September 27 Link Log

When in the course of blogging events a blogger is faced with the amount of e-mail I'm looking at this morning, the blogger takes a deep breath, reminds self that she asked for this volume of e-mail in order to be able to share the very best of the underreported Good Stuff in cyberspace with youall, and dives in...but a decent regard for the opinions of reader-kind requires that the blogger disclose that the blogger is online only four days a week, max, and receives about 150 legitimate e-mails a day, min, not counting the Good Stuff that Yahoo routes to the spam folder because it contains pictures and/or slang words that Yahoo considers rude. Or the best blog feed, Google +, Live Journal, and Twitter links that don't even show up in the e-mail. And although other members of this web site sometimes help me, Priscilla King, with editorial decisions, and Grandma Bonnie Peters has occasionally helped with the e-mail, in recent months I've been all alone and neck-deep in the flood of good content. When do I even get time to write any book reviews I didn't actually write five or fifteen years ago, much less my hack writing or writing contest entries, or any creative writing to which I feel moved on weekends...I don't know, but I do love the reading and writing. Getting paid for it is the part that needs improvement. Anyway, if you've shared some Good Stuff that has not been read, commented on, and shared, you now know why. Categories: Animals, Books, California, Censorship, Crafts, Crime & Punishment, Fiction, Food, Garden, Scholarships, Weird, Writing. (No e-mail from Zazzle today? If and when I catch up with the e-mail I'll investigate Zazzle further tomorrow.)

Animals 

Here's a pawsome dog blog (also food and writing and other Good Stuff). More for your reading list? If you like retrievers, follow the Lab..."Canine Decorating" is, as of this morning, the first point where I chortled, showing below a recipe that looked as if it'd be too much changed to count as the same recipe if tweaked to the point where I could eat it.

http://thebookofbarkley.blogspot.com/

http://thebookofbarkley.blogspot.com/2016/09/canine-decorating.html

Incredibly pawsome...While I was compiling today's Link Log, Barkley sent funding to help the Cat Sanctuary rescue Barnie and/or spay Inky. Yes, all the money will be directed exclusively to the cats' needs, and when they're told about it I guarantee that anyone within earshot will be able to hear the four adult and near-adult cats purring in chorus. This web site is fur-ever grateful! It's not the first time a black Lab has come to the rescue...

http://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2014/02/black-dog-to-rescue.html

Books 

Here's a very short review of a new Christian book:

http://www.returntoorder.org/2016/09/three-conditions-christian-god-profit/

Here's an even shorter review of a science fiction e-book by e-friend Haikujaguar:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18107842-mindtouch?ac=1&from_search=true

California 

This link is only for those who live or used to live near the Santa Susana Field Lab, but I'm sharing it just in case any readers who hadn't seen it before can use it:

http://thesmittenedlife.blogspot.com/2016/09/dtsc-letter.html

Censorship 

Should corporations demand that employees delete posts that don't conform to the company's opinions...or should readers punish corporations that don't hire employees whose online posts show a diversity of opinions? Should we create a diversity patrol who demand that a corporation prove that it hires both left-wingers and right-wingers, both religious and non-religious, both "fashion" and anti-"fashion" bloggers?!

http://rhymetime24.blogspot.com/2016/09/oopsy-im-not-pc.html

Ted Cruz makes valid points here:

http://dailysignal.com/2016/09/21/obama-should-not-put-free-speech-at-risk-on-internet-by-giving-up-us-oversight/

Crafts 

Why not crochet an aquarium?

http://crochetbykarin.blogspot.com/2016/09/happy-family-day-crochet-story.html

Crime & Punishment 

Assuming any truth to these allegations, everybody should want to sign this petition. (Trigger warning: if you take blood pressure medication, give it time to work before reading the petition.)

https://www.change.org/p/remove-judge-r-degeest-for-sparing-teen-who-live-streamed-his-assault-of-a-one-year-old/

Fiction 

For a flash-fiction post, this sounds remarkably like what local sources are telling me meth does to people. We are starting to have a serious problem in my part of the world. It's ironic, because my generation grew up scorning the pathetic "scags" who were so stupid and useless as to need drugs to relax and meditate, yet some of us (and our kids) are messing with meth. The thinking is "I don't want to get stoned, and I'm not going to get stoned, but I need a stimulant to keep up my work performance and I'm beyond coffee." It's because our local culture is so reality-focussed and hard-driving and competitive and generally opposed to the stoner culture as we perceived it when we were teenagers, y'see. In some ways the lure of meth targets people who like Earnhardt's Law, and "I get high on work," and "When I say I'll do a thing, I'll do it or be found dead trying," and "If you need help to relax, you obviously don't know how to work," and "We're from (one of the most underfunded schools in the whole dang state), couldn't be proud-er (if we don't win at least the regional competition something went wrong)"--that mentality. But meth can make people freak out too.

https://wildverbs.wordpress.com/2016/09/25/panic/

Food (Yum) 

This recipe sooo would not work for me. Two forms of wheat and cheese and fungi...

http://rusty2rustyschatter.blogspot.com/2016/09/spaghetti-with-twist.html

...But it's sooo easy to edit...and it's seasonal, in my part of the world, too. Cook some chicken (if you like to buy the cheaper dark meat and blanch it, this is the most time-consuming step and should be started first; if you're using light meat or precooked chicken, start the squash first). Pick or buy a nice, big, ripe spaghetti squash. Split, seed, and bake the squash, which takes about an hour (depending on size; check standard-size store-bought squash after 45 minutes). If you want a thick sauce, melt 1-2 tablespoons of butter, add 1-2 cups of chicken stock or water, bring it to boil adding the veg and seasonings as described in the link, thicken with 1-2 tablespoons of arrowroot, and add cheese if you like cheese. (The rule is 1 tablespoon of fat and 1 of starch to 2 cups of liquid if adding cheese, which will thicken the sauce further, or if you want a thin yet cohesive white sauce; 1 spoon fat and 1 spoon starch to 1 cup liquid for a standard white sauce; 2 spoons fat and 2 spoons starch to 1 cup liquid for a thick sauce.) Otherwise, heat broccoli, mushrooms if liked, salt, ginger if liked, pepper if liked, and/or nuts if liked, right in the pan with the chicken, using either the juices that bake out of roast chicken, or water, or butter or chicken fat if you want to use those, just to lubricate the pan. Either way, shred the squash out of its shell with a fork or forks, dish it up, and top it with the chicken, veg, and optional sauce.

This gluten-free version of the recipe is provided so I can give you an Amazon non-book link, it being a while since I've used one of those. Click on the picture to learn more about how to use arrowroot in place of (wheat) flour or (possibly contaminated) cornstarch.



Next question: What if you like a cheesy sauce, but you or someone who eats with you can't eat cheese, or you want to reduce the saturated animal fat content of your pasta? E-mail synchronicity...the next link I clicked on contains a "Cheezy Sauce" pasta dish vouched for by Mary McDougall. To me "cheezy" is not a good taste, but if MMcD says it's good I know masses of people will agree it's good, so you can feel safe about spending the money on the miso and nutritional yeast to try it.

http://us4.campaign-archive2.com/?u=5e58f59d97611f910916b6276&id=59446a1b2c&e=4d57a9fdfb

Gardening 

If you've had trouble with sage (Salvia) or iris plants, here's why: both species actually like dry, nutrient-poor soil.

https://niume.com/pages/post/?postID=101776

Scholarships 

This one is specifically for students who are popular, but don't want either a heavy "boyfriend/girlfriend" relationship or the "player/party-girl" lifestyle. If you're willing to write/post about your current "asexual" lifestyle and social networking style, you could win $500 for college tuition. (How long do you have to remain "asexual"? Based on what I've seen at "ace" web sites, you can admit to being somewhat "romantic" while choosing to practice celibacy and still qualify as an Ace, which sounds like the ideal lifestyle for most if not all students, especially at heavy-academic-commitment-required schools e.g. Berea.)

http://acesareroyaltytoo.tumblr.com/post/150815585941/spring-2017-asexual-scholarship-call-for

Weird 

The Ig-Nobel awards are given to serious science projects that sound hilariously weird out of their solemn corporate contexts:

http://birdwoman-thenatureofthings.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-awards-youve-been-waiting-for.html

Writing 

For the nonfiction writers out there, a blog challenge...I'll take it some time when I have less writing to do, maybe if I finish the offline writing for the week before the end of a Monday.

http://rusty2rustyschatter.blogspot.com/2016/09/give-yourself-interview.html