ursamajor: the Swedish Chef, juggling (bork bork bork!)
[personal profile] ursamajor
The algorithm sent me this ATK recipe (paywalled, but linked for posterity, and pretty easy to extrapolate the basic idea) for a peanut butter chocolate quesadilla yesterday, and my instant reaction as a Massachusetts expat: "But where's the Marshmallow Fluff?! How can it be a Fluffernutter quesadilla without the Fluff? This is all Jarrett Barrios' fault, isn't it!"

Though of course, out here on the West Coast, getting ahold of actual Fluff is more difficult; when supermarkets have jarred marshmallow product, it's usually Kraft's Jet-Puffed Marshmallow Creme, which is more liquidy. ... hold on, I can get a two-pack of Marshmallow Fluff from my local Cost Plus?! As in the same Cost Plus where my mom used to buy us Botan candy to keep us occupied while she looked at household decor? ROFL.

Of course I ended up down the merch wormhole with my search results; I'd rather have it as a long-sleeve tee, but I love the logo on this What the Fluff sweatshirt from the Fluff Festival. 20th annual this year! Pairs well with this Ice Cream Weather hoodie from Gracie's just across the square that I've been meaning to pick up for years now. As well as my What a Cluster! tee. And now I want Goo Goo Clusters and Marshmallow Fluff. At least Moon Pies have made their way to the Bay? I can get those at my local CVS sometimes now.

Cherry on top of all this internet wormholing: while trying to figure out if Fluff was sold in any grocery stores local to me (besides Walmart, ugh), I stumbled across their recipe section, and amusingly enough, one of their most popular recipes is Lynne's Cheesecake. I swear I didn't submit it - the recipe looks like a New York cheesecake recipe, and I strongly prefer my cheesecakes burnt Basque or Japanese cotton style. But now I'm thinking, maybe I should tackle a burnt Basque Fluff cheesecake. Though admittedly, on my cheesecake back burner, I also want to make a cheesecake with Poppy Bagels' truffle schmear, Wikipedia has just informed me of the existence of a smoked salmon cheesecake, and Kat Lieu just posted a SPAM Basque cheesecake. Time to reup our Lactaid stock!

And now, of course, I'm earwormed with the old-timey Fluffernutter jingle.



(Yeah, I know, an original Fluffernutter has no chocolate, but sprinkling some chocolate chips on top of one side and melting before assembly is pretty standard. Though IME hagelslag or vlokken work better, and of course you can also get hagelslag at Cost Plus, 😂.)

Darwin Festival 2025

Aug. 24th, 2025 09:00 pm
tcpip: (Default)
[personal profile] tcpip
Darwin is not exactly known for being the cultural centre of Australia, but it does its best during its Festival and Fringe Festival. It's a particularly good time to visit in the dry season, where every day is 30 degrees, blue skies and a cool morning breeze, especially as a break from Melbourne's wintery touch (which I also love). The past several days have been in the fine company of Lara and Adam at MrBlueSky, where I also had the delight of catching up with Gary, Mon, Jac, and Shu on different occasions, and every evening there was an opportunity to soak up some fine entertainment.

A personal highlight was "John Schumann & The Vagabond Crew" performing the songs of Redgum. It's not my usual style of music, but they are the most notable radical Australian folk band that has ever walked in the country, and the musicianship was utterly superb. I felt like a teenager getting John to sign my copy of "If You Don't Fight You Lose", but I justified it on the grounds that I have been listening to this album since my teenage years; this will be a Rocknerd review. Another event also worthy of special note was "Duck Pond", a fusion of acrobatics, ballet, and theatre and a fusion story of Swan Lake and The Ugly Duckling. Understandably, I couldn't help but think of the RuneQuest scenario of the same name. Further, there is the excellent musicianship and storytelling of Fred Leone, whose self-taught upside-down southpaw guitar-playing is just a small testimony to his abilities.

Other events included a visit to the Northern Territory Art Gallery and Museum (MAGNT) which was hosting the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award (NATSIAA), the video artistry of Shundori", the impressive and moving Zhangke Jia film Caught by the Tides, and the impressive aerialist performance of "La Ronde". In contrast, I was less taken by Bangarra Dance Theatre's "Illume", mainly because it didn't provide what was said on the tin, or the Sydney alternative-improv "Party Dozen", although kudos to the young punk local support act "Tang" who had plenty of energy and style.

The time seemed to go quickly, and the view of the Darwin harbour from my co-owned apartment always gives the opportunity for reflection, consolidation of thoughts, and quiet strategic preparation for the future. It is, without a doubt, one of the finest places for a short visit, and I can certainly understand why some people feel the desire to move on a more permanent basis, although I am a long way from such considerations myself. I will, once again, take this opportunity to thank Lara and Adam for their absolutely superb hosting and care of this Southerner's visit and for showing me many highlights of their home town. Doubtless, I will return again soon.
althea_valara: A screenshot of Alisaie from Final Fantasy XIV. (alisaie)
[personal profile] althea_valara
Someone - I forget who, sorry! - linked to this list of 15 questions for fanfic writers, put together by [personal profile] maevedarcy. I do so love questionnaires and writing memes, even if I'm not that big of a writer (yet!).

questions and answers under cut to spare your reading pages the length )
ursamajor: the Swedish Chef, juggling (bork bork bork!)
[personal profile] ursamajor
I did not end up making a dessert for choir this week that magically used any portion of our eleven cups of plum jam in the fridge. I made chocolate chip cookies, and they disappeared like magic (the only empty container on the snack table when I went to clean up after break!) and I got multiple compliments on them *preens*.

It was my usual recipe, doubled because I used the oversized 20 oz Ghirardelli bag of semisweet chips, and then I went through my spice cabinet and pulled out baharat and rosewater. Though I've made a couple of adjustments over the years, and didn't actually write them down online, so here, have my go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe. )

Ugh, I need a new chocolate icon, FJKR.

That being said, I went by Market Hall this morning since the internet said they were my local carrier for the See's Candy x McConnell's Ice Cream collab - they didn't have all the flavors, but they did have Coffee + Molasses Chips, so that got promptly plopped into my bike basket.

But while I was there, I also perused the other things they had available, and the regular old standard size 12 oz bag of Guittard semisweet chocolate chips was SIXTEEN GODDAMNED DOLLARS I HATE THIS TIMELINE.

Even checking online right now - Berkeley Bowl is claiming $12.39/bag, Guittard direct says $11.99/bag, and I am wondering how many bags of the semisweet I can order via my farmshare at $7.49/bag before they cut me off. Ghirardelli is still available at Berkeley Bowl for $8.79/bag, but I'm wondering for how much longer - before this summer, both of these were pretty close price matches, maybe 50c/bag difference and not always consistently in the same direction depending on what supermarket I was at? This feels like when vanilla prices exponentially spiked a few years ago and my $50 of vanilla backstock was suddenly worth $300.

... the farmshare website dropdown goes to 20 items. I'm not sure I want to be talked out of this. (I will probably buy at least 4, I am literally down to my last bag of chocolate chips and I usually have half a dozen bags on hand at any given time.)

summer's ending

Aug. 21st, 2025 05:47 pm
asenathwaite: a rat (rat)
[personal profile] asenathwaite
These little brown rabbits are all over our neighborhood this year. They show very little fear of people, and most of them have rather ragged-looking ears.

brown rabbit

Summer seems to have gone by very fast.

Today was the last day of my daughter's summer social group thing, and the week after next she starts preschool, which means that I will have actual time entirely to myself for the first time since her brother was born in December 2013. It's been a while, and I have a lot of tiny things waiting to be painted, paper things waiting to be cut and folded and sewn together into larger paper things, and also I should probably clean my house or something. Finally clear out what was my mother's room. Find my own childhood diagnosis paperwork. Actually do photography again. Finish some fics. Etc. Her preschool program is three hours 4 days a week, so it's not a lot of time, but still, a very odd concept after so many years.

Michigan, again

Aug. 21st, 2025 08:28 am
azurelunatic: stick figure about to hit potato w/ flaming tennis racket, near jug of gasoline & sack of potatoes (bad idea)
[personal profile] azurelunatic
Visiting the out-laws with Belovedest. Last night we had dinner out at the Dirty Bird (chicken bar & grill) so this morning's breakfast is leftovers. Which I had in bed, due to the scarcity of tables in the hotel room, and my general unwillingness to get out of bed before nine.

Unfortunately, breakfast was crispy chicken Caesar salad, with buffalo sauce on the side. And after I finished that, I was dipping baby carrots in the sauce. And there was a spill.
I can't seem to face up to the facts
I'm tense and nervous and I can't relax
I can't sleep, 'cause my bed's on fire
Don't touch me, I'm a real live wire
Spicy pillow, qu'est-ce que c'est?
Fa-fa-fa-fa, fa-fa-fa-fa, far better
Run-run, run-run-run away
Oh-oh-oh

Happy Birthday, Ratties!

Aug. 18th, 2025 07:52 pm
tcpip: (Default)
[personal profile] tcpip
A little less than a year ago, after receiving confirmation of a second parent when I'm travelling, I decided to reintroduce rats as "animales de companie" into my life after a hiatus of several years. Fortunately, The Happy Rattery (FB) had tracked their birthdays and, I am pleased to announce, brothers Mayday and Mayhem have celebrated their first birthday, which makes them about 30 in human years. As an example of nominative determinism, their assigned names proved to be prescient. Mayhem, the larger of the two and with an appropriate bandit mask, is gregarious and boisterous, whereas the smaller Mayday is a lot more circumspect and a little even nervous about the world. Typical of their behaviour, these little brothers have provided a great deal of joy to my life with their antics, especially their remarkable rat-engineering projects; I was very surprised when they tried to add a bag of pegs to their home construction.

Currently 3.7K kilometres away, I am very thankful to Kate R., for looking after the rats in my absence. Delightfully, she provided them a little bit of cupcake for their birthday, complete with a candle. Meanwhile, at the top-end, Lara D. has purchased some Banksy-rat decals for our apartment, MrBlueSky, which we installed this evening in honour of Mayday and Mayhem. Further, because it must be mentioned, a few days ago the Australian water rat, the Rakali (Hydromys chrysogaster) won the ABC award for Australia's under-rated animal as part of National Science Week (I give honourable mention to the marsupial mole). Common in Melbourne's waterway, I derive a great deal of delight watching rakali, especially as they swim at speed, their white-tipped tail hoisted like a flag.

My advocacy for rats can now be measured in decades, and I like to think this has had some effect on their reputation and welfare. There is an excellent essay from Aeon ("Rats are Us") which highly the juxtaposition between the rat and animal welfare laws (essentially non-existent in the United States, it can be harrowing reading) and the scientific evidence that I have raised many times over the decades; they are social animals with communication, they are capable of past memories and future prediction, they are dreamers, they have a highly developed sense of empathy (even for strangers), they love to play, they like to learn (even driving rat-sized cars). With their sentience ("sentus", to feel) certain, and their sapience ("to know") evident, what of their consciousness ("shared knowledge")? The rat is us.

Extreme amounts of "fun"

Aug. 16th, 2025 01:12 pm
azurelunatic: "beautiful addiction", electron microscope photo of caffeine (caffeine)
[personal profile] azurelunatic
Thursday's appointment was one that I knew was going to stir up trauma. The doctor ended up listing that aspect of it as PTSD, which I guess is fair. I always have thought of it as "trauma" rather than PTSD, which is kind of odd in retrospect.

I wound up taking a small dose of my "street cred" when I realized I was starting to have a trauma response. That turned out to be a good idea. There's a follow up in a few months, and I should pre-medicate for it.

Afterwards I got the 32 oz reverse mocha from a local coffee shack. (Not one of the bikini coffee shacks.) With chocolate whipped cream, thank you very much. My first time encountering white coffee espresso in a drink. Interesting and almost floral. I had Belovedest (a bitter supertaster) try it. Still coffee tasting, but not as strongly.

Although that's also possibly due to me only having 3 shots of espresso in the drink instead of the usual 6.

I would much rather discuss the coffee than the source of the trauma and the appointment, in any event.

Darwin Visit

Aug. 16th, 2025 05:41 pm
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[personal profile] tcpip
I've boarded the silver bird and landed in Darwin, where I'll be staying in Mr Blue Sky in Darwin City, which I still have to remind myself that I am a co-owner. Co-owner Lara and tenant Adam have been wonderful hosts to me, with Cocoa rabbit, the 11-year-old spritely dwarf, providing great entertainment as always. The weather here is of magnificent quality; consistently in the high twenties, clear skies, and gentle cool breezes off Darwin harbour with delightful views across to the National Park. From this vantage point, it's all rather idyllic.

There are nominal household matters to sort out, but it is a convenient time for the Darwin Festival. I have a lifelong interest in aesthetics, which I have to grudgingly accord myself a modest analytical ability. From metaphor, referentiality, creativity, technique, persistence, and connections, I must also confess some apparent predictive skill when evaluating the future success of self-proclaimed artists. Darwin's contribution to the fine arts is not exactly famous, being small and distant, but there are plenty of opportunities in the programme which will receive a fair review in the week to come.

In the meantime, I was blessed yesterday with a second opportunity to visit to the Menzies School of Health Research (Charles Darwin University) (not to be confused with the Menzies Institute for Medical Research (University of Tasmania), let alone the Menzies Research Centre of the Liberal Party. The Darwin Menzies centre particularly interests me as they have a small high performance computing system, which has a few file system and management issues, but nevertheless great to see that it's there! I was hosted by Anto Trimarsanto, a medical researcher in malaria (specifically Plasmodium vivax), who also dutifully informed me that Menzies has an outpost in Timor-Leste. My brain is now working on how to combine these multiple interests.

FFXI: Rise of the Zilart summary!

Aug. 13th, 2025 09:13 pm
althea_valara: A screenshot of my main Final Fantasy XI character. It's a close up, and she's wearing the Teal Saio robe set which features a golden circlet. The character herself has black hair in a ponytail and brown eyes. (ffxi)
[personal profile] althea_valara

It all began with a stone, or so the legend says.


In ages past, a sentient jewel, enormous and beautiful, banished the darkness. Its many-colored light filled the world with life and brought forth mighty gods.


Bathed in that light, the world entered an age of bliss until, after a time, the gods fell into slumber. That world was called Vana'diel.


The legend goes on to say...


From the darkest depths of the earth the Warriors of the Crystal rose...



The Rise of the Zilart expansion tells the story of the Warriors of the Crystal, and of the ancient clash between two races, one of which was the Zilart - who have plans to bring about Vana'diel's destruction. Read on to find out just what the Zilart have planned.



(As before, the actual game script is located at my Neocities site, here: https://altheavalara.neocities.org/ffxi/rotz - what lies under the cut is my summary for those who don't want to read the long script.)

spoilers galore! )

Of White Lilies and Untying the Black

Aug. 13th, 2025 10:41 pm
tcpip: (Default)
[personal profile] tcpip
What Fassbinder film is it? The one-armed man comes into the flower shop and says: "What flower expresses days go by, and they just keep going by endlessly, endlessly pulling you into the future. Days go by endlessly, endlessly pulling you into the future?" And the florist says: "White Lily."

The film is Berlin Alexanderplatz, and the flowers are white carnations. But I think Laurie Anderson cast a better metaphor than Fassbinder in this case. For there is a language of flowers (the best English-language book wit this title is "The Language of Flowers; with Illustrative Poetry") which provides encoded messages between sender and recipient. "By all the token-flowers that tell. What words can never speak so well... Ζωή μου, σᾶς ἀγαπῶ!" (Lord Byron, "The Maid of Athens"). It is a well-known convention that white lilies are for funerals, and many may know that it has a symbolic value of remembrance, and fewer still that it is for restoration. But "The Language of Flowers" (p148) says something different. It speaks of, in the continental tradition (fleur-de-lis), of the lily representing nothing less than majesty.

Another tradition which I have become familiar with during my time in Timor-Leste was "hatais metan" ("wear black"). From the information I have received, it is used for those in mourning, in remembrance of those no longer with us, an often expressed in wearing a small square of fabric attached to one's clothes. After a year, the item is removed, "kore metan" ("untying the black") and typically a reflective party is held for those who shared the loss, not unlike the Celtic ceremonial wake. The tradition made a lot of sense to me; it is deeply respectful to mourn a person for a year, but even a departed spirit would want someone to continue to live their life. Besides, as the Sufi comic Nasreddin Hodja pointed out, a lot can happen in a year. Maybe the horse will even learn to sing!

Indeed, a lot has happened in my life since last August. I have travelled to China three times (including visiting Qomolangma-Everest and The Great Wall) and New Zealand once, and presented at three international conferences. I have run 17 workshops on high performance computing and parallel programming, along with additional guest lectures at the University of Melbourne. I've started a climatology doctorate, which I am powering my way through, purchased (half) a property in Darwin and paid off my apartment in Southbank. I conducted a fundraising campaign for the Isla Bell Charitable Fund through the RPG Review Cooperative and also published three issues of the namesake journal. My health has improved "somewhat" with a very strong exercise and diet regimen. And, at the point of being a little ridiculous in my sensitivities, I have two new pet rats in my life.

It all adds to the metaphor; the idea of the days pulling us to the future, a trajectory from remembrance, through restoration, toward majesty. At least it is the wish of the sender of white lilies to their departed recipient. As for the memory? I have also untied my own version of the black cloth. I once received a little cartoon self-portrait that was delightful and beautiful, drawn on a reminder note (just to add to the narrative) with a declaration of affection that I took with the seriousness I accord to such stuff ("dreams are made of"). It has adorned my wall for a year, and every day I looked upon it in remembrance, gratitude, and respect. But now the portraiture has been taken down. The black band has been untied, and today I bought white lillies.

Project Alteration; jumper

Aug. 13th, 2025 12:00 am
chebe: (Default)
[personal profile] chebe
Keeping on the simpler projects train. I had this very 90s fuzzy jumper, that I never wore, because the neck was too high and too tight over the head. In an effort to get some wear out of it, I fitted a zipper.

Details )

Photo of a black fuzzy long sleeved jumper with a high neck, and an embroidered 'sun, moon, and stars, in a stylised He tu symbol' patch high on the chest, with an open clear plastic and silver metal zip visible between the patch and the neckline, hanging from a black hanger against a white wardrobe.

Finished, open, front
Photo by [personal profile] chebe

Appointment Week

Aug. 12th, 2025 02:36 am
azurelunatic: Goes on land sometimes! A loon, struggling to walk on land, saying UGH. (Goes on land sometimes)
[personal profile] azurelunatic
I have:

* 3 appointments tomorrow, all remote (for later today versions of "tomorrow", because I rarely get to sleep before midnight)
* 2 appointments Wednesday
* Only one appointment Thursday, but it looks like a doozy
* The morning primary care adjacent appointment on Wednesday got scheduled today (Monday) by using the magic combination of phrases "my oncologist said" and "new lump"
* (it's probably a ganglion cyst, since I have a history of those going back to the 1980s)

And then I managed to drive myself to Pained Noises & a complete lack of energy today by:
* Read more... )

....!!!

Aug. 10th, 2025 07:44 pm
azurelunatic: SBURB loading gif from Homestuck. A green two-story house that flies apart into blocks, the smallest block spins, then the house re-forms. (SBURB)
[personal profile] azurelunatic
https://comicbook.com/anime/news/homestuck-animated-series-hazbin-hotel-creators/

From the little I've absorbed about Hazbin Hotel, the creators might just be the correct kind of disturbed to do justice to Homestuck.
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