough that he agreed to go to the emergency room, and sick enough that he let HER drive. He must be feeling awful. He hates letting anybody else drive!

He's being kept overnight for observation and was put on fluids. He's lost 14 lbs in the past week and is very dehydrated. The emergency room doctor thinks it may be an infection but they need to do more tests. He's landed in the ICU three times with "an infection", so it's serious. At least this time he had the sense to go in before he collapsed.

It's hard to think of my dad as frail, but with all he's been through, he is. I had myself a good cry, and now I'm trying to get back to normal. As per usual, they don't want me coming down there. I'd be in the way*. We're scheduled to visit them next month anyway and Dad much prefers to be at home when we come down. Last time he did the ICU thing, and we came down while he was in the rehab place, it drove him crazy. He wanted to be at home with us.

*I don't know my way around the city where they live very well--they moved there eight or nine years ago. My brother lives about 10 minutes away from them, so there IS close family nearby.

**Hell, yeah, feeling the Guilt. But it's their call.

Current Mood: scared
Current Location: My Lair

goss

Title: Fierce
Artist:

goss
Rating: G
Fandom: MCU, Thor: Ragnarok
Characters/Pairings: Valkyrie
Content Notes: Created for Inktober - Day 14, word prompt: Fierce. Drawn with a grey and black marker. This one is based on a promo pic of Valkyrie from the upcoming movie Thor: Ragnarok, but is also somewhat inspired by Beyoncé. *g*

Preview:

( Click here for entire artwork )

This past week has been SUPER busy, but I'm glad I got the chance to at least work on a couple pieces. Hope to continue with these next week, but I'm thinking maybe I should switch up from marker to another form of inking - maybe do some brush work...

badfalcon

Tattoos: *counts* 7 so far and I know I want at least 3 or 4 more.
I have a: bloody pentacle on my upper left arm; 'hope' on my inner upper left arm (just above the elbow) in the style of Raintown's Hope In Trouble Times album; a little red heart on my outer left wrist; blue stars on both inner wrists; the home glyph from Stargate on my outer right wrist; 'love' on my inner upper right arm - mirrors the hope one and is in Emma Steven' handwriting
Surgeries: I had a something on my knee when I was younger to deepen the groove my kneecap runs in. It didnt work and I have a scar that looks like a noughts and crosses game!
Broken bones: fractured and dislocated right knee, disrupted right collar bone, broken left wrist, broken left little finger way too many times
Shot a gun: Yup.
Quit a job: A couple, yes.
Flown on a plane: Yup, about five or six times
100+miles in car: Well. Yeah. I mean, hi, I regularly drive like 280 miles to Glasgow to see Raintown
Gone zip lining: Nope, I don't want to
Watched someone give birth: Nope, and I really hope not to
Watched someone dying: Sadly, so. Both my parents :(
Ridden in an ambulance: Three times, I believe
Been to…
Canada: yup, went to Vancouver
Europe: Hi, I live here. I've also been to Ireland, Spain, France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Austria, Denmark and Cyprus
Washington D.C: No, but I'd like to
Florida: Yup, I went to Orlando in 2002
Colorado: Nope
Mexico: Nope
Las Vegas: Yup. About 5 times..
Sang karaoke: Yeah, a couple times
Had a pet: I've nearly always had one until I moved into this place
Been downhill skiing: Nope
Gone snowboarding: Nope
Ability to read music: I used to be able to but I've not done so in about 20 years so I doubt I can
Rode a motorcycle: Only on the back
Rode a horse: nope
Stayed in a hospital: A couple times, yes. I was in hospital for months after I was born, for a couple days after the operation on my knee when I was 16, and then a couple days the other year for an upper intestinal infection
Driven a stick shift: Yup
Ride in Police Car: Yup - but I used to WORK for them so...
Driven a Boat: Nope
Eaten Escargot: Nope
Seen a UFO: Nope
Been on a Cruise: Nope
Run out of Gas: Just the once - and it was in a rental car so I didn't know how far I could push it.
Eat Sushi: Are you not aware of my love for Yo! Sushi?
Seen a Ghost: A few times, yes.

Crossposts: https://badfalcon.livejournal.com/1898063.html

el_staplador

I got two fantastic original fic gifts:

Firstly, this dark, atmospheric, wartime story with layers upon layers and stunningly good style:

J'attendrai (1479 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Original Work
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: 1940s Resistance Fighter/Glamorous Wartime Singer
Characters: 1940s Resistance Fighter, Glamorous Wartime Singer
Additional Tags: Love in a Dangerous Time
Summary:

The sadness of having to wait, the sweetness of having someone to wait for...

And then this, which is just sheer fun:

The Pirate and the Mermaid (8628 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Original Work
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Pirate/Mermaid
Characters: Original Female Character(s)
Additional Tags: Mermaids, Pirates, Supernatural Elements, Cultural Differences, Shipwrecks
Summary:

"Of course," said Charlie pettishly. As if she was just a stupid kid, asking stupid questions. "How was I supposed to know? You're the first mermaid I've ever met."

"Well, you're the first woman-with-legs I've ever met!" snapped the mermaid.

Current Mood: pleased

musyc

I've mentioned before that the property behind my house is a cow field. The cows had calves, as they do, and the calves frolicked through the field, as they do.

A couple of days ago, the farmer separated the cows and the calves, as they do. (Gotta wean the calves, sell them later, that sort of thing.) This particular farmer uses a fence-line weaning process, which is ... pretty much what it sounds like. The cows and calves are being kept apart by just a fence. Which means all those cows can still see and hear the calves.

Which means there has been CONSTANT MOOING for the past two days.

Now, it's less stressful for the calves to get weaned this way - they don't use up a lot of strength or lose excess weight by walking around looking for their dams. But the noise. The calling and calling. Allllll that mooing. Egads.

lunabee34

I'm about to have an evening to myself. Josh is taking Emma to Atlanta to watch Markiplier (I have no idea what a live show by a guy who does Let's Plays on Youtube would even look like, but fortunately, I don't have to go!), and I will have this whole evening to devote to conversation.

Ask me a question. Tell me something. *bats eyelashes*

I'll get back to you around 7:30 tonight.

Also, does anybody know how to get your own posts to show up in your friends list on DW? My LJ was set up that way, and I really liked it because I often used my latest post as the marker to start with when I began reading my flist. Any help would be appreciated.

Crossposts: https://lunabee34.livejournal.com/532749.html

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Journals, planners, and more

Member Posts

At long last, I know why some recipes call for "sea salt" and it's not actually ridiculous!

Buggy's Boxes - Marvel Gear and Goods

Rich and Famous

Linkspam: fannish/geeky/SFF, cute, misc.

72F - 47F : Morning Rain

music lyrics?

Why I am Still Married to This Man

Gospel

Rescue

BLACK PANTHER TRAILER THIS IS NOT A DRILL

Dad Update

Music Monday

Style

82F - 61F : Afternoon rain

And Dad is Back in the Hospital

[Playing Catch-up] Inktober - Day 14 (Fierce)

Meme from stolen from ami_ven

Femslashex reveals

All the noise, noise, noise

Fancy an evening of discussion, my friends?

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September 2017

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