|
|
|
May 27th, 2012
cf_hardcore
[kallistonire]
 | 08:47 pm - Ex boyfriend thoughts.
I have this ex-boyfriend. He basically fucked me about, metaphorically and literally, for about two years. He used me, knowing I was totally, blindingly in love with him, telling me every time that we were back together, then dumping me after the sex, all the while telling people I was fine with no-strings sex, and was being a drama queen. This guy left me with a ton of issues with relationships, love, commitment, sex, you name it.
And now he's married. With one kid under 3 and another on the way.
From what I can tell, his wife is actually pretty cool (I stay way, WAY out of this guy's life for my own sanity, but he is friends with some of mine and my now-partner's friends, so I hear things, and see them at gigs etc), she has/had a career, she knows I'm not the psycopath he makes me out to be - she even talks to me about my website and performances, etc. But I saw on Facebook the other day that she had posted a scan from her new pregnancy, as well as pictures of the baby they have now. I was talking to my now-partner about it today, and I found out that my ex doesn't even have a job yet. Oh, he takes the odd job off her father (at her insistance) but has no steady income to help support a growing family on. He plays with the baby they have, but doesn't change nappies, feed him, put him to bed. The kicker? They rehomed all but one of their cats, because they "couldn't afford them." When I found that out, I turned into a spluttering, angry mess. Poor cats :(
This really got me thinking about how this guy uses people, and how getting his wife pregnant twice so quickly is a new way of getting what he wants out of women, without having to contribute anything himself besides a spurt of DNA. His own sister has a weird, semi-incestual obsession with him, because he's trained the females in his life that that is how you get his affection. I really, REALLY hope this new baby isn't a girl. I know daddy issues well enough to know he'll mess her up without even trying - who knows what the boy they have now is learning from watching his dad sit about while Mam does everything for him.
TL;DR - my ex boyfriend gets under my skin. Again.
|
countryskills
| 02:03 pm - Maple Bacon – and a bonus summer salad
http://countryskillsblog.wordpress.com/2012/05/27/maple-bacon-and-a-bonus-summer-salad/ http://countryskillsblog.wordpress.com/?p=730 Every so often I ask my lovely husband for ideas – most recently last time I was making streaky bacon. ’What cure shall I use?’ I called out from the kitchen. ’Maple!’ he replied. Right oh, maple bacon. It’s a new one for us. I ferreted around in the cupboard and dug out a bottle of pure maple syrup. This was sounding plausible, after all!
[This bacon was made using a variation on the bacon-in-a-bag technique I wrote about the other week, so you should probably go and read that first if you're not familiar with it.]
For my bacon, I used -
- 480g piece of pork belly from our local farm butchers’ shop
- 30g of supracure
- 26g of pure maple syrup (really, buy the good stuff, not the blended rubbish)
- A plastic bag big enough to contain the pork, and a sealed container for the cure.
I was aiming for an 8% total cure weight to the meat (lower than the 10% I normally use), with a 1/3rd to 2/3rd ratio of sugar to salt. This was in deference to the rather aggressive salt flavour I got from the outside pieces of my last bacon-in-a-bag effort. I got the ratio right but slightly overcooked the total quantity, in this event. You’re thinking now that my arithmetic doesn’t add up, and that 56g is clearly well over 10% of 480g. You have to consider that maple syrup is about 40% water to 60% sugar (check the nutritional analysis on the back of the bottle for your particular sugar) so my 26g of syrup is in effect 15g of maple sugar, for a total dry-equivalent cure weight of 45g or ~9%.
 The mix of salt and syrup is not so much a dry cure, more of a ‘gloop’. Put the pork in the plastic bag and rub all over with half the cure, massaging in well. Seal the bag, excluding as much air as possible, and place it in the refrigerator. Store the rest of the cure in an airtight container. At least once a day (but in practice I tend to do this whenever I’m going to the fridge and remember) give the meat a bit of a massage, and return to the fridge the other way up.
 After two days, I poured off the pickle, and applied the rest of the cure. After three more days (a total cure time of 5 days), remove the bacon from the fridge, rinse it under cold running water, dry carefully with kitchen paper and then wrap loosely in baking parchment and return it to the fridge for at least 24 hours (and preferably a few days) to rest.
 You’ll notice that compared to our previous bacon, this one is a lot paler in colour, and retains a much whiter rind. Most of the change in the meat before and after curing is in the texture, with a slight pink flush to the meat. This is because we’ve not added colour by using a dark sugar in this cure. It slices very nicely!
 At this time of year, with the warmer weather, perhaps you don’t fancy a bacon roll so much as in winter? For lunch on a hot day, I love a spinach and bacon salad. It’s the quickest and simplest of light summer lunches. First slice your bacon into lardons, and fry it off until slighty crispy. This bacon cooks beautifully, caramelising very rapidly and rendering off lovely clean clear bacon fat.
Then, toss your crispy bacon pieces, while still warm, into a big bowl of baby leaf spinach, dressing with balsamic vinegar and olive oil.
Doesn’t it look appetising?? It didn’t last long here!
We had a few more rashers for breakfast. In summary – this is great bacon, subtly flavoured, gently salted, with a gorgeous traditional bacon flavour. Make it!
Read more DIY Cold Smoker & Home-Curing posts >>
Read more from the Country Skills blog >>
       
|
niceboots
[angel_sinner]
 | 08:18 pm - Mac make up
Hi I'm looking for some mac make up eye shadows - brushes - eye pencil and other items Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.
|
corsetmakers
[moltenmoon]
| 12:32 pm - Project planning: please help me spot the pitfalls before I actually reach them.
So, I am kicking around a costume idea for a steampunk convention and I'd like the opinions of the community on how well it might work. I am of mixed Navajo ancestry and I'm planning a character of the same background, as there was some pretty dramatic history happening for my forebears around the Victorian/Edwardian period. I was thinking of making the iconic steampunk "corset as outerwear" from a traditional blanket, but am afraid that the fairly coarse wool yarns used will fray too easily. My idea for a solution is to weave each pattern piece individually, with a shaped selvage. Basically, I'd be making eight or ten small oddly shaped blankets, then stitching them together. I'd then make the same pattern from coutil and sandwich them together. I'd probably make it either front-lacing, or back laced with a closed front, because I'm afraid the nature of the fabric will make busk insertion a horror. Have any of you done a similar thing? Seen it done? Am I crazy for thinking this might work?
|
queer_fest
[redfiona99]
 | 05:13 pm - Happiness (Or Something Like It) - Mystique, X-men: First Class, gen fic
Title: Happiness (Or Something Like It)
Author: Red Fiona
Fandom: X-men: First Class
Pairing/characters: Mystique
Rating: PG-12
Prompt: X-Men: First Class, Raven Darkholme, It's easy for Raven to pick up women while wearing the visage of a man, but what she really wants is to touch a woman while wearing her own skin.
Notes: I've gone entirely with First Class canon and I'm aware chunks of this are not comics-compliant.
Summary: The Constitution might have given a right to happiness, but it didn't give any hints how to get there.
~~~~
( Happiness (Or Something Like It) )
|
andrewducker
 | 05:01 pm - The world is slowly getting better
(US data, via from here)
I am fairly convinced that the current flurry of anti-woman and anti-homosexual drives by the Republicans (and equivalents elsewhere) are because they have realised that they are _losing_ and this is their last ditch attempt to hold on to the America they know and love. More and more of the people that are against marriage equality are old, more and more of the people that are in favour are young, and the switchover is happening as older people die off, because their culture is just not being passed on*.
So, while the current backlash is frustrating and annoying, it doesn't worry me in the long-term**. Twenty years from now people will look at this last-ditch attempt to stop gay rights the same way as we look at the riots over integration in schools in 1960s USA**.
*The same is true in the UK - church attendance in children and teenagers is down by 90% over the last two decades.
**Which isn't to say that the anger and work that's being done isn't vitally necessary - just that the weight is now on the side of the people doing that work.
Original post on Dreamwidth - there are  comments there.
|
bart_calendar
 | 05:05 pm - Guilt
So when I called up my brother to wish him Happy Graduation I had completley spaced that it was my mom's birthday so didn't say "Happy Birthday" until she brought it up.
She wasn't bitchy about it but I do feel bad.
I've just had a lot of work on my plate for the past few days and did not know it was May 26th yesterday at all.
Part of me thinks I shouldn't feel that guilty because the only reason I even knew to call my brother for graduation was that my dad sent me an email yesterday asking me to - and I kind of feel like he could have said "by the way, asshole, also wish your mom happy birthday."
|
gerald_duck
 | 03:12 pm - Qualification of a previous endorsement
A fortnight ago, I mentioned that Popchips are a rather tasty reformulated-potato-crisp-thingy.
At the time, I didn't know about this little fiasco — having your product advertised by a comedian in brownface doing a crude generic-Indian pastiche isn't clever. It was perpetrated by the American arm of the company which has since pulled the advert and apologised, but still…
Current Mood: Unimpressed
|
countryskills
| 12:34 pm - Jerk Pork Ribs – a bargain BBQ treat
http://countryskillsblog.wordpress.com/2012/05/27/jerk-bbq-porkribs-a-bargain-bbq-treat/ http://countryskillsblog.wordpress.com/?p=720 Regular readers of the blog will know that I love to advocate using great quality bargain cuts of meat, even if that means a little bit of extra preparation. Using the less fashionable cuts means getting to enjoy great, outdoor reared, higher welfare meat without having to shell out the premium price tag – and these cuts also reward the creative cook by being, very often, some of the most interesting to eat!
I often have a couple of bags of pork ribs in the freezer, as offcuts from the pork belly I make my streaky bacon from. From that point of view, these ribs are basically free. Last time we had some friends over and I wanted a few extra, my butcher sold me a 6 -7 inch chunk for 50p. If you’re buying them as ‘ribs’ in packs from the supermarket, rather than as offcuts, you’ll pay more, of course. Yet another reason to cultivate your friendly local butcher, and develop a few basic butchery skills yourself.
 This is how I expect your ribs will arrive – as a roughly square or rectangular piece with more or less loose tissue (from the diaphrgagm) attached to the inner (concave) side. There should not be very much meat on the outer (convex) side, as the belly meat should have been cut away.
If the belly is still there, you can either remove it and prepare it seperately – as bacon, or as a roast pork belly – or you can leave it attached and make really thick juicy ‘streaky ribs’. Beware, though, as these will be very fatty and consequently encourage your BBQ to flare up when cooked over coals. Pork belly is so wonderful, there are better ways to prepare it, in my opinion!
 You need to divide up your rib portion into separate ribs, and this couldn’t be simpler. Looking at this inner side, feel where the ribs are with your finger tips, and identify the gap between them. Using a nice, sharp, long knife, place the blade midway between the ribs and cut parallel to them.  There’s some cartilage attachment up at the ‘knuckle’ end of the ribs, but any plausibly sharp blade should slide straight through this (bonus hint – keep your kitchen knives *really* sharp – a sharp knife is a safe knife!).
 Carry on until all your ribs are divided up. Now find a nice big dish large enough to contain them all reasonably snugly. Squeeze over the juice of half a lime, and a big glug of olive oil. Then sprinkle generously with your home-made dry jerk seasoning mix and rub in all over. Turn the ribs over and apply some more mix to the other side.
 Once you’ve finished applying your rub, wash your hands carefully or they’ll end up stained an attractive nicotine-yellow from the turmeric. Cover the ribs and set aside in the fridge for at least an hour – if you’re able – before cooking.
Once your BBQ charcoal is smouldering gently, without any flame, put your ribs on the grill and cook until done. If I’m cooking for a large party, I like to start these ribs in the oven and then just finish them on the BBQ for that lovely open fire flavour without the extended cooking time. You’ll still get a great result. Then, sit back, and enjoy your tasty, juicy, spicy, bargain ribs with a nice cold drink!
Read more from the Country Skills blog >>
       
|
gerald_duck
 | 12:40 pm - Commercial break
I feel it is time to take stock of my many and varied purchases, including those I wrote about shortly before going on holiday.
The shaver is very good. The skin irritation when I first used it soon subsided and the washability makes a great difference: it only needs brushing out every month and rinsing through under the cold tap suffices between times. As a bonus it comes with a convenient charger base and form-fitting travel pouch. For reference, it's the PowerTouch PT920, currently half price in Boots, Amazon, etc. Annoyingly, the mains lead with plug-top transformer is British (BS 4573) rather than Europlug (CEE 7/16) — since every damn shaver socket in the country accepts Europlugs as well as shaver plugs we should just bite the bullet and switch. I'll try to buy a europlug lead as a spare part next time I'm in continental Europe, though the vastly superior battery life on this new shaver makes it less urgent.
The "handbag" hairbrush is also good. It seems to take twice as long to brush my hair with a brush of half the surface area, but that's probably inevitable. It's a big improvement on my old travel brush, which is now retired.
The Abus Extreme keyed-alike padlocks are very nice — chunky, with a good, positive action. They arrived configured to keep the key captive while unlocked, but fortunately I found some instructions on the web and this can be fixed by taking them apart and using tweezers to remove a little brass "Z". Many thanks to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1) pseudomonas for spotting the supplier.
The Boots travel pump dispenser bottle is a very effective way of taking some moisturising antibacterial handwash on holiday. The Tesco travel kit of little toiletries bottles on the other hand is 100% useless and going straight back: the spouts are so small even water can't get out of them, let alone viscous gels. Last year Superdrug sold excellent little squeezy bottles and I foolishly bought only two of them. Now they're discontinued. Sheesh!
I must buy some travel hand wipes. The number of times when I find myself wanting clean hands out in the wilds is significant. Any recommendations for dermatologically friendly ones?
I bought a USB charger lead for old Nokia phones on eBay and it turned out to be passive. Inert, even. Nokia phones want 6-7V to charge and it simply passes through USB's 5V. Result: a sulky "not charging" from the phone. Yes, it was only £1.10 including P&P from Hong Kong, but still a dud is a dud. And I still want a working equivalent.
This has turned out to be an entirely adequate roll-up wash bag thingy. It doesn't quite clip closed with all my stuff in it, but (a) my new shaver has a little carry case of its own anyway and (b) I'm looking to shrink my toiletries anyway. It takes up a lot less space while being better organised.
Next up for rationalisation is pills. Ideally, I'd find a pill box about 100ml in capacity with adjustable partitions — I don't want daily boxes, just a stash of my various medications, some of which I take an order of magnitude more than others. I know they exist, but I can't find them. Maybe I just go to a DIY store and find something intended for screws.
Meanwhile, some frantic Googling yesterday finally turned up this netbook rucksack. It says it only accepts laptops up to 7", but that seems implausibly small and several places say a 10" laptop like mine will fit. I found it going for £15+P&P on eBay so figured I had nothing to lose by buying one to see. Fingers crossed it'll do the job.
Now I just need to conclude the saga of the fridge…
|
trek_news
[lemonrocket]
 | 08:32 pm - Thursday 24th - Saturday 26th May, 2012
Are we missing your post, your community, or your journal? Leave us a note in the comments, or email us at trek.watch@gmail.com, and we'll add you to the reading list. Please check our posting guidelines before requesting that we add a link.
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif?v=92.1) trek_news links to Dreamwidth content as well! Let us know if we're missing your journal/community, or if you'd like to affiliate. You can follow us on Dreamwidth at trek_news feed.
Please, be advised that if you have no visible headers in your posts, but only a cut, it is likely that your post will not be included in the newsletter.
- Challenges:
Mid-Week Reminder at trekicontest
- Community Notices:
TOS reWatch and Chat Reminder at spock_uhura
Announcing ST reWatch & Chat for 5/27 & 6/1 at spock_uhura
Fanfics Rec Post #45 at kirk_mccoy
'Star Trek: The Voyage Home' Viewing Party! at kirkspock
- Discussions/Meta:
How does Abramverse fit into this, anyway? The Essay by  Loethlin (Kirk/Spock, Spock/Uhura)
All About Chapel by newest_gloss at spock_chapel
- Fandom:
Searching for Beyond Dreams Press by spomarani at kirkspock
Stars and Cons by hairypolack at startrek
Any SU fic writers doing Camp NaNoWriMo? by lurkch at spock_uhura
- Fan Art:
K/S Comics by tayloz9 (Kirk/Spock; PG; TOS)
K/S Comics by tayloz9 (Kirk/Spock; PG; TOS)
- Fan Fic:
Gen - WIPs
A Star and Three Quarters (4/?) by aHostileRainbow (Kirk, Harry Potter, Winona Kirk, McCoy, Spock, Sarek, Original Characters; Teen+; XI/Harry Potter)
Gen - Completed
They Are Going to Eat Us by iam_spock (Spock, McCoy; G; XI)
Cock Blocked by umbrellas_can (Kirk, always-a-kitten!McCoy; NC-17; XI/AU)
Straight On Till Morning by aHostileRainbow (Ensemble; Teen+; XI)
And so She Bit the Dust by epicionly (Kirk, Spock; G; XI)
Slash - WIPs
Catching Fire (The Firehouse AU) (15/22) by kel_1970 (Kirk/McCoy; PG-13; XI/AU)
Slash - Completed
Touch Me by umbrellas_can (Kirk/McCoy; NC-17; XI/AU)
The Beautiful Bay (#29, J 'N B Series) by writer_klmeri (Kirk/McCoy; PG-13; XI)
The Man in the Shed (#30, J 'N B Series) by writer_klmeri (Kirk/McCoy; PG-13; XI)
8 Maids a-Milking by TallyCola (Sulu/Chekov; General Audiences; XI)
The Catching by TallyCola (Kirk/McCoy, Chekov; Explicit; XI)
The Motorcycle Accident by TallyCola (Chekov/Sulu, Chekov/Kirk, McCoy; Explicit; XI)
The Gateway Drug by TallyCola (Chekov/Sulu, Chekov/Kirk, McCoy; Explicit; XI)
Ice Cream Sunday by MetalliKirk (Kirk/McCoy; Mature; XI)
One by AndreaLyn (Kirk/McCoy; Teen+; XI)
Posting Bail For A New Life by AndreaLyn (Kirk/McCoy; Teen+; XI/AU)
Perfect by caera1996 (Kirk/McCoy; NC-17; XI)
Louder Than Words by red_at_three (elle_stone) (Kirk/Spock; Teen+; XI)
Compromised by Dahliaxat68 (Kirk/Spock; Mature; XI)
The Politics of Command by gwynhefar (Kirk/McCoy; Teen+; XI, TOS, Mirrorverse)
Before and After by slash4femme (Spock Prime, Spock/McCoy; PG-13; XI)
Seven Minutes in Heaven by creampuffer (Kirk/Spock; Teen+; XI)
Fruit of the Tree of Life by creampuffer (Kirk/Spock; Teen+; XI)
The Prerogative of Cats by creampuffer (Kirk/Spock; not rated; XI)
Gang Aglay at the First Planet You See by red_at_three (elle_stone) (Kirk/McCoy; Teen+; XI)
Mine by Dawn_twilight (Kirk/Spock; Explicit; XI)
- Icon/Graphics:
20 "The Trouble With Tribbles" icons by weasleysangel
16 VOY icons by mackenzie_bones
20 VOY icons by mackenzie_bones
- Searches:
xbeax is searching for a specific Kirk/Spock fic.
 beatrice_otter is looking for a fic beta.
![[info]](http://l-files.livejournal.net/userhead/657?v=1328879641) vickyblueeyez is looking for Spock/Uhura layouts.
Send your fandom news to Trek News!
|
vaginapagina
[also_warriors]
 | 01:27 am - Links Round-Up: Week ending 26 May 2012
Welcome to our weekly links round-up. This is a compilation of items from the past week that may be of interest to VPers and is intended to broaden the kinds of conversations we have here. To submit articles to the round-up, e-mail also_warriors@vaginapagina.com As a reminder, in lieu of trigger warnings, I use keywords describing the themes of the piece. Please skim these before deciding to read the excerpt or click through for the full article. Outside sources are not safe spaces, and mainstream source's comments should almost always be avoided. The links I highlight don't necessarily reflect VP's views, or even my own, for that matter. This week's round-up includes: Field tests of DSM-5 show low reliability for 2 major diagnoses; cis people telling trans* narratives; a gallery of fat people rocking bikinis!; why gay is not the new Black; the suspicion of Black Studies; "The Dictator" and Islamophobia; call for submissions: Outlaw Midwives
|
kiss_me_hardy
[ctrent29]
 | 09:08 pm - "BUCCANEER'S GIRL" (1950) Photo Gallery
"BUCCANEER'S GIRL" (1950) Photo Gallery
Here is a GALLERY featuring images from the 1950 movie, "BUCCANEER'S GIRL". Directed by Frederick De Cordova, the movie starred Yvonne De Carlo and Philip Friend.
|
postsecret
| 07:54 pm - Sunday Secrets
http://www.postsecret.com/2012/05/sunday-secrets_26.html
PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail
in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard.
 See More Secrets. Follow PostSecret on Twitter.
-----Email-----
I had to watch the video while my husband was sleeping so he wouldn't see me cry. He's a veteran with PTSD.
Amazon.com Widgets
-----Email-----
Dear Frank,
Last night, I attended your PostSecret Event at the University of Oregon. Not only was I blown away by you and everything you do and the secrets that others have shared with you, but I was blown away by the community I am lucky to be a part of.
For months, I have felt so alone here. Last night, I decided to share my secret at the microphone. Right after, I received a hug from the stranger behind me. Not a pity hug, I could feel that she really meant it. After the show, I was approached again a few times and received encouraging words from people I knew and also total strangers. When I returned to my dorm room, I was Facebook messaged by an acquaintance, and emailed by a girl whom I didn't know, but recognized me from a mutual class. It was all so touching, honestly.
Here I have been, in my dorm room for months thinking I'm the loneliest girl in the world, while I'm surrounded by this wonderful community of caring people. What I'm really trying to say is, thank you, Frank, for bringing me closer to my community. And GO DUCKS!
-----Email-----
Dear Frank,
I was one of the people that got up to share my secret recently at the Stockton PostSecret event.
I just wanted to share with you just how special it was for me.
I knew that if I could share my secret, the deepest one of all, that I would feel better. When it came time for members of the audience to share, I almost chickened out, I was shaking; I was terrified. I got the first few words out, but I was too overcome to make a single sentence.
And then a girl stood. She walked over, opened her arms, and hugged me. This total stranger, I felt, cared deeply for me. I had never seen her before, nor did I find her after you were finished. But she gave me the courage. Even now, I have goose bumps as well as a feeling of total elation.
It is things like this that give me hope for the future. If a room full of total strangers can band together and support and accept one another unconditionally, then I believe that we're moving in the right direction. PostSecret is so much more than a movement. I truly think that it is a revolution.
|
vaginapagina
[demonic_force13]
 | 10:26 pm - softcups during sex?
A few days ago I went to the store for softcups and they were in a redesigned package. On the back they had comparisons between pads, tampons, and softcups. They also listed quite a few reasons why softcups are better. One of the things they listed was that a softcup can be worn during sex.
Is that really true? It seems like it would come out or be really uncomfortable. Has anyone here ever tried it?
Posted via m.livejournal.com.
|
queer_fest
[sailorptah]
 | 10:21 pm - Madoka Magica: Closet (with a Revolving Door)
Title: Closet (with a Revolving Door)
Author: sailorptah
Fandom: Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Characters/Pairings: Homura/Mami, Mami/Madoka, Homura/Madoka, Oriko(/Kirika)
Rating: PG-13
Contents: Drunken disorderliness, underage, character deaths of varying goriness, many many spoilers.
Disclaimer: MadoMagi isn't mine at least not in this timeline.
For queer_fest: Madoka Magica, Homura/Mami, She has come out to the other girl over a variety of timelines. No two are the same.
( Read on DW | Read on the AO3 )
|
papersky
 | 12:28 am - Thud: Turnover
Words: 2264
Total words: 5764
Files: 3
Tea: White Orchard
Music: Three Double Concertos, arguably the best music of all time ever.
RSI: Forgot that line, didn't I? Well, reminded of it now.
Reason for stopping: end of chapter.
I'm two chapters in, and these people are five courses through a twelve course lunch? Seriously? Oh well, we've also had a lot of backstory. It'll work out.
Anybody know anything about ballet that they didn't get from Noel Streatfeild and Rumer Godden? Any recommendations for ballet blogs?
|
gerald_duck
 | 12:54 am - Casein the joint
I last spent a holiday (as opposed to day trips) on the Norfolk Broads in 2008. Then, we stayed in Horning, in a decidedly eccentric holiday home full of German curios and books, including a large keg with "Brix" painted on one end. Once I'd got home (not having a laptop and 3G in those days) I researched this and determined the house had almost certainly belonged to Wolfgang Brix, former mayor of Neustadt an der Weinstraße. This explained the black and white photo of a middle-aged man shaking hands with a very young Prince Charles and also, since he died in 2006, how the house came to be let as a holiday home.
Personally, I liked the idiosyncratic charm of a house that had been set up for a specific person to enjoy rather than the bland conformity of most holiday homes. It seems my mum and brother didn't see it that way, concentrating instead on the seventies decor and the kitchen that felt as though it was going to fall into the swamp. There's no pleasing some people.
This is all a digression.
Down the road from the house, I discovered a delicatessen called The Galley (which appears now, as then, to lack a website) and was delighted that it stocked Isle of Mull, my utterly favourite cheese. When discussing logistics for our holiday this year, my brother asked me to bring "a block of really nice cheddar"; I knew precisely what to do about that. I bought 200g of Keen's Cheddar in Waitrose as an insurance policy, but before they arrived on the first day I took a detour via Horning on my way from Wroxham to Sutton.
The good news was that the delicatessen still stocked Isle of Mull; the bad news was that they'd run out. Apparently, the farm's having trouble with the rind going green at the moment; apparently, customers find this off-putting, so the cheese is in short supply. So no Isle of Mull.
Fortunately, the delicatessen had a good range of alternatives. I immediately spotted Black Bomber and took some of that. After sampling it, I also bought some Shipcord, a Suffolk cheese I'd not heard of before. It's a nice, strong Cheddar-like cheese that I'd rate above things like Quickes and Montgomery.
They were popular. A couple of days into the holiday, we were running low. Another trip to Horning was required — this time en famille. We got more Black Bomber, which my brother's partner really liked, plus a vintage Gruyère, some complex and mature Red Leicester and a somewhat milder Cheddar that wasn't so much to my taste. A lot of the Red Leicester ended up toasted on crumpets.
My mother, meanwhile, contented herself with eating the Wensleydale with cranberries that we picked up in Tesco. It seems she not only doesn't appreciate such cheeses but even actively dislikes them — to the point of spitting out the bit of Gruyère she tried. Oh well. Conversely, my brother was very pleased he'd put me in charge of obtaining cheese so he ended up with stuff that hadn't come from Tesco.
I bought some cheese straws in the delicatessen as well. Being somewhat cheesed out (I also ate a lot of Lincolnshire Poacher in the Anchor) I've not consumed them yet, but clearly should do RSN.
Meanwhile, Tesco's massively altered its bread line-up, deleting a lot of branded stuff to make room for more of its own products. I'd already noticed Staffordshire oatcakes had gone (sob!) but La Brea has vanished, too. I suspect La Brea's experiment in the UK may soon crash and burn: they've got people appreciating good sourdough loaves, but La Brea started out pricey and steadily became obscene. I'd stopped buying their stuff, even though I'm normally a cost-no-object grocery shopper. You can still find La Brea in Sainsbury's, but for how long?
As I noted before going on holiday, Tesco now does pretzels, just not as good as Ditsch ones, and certainly not as good as a proper Swabian pretzel from an independent baker. There used to be a Ditsch in Cambridge. I pleaded with you all to shop there, but it didn't work: like so many other food outlets I adore, it closed down within months. You can still get Ditsch in a few locations around the UK — notably Victoria Station — but, more usefully, the Little Waitrose on Fitzroy Street in Cambridge also sells them. Strangely, the big Waitrose in Trumpington does not.
Though the plain and salted Tesco pretzels are a creditable effort, the Ditsch Emmental pretzels knock the Tesco cheese ones (Cheddar) into a cocked hat.
Tesco is also now doing a three-cheese bread, which is quite good toasted. But similarly, that's not a patch on the M&S four-cheese bake-at-home focaccia. Ah well.
Current Mood: Cheesy
|
bart_calendar
| 01:46 am - Talk
Called home tonight to say congrats to my brother for graduating Magna Cum Laude in law school.
As always my dad and I ended up talking about books we are reading.
Me: Yeah, I bought The Land Of The Painted Caves yesterday.
Dad: Burn it!
Me: What?
Dad: You will one day regret every minute of your life you spent reading that book. Burn it now.
Me: So, it's not good.
Dad: If you are smart enough to like American Psycho you'll hate yourself for finishing this book.
Me: Did you finish it?
Dad: Yes. But I'm a literature professor and I need to know just how bad things can get.
Me: But maybe it will help me know how not to write.
Dad: Just fucking burn it.
|
May 26th, 2012
zoethe
 | 07:40 pm - Riding in a Critical Mass
Last night I attended my first Cleveland Critical Mass bike ride. Don’t feel badly that you don’t know what that means; I didn’t know about it until a few weeks ago. Critical Mass rides happen on the last Friday of the month in about 300 different cities all over the states and in some other countries. Here in Cleveland we had about 400 riders. In other places they have over 1,000.
400 riders strung out along a roadway was an incredibly impressive sight. We must have stretched out close to half a mile. I can’t even imagine 1,000.
The point of Critical Mass is not speed or getting to a destination first. The point is to raise local awareness of bicyclists and our right–nay, requirement–to share the roads. Did you know that in many states, including Ohio, it’s a misdemeanor for adult cyclists to ride on the sidewalk? This is because sidewalks are for walking, and people walking are generally traveling at 2-5 miles per hour. Whereas cyclists are generally traveling at least 8 miles an hour, and easily can be traveling 18, 20, or more. Cyclists are a hazard to walkers. They are operating vehicles, and belong on the street.
And the fact is that cyclists are safer on the street. I have been clipped by a car once on the street, it’s true. But I’ve had many near-collisions when riding on the sidewalk, because people are not looking for a bike on the sidewalk moving at 12 mph when they back out of a driveway or pull up to an intersection. They see me when I’m on the street.
Still, there are people who don’t understand the law who still honk at cyclists, yell at them to get on the sidewalk, and even assault them. A recent instance I read about was someone whose kid was pelted with a milkshake that was thrown from a car window. I’ve had people swerve at me, and someone open a passenger-side door in my face just to frighten me.
I’m not sure where this level of anger comes from. Yes, you might have to slow down and pull over to the left to get around a cyclist. But you’d have to do the same if a UPS truck was stopped there, and I don’t see anyone honking at the UPS guy. I sometimes have a sneaking suspicion that some of the resentment comes from thinking that the cyclist feels superior to people driving the car, or a guilt that the driver feels for driving along, drinking a milkshake while these cyclists are exercising.
I know that I’ve been cursed at with “fatso, get off the road!” As if my wide hips are taking up more space. My very presence offends some people.
I’ve learned to be more assertive in my biking, and also more cautious. I try to stick to roads with four lanes, and to bike toward the middle of the right lane so people don’t try the slip past me when there really isn’t enough room. I also bike at off hours or against the rush hour traffic so that I’m not frustrating tired people who just want to get home from work as soon as possible. I take my share of the road, but try to do so with respect for drivers.
And I obey traffic laws. I stop for red lights. I yield at stop signs–a full stop is incredibly wearing on the knees, so I cheat a bit, but I give up the right-of-way when it’s not mine to take. I signal my turns. I try to be a good citizen.
Still, it’s hard to be a cyclist at times. And cycling alone always seems more subject to verbal abuse than cycling with a group, or even just two.
So last night, cycling with 400 people, was a kind of empowerment. We rode through neighborhoods where kids ran to the fences, waving wildly at us, adults smiled and called out encouragement, and drivers waiting at intersections honked their horns not with impatience but in celebration. We were a novelty, this enormous group of cyclists.
We were a parade.
Maybe the people who smiled at our dinging bells and honking horns and smiling waves will remember us. Maybe when they come along a solitary cyclist pedaling down a narrow street, they will recall the crazy, happy atmosphere of last night’s ride.
And maybe they will be just a little more patient, give just a little more room, and we can all be better citizens on the road together.
Crossposting from Dreamwidth now. Sigh. If LJ won't let you comment, you can comment here: http://zoethe.dreamwidth.org/795282.html?mode=reply:
|
theferrett
 | 07:38 pm - Tales Of A Fourth-Rate Nothing: Busking On The Wrong Street Corner
During Clarion, I coined the phrase “busking on the wrong corner” to describe the phenomenon of “entertaining writing that doesn’t serve the story.” It’s the reason writers have to kill their darlings. It’s the trap that stops a lot of good writers from making the transition to great.
“Busking” is the practice of playing in public spaces for donations – you know, that guy playing the guitar, his guitar case open before him, full of scattered singles and quarters. Buskers are often some of the most talented musicians. But the buskers’ art is also partially a knowledge of where the crowds are.
You can sing your fucking heart out on a corner where there’s no foot traffic. If you’re really good, you might make a few bucks. But if you’re really good and really smart, you’ll position yourself near the subway where people are pouring out by the hundreds as rush hour ends, a place where even a mediocre musician can clean up. Part of your strength is not just the raw force of your musicianship, but knowing where to place that skill so it’s maximized with silver rains of spare change.
Writers (me included, oh so included) are often putting their talents to use on the wrong corner. This chapter is brilliant writing, it’s got great characterization, it’s exciting. But underneath, the scene is at odds with what the story is trying to do, and what you’ll wind up with is a great scene that advances the story in the wrong ways.
Lemme give you the real-life example: the lead character of the novel I’m plotting right now, Autumn Akeley, is a taxidermist. In the beginning of the book, Autumn is deep in the woods on a rumor, searching for the Hulk.
Why the Hulk, you ask? Because she’s not just any taxidermist – she makes wild viral videos online parodying recent movies in order to drive business to her online taxidermy shop. Autumn’s latest planned video (“The Bearvengers”) needs a gigantic, light-skinned animal she can dye green to play the part of the Hulk. Autumn does not kill animals for her entertainment (she takes the death of any creature very seriously), but she just got a tip from a hunter that there’s a decaying grizzly in the woods she might be able to use. She tracks it down with her friend Karla and examines the corpse – it’s a little too moldy for her liking, but it has very light fur. She thinks she can salvage it.
Then a shot rings out across the forest: there are poachers in the woods. As someone who hates to see an animal killed senselessly, she does not take lightly to poachers. She sets off to investigate, starting the chain of events that sets up the novel….
…Now, that’s a pretty good scene. It’s got an interesting character doing something we’ve never seen done before in a book, it displays her odd compulsions, it allows us to watch her work (if you have a character with an odd profession, people love to see the fine details), and for a short intro it’ll do quite nicely.
And yet we are busking badly here. Why?
Because this novel is about Autumn’s friendship with Karla.
Okay, unfair, I didn’t tell you that – but the whole point of the novel is that a new man in town with a shadowy past begins to romance Karla, causing a rift when Autumn discovers the man’s past as a serial killer. And this scene, while good in a vacuum, utterly fails to set up the dynamics of Karla and Autumn and their friendship. In fact, you’d be excused for forgetting the existence of Karla in this summary, because while we can put in some nice dialogue and characterization to set up Karla’s character, the underlying structure of the scene is not about her at all.
This is a great scene for a novel featuring bold Autumn Akeley, bold adventurer. It’s a terrible scene for Autumn and Karla’s big fight – especially since the next scene involves Autumn tracking down poachers, which has even less to do with their friendship. And if you’re not a careful writer, you’ll think this is an awesome scene because it’s got it all – humor, good characterization, a quick hook to action – without realizing that it’s an awesome scene that’s structurally at odds with what you want to do in the long run. It doesn’t set up the things that need to be established.
It’s a good scene in isolation. In context, it’s a darling that needs to be killed… Or at least dramatically changed so that Karla does something so interesting here that the scene metamorphosizes away from Autumn’s search for the Hulk and into an expression of how Autumn and Karla couldn’t get along without each other.
The point I’m making here is that had I written that chapter, I’d have been very proud. It’d be a nice, 1,500 word opener that would grab the reader, full of lovely details and fun stuff.
And then I’d have to place it into my trash folder, because ultimately it doesn’t do what it needs to, then hunt for the right scene to write.
Cross-posted from Ferrett's Real Blog.
This entry has also been posted at http://theferrett.dreamwidth.org/214853.html. You can comment here, or comment there; makes no never-mind by me.
|
quibbler_report
[snegurochka_lee]
 | 07:31 pm - The Quibbler Report: Saturday, May 26, 2012
Vintage Crumple-Horned Snorkacks (Older Fic of the Day):
• At the 2009 springtime_gen exchange, leni_jess wrote Honour Where It's Due. Draco at last sees what Snape has done, and what the future might be. (Draco and his parents, Neville, PG: canon character death & grieving). RIP, Leni. You will be missed.
Blibbering Humdingers (Art):
• Elrive drew Rose and Scorpius (G)
• Negai-Boshi drew Neville and Luna (G)
• BlissBaby13 drew Due a Soul (Tom Riddle, Voldemort, G)
• Kiak29 drew Ready for Quidditch? (Harry, G)
• SherbetBrice drew Weasley (Fred, George, Ginny, G)
• Meides-Cross drew All of our Flaws (Scorpius/Lily, G)
• shoyo4 drew Ginny (G)
• batlesbo drew Bellamione (Bellatrix/Hermione, G)
• Microscopik drew Black Sisters (Andromeda, Bellatrix, Narcissa, G)
• Today's featured community is hprarepairs!
Report:
If you have a link for us, feel free to e-mail us at quibbler.report@gmail.com or leave a comment to this post.
|
gerald_duck
 | 10:41 pm - Taking stock
Life is hectic right now. Mainly good, but entirely hectic. Hence my recent radio silence.
Unless something else happens, next week will be my first full, five-day week in the office since mid-April, only my second since March. Public holidays, personal holidays and a day of illness have served to fragment every other week. And, of course, there's then the Jubilee the week after that.
I took some holiday surrounding last weekend and went to the Norfolk Broads with my brother, his partner and my mother. Having explored the joys of Yorkshire, my mother was on the return leg of her grand tour. We stayed in Sutton (not to be confused, of course, with Sutton or Sutton) near the staithe, in a holiday home with views over the water. The weather was kind, giving us glorious sunshine on the Friday — which we exploited by hiring a day-boat — and avoiding raining at inconvenient moments on the other days.
Salhouse Broad remains my favourite spot on the Broads and one of my favourite places anywhere — beautiful, secluded and peaceful. We went there back in 2004 and we moored up for lunch there last weekend. We visited other old favourites like Horning, Ranworth and Coltishall, then I re-visited Blickling Hall with my mother on the Monday once my brother and his partner had left to catch their plane.
Alas I was unable to avoid also visiting Wroxham, a glorified boatyard festooned with greasy spoons, bookmakers and the nastiest department store this side of Soviet Russia, all enrobed in delicious seventies concrete. It reminds me of Huntingdon town centre, a place I hesitate to travel five miles to visit, let alone a hundred. That my mother likes it I ascribe to general derangement and poor taste, but curiously my brother does as well. I boggle.
On the plus side, I finally managed to see Cockshoot Broad having tried and failed two summers ago. While not as impressive as Ranworth Broad, it's still good, and much less busy. I saw a pochard, which my mother refused to believe was a word until I Googled it that evening (the Mi-Fi worked perfectly left plugged into a mains socket with four devices sharing it, modulo poor coverage). She seemed alarmed that I have an entire book of ducks, courtesy of ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/user_vaginapagina.png?v=92.1) kaberett.
Sadly, I've still not seen the Hoveton Great Broad nature trail, which has the interesting distinction of only being reachable by boat and the thoroughly uninteresting distinction of perverse opening times that aren't published online. We got a leaflet from the tourist information office in Wroxham, but my mum took it. There's a ferry from Salhouse Broad (itself endearingly remote from roads) and I assume it's open whenever the ferry's running. I should pop there when bored some Sunday.
Also on the plus side, I noticed that the Woodfordes brewery is very close to the Broads and then also noticed its adjacent tied pub is in the Good Pub Guide. Deservedly so. We went there and had a most satisfactory Sunday lunch. My brother's partner is a real ale fan and there's now a series of photos of her enjoying six 1/3-pint glasses of an assortment of Woodfordes ales.
Another bit of bad news is that, alas, swans and geese seem to be displacing ducks in the Broads. I surmise this is because all the tourists provide such an ample food supply — supporting evidence is that ducks become more prevalent as one moves away from heavily populated areas. (There were two dozen swans by Wroxham Bridge.) I suppose there's nothing wrong with swans and geese per se, but… I like ducks. Ducks are cheerful and friendly and go quack!
While I was in Norfolk my mother pointed out that she was going to Flatford on Wednesday and asked if I'd like to join her. After a hurried exchange of e-mails with my boss, I said yes. We actually went to Flatford in the afternoon, having met in Aldeburgh (where it turns out there's no Vodafone coverage, so rendezvous was trickier than expected) and had lunch in Snape Maltings. Aldeburgh is quite pleasant in an unassuming way. There are plenty of people about, but it has the tranquility of a town at the end of the road and out of time. Snape Maltings is on the one hand the rehearsal and performance venue created for the Aldeburgh Festival by Benjamin Britten and on the other a cluster of twee gift shops — an incongruous combination! Flatford is a gorgeous spot where Constable painted half a dozen of his best-known works, including The Hay Wain. I'd visited before, but was delighted to visit again, especially as it was far more enjoyable when less crowded on a weekday.
Around those events I've dined at The Anchor (in one of the two other Suttons), done the usual Thursday evening in the pub, tried to visit the Beer Festival yesterday evening then succeeded today when it was less full. This evening is my first meal at home in over a week and a half.
And sadly, amid all that, my pseudo-uncle (my father's brother's first wife's second husband — see diagram from 2003) died last week. This was not unexpected as he'd had Alzheimer's for a few years now and its severity had increased with alarming rapidity. I only knew him slightly, but he was congenial company at parties. I'm going to try to make it to his funeral (in the third Sutton) once the Jubilee long weekend is over.
And then in July I'm visiting Sweden. Before then, I have an unaccustomed gaping void in my diary. I might be meeting up with my brother and father in London in a fortnight's time, and I really should sort out my intended trip to Belgium, but other than that my time is my own to spend on housework, retail therapy and doing actual work in the office (when we're not finding hideous bugs in ICU).
Current Mood: Busy
|
arwen_lune
 | 11:29 pm - Eurovision
Cocktails yay. Plus moonwalking bagpipes were awesome.
I would love if Spain or Greece won and we got a complete budget eurovision. Like, we've already got a football stadium, so that's where we're hosting it. Here is your triplex plates over grass, single tracker spotlight, two people flapping cardboard for wind machine, and sparklers for pyrotechnics. Deal with it.
My prediction:
[23:04] <ArwenEurovision> Sweden, Russia, Iceland. italy and Estonia in the top 10.
Only wrong about Iceland. I must have underestimated how much people didn't want to get Iceland stuck with the expensive event...
|
|
|
cheerful