SG-1 Fic
Slash, Gen, drabbles: under construction

NCIS
Slash, Gen

Essays
Bait and Switch: Sacrificed to the Gods of UST

How to Teach Men to Write Women

The Problem with NCIS is the Writing

They run this competition every year (okay, last year was the first year I'd heard of it ;-). Anyway, they're still looking for submissions. It doesn't have to be a new story or piece of art or whatever. Just follow the bouncing links.

To all my favorite Canadians, I hope you have a lovely day and great fireworks, if you do that sort of thing. :-)

(And chocolate, because, hey, why not? :-)

I know there's at least one person on my flist who lives in the D.C. area, but some of you might have lived there in the past or have family in the area, so I thought I'd ask. (Note this is partially for fic purposes as both my fandoms have D.C. connections, but all research is good and research for fic can translate to research for original fiction, as well.)

I know there have been some major blizzards in the area in the past decade or so (2003 and '96 come to mind). Being a native Texan, suffice to say I know zip about blizzards. :-) We roll up the sidewalks if we so much as get any snow on the ground at *all* and that happens less than once every 10 years (except for the winter of '72-'73; "lots" of snow that year, every weird). Now if you want to talk about hurricanes, I'm your gal. :-) But snow? Not so much. I have driven in snow, a bit, elsewhere, but that experience is so minimal as to be all but useless. Mostly I alternated between the excitement of BEING IN SNOW! and abject terror whenever I hit a slightly icy patch. :-)

Tell me about your experiences in blizzards in general, and in the D.C. area in particular, if possible. What's it like? What kind of issues do you face? Ever been snowed in somewhere other than home? How severe does it have to be for you to be forced to shelter in place (that's what we call it during tropical weather)? Are oil-fired furnaces the usual method of heating a home or do you use central air and heat? I'd expect large buildings to use a non-oil-fired system (central running on electricity), is that true? Do you keep "blizzard" supplies like we keep hurricane supplies on hand? (Flash lights, batteries, canned goods, crackers, bottled water, some sort of camp stove or sterno, that sort of thing - losing electricity is *going* to happen in tropical weather - the wind trashes power lines, phone lines and sometimes even cell phone towers).

What else am I missing that this poor little Gulf Coast gal is too ignorant to know to ask? :-)

Does anyone have current contact info for Sequitur? As in, something other than her ff.net address or livejournal address? The NCIS Awards folks are trying to reach her (I'd nominated one of her stories, but they haven't been able to reach her).

In this case, the icon applies to me.

I was reading something, just reading along when all the sudden the solution to a years old original story that I'd abandoned came to me in a blinding flash.

Unfortunately, I lost the damned manuscript in a hard drive crash and have *no* clue where the backup is. I lost several stories when that drive died, but this was one of the three I was most invested in.

Maybe I can resurrect it (and you have *no* idea how appropriate that word is) now that I've *FINALLY* figured out how to finish it.

I really need to get better about keeping track of my backups. I'd gone through a massive electronic cleanup right before the drive crashed and I'm afraid I ditched all my redundant backups only to find they weren't so redundant after all.

*headdesk*

It's such a cool story, too.

At least I think so. I can think of several markets for it, too.

Somebody at USA likes us. :-)

All *four* of Shanks' Burn Notice episodes will be on USA on July 2. They're scattered from morning til night, so check your local listings.

(edited to fix an error now that there's no tequila in my system :-)

I have some chili in the fridge. It's the last of a pot that I'd finally mixed with rice because I ran out of crackers.

It's rather thick and needs water added when I heat it up. This is not a problem.

But it did give me a kinda crazy idea.

Cuz, y'see, with the rice sucking up most of the moisture, it's rather malleable. As in, can be molded and will hold a shape. I started thinking about doing a flour/egg thing and pan frying chili patties. As I was typing this up, it hit me that I'm out of corn meal, but that would have been great, too. Dip them in egg then cornmeal and pan fry them.

Then I remembered something else.

I have cornbread mix in the pantry. Why not mix up a recipe of cornbread and use *that* as a coating and then slap those babies in the oven?

I have no idea how this will turn out. I might be slicing off rings of summer sausage to batter and fry to use up the rest of the cornbread mix if I end up with a disgusting puddle of chili-ick in the oven, but I'm thinking one or more of these things sounds very, *very* interesting.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

List seven songs you are into right now, no matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they're not any good but they must be songs you're really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your LiveJournal along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they're listening to.

1) You're Gonna Go Far, Kid, by The Offspring
2) There's a Good Reason These Tables Are Numbered Honey, You Just Haven't Thought of it Yet, by Panic! At The Disco
3) Time to Dance, by Panic! At The Disco
4) Sparks of the Tempest, by Kansas
5) What it is, by Mark Knopfler
6) Was I?, by Madeleine Peyroux
7) Blue Collar Man, by Styx

Consider yourself tagged, if you so choose. :-)

For those of you who haven't yet seen the two JAG episodes that first introduced NCIS, Ice Queen and Meltdown will be on USA on July 1 starting at 10:00 AM CDT, followed by the first episode of NCIS (Yankee White) and the next few episodes of S1. Get your DVRs and VCRs set to record.

If you're new to NCIS, this is the time to start watching, just keep in mind that Ducky isn't creepy like he was in the spinoff episodes. ;-)

While the characters are amazingly well 'set' during even the first few episodes, just keep in mind that this is the only time you'll see Tony in glasses (Michael Weatherly had laser surgery at some point and Tony's eyesight suddenly improved ;-) and Gibbs spouting off about movies. :-)

I see this has come up again.

I like warnings. I like them as a reader and I like them as a writer.
( mentions of standard warnings included under the cut )
So, I'll keep using warnings (and try to remember to use a cut if it seems it could be something triggering) and I'll keep seeking them out. And I'll also keep avoiding authors who don't use them as a matter of course, unless someone I trust recs a story to me.

ETA: donutsweeper offers this analogy

From time to time people who interact with my kid will ask me how I managed to get such a rational teenager.

( Mostly I tell them I got lucky. :-) )

The Stargate Fan Awards are getting close opening up for voting. We're tying up the last few loose ends, so it won't be long. :-)

[puts on other fandom's hat]

The NCIS fanfiction awards are still taking nominations. Here's the link to the rules tag in the NCIS awards comm. Nominations are open through the end of June. (That's this month, folks. :-)

This started life as a comment in or_mabinogi's LJ, but I decided to post it here, too.

Gravy, at its most basic, is equal parts of oil and flour with water added until you get the texture you want. That's it. Not rocket science, folks. Gravy is a *great* tool in the cook's toolbox. It can be used to cover potatoes or dressing or some kind of meat. It can be used to add thickening and flavor to soups and stews and makes a great basis for one of those "what's in the fridge" meals we all end up throwing together from time to time (or four nights a week ;-).

You can flavor it with broth or wine or any combination of seasonings available in your kitchen. Pretty much, gravy is a canvas for you to paint on. Nothing more, nothing less. The only limits are your own imagination and the contents of your kitchen.

Making Gravy.

Gravy is actually very easy. It helps if you've got a good heavy skillet and a whisk, but they aren't essential. As I am whiskless at the moment, I tend to use a wooden spoon. I prefer some sort of non-stick skillet, but I've made gravy in sauce pans and, on one unforgettable occasion, in a cake pan sitting in a larger cake pan with a piece of a brick in it, sitting on a burner. It worked, but I wouldn't advise it. :-)

You start with equal amounts of oil and flour. I find olive oil makes the best gravy of all time but any oil will do. I suggest not using butter due to its low "smoke point".

Heat the pan (medium heat should work), then put in the oil. Get the oil nice and hot. Then sprinkle in the flour (and don't stress over "sprinkle" :-). Whisk, if you've got it, or just get in there and stir with a wooden spoon. It's going to be a clumpy mess, but that's okay. That's what it's supposed to look like. Let it cook for a little bit, stirring constantly. A couple of minutes would probably do until you feel more confident that you can keep it from burning.

Then, start adding the water (or wine or broth or whatever - I'd start with the hot water, though). Hot water from the tap is great. You'll want to add it a little at a time, stirring it in (this is where the whisk really comes in handy since it helps reduce the risk of lumps). Just keep adding water and stirring until you've got it well-thinned.

Add any seasonings you might want and if you're using it as a base for a dish, this is when you go ahead and add any meat and or vegetables.

Add liquids as needed. If it clumped, the longer you cook it, the more likely the lumps will cook out.

It's gonna lump at first, until you've got more experience, but it's one of those handy cooking skills that can be *very* useful in so many different settings. And at first, feel free to use cheaper vegetable oil until you feel like you've got the knack. You may end up dumping it a few times and starting over. :-) Or not. More liquid and longer cooking can solve a lot of gravy troubles. :-)

I consider myself a bit of a foodie. While I don't stress over having the precise cut of grass fed Venezuelan beef, or whatever, I like cooking good food and I love eating good food.

But I detest the folks who get so precious over it all.

Really, folks, it's not that big a deal.

For example...

I adore English muffins. I usually have some in the pantry (plain for the kid, cinnamon raisin for me). The other day I started looking up recipes for them to see how tough it would be to make my own. Turns out, it doesn't look that difficult. However, in the quest for knowledge I ran across one site that talked about how horrible it was to 'ruin an English muffin with a knife'. (Not quite a direct quote, but very, very close.)

HUH?

Apparently, this particular cook, and it was someone with a reputation and a cookbook, thinks English muffins can only be eaten if they're torn apart rather than cut.

Uh-huh.

Right.

Of all the blinkin' stupid claims I have ever heard that has to be one of the most stupid. The taste of a muffin will not be affected at all if you cut it. Sorry, no, won't happen. Well, I guess if you used a dirty knife it would, but that's not the knife, that's the stupid application of whatever was on it to the muffin. Now, one thing that will happen if you cut instead of tear is that it'll fit in the toaster better. (And I'm sure that's some sort of crime as well.)

sigh

I'm sure she'd be horrified by me using one of the plain English muffins in my pantry to make English muffin pizzas for a snack.

Folks, cooking is FUN. Don't let the idiot prima donas try to scare you off with all their stupid rules. It's basic chemistry... and let me clue you in on something. I'm a decent cook and I never even took chemistry. What I did was learn to cook, 'by touch' from my mother. My mother isn't a great cook but she knows the basics. My own enjoyment of it and my desire to learn more is what has made me a far better cook than she is, but she taught me not to fear it.

Don't fear the kitchen. It's your servant, not your master.

Thank goodness the symbol of Iranian protest is a color. That's about the limit of my icon-fu.

I need an icon that shows skyscrapers melting. :-) Thanks, sazandra!

The batteries in my tv remote died today. Correction, the batteries in my *cable* box remote died today. Know what that means? You guessed it. No way to change channels. It has no controls *on* the box. *sigh* And I was out of AAA. NOTHING else I own uses AAA. AA, C, D, all in the battery drawer. Oh, and two 9 volts, but no AAA. So, I went to the store today.

I used the bus and after having finally gotten my bus pass, I took the chicken way out and rode (from the really close stop) to a nearby transit station so I could at least wait for a connection in good shade. I could have walked the three-quarters of a mile to the proper stop (I wanted to go to the cheap store ;-) but it was a million degrees today and just no.

So, I went and waited and waited and waited and waited some more. Finally the right bus came and I went. Took me less time in the store than it did waiting for the connecting bus. :-) On the way home, I decided to bite the bullet and walk the 3/4 of a mile.

UGH!!! I could feel myself dehydrating with every step. It was near 100 today (supposed to be 101 in a week). When I finally got home, I think I ended up drinking close to a quart and a half of water inside an hour. Felt *MUCH* better after that. ;-)

You know it's been a hot day when you go back outside and 89 feels *COOL*. :-)

But I got some walking in and I used public transportation. \0/

And we can read all about it.

( got a laugh from the costumer )

If there is one person or more on your friends list who makes your world a better place just because they exist and who you would not have met (in real life or not) without the internet, then post this same sentence in your journal.

Written for oxoniensis's Porn Battle VIII.

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