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April A-Z Blogging Challenge: L is for Lust

Apr20

The Meme Master Post

L is for Lust, in the days and the nights.

Lust is tricky, especially when you write the sort of fiction I do. There’s this ever-moving line between “turns someone on” and “creeps someone out,” and the exact same words in the exact same sequence will have on effect on one reader and the other on another.

I mean, just f’rinstance, both Addergoole and Tír na Cali started as fantasy settings, where “fantasy” means “sexual fantasy.” Way back when, when we were roleplaying Cali, a friend of mine called it “put your kink on a character sheet.” Kidnapping, mind control, geisha-like courtesans, emotional control, more kidnapping, violent abuse, hurt-comfort, gender transformations, and furries (and occasionally anime-ridiculous large boobs): you could get a good impression of that circle’s kink from looking at what Tír na Cali’s magic & tech can do.

Addergoole was a branch off of Tír na Cali, made more web-serial-able when I started writing (surprise) the web serial of the same name. A boarding school where people turn into faeries, and also there is magical mind control slavery? Yeah. It was intended to be in the same family as Tales of Mu, a sex-and-kink-heavy magical school.

The sex and kink are definitely still in the story, even if there ended up being a lot more plot and drama. Collars, and dubious-to-straight-out-non-consent, mind control and bondage and ooh la la.

And the thing is, it makes some people very happy and pisses other ones off a lot. Sometimes I run into mental walls, where I didn’t actually mean for someone to be read as a bad guy, but there they are, tricking someone into bondage and slavery. And it’s hard to justify them as the good guy, then.

But it’s still pretty damn hot 🙂

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/923283.html. You can comment here or there.

Butch Clothing/Dressing/Tuxes/Suits links

Apr11

I had reason today to spend some time googling tuxedos for female-bodied people in weddings, which ended up with looking at a lot of butch fashion sites. Some links shared here because I found the array interesting.

Butch Wonders’ list of clothing designed for butches – http://www.butchwonders.com/blog/clothes-designed-for-butches-yes-really The whole blog is nice, too.

Lesbian Weddings on Tumblr – http://lesbian-weddings.tumblr.com/ – speaks for itself

Offbeat Bride’s article on “Wedding suits for butches, transmasculine beings, and other festive gender-benders” http://offbeatbride.com/2009/07/butch-wedding-suits

The Butch Clothing Company – http://thebutchclothingcompany.co.uk/ – exactly what it says on the tin

Bindle & Keep’s women’s wear – http://www.bindleandkeep.com/women/

http://www.hertuxedo.com/ – another ‘what it says on the tin’

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/921827.html. You can comment here or there.

April A-Z Blogging Challenge: I is for Islands.

Apr10

The Meme Master Post

I is for Islands.

The first thing that always comes to mind about islands is the Thousand Islands. According to Wikipedia, “the Thousand Islands constitute an archipelago of 1,864 islands that straddles the Canada-U.S. border in the Saint Lawrence River as it emerges from the northeast corner of Lake Ontario.” For me, they were a common vacation spot for our family (enough of a drive to be “away,” not so far to be onerous) – and the site of one of my strong memories of getting lost as a child.

We usually camped on Wellesley Island (State Park) for at least part of the trip, and, being a state park on an island in the early 80’s, I was allowed to pretty much wander as I would.

I don’t remember exactly what happened, except that I had been very certain that I knew my way around, and it turned out I wasn’t quite right. I remember that two Older Girls (My mind fills in teased hair – this was the 80’s – but I think that’s just my generic mental picture for Older Girls) – were helping me try to find my mom. But I wasn’t really bothered. Mom, on the other hand, was frantic.

I have only two or three memories of getting really lost in public places, but to this day, I get a little freaked out if I lose my mom – or whoever I’m with, husband, friend, group – in a store.

Which is nothing to the time on a Wellesley Island beach that some awful kid threw rocks at my head, but that, as they say, is a story for another time. For this time, as we are talking about Islands and not awful kids, I’ll say that if you’re ever in the area, you should check out Boldt Castle on Heart Island. It’s a lovely place, although the last time I was there was twenty years past. George Boldt started the castle for his wife, but construction stopped – in 1904 – when his wife died. In the years I was visiting the 1000 islands, the castle was being slowly restored. I don’t know what has happened since, though the wiki article says renovation has continued.

Many of my warmer background childhood & teen memories center on these two of the Thousand Islands. A googlemaps look up tells me they’re less than four hours from my home now – maybe I should visit again.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/921565.html. You can comment here or there.

April A-Z Blogging Challenge: H is for Houses

Apr10

The Meme Master Post

H is for Houses – repairs and whatnot.

*bounce*

Okay, for those of you who don’t know, a few years ago Mr. Thorne & I bought a fix-em-upper house. It’s a farmhouse, 100 years older than either of us, with nary a right angle to be found. I love it. It’s ours, and there’s a lot of our mark to be made.

But that means a lot of work!

This summer’s indoor projects are probably going to include:

* The f**ing foyer, which I started working on two years ago and… didn’t finish. It’s a very small room, maybe 6’x4′, but in that space are three doorways, an open closet, and something weird to be done on just about every wall. I got the walls mudded and painted, which took far more time than you’d imagine.

Left to do is framing in an overhead bin for the “closet,” installing a seat, putting up hooks on the overhead bin, putting molding around the doorways, MAYBE installing a door in one of the doorways (the cats will mind, but right now you can see from the front door into the utility room), and putting in baseboard molding. I also want to maybe put in a corner shelf in one of the corners, and then I need to replace the overhead light with something nicer.

* The bathroom of doom.
Our bathroom is so ugly… (how ugly is it) It’s so ugly, we entered an Ugly bathroom contest and were too ugly to win. The walls are covered in this terrifying 50’s laminate masonite. So’s the ceiling. The shower surround is a contrasting ugly 50’s pattern. he sink’s another bad pattern. And someone tried to clean our toilet (Before we moved in) with an industrial cleaner that left the toilet bowl black. It’s terrifying.
Also, the light fixture is such that a bulb would hit my husband in the head, so we mostly don’t use it.

To do is fixing all of that, including installing a new tub, vanity, toilet, cupboards, and tub surround, light fixture, door, walls, and, eventually, tile. So… everything. Except the shower fixtures, those are fine.

* I also want to replace the overhead kitchen lights this summer.

* And I want to start work on insulating the attic, although that requires deciding exactly what we’re going to do with it in the long run, first.

And those are the house repairs for Summer 2015! I’ll try to blog stuff as we do it; maybe that’ll keep me on track.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/920844.html. You can comment here or there.

April A-Z Blogging Challenge: G is for Gifts

Apr10

The Meme Master Post

G is for Gifts, both given and got

When I was a kid, my maternal grandmother gave my mother striped pastel towels for Christmas. My mom responded politely, and I don’t think I noticed until we got home (Because *I* thought they were awesome) and my dad was ribbing Mom. But Mom didn’t like the towels. “Oh. Thank you. Striped towels.”

In our house, it became code for gifts you didn’t really want.

I remember an earlier situation – two, actually. One year, my maternal family gave me a Raggedy Ann doll for Christmas, and then my father’s family gave me a similar Raggedy Ann doll later in the day. I don’t remember /doing/ it, but I clearly remember being teased about throwing the second doll aside, being completely non-interested.

That’s when I learned you weren’t supposed to be less than enthusiastic about any gift.

A later time – Cabbage Patch Doll time, for those who remember the time and theme – my maternal family gave me a knock off Cabbage Patch. I remember being sort of disappointed by it, because the way the face was molded looked like it had a runny nose. But I remember naming it and trying gamely to love it. And then my paternal family gave me a real Cabbage Patch doll, one my father’s step-father had stood in line for – and the woman in that family gave him shit because it was a boy doll. I didn’t care. I loved it.

Quite some time later: we were helping a friend move, a friend who we’d given quite a few years of New Years’ gifts. Among the “discard” piles were at least two of these gifts. Now… some of his gifts had gotten quietly regifted, too. But it still stuck with me as a bit of a slap, even though I know it hadn’t been intended that way.

When I pick out gifts for people, I am always thinking about striped towels and trying, hard, not to be the person giving tone-deaf gifts. When I get gifts, it’s – well, you know, sometimes people do give you striped towels. Sometimes it’s because they don’t know you, sometimes it just doesn’t hit as well as they expected. But you still smile, and you’re still pleased. They tried, after all.

I wonder how much of this Amazon Wish Lists help mitigate, for everyone involved. It always feels a bit like cheating to me – like you couldn’t Know the Right Gift. On the other hand, it means you’re unlikely to be giving striped towels. Unless, you know, you’ve got pastel striped towels on your wish list.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/920819.html. You can comment here or there.

April A-Z Blogging Challenge: A is for Apocalypses

Apr2

The Meme Master Post

A is for Apoc burning bright…

It’s hard for me to say anything about apocs that I haven’t already said. After all, I’ve written about apocs here, here, and here.

I grew up with the vague feeling that the world might end any day. My parents had some feelings that way, although I don’t think they were well-articulated, more the general sense of dread of the Cold War. I also grew up in a house where the power would go out and stay out for hours, maybe as long as a day – and when I was thirteen, the power went out all over the city for an entire week. Combine that with almost all family vacations involving camping – possibly all vacations; I can’t remember any that didn’t – and I have this comfortable foundation need to be prepared for any off-the-grid sort of emergency.

That’s my personal background on apocalypses. Even though our current rural property is close enough to a major line that it rarely loses power for more than ten minutes, I’m still more comfortable having the wood-burning stove (It’s cheaper!) and would be happier still if I had a way to make hot water/make the water run (Yay well water if the electricity went out. In that sense, I’m prepared for small emergencies much more than the apocalypse. Then again – small emergencies are a lot more likely. (And, considering my habit of buying food in bulk when it’s most on sale, we have Way More than the recommended three-day supply of food.)

I think one of the reason post-apoc settings have always appealed to me in fiction boils down to my feeling of disconnection with the modern world. There are myriad marvelous wonders – but there’s also the daily grind and the social rules that seemed to rub me the wrong way. If there was no more modern world, a little voice sometimes whispers, there’d be no more nine-to-five.

Apocalypses are as much a fantasy/speculation as dragons in my mind, and I’m comfortable with that. (Though it’s a bit easier to plan for the former than the latter!)

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/917481.html. You can comment here or there.

A Random Blog Post

Mar26

So, I tried this, and wrote to the first suggestion I got!

Write about a teacher.

Okay, first, a real teacher. Or a series of them. I don’t remember much about my school teachers, but certain moments stick out. Mr. Lynd, who taught Global Studies, Really Liked Japan. A lot. My 5th grade Social Studies teacher Really Liked Hawaii. A lot. It led to a certain amount of tuning them out, which means I know about the slippers thing for Japan and ah, pineapples for Hawaii. And that’s about it.

Actually, it was really hard to engage in history/world studies classes, and I don’t know why. I’m fascinated by those subjects now – why wasn’t I back then? Then again, I’ve always learned history best when looked at through a lens of fiction…

Real teachers were a long time ago for me. The fictional ones are a bit more recent, but some of them have traits borrowed from various real teachers.

Instructor Pelnyen, in Edally Academy, reminds me a bit of teachers I’ve had who thought I wasn’t living up to my potential. If I took some time to get into Kaatzie’s head, he’d be a lot more like my high school Physics teacher.

Kairos, in Addergoole Year 9, will end up being like my Social Problems professor, Darwin Davis. And as for the rest of them in Addergoole – To be honest, other than Mike, Reid, and Luke, I’m still working on developing personalities for them 6 years later. Pelletier and Valerian suffer the most from this, but many of the others are very thin indeed.

Somehow, the first time I was writing Addergoole, they seemed very secondary to the whole school experience. *cough* I wonder what that says about my IRL teachers?

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/914499.html. You can comment here or there.

Trying out new recipes

Mar19

Yesterday, we had Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Crispy Baked Tofu with Honey-Sesame Glaze for dinner – because we had tofu that needed eating and brussels sprouts in the fridge, so I googled “Tofu & brussels sprouts.” There’s a surprising number of options!

It was tasty! We cut the soy sauce by half, but that was about the only change we made. Filling, too – a good balance of protein, fat, and vegetation. And the sauce wasn’t as sweet as you might think. If we do it again, we may cut the soy sauce down more & use molasses instead of honey.

On St. Pat’s day, for dessert, spousal unit said “potato cookies.”

Okay. We can do potato cookies. I’ve been wanting to experiment with potato flour/potato starch more anyway, because it’s Reiassan’s primary starch.

After some googling, we made Uppåkra, which aren’t at ALL Irish, but we did dye them green. Tasty recipe – I 1/4’d it, and it made 6 cookies. I added 1/4 tsp salt, because we never have salted butter in the house, and rather than rolling them, scooped-and-flattened. They taste a bit like shortbread cookies and a bit like sugar cookies. But I think they need more flavoring.

All in all, a good experimental week.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/910582.html. You can comment here or there.

Today’s Bread…

Feb22

…is Cook’s Country Anadama bread, a molasses-and-cornmeal yeasted wheat flour bread. It’ll also be next week’s bread, because someone forgot to half the recipe before she got started <.<

I like Anadama bread not just because I looooove molasses, but the story is fun, too:

An apocryphal story told about the origin of the bread goes like this: Every day a local worker would find cornmeal mush in his tin lunch pail, despite asking his wife for an occasional piece of bread. One day, because of weather or other circumstances, he came home just prior to lunch time. His wife, Anna, was out. He sat down and opened his lunch box to find the usual cornmeal mush. He sighed and said, “Anna, damn her,” as he resolutely reached for the flour, molasses and yeast which he added to the cornmeal mush. His resulting bread became a local favorite.

It also reminds me of the dog in the Wrinkle in Time series, Ananda (see here), which I just learned “was one of the principal disciples and a devout attendant of the Buddha.”

Well. I do find making bread to be calming, a good place for thoughts, and enriching, as well as tasty.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/901236.html. You can comment here or there.

Come To Ithaca… Some Other Time (blog Post)

Feb22

“Why does Ithaca hate Christmas?” my friend asked, as our already-delayed Christmas visit was delayed YET Again due to impending bad weather and a lack of salt (Surprising; I didn’t know they actually salted the roads around here. (that’s slightly tongue-in-cheek, but we’re not all THAT good at clearing roads in this area.))

“Visit Ithaca Go see the Keys!” Ithaca’s tourism site said last week.

And I can’t say I blame them. We’re up to our chests in snow, we’re out of salt, and – until today, where it’s going to be ~31-33F – we’re freezing.

I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s beautiful here. A Google Image Search will tell you how pretty a frozen waterfall can be. And I actually like winter here – it’s a nice time to sit inside and get some crafting, writing, or cleaning done. It’s a good excuse for layers. It’s a very good excuse for tea and soup and warm bread.

Oh, yeah. Bread! I was going to make some of that.

You can have some, if you come visit…

…maybe in March? Better make it April or May…

I find it funny that the icon I had made for my “blizzard” setting is getting far more use for… near-blizzards.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/900890.html. You can comment here or there.