Thirteen Awesome Bad Guys

Kate over on chicks-n-scratching had a good post on villains on Tuesday, and it made me think about some of my favorite bad guys. Some are favorites because they’re so cheerfully evil, and some are favorites because they are so chilling. So, here’s a list, in no particular order.

1. Hannibal Lecter (Silence of the Lambs)

2. Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty)

3. Hans Gruber (Die Hard)

4. Mr. Smith (Matrix)

5. The Joker (Dark Knight)

6. The Collector (Demon Knight)

7. Dr. Evil (Austin Powers)

8. Murphy (3000 Miles to Graceland)

9. The Sheriff of Nottingham (Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves)

10. Jack Torrance (The Shining)

11. Carter/Cain/Josh/Margo (Raising Cain)

12. Hughie Warriner (Dead Calm)

13. Norman Stansfield (The Professional)

Thirteen Soothing Sounds

So, my stress level is pretty high right now. GN is starting a new job that will require him to be away from us a lot. We have the financial outlay of getting that done, all the paperwork and legwork, all the attendant happy stress of knowing he will be doing this new job. I’m teaching three different classes for three different colleges in three different cities. Fortunately, one is online. Sadly, one is also 1.5 hours from home. I’m also taking classes to try to get my Ph.D. back on track. And writing. In fact, Emily and I just finished the rough draft of our latest collaborative project  – you’ll see more about that some other time.

In any case, I was thinking…what helps me be calm? What soothes me? Obviously music is a big part (duh. who didn’t see that coming?), but there are also other sounds – the music of nature, if you will. And let me just sing the praises of Grooveshark on that, because I put together a nature playlist that makes me totally mellow. Hooray!

Here are 13 sounds that soothe me. I’ll warn you, when I was writing this, I nearly put myself to sleep. Listen with caution! Do not operate heavy machinery! May cause drowsiness! Contact your physician if side effects persist!

1. Crickets and other night insects.

2. Rain.

3. Waves.

4. Buddhist chant.

5. The drone of bees.

6. Distant thunder.

7. My wind chimes. They’re pretty low pitched, very mellow. These aren’t they, but I like them.

8. Running water – like a brook or stream.

9. Wind.

10. A cat purring.

11. Frogs, especially spring peepers.

12. Rushing water - like a waterfall or fast spring.

13. Whale song. in this case, humpback.

There you have it. go forth and be soothed.

Sweet!

I recently discovered I have a reaction to glucose. Since corn syrup is straight glucose, and HFCS is just glucose with some fructose added, I have had to cut corn syrup and HFCS out of my diet. Oddly, natural disaccharides like table sugar or even honey (which actually mimics HFCS’s sugar profile pretty closely) don’t seem to do it. Just corn syrup and glucose.

Anyway, here are thirteen corn syrup-free sweet treats I can still enjoy.

1. Fruit. Obviously. Recently, it’s been peaches from the farmers market. mmmmm.

2. Cheerwine (in the glass bottles – the cans are corn syrup sweetened)

3. Kozy Shack pudding. Tapioca is my fave, but the chocolate is outstanding, too.

4. Vosges chocolate. This is Emily’s fault. She turned me on to it. I can’t vouch for every flavor, but I know my faves – Barcelona and Red Fire – are sugar only.

5. Virgil’s Cream Soda. They have root beer and other sugar-only sodas. The cream soda is my fave.

6. Homemade ice cream. Recently I’ve been playing with exotic flavors. I put the lemongrass recipe up last week, but I’ve also done lavender. That was wonderful.

7. Dark Chocolate Kit-Kat. I know, surprise! I was surprised, anyway.

8. Juice smoothies. I like the Naked ones – Gold Machine but both DH and Munchkin are fans of Mighty Mango.

9. Martinelli’s sparkling lemonade. Who knew I’d like this so much?

10. Breyer’s Ice Cream. Some flavors have corn syrup – ones with other things like cookies or candy, especially, but also one of the vanillas. Most of the basic flavors and the fruit flavors are sugar only, though.

11. Santa Cruz chocolate syrup. The regular kind has corn syrup, so the organic will have to do. I don’t think you can have organic corn syrup, actually, because of the processing that creates corn syrup. hm.

12. Berghoff’s root beer. Sadly, I cannot find it anywhere around here. At all. I despair of ever finding it again. Woe. Woe. And there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth.

13. Pepperidge Farm Chesapeake cookies. Dark Chocolate. Pecans. Cookie. What’s not to love?

And I hear – though I think it might be a myth – that there is sugar-sweetened Dr. Pepper floating around. Sadly, the only reliable source of this ambrosial elixir is the Dublin bottling facility in Dublin, Texas. I need to win the lottery.

What about you? Any sweet treats – non-corn-syrupy – to share?

Thirteen recipes I love

So, this week, we tried a few new recipes that I just LOVE. So I thought I’d share several recipes with y’all. I hope you find a recipe or two (or thirteen!) to try on your own. If you do, let me know what you thought!

1. Lemongrass Ice Cream (especially for Jeannie Lin) [NOTE: do NOT use metal utensils in this ice cream. It can react w/ lemongrass and throw off the flavor. Use nylon/plastic/wood/silicon - just NOT metal][NOTE2: I was skeptical, as this is technically an ice milk, rather than ice cream. However, the body is rich and smooth with the same mouth feel as ice cream. I'm a believer and will be trying this method with other variations]

Ingredients:

Continue reading Thirteen recipes I love…

Thirteen Nuclear facts

The idea for this T-13 was spawned when GN (DH) showed me a very cool vid – as seen in number 13 on this post. While watching that, we wondered when the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was signed. Well, folks, the first one I can find – The Partial Test Ban treaty (signatories included the US, the UK, the USSR) was signed on this date, August 5, 1963.

In honor of that historic signing, here are thirteen facts about nuclear weapons and nuclear policy.

1. The only country to ever use nuclear weapons in a war is the United States.  The US dropped nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II.

2. There are two types of nuclear reaction: fission and fusion. Fission splits the nucleus of the  atom, thereby releasing the energy. Fusion compresses the atoms and creates heavier elements by fusing lighter elements. These reactions are stronger, and in current weaponry, something of a misnomer, as most “fusion” bombs derive most of their explosive force from a secondary fission reaction (that is, the primary fission reaction sets off the fusion reaction which sets off a secondary fission reaction).

3. There is no theoretical limit to the size of a fusion weapon. By chaining reactions together, the load is limited only by the delivery system.

4. The USSR detonated a 50 megaton device, the largest ever detonated. To give some perspective, the bomb dropped on Hiroshima was approximately 13 kilotons. That is, the Soviet device was nearly 4 million times the size of the device dropped on Hiroshima.

5. Originally, nuclear weapons were delivered by standard bombs out of long-range bombers. Only with the development of missile technology were pilots removed from the chain of custody.

6. Nuclear fallout is arguably as deadly as the initial blast. Have some fun playing with this interactive fallout map.

7. Though the Partial Test Ban treaty was signed on this date in 1963 by the US, the UK and the USSR, the Comprehensive Test Ban treaty wasn’t signed until 1996.

8. The Reykjavik Summit in 1986 saw a moment of interest. According to a participant, at one point Reagan and Gorbachev agreed to dismantle their entire nuclear arsenals, only to be pulled back by their respective advisors who did not favor this plan – since the US and USSR were not the only ones with nuclear weapons. Wouldn’t you have loved to be a fly on the wall for that discussion?

9. The only country to fully renounce independently developed nuclear weapons is South Africa.

10. During the BP oil spill, a Russian paper suggested using a nuclear weapon to cap the well. Since Russia has used this tactic successfully in the past as a fast answer to massive spills of the same type, some energy experts agreed with the suggestion.

11. There are currently 9 states currently considered nuclear states.  These states are the US, the UK, France, Russia, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel.

12. There are several states which, at one time, possessed nuclear weapons but do not any longer.  These states are South Africa, Belarus, Kazakhstan, the Ukraine, Canada and Greece.

13. And the thing that spawned this post: A video depicting every known nuclear explosion.  This is very, very cool. It takes a while to watch the whole thing, but it’s worth it. It breaks it down chronologically and by nation while placing each explosion on a world map. Very, very interesting.

Thirteen birthdays

It occurred to me the other day that July 29 has a number of interesting birthdays. This really caught my attention because of the juxtaposition of some of them – particularly the last two.

1. Stephen Dorff (1973) – Blade may be the first thing people think of, but he’s done a lot of interesting stuff. But, for pure eye candy, well, you can’t beat the Cosmo spread.

2. Tim Gunn (1953) – I love Tim Gunn. He’s got a great eye and his personality is just the right combination of supportive and questioning. Plus, I love his voice. I have no idea why. Best reason to watch Project Runway.

3. Elizabeth Short (1924) – The infamous and tragic Black Dahlia.

4. Peter Jennings (1938) – the suave and debonair Canadian that, along with Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather, defines for me what a news anchor should be. He spent 17 hours at the anchor desk during the 9/11 tragedy. That’s pretty damned impressive.

5. Wil Wheaton (1972) – Okay, I’m going to reveal my inner geekgirl. I love Wil Wheaton. He was so endearingly earnest as a child actor and he’s matured into an interesting man. His blog is entertaining and often thought-provoking. Can’t ask for more than that.

6. Ken Burns (1953) – I adore Ken Burns. Yes, I realize I’m revealing my public television snobbery. Still, I love his documentaries. I think my favorite is probably The National Parks, though, of course his Civil War is masterful.

7. Clara Bow (1905) – The quintessential flapper. No one personifies the roaring ’20s for me like Clara Bow.

8. Elizabeth Dole (1936) -I’m not sure what you can say about Elizabeth Dole. Class, backbone, personality. She’s an absolute marvel. She campaigned for Kennedy and worked in the Johnson White House, then crossed the aisle to work for Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and the first President Bush. She famously campaigned with her husband before running for Senate herself. Go Liddy.

9. Geddy Lee (1953) – Another Canadian. I’m a fan of Rush, I like that they aren’t afraid to take chances and experiment with music. And they seem to have a lot of fun. Brilliant!

10. Martina McBride (1966) – To continue a musical theme, we’ll switch to country. In addition to fun songs, she does a lot of work to fight domestic violence and abuse. That’s awesome.

11. Bryan Datillo (1971) – okay, maybe you don’t know who he is. Unless you watch soaps. But he’s also an autism activist. I like it when celebs put their time and effort into a cause.

12. Benito Mussolini (1883) – Well. What to say about him. Italian dictator during WWII, one of the founders of Italian fascism and recipient of one of the most ignominious post-death exhibitions in historical memory.

13. Alexis de Tocqueville (1805) – A French political thinker and famously author of Democracy in America (see what I mean about the juxtaposition of these last two?). The poster boy for liberal democratic thought (in the small-d sense of the word, not the political party capital-D sense), Tocqueville is mandatory reading for political scientists – and with good reason. The delivery may be a bit dry, but the content is outstanding.

See what I mean? Interesting day to be born. If today is your birthday, you’ve some very intriguing company. Happy birthday.

Thirteen Amazing Gingerbread Houses (Christmas in July!)

Okay, so it’s entirely the wrong time of year for this, but I swear I have a reason for bringing it up. I just don’t want to tell you what it is. But a quick check of my progress meters on my page might give you a hint. Just sayin’.

1. I think my favorite thing about this one is the gingerbread rooster on the roof.

2. I love the towers and the verisimilitude of this one. the grout in the bricks, the iron pickets along the roofline.

3. The roof of this one just makes me happy. Look at all those chocolate buttons!

4. How can you not smile when you look at this one? It’s crazy!

5. These are simply fabulous. Can you imagine having one of these perched on your mug o’ cocoa?

6. The pretzel railings really put this over the edge for me.

7. Simply magnificent in it’s architectural majesty.

8. St. Basil’s Cathedral. Often misidentified as “The Kremlin” it has been a museum since the late 1920’s. It’s part of the Kremlin complex, but it isn’t the Kremlin, per se.

9. Victorian majesty in gingerbread. Yum.

10. The White House – this is the south face.

11. Lovely gingerbread cathedral. Well, I assume it is, with the crosses and whatnot.

12. Modernistic gingerbread house. I love the sugar glass and the sloping rooflines.

13. The sheer detail of this astonishes me. I am left gobsmacked at the work that went into this.

Like Whoa and Damn – Aggrotech

So… yeah. I needed a certain groove for a scene/story, and went hunting. I found Combichrist. Which opened the door to a whole subgenre that I didn’t even know existed and which makes me very happy.

Think.. if NIN had a psychotic bastard love child with Rammstein. Yeah.  Beware – this is seriously hard stuff and isn’t going to be to everyone’s taste. But for the groove I want for this, and for sheer aggressive power, this is amazing stuff.

I don’t really wanna make this a whole big list, so I’m picking out a couple of exemplars. Suicide Commando is probably best known for Hellraiser, and has a more techno/synth sound than some of the others. Grendel typifies the industrial end of the aggrotech projects.

Aesthetic Perfection and Combichrist (embedded) are high on my aggrotech list right now.

So now I have my groove back!

A Multi-media Event!

We’ve talked, on several occasions, about the intersection of music and writing. About music providing a soundtrack or inspiration or just drive for writing. I thought this week I’d give you a peek inside. So here are 13 very short excerpts and a piece of music I think works for that bit. Enjoy!

1. Lost in the melting heat, her world narrowed to the flavor and feel of his mouth on hers. His hand dropped from her jaw to her waist. Those long, narrow fingers moved up, playing lightly over her ribs. She gave herself to the kiss, devouring him as he devoured her.  — Trusting Destiny

Continue reading A Multi-media Event!…

Thirteen Wings

In honor of Twice as High – which, in case you didn’t know, features winged alien hotties – I present thirteen Wings.

1. Detroit Red Wings.

2. Wings (the band). Despite Linda’s tone deaf “assistance,” Sir Paul manages to make decent music.

3. Dark Wing Duck.

4. Buffalo Wings.

5. WINGS Program. To quote their site: “WINGS helps homeless and abused women and children by offering integrated services that meet their needs for shelter, education, guidance and support. We provide safe, secure living environments, through transitional housing and emergency shelter, in residential neighborhoods that allow women to go to school, work, and achieve financial and emotional independence.”

Now that’s a cause I can get behind. You go, girls.

6. Wings perfume.

7. Wing (the singer).

8. Wings (the TV show).

9. The West Wing (the TV show). And, of course, the oft referred Biblical Quotes scene.

10. Airplane wing. In this case, a Viggen (made by Saab).

11. Angel wings. In this case, a painting of the Annunciation by Leonardo da Vinci. It’s in the Uffizi, in case you are interested.

12. Bird wings. In this case, Birds in Flight from Russ Hansen. I think this is a chickadee, either black-capped or Carolina. I would not, however, swear to that.

13. My aliens‘ wings (including Kyle and Julian):