The Rose Garden

There have been criticisms of many aspects of the way Rowling's wizard world is run, but I don't know if anyone has put them together to show that it displays scant respect for individual rights, particularly of non-magic-wielders and non-humans. This isn't an attempt at a comprehensive study, but I'd just like to bring together as many of the pieces as I can think of. ( Political rant about a fantasy world, and spoilers from the books )

( From The Zocolo newsletter ... )

I mostly don't point at reviews of my books, but since this is one I solicited specifically because I'd been impressed with the reviews Azteclady had been doing, I will mention that I am well pleased with the review she's given Black Leather Rose, posted at Karen Knows Best.

(And I know some people reading this have commented on the review there or when it was posted at Suzanne Brockmann's board -- thanks.)

I had a very strange dream the other night and wrote this based on the dream.

( Behind the cut... )

So, lots of folks are at EK Summer War Camp. I have a ton of things to do to get ready for Pennsic and now less then a week to do so.

Running Heralds Point is coming to be less stressful with wanderingPixie helping with the myriad of unfathonable paperwork issues.

I know that mg4h will be handling the art tent. I have 550 pixie stix, a bag of dum dums, another of tootsie rolls and another of assorted hard candies. My deputy mayor has moved on to pay attention to other people.

Heralds are crazy people. I should know. I'm one of them. I'm the education deputy to Laurel, Queen of Arms. I've been trying to find someone else to take the job for a while now. Yes, I have. Because I haven't been able to accomplish the things I wanted to do. With the change in Sovereigns I figured that'd be a good time to just step down. Let someone else find a replacement. What? Yeah. I know. Owlyn (amykb) is the new Laurel Queen of Arms and she asked me pretty please to stay. I at least actually DID something this week in that capacity. Sent out a broadcast plea for bids for KWHSS 2009 for which no bids had arrived yet. We now have one in hand and at least two more working.

The shire encampement (yes, I know I don't live there anymore, but they're still my family . . . my highly DISfunctional family but still family) is making me crazy.

War of the Wings III (Oct 9-13 at Elchenburg Castle Be there or be square) is moving right along. I think. I mean, geeze, we're all a team, right? We've done this event twice before, right? We're not reinventing something that WORKS, right?

Fall Crown Tourny was up north. Ponte Alto. They lost their site. Now I have two bids working here. Ok, one and a half bids. ~I~ am not part of either, thank you. But still having to light fires under folks. Why?

Because I'm officially the seneschale of the barony now . . . all except the ceremony with the Crowns. That will happen at War and then it's mine. MINE. ALL MINE, I tell you! =o!

~glances around the assembled reading crowd~ Ah Ha! THERE YOU ARE! This is all YOUR fault, you know. ALL of it. It is! Yes. YOU, MrGrumpyBear! "Would you like to ride along to do announcements?" BAH! And you, too, Fosveny . . . "Someone ought to run one of these things here" . . . O, and the classic. "Is that your van? Quick, put these inside so they don't get wet!" 80 submissions later, I knew the difference between maintained and sustained, what a Laurel Precedent was and what UGLY heraldry was . . .

~peers more closely into the distance~ Don't think I don't see you, ya skinny blonde boy. Sitting out there in California tugging on your stealth pelican earring with a cat-just-ate-the-canary half smile on your face. MrThor suggested I'd enjoy this little organization he belonged to. Just something fun. Somewhere to relax. Ya right. Relax, he said. ~snort~

( part the first, wherin I wax eloquent on the joys of house-cleaning )

The room looks *much* better, and I am very happy with the result!

After the busy morning one would expect that I would have immediately dived into my uni work for the day, but I was still too hyper from the joys of re-arranging the furniture, so I set out for an ( adventure ) Total time elapsed for the walk: 1 hour, 50 minutes. Perhaps a bit more than I'd intended when we left the house. Last spring/summer that was a typical length of time for a walk, but I got much less uni work done then.

After today's house-cleaning and hiking adventures (and lunch, and a short nap!) I did eventually settle into uni work, and managed another 558 words and one figure. The saga continues...

http://scatoday.net/node/11857

Lady Catte of Lennox has announced that she has posted an album of photos from Midsummer Gathering on her Flickr account. The event was held recently in the Shire of Smithwick (East Kingdom) and hosted by the Freehold of Tir, a Viking Group in Houlton, ME.

There is the recipe I've made a few times over the years that has very, very variable results. It comes from one of those recipe-collection books that was compiled to mark some significant anniversary of my mother's home town of Ewen Michigan. I don't have a copy of the book (she does), but ( this is the recipe )

The first time I ever made it the result was a truly yummy, chewy bar, with the best texture, ever. Since then sometimes it comes out nice and chewy, and other times it is dry and crumbly, and I have no idea what the difference is. The dry, crumbly version makes an interesting desert topping, but it just isn't what I want when I make these. Because of the unpredictability of the results, years often elapse between attempts--if I get a dry, crumbly version, I don't bother again. Tonight I decided to try again (but only with a half-batch, we do *not* need that much junk food in the house. Alas, tonight's results are a bit on the crumbly side--not as bad as it has been, but still not what I wanted.

( The possibilities I've thought of to explain the difference include: )

The reason I'm asking here is to see if anyone with candy-making experiance can offer a suggestion as to the best way to adjust this recipe if the problem has to do with the amount of time the sugar/butter boil. I know that sugar behaves very differently the longer one boils it for candy making, but not being one who cares for most candy, I've never played with it myself. If my result is crumbly instead of chewy is the sugar/butter boiling too long? Not long enough? Are there any visual clues to tell when it is at the perfect stage? My thanks to anyone who can help me once again experiance chewy Rickety Uncles.

Both.

Shocked! Shocked I am!

... of preparing for the new quarter start on Monday (and getting "yet another form" to have the students fill out on day 1 ... good grief!), one of the muckie-muck managers over in San Francisco suggested having some music playing while students are coming in to class.

Hmm. So, I am burning a CD with the following:

Get a Job (The Silhouettes, American Graffiti Soundtrack)
Circle of Life (Elton John, Greatest HIts 1970-2002)
Money (Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon)
Working In The Coal Mine (Devo, Heavy Metal Soundtrack)
Money, Money (Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey, Caberet Soundtrack)
Madison Avenue (Greg Kihn, KihnSolidation)
Money Changes Everything (Cyndi Lauper, She's So Unusual)
Dentist! (Steve Martin, et al, Little Shop of Horrors Soundtrack)
I'm A Believer (The Monkees, The Best of the Monkees)
I Want It All (Queen, Stone Cold Classics)
Inside Job (Don Henley, Inside Job)
Ruby Tuesday (The Rolling Stones, Big Hits 2 - Through the Past Darkly)

Silly, yeah. Most of the songs have something to do with work or money or ... I was just kind of going through the various "stuff" I have in iTunes, and ... Since this totals out to 48 minutes, I probably won't get to the last few songs, but what the heck? It'll likely be different than some of the other teachers. <g>

Was an actual LP. Bridge Over Trouble Water by Simon and Garfunkel. Purchased for me by an indulgent father who understood his six year daughter wanting her own adult album.

You know that feeling when you wake up from a nap and you have no idea what day it is?

Ugh. I hate that feeling.

- Worked on recipe book for Pennsic. Breathed deeply and let go of the need to finish it RIGHTAWAYOMGNOWNOWNOW.
- Printed Pennsic maps for my Pennsic notebook. Yes, I've been six times and I still don't know where a lot of stuff is.
- Printed templates for parasol design.
- Worked on black choli.
- Bought fabric paint for parasol.
- Shopped for dal & spices* & a neat copper cup at Shalimar.
- Made dal (verdict: needs something.) & put in freezer.
- Washed new copper drinking bowls.
- Made two more bangles.
ETA: Guess I posted too soon. Once it cooled down a little I got some of my energy back.
- Sculpted a new Maunche medallion out of sculpey & baked it.
- Worked on pearl collar (that said medallion will go on) a bit more.

For tomorrow:
- Make list of where everyone I know is camping.
- Paste things in Pennsic notebook.
- Apply gold leaf to medallion.
- Make chicken dish.



* Holy crap on a stick, does asafoetida stink. I mean, you'd think the name would be evocative, BUT NO, it is not evocative enough. I had to struggle to even get the seal off the tiny container, and then immediately put the container in a ziploc and put that in to a sealed glass jar. I thought I was going to vomit. In the words of one eloquent blogger, 'why on earth did someone, someday go "Hmm, I think I'll add a bit of stinking, sulfurous resin to this dish, because it could really use the taste of shit!"?'

Now that I will be gainfully employed as of Monday, I bought myself a new sewing machine, a Bernina 1008.

Miss Wendy and Miss Moira, I need to get your loaner machines back to you. When would be convenient?

Miss Cordelia, please ask the most excellent Masae is she'd like my old machine for the white humphalump sale.

My week can be summed up in two words: lung butter.

Needless to say, being sick F's up any hope of going down to Tarnmist, because, while I will share the crud with the coworkers, I will not share it with friends. I'm really peeved, since I was super excited about going down, too. Hopefully, we can all find another time for me to go down and play hats.

Took a little while, but the photos from my trip with Chris to Monterey and Berkeley, California, can be seen at http://s272.photobucket.com/albums/jj162/visc_lore/Monterey%20Berkeley%20July%2008/

Most have titles and descriptions. It was a great trip!

The Red Elvises new album just came out - Drinking with Jesus.
It's good. I listened to it on the way to work and home today, so like 5 times through already. Awesome!
Yay!

http://scatoday.net/node/11860

Lady Brighid has posted an album of photos from the recent Uprising XXII in the Kingdom of Artemisia on her Flickr website.

Another place that bonacorsi would like to live if we won (that is, played and won) the lottery:
Florentine Cardinals' Refuge.