Fireflies in Jars

6:47am: Lughnasadh
Happy Lughnasadh to all y'all of a Pagan bent. I discovered in my gardening something grand: August is a Florida PLANTING season. Okra, corn, beans, eggplant, squash. Yummy. Happy planting. Happy harvesting. Happy togetherness.

11:55am: And here there be glee.
My garden has given me fresh onions. I am most please.

I have also put most of my tomato plants into the ground.

6:03pm: In Recent News...
Screw Fox News for suggesting that the recent Boston transit accident wasn't just because the guy was texting but because he was trans. This comes out of having to watch Fox News all damned day at work. It makes me feel as though my brains are oozing out my ears. The logical fallacies! They BURN!!! Ugh. It still hasn't stopped me from talking at the screen, though, when they say something stupid. I just mutter under my breath now... and it builds up through the day. So i have to spew it all over LJ, now.

On the up and more personal side, I submitted my short story "The Selkie's Sister" to The Lorelei Signal. Some months ago I submitted poems to the newly resurrected New Collage. I am currently prepping poems to go out to Rattle. Let's see if anything sticks. But before I find myself waiting around for news, I'm going to go trawl Duotrope to collect more info on markets I can submit to.

10:58pm: It's True
There is nothing better than home-roasted coffee. Seriously. I, yes I, the milk-craving sugar fiend, will drink my home roasts black. It's THAT good. Not because I'm good at it-- I'm not. I almost burnt this one. No. Fresh is just that much better. I kid you not.

3:30pm: Mmmm... soup
So, there was a chicken carcass. Having picked it clean of most of the meat, and being on the poorer side, I made a soup stock. Because delicious. So I set out the crock pot, and put in the chicken remains, and added garlic and salt. I let it go for about 26 hours. Then the real magic began, as I knew there was a garden full of herbs I could use to flavor this thing-- so I selected fresh sprigs of rosemary, thyme, and some tender delicious sage leaves. These went in to flavor the broth. Next I picked two green onion plants, not as tender as they were in their youth, but still delicious and oniony, and their flowers were spent, ready to drop seed. I harvested the flower heads, and removed the selected plants from the garden. The onion greens then felt themselves chopped. i cast about for other things to add. our cupboards were kind of bare of fresh things, but I did discover chickpeas, barley, and a can of sliced white potatoes. these went into the pot. Then I added the green onions. I cast about in the freezer and found a bag of mixed vegetables, the kind with green beans, peas, carrots, corn and lima beans. A hefty portion of this was added to the soup. I think they all would have been better fresh, but hey, you work with what you have. What I ended up with was a chicken-based vegetable soup of delicious. The broth was the richest I've ever had. I am never going back to canned soups.

1:38am: Feets of Leather
So... I've jokingly bragged about how tough my feet are, how leathery my soles, and the things over which I've trod barefoot. Much of this is embellishment. However, tonight my cat was doing kitten paws on my lap (you know, the happy-cat kneading with claws?). She was purring as she does, so quietly you have to put your fingers under her chin to even tell. Suddenly, she gave a yelp and bolted backward. I felt my foot go with her. Apparently my little grey fluff ball had sunk her claws into the soles of my feet without my noticing, and couldn't extract them. A little bit of torn calloused skin was the only thing that remained of the incident. That, and she wouldn't let me touch her for fifteen minutes. D'awwwww.

12:29pm: More Gardening
( More Gardening, Cut for Your Protection )

7:30am: Green-- Because There Was Finally Rain
I've been such a garden dork of late. I've been trying to fill my time with challenging things, so gardening and module building are it, in addition to writing, which is always a fascinating thing. So I'm going to glee over seemingly boring things: I am going to give you a garden report. If you live nearby and would like tasty things, ask and I shall share. Right now, I've an abundance of scallions. Onion greens are it at the moment. Let the garden dorkiness begin!

( Cut for the full garden report, plus awesome links to local--as in local for YOU-- garden and agricultural info!!! )

9:27pm: There Was None Better
Wow. Eartha Kitt died, December 25th. The world will never be the same place.

8:24pm: @ nightstalker: So have you invented that teleporter yet? 'Cause I'd love to go to your UnChristmas shindig, and visit the coffee shop too. Instead, my mother has roped me into going to her house, and is probably going to strong arm me into attending some sort of fire-and-brimstone Jesus-hates-sinners-most-on-Christmas service, and complain at me for not being a Christian. I will be given presents I don't want and then guilted for having received them and not being a Jesus-freak. Then dinner will be served, and the only safe topic of conversation will be the weather, but not global warming, because it's Jesus's punishment for teh homosekshuls, along with AIDS and the economic crisis. Also, Mohamed is apparently a demon, and all the Jews are going to the nicest part of hell... but they're still going to hell. Her words, not mine. Can you see why I'd rather eat glass? Please please please make my mother stop. Or, if I have to spend Christmas with Christians, let me spend the day with Catholics or Christian Scientists, most of whom are much saner and cooler than my mother. And send me some dim sum. Alas, that doesn't weather transit well.

10:15am: Making Your Vote Count
I've been reading up on this stuff, and I've already voted. I fugure the best thing I could do at this point was to pass the information along. Cara at Feministe has an excellent post today about voter suppression, and how to combat it. There's also Steal Back Your Vote. Excellent resources, both. Read, process, and prepare yourselves and friends in case of election fraud of the vote-stealing kind. But most of all, pass along this information. Tell every one. Circulate the links. Repost them in your journals, facebook, or other blogs, add other links that you know of with good resources to help folks avoid disenfranchisement.

8:32am: The US is Not Alone
Iceland's in trouble too.

7:42pm: Because Rew Did It First This Time, Initiating This Round of Meme-age
Comment and I will:
a) Tell you why I friended you.
b) Associate you with something -- a fandom, song, color, photo, etc.
c) Tell you something I like about you.
d) Tell you a memory I have of you.
e) Ask you something I've wanted to know about you.
f) Tell you my favorite userpic from your list.
g) In return, you could post this on your own LJ, and it shall be gleeful.

11:29am: Overwhelming Urges
http://www.whodoesshethinksheis.net/

I must see this film. Must.

2:00am: To Curse a Writer
D. came up with something absolutely beautiful and evil today. Never say this aloud to me or any writer you care about, but as curses of subtle monstrosity go it is a lovely twisted thing: "May [ ] be plagued by stories that are beyond your ability to tell."

The blank because I don't wish it on any of you. It's is Gaiman-esque, but that was more the quantity of ideas plaguing Richard Madoc.

11:18am: Ah, Well
Looks like I won't be getting to go to Necronomicon after all. Oh well. Minor suckage. There are many worse things in this world than little disappointments.

On an up note, by this time tomorrow, I may be gainfully employed. The downside is missing thryn's b-day party. However, if gainful employment occurs, I can offer to take weez-ile keeper on a belated run to Bern's Dessert Room in glorious Tampa. :D

9:38pm: Equinox
Blessed Mabon, y'all.

5:21pm: It's Been bothering Me So Much...
...that I wrote a letter.

( The letter. )

Now I just have to look up email addresses and physical addresses. Critiques of the letter?

9:21pm: Reviewing Things... Because
And "because" will have to do by way of reasoning for now I suppose. Or not. Really, I've been... bored. Although I now have job leads far away from my current location.

( Cut for the long. )

11:52am: Realizations
New York cried for my leaving today. Either that, or it was just rainy.

I'm coming to some conclusions, I think. I've found more job possibilities here without even looking than I have in months of applying to Michael's, Lowe's, Home Depot, Publix, Circuit City, Petsmart, random advertising jobs in Tampa, etc. back in Port Charlotte. People have asked me here to buy my hat and offered $30-$50 for it. And I didn't even make it myself. I am... there are so many people with whom to creatively collaborate. Ideas are already buzzing in my head. Tampa, even when I lived there, gave me all sorts of ideas. New York does this too. Sarasota sprouted the occasional notion, but Port Charlotte sucks them away for me. I think very much it's the press of people-- I met briefly a young woman who made jewelry at Coney Island, and we talked shop while waiting in line for fish and chips. I randomly met people who struck up conversations with me about Ursula K. LeGuin. batyatoon had the most wondrous college project of doing a paper on street musicians, and then we had the notion of turning it into a documentary. And I'm realizing that I'd only be lying to myself if I said anything other than this: I want to move to New York. Right now, I don't think I'm going to get a better chance at it than this fall. And I'm going to try to line up woek before going. I got some talking out and planning to do, and it is unlikely that I will do it before Samhain (and the notion of glee that darksteele had-- I like seeing ideas through), and possibly starting up the talked about plan with dragonzfaerie about that Shakespeare on film... I looked last night at the available internships for writing here in NYC, and I boggled. I feel torn. Stupidly torn and I feel like I have to justify my desire to move here, because I "belong" in Florida doing... what? What will I do there?

3:02am: Note to Self: Make This Again
One of the tastiest meals I've yet had, and so incredibly simple. Sliced up 2 roma tomatoes. Light sprinkling of salt on top, along with basil, oregano, garlic, crushed red pepper, and a few other things I've forgotten (blast! I had just grabbed spices and added them by smell. Secondary note to self: record spices better next time). Baked in oven at 325°F for 15 minutes (prolly should have done 20). Deliciousness ensued. Served with feta cheese and manzanilla olives. The olives were an afterthought, and quite honestly didn't complement the flavors quite properly, but the feta was amazing with it. So simple. So so simple.

And earlier, I went all out on a baked sweet potato, not only with butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon, but with honey (avacado honey to be precise-- its robust flavor worked well with the tuber. I wouldn't put orange blossom honey or wildflower honey with it, though black mangrove or palmetto honey would be yummy), allspice, nutmeg and clove. I nearly melted with the butter. Mmmmmmmmmmm.

6:19pm: A Proposal, Nay, an Edict!
All older versions of D&D will henceforth be referred to as "real D&D." 3.0, 3.5, the delights of 2nd ed. AD&D with joys THAC0 and its negative integers, even the 1974 boxed that presupposed one was familiar with the miniature game Chainmail, all these are holy within the eyes of Gary Gygax. This 4th edition thing? It is not D&D. Henceforth, it shall be known as the Abomination, for it is abominable unto Nuggan, and abominable unto Lloth, Moradin, and Corellon Larethian, and never shall it be refered to as D&D.

8:33pm: I Knew I Smelled Smoke This Morning
Lake Okeechobee is on fire. No wonder.

9:26pm: Meme-age, and You Know I Only Like the Fun Ones
Practice and Theory: Each person to pick it up will copy the ENTIRE "story so far," add a description that responds to the last action, then an action of their own with their LJ username (pref as a link). You can tag one person or just let anyone who wants to pick it up.

Some suggestions for actions in case you've never played a text adventure: Look, Take (something), Go (north, south, east, west, up, down, in, out), Use (something) on (something else), Say "(words)". Feel free to make up your own. Also feel free to respond to a nonsensical command with a nonsensical text adventure standard error message like "I don't understand. You want me to put that where?" This game can branch as different players pick the adventure up at the same spot and create different storylines; that's the point of copying THE WHOLE THING each time (put it behind a cut). Keep the instructions copied only once, or just link back to this post: http://kerrickadrian.livejournal.com/61847.html

( RUN GAME.EXE )