Nutritarian pasta sauce Thomas Boutell 3/9 '20

  • Three roma tomatoes
  • Two carrots, peeled
  • Two green onion stalks
  • Two stalks of celery
  • 6 small mushrooms of varying kinds
  • 6 ounces tomato paste
  • Goodly shake of MatoZest
  • Goodly shake of italian seasoning 
  • 1/2 tablespoon nutritional yeast

Chop everything. Chuck everything in a vitamix or good blender. Add enough water to get the blender to cooperate. Blend until it looks right — no huge bits but still texture, mostly from the carrots.

Simmer and serve over zucchini noodles.

The carrots lend it a meat sauce texture.

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3/9 7 Comments
YUM
Lindsay Harris Friel 3/9
I read the first two lines of your post and my brain instinticly sang FIIIIIIIVE GOLDEN RINGSSSSS!

Sure, your recipe doesn't scan, but my brain don't care nope nosiree
Jill "xtingu" Knapp 3/10
Four pounds of back bacon, three French toasts, two turtlenecks, and a beer!
I-in a tree.
Lindsay Harris Friel 3/10
Five gollldenn toooooques!
Jill "xtingu" Knapp 3/10
FIIIIVVVEE GOLDEN RINGSSSSS
(Ba-dum-bum-bum!) is forever in my head in Miss Piggy's voice.
Shelle Klein Houser 3/12
Mine too. This year during the holidays, Vince was singing "Five. GOLDEN! Rings." in the voice of Mario Cantone doing an impression of Bette Davis. I can almost side-step that ear worm.
Lindsay Harris Friel 3/12
Happy to see you didn't add nutria. (Which honestly was my first thought when I saw the title.)
Ursula Sadiq 3/10
 

March name tag Sean M Puckett 3/9 '20

Simple. Daffodil. March. laser cut craft foam. Cutting blue foam with a blue laser is a pain in the ass. 

It's like 20C outside. I should go for a walk. Got errands to run anyway. 

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3/9 6 Comments
"Cutting blue foam with a blue laser is a pain in the ass."

I know right? Why just the other day
Thomas Boutell 3/9
Blue foam doesn’t absorb blue light, see... at least not much. White foam is pretty much impossible.
Sean M Puckett 3/9
This is so purty and springy!

How did you get the little "scores" in the flower? Did you just tell the laser to cut half-as deep? Or is it cut all the way through the foam?

Seeing the first little green periscope of daffodil shoot in late February/early March is one of my favorite things in the entire world. It gives me hope that whatever depressing grey crap the winter has handed us, everything continues, the world is spinning, and there are wonderful, natural processes happening beyond my control and understanding, and sweeeeet jeeeeesus, we might really, actually, truly, be getting to the end of winter.
Jill "xtingu" Knapp 3/9
The scores are indeed lower power passes. Or faster passes. I forget, but... mostly Same thing. Joules per second per square meter. Physics!

I’m sitting on the balcony and it’s like 20C in Toronto and this is bullshit, May weather, but I love it. Gah.
Sean M Puckett 3/9
Beautiful work.
Lindsay Harris Friel 3/9
dank foo!
Sean M Puckett 3/9
 

current workout routine Sean M Puckett 2/11 '20

Revised my workout routine again, thought I'd share it. 

Day 1 - Arm/core - 3x 
Incline Crunch 13x, 1st oblique, 2nd double tap, 3rd asap
Triceps dip w/ hip extension 10x
Cable machine 10x l/r, 1st oblique @50, 2nd pulldown @50, 3rd one arm row @100
Advanced Bird dog 15x l/r
Lat pull down to fail @11
Pec machine to fail @47

Day 2 - elliptical 30min @ 12

Day 3 - Leg/core - 3x
Box jumps x15
Alternate Leg press 10x l/r @ 100 (90 degrees only)
One leg deadlifts 10x l/r @40
Farmer lift box step up 10x @ 50x2
Leg curl machine to fail 9
Dumbbell swing 10x @50 (we don't have kettlebells)

Day 4 - Treadmill walk/jog 30min @ lv 12/4.3mph+

Day 5 - Arm/leg - 3x
Leg extension machine 10x @10
Bent over row w/ dumbbell 10x l/r @60
Side plank leg lift 20x l/r
500m row max effort
Three point reverse fly 10x l/r @30
Push press dumbbell 10x @ 30x2

Day 6 - elliptical again

Then it repeats, alternating strength w elliptical/treadmill days. If you google any of the exercise names, you'll probably see how the're done, though some results are different because no one agrees on names apparently?

These are designed to take about 30 minutes. I revise this every couple weeks as exercises become passe or weights need to be bumped up, but I've been pretty careful to keep each day's exercises fairly focused and not overlapping with other exercises on that day, and to allow aerobic and lactic acid recovery as needed, and to give respite for healing from session to session.

Oh I should also count the walking down 9 flight of stairs and back up again to our flat as part of the workout, my watch certainly does.

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2/11 3 Comments
What's an "advanced" bird dog?
Anne Mollo 2/11
basically a hands/toes plank and you lift L hand/ R foot off the ground and stretch them out and point your finger/toes for a couple seconds then put them back down and do the other R/L. so you're planked on one hand/foot for a few seconds back and forth.
Sean M Puckett 2/11
Our gym has one kettlebell. It's 20 pounds, twice what I'm authorized to lift for the next 4 weeks.

My current workout routine is whatever I can convince Nike Training Club's Lean Fit Plan to feed me after lying to it that I have access to no gym equipment so I don't damage my post-surgery healing. Plus 30 minutes treadmill, currently at Level 9/4.1mph, on my days off that are built in to the plan once or twice a week.

It beats the yoga exercises I was doing for the first week.
Dawn Keenan 2/11
 

Rough trade in tango Huck Kennedy 2/10 '20

I was dancing with one of my favorite Argentine tango followers last night in close embrace. She is a very good dancer. Despite that, she somehow kneed me in the balls. Not nearly enough to hurt, but enough for us both to be aware it happened.

So she knew, and I knew she knew.

We danced on with that little elephant in the room for another couple of measures, whereupon I whispered in her ear, "Is that all you've got?"

We both stopped dancing and bent over laughing uncontrollably.

"So you like it rough?"

"Sure, but not too rough, let's not get carried away!"

​​​​​​​

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2/10 4 Comments
Oh that's delightful.
Anne Mollo 2/10
I assume we can take the Tom Lehrer reference as read.
Thomas Boutell 2/10
I guess not, because I don't have a clue what you are referring to. Hoping you can give me one!
Huck Kennedy 3/1
Delighted to! https://youtu.be/TytGOeiW0aE
Thomas Boutell 3/2
 

Huis Clos Brian Rapp 2/8 '20

My son and I went to see "No Exit" at the community college theatre. It's a three-person study of the thesis that "Hell is other people."

What would you do in such a room for all eternity?

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2/8 2 Comments
Probably waste time on Twitter.

(I am a poser, I haven't seen the play.)
Thomas Boutell 2/9
I'm afraid that your cell phone has most likely been confiscated.

INEZ: Don't worry. I've a glass in my bag. It's gone! They must have taken it from me at the entrance.
Brian Rapp 2/9
 
 

fool me once rone 2/7 '20

My FXTec Pro1 finally arrived!  Except it won't work on Verizon, AT&T, or T-Mobile.  Hope i get my $700 back.

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2/7 9 Comments
Fack. Who DOES it work on?
Matt Lichtenwalner 2/7
It's a mystery.
rone 2/9
It should work, according to specs, on Verizon.
Kevin Schnitzius 2/7edited
Agreed. Forums were ambivalent on Verizon but insisted it was a gimme on AT&T. It is possible that i got a lemon.
rone 2/9
oh man! That is an interesting gadget. I read this review, which is definitely unflattering, but the reviewer does say that it worked for him fine on AT&t and T-Mobile. Maybe you got a straight-up lemon. Maybe that's a relief, judging from the rest of the review.

https://www.androidauthority.com/fxtec-pro1-review-960653/
Thomas Boutell 2/8
"The physical act of forcing the top half to open is maddening. Rather than simply pop open with a little pressure, you have to press the top half forcefully to convince the hinge to budge." 100% agreed. If it had worked, though, i was ready to live with it. Now we each have a Pixel 4 that already go dead at the end of the day with mild-to-moderate use. Fuck phones.
rone 2/9
LOL. My Moto X4 is two years old and has better battery life than that.

My unsolicited Internet theory is that in any purchase, it's always better to own something on the high end of midrange than something "top of the line." Like... a Camry, not a [insert car here, I don't know enough about luxury cars].

Not enough people actually get the top of the line thing, the rough edges don't get ironed out, there's pressure to do bleeding edge things and it winds up flaky and poorly supported.
Thomas Boutell 2/9
I'm not immune to the shiny though. I always wish for a better camera. And an optical zoom.
Thomas Boutell 2/9
Late to the party here, and very sad to hear this review. Dammit, I had such high hopes! I was really pulling for you, and it.

Looks like I'll keep using my KeyOne. (Gotta say, it's been a total champ.)
Jill "xtingu" Knapp 2/9
 

faith... again? rone 1/28 '20

I dreamed last night that i saw Faith No More in concert (whom i've not yet seen) for the second time (at a venue i didn't recognize).  This morning, i got a Songkick alert for an upcoming FNM concert.

I can't process this.

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1/28 1 Comment
"Alexa, stop listening to my dreams..."
Brian Rapp 1/29
 

Sixty-nine Karen Kuhl 1/21 '20

I woke up to catpee in my bathtub today. With the addition of Roger's cats, I'd been lazy about ordering the Feliway. I'm no longer feeling lazy about ordering the Feliway. Funny how that works!

So I looked at Amazon and there seems to be a whole variety of Feliway diffuser oils now. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=feliway+refill I plan to do some research, but if anyone has recommendations (*cough* Lindsay? *cough*) I'd appreciate it! I'm rusty. This former Cat-Foster-Lady-Extraordinaire is having to dust off her old tips and tricks, and some of them are way in the back of the closet* under piles of stuff.

I'm also looking at getting help with housekeeping. Two adults and three cats is showing its effects already. I'd already been losing the ability to keep up with my house when it was me and Alistair, now I can longer deny that it's gotten away from me, and is not coming back. Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes... turn and face the strange.

I'm tired already and it's not even lunchtime.


*My brain. I'm referring to my brain.


music: David Bowie - "Changes"

mood: mood

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1/21 2 Comments
I got the official Feliway brand multi-cat diffuser set, two of them. We divided the cats into two teams, Team Elder Cat and Team Younger Cat. Each team was put in a bathroom with food, water, litter, a Feliway diffuser, and their cat carriers, in case either of them were like, no.
We kept them in the bathrooms for probably 3 days. The plan was to let the older ones out to explore, put them back, let the younger ones out, put them back. In the end, we just let everyone out at the same time.
I moved the Feliway diffusers so there was one in the upstairs hallway and one downstairs in the main room where we hang out. The only noticeable difference in their behavior is that they didn’t fight and they weren’t jerks.
We kept refilling the diffusers once a month for about three months, then cut it back to one multi-cat diffuser. We haven’t refilled it in about a month, and they’re being a little jerky but not horribly jerky. No more rude and narcissistic than the usual cat.

I also got the Feliscratch Scratching Attractant, and I drip it on their tree and toys. They rub on it and try to eat it. It keeps them from being all up in my grill while I’m working.
Lindsay Harris Friel 1/21
Invaluable. Thank you so much. >'-'<
Karen Kuhl 1/28
 

20200120 So I Made a Thing Matt Lichtenwalner 1/20 '20

The folks at gmbinder.com are kinda brilliant. They've built a website that makes it easy for any old schmo like me build a PDF with all the formatting of a Wizards of the Coast Official 5e Dungeons & Dragons manual.

You enter simple markdown into one window, the website interperets the markdown, and uses CSS to spit the content back out in a second window with all the formatting done for you. No need to learn about different fonts or spacing or... whatever.

I've seen a couple different incarnations of this kind of thing, but GMBinder seems to be the best of them - at least that I've been able to find. And it's 100% free - at least currently.

So when I first came across one of their competitors, the idea occured to me: "This would be a great way to promote dragonbones.net and my illustration services. I'll make a short "D&D Book" that is filled with my art and talks about how to hire me to create the art for your D&D book!" It's kinda meta, and I think folks would like that. I've never heard of it being done before, and the name of the game when selling anything is 'stand out from the crowd'. So if I do this right, I can stand out from the crowd while demonstrating just how perfectly I fit in with the crowd.

Oh shut it, Westley - it makes sense to me, and that's what matters.

Anyway - if any of you would like to have a look, you can find it here.

The cover is just a rough sketch, but all the art in it is my work, and I'm already working on a revision which will expand the book, provide more samples, etc. But with that said, I would love any and all criticisms / feedback / reviews / etc. Please - beat it up. :)

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1/20 6 Comments
Very nice! As a remarkably minor quibble, would it look nicer or read easier if each tier was on its own page? More room for extra art, unless there's some reason to limit the page count.
Brian Rapp 1/21
I'm struggling with that a little myself. I definitely feel like there needs to be more in the way of samples, but I don't want to load it so full that it loses its "This is a real WoC document!" feel. I've been working on a revision that includes more sections (what to expect from me, how I work, etc) and those will all have more art and then if I'm not satisfied there's enough, I would probably just create several pages at the end of the document that would be exclusively a gallery of sorts.

But to your question - I can't think of any real reason to limit page count aside from my desire to keep the file size reasonable so I can email it to folks.

I'll post future versions so you can see what I've done. I DO like the idea of keeping each tier on their own page if I can do it... properly. :)

Also - a heartfelt thank you for the feedback!
Matt Lichtenwalner 1/21edited
Do you need one document that explains all of this minutia? Part of me is like TL;DR. I'd love to see a "short and sweet" one page slick, and then if they want more, give them something like this that explains the whole process and the benefits and what-kind-of-client-are-you.

Run this past Jerm-- he makes this stuff for a living.

(With that, I know DnD people are a different breed, a breed who still actually *reads.* But sometimes a one-pager with a stripped-down image for cheap, a more detailed one for less-cheap, and a fully-realized beautiful image for spendy hits you harder. Their eye will be drawn to the fully-realized one right away because it's the purtiest. But in the thing you have here, people don't see your best work until they're a few pages deep... and who's to say they'll get that far?

Also, I love you dearly, but that front-page image isn't pulling me in. I see what you're trying to do, but I think you put your most gorgeous work on the front cover... and maybe put thumbnails of the same image at different pricepoints/detail levels around it so they can see the options you offer.

Just a scream of consciousness reply here... sorry if I'm not totally clear.
Jill "xtingu" Knapp 1/21edited
As usual, I feel like you're spot on. This is... call it an alpha version of the final document. I was thinking that I need a "tl;dr" page as Page 1. then people can proceed if the want to.

That said, I DO want to explain the minutia. For a number of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that people ALL perceive themselves to be on the Hobbyist level when it comes to what they're willing to pay for, but they want to use it for the Professional level of product. And here's the important part: They may still feel this way when they're done looking at my PDF, but _I_ will know that I gave them the relevant information and will therefor feel okay charging them in a way that I feel is appropriate. I know that you understand how difficult that can be for me.

As to the cover - you're right. As I mentioned in the OP, this is a rough sketch, and I'm working on refining it even tonight. It will eventually be a MUCH more refined and finished image.

I will absolutely run this by Jerm.

Lastly - the advantage to old friends is, I'm certain, that their perspective is very clear regardless as to whether or not they feel like they are being so. I read you loud and clear. :)

And, as usual, I'm being... overly verbose. I _may_ have had a bit of rum, so please forgive that. ;)
Matt Lichtenwalner 1/21edited
Matt Lichtenwalner 1/21
Update to the cover image for those who are curious: I'm working on refining the sketch. That hand under the tablet is giving me some trouble.

I've got an idea for the finished image that I'm unsure if I can pull off, but I'm going to try. There will be magical effects coming up / off of the tablet to the glowing eyes in the shadows behind me. Along with these effects, I want to give hints of a sword in the hand with the stylus (pen mightier than the... yadda yadda) and a shield on the tablet arm. These should be subtle though - something you have to be paying attention in order to see.

The idea is to present myself as a guardian between the viewer and the monsters in the dark. I keep them at bay until the viewer gives the go ahead to release them.

That seems like a worthwhile symbolism to start the document.
Matt Lichtenwalner 1/21
 
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