It is officially autumn once again.
Once again, I sit and ponder the eternal question of why in the hairy
heck I think watching football is relaxing??!!! The new neighbors who
live to the right of me and above me are likely wondering things like
'Who is cursing like that? It can't be that nice, quiet lady in the
apartment just beyond the pool's gate. Maybe she's having some female
friends over to watch the game like an angry lady longshoreman or a
ticked off girl trucker. I've never heard epithets used like that.'
I've had to turn off the game and watch some cooking show recordings.
I don't think punching holes in the wall is good for my knuckles.
Reader Questions
I have a number of new readers lately.
Hello, new readers! I imagine that jumping into the blog from any
random week is like jumping into the deep end of a pool full of
piranha wearing clown make-up – scary and confusing. Thus, I have
received some questions. Answering them will also provide updates.
About Craig. Though we have agreed that I am not his nemesis, he
still manages to upend my focus when he calls. This week I've had to
talk him out of buying a megaphone, and I've refused to tell him
which days I tend to visit my local library. However, I'm not sure if
I talked him out of putting a special note in my account file. I
suppose I'll find out when I pick up the next book. About the
fingerprints, because of the number of pages we turned while working
for Internet Archive (archive.org), our fingerprints have rubbed off
on certain fingers. Craig found out when he was being printed for the
library gig. The print operator said she sees that sort of thing with
people who handle pineapples for work (I learned that on the original
Hawaii Five-O) and people who handle a whole lot of paper. We
averaged three thousand pages a day for three years. Our prints
should eventually return. I disagreed that his gave us carte blanche
to commit high crimes. I mean, it's only a few fingers that are
affected. Besides, I don't care how cool it looks, using a grappling
gun will end in disaster at our ages.
Other Answers. I do not cover
everything that happens in a week. I tend to focus on the long arcs
in my life and career rather than the highs and lows. On any given
day, things will look incredibly good or incredibly bad at the
beginning or the day and be radically different by the end. That's
why I don't post dramatic changes on the social networks unless I'm
very certain that the circumstances will remain the same for the
foreseeable future. I would make my friends and loved ones crazy on
almost a daily basis. I thus stick to the highlights for the week.
Yes, my friends and family do get a heads up when I'm going to
mention them in the blog. Craig even knows what conversations will
land him in the blog. When I mention my actor friends by name, they
know it's coming. I don not share most of my interactions with them.
Next, I am still learning Japanese – slowly. In fact, I used some
during my visit to Mitsuwa market last week. I was mainly apologizing
for my unruly shopping cart. And I told my long suffering clerk that
I was okay for help. Both he and the elderly lady I spoke to were
pleasantly surprised – I think. I do know that I'm understanding
more of what I'm hearing on the anime and cooking videos I watch. I
have some time before we can consider a trip there, so the learning
is going at a good pace. I'm lucky to live in a neighborhood with a
significant Japanese population and a major Japanese super market. I
haven't even begun to check out Little Tokyo. But I digress. Be
warned, I do that a lot, gentle new readers. Last answer for this
week: yes, the proofreaders have been sent most of Ensnared. I'm
still fiddling with the last 60 or so pages.. It will be published on
time.
I have one quick note about the
upcoming books. In order to more strongly brand them for the search
engines and the social networks, I will have special blogs for the
upcoming erotica titles and the yaoi titles. I will still talk about
writing in general and my own writing here, but the excerpts and
other updates will be on those blogs. It's all about marketing.
Hopefully, these moves will result in higher sales.
Kitchen Melange
One of the readers' questions asked if
I combined all the styles of cooking that I'm learning or am I
cooking French one week and Italian the next, etc. I do both. I make
traditional Beef Bourguignon when I crave beef stew, but I also
employ the method for other slow cooked beef dishes. My Dad now uses
that method to make his beef short ribs. I made them that way when I
was last home. I believe he has spread the practice to the southern
relatives. I now know how to make Karage fried chicken, but I also
use the Japanese seasonings like soy sauce, sake, mirin and ginger in
the buttermilk fried chicken I learned to make from my Grandmom. It
makes such a flavorful marinade without a lot of extra salt. I use
kelp in my stock making because it gives it even better mouth feel
and extra nutrition. On the reverse, I made this lovely Japanese
chicken dish with grated potatoes as a sauce thickener; however, I
browned the chicken along with onion, garlic and carrots like I would
with a French dish along with the traditional Japanese seasoning. If
I actually make a dish, it is usually because I know I'll use the
techniques in more than just that dish.
I must dash. Those last 60 some odd
pages won't fix themselves no matter how much I yell at them. I've
tried!
Stay tuned.
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