What went into the crockpot for dinner tonight, along with some chicken stock. And then rice and bulgar and spices and more chicken stock and some water for the rice cooker, and I have left overs for tomorrow.

It needed something to cope with it being a bit dry – cue adding heavy cream – and a little bit of salt, but was otherwise tasty and bright and a bit of bite.

I did not get pictures before nomming, so there are no pictures of the bowl of tasty foods, nor of the large container of leftovers all dumped in together. Or of the rice, for that matter.

Crockpot Stuff:

3 fingerling potatoes (probably can substitute a small turnip, but those were what I had)

1 bosc pear (I actually prefer anjous, but bosc was what came in the box, and anything is better than the whatever they put in cans)

Ginger – two chunks the size of my thumb, cut into pieces

1/8 of a small lime – a little citrus goes a long way in a crock pot. If more lime had gone in, I probably wouldn’t taste anything other than the lime.*

one large spoonful of minced garlic

Onion – I’d use fresh if I had some and the ability to cut them up**

ground nutmeg

1 cornish game hen/small chicken/other small poultry that fits in the crock

Everything else goes under the chicken. Nutmeg can be sprinkled on top if you like. Put the crock pot on high for a couple of hours, turn the bird over then, and turn the heat to low, and leave it until your kitchen/apartment smells nommy.

Then make up rice and/or bulgar.

* I have learned this the hard way. Oh, dear gods, never again. I had to throw out a batch of food because it was inedible.

** I tear really badly with even sweet onions, and the only ones downstairs are yellow onions. Green onions would work, but I don’t have any right now.

Rice stuff:

2/3 cup short-grained white rice, 1/3 cup short-grained brown rice, 1/3 cup bulgar*

1 and 2/3 cup of liquid, with at least some of that flavored liquid (mine was 2/3 c chicken stock, 1/6 cup soy sauce, and the rest water)

ground nutmeg, ground ginger, granulated garlic, ground coriander – I don’t keep track of exact proportions.

All in a rice cooker and put on until the rice cooker pops. It can also be done on a stove, but you have to pay closer attention to make sure it doesn’t burn. I do not have the spoons for that.

* Switch proportions around to what you like, just keep track of how much goes in, you’ll need to know that to add liquid. Also, types of rice, and the bulgar, are optional. It depends on what you have, what you like, and what you can eat.

Reblogging this because apparently tumblr shadow-flagged it, if the script is right about what posts of mine got flagged. All the rest were reblogs ( @poplitealqueen – that included a couple of your posts on covers you made for Pulsion, just so you know).

What. The. Fuck. Is NSFW about cooking chicken in a crockpot?

(Also, I’m going to have to see how to modify this for cooking it in my pressure cooker. Because noms.)

lynati:

Fandoms should organize a non-Tumblr but otherwise multi-platform art-and-ficathon for the 17th. Whatever your flavor of alternate social media to Tumblr, gather there with your co-follows and have yourselves a party!

I’m game. How ‘bout y’all?

norcumi:

loreweaver-universe:

montecervesa:

gorgeousgag:

loreweaver-universe:

damaramegido:

loreweaver-universe:

loreweaver-universe:

In case you’re not aware, Tumblr has recently announced that on the seventeenth of December they’ll start purging all porn and porn-adjacent content on Tumblr. Why does that matter to LWU, you ask? Well, they’re using their bots to identify it, and we’ve all seen how well THAT works. One of my Wander posts even got flagged as sensitive for no apparent reason. What I want to do is reassure you all that I’ve taken steps to back up all of the content on LWU to my hard drive using a tool I was recommended a couple weeks ago. I’m going to continue to do so on a regular basis just in case, so there’s very little chance that my stuff will be lost.

I’m using this one! It condensed my entire blog as of November 20th into one 4.36 gigabyte folder.

Any notes on how to use it? I can’t figure it out.

Okay, so here’s how to do this.

First off, go here and make sure you have Python installed. For Windows it should be the very bottom link, the x86 MSI Installer. You don’t have to do anything but install it.

Second, go here, and click “Clone or Download” (the green button on the right). Select “Download ZIP”.

Make sure you have WinRAR or 7zip or something installed that lets you extract zip files.

Next, make a folder on your desktop. I named mine “Tumblr Backup”, and in the following instructions I’m going to assume that’s what you’ve named yours as well; replace “Tumblr Backup” with whatever you name yours if it isn’t.

Drop the zip file you downloaded into Tumblr Backup. Go in and extract it; this should create a folder called “tumblr-utils-master“.

Open your Command Prompt. If you don’t know how to find that, click your start menu button and type “CMD”, which should give you this:

That should open this:

That frog over there is blotting out my profile name on my computer. Whatever your profile name is when you sign in (e.g. “Max” or “Snugglebuns” or “froglord69”) is going to be in that spot on the address path. If it instead says something about Windows and System 32, that’s okay, what I’m gonna tell you to do will go to the right place either way.

Next, input this command–keeping in mind that the parts in bold should be changed based on your profile name and what you named the folder on your desktop:

CD C:Usersfroglord69DesktopTumblr Backuptumblr-utils-master

There! Now you’re in the right folder! Next, enter this command, replacing the bolded bit with your own blog name:

tumblr_backup.py yourblogname

You should see this:

Then just…let it run! It took less than five minutes for my computer, though it will vary by processor and connection. Once it’s done, you’ll have something like this:

That “index” opens in an internet browser. It’s basically a webpage stored directly on your computer. Some pics of mine:

So…not pretty, but it’ll save the content of your posts. Hope this helps!

Spread this so as many people as possible can see it

Mac users:

Create a folder somewhere convenient and name it something like ‘Tumblr Backup.’

Download the script as described above. Save it to the folder you just created. Double click it, and it extracts in place.

open a terminal.app window. Terminal.app is located in your /Applications/Utilities folder. Usually, just typing command-space to bring up the spotlight window and then typing in ‘term’ and hitting return does the trick.

If you are not accustomed to UNIX command prompts, do not be scared. You got this.

At the ‘$’prompt, type in ‘cd’ and then space, and then drag and drop the decompressed tumblr-utils-master folder onto the terminal window. The path to that window should appear. Hit return.

Boom. You’ve switched to that folder. Type ‘ls’ to make sure. Should look like a list of the folder’s contents.

Type ‘./tumblr_backup.py [yourblogname]’ and hit return.

Boom. Your blog starts downloading. Go drink coffee, enjoy some porn, hang out with your dog, cat, other pet, or lover/s who may also be your pet/s, and let the script run. Depending on your connection speed and just how much of a pervert you are, this could take a while.

Mac instructions for you weirdo Mac users!

Oh thank gods, I needed those mac instructions. THANK YOU.

Yay for Mac instructions! Thank you, @montecervesa for posting them!

hamelin-born:

other-dimensions-and-galaxies:

One of my favorite quotes of all time courtesy of Babylon 5 and Marcus Cole:

“I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, ‘wouldn’t it be much worse if life were fair, and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them?’ So now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe.”

@theperidotshade

Why do you think highly advanced ancient civilizations are so prevalent in sci-fi/fantasy?

prokopetz:

Basically it’s the Roman Empire’s fault.

No, seriously.

One of the reasons the Roman Empire was such a big deal in the ancient world is because it was able to punch way above its weight class technology-wise due to its sophisticated civic infrastructures. When the Western half of the empire collapsed, those infrastructures essentially imploded, leaving a huge chunk of Europe with large caches of technology that they could still use, but lacked the means to reproduce or repair. A lot of what modern Eurocentric history books present as the natural technological progression of civilisaton is glossing over this massive hiccup where innovation was being driven primarily by the need to repurpose or maintain this leftover tech in the absence of the infrastructures that produced it. Things basically went all Mad Max for a while there – that actually happened.

(This is all hugely oversimplified, of course, but that’s the gist of it.)

The thing about modern fantasy settings is that, by and large, they’re also going all Mad Max. Your typical Western fantasy setting used to be dominated by this huge, technologically sophisticated empire, but then somebody screwed up and blew up the world, and now everything sucks and people live in fortified shanty towns separated from each other by miles of barren wilderness populated by gnarly monsters, where the most valuable commodities are the scavenged detritus of that bygone empire. It’s straight up post-apocalyptic – the only variable is how much time has passed between the apocalyptic event and the present day.

And in terms of literary and artistic antecedents? You can pretty much draw a direct line between Western fantasy fiction’s obsession with post-apocalyptic worldbuilding and the fall of the Western Roman Empire. It’s been 1500 years and we still haven’t gotten over it.

Discord

So, @theotherguysride has created a Discord server for if things go utterly to shit and tumblr goes down. If people want to find me on discord, the server is here: https://discord.gg/y3CAJ8x

I’m on there, on that server, same username, and while I make no promises about responding quickly to any kind of conversation, you’re welcome to @ me on that server if we’re not already friends on discord.

And come on over and hang out if you have the spoons to do so, or lurk if you don’t have the spoons for direct interaction, and generally have a place to be able to keep connected even if things go wrong and migration happens in all directions.

And now a warning about drafts

bogleech:

You ever write up a post you decide will be too controversial or embarrassing but leave it in your drafts to sleep on and then forget about it? How about real personal stuff you weren’t sure you wanted to share at the time? Heavy-ass receipts on bad shit you’re leaving there only just in case you’re forced to use them?

Well if any of your drafts get flagged by the new system, a mod can apparently see them in with all your other flagged posts, and if they un-flag them, it publishes them automatically as a brand new post. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

saixnipples:

First, a note: I ask that people please reblog this to spread this since the tags are kinda unusable right now, especially when a post has external links within it.

Dreamwidth has been my main active posting platform for a year and a half now, and I’ve noticed a lot of bloggers talking about jumping ship over to DW with tumblr’s uhhhhhh current state of affairs.

But DW is kinda bland and boring if you’re too young to have been of the LiveJournal generation, and therefore don’t know where to look or start in order to build your friends list and find communities, so I’m going to do some of the legwork for you.

the_great_tumblr_purge: I made a dw community specifically for people jumping ship from tumblr to reconnect with each other.

addme: a friending community where you pimp yourself out and find other people with similar interests that you might want to see on your reading page.

addme_fandom: similar to above, only with a stronger emphasis on finding people based on your fandoms.

fandomcalendar: a community where you can find fandom events, such as big bangs, exchanges, challenges, bingos, etc. and other fandom communities that might suit your interests.

questionoftheday: for when you don’t know what to post.

If anybody else has communities they want to add, go right ahead and add them in a reblog.

Please reblog this.

Vir Inter Veros

jonothetonedeafsidekick:

Vir had been, as Londo would have put it, ‘Emperor of the Great and Powerful Centauri Republic’, for exactly seven days before the news broke; dominating the ISN news cycle for almost a full day before a scandal involving an Earth senator took over.

Personally, he blamed Commander Ivanova. No, she was a General now. But either way this had her sneaky fingerprints all over it.

Londo’s obstinate defiance of the Interstellar Alliance would probably go down in galactic history, and it wasn’t hard to imagine Ivanova leaking this in order to establish his credentials as a very different Emperor.

The headline was simple and to the point.

EMPEROR OR EMANCIPATOR?

Vir had always known that his activities during the second Occupation would eventually come to light, that Abrahamo Lincolni couldn’t stay buried forever. He wasn’t ashamed of what he had done, far from it, but it was certainly making things…. interesting.

The news might no longer dominate the galactic news cycle, but it had far from died down on Centauri Prime.

The Royal Court had been abuzz ever since the news had broken, and Vir had been quietly informed that there were movements afoot to have him removed from the throne as unfit to rule.

They’d been happy to have Cartagia sit the throne, but he was unsuitable? He would never understand his fellow Centauri.

The Centaurum had all but demanded he attend them, which would have been unthinkable until recently, and he summoned the Royal Guard before leaving his suite. He wasn’t Londo, but he could still demonstrate that he was no pushover.

They were walking down a deserted corridor when the two guards suddenly collapsed. Vir didn’t even have time to check on them before a hooded figure lunged out of the shadows, coutari in hand.

Vir fell back, almost stumbling over the prone body of one of the guards, and the assassin was upon him. The first lunge missed and Vir was suddenly close enough to wrestle for control of the weapon.

For a long second, they struggled together, but Vir dug into reserves he had all but forgotten about. He had faced down beings that would make this fool soil himself. Mr. Morden. G’Kar. Timov. What was an assassin in the face of that.

Slowly, Vir gained the upper hand, until the point of the coutari was aimed at the assassin’s own chest. As the blade slid home, for a second he was back on Narn, plunging the needle into Cartagia, then he was wrenched back to the present and he fought not to vomit as the assassin collapsed.

Stooping, he took the comm from the belt of one of the fallen guards, calling for reinforcements. Once they arrived he was going to have a talk with the Centaurum.

………………………………………………..

Five days after the attempted assassination of the Centauri Emperor once again propelled Vir into the news cycle, an unusual vessel arrived at Centauri Prime and requested permission to land.

No Narn vessel had been to the Homeworld since the Narn/Drazi fleets had devastated the planet, and it was sheer dumb luck that a trigger-happy pilot hadn’t shot them down on reflex.

Vir himself had to overrule the military and grant the vessel permission to land once he heard why, and he travelled out to the (distant) landing platform they had been assigned with a retinue of sycophants and guards.

The vessel’s hatch opened with a soft hiss as Vir walked out onto the platform, and a dozen Narn slowly filed down the ramp.

None of them could have been much older than Vir himself had been when he had first been assigned to Londo on Babylon 5, but their eyes were far older than his had been.

Vir wished he didn’t know why.

The oldest looking of the Narn approached him slowly, and to his eternal surprise raised both closed fists to his chest in the Narn gesture of respect, bowing his head slightly.

Slowly, Vir mirrored the gesture, and heard the susurration behind him as all the courtiers started to whisper at once.

The Narn raised his head again, and spoke softly.

“My name is G’Von. During the Occupation you saved the lives of me and my family.”

He paused and swept his hand back towards the other Narn,

“You have touched all our lives. Either you saved us, or you saved members of our families. We swore an oath that if we had the opportunity, if we ever knew, truly knew, who had saved us, we would repay them.”

His eyes held a conviction that Vir recognised. It was a mirror of that which had always filled G’Kar’s. After a second he also recognised a faint hint of humour, and decided to play along.

“I once overheard G’Kar say that anyone with a Narn bodyguard would live to be one hundred and fifty years old.”

G’Von’s eyebrow tilted upwards, a sardonic gesture that was one of the few to truly translate across the boundaries of race throughout the galaxy.

“A challenge from the Prophet himself? We accept.”

The courtiers whispering suddenly silenced as the Narn moved as one unit, supplanting the Royal Guard to surround Vir in a defensive cordon.

Vir thought somewhat uncharitably that they were suddenly re-thinking any attempts on his life. G’Kar had firmly impressed on the Royal Court exactly how seriously Narn took their duties as bodyguards.

A vicious smile played at the corners of his mouth. Well wasn’t this going to be interesting.

Another ficlet prompted by the Babylon 5 podcast I’ve been listening to. If you haven’t already give them a listen.

Polite version

wetwareproblem:

tumblr is silently shadowbanning posts based on unknown criteria (unlikely to be image-matching, we suspect text content). Affected posts appear on dash and dash-like views, but not on the actual blog page as seen by other users. I have been able to see the effect personally on desktop. Almost certainly related to the gutting of the chronic pain tag and similar hits previously.

There is no red warning bar and no way to dispute a shadowban.

@thebibliosphere – this might explain some of your reblogs showing up for some people and not on your blog proper?