InterNutter

Indie writer seeks audience with an audience. Paying customers welcome. [pronouns: ze/hir] Daily free stories happen because it is an excellent counter to Writers' Block.

Burpengary East http://www.cmweller.com 12606 posts

Techie Day

I'm flying off across Brisbane to visit MeMum and hit all her tech with a hammer.

I also have to do Self-Shill Sunday [since Saturday was spent solely on cooking] and the daily Instant and queueing up tomorrow's Blasts From my Past.

And of course my compy likes to freeze at random times during all of this noise, delaying everything.

The good news is that the new batch of "muffins" seems to be a success. If burned a little.

To this bread recipe I did the following alterations:

  • Measure the warm water as hot water and allow to cool
  • But while it's cooling, steep a strawberry&mango teabag [You can use any aromatic tea that has strawberry as part of it] in that noise [because Miss Chaos does NOT like the smell of psyllium husk goop]
  • four punnets of fresh strawberries [that's a kilo of 'em in Australia, do your own conversions], take the tops off 'em, blend half into goo, and chop the other half into chunks
  • Mix the goo half in with the psyllium goo once your 'tea' is about room temperature1 or a little bit warmer [of course take the teabag out & squeeze it, doy]
  • Add the equivalent of a cup and a half of non-sugar sweetener to the coconut flour and stir in
  • Also increase the amount of baking soda to 2 teaspoons2.
  • We also added 100g each of: dried berry mix, pure cocoa melts [break them up], dried apple slices [chop these up small!], and smashed walnuts.
  • Which meant we needed about 125ml of real cream to make sure the mix was coherent.

I'm still working on the baking time [because burned muffins] but it's looking like twenty minutes for mini muffins and between thirty and forty for regular muffins. Always test and check.

I also learned that it's a bad idea to use a food processor to break up pure cocoa melts or chop up dried apple slices. Take heed from my mistakes, children. That noise will stick to EVERYTHING and refuse to go into the catcher area. Better off using a knife TBH.

BUT we got a "muffin" that doesn't smell bad and is acceptable in the taste department. Yay.

I got thirty-six mini-muffins and seven regular muffins out of all that noise.

All to help keep Miss Chaos regular.

She also loves the heck out of my variant on Crack Slaw. In which I probably overdo the vegetable content.

Because I'm allergic to roughly half of the Brassica family [the cabbage half] I have to make my own Slaw. This involves:

  • Four carrots, grated 'chunky'3
  • Half a red cabbage
  • Half a sugarloaf cabbage 4
  • One Quarter of a Wombok or Chinese cabbage [which is not really a cabbage]
  • AN ENTIRE FIRKIN BUNCH OF KALE

For the leafy stuff, I take the yuk bits out of them and feed them through the fine slicer wheel of my food processor. Makes a Metric Fuckton of Coleslaw, and an Imperial Fuckton of Crack Slaw.

...which is all GONE before the end of the next day.

  1. I learned to my detriment that the warmer your water [or tea] is, the quicker the psyllium soaks up any extant liquid. Leaving you with dry psyllium lumps :P

  2. I like to sift the coconut flour and baking soda together. YMMV. I've also found that two teaspoons of baking soda makes for a slightly fluffier "bread".

  3. Since I love my food processor, I choose the large-gauge grating wheel and put the carrots in sideways.

  4. These are the only members of the cabbage family I can eat without MASSIVE INTESTINAL REVENGE

Challenge #01711-D250: The Best of Luck

Lucker, who's "Gift" is to bring Luck to others - and makes a good living out of it. -- Knitnan

I don't take chances. In my case, it's a 100% chance that I'd fail. I know this is an absolute truth because I've been tested. Hi, I'm a Lucker. Your good luck is my fault. You're welcome. On the downside, I'm banned from every gambling establishment in Galactic Society.

Not for winning, oh no. I never win. I mentioned that. No. I

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Interesting times...

Beloved has some free time, and we're going to spend it cooking. Tomorrow, I'm off to the outer reaches of Logan to sort out MeMum's tech troubles.

Beloved has PLNs for muffins. Chaos wants to have more Crack Slaw in her lunchbox. We're going to need smaller freezer boxes for that part of the party.

It's going to be a lot of shopping and I am glad that my Beloved is footing the bill TBH.

Adding to the Interesting Times is an

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Challenge #01710-D249: The Independence Initiative

Gadgets sold on Marketing T.V. turn up on Amalgam. -- Anon Guest

Honesty in advertising has changed a great many things. No longer are items sold as the best in the market. Or a fabulous new invention for the lazy. Instead of being marketed to everyone, they are marketed to their target audience first.

The smiling cogniscent on the screen was aesthetically appealing to a majority of Galactic Society. Since her discipline was Entertainment, she wore something sparkly. "Here at the

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Getting Sorted

I have my Hallows' Read story finished and in Beta. I don't have to clean, today. So some part of today will be spent on 'shopping up a cover for that sordid and horrific tale.

I'm montaging references for the cover of Beauties and the Beastly, tracing what I can and deciding where I'm going to use pattern brushes1. But I'm going to take a break from the cover, today so I can devote my time and energy to some more

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Challenge #01709-D248: Sticky Situation

"Crazy glue one hundred and one uses. Also known as Super Glue." -- Anon Guest

People were urgently patching holes after the micrometeor impacts. Smaller, slow-leaking holes were already patched with the humans' ever-present gum, albeit temporarily. For larger holes, they were grabbing whatever could fit and welding, bolting, and fastening as fast as they could.

Only the ships' human was using a tiny little tube before just... adding things.

Captain Farz had to admit the human was working quickly, but... what

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Challenge #01708-D247: Everything You Need

Swiss Army knife, multi tool, or the ever useful paperclip. -- Anon Guest

Every nerd who ever entered the sciences has a First Microscope. Some even kept their First Computer. More than a few kept their First Telescope.

Firsts are important. And for JOATs, it's their First Multitool. Preserved and maintained. Usually kept on display, because a great Majority of JOATs go a little wild and choose the option with the most apparent versatility. And, co-incidentally, the most weight.

Almost all of

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Oh fucking hell, THIS again

I fucking hate my sleep issues.

I went to bed when I was tired, last night, at about 7:30PM.

Woke up at a quarter to 1AM.

Spent FOUR AND THREE QUARTERS OF AN HOUR trying to get the fuck back to sleep. With spotty results.

Take a guess when I felt tired enough to sleep?

Yes, folks. Five FUCKING SECONDS after my morning alarm went off.

I thought I was done with this noise. Nope. It's come back and it's bit

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Challenge #01707-D246: And Hardships Unnumbered

(On doing something (in the original a work of magic) usually considered extremely difficult, if not impossible, that the speaker mastered to the point it was near-trivial under [Name], but hasn't done for years)

(said fondly)

[Name] will reform from the ash of her own pyre and skin me if I fuck this up. -- RecklessPrudence

After the disaster that flattened the Forests of Ee, death covered the land like a blanket. The waters soured, and any living thing that entered the

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Success! Sort of

Crack Slaw is delicious. It's even okay when you leave out the coconut amino by accident. It's better when Beloved adds eggs, coconut oil, coconut cream, and a whole bunch of other yummies.

There's not quite enough for tonight, so I'll be making more Crack Slaw tonight and endeavouring to remember the soy sauce substitute.

On the downside, I gained half a kilo. Boo. Might be the turnips I put in.

Future versions will not have turnip to see if that makes

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Challenge #01706-D245: Pass on the Wild Ride

Pookas. Referencing "Harvey" the original and the best. Shadye and a Pooka -- Anon Guest

The foothills of the headlands. Headed into Enchanted Grounds. Civilisation tried to stay away from places like this. The walls between the worlds grew thin, and all kinds of eldritch beings emerged, with their eyes set on the hearts and minds of man.

They don't mind snacking on eyeballs, lungs, and intestines, either.

The captured demon, who could see things that mere mortals could not, squinted at

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PLNs, Effort, and Reward

It was a quiet weekend, all up. And, for the record, Beloved and I finally got to watch the Lego Batman Movie. The internet was right. It is the best Batman movie ever.

My PLNs for today involve the usual cleaning and writing, but also include a new discovery called Crack Slaw. To anyone who watches that video - go ahead and follow that dude. He is gorgeous.

I'll be making a variant on this deliciousness for tonight's dinner. Alas, all coleslaw

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Challenge #01705-D244: Hope You Guess My Name

You can have what you want, But you also have Everything that goes with it. -- Knitnan

He'd heard it all. Money, fame, power. They all inverted on themselves once they got it. Money came with taxes, of course, but it was also a form of power that corrupted. Those with the kindest and most generous hearts, once they had money, got to watch any offspring they had turn into egotistical, self-centred, heartless jerks. Those with fame never had a private moment

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Father's Day

Or, as I would call it in the Amalgam Station Universe, Secpa's Day.

Since the household Secpa is asleep, and so are the kids, I get a little time to blog.

Economically, I'm not doing fantastic. I spent $15 out of my New Compy fund [to support Chaos' school], and only saved $5 this week. So now I'm $20 away from having $300 in cash.

Sigh.

I have $30 in my PayPal, $12 held by Smashwords, and almost $500 in my Dreams

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Challenge #01704-D243: Collateral Self-sacrifice

Humans as the S&R species/Space!Rescue Dogs (I know you've seen the first part dozens of times, but this is a different chain of posts, that goes a different way) -- RecklessPrudence

Everyone knows that humans are indomitable. Against level five or above Deathworlders[1], they are dogged and determined. Against disaster, they have a thousand ways to triumph. Even the most mundane of their species has exhibited what they call hysterical strength in times of ultimate stress.

But

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