The Selana

Greetings Calafia!

Just a reminder for those not going to Crown, THIS Sunday (correct me please if things have changed Avenel or Tye?), Sunday the 23rd, at Allied Gardens is the rapier community's Tiny Tourney training event.

If you are interested in learning how to run a tournament, I will be setting up around 11:30/12pm, and will have time to run through the basics before the tourney starts at 1pm.

Note: This IS a training event, not a listed tourney, so don't be afraid to come out and see how things work. I run a hands on training, so you will get a chance to do something, even if it's just learning what the terms mean, and how to file the paperwork. Also, I should have my day-shade finally put together, and will definitely have ice-water and sunblock, and likely some snacks.

Hope to see some new faces out there!

I remain yours in service,

Lady Isabeau d'Aquitaine
Per pale purpure and sable, a coney courant and a bordure argent.

Baronial List Officer of Calafia
Head of House Slippery Slope

Posted by Selana at 8:14 PM | 0 comments Links to this post  

Proof Glenn Beck is a crazy man.

Seriously. INSANE. He even stumps his own guests with his theories. Honestly, if this isn't ludicrous fear-mongering, I don't know what is. Wait for the 5:30 mark. He REALLY gets his point across...

If you're going to express your disagreement with ANYTHING in politics, do it in an intelligent way, because if you don't, you look like a fucking jackass. Whether or not I agree with the idea of nationalized healthcare has no bearing on this post. He's a LUNATIC.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The 10.31 Project
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Meryl Streep

Posted by Selana at 11:37 AM | 0 comments Links to this post  
Labels: politics

So I saw this recipe here and decided I needed to try it.

The result? AWESOME.



The recipe is as follows (I made a couple adjustments)

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
  
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
  
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
  
• 1 large egg
  
• 1/2 cup milk
  
• 1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil
  
• 2/3 cup maple syrup
  
• 8 bacon strips - cooked and crumbled
  

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease and flour (or spray REALLY WELL) a muffin tin. Whisk together dry ingredients. In a seperate bowl, beat the egg and milk, then mix in the rest of the wet ingredients. Crumble in the bacon, then mix wet with dry JUST UNTIL MIX IS COMBINED AND MOIST. (This is the key to any muffin recipe really, don't over mix. It will be lumpy. That's okay.)

Bake for 20-30 minutes, until golden and toothpick comes out clean.

Posted by Selana at 9:19 AM | 0 comments Links to this post  
Labels: Recipes

So I just finished the last paper of my summer english term. It was, in fact, the most fun I've had writing a paper. Because of the laid back attitude of my prof (seriously, if you want a chill english class, Micah Berger. Grossmont college) and his previous comments on what he's looking for in a paper, and what he doesn't care about in a paper, I'm using this last one, the "entertainment paper" to throw my usual adherance to MLA standards out the window. The title?

Pandas: Nature's Biggest Assholes.

The boy has requested I send him a copy, and was so excited about it, that I have to comply. How could I not??

In other news, my little holiday poll is still open (see previous entry). Cardamom crisps are in the lead. Thus far, this christmas, I'll be baking a couple versions of Manu's german butter cookies (no idea what the recipe is really called), rosemary lime cookies, cardamom crisps, and possibly mini-gingerbreads. Nom much? Oh yes, I think so.

I thought I'd have half a chance to finish my baby sister's holiday blanket, but I just knit too slowly. So it's time to bust out the knitting looms and start work on hats and scarves.

I'd list the rest of what I'm making, but too many of y'all gift recipients may read this. Heavy on the baked goods, some knitting, and a bit of needlepoint. I hope. We'll see if I have enough time...

In other news, a survey I've done before, but as I was tagged by Linda, I'll do it again:

The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up?

Instructions: Copy this into your NOTES. Look at the list and put a 'Yes' after those you have read. Tag other book nerds. Tag me as well so I can see your response.


1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen [Yes]
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien [Yes]
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling [Yes]
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee [Yes]

6 The Bible [Yes]
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 1984 - George Orwell [Yes]
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman [Yes]
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens [Yes]

11 Little Women [Yes]
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy [Yes]
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller [Yes]
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare [Yes]
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien [Yes]
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger [Yes]
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell [Yes]
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald [Yes]
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy.
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams [Yes]

26 Wicked - Gregory Maguire [Yes]
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck [Yes]
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll [Yes]
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame [Yes]

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens [Yes]
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis [Yes]
34 Emma - Jane Austen [Yes]
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen [Yes]

36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis [Yes]
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hossein
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden [Yes]
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne [Yes]

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell [Yes]
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown [Yes]
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery [Yes]
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood [Yes]
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding [Yes]
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert [Yes]
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen [Yes]
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens [Yes]
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley [Yes]
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck [Yes]
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov [Yes]
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas [Yes]

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac [Yes]
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville [Yes]

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens [Yes]
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker [Yes]
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett [Yes]
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce [Yes]

76 The Inferno - Dante [Yes]
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens [Yes]
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker [Yes]
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert [Yes]

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White [Yes]
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle [Yes]
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad [Yes]
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery [Yes]
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas [Yes]
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare [Yes]
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl [Yes]
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo [Yes]

Posted by Selana at 4:32 PM | 0 comments Links to this post  
Labels: Holidays, Surveys

It's about that time... I'm taking votes. Now, just so you know, your vote doesn't mean you get that kind of treat in December, I just need help making decisions.

Still... vote once, vote often, it may make a difference!

Posted by Selana at 4:17 PM | 0 comments Links to this post  
Labels: Holidays

I'd totally forgotten what it was and then it came to me. Fully fitting to finish out the end of my ANTIDRAMA summer, eh?

Put me in a special school / Cuz I am such a fool / And I don't need a single book to teach me how to read / Who needs stupid books? / They are for petty crooks / And I will learn by studying the lessons in my dreams / So turn off the T.V. / Cuz that's what others see / And movies are as bad as eating chocolate ice cream / They only sicken me / Don't let me play football / I'll sack the quarterback and jack the brother of the ball

I'm a troublemaker / Never been a faker / Doin' things my own way / And never giving up / I'm a troublemaker / Not a double-taker / I don't have the patience to keep it on the up

I picked up a guitar / What does this signify? / I'm gonna play some heavy metal riffs and you will die / You wanted arts and crafts / How's this for arts and crafts? / Wuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh / That's Right! / I'm growing out my hair / I'm moving out to Cherokee / I'm gonna be a rockstar / And you are gonna bear with me / Cuz I can't work a job / Like any other slob / Punchin' in and punchin' out and suckin' up to Bob / Marryin' a beeyotch / Havin' seven keeyods / Givin' up and growin' old / And hopin' there's a god

I'm a troublemaker / Never been a faker / Doin' things my own way / And never giving up / I'm a troublemaker / Not a double-taker / I don't have the patience to keep it on the up

I'm gonna be star / And people will crane necks / To get a glimpse of me / And see if I am having sex / And studying my moves / They try to understand / Why I am so unlike / The singers in the other bands / I'm such a mystery / As anyone can see / There isn't anybody else / Exactly quite like me / And when it's party time / Like 1999 / I'll party by myself because I'm such a special guy

I'm a troublemaker / Never been a faker / Doin' things my own way / And never giving up / I'm a troublemaker / Not a double-taker / I don't have the patience to keep it on the up

Posted by Selana at 12:24 PM | 0 comments Links to this post  

Spacing out on recipes again...

Because that's what I do when I'm upset. By upset, I mean sad, angry, irritated, etc. I cook. Or clean. Or sew. Or somehow, some way, make myself useful.

But I've bookmarked a few. Such as this gem:

Sage and Onion Chicken and Sausage from Imagelicious

I love sausage. To an unhealthy degree, do I love sausage. I don't like dark meat poultry. And I should. It's cheaper, has more flavor. Even I have to admit that I'm bored with chicken breast. It's bland. It's boring. It's very often rubber.

So I'm thinking I need to try something like this recipe, because it may well turn me on to dark meat.

Also interesting looking?


Skillet Brussels Sprouts from Imagelicious

Unlike chicken thighs, I adore brussels sprouts. So delicious. I've made many a dinner out of simply steamed brussels, a bit of salt, a squeeze of lemon.

I've never cooked fresh, I'd like to give it a go. You know what I think would make this particular recipe just... *POP*? A bit of quality bacon. Tossed in there with the garlic? Mmm...

And then, I don't know... finish it off with something light, but tasty? Like this?


Champagne Sorbet from Simply Recipes

Now, I just need a reason, and a kitchen that won't be constantly flooded with curious family members questioning and critiquing.

Posted by Selana at 3:38 PM | 0 comments Links to this post  
Labels: Recipes