Monday, October 27, 2008

Autumn Comes

Friend Update: Nothing new on that yet. Still concerned and waiting on info. Garden Update: Ah crap I knew I forgot something. I'll have more pics up soon enough. Project Info: The Pyrography "How To" is still in the works, but it is coming. Also, I recently posted a crash course "how-to" on effects make-up bruising over on the sibling site for Halloween this year, and I'm planning to put together a couple more that may not be up in time. Anyway, I have a printable PDF version of that same guide available here if anyone wants to take it on the go. Promotional Considerations: Long overdue, but here's the list of stories that were submitted to my Writer's Challenge over on TheO. A Birthday Celebration to Remember by Magnus Lensherr With a Luke Skywalker Cutout by BASH The Travel to the Lost Ruins by AngelBest Dream Comments: Outlaw Melfina: Congrats on being here so long. I hit my five year back in August, but I didn't plan anything special this year. Too much other stuff and project backlog to get anything done. The lizards themselves didn't do anything, they just have the misfortune of being associated with a company that lost my respect. I suppose it happens to a lot of people's favorite things along the way. I always have my doubts when a TV channel claims low ratings for something. Here in the US with Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block, those clowns [Censored] and moan about the anime numbers being so low, yet they still show it. That begs the question, if it's doing so poorly in the ratings, why are they still showing it? The only logical answer I have is that the numbers they post and the numbers they actually get from Nielsen are different. Much of my anime experience is owed to the Adult Swim block on CN, so I'd be powerfully annoyed if they did finally decide to drop anime. The crude "adult" comedy crap they also run in that block just doesn't do a thing for me. whtdragon: Between well stocked convenience stores and Taco Bell, it's bound to be out there somewhere. It may be a matter of crossing into another Pepsi distributor's territory to find it. A lot of the stuff I can't find here is usually associated with the local Pepsi distributor being either too lazy, cheap, or unwilling to carry something. Unfortunately, there's no way outside of getting a job with Pepsi, to figure out what distributors cover what area. Code Red was all right when it first came out, but when Mountain Dew started to get the oily taste to it, Code Red wasn't as good anymore. Between the quack doctor just covering her butt and the lazy work-ethic of the people in this state, I doubt it's a shortage of people that caused the delay. Something is rotten in the state of WV. Yeah, the garden could have done better if I'd had the energy to really put into it. It did well though. I've kept myself sane with some projects lately, nothing to elaborate, but a few little things. the real yojimbo: If nothing else, it makes a great Halloween theme. I don't see SoBe doing that kind of thing. They used to be less about profit and more about quality product, now I'm not so sure. At any rate, they've hurt their image in my eyes for what little that's worth. I used to get a bottle of Dragon every time I was out shopping, it was the only thing that would keep my stress levels in check and taste good doing it. I don't have that, and I'm less lily to go after other of their products if only to avoid becoming attached to another one and have it pulled away from me. Too bad cause SoBe has a really good one for speeding recovery from colds. I got the joke, as was gong to respond with something about the people here just voting for the prettiest campaign signs, but that would be too viciously cruel, even for me. I have enough bad karma racked up as it is, I don't need to add that much more to it. Or I could do like people around here do and set up a table beside the road and sell it myself. I don't think I have the yard capacity to do that kind of thing, and the snooty Historic Society would be up in arms about the yard being filled with veggies. I'd probably have the local cops nosing around to be sure I'm not growing pot in amongst the tomatoes too. It certainly should, that and I've been a bit lazy and not really wanting to do the nuts and bolts of the how-to yet. AngelBest Dream: Mothman fit my mood at the time, he's good for Halloween (actually he was first sighted in November so he fits the season too), and I already had the theme made up. I have been working on a dragon theme, but haven't really had the energy to dive into that in depth. Green is my color too, so hopefully I'll have lots of green here again. As successful as the 20 Item Project was, I still feel some sense of failure with the end result. I had hoped to see more of the content actually make it into the writers' portfolios and when that didn't happen, I think in some odd way, that hurt the morale of the whole project. The biggest delay in the next writer's challenge will be removing that whole portfolio dynamic. Just some plain crushed lime, and 10-10-10 fertilizer, between the two of them, you'll have an okay garden. We picked all the tomatoes last week, and the bell peppers will probably come in this week sometime, so it's pretty well done for the year. Only time will tell on that whole thing. I was asked by another member of the forum what was up with the new one just the other night. All I could tell him was what I was told by the other admins, something happened with the server. It must have been catastrophic to take this long and still be out of commission. That's good advice, I'll remember that. Hopefully the work I'm putting into my novel will pay off like the fruits of a well-tended garden. That's right, never give up the fight. redmoonchick: Glad to hear that, I do try to get by now and then, wish I could get by more often though. I remember Rain, and Fire, and all those element ones too, my first taste of SoBe was Rain (not half bad for cactus juice). Those drinks got scarce around here when the Big Bear stores closed (Big Bear carried the whole SoBe line), and when SoBe switched them from glass bottles to those aluminum cantle (can bottle) things. They are still around in some parts of the country, but I couldn't tell you exactly where. I know I still see them around here once in a while when I go out of my way to look for them. Yeah, that one is all over the place here, it's okay, but it just doesn't taste the same, there's a bitterness of corporate greed laced into their stuff anymore. Seemed appropriate for Halloween anyway, hopefully I'll have something dragon up before Christmas. We lost a couple to this really bizarre splitting thing they like to do, but otherwise, we got a good harvest in. Hope things are well with you lately. jomz The Mothman is an odd creature, and cool too. Tell me about it. And you know, they stopped the correspondence on their end so I guess they just don't want to hear what their customers have to say. That should be coming soon, probably after Halloween is over. Animé Dreams!

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Friday, October 10, 2008

SoBe and Other Stuff

SoBe Rant: Over the last few weeks, one of my side projects was to try to track down "Dragon", one of the very few SoBe drinks I actually like, not only for the name, but for the taste. I noticed that it was no longer being stocked at some local stores, or in the rest area vending machine so I put out some feelers to see what was up with that. The following contradiction to personal experience is what I got direct from the SoBe people: Unfortunately, the product you’re asking about has been discontinued due to lack of sales. By now, if your browser isn't being lazy, you've noticed that the lizards no longer grace my site. If you haven't, a couple force refreshes should do the trick. I no longer respect SoBe as a brand or product, that means they lose out on my support for their products and what was once a very cool reptilian style. Friend Update: Still waiting for information, apparently the medical community in West Virginia is entirely incompetent and can't read MRI data efficiently. Please continue to keep him in your thoughts and prayers, thanks. Garden Update: Promised tomato pictures, but I don't have them ready yet. Dried mint brews stronger than fresh mint, only marginally so, but enough to be noticed. The technique I used for drying the mint and basil worked the way it was expected, so I'll be dong that again next year with the herbs. Project Info: The Pyrography "How To" will start posting really soon, the safety stuff comes first because it's the most important to deal with, and probably the most tedious to actually write up. Also with my schedule getting busy, it could be delayed a little bit, but I expect to see the saftey information ready for posting, as well as a special post. You'll have to wait and see on the special post though. Comments: jomz I hope the worries are just that too. FIngers toes, tail and wings are all crossed that this isn't serious. I have some spring flowers that have long snce peaked and faded for the year, and some roses too, but the bulk is tomato and pepper plants. Oddly our gardern took a little time to get jump-started, but once it took off, it's still producing. Hopefully, I'll get all the fruits in before it gets cold and kills off the plants. The video will be there, and I'll probably link to my Google Video profile if I can so it can be easily accessed any time. Not the worst storms I've ever seen, but fun to record. I never even gave a thought to the exchange rate, that's a whole other ballgame entirely. There aren't enough selling points to really pull me toward Otaku Premuim. Quite all right, I'm no saint about commenting these days. redmoonchick: First off I'm sorry I don't get around to your site that often these days. Thanks for dropping by here. I hope he recovers soon too. There's little more I can do at this point, I've done everything I can to support him. Bugs and woodchucks got my pumpkins this year. Guess it's not a good year for victory garden pumkins. Right now, I'm in the same boat, there are some neat things about it, but it's not enough to open up my waller for right now. I keep my eye on the features and stuff, maybe something will win me over. AngelBest Dream: One of my paragraphs got cut off last time, here's what was clipped before I noticed the error and repaired it: Something I learned, I think it was from Alton Brown on the Food Network, if not him someone on the channel, is that the heat agent (capsaicin) in peppers stimulates the body, causing it to produce endorphines, those "feel good" hormones. With the ups and downs of the past few years weighing on me, I need all the help I can get in the "feel good" department, and I'm not about to do stupid or illegal (not to mention expensive) stuff to get it. A little fresh cayenne pepper on scrabled eggs, in chili, burgers or even stew does wonders in that department and it's perfectly legal. I got the link to your story up in my post on TheO today. I haven't read through it completely yet, but what I have simmed, it looks good. Lime. That tip from my friend (the same one with health issues) has been a saving grace for the garden. Apparently bugs don't like it too much. They haven't gone after the tomatoes or peppers where I've put it. They got the pumpkins because the woodchucks got them first. The tomatoes are strung up on an old fence, and the peppers are lashed to dowels and branched from trees that came down or needed to be cut. I've been told the server had a major fit or something. I'm still on the older version of the forum so there's light at the end of the tunnel. I used to do that, but now I don't anymore, I like the feedback, but I try not to cling to it. I've learned in the past two years that some things just need to be let go. That push was certainly worth it. Magnus Lensherr: The MRI results ae something of a question mark for me right now. The neurologist went out of his way to deliver the news that there was no tardive dyskinesia (from the regular doctor issuing incorrect meds), but I don't think he went beyond that. I won't know any more till I hear from those around me what's going on. I hope he's okay though, if not, I might just have to seek psycholgical help for myself. Nothing tastes better than a vine ripened, grown in your own yard veggies. It takes some work, but it's worth it in the end. I'm still working on the dragon theme, but I had to change off the SoBe lizards as I explained above. If I get it done by the end of the year, I'll be lucky. Thanks for the good wishes, keep sending them, he needs all the positive vibes we can muster. Animé Dreams!

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Thursday, September 4, 2008

Important Things

I'm way later in posting this than I wanted to be, I got caught up in other things that really distracted me and just had me in a funk that I couldn't bring myself out of. I'm not completely out of it yet, but my head is working more coherently now, so I'm updating my blog here, on TheO, and elsewhere on the net that I frequent, I'm going to hit them all if I can manage. Friend Update Probably the biggest inhibitor to my being online in any capacity to get things done lately has been my offline friend. He's been under so much stress the past few months that his physical and mental health have been affected adversely. His personality is not what it once was, he's not nearly as cheerful as he had been up to that point. Several months ago, a lot of things hit him at once, and I don't think he's recovered. The most profound thing that seemed to affect his mood was his own kids backing out of a promise to come visit him. He's not one to really talk about feelings and such, which makes it hard for those of us who genuinely care about him to figure ths thing out. The physical repercussions to the stress have been apparent as well, possibly induced by one of the madications he was taking, possibly related to the stress, or both. He's had some twitching in his arm which came about at the time the stress started and his meds were switched around (it happened the same week). His doctor finally set up an MRI for him, that was yesterday. He promised he'd let me and my Mom know what they find out when he gets the information from his doctor. I'm worried for him, and I'm afraid of what might be found. I hope and pray that there's nothing serious wrong with my friend, but at the same time, I'm finding myself bracing for the worst possible news. My mom is scared too, and so is my sister. We don't know what to expect. If I take extended time away from the blogging circuit here, it's probably related to this topic. I will passs along updates as I get them. If I could ask everyone to keep my friend's good health in your thoughts and prayers, I'd really appreciate it. Garden Update As promised, the video clips of the storm in early June. There's three in all, I embedded the first one, the other two can be found here and here. Pumpkins got attacked by bugs, and a woodchuck sadly, lost all five of the ones we had growing on the vine. If I had the back-up I was supposed to get on the garden project, it wouldn't have happened, but no sense getting irritated over what can't be amended. The tomatoes are coming along all right, bigger than last year's and more on the vines too. In the past few weeks I've gotten over ten tomatoes so far, and there's still plenty more to come. I'll have a picture or two up next time, I kind of took up a lot of space with the vids this time, so I'll save the pics for another post. Bell peppers just started coming in also, a serendipity situation for me, I wasn't expecting them to do anything at all this year (we didn't get anything last year from our pepper plants). I've also begun to dry my mint and basil, using something I picked up from late-night TV viewing. No, not some one-use-wonder infomercial device, I'm talking good ol' Food Network and Alton Brown's Good Eats. I've learned a lot of neat little tricks from that show, including this fan and filter herb drying trick. Why use a box fan and central AC filters to dry herbs? Cause those food dehydrators use heat to move the air, and heat, even in small doses, changes the flavor of the herbs because while drying, it essentially cooks the herbs being dried. As Alton Brown would say: "Not good eats." This is my first attempt at doing this Mr. Brown's way, and so far, I'm impressed with the results. It takes a couple days (a week or more for thicker basil leaves), but it gets the job done. Otaku Technical Just a note of some significance to the site as a whole, not necessarily important to individual members as much, but the long anticipated, much discussed Premium has finally launched over on TheOtaku. Since I can't afford it myself right now, and certainly get nothing out of doing it, I'm not sure why I even brought it up. My Site Technical I'll be changing up my theme to something more dragon, it's about time I did that really. I've been wanting to dragon up my space here. Also, expect to see some pyrography posts coming to my TheOtaku site, and I'll syndicate those posts here. The first one will be a safety overview. Comments: AngelBest Dream: Something I learned, I think it was from Alton Brown on the Food Network, if not him someone on the channel, is that the heat agent (capsaicin) in peppers stimulates the body, causing it to produce endorphines, those "feel good" hormones. With the ups and downs of the past few years weighing on me, I need all the help I can get in the "feel good" department, and I'm not about to do stupid or illegal (not to mention expensive) stuff to get it. A little fresh cayenne pepper on scrabled eggs, in chili, burgers or even stew does wonders in that department and it's perfectly legal. I'll stop officially asking for progress updates next month, but if it takes you longer to get it done than that, I'll still link to it when it is done. I have a feeling that I'm not going to see completed works from everyone who committed to the project, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there. Take your time, don't rush the story though. The garden has done well, the pumpkins are all ripe now, we lost one to the neighborhood woodchuck, but we got four, and with no more flowers on the vines that have taken over the backyard, I'm obliged to cut everything back to somewhat of a sane yard environment. Had one tomato ripen already, and two more are on the way this week, the only thing not doing anything are the bell peppers so I'm inclined to think that my yard isn't idela for them since they flopped last year too. The site isn't lost that I know of yet, but I haven't talked with the main admin about it either. I know she was wanting to do other things with the site besides have the forum set-up. With as long as it's taking to get back online, I'm inclined to believe it's been put off, forgotten, or hit a snag in getting those other parts up and running. When I know for sure, I'll post info here. Yes, I'll certainly be roaring in the coming weeks. Yensid: The garden did very well this year, like 90%, so I'm happy with what I'm getting. Tomatoes that will probably take me into October if they ripen one or two at a time, some bell peppers, not to mention the cayenne, lots of mint, parsley and basil to work with too. The only real failure was the pumpkins which started off so well. I have zero luck with potted plants myself, so I do the outdoor gardening instead. There's a house my brother used to deliver newspapers to that had a rockscaped yard, it was quite interesting, and it looked really nice. That probably is the most energy efficient and environmentally friendly way to keep a yard. Less grass to water and cut, reduced weed issues as well, not to mention less up-keep. If I didn't have neighborhood cats and dogs to worry about, I'd have at least a section of my backyard done up into a Zen garden with the sand and rocks and stuff. "Self Promotion" and "No commercial advertisements" aren't the same thing. I can see wanting to keep down spamming "come to my Worlds" or "Come fav/hug my art" comments, and signatures. Over the years, I've gotten my share of those "yur site iz gr8 want 2 B frenz." messages, and they're annoying. The best way to "promote" oneself with the new direction the site has gone is simply by blogging, and commenting intelligently and let people come to you. I have no problem doing that, I've done that since I began here. "No Commercial Advertisements" becomes a totally different thing than self promotion when the core of the two ideas are compared. Commerical advertisements are about selling something to someone, about money changing hands. Any artist on the site who posts information about taking commissions is "hosting a commercial advertisement on their site" according to the broadly worded Terms of Service. When someone is disciplined for hosting a "commerical advertisement" of another sort while others are allowed to actively flaunt that they're seeking art commissions, that will create tensions. Whether anyone on staff comes by here or not, there's a strong principle behind my choice in the commerecial advertisements matter, and I'll stick to that come [Censored] or high water. I may not like it, but I'll honor it all the same. Besides that, I can blog about the heart of the novel project here without "selling" it. Seems like I'm finally getting a break in the weather, hope it holds out and I'm not too tired from other things to keep up around the net. Hope things settle down out your way. Wish I could send all the rain I've gotten the past few weeks to where you need it out there. Animé Dreams!

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