breadlust

Answer to yesterday's mystery photo: TRIX cereal
(which was more than 46% sugar when it was introduced by
General Mills in 1954).


Ok, so I admit I'm a polite bread snob.

Polite because I'll eat any kind of bread without complaining (except for Wonder Bread). A snob because I generally find typical store-bought plain sandwich bread all pretty tasteless, made interesting only by the ingredients one puts inside the sandwich. Give me actual flavour! Flax seed and rye! Chewy crusts to sink one's teeth into!

My fave: fresh-baked San Francisco style sourdough. I am ashamed to admit that I turn into a gibbering, drooling breadlust fiend when it comes to sourdough. I was overcome by a terrible sourdough craving late yesterday afternoon, went to the market to get some and could barely wait to unload my other groceries before I attacked the loaf. It was not a pretty sight.

I love trying different types of bread. So far, my favourites are sourdough, pumpernickle, and caraway rye, but I like almost any type of freshly-baked homemade bread. I remember my mom used to make loaves of white bread and cut thick slices for us kids so we could slather on boatloads of butter and stuff them in our faces. The fragrance of fresh-baked bread still sends me dreaming.

When Jeff and I lived out in the country, I actually did used to bake my own bread from time to time, but didn't find the bread quality worth the effort it took to pound and knead, and the messy clean-up afterwards. Now I have a bread machine (a wedding gift from friends); I know it's not the same as baking it from scratch in a real bread oven, but still enjoy experimenting with different types.

While doing a bit of online bread research, I came across this article about bread in Germany. Also, check out this German bread art! And the Germans even have a Museum Of Bread Culture!! I'm starting to save up airfare now...

Poll: What's your favourite bread?

Are you picky about where you buy your bread? Do you ever bake your own bread? If so, can I come over?

Links:

Here's an entertaining animated .gif of Allison at Torcon, courtesy Terence Chua.

Waiting for Isabel, but I suspect the hurricane will just be a lot of rain by the time it hits us. Anyone out there hit harder by Isabel?

September/2003 comments: Read | Post | LJ

journal/blog survey

Mystery photo from our cottage weekend. Bonus points
to the first person who correctly guesses what this is!


I originally started my Blatherings to keep in touch with friends I don't see often. Then it became a creative exercise to improve my writing; I've compared it several times to what other people would consider their morning cup of coffee. I should expand on that, however, because it's become much more than a mere writing exercise. More on this topic in a future Blathering.

Right now, however, I'd like to clarify a couple of things. I've made some of these points already in a Livejournal entry a while back because of LJ-specific details, but I know the majority of people who read my Blatherings aren't on LJ.

I don't assume all my friends are reading my Blatherings. More and more often, I'm coming across friends who apologize as soon as they see me because they haven't been keeping up with my Blatherings. Please don't. I don't consider my Blatherings a substitute for personal contact. I won't be insulted if you don't read my Blatherings, or haven't been keeping up. In all likelihood, I haven't been keeping up with yours either, if you have one.

I don't write everything in my Blatherings. I sometimes write about very personal things, but I leave out a lot. I will sometimes post cheery entries even if I'm feeling crappy; I've found it's a good exercise plus better therapy than posting a "I feel really down and the world sucks and I want everyone else to feel really down as well" entry. I will also sometimes post rants even if I'm in a good mood.

Survey for all those who currently have an online journal or blog:

How long have you had one? Why do you have one? Personal expression? Connection with friends? Do you write mainly for yourself or mainly other people? Do you assume friends will read it? Do you regularly read other people's Livejournals? How much time do you spend reading journals and/or writing in your own? Feel free to answer in your own journal, but please do post the URL.

One of the article queries I'm working on is about blogs and online journals, so may follow up with some of you in private e-mail eventually. I do promise NOT to use your name or any quotes without permission.

Links:

Torcon photos from Terence Chua. Includes several of me mooning over Dandelion Wine in concert. :-)

Second Life is SO much my kind of online game. Glad it's not Mac-accessible. At least not yet.

September/2003 comments: Read | Post | LJ

coming back

I took this photo during a run through the University
of Toronto campus yesterday. I liked the contrast of the glossy green
against the textured grey stone.


Yesterday, IT WAS MY FIRST ENTIRE WORKDAY WITHOUT USING VIAVOICE. I took a break every 15 minutes, which drove me NUTS but made sure my arms were ok. Because I wasn't using ViaVoice, I could PLAY MUSIC IN MY OFFICE...a huge relief after six months of only the sound of my own voice to keep me company while I worked.

Sent out several more queries, got two go-aheads from editors (one about NaNoWriMo, one about vegetarian restaurants in Toronto). This means that I have three articles due over the next four weeks, and I'm aiming to get more. Finished editing Chpt.3 and Chpt.4 of my novel; my goal is to have the mss ready to send to my agent by the end of next month. I've decided to pass on NaNoWriMo this November, sadly...don't want to push my arms, plus I'd like to finish editing the manuscripts I have already so I can send them out. Chris Baty (NaNoWriMo creator) had asked me to do daily cartoons for the site during November but I had to turn him down.

The revised edition of Moira Allen's Writing.com: Creative Internet Strategies To Advance Your Writing Career is now available through Amazon, and includes an article I wrote specifically for the book: "Author Showcases and Syndication Services".

Culled down my 1700 e-mails to 200 mostly by being heartless about dumping a lot of messages, many related to Market Watch that basically ignored my warning and asked me for advice about where to send manuscripts (some even sent their manuscripts as attachments), asking questions like "do you know if so-and-so is still editor at xxx?", and asking me to look up database information for them. I also prioritized some of the mail, answering urgent ones, leaving some to answer over the next few weeks. Hey, and I did the culling WITHOUT VIAVOICE.



Liked how the reflection of the clouds changed this
building into something out-of-the-ordinary.


Starting to run again, too. I had deluded myself into thinking that doing a lot of walking every day during the summer would be enough to keep me in shape, but I found out how wrong I was the first time I tried running again...walking is fine exercise for some, I'm sure (I say quickly before the walkers out there throw their shoes at me), but I think I need to push myself more. Walking certainly helped keep me sane during the worst of my tendinitis, though!

Learned some cool words during my German study, so want to share them with you:

Kopfschmerzen (headache) and Kugelschreiber (pen)

Must try to work these words into casual conversation at the first opportunity I have, which will likely be this December when Jeff and I go to Vienna for Scott's and Anita's wedding.

GUEST: "Sprechen Sie Deutsch?" (Do you speak German?)

ME (brightly): "Wo ist meine Kugelschreiber?" (Where is my pen?)

GUEST: "Er...Wie bitte?" (Pardon?)

ME (ecstatically): "Ich habe Kopfschmerzen!" (I have a headache!)

I've also learned to be careful about applying grammatical structures in different contexts. "Mude" is "tired" and "Heiß" is "hot", for example, but where "Ich bin mude" means "I am tired", "Ich bin heiß" apparently means "I am sexually aroused" (!!). If I want to say that I feel too warm, I'm supposed to use "Ich mir heiß".

Hm. On second thought, maybe I'll just keep my mouth shut and do more listening than speaking. :-)

September/2003 comments: Read | Post | LJ

urban tapestry news

Today's blatherpics were taken this past weekend during our cottage trip. I must learn to pass my camera to other people so I can get some decent photos with me in them. To you other photographers out there: do you have this problem as well? ("Yes, I was on that trip too, really!")

Many thanks to Jodi for creating and updating a bunch of Urban Tapestry related Web pages:

Sushi and High Tea: info about the CD and each song, plus a soundclip from EACH of the songs.

Myths and Urban Legends: info about the CD and each song, plus a soundclip from EACH of the songs.

Full MP3s (i.e. entire song) samples from our two CDs are available on our Soundclick page of The Friendship Song, The Lady, Waiting For Frodo, Sex & Chocolate, and Homecoming.

She has also updated the main Urban Tapestry page and she and I have created a page of info about our upcoming appearance at The Gathering of the Fellowship in December.

You can always find news of updates like the above, with links, in the Urban Tapestry News weblog.

Some of you have been asking how you can order our new CD online. You can't yet, but very soon! I'll post a link when it's available.



A panel from one of Sara's comic strips, starring
Jeff. I think the resemblance is uncanny. :-)

September/2003 comments: Read | Post | LJ

quick post-cottage blather

Sara and Jeff at the cottage this past weekend.


Came back from the cottage to find an acceptance for one of my article queries (songwriting for kids, article due mid-October), tentative interest in another (editor says she will get back to me in a couple of weeks), no rejections so far. I plan to send out more queries this week.

We spent the weekend at the cottage with my sister and her family. Had a wonderful time, more details and photos later this week.



Sara, Annie, Kaarel and Ruth.


I've updated The Dandelion Report to link to a new Filk Community News page on Livejournal.

Augh, found out about another typo that Allison & Jodi & I missed in the CD liner notes. The recording engineer for Didgeri Douze was Chris Croughton, not Gerry Tyra, and the recording engineer for ConChord was Gerry Tyra, not Chris Croughton. They are both being very gracious about it. Gerry, for example, has told us, "When you're beating your head against the monitor, the blood tends to cover up the typos. At least that's the excuse that I use at work when someone finds a bug in my code." :-)

Humble apologies and thanks to both Gerry and Chris!

September/2003 comments: Read | Post | LJ