Fiddle-Dee-Dee, Said Scarlett

Whoot, spent the last hour getting caught up on tags! I've been a bit preoccupied with Behind The Scenes things these last few days and kind of failed at that. But Chaos is settled and going smoothly - I'll be posting more on that in its own entry - and the Other Thing I'm working on might be done a lot sooner than I'd thought.... Still having a ton of fun at rapturereborn! Eddie and Reno get along pretty much exactly as was predicted. :D

I need to update my LJ user info.

It's the day before grocery shopping day, which means supplies are down. And I'm going to be cleaning out the fridge as soon as I can convince my body it wants to get off the couch. :D Lunch is a mystery! ;)

I found an amazing rice pudding recipe yesterday that I want to share with you all:

Lychee coconut rice pudding:

* 1 lb fresh lychees, peeled, pitted and torn into pieces (can substitute canned lychees)
* 1/2 cup sugar
* 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
* 1 1/2 cups short-grain brown rice
* 2 cans coconut milk (400ml each)
* 3 cups milk (low-fat or whole)
* 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
* 1/2 tsp ground ginger
* 1/4 tsp salt
* dusting of cinnamon (optional)

Mix the lychee pieces with the sugar in a bowl. Let sit about 1/2 hour, stirring occasionally. The sugar will draw the juices out of the fruit and create a syrup, which you'll add to the cooking rice. (If you're using canned lychees, open the can and drain the fruit, reserving the juice.)

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Spread the coconut on a baking sheet and toast in the oven until brown and fragrant, about 10-15 minutes. Set aside.

In a saucepan, combine the rice, coconut milk, milk, brown sugar, ginger, salt, and the syrup from the lychees. Bring to a simmer and cook gently, uncovered, until the rice is very tender, at least 90 minutes. There should always be liquid covering the rice - if the mixture starts to look at all dry, add more milk or some water. You want it like soup. When the rice is tender, stir in the chopped lychees and the toasted coconut, remove from the heat, and cool. Chill in the refrigerator at least four hours before serving.

Serve sprinkled with cinnamon, or with more toasted coconut if you have it.

Lychee coconut rice pudding, close up

So, hurrah! I was accepted as Eddie Dean at rapturereborn! His journal is prisoner_of_ka, because every form of 'The Prisoner' was taken. Boo. But I do like prisoner_of_ka, and would have probably ended up with something stupid if nijawial hadn't suggested it.

My best journal names come from other people. :D

I've been working on his first post in between threading at damned, and I'm having a great deal of fun. There's nothing better than the confusion of a character who wakes up in a strange place with no memory of how they got there. Added bonus when they're pretty sure it's not actually possible for them to have gone anywhere.

Oh, it'll be damn interesting when he goes to the library... :D

And I've been threading my ass off at my games where I have active characters. I can't remember the last time I did 15 or so posts in under two hours. It's nice.

My sister is apparently coming over to hang out later. O.o

This morning I decided that a sports bra and a petticoat is totally an acceptable outfit to wander around the porch, yard and shed in.

Since I got a bunch more pillows and fabrics and candles and whatnot yesterday, I decided I was ready to move my morning meditation and exercise out to the sanctuary. It was nice. It was really nice. I unhooked the partition drape so I could still see the outside and settled myself right in the center of the pile of blankets and rugs and pillows to get started.

I put the curtain back up when I was ready to exercise. Now I'm drinking some lemonade and letting myself cool down before I take a quick shower or bath. I'm going to make a pie today, I think. It feels like a pie sort of day. A chilled cream pie.

I've been really enjoying RP lately. Both my games. I seem to be keeping up my ratio of 'stable relationship' to 'fucked up crazy relationship'. ;) Speaking of, Henry needs to ask Eileen if she wants to go to Kain and Blythe's wedding with him. He's so terribly excited about all of this, it's kind of cute. Also need to get Myre up to some trouble. Maybe she can prod Rufus and see if he wants to cut a deal with her....

I had a dream I took Nathan Explosion to my high school reunion. attilatehbun kept saying I was insane bringing him, and was apparently afraid he'd end up blowing up the building. We left before that happened, I believe.

Life is good.

ETA: Also, I'm overhauling my icons. I'm tired of a bunch of them. Where do people find icons?

Just after ten, and already I've made a number of accomplishments!

I did some more potting, some dishes, some brainstorming for writing, responded to a bunch of comments and got some trash out. I do feel a bit badly that I skipped breakfast - I like to have breakfast on the porch and read while I eat and have my coffee or tea - but I overslept a bit. And I did have a breakfast shake.

I encountered another small (and really not important) issue with my computer. It's too old to support Itunes. Or even the Itunes clones designed to work with older computers. Which saddens me greatly, because I'm already bored of most of the music on my Ipod and would love to get all my Duran Duran, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Pink Floyd and Flogging Molly on there. I did try doing the transfering with Media Player, and while the files supposedly transferred...they don't show up on Sadie. (Sadie is my Ipod.)

Oh! Big news I completely forgot! I'm driving! I'm a driver! A year after I get my damn car, but I'm finally driving him! And not crashing into anything, organic or mineral!

My dad's bringing me a grill today. The season of barbecue is upon us! And I've got hot dogs and ground beef....

I slept beautifully last night. And we watched the first disc of Nightmares and Dreamscapes! Battleground was very well executed. Crouch End...never, ever should have been made for television. I was nearly in pain watching that atrocity of an episode. Too much needless build up, poor acting, ridiculous changes so that the entire point of the story is lost, and I swear, it is not terribly difficult to pronounce 'Cthulhu'. 'Kooshoo' is not an acceptable pronunciation anywhere. Kooshoo. But luckily, Umney's Last Case was beautiful. William H. Macy was perfect for Umney, hands down. The first part really captured that 30s pulp detective feel, and the creeping sense of the story was preserved. Nothing but thumbs up for that instillation!

I'm going the shameful but far easier route for one of my costumes, simply because I cannot work with leather and gun belts and holsters are beyond my abilities to afford or craft. So as for purchases needed...it's just a wig and boots. My Ila skirt is nearly done, and then I'm going to be starting on the hat for Nija's Melissa cosplay. I have the fabric, pattern and accessories.

I think I'm going to do some beading while we watch the second disc. And it seems my computer is fully workable. I'll be hopping back into my RPs before too much longer - I figure I'll wait until dayshift to jump back into damned, for sake of ease, and decide when to jump back into CU once I've caught up on what's going on over there. (And keep canon reviewing in the meantime.)

I'm in a terribly Xenogears state of mind today. Maybe I'll try and write fic....

Happy Friday, everyone!

I managed to get up at a reasonable hour today! Technically I woke up at 8:30, but I realized that I'd done all the dishes last night, and scrubbed the counters and stove, so I could afford to doze a bit in bed for a while. Now I'm up, I've got my protein shake, I took my vitamins, and I am feeling like a real human being.

We realized yesterday that my sudden breakdown, weird mood, and subsequent panic attacks through the day are because like the idiot I am, I've been forgetting my vitamins. I take vitamins mostly for the mental and emotional boost, and it's been weeks since I took my B-complex or anything else. So nijawial is going to draw me a little picture to tape to the mirror to remind me every morning to take them. :D

I had no idea so many of you had Facebooks! :D I'm still figuring out the site, but so far I'm liking it.

And thank you to everyone who commented on that meme. Reading all of that really, really did make me feel better. I have some amazing friends, and I am grateful for each and every one of you. I don't know what I'd do without my Flist.

We went with enigmablade and summoneddestiny yesterday to look at fish tanks, and were killed with cute by the dwarf hamsters. I fear we may end up giving one of the little buggers a home. We do have the big Habitrail cage that Hank and Dean have long grown out of - they live in a giant aquarium now, and are much happier with all that space. And plenty of shavings, food, toys etc....

Today on the schedule is:

Work out
Clean living room
Do laundry
Work on fic
RP in between

Everyone's posted for, actually, and my girls are on the move to hook up with their respective companions for the night. :D

Redid the old LJ layout, finally.

For once, it's not fandom. I was considering another HBC layout, but I decided not to. I've used up all the usable pictures, after all. And while I am still active in a few fandoms (HBC, SH, VB) I'm honestly mostly into my own work right now.

Which you will very rarely see me posting about, because I'm one of those people who can't talk about a project while it's in the works.

Anyway, as I have decided that I very much like looking at Toda Erika, I figured I may as well use her for an LJ theme. Consider her my muse, if you will. Hey, she's quite an improvement from the surly, whiskey swilling old chap who's usually my inspiration. ;)

I can't believe the day is nearly gone. Where the hell did it go?

Ah yes, I pleasantly wasted a few hours at CU, enjoying Crack Day. Henry and Myre were very easy to write OOCly. Henry, a normally quiet, calm, inoffensive soul who's not so great with words becomes an unrepentant asshole. Myre, normally self assured to the point of egotism and a loner has become a whining, insecure, needy mess. Maria...Maria was harder. She's a little more complex than the other two, but I thought to what OOC qualities always piss me off in fan fiction. Mainly, the idea that there's nothing to her but sex. So I went that way, after briefly chatting with Nija about it. It's been vastly entertaining, to say the very least.

No one's going to want to look anyone else in the eye after this is over. :D

I've no idea what to do for dinner.

So, I started Metal Gear 3 yesterday. I...really don't have much to say at this point. I started it a touch too close to bed, as I didn't realize that 'playing' it meant 'a small fraction where you can actually move Snake, but mostly you're watching a movie'. Which I only really understood bits and pieces of, as I was tired when I was playing. I grasp the actual mission, which I suppose is the important stuff. The random information about Godzilla and Snake's penis? Not so much getting what that has to do with anything.

Essentially, I haven't actually played enough to comment on the gameplay or plot or combat or anything much at all. It's a damn pretty game, though, I can say that. And I find it funny, so I just hope it was meant to be funny.

I'll be playing more today, and will hopefully get to some actual playing. And now I'm playing about 5 games at once. I have a problem.

Grocery shopping this morning, laundry today, the usual. Though all kinds of fun and hilarious and horrible things are going on at my various RPs. Christmas season has hit at CU, and Henry's...well, let's just say he's in a very playful mood. :D damned is a bit more full of angst.

Speaking of RPs.... *prods rewritten folks* Have we hit another little dead period?

Anyway, I've got to get dressed and whatnot to head to the store. Thank you everybody who left presents under the tree, I got a kick out of them! :D Save for whoever it was who gave me a lump of coal and told me I sucked. No, I lie, I did get a kick out of that. How can you take an un-capitalized 'u suck' seriously?

I think I'll just assume that I didn't surprise anyone on my Flist save for talia_speaks. Or I'll knock off the memes, since this is the fourth or fifth one I've posted with next to no results. ;)

When the hell did I get so boring? Somehow, when I lived in the middle of nowhere and did nothing, I was more interesting than I am now. Mark that one up in the old irony column. And no, I'm not being whiny and emo over this, and I honestly don't care if people do memes I post. I just find it interesting. But I've always been interested in things like 'what makes an LJ entry eye-catching' and things like that. It's all about the writing, baby.

I'm just in a particularly strange mood this morning. I'm going to blame everything on hormones and let that be that.

My mother called me last night because she'd lost one of our traditional family recipes. Luckily I had it mostly memorized, and the internet was able to help me fill in a few gaps by looking up similar recipes. No Thanksgiving crisis yet.

I think I've wandered away from NaNo. This doesn't mean I'm going to abandon the fic, but I think trying to race to finish it in time will leave me stressed and worried and freaked out and massively disappointed if I don't manage it. So I'd rather save my sanity. Plus, both RPs have been massively distracting lately. ;) And I have another project in the works, and today I just want to write a lot of pr0n. So I think I'm just going to write a lot of pr0n today.

Maybe I'll do that shuffle meme, and write five pieces based on whatever songs come up, or something.

(Speaking of...I need more music!)

Thanks for the support yesterday. I'm fine now. What happened was I threw out my back in the shower when I was home alone, so I freaked out a bit. But nijawial was home shortly after, and all was fine. enigmablade and summoneddestiny came over last night, and much fun was had watching Venture Bros deleted scenes and the Christmas episode.

I got more writing done this morning! Apparently mornings are good for me for writing, since that seems to be when I do the bulk of it. I'm up to 17,500 words, which is not shabby. And I'm leaving in what I wrote last night. I've discovered a little secret to my word count uppage. I need to work Dr. Mrs. The Monarch into this more - her name is four whole words!

I swear I had some sort of awesome idea last night, but now it's gone. I'm doing this in such a patchwork way. There are just little scenes and snippets all over, waiting to be somehow connected to the rest of the story. I am figuring out how to fill in little gaps, though, which is good. This thing is actually starting to come together as a complete piece with consistent, underlying themes and plot.

I'm slipping further and further into less than great habits. I'm sitting here, not yet dressed, thinking that leftover pizza and a mocha would be a wonderful breakfast. While I reply to RP posts - all of which are vastly entertaining at the moment.

Hank and Dean the rats are comfortably situated in their new aquarium, and Hank has discovered the wheel. They both seem to enjoy all the new space, even though they consistently seek out the absolute smallest space available to cram themselves into. Usually together.

And now it's time to hit up my RP posts, check email, and see if I can hit 20k today!

Just popping on quick to say: on the mend - fever's gone down, not feeling quite as craptastic - and today is a massive house fixing day! So I won't be on terribly much until later.

So far we've got one door fixed, and now we're working on the lights. And I'll paint my door, too. And should be getting shelves soon for my bedroom - I have two corner pieces, I just need to put them up.

Actually, I ought to go do that.

Oh! And talia_speaks! Need to talk to you. I'll be heading down to Phoenix in the next couple of weeks....

Sent in my app for Myre at CU yesterday. *fingers crossed* Also found a bunch more pictures of her PB (a rather animalistic looking model named Anna Baliko) but I realized I have no pictures of her in her dragon form. And that there really aren't any - save for the craptastic rendering from the cover of the second book. I may end up looking for stock art of orange dragons....

.....

enigmablade, did you...er...arrange the TV action figures last night? O.o I'm not sure what Ichigo and Kira are doing up there, but it looks rather questionable....

SPEAKING OF! I know I said it in person last night, but HAPPY BIRTHDAY enigmablade!

Okay, back to house work!