#and I had to use the oven because it was legit the only option I had at the time

[david-watts]

guess who forgot to eat again and I actually don't know what I'm gonna do because my only option requires the oven and if I use that I'm going to get yelled at

[grayloch]

Legit I've had a couple ask about it and I've rejected them every time MOSTLY because of the clay I use is forever soft but THESE will be in an oven-bake clay (and hand painted in professional acrylic paint) meaning they can actually survive being shipped!I can make Busts and Full bodies in a standing or seated pose. Prices will vary based on complexity and shipping has already been included in the price tag.

I am ONLY taking these this November (JUST IN TIME FOR THE HOLIDAYS) with a very low likelihood  that I will do it again!

PLEASE DM  me or email me @ GrayLochArt@gmail.com to see more samples/turnarounds (I have a couple that arent ready to be seen by the general public) if youre interested 

And! as always: Low on funds? ask about my other options! OR!! Check out my other commissions:

[raisingsupergirl]

A Recipe For a Pho Night

Okay, this typically isn't a food blog, but guys, if you've never had pho, you're missing out. And now that 2020 quarantines have made it even harder to sit down at a Vietnamese restaurant, how will we ever enjoy this most excellent of savory soups? Well, by making it at home, of course! And now that winter's creeping in (it's currently a cold, rainy Sunday as I write this) there's no better time to fill the house with delicious smells! But before you freak out over the ingredients list, don’t worry! Pretty much everything can be substituted, altered, or just left out based on your preferences and availability (I happen to dislike sweet broth, so I didn't use much brown sugar). Even the measurements are only there because SOME of you can't make anything without having exact amounts spelled out (hey, nobody's perfect). The whole point of pho night is to have fun, so get creative, and let your family join in. My daughters absolutely loved picking out their ingredients for the spring rolls and the soup, and watching it all cook right before their eyes really sealed the deal (though they needed my help rolling the spring rolls). And now, without further adieu, here's my recipe for fresh spring rolls and pho (because of their similar ingredients and fun, do-it-yourself assembly, they pair perfectly):

INGREDIENTS

Marinated beef: • 1 brisket (sliced thin) • 4 tbsp oyster sauce • 1 cup soy sauce • 2 tbsp minced garlic

Broth: • 16 cups beef stock (or 3 soup bones if making from scratch) • 1 large onion • 2 golf ball-sized chunks of ginger (what? That's totally a legit measure) • 3 cinnamon sticks • 5 star anise • 4 cloves • 1 tbsp coriander seeds • 4 garlic cloves (optional) • 1 tbsp brown sugar (or to taste) • 1 tbsp fish sauce (or to taste) • 2 tbsp soy sauce (or to taste) • 1 tsp salt (or to taste)

Noodles: • 1 box rice noodles (I used thin in this recipe) • sesame oil (or any oil)

Garnish: • ½ package medium shrimp (raw, deveined, no shell) • 1 bunch of cilantro • 1 bunch of rosemary (because I couldn't find Thai basil) • 1 bunch of mint (because it grows in my back yard) • 6 whole baby bella mushrooms • 2 serrano peppers • ½ red bell pepper • ½ yellow bell pepper • 6 green onions • 1 can bean sprouts • 1 lime (cut into wedges)

Spring rolls (because you're not going to cut up all those delicious veggies and NOT wrap some in rice paper!): • 1 package spring roll wrappers • ½ package medium shrimp (cooked, deveined, no shell) • ½ cup matchstick carrots • ½ cucumber • ½ avocado • any other veggies/herbs you’ve prepared for the pho garnish

Serve with: • Soy sauce • Sriracha • Hoisin sauce • 1 bottle of sake (to drink!)

INSTRUCTIONS

First, let's start with the brisket. You'll need to prepare it earlier in the day so it can marinate. And it's worth noting now that pretty much everything you cut up for this meal will need to be SUPER thin (so it can cook in the broth in your bowl), and the beef is no exception. And because of that, it's easiest to slice it with a sharp knife while it's STILL FROZEN. First, cut the fat off of the top, then slice/shave it perpendicular to the grain (to make it more tender) as thin as you can. Then cut the slices into 2-inch pieces (or smaller if you prefer). Prepare the marinade (oyster sauce, soy sauce, garlic) and combine it with the beef in a sealed container or bag. Set aside for at least three hours and no more than 12 (to avoid getting too mushy), and mix it occasionally throughout the day.

Next, lets talk about the foundation of this recipe: the broth. Because it's so important, you want to make sure to start out with a high quality beef stock. I made my own the day before by boiling 3 soup bones in about 2 gallons of water (it reduces) for 4 hours on low heat (then refrigerating it until the next day so I could skim the fat off of the top), but buying it significantly speeds up the process. Whichever way you choose, pour the broth in a large stockpot and set it to high heat. While it's coming to a boil, preheat your oven's broiler, then slice the onion and ginger into large chunks. Spread out the chunks in an oiled, oven-safe pan. Then, place the cinnamon sticks, star anise, coriander seeds, and cloves in another oven-safe container (these spices are all complimentary in flavor—along with cardamom pods, which I couldn't find—and give pho it's signature taste, so try to find as many of them as you can. Also, whole spices make them easier to remove later for a clearer broth), and pop it all (onions, ginger, and spices) in the broiler until they're all lightly toasted—about five minutes for the spices (until they're just aromatic) and ten minutes for the onions/ginger (until they get a good char).

Once your stock is boiling, throw in the onions, ginger, and toasted spices, then cover and reduce to medium-low heat for at least twenty minutes (and up to an hour while you're preparing everything else). Strain/scoop out all the solids after thirty minutes or so, then either keep the broth on low heat or just turn it off for now.

Now's as good of a time as any to cook your rice noodles according to the instructions on the package (they don't take long, so don't overcook them!). When they're done, rinse with cold water (so they don't keep cooking and fall apart) and toss with a couple tablespoons of sesame oil (or whatever oil you prefer) to keep them from clumping. Dump them in a bowl and set aside for later.

Now it's time to start slicing the vegetables! Like I said before, everything should be super thin so it cooks quicker, so take your time and enjoy the process (hopefully with a glass of sake and some good conversation… heck, you can find some more knives and put your dinner guests to work). Full disclosure, the veggie bill is totally up to you, but in this case, I recommend green onions, mushrooms, bell peppers, hot peppers (jalapeño or Serrano), bean sprouts, lime, cilantro, mint, and Thai basil (though I couldn't find any basil, so I substituted rosemary, which actually worked great). Remember to slice everything thin and 2-3 inches long (with the obvious exception of the sprouts and herbs, which can be left whole, and the lime, which can be quartered) so they work with the pho AND the spring rolls.

And since we're talking about the spring rolls, go ahead and cut up everything (carrots, cucumber, avocado) for those, as well. And if you're putting shrimp in them, go ahead and throw half of the bag of medium shrimp into your boiling pho broth for 20-30 seconds (to flavor the shrimp AND the broth), then scoop them out and put them in a serving dish (side note: I almost cooked my rice noodles in the broth, as well, then remembered that the noodles leave behind milky, starchy water, which would have ruined the broth. Crisis averted!). While you're at it, fill a pan or other container (it has to be slightly larger than the size of your rice paper) about an inch deep with cold water (or pho broth, if you're feeling really adventurous!) and set aside.

Place all of your a la carte ingredients in little piles across a large cutting/serving board or in individual bowls and set them in the middle of your dinner table. You want to show off all of your hard work!

Speaking of the dinner table, time to turn to the final (and most fun) phase. Other than your garnishes, set up the table with your raw brisket (yes, raw), raw and cooked shrimp, noodles, optional sauces (sriracha, hoisin sauce, soy sauce, sweet Thai chili sauce), rice paper, pan of water, plates, bowls, soup spoons, forks/chop sticks, and your preferred drinks. Crank the covered broth to a rolling boil on the stove and direct your lucky guests to their seats—the show is about to begin!

SPRING ROLL ASSEMBLY

As your broth heats up, start with the spring rolls. Place one sheet in the pan of cold water for about 30 seconds or until soft (like Goldilocks, you don't want them too hard or too soft/brittle. If this is your first time, you may waste a sheet or two before you get it right). Remove it, place it on a plate, and fill it like a tiny burrito with whatever ingredients you prefer. Be sure to experiment with all of the herbs, veggies, and cooked shrimp (do NOT use the raw shrimp or beef. Yes, I have to say this. Yes, there are people out there who need to be told the obvious). You want your filling to be about the same size and shape as a hotdog, and it should be offset to one side of the rice paper. Now it's time to try your hand at rolling that bad boy. Fold the sides first (each end of the "hotdog") to seal it up. Then fold the short side of the rice paper over your "hotdog" and tuck it under the ingredients to tighten them up. Lastly, roll the whole thing up. If you get a little tear (shredded carrots are sharp), don't worry. You'll have a couple layers by the time it's completely rolled, so it should seal. If not, who cares? You're about to dip it in your favorite sauce and devour it. Remember, have fun!

PHO ASSEMBLY

By the time you've had a few spring rolls, your pho broth should be boiling. Time to assemble the main course! Place about a half-cup of rice noodles in the bottom of each bowl, then top them with the same amount of raw beef or shrimp (or both!). Now, carefully bring in that big pot of steaming, delicious-smelling broth and ladle it over each bowl of rice/protein. Sit back and enjoy the oohs and aahs as the shrimp turns pink and the beef turns brown (that marinated beef really helps elevate the pho broth). NOTE: Cooking in the bowls is the fun/traditional way to do it, but briefly pan frying the beef instead actually gives a slightly better flavor. Alternately, throwing the protein into the pot of broth before ladling is just fine, too, but be careful to not overcook it! Anyway, you do you.

Now that your protein is cooked, instruct your guests to fill the bowl with anything and everything their hearts desire. It's best to go quick and start with the "harder" (mushrooms, herbs) ingredients first, so they have the best chance of cooking through and imparting those delicious flavors. Also, it's possible to put in TOO much stuff (know from experience...), which will cool the broth down too much, so when it doubt, do several smaller bowls to try out different combinations.

Take a few pictures of your masterpiece, stir it all in, let it steep for a couple of minutes, and then dig in! Like everything else with this recipe, there's no wrong way to eat pho. Chop sticks, forks, soup spoons—go at it however you like. And finally, when everyone has tilted up their bowls to drink those last, irresistible drops of soup, store the remaining ingredients in separate containers, and your leftovers will make a delicious stir-fry later in the week!

Well, that's all I've got. If this isn't the perfect recipe for a dinner party (whether it's with friends or a quarantined family, rain or shine, winter or summer), I don't know what is. My family loved getting creative with all of the possibilities, and their end results were (almost) always delicious. Pho night is sure to become a regular at my house, and hopefully it will at yours, too!

[bakugous-abs]

My Love {Kirishima Eijirou x Reader}

Just a little thing I decided to get out because a really cute post I saw. Legit my uwu’s… were owoing. It was so cute. It was about how this man only called his wife 'My Love' even around their kid to the point the child was even calling their mother 'My Love'. This will be really short or super long I have no idea lol (Super long with 1919 words). The reader is gender neutral! -Bomb

At first, it was a forced friendship

The cute shark toothed spikey red-haired boy getting in everyone's business in class 1-a, determination glowing from his crimson eyes to be friends with everyone he stumbles upon. He succeeded in befriending the fiery hedgehog, and it was only a matter of time before he got you too

    It wasn’t to say that you were actively avoiding befriending your classmates, it was just the fact that you didn’t see a point in it all. Sure, having friends seemed like a good idea; being able to go out and hang out with close mutuals. But when it really came down to it, was it gonna be worth it?

    In almost every instance I could recall from my middle school and elementary years, once you moved schools or grew out of your childish antics with destroying figurines and Barbie dolls with your mother's lipstick or caking yourselves with mud fights till dawn, people moved on from you. They found new friends with new hobbies, as so did I. But after it happens so many times, it begins to seem like that’s all friendship gives you. Temporary relations with each other until one or the other gets bored and finds new people to pester and befriend

    It left me hurt. Thinking that was all I was gonna be offered when I bonded with the strangers I only knew as classmates. But after seeing Kirishima and Mina, finding out that they had been friends since middle schools and then Deku and Bakugou since elementary school, things changed

    It was a silent change that I dwelled on internally for nearly weeks before I finally started agreeing to go with Kirishima instead of allowing him to drag me wherever he pleased. A silent change that I slowly grew accustomed to when his smile would prod my own lips to curl ever so slightly. A silent change that I hardly knew would change my life forever

    Then, it was friendship

It started off slow, only being asked to hang out in the dorms occasionally with a few of his friends. Then it was hanging out outside of school. Partnering up to do projects. Making vine and meme filled group chats. Pestering Bakugou. Teaming up for hero work. And before I knew what hit me, I had found a family of dipshit weirdos I could call my own

And then feelings got involved…

Kirishima and I began to hang out on our own. Helping each other with work that the other didn’t understanding. Helping each other through problems neither of us understood. We started looking out for each other even more than we did for the others, able to just automatically tell when something was off with the other

We watched movies together in his room, throwing popcorn at the screen from across the main dorm room floor, leaving small smudges of butter sticking to it we would be forced by Aizawa-Sensei to clean off later, sending each other sheepish smiles to cover up our embarrassment that would leave my cheeks dusted with a rosy pink hue

But then the rosy pink hue started showing up more often. Whenever he smiled, it would appear in the lightest shade possible, leaving my palms sweaty. Whenever I saw him shirtless during training, watching his muscles ripple and move as they glossed over in a layer of sweat, glistening in the daytime light and evening sunset, I couldn’t but stare and feel the rosiness of my cheeks and nose worsen to a dark crimson, my entire body heating up

I began to notice the little things about him I'm sure other people never noticed. Like the way his teeth only seemed to get sharper as the years in Yuuei went by. The way his hair slowly grew longer in the back and his black roots began to pop out before they disappeared again the next day with his hands stained a light red. The way he only got broader and tanner that would make my palms sweaty. And how his B.O. took on a different scent…

And then it hit me like dump truck full of bricks. The rosy cheeks. The heated body and sweaty palms. The increased interest in everything that changed about him

I liked Kirishima Eijirou

I fell for Kirishima Eijirou… hard and without notice

And I was too oblivious to know that he did the same

Until the night of our graduation

The kids of 3-A, 3-B, General Studies, and the Support Department partied in the 3-A dorm till we were exhausted and peeling our clothes off from sweat, having a blast as we sipped punch from our solo cups, not allowed to have alcohol on school property. We broke down and danced on the homemade dance floor to childhood songs and new songs we played on the whim that they might be good. We played party games like we were elementary kids again before we were shoved right into the adult world. It was a great night… Great for everyone else anyway

My mind had nothing on it other than Kirishima. How he slipped away between classmates, hanging out with everyone else as it seemed like he was actively avoiding me. And to be honest I couldn’t complain, it’d be hypocritical of me as I had been ignoring him and avoiding him for nearly a week now when I couldn’t help but crave him a bit too much for my liking

He probably didn’t feel the same, is what I told myself. I avoided him to protect myself from being hurt unintentionally by something neither of us could control. And then once we get out of here within the following week I could avoid him for the rest of my life

But he had other plans once the party came to an end

He finally caught up to me and asked me if I was ok. I only said yes as to avoid him from worrying, but he kept pestering, wondering why I was avoiding him. I couldn’t avoid having him worry about me because he already was, wondering if he had done something wrong that made me want to separate myself from him

Our proximity only worsened the situation, as my bottled feelings and attraction to the male swam back to the top of my subconscious, and I cried

    I cried my eyes out, holding my hand over my mouth as I tried to hold in my sobs. His arms immediately found their way around my body as I apologized profusely, feeling bad for just avoiding him like that at the drop of a hat. I rested my forehead on his shoulder, letting the tears slide down my face as he cooed in my ear that it's going to be ok

    It took me nearly a whole five minutes to calm down enough to be coherent in my speech and to organize my thoughts. I relished myself in his scent as I let go of myself, curling my arms around his waist

    “Now can you tell me what’s wrong? Why you're crying?... Why you’ve been avoiding me?” His voice almost seemed to crack towards the end, like he might start crying too

    I immediately panicked, unable to stop myself before I blurted three words that would either get me made fun of, laughed at, loved for, or ignored for

    “I like you”

    I was surprised to feel him begin to laugh. My heart sunk in my chest as I just tightened my grip, feeling my body wanting to shake with sobs once more before he asked if that was all it was. I hesitantly nodded, explaining to him my fears and doubts about how I thought he wouldn’t like me back, considering all his options throughout the rest of the upperclassmen and even some of the older lowerclassmen. He sighed as a response

    I panicked once more when I was being pulled apart from him before I was swiftly kissed on the lips, feeling their rough texture against my own soft ones. I was so surprised I didn’t even react. But it wasn’t like I was given any time to when they were pulled away from me

    I was confused, giddy, and felt a bit silly all at once as he explained to me how he liked me as well, and how we both probably should have seen the signs earlier since it now seemed pretty obvious we liked each other when we thought about it

    He took my hand in his, leading me back toward the kitchen. “Now come, my love, let's get you some cold water to splash over your face to reduce your puffy eyes”

    And from then on, we were lovers

    It wasn’t long after when we shared our first ‘I love you’s’ on our 6th date to a nice fairy lit picnic spot in the park. And then, just four years later, we were engaged and married within six months

    He’s called my ‘My Love’ since that very first night when we both confessed our feelings and became each other’s. And he still calls me it now, with an adopted year and a half old child happy smiling while playing on the floor with his pro-hero father and I made dinner

    “My love, how much longer till dinner’s ready?” Eijirou called out to me, our son stopping his playing and staring at us curiously, looking back and forth between us

    “Not long Eiji. We just gotta wait for the Enchiladas to cool down. Promise.” I took the Enchiladas out of the oven and set them on the stove, smiling as I felt his body press against my back while taking off my oven mit and closing the oven door

    “I love you, (s/o).” he put his hands over my stomach and kissed my cheek, eyes closed as he filled it with love

    “I love you too Eiji.”

    “Mah wuv…” We both heard a gurgle and stopped what we were doing on the spot, wide eyes and open-mouthed as we stared at our son. We looked to each other before looking back to him

    “My love?” Eiji repeated him, an eyebrow quirked as his grip loosened around my body

    “Mah wuv!” He giggled, grabbing the toys in his hands and waving them around while looking right at us

    “Oh-Oh my god. HIS FIRST WORDS!” I screeched out, chortling and hopping up and down and covering my mouth my hands

    “I-I thought babies first words were supposed to be mama or dada?! He called you my love!” Eijirou was both confused yet happy at the same time, scooping up our son in his hands and smiling broadly, he giggled in his father’s arms

    “He never even heard mama or dada in his life. He’s only heard you call me ‘My Love’ and I call you Eiji. He’s heard you say it so many times he must have wanted to try it out himself”

    “He did a pretty damn good job with it too! My love!” He shouted your nickname, the baby repeating it the best he could

    The sight made you smile, happy tears brimming your eyes as you pressed your hand lightly over your mouth watching the sight. Hearing two of your most loved people in the damn universe calling you ‘My Love’ filling your heart with an overwhelming euphoria

    I couldn’t believe this. I was gonna have two people running around just calling me My Love. And I couldn't wait

[lucastheunlucky]

Ease of Learning - Orion&Luke

Summary: Orion accepts a part time job at Yum!Pizzeria and meets Luke! They make food together, learn how to prep for a restaurant, and find great enjoyment in each other’s company. @3starsquinn

Set up: [text] I’m in the kitchen, just come in and on through. Bring some knives if you have them, and wear rubber soled shoes. 

Lucas finally had help and he was probably a little too giddy about it. This week has been the nicest week he’s had since he was shot in the head. Almost five fucking years for him to have this, and to think people had such nice lives all the time. Lucas already had everything laid out, cleaned, and prepared, and to hopefully seal the deal with the trainee. He had taken the time to get a new white, chef’s shirt for them so it felt a little more official. It was completely a bribe, but he couldn’t help it. He could find help for the front, cashier, and waitress staff, but not in the kitchen because he always kept himself isolated. This was a huge step for Lucas. He sat down at the main station, writing out a new recipe he had worked on, not pizzeria related, but Lucas’ future fine dining restaurant that resides only in his head now. Soon. He had a photo on the wall now, a sketch of the new concept. Eventually this place will be truly his dream.

Orion only owned hunting knives, and he only kept them begrudgingly just in case the situation were to ever arise that they were needed. Luckily, Ricky was into cooking and owned some pretty decent knives, which Rio was able to borrow for the evening. He had been inside the pizza places for more times than he could keep track of. It was a local favorite and the best pizza place in town. Rio didn’t have a ton of experience with actual cooking, which made this position a bit more ideal for Rio’s situation. Pretty much the only thing his family had employed him to help with when it came to cooking was prep work.  It wasn’t exactly a surprise that Rio was the most detail oriented and meticulous of the Quinn family. Plus, he had good reflexes, like supernatural reflexes. He got to the door to the restaurant and knocked at it, spotting who he assumed would be his boss through the window and waving towards him. It wasn’t until the door opened that the tingling sensation shot through Rio’s body. There was a werewolf, somewhere around here. His tried to focus his hearing out for a moment, to see if he felt anybody around the place. But all he could sense was Lucas, opening the door to let Rio in. A giddy smile broke out across Rio’s face. He could only imagine the meltdown his parents would have had if they knew that he was working for a werewolf. A werewolf! Amazing. Rio happily held his hand out as an introduction. “Hey there! It’s Orion. Or Rio. Whichever you prefer. I’ve probably said this a million times already, but I really appreciate this, I can’t wait to get started.”

Lucas felt the enthusiasm immediately, and fed off of it to ease any concern. The other was a handsome younger man, with bright eyes, and Lucas felt a slight pang at how the youth held this special kind of energy. One, he probably wouldn’t have anymore now that he was in his thirties. Lucas shook his hand with a firm grip, palms rough. “Come on--” he chuckled, walking him into the pizzeria, and back in through the kitchen doors. Not a lot of people have seen this area, and Orion, well-- he will be the first person ever to work next to Lucas in the kitchen. It was a strange feeling, to let someone else into his space, but Lucas was trying with everything he had, to not let this hunter have so much control over his life. And in here, his pizzeria now that the deed was transferred-- he wanted to make a work family. “The kitchen is simple in design, we cook in a stone oven, but he have gas ovens as well for other things, that’s a smoker for the meats, and all the prep gets put in here,” he hulled open a large fridge where a bunch of empty containers usually filled with ingredients. “You know how the menu works, since I change it every day, you will have a different prep list. Which is nice, it shakes it up. So,” he pulled out the chef’s shirt and waved it between them. “Put this on, and let me see how you cut an onion.”

It was a bit surreal, following his boss behind the counter and following him to a portion of the pizza place that he had never seen before. After spending so long at the counter ordering, it seemed weird to walk behind the counter. Or maybe the weird part was that he had never had a job before and this was all new to him. Either way, it was a mixture of excitement and nerves. He nodded, familiar with the new choices every day. It was pretty easy to tell how passionate Lucas was about the place, which could only be a good thing. When Lucas pulled the chef shirt free, Orion was so excited for the chef shirt until he realized that the chef shirt was short sleeved, which meant… Oh boy. He couldn’t not wear it, right? That probably wasn’t an option. Rio stood there for a moment long before grabbing it and slipping it over his long sleeve shirt. He sighed, rolling his sleeves up to the sleeve of the chef shirt, exposing a string of scars and bruises along his arms. He immediately jumped into washing his hands and pulling one of the knives that he borrowed from Ricky out to cut the onion, hoping that they would not talk about the scars or bruises and just focus on the prepping. “So, uh my friend taught me that we cut off both ends and then cut the onion in half, take the skin off.” He spoke aloud and did the motions as he said them, trying to remember what Ricky had done while cutting them. “Once you have it in half you can just kinda… chop it” He said, cutting sections from the onion into what looked like sort of a half moon shape. “You probably need it like chopped into tiny pieces, right?”

Lucas gave Orion some space, not wanting to be all up in his area quite yet. He noticed the scars, but Lucas was also a creature riddled with them. He hated when people looked at them or asked questions he couldn’t explain about them, so he just acknowledged how hard that motion might have been for Orion, and stood calmly, with that understanding without bringing it up. “That shirt makes it feel official right?” he chuckled to keep the mood light. “Well, first-- you should sharpen your knife.” Lucas had set him up for failure, but it was a good way to remember. “Always do that step first, so you don’t cut your fingers or squish the vegetables.” He pulled out his japanese blades, with beautiful orange handles, and sharpened it quickly. “You are close, from here, lay it like this and you want to aim for about half inch pieces of onion. Unless-- I call for strips which happens sometimes, especially with the bbq pizza’s. Chop down, take your time until you get the motions, hold your fingers like this so they don’t get caught. Then you can go faster--” Lucas showed the motions at a good pace on his own board, which was actually harder cause he does it so fast all the time. “This is called a small dice-- which vegetables do you think get cut up like this?” 

Orion glanced down at the shirt that Lucas had given him, “It really does. I feel pretty legit.” He smiled, thankful that his new boss hadn’t mentioned the scars. It was stupid of him to show them off anyways. “Right, right. Sorry. Of course that makes sense.” He sighed. Strike one he supposed. Though it didn’t seem to bother Lucas much. He had told Rio that he would train him how to do it properly. So this was training, and a nice, peaceful training at that. “Woah Those knives are really cool.” He stared at the design on the blades. He watched Lucas cutting the onions, clearly way more fluid than his parent had ever been with a blade. Though they had never really claimed to be great cooks. “Got it. I can do that. I mean, I can do that with practice.” Luckily for Rio, he was a pretty fast learner. “Uh..” Rio tapped his fingers against the cutting board to think of what a pizza place would use for small cuts. “Onions, obviously. Peppers, probably. Maybe like tomatoes, if you add any in your pizzas. Something like that?” 

“You will get it quick, don’t worry,” Lucas smiled about the knives, they were very special to him. “They are neat right? I worked years to get a legitimate set. There are a lot of knockoffs on the market.” Lucas nodded to the few he said, and pulled out a plate that had all of them cut correctly in the varying ways he liked on a beautiful spread. “Most are sliced-- mushrooms, banana peppers, jalapeno’s, the ones cut down the side like those. Then you have the smallest, minced. That, you won’t do for a while cause it’s the hardest. But, if you practice these other cuts, I’ll show you and you can practice at home. So, using that plate as a guide-- lets prep for tomorrow.” He quickly pulled over the menu, laying it out between them. “We are doing three pizza’s, see what we need? I always label it well. Lets just get some practice in, don’t worry about making it perfect. I’ll do it with you, and if you don’t know just ask alright?.” Lucas tied an apron on, and cracked his knuckles, and got to work. 

Orion liked this. It was almost relaxing, in a way that cooking had never been for him before. But Lucas was a calming presence. Patient and warm, it was a welcome change. Lucas showed off exactly what the cuts were supposed to look at and Orion tried studying each one, hoping that just staring at them long enough would make it stick in his brain. It worked for books. “Perfect. My roommate loves to cook, I’ll make sure to help prep. Get some good practice in.” Despite Lucas telling Rio not to worry about it being perfect, Rio knew that he was going to worry about it. He had always been a perfectionist. But this was the new Rio. The one that didn’t bother with the Quinn name. He could be more chill now. The new and improved Rio. He looked at the menu, “Well this sounds amazing.” Rio laughed. Maybe he’d need to stop by and pick some up for himself and his roommates. “Definitely. Please just yell at me if I’m doing anything wrong.” He joked, jumping into it as well to get started on the prepping.

For the first time in almost five years, the sound of two knives against cutting boards echoed in the kitchen. It warmed Lucas’ entire soul, in a comforting and familiar way that he used to cook in the kitchen with his family before he went into hiding. He knew, all along, he wanted this feeling back, almost desperately, but always fear hid in the back of his mind. Luring him to be hesitant. The man who captured him, tortured him-- didn’t have to infect this place. His pizzeria, and maybe in the future, something more fine in nature. He paused Rio a few times to correct how he was holding the knife, pulling his hand back on it, or fixing the rocking of the blade, but Lucas could see that the other had some kind of experience holding a blade, maybe just not cooking ones. Lucas cleaned his knives, and watched the other work for a few minutes, cherishing the moment-- hoping, he’d like it here. A soft smile twitched his lips. “Two hours have gone by ya know--” he said with a knowing sound. “Set an alarm when you are here, time-- flies when you prep, especially while alone. How are you feeling about it?” Lucas pulled out a slab of bacon, slicing down thin pieces. “You hungry? Cause for some reason, I want breakfast right now.” 

Orion fell into an easy groove working next to Lucas. Every now and again Lucas would help readjust his grip on the knife or show him some trick to make the cutting easier, but it was always done with good spirits and with the best of intentions. It honestly didn’t really even feel like work. When Lucas mentioned that two hours had already gone by, Rio barely believed it. “Seriously? Woah. I didn’t even notice.” He shrugged. “I feel great. Like this is too good to be true.” Rio definitely didn’t consider himself lucky enough to deserve this. He had been so nervous about starting to work that he had practically spiraled once he accepted Lucas’ offer and Erin’s. But both places seemed really cool. “Holy crap, really? I’m always starving. Like, all the time. This is amazing.” He bounced excitedly, a grin plastered on his face. “What can I do to help?”

“Haha, same-- same,” Lucas suggested, both because he’s hungry, but also to see how Rio would do with orders shooting at him. That’s if he eventually wanted to tackle the kitchen while open then doing prep. He pointed towards the cast iron skillets. “Turn the gas on the stove to high flame, get that pan hot for me.” He sliced down the large piece of meat to create a stack of bacon for them, tossing it onto a plate, and brought it over to the stove. “If you look in the walk in fridge, there are eggs in there, and cheese of course,” Lucas couldn’t help it, he loved cheese sprinkled on his eggs since he was a little boy. The pan heated up quick, and Lucas put the bacon in it, the sizzle immediate. He flipped on the hood, the smoke traveling up and out of the small space, and smell-- it was already to die for. “Crack those eggs for us, put them all in a bowl. I can eat six eggs-- if you can believe it. Haha. I haven't had dinner yet, so it needs to stick. Cube some butter from there,” he pointed, “and dice up some scallions. Don’t salt anything yet--” 

Hoping not too screw anything up, Orion made a mental list of what he needed to do. He started with the oven, flipping it on high and grabbing a pan to start heating it up. He then slid over to the ginormous fridge and slid inside of it, searching around for a long minute until he hunted down the eggs and cheese, grabbing a carton of eggs and a few separate bags of cheese, “I wasn’t sure which kind of cheese you preferred so I grabbed… all of it. I can eat literally anything.” He set the eggs and cheese down on one of the counters and took in the smell of the bacon. Amazing. He laughed at Lucas, popping the carton of eggs open and pulling eggs out one at a time, cracking them into the bowl and putting the empty shell back into the carton for the moment. He wondered if large appetites came with Werewolf territory? Hunters tended to have a bigger appetite than regular humans, because they had to give energy for the heightened senses and strength. It was only logical that werewolves would be similar. After cracking all the eggs, he hunted down the butter next, starting to cube it before asking, “How much should I cut? Like a whole stick?  He probably should know something like that, if he was an actual adult that cooked ever. After he cut those, scallions would be next. “Do you cook here a lot on your own time too? Or do you have your own fancy set up where you live?”

“No, about four tablespoons or four decent slices,” Lucas peered over at Orion working hard, making sure everything was right, and taking the time to find the right ingredients. A blossom of pride filled the wolf, and a kind smile surfaced while he flipped the bacon in the cast iron. “Make sure you separate the tops and bottoms of the scallions.” He didn’t even peer over at the stuff being prepared, accepting however he did them in a show of trust. “I, heh,” Lucas never bragged or boasted about himself, he always got a little shy over stuff which is why in high school no one really knew he wasn’t just a football player, but also a huge science club nerd. “I actually have training in fine dining if you can believe it. I also have been studying authentic Chinese cuisine for about five years now. My home set up isn’t as nice as this, so I do tend to cook here if I can. I experiment a lot, I want to have a really nice place eventually.” He reached for the eggs, pushing the bacon to one side of the pan to let the fat heat and coat the pan before tossing the eggs in. With a pair of chopsticks he grabbed each cube of butter, folding it into the eggs as he broke the yolks and let it all cook in bacon fat with gentle motions to fold them into stacks. “Get a small pan, heat a little oil, and toss those white scallions into the pan, keep them moving so they don’t burn. Hey, those don’t look too bad.” He complimented on the scallions. “Then get plates, this will be one in two minutes.”

Orion followed the boss’ instructions for the butter and passed it off to him when he began working on the scallions. Unsure exactly what to do with them, he resorted to cheating a bit, if this were some sort of graded test at least. He pulled a video up on his phone, watching a few seconds of it before following them himself, cutting up some not perfect, but decent scallions. “Chinese cuisine?? That’s so cool! You know back in the Zhou dynasty rice was considered a luxury. It was insanely priced and only the richest classes could afford to eat it. It’s crazy to think about that, since rice is such a common staple in so many cultures nowadays.” He rattled off, immediately happy to have something to talk about. Even if it was nerdy. “I think it’s really cool that you have this space. It’s easy to tell how much you care about it.” Orion grabbed a small pan and took a minute to hunt down the oil, pouring it into the pan and setting it on the stovetop. “Thanks! Full disclosure, I totally googled it to find out how to cut them correctly.” He laughed, outing himself and finally tossing the scallions in the pan, pushing them around  in the pan. This was how people kept them from burning, right? After a minute, Rio followed Lucas’ directions and went to grab plates, “This smells amazing”

Lucas actually didn’t know that bit of information, and he’d have to remember it. “My neighbor has all these old family recipes, none of her family is here in the states, and she filled my head with them so they’d not be lost. If you really want some good cooking though, she is the one to stand next too, she’s got that grandma energy-- and love in all her food.” When he disclosed he googled it Lucas couldn’t even fault him. “I get it, just watch your phone in here, I have lost many of mine in a bowl of tomato sauce by accident.” Lucas placed the bacon, and eggs on the plates, taking the warm scallons to sprinkle on the side. The slices of the green parts of the scallions he mined quickly with his knife, then sprinkled it on top with a crackle of salt and pepper, and a dash of cayenne powder. “There,” he wiped the edges, and picked both plates up and moved them over to a table in the corner. Setting them down, he grabbed forks, and a water for them, and pulled his chef shirt off, tucking it on the back of the chair. He waited for Rio to sit before he did, and settled. “I’m sure you will be busy with everything, but know this place doesn’t need to be stressful. Even if you can only work two hours that’s enough to get me by. So-- thank you, for wanting to try it out.”

It looks like they had wrapped up for the night. Or at least to eat.Orion followed Lucas’ example, taking the chef shirt off and rolling his sleeves back down. He instantly felt better with his arms covered again. “Your neighbor sounds great, that’s nice of her to share the knowledge.” Obviously, Rio was a fan of sharing knowledge. He wasn’t sure who would major in history that didn’t like sharing information with others. Plus the whole Scribe thing. He slid into the empty chair at the table and took a long drink from the water. He had been so preoccupied with the prepping that he hadn’t even realized how thirsty he was. With the oven on, the place got pretty hot. “Of course. Well, again I really appreciate the flexibility. I want to help out as much as I can, and hopefully make your life a little easier.” It honestly seemed too good to be true. A boss that wanted him to work at his own pace and understood that he had a life outside of work. But this wasn’t the time for sappy admissions, it was food time. Rio used his fork to stab a large portion of the eggs and stuff them into his mouth. “Holy” He started saying, but stopped himself so he could finish chewing the food he had in his mouth. “This is amazing, holy crap. You’re like a food wizard.” He laughed once he was done chewing and right before inhaling another bite.

“Food wizard--” he repeated with a breathless chuckle, diving into his own meal. Highly amused, but Lucas always, enjoyed watching people eat his food, the way it lit up their face. The shock, the joy, the savoring. All good emotions and a moment of calm for anyone. They always settled down, sat, leaned, or just stopped worrying about their lives when they ate something he made. It was peaceful, and joyous, and it was why Luke wanted to be a chef. He seemed like a good guy, he hoped his life was okay, not too stressful, filled with more fun than pain. Maybe here could be enough of an oasis, it’s always been for him. “Text me when you are working, and I’ll work around it. I’m very flexible, and if we need to close for a day of scheduling it’s okay. Also, don’t forget, every once in a while we have that gross pizza challenge night. You should bring some friends next time, or, if you wanted to make up some bad concoctions for people, you can help me.”

Orion kept stuffing the food in his mouth as he listen to Lucas. He tried slowing himself down a little. He had spent so much time eating alone in the Scribe headquarters that he had sorta forgotten about manners. Plus he wanted to savor the taste and enjoy the food that he was eating instead of scarfing it all down in a single sitting. “Sure, of course. I can- whatever you need. If you ever need me to come in some night or another time just let me know and I’ll work around it as best I can.” He laughed, remembering the gross pizza challenge but never coming for it. “I think of at least three people that would very willingly come to that challenge. I’ll make sure to bring them along next time.” It felt weird even to him, saying that he had three friends. “I’ll definitely start brainstorming some ideas for that, it sounds fun I can’t believe I’ve never been to one.”

“Awesome, please do, not that I run out of many, most people have requests now after their friends fail some combination,” Luke continued to fill Orion in on the business, where things are, and how long things should take. Showing the times and the organized boards where the information was just in case he needed it. The night didn’t always move so quickly, so easily. But having another person here was already making the space feel like a real kitchen. One, that maybe someday could have two, three chefs in it. 

[youknowmymethods]

Content Creator Interview #6

Hello again and welcome to our sixth interview. This time, it’s the turn of @ashockinglackofsatin to put @sunken-standard ‘s writing under the microscope. Together they chat about the early days of the Sherlock fandom, how music can influence writing, and why the I Love You scene helped end sunken’s own great hiatus.

For those who don’t know me: I am @ashockinglackofsatin on tumbr, satin_doll on AO3. My test subject...erm, sorry - interviewee - is the notorious sunken_standard, probably most famous for her two epic, novel-length stories Longer Than The Road That Stretches Out Ahead and Fumbling Toward Ecstasy, which can be found on AO3 (along with her other wonderful stories) and should be required reading for anyone aspiring to write fanfiction.

 You should know, first off, that I’m crap at doing interviews, which I discovered years ago when I had to interview musicians and various personalities as a job. I didn’t last long at that job.

 So here is Kat’s Idiotic Interview with @sunken-standard.

  satin_doll:  You’re very good at writing Sherlock’s emotional cluelessness without making him seem like an idiot or an ass. Can you talk a little about the way you see Sherlock’s character that allows you to do this?

 sunken_standard: Thank you :D  So the answer to this is going to carry through to some of the other questions, but basically, I write Sherlock as a version of myself.  I feel a kinship with the character, a highly intelligent person surrounded by idiots and so, so frustrated by it, but even more frustrated by his own brain and the inability to control it.  Probably autistic, just like I'm probably autistic (and I don't want to get into it but I'm not trying to co-opt an identity here or anything; I've tried to get a diagnosis and found out that's just not possible with my current healthcare options).

Anyway, one of my probably-autistic things is being hyper-aware of other people's emotions, but also having trouble identifying them and the appropriate responses.  At times I do lack empathy, like I honestly can't understand why someone is feeling what they're feeling because I wouldn't feel that way in the same situation and it doesn't make sense.  Sometimes I can empathize so much that it's overwhelming and I just kind of short-circuit, especially when it comes to grief or loss, and I end up being insensitive or just not saying or doing what a normal person would.

 So basically, I approach his responses to other people's emotions the way I would my own, only stripped of female socialization and self-awareness.

  satin_doll:  How much do you draw on your own life and experiences in your fics?

 sunken_standard: For scenarios and specific scenes, not a lot.  For emotional and sensory experiences, more. I haven't done very much or lived to my full potential, so it's not a very deep well on either account.  Every now and then anecdotes or details creep in (like Mars Cheese Castle and the “call me Daddy” during sex thing [which, for the record, was skeevy as fuck irl]), but most of it just comes from nowhere or stuff I saw on TV.

  satin_doll:  Both “Longer than the Road…” and “Fumbling Toward Ecstasy” are novel length stories. “Road”, however, is written without breaks/chapters. Did you ever consider breaking it up into parts or chapters? How hard was it to keep it all in one piece and how long did it take you to finish it?

 sunken_standard: When I write, I usually just start and then go 'til it's done or I burn out.  I got through three or four chapters' worth of FTE (and was on the verge of giving up until maybe_amanda convinced me not to).  Since the story wasn't nearly finished and I wanted to start putting it out into the world (mostly because I have no patience, but also because I knew there was a window to stay relevant and a large number of people were looking for a longer, meatier [cough] post-TFP fic), I decided to start posting what I had and just write as I went because I was, in hindsight, probably hypomanic and I was keeping a good pace at that point.

 I dunno, I think there was a lot more of that long-format thing happening in fic back then, where you'd have a 40k piece that only had breaks because of the word limit per post on LJ.

 As far as how long it took, I don't remember.  I know I started it February of that year and had probably a good 75% of it finished (all written at a tear, over the course of probably ten days or so, because when I was still smoking actual cigarettes I could and did do 3-5k words/ day), but then I dropped it and went on to try other ideas.  I went back to it when those other stories fizzled, and I finished it in maybe another 2-3 weeks with editing and beta reading.  I had some real problems with the ending and it was never good enough for me, but I just got to a point where I was sick of it and it was good enough.

 So basically, it's harder for me to work in chapters than it is one long piece.  There's more discipline to a chaptered work; each chapter is its own story, in a way, and each one needs to end on a certain kind of beat.  I still don't feel like I have a knack for it, and I think if I did anything long like that again I'd have to write most of it without breaks and then shoehorn them in where I could later on.

  satin_doll:  You took a long hiatus from Sherlock fic after S2, and came back for S4. What was it about S4 that sparked your writing again?

 sunken_standard: I don't really know.  I mean, the ILY was a big thing, but I think S4 gave me more to work with for the kind of things I write (all the angst and inner monologue) than S3 or TAB.  I had mixed feelings about S3.  I didn't like Mary much for a long time because she was one of Moffat's women (and anyone who's seen my tumblr knows how I feel about that), but I finally unclenched after a while because I like Amanda Abbington a lot and Mary was preferable to Sarah Sawyer (who I'm more ambiguous about now, but really didn't like for a long time because there was something about her that I read as smarmy, though now I see her reactions as more subtly uncomfortable and kind of like “what's going on/ this is weird/ John's a nice guy but is everything around him always this weird?”).  Anyway.

I did try writing a bit after S3, but I never finished any of it; I didn't really feel like there was a place in the fandom or much of a community at that time, either—at least, not like what I had been used to from the early days.  The tribe that existed wasn't my tribe (any of them).  I think I need a certain degree of shared enthusiasm to motivate me to keep writing.  Like, I have a lot of ideas for fic in other fandoms, but they're dead or never existed in the first place.  And I know I'll have some audience for the small fandoms and people will read and kudos and everything, but there's no one around to geek out with or bounce ideas off of, so it just isn't as appealing.  If I'm going to be miserable and alone while writing something, it's going to be something I can at least make money off of, y'know?

  satin_doll:  Do you edit as you go or finish the story first and go back over it to edit?

 sunken_standard: Edit as I go.  When I get stuck, I break that cardinal rule of writing and go back over what I've written and nit-pick it to death.  It's a bad habit, but at the same time, small changes have led to big developments in the course of the story later on.  I mean, I think sometimes this is why I have so many unfinished things, but I've tried just writing through and that doesn't work for me either. Once I get to the end of something, I've already made most of big cuts and done a lot of the reworking, so the beta polishing isn't as labor-intensive.  I'm one of those people that when I feel like something's finished, I don't want to have to go back to it again.  And if I didn't edit as I went, it would kind of feel like redoing the whole story and that's extremely unappealing to me.  It's kind of like baking—it's always better if you clean as you go, rather than waiting until the cake's out of the oven to do the dishes and put stuff away (which I do when I'm low on spoons, but it ends up seeming like double the work).

 satin_doll:  Do you proof it yourself or rely on someone else to proofread it for you? I’m talking technical details here, proofing as opposed to simple beta reading.

 sunken_standard: Mostly proof myself, since I edit as I go (and proofing is inevitably part of that when the mistakes just jump out).  My beta catches everything else (and she's amazing; I misuse words and just legit don't know spelling differences for a lot of things [stationary vs stationery] and I'm not great with grammar and prepositions because I'm an ignorant fucker with no education).

  satin_doll:  When did you first start writing? When did you first discover that you COULD write?

 sunken_standard: I remember writing stories as a kid, but I burned them all when I was a teenager so I don't even know what most were about or anything.  I do remember that I wrote one when I was in like 4th or 5th grade that was ST:TNG self-insert fanfic and I think the plot was me working with Data to bring Lal back. I know it was Data, because I had a huge crush on him as a kid.  I really thought I could grow up to write ST:TNG novels at that point.

 And as for CAN write—jury's still out on that one. Ask my 12th grade English teacher, who laughed in my face when I told him I was thinking of pursuing English so I could be a writer.  But before that, I had some other teachers that used to give me A+s on my creative writing assignments (despite all the spelling and grammatical errors).  In 11th grade, I had a really great teacher, Mr. Lansing, who turned me on to the good parts of American lit and really encouraged me to read (and write) what I liked, not just what other people told me I had to.  He encouraged me when I applied for the Governer's school, too. (The Governer's School is this program in PA for kids who excel; it's like a summer camp for the elite nerds.  They have a bunch of them, each for different areas—math, science, medicine, I think one that's like history/ government/ civics, and then one for the arts.  For creative writing, they take a total of 20 kids—10 for poetry and 10 for prose.  I tried for the poetry category and made the first round of cuts and went for a regional interview (with about 50 other kids, so like maybe 150 kids state-wide); long story short I didn't make it.  I was the first alternate, meaning if somebody couldn't attend, I would get their spot.  #11 out of 10.  I was so crushed, because it basically reinforced what I'd been told by other people—I was a big fish in pond too small to even piss in and there were always going to be people better than me.  I was already mostly checked-out when it came to academia and aspirations; after that there was just really no point to keep going.)

 Anyway though, I did write bits and pieces here and there even after school, thinking one day I'd get my shit together and write my own Confederacy of Dunces and then off myself (it's still a viable plan). Then, in 2008 I was recently unemployed and everything in life was shitty, so I wrote a big happy-ending fic for The Doctor and Rose.  It was kind of the right bit of media at the right time that inspired me.  More about that later though.

  satin_doll:   What/who do you think has had the biggest influence on the development of your style?

 sunken_standard: I've been asked this before, and I always feel like I'm a little pretentious and I trot out the same names (both fanfic authors and book authors), but I had a realization a while ago that I'm always missing one person—Vonnegut.  I think he's got this kind of no-bullshit way of saying things that still manages to be poetic and delicate and that's what I most aspire to.

I think a lot of my style is influenced by film, too. Some influences are probably Todd Solondz, Richard Linklater, Kevin Smith, and John Waters, as far as the way I approach the reality within the story.  I think I tend to focus on a lot of the same things—the weird, the mundane, the mildly uncomfortable—but I don't go nearly as far in any direction.  I think even the way I string scenes together and the shifting of focus within my scenes between action, dialogue, and inner monologue are influenced by cinematography.  I always say I'm just transcribing the movie in my head, so I mean, there's bound to be some kind of influence.

  satin_doll:  You’re noted for the banter between your characters, humorous and otherwise. Do you have rules/profiles for characters that establish their voices for you? Are there things, for example, that you think Sherlock or Molly simply would never say/do or would always say/do? How structured are these characters in your head when you start writing?

 sunken_standard: It varies slightly from story to story/ universe to universe, but I think I have patterns for the banter (and I have a different set for Sherlock and John, and Sherlock and Mycroft, but there are common threads throughout).  As for comedy, it's not quite straight man/ funny man, but I tend to default to Sherlock being more literal and deadpan and Molly being more expressive and emotive. I use the scraps of the dynamic the show's given us and just build on that.  It's kind of formulaic, actually: Sherlock does a not-good thing (degree of severity varies), Molly reacts with a blend of annoyance and amusement while going along for the ride.

 I have a kind of mental file for things I think would be out of character for each of them, but sometimes I like to try to find a way to get to one of those things and slip it into a fic organically.  One of the reason I liked doing the one-line prompt fics so much was that so many of them could easily have been intros to the kind of fluff that makes me gag; I'm no fool, though, and I love me some low-hanging fruit, so I just adjust it to my tastes.  I'm a never-say-never kinda gal.  Mostly.

 That being said, there are a lot of things that I think would take a lot of doing to make them be in-character.  I don't think they'd ever use pet names for each other unless it was through gritted teeth or with at least a bit of irony (like how I used “yes, dear,” in FTE, and I think in some of the universes in Ficlet Cemetery).  I can't see Sherlock ever doing housework unless it was for a case (though dishes and sanitizing surfaces are an exception, because both those chores are tangent to the kind of cleaning up after oneself one does in a lab setting, and imo that fits with his logic).  I can't see him being very affectionate in public, except under rare circumstances when he might do an arm around the shoulders or a guiding palm to the small of the back.

 And as for structure, I think they all start with the same scaffolding, but in every new universe they get draped slightly differently according to variations in backstory or tone or genre or whatever. Or like, they're already sculpted, but the lighting changes.  I think that as I write, they take on different nuances and acquire more depth, though.  Like it wasn't really until a few chapters in to FTE that I got a fuller picture of the Molly I was writing, even though I had the rough idea of her backstory from pretty much the beginning.  Same with Longer Than the Road, too.  As I come up with details of someone's past, I experience those scenarios and it makes me rethink and fine-tune everything about them in what I've already written, and adds more texture as I keep going.

  satin_doll:  You’ve listed a playlist for “Longer than the Road…” Do you write to music? How much does music inspire your writing? Does every story have a playlist?

 sunken_standard: It's funny, but I don't listen to music nearly as much as I did even 5 years ago.  Not sure why, honestly, maybe something to do with my mental health and overstimulation?  So I don't write to music much anymore.  Not every story has a playlist or songs attached (I don't think any of the FC stuff does, at least not in any significant way), but it seems like my best work is inspired by music in some way.

 FTE didn't really have a soundtrack, but I listened to a lot of the music I had in common with the version of Molly that I was writing—very 90s alternative and pop rock.  Lots of Pulp (which I picked as Molly's favorite band because I think they're Loo's favorite, or one of her favorites).  For the proposal, I had “Dreams” by The Cranberries on a loop as I wrote.  There's just something musically about that song that's full of anticipation and the wavy kind of guitar (I don't know the music terms and it's been so many years since I was into anything instrument-related that I'm not even sure how the sound is made, like a whammy bar or wiggling their fingers on the frets or whatever but anyway) just has this kind of wavering emotion that makes it feel like it's on the cusp of something.  And also it's the big romance song from every coming-of-age thing ever, and so just hearing it is like an auditory shorthand for breathless, adventurous romance, at least for women of a certain age (namely, my age, and I'm only a year younger than Loo/ Molly).  There was another scene—I can't remember what it was without rereading the fic—that I spent like three days listening to nothing but “The Way” by Fastball.  It might have been the thing with the drink testing and then the sex on the sofa and the cake baking.  (As an aside, I just started listening to the song and immediately got hit with a sense memory of night-wet spring air blowing in my window, because that's what the weather was when I was writing to this and it gives me a weird yearning pull in the back of my throat, like nostalgia almost but something else in it. Like, did you ever hear a pop song that taps into some deeper part of the human experience, both musically and lyrically, and you just feel like there's some universal truth in it that's too much to totally grasp?  That's how I feel about both of those songs.  Anyway.)

 Another story that had a few songs attached was Stainless, Captive Bead.  Radiohead's “Creep” was what they were listening to in the tattoo parlor, and a lot of the sex bits were written while listening to Nine Inch Nails' “Closer” (look, if it's set in the 90s and there's fucking in it, I'm going to find a way to relate it to “Closer,” because that song is just dark sex and angst set to synthesizers and a high hat).

 Also, sometimes when I write I listen to ambient noise stuff, cityscapes or rain or whatever fits the tone of the piece and my mood.  I can't listen to anything for too long, though, because I get listener fatigue and I burn out faster.

  satin_doll:  Have you ever considered self-publishing your stories as a book or series of books?

 sunken_standard: I've tried to file off the serial numbers on the Girlfriend series, but it was harder than I thought it would be so I back-burnered it.  I still like to think that one day I will, it's a life goal, but if I put too much pressure on myself I only make it worse and nothing gets done.

  satin_doll:  You seem to have a detailed backstory for every character in your stories, from Janine to Molly’s mother. Do you work these out beforehand or do they just happen in your head as you write?

 sunken_standard: Both?  I kind of touched on it earlier, but I usually have an idea of the backstory, the bones at least, and then as I write it gets richer.  I have multiple headcanons for every character, so I just start off with one of those.  Like I have five different families for Molly, all things I was coming up with when I was writing other stories.  Hell, I've got like five different Uncle Rudys (most of them highly unpleasant and most likely triggering).

I have a habit of just sitting and thinking about a character, like “what would make them this way?” armchair psychoanalysis stuff. And if I can establish a plausible-sounding backstory, I have a better foundation for introducing non-canonical traits or details.  I think that's the downfall of a lot of fic authors—they just write a canon character as they would an OC and expect us to play along without demonstrating any internal logic.  Maybe I'm just picky; there's certainly an element of that, too.

  satin_doll:  How detailed is the story in your mind before you start writing it? Do you work from plans and outlines with every story?

 sunken_standard: It all depends on the story.  Sometimes I have a whole series of detailed scenes just waiting in my head to be written out.  Sometimes I only have one thing and I just keep going.  I say I use an outline, but it's not a proper outline.  More like a collection of notes and bullet points of what I want to happen and what kind of beats I want to hit.  I usually keep it at the bottom of my working document so I don't have to switch to another doc to look at it if I need to.

  satin_doll: Where does a story begin with you? What constitutes the “urge” to write? You once mentioned (in a comment reply I think) that you know the ending of the story first and then write the rest of the story to get there. What do you do when a story goes off track? How do you get it back to the way you planned it, or do you even try to do that?

  sunken_standard: (I don't know why my document formatting went tits-up here, so I'll answer 1 & 2 both here)

 So stories are a visceral kind of thing.  I always have ideas.  Seriously, give me a theme or a title or something and I can spit out a summary and details in as long as it takes to type it out.  But actually crafting prose (can I sound more pompous?) is best likened to the urge to poop.  Classy, right?  I said it was visceral.  Really though, it's that same kind of state of heightened awareness/ arousal (in the strictest medical sense of the word, not sexual arousal), something is happening and if it doesn't things are going to get weird and I'm going to be very uncomfortable for a very long time.  Also, like pooping, if it's not ready, no amount of grunting or straining is going to make it happen, and it might even make it worse in the long run.  As you can tell, I've been very, very constipated for the last year.

 Anyway.

 Stories going off track... a lot of the time I just let it happen because it's taking me to a better place than where I thought it was going to end up.

  satin_doll:  Quote from you: “I spend way too much time thinking about who Molly is as a person. Writing porn and comedy both have their appeal, but I really like sitting down and thinking about what makes any given character tick and how they might feel about what's happening around them. 30s and single has so much baggage to it, even if all the women's magazine articles and whatever-wave-we're-up-to-now feminist thought pieces say it's a myth or a stereotype or whatever. It's a truth we don't want to be true because it's not fair. I mean, it's not the thing that solely defines any woman, but it's there, just like cellulite and brand new and worrying moles and our favorite brand of whatever suddenly being discontinued (or significantly changed) because some marketing person decided it was too 'old.' But anyway, such is life. And I like putting that in fic.”

 Do you write character studies to use as a reference for your stories, or just wing it for each individual piece?

 sunken_standard: The character study is dead, isn't it?  Like, as standalone fic.  Never see them anymore, which is a real pity.  I used to write them (or, well, start them, heh) before I took a break from writing/ fandom, mostly to try to get some of my headcanons down in some kind of usable way.  But I haven't really written a character study (in prose, at least) since 2012 or so.

 So when I write, I keep two documents open—the working copy that's a first-through-final draft and a “notes/ cut bits/ things to work in somehow” document.  In the notes document I usually keep any character details (backstory or how I want them to react to something later, whatever).  There are themes I go back to over and over, like a cluster of traits I reuse in some fashion because I think they fit the character (Mycroft and disordered eating, Molly as a middle child in some fashion, John as the child of alcoholics, etc.), so a lot of that just lives in my head. Any bits of characterization specific to a story go in the notes doc for that story, while any generic thoughts or something that I think I might want to use later gets stuck in another document full of random ideas, snippets of dialogue, jokes, AUs I'll never write, that kind of thing.  I've got a few of those docs from different writing periods.  They're mostly just a way to externalize a thought so I don't lose it; I hardly ever go back to them for anything.

  satin_doll:  What was your first involvement with fanfiction? Where did it all start?

 sunken_standard: I started to answer this in another question; basically, fanfic's been in my wheelhouse in one way or another since I was a kid (Star Trek novels are fanfic, period).  I discovered fanfiction back in the days of eXcite searches and webrings while looking for translations of Inu Yasha manga scans; I stumbled upon an English-language fancomic/ doujinshi called Hero in the 21st Century and it was so well-written, funny and poignant and well-researched I was just drawn in.  I still think about it and the author's other works to this day.  I did pick at the idea of writing myself, sometimes even put down scenes or outlines and did hours of research, but never did the thing.

 And then, in 2008, the stars aligned and I started a thing.  Journey's End spawned a ton of Doctor Who fic, and that was good, because I could just kind of slip mine in there and I probably wouldn't get a lot of criticism or attention.  So I wrote like two chapters without any idea of how it was going to end, and I submitted it to Teaspoon and an Open Mind (which was the Doctor Who fic archive at the time; it was curated/ moderated and where you went when you wanted to read something you knew would be good, or at least conform to certain standards, unlike The Pit [which is still garbage today]).  And I got rejected.  My grammar and spelling were awful (I didn't even have spell-check in whatever program I was using) and they said the whole thing had good bones, but I really needed to work on the English before they'd look at it again.  Getcherself a beta, they suggested, and I think they had a forum where writers and betas could connect.  So I got myself a beta and she stuck with me for like 30 chapters, answering questions and keeping my characterization on-track and basically re-teaching me the rules of written English.  I tried to email her a few years ago to thank her again, but her email bounced back. Her name was Julia and if she sees this, thank you Julia.  You're a wonderful person.

 Anyway, I wrote lots in that fic universe for like 2 months, then got another job and tapered off.  I abandoned it completely after a year.  Life got in the way of a lot of things, and the next time I was really inspired to write anything was a couple years later, for Supernatural.  I only put it on my LJ, never posted to a community or anything, and no one read it.  Literally, I don't think the post got any hits at all and for sure no one commented.  I sometimes think about putting it on AO3 just because.  And then Sherlock happened and here we are.

 satin_doll:  Do you think writing fanfic has hurt or hindered your original work? Why or why not? (that looks like a high school test question - sorry!)

 sunken_standard: Lol @ test question :D

 I'm not really sure, tbh.  On one hand, I only have so much creative energy—it's definitely a finite resource, and a scarce one—and devoting it to fanfic diverts it from any original work.  On the other hand, all writing is practice.  The only way to improve is to keep doing, no matter what it is.  So in that sense, fanfic's certainly helped me to find a comfortable voice and a prose style that works for me.  There are still problems to solve, figuring out the best approach to a scene or story from a technical standpoint (stuff like tense and perspective and all that), so I'm always learning something as I go. Mixed bag, really.

  satin_doll:  What was it about the Sherlock/Molly dynamic that got you started on a piece like “Longer Than the Road…” What did you see there that made you want to explore it in such detail?

 sunken_standard: So I always talk about how Sustain was my come-to-Jesus moment with Sherlock and Molly. Here's something I've never told anybody, not even maybe_amanda (because I was kind of ashamed, but not for the reasons people might think): before ever reading Sustain, I started a story that was Sherlock/ John and Sherlock/ Molly.  I had it roughly outlined and a few pages written, but I just kind of lost the feeling of it and it was starting to get problematic for character motivations, yada yada, so into the scrap heap it went.  It had a passing similarity to Sustain because of a platonic-sex-for-pregnancy element (hence why I never talked about it), but the major difference was that it was going to end up as a kind of polyamorous arrangement, Sherlock loving both of them and having a kind of co-parenting triad.  In mine, John wanted a baby, and Molly wanted her own baby, and Sherlock thought “best of both worlds!” and why do IVF when you can write awkward angst-fucking instead.  But yeah, I never finished it.  

 Anyway, I always saw something there, but I couldn't make it work in a way that was consistent with my own characterization of Sherlock until after Series 2.  Even in Series 1, he looks at her with a kind of fondness and a sort of bewilderment that just lends itself to nerds in love.  At the time (and even now, tbh), I kind of attributed that to BC having a crush on Loo (and oh man do I have theories, which are gossipy and gross and not the kind of thing I usually even bother having opinions about, but have you listened to the S1 commentary and some of the interviews around that time? there's something more there) and that kind of just spilling over onscreen and it working for the editor because it makes BC look sexy.

I mean look, I make no secret of the fact I started off shipping Sherlock with John almost exclusively (though I'd read just about anything), and after S1 aired it was just a different time.  I get really annoyed when people talk shit about the pairing and the people who still ship them, because most of them weren't even in the fandom at the time and didn't have the same experience as the OGs. When Series 1 aired, hardly anyone knew who BC was, and Martin was just the guy from The Office and some other shows that were kind of unremarkable; most of the fandom was composed of old-school ACD Sherlockians and a few stragglers (like me) that got there from Doctor Who or were just general mystery/ thriller fans that got sucked in. We had a different perception of it because we weren't led into it by Star Trek or Hobbits or MCU; the characters didn't have that baggage attached for us.  A lot of us already had a perception of Holmes and Watson as some shade of gay, so it was no great leap to see the very obvious romance (and yes, they all called it that in interviews at the time) onscreen as a romantic one. Martin, when asked, said basically that he'd play the next series (S2) however they wrote it, and if romance was there he'd go down that road.  Whatever, I don't need to defend it because people think what they think anyway.

.

Anyway, getting back to the actual question instead of a million tangents and rants, I think I saw a lot of the things that have since become like backbone tropes of the pairing (even in canon, with the whole “alone, practical about death” thing).  Their interactions in S2 were great; everything hinted at more than what was on-screen.  And I really liked the idea of exploring the dynamic that was pretty much already there, as far as Molly having both a crush and self-respect and Sherlock suddenly having to rely on this person (that he picked because she was reliable to begin with) who's a friend, but also kind of a stranger in the way that a lot of the people we consider friends are (at least, friends made in adulthood; work-friends, church-friends, club-friends, gym-friends).  Past that, I really saw the potential for character growth stemming from their interactions, but not like her humanizing him or whatever; both of them gaining insight about themselves, with the other person (and their relationship) as a vehicle for those realizations.  I think I could have done better on that front, but hindsight blah blah.

  satin_doll:  How familiar were you with the Sherlock Holmes character before the BBC series aired, and what made you want to write about him?

 sunken_standard: So I wasn't very familiar at all.  Just what was in the general cultural lexicon, maybe a few episodes of the Granada series on PBS as a kid, a few of the stories that I just couldn't get into when I tried to read them because I hate Victorian prose (hate it, everything about it, I won't read anything written before 1920 or so because I just hate it [Wilde being the singular exception, but I even get bogged down by him]).  Oh, and the RDJ movie, which wasn't really Sherlock Holmes to me, but just like a Victorian-era action movie.  After S1, I just devoured canon (though, full disclosure, I still haven't read all of it, probably only about 80%), then moved on to other adaptations and canon-era fic and pastiches, read a bunch of extra-canon material on the internet.  So as far as that goes, I'm very much a poseur and newbie in the greater Sherlock Holmes fandom.  At least I did my research?

 Anyway, it really took the modern adaptation and BC's performance to make the character resonate with me.  The aspects he chose to play up—the frustration and impatience and frantic mental energy—just hit a nerve.  He really channeled the “gifted” experience (which I suspect was just a lot of BC himself bleeding through).  Finally I could use a fictional character to bemoan how stupid everyone around me was and sound like a complete asshole and be completely in-character!  The heavens smiled upon me.

 Really though, I was initially attracted to how cerebral it was and how smart the fandom was overall.  It was the early fandom (and I mean early, like days after episode 1 aired) that drew me in, at least to a participatory (vs. consumptive) level.  Lots of very clever, very educated, very queer people having these deep, insightful discussions about everything (sometimes only tangentially related to the show).  When I did start writing, I didn't have to dumb anything down; the challenge was to sound smarter than I actually am.  And, I mean, I got to dredge up a lot of my own emotional baggage from being a perpetual outsider, which is always cathartic (and probably not very healthy, long-term, because it's not resolving anything, just exploiting myself, but that's a can of worms).

  satin_doll:  Are you more drawn to Sherlock or Molly as a character, or both equally? Why?

 sunken_standard: Sherlock, I think, for the reasons described in the last question.

I don't generally identify with female characters in fiction, since my own identification as female is tenuous (and in general they're poorly written and poorly realized, but that's another story). I mean, I can draw from my own experiences as a (mostly) female-shaped person with female socialization, but I have a hard time intuiting feminine and it's harder for me to write a “normal” woman.

Paraphrasing something I read in an interview with another fic author I admire, writing a woman is always a self-portrait, and how much of yourself do you really want to reveal?  Since I don't know how to woman correctly, I'm always afraid I'm going to slip up and hit the wrong beat for what a normal woman is and end up ruining the characterization.  I do manage to channel a lot of my own frustrations with men, relationships, being a single and childless woman over 30, and the patriarchy into Molly's character, though.

 I mean, don't get me wrong, I really love Molly (and always have—I was one of the first to use her as a main character and not just a punching bag or a punchline).  I love her sense of humor and her job and her fashion sense, all of it. She's not one-dimensional.  It's just easier for me to write Sherlock than it is to make decisions about who Molly is.

  satin_doll:  You are “internet famous” for Longer Than the Road (rightfully so!) What about that story do you think is so affecting for fans? How has “Road” influenced subsequent work you’ve done in the Sherlolly ship?

 sunken_standard: You know, I'm really not sure why it seems to resonate with people.  Maybe the homesickness or the exhaustion that comes with impermanence (and I mean, we all feel that on an existential level, everything's always changing and it's faster every year, just existing is like trying to walk in an earthquake).  Or the healing/ recovery aspect of it (I tried to balance both sides, the affected and the caregiver).  Or maybe I just wrote it at the right time (when there wasn't much else out there) and people kept coming back to it because it was familiar.

 As for how it's influenced subsequent work... I'm sure it has, but I don't know how, exactly.  I still think it's the best thing I've ever written and the closest to something literary I'll ever get, so in a way it's an albatross (no one ever wants to be reminded that they already peaked).  I get frustrated when my newer work doesn't live up to the standard I set for myself with it.  That frustration doesn't make me a better writer, it just makes me tired, so everything I do now is paler.

 One thing it did do was cement my characterizations of Sherlock and Molly and the dynamic between them.  I tend to write them a certain way and don't deviate from that, and that all has roots in the push-pull, love-hate thing I established in Longer Than the Road.  I can't write Molly without a degree of contempt for Sherlock and I can't write Sherlock without a degree of shame and contrition in his feelings toward Molly.

  satin_doll:  How does feedback affect what you write? How important is it? Is it more important that a reader “get” the point of the work or just that they like it? What kind of reader do you write for?

 sunken_standard: I try not to let feedback affect my writing.  I mean, I only get positive feedback, really, so it's a high.  I'm not trying to brag or anything; I count myself lucky that I don't get the shit others do (though I honestly think anybody that posts on The Pit is opening themselves up to it because it's a garbage dump, but I've never liked the site, so).  I try not to let it go to my head or anything though.

 I also try not to let it influence the direction my writing takes; I might do a comment fic or write a silly HC or something, but I like to keep my substantial pieces pure, so to speak.  Though sometimes a comment sparks something and a whole other fic grows out of it, so I fail there, I guess.  Sometimes it's a lot of pressure when people say they want to see more of something, or want me to write a kind of specific scenario, so I usually just don't, and then I feel bad about not giving nice people what they want and it starts this whole weird spiral of guilt and obligation and then swinging the other way and getting (internally) belligerent over not owing anybody anything.  I uh, have a complicated relationship with my work being acknowledged in any capacity.

 As for people “getting” it...  I don't know if they really do or not.  Sometimes I get comments and I can tell they're definitely on my wavelength and they picked up on an allusion or a detail or just saw or felt everything in the scene like I did when I was laying it out.  Once in a while I get a comment that has a different interpretation than what I was trying to get across, and that's really cool because it makes me re-examine my own work and see it from a different perspective (which I think makes me stronger for the next thing).  It's really validating when someone “gets” it, but at the same time, I write to entertain other people (as well as myself), so as long as they like it, I feel accomplished.

 It's cliché, but I write for an audience of one. I've tried to write outside my taste and it doesn't end well.  Sometimes I write tropes that aren't my bag (like the Wiggins “the Missus” thing, or kidfic/ pregnancy), but it's kind of like a nod and wink to people who do like it, rather than outright pandering.  At least, that's what I tell myself.  Sometimes you need to try on every bra in your size, even the ones you know you hate, just to make sure you're getting the right one, y'know?

  satin_doll:  Do you think fanfic has changed since you began writing it? If so, how?

 sunken_standard: Yeah, but I don't think it's a good or bad thing. And it depends on where you look and what you consume.  

 In the last like five years, Tumblr's purity culture has shamed a lot of kink back into the closet, I think, and people (in my fandoms, at least) aren't really writing on the edge.  I see darkfic, but it's about as dark as the night sky over Hong Kong.  I think people are afraid to go really dark anymore because they don't want the backlash from a generation fed on a diet of pink princesses and promise rings.  And I think everyone's desire for happy-ending escapism has ratcheted up because the real world is shit and TV shows are all playing Russian roulette with surprise deaths to add drama (thanks, The Walking Dead, for making that element so ubiquitous that the rest of the mainstream picked it up and ran).

On the other hand, I'm not seeing near the amount of badfic as I used to.  It was never as much of a problem on the old platforms and AO3 (compared to The Pit), but there were always some.  I mean, there are still lots of turds out there, but they all seem a bit more polished these days.  As far as the English goes, at least.  Maybe my fandoms are just maturing.

 I think people interact a lot differently now, too. This is going to kind of tie into the next question, but the types of feedback are different now and I think authors have changed what and how they produce to kind of chase the dragon of positive feedback.  Like, when I started, most public archives (read: not just one author's own website with all their fic, like you found in webrings a lot)—both completely open and curated—had some way to submit comments and allowed author replies. There was really no other way to let an author know you liked their work.  I mean, some sites tracked numbers for bookmarking features or hit counts, but those weren't as... active(? I guess), they weren't really participatory for the reader.

 Then AO3 came along and started the kudos thing (which people still bitch about because they think they get fewer comments; like be happy you get anything, ya fuckin' ingrates).  Kudos count became a de facto rating system, thanks to the sort feature. Whenever I start reading for a new fandom, I pick a pairing, pick a rating, and sort by kudos.  Sure, popularity isn't the best way to find good fic, but in any decent-sized fandom you can assume that the stuff on the first page is going to be written to a minimum standard.  Anyway, one of the ways to game the system a bit on kudos is to do a multichapter fic; I've seen works that are like 80+ 200-word chapters (don't get me started on omnibus fic across fandoms).  They aren't the best fic by far, but they pick up kudos every chapter, often from guests that are just people not signed in or on a different device.  I'm not knocking it, exactly, since it front-paged me for more than one fic. Part of me still feels like it's disingenuous, but I also recognize that I should pull the stick out of my ass. Anyway, the kudos count was kind of the death of the one-shot longfic (which, when I wrote Longer Than the Road, was a pretty common format).

And now, it seems like the Tumblr fic culture is writing ficlets (under 1k words) and posting without a beta (and I do it too). Fic consumption has become a social activity.  Reblogs aren't always about one's personal taste, they're a social signal of group affiliation.  If you don't reblog certain things, you're suspect and given a wide berth.  Woe betide the poor fucker that crosses party lines and posts one of the verboten ships.  And I mean, this isn't just one fandom, I've seen complaints about it from all corners—Supernatural, Star Wars, MCU, Steven Universe ffs.  I think when you have predominantly female spaces, you're always going to have an element of Mean Girl culture, y'know?  I'm probably going to get my fingernails pulled out for being misogynistic or some kind of -phobic for saying that.

Whatever.  It's true that a kind of hive-mind develops and all kinds of tropes and HCs get repeated until they become fanon.  I mean, that kind of thing's always happened, but the whole culture of Tumblr forces you to identify yourself and your group affiliation by what fanon you subscribe to, probably because it's harder to find your tribe without dedicated community spaces like LJ had.  With Tumblr, you basically have to trawl tags until you find your echo chamber.

I'm old and I fear change.

Tumblr ain't all bad, though.  It's very collaborative, kind of like the old-school round-robin fic people used to do.  Authors and artists riff off each other and a lot of really cool stuff comes out of these casual collaborations.  And I do like the prompt lists; I remember kinkmemes and prompting communities back on LJ, but it feels more off-the-cuff and spontaneous to just give someone a numbered list and let them roll the dice for you.

You know what else has changed?  We're kind of in a new era of epistolary storytelling with memes and shitposts; stories emerge that aren't prose (though might contain a prose element).  I mean, people did mixed-media epistolary in 2008, but it was a lot harder then (create graphic, hand-code into text piece, hand-code all the italics and bolding and font changes to denote various media types, if you're really a wizard add in-line text links to audio clips to add ambiance).  It's a lot easier to add a new thing on each reblog now, like someone does a video, followed by a 3-panel comic sketch, followed by a ficlet, and then a gif, you get the idea.  I like it; it's just a shame that it's so ephemeral.  Maybe that's part of the charm, though.

  satin_doll:  You’ve talked a bit about your experience with LiveJournal in the “old days”; what other platforms have you used in the past? Which ones did you like best?

 sunken_standard: I went into it a little in another question, but I first posted fic to A Teaspoon and an Open Mind (www.whofic.com).  Honestly, I don't remember much about it.  I'm not sure, but I don't think they had a richtext editor at the time (2008) and I had to hand-code some or all of it.  I vaguely remember having to do HTML for italics and paragraphs.  I know I had to do that on LJ sometimes because the formatting from whatever word processor I was using at the time did some hinky shit sometimes on a copy/paste.

 Next came LiveJournal (and DreamWidth, but I really only used that to back up my old LJ blog).  It wasn't better than Teaspoon, just different.  Teaspoon is niche, only fanfic and only for one fandom (well, one universe of fandoms, really, with all the spin-offs), where LJ was all kinds of stuff under one roof—personal blogs, communities with various intents and levels of participation, fanfic, fanart, gossip blogs, you name it.  I liked the friendslist view thing; it was like proto-Tumblr.  And you could talk to people on the threads; even personal blogs were like a forum.

 I joined AO3 in 2011, after waiting like six months for more invites to open up, but I didn't post anything there until 2012.  I'm really happy with it as a platform for posting fic.  I like the editor and I like the tags, ratings, and sort features.  I never even considered posting to ff.net because I'm a snobby fucker (and they can blow me with their whole “adult content ban” that still continues to be selectively enforced).  Anyway, I preferred having my fic on AO3 before I even left LJ, since I didn't have to split my stories into parts because of character limits.

 And then Tumblr took over and I kind of hate it, since you can't have conversations anymore, it's like leaving passive-aggressive post-its and there's no editing something once it gets reblogged, so typos and bad links and all that are always there.  And even when the original is deleted, the reblog keeps going, which I really hate from a creator's standpoint (though the archivist/ curator part of me likes it because it doesn't get lost in the ether [the recent purge notwithstanding] like so much of the early days of the web did). Tumblr's really bad for posting anything but ficlets and links to fic on other sites.

  satin_doll:  What would your ideal fanfic publishing platform be like?

 sunken_standard: Honestly, AO3 is just about as close to ideal as I can think of.  I just wish you could directly upload images instead of having to do code jiggery-pokery to link to something hosted elsewhere.  I've tried a million times and followed all the tutorials in an attempt to add the cover art to Longer Than the Road (gifted to me by @thecollapseinwonderland), but it just never works.  It shows on the preview, but not on the live version and it's frustrating because I'm computer literate, goddamnit.  Anyway.  And I mean, in an ideal world there would be better ways to find quality fic to my taste, but there's no real way to add a rating system (like 5-stars) independent of kudos without discouraging authors (and I mean the potential for abuse and bullying is just too great).

 Additional reader questions from @ohaine:

 Stylistically, Longer than the road is quite different from the other fics at the top of the AO3 Sherlolly ratings; stream of consciousness at the beginning, and the nested internal thoughts. How much of that was a deliberate departure, and how much was you just channelling the story as it came out of you?

 sunken_standard: At the time I was really influenced by a Sherlock/ John fic (I can't remember the title or author, it was 7 years ago, but I feel bad about forgetting). It was originally on LJ and their journal was a lightish blue color and the font was small (if anybody remembers this... there was something with an EKG and I think something with shooting up blood as a romantic gesture?). It was Sherlock POV and the author had a really unique way of presenting internal monologue. Anyway, at that time there was a lot of experimental writing going on on the slash side of things, it was great. To be perfectly honest, I hadn't read a lot of Sherlolly fic at that time because what did exist (as far as happy-ending/ happy-for-now stories vs like darkfic/ angst) was really, really not to my taste (the exception being Sustain). So it was only deliberate in that—even when I wasn't being experimental—I didn't want to write Harlequin books.

 I wish a story like that would just come out of me. I mean, to a degree it did, but doing the thoughts and sub-thoughts was work. I mean, I've always been a brackets-and-footnotes kind of person because I like reading it, but the way I did the thoughts was more like writing HTML than a regular rambling narrative.

  I think I read recently (maybe on a blog post?) that Riders on the storm was the original inspiration for Longer than the road. Was the scene in the storm your starting point with the story, or where did you begin?

 sunken_standard: That was the first scene I wrote; at that time I had a really nebulous idea of the story. The imagery was really clear in my head, though the very earliest concept took place in the desert—the classic American image of the road going on forever and rusty sands and the heatwaves rising up off the asphalt. I'm not sure how it morphed into North Dakota, I might have seen a picture of lightning over the plains or something.

 So after S2 aired, I just kind of sat and chewed it over for a month before any really strong ideas emerged for a story. I had to find the internal logic for the kind of plot I wanted to write—namely, them on the lam together. Making Sherlock have a breakdown seemed pretty natural at the time; in ACD canon (and many, many pastiches) he was always having them and going off to the country to recuperate. But he was supposed to be dead and he was all over the tabloids, so it's not like he could just move to some sleepy little village and hope no one recognized him.

I thought about sending him to Europe, using the places ACD Holmes went after Reichenbach (and I did start more than one with them in Florence, a few incarnations of which were Molly/ Irene wanklock PWPs, I actually think one of the Rusty Beds stories came from that, but I digress). The only problem with Europe is the language barrier; I thought it was too convenient to make Molly fluent in another language (she might have some conversational Spanish from a holiday or something, but that's it), so I had to make them go somewhere where English was common enough. I also didn't want them too far from the UK; I wanted Sherlock to be able to get on a plane and be back within half a day (I realize this isn't the reality of flying, but deus ex Mycroft, so). So Asia, Australia/ NZ, and even South Africa were out, leaving Canada, the US, or parts of the Caribbean. I didn't want them to by happy, so they didn't go to the Caribbean. Canada's great, but it's too nice and they also don't have deserts. America it was; it also really added some background tension because I think a lot of non-USians have a love-hate with us. Movies are okay, music too, and of course the tech and consumer innovations, but everything else is garbage and we're all just rude, ignorant, obese Yosemite Sams. For someone like Sherlock, I think the US is the last place he'd want to go (even though canon ACD Holmes was really into America). And I mean, write what you know, so that was that sorted.

 Once I got them here I needed them to do something; I wanted to tell a very intimate story, and that would be boring if they were just living in a 2BR cape cod in Jersey. And I mean, what city would really suit Sherlock? Where could he have a life that wasn't London? Anyway, the inside of a car is just about as intimate as two people can get, and the greatest tradition in American literature and film is the road trip, and that was when I knew I had a solid foundation for a story. After that, it just kind of flowed as I planned the route.

  Perfect, not perfect-perfect is a beautiful, brave piece that I think has a real air of authenticity to it. It was a very tough read, purely because of the journey the characters are on, and I wondered how difficult it was for you to write? Was it catharsis or an emotional black hole?

  sunken_standard: You know, I'm not really sure if it was either catharsis or black hole. A lot of the particulars and even the emotional places in that story aren't mine, but an amalgam of some other friends' experiences with polyamory. My own experience with it was pretty shit and pretty unremarkable, but I learned a lot about the human heart and how some people can lie to themselves because they can't let go of their ideals and their identities (I'm also still a little bitter), but that's got nothing to do with the price of tea in China, so moving on.

 Since a lot of those experiences weren't mine, it wasn't raw, so it wasn't very hard on me, personally. I think I wrote it in like three days? I don't think I wanted it to be a slog, so that's why it's in present tense and very sparse and matter-of-fact. Dispassionate, even. There are times when I'm writing really emotional stuff that I'm disconnected from it (which is a fuckin' mercy, because most of the time I'm right there going through it, over and over for days sometimes until I get the scene right and can move on to the next thing), and this was one of those times. I was writing this alongside the Girlfriend series, so there was some overlap there; I'd already done the emotional labor for everything up to Mary's death and I was thinking of different angles of approach for later installments of the series.

The most “me” part of it is near the beginning, writing my way around the bisexual experience from someone else's point of view. I don't have a lot in common with any of the characters; they're a higher social class, urban, products of a more liberal culture, yada yada, but there are some things that are just kind of universal and misunderstood about bisexuals, the stereotypes that we have to contend with and end up internalizing.

Oh, and the perpetual alienation is all me, too. Molly's feelings of being left behind are mine, how I felt every time friendships drifted apart or when female friends got married and then had kids. So a lot of the fatalism and insecurity are me projecting how I would feel or react. I kind of like depressed Molly, more than the perpetual ray of sunshine/ cinnamon roll at least.

 *********

 Many thanks to sunken_standard for taking the time to answer these questions!

 And many thanks and much love to OhAine for all her hard work putting this project together! It’s been fun and enlightening!

Next week, Friday 29th March, it’s the turn of @ellis-hendricks and @geekmama 

[artsistory]

Hot cheese air (7.11.19)

We had a fairly late start to the day but once we got going we hustled to see the  l’Orangerie. This museum is fairly small but it has such a wonderful design. The walls are curved to match the paintings and there is perfect soft natural life. This was the first place I learned to appreciate Monet. 

Brandi went to the bathroom and discovered that they have a shoe cleaner machine! It made me so happy to get to dust off my shoes!! Of course once we left the museum we were back in the white sand but... it was nice while it lasted.

Our next stop was to get some falafel. Two different people recommended this place to me independently of each other so I knew it would be a slam dunk. And legit, it’s the best falafel I’ve ever had! I didn’t really have an appetite but ended up eating half of Brandi’s because it tasted so dang good.

We chased it down with some ice cream! Brandi pointed out that they serve pretty small serving sizes of ice cream in Paris. These ones were particularly smol. We got it from Berthillion which is a really popular old ice cream joint. They had vegan options which was great for me! My flavor was whiskey chocolate, but don’t worry, I didn’t get ice cream drunk.

As we enjoyed our tiny scoops we wandered across the bridge to Notre Dame. We tried to reenact our last visit here and honestly Brandi nailed it whereas I...well.... look fine. Boy I really miss that jacket and those boots I used to have.

Our next stop was the Shakespeare and Co bookstore and this time we had a little space to actually read! I read a book of poetry and a little Virginia Wolf...it felt appropriate. The store cat Aggie was napping on the roof. Brandi spotted her by following some clever clues! The window leading to the rook had a poster of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof! We looked out and there she was!

After reading I got myself a crepe. This time I saw there was a kinder/nutella option so of COURSE I just had to. It was...so much. They threw in a couple kinder bars which instantly melted into the hot nutella and the result was the chocolatiest monstrosity I’ve ever eaten. The guy who made it laughed at me. 

Finally we rounded out our Latin Quarter visit with a stop at St Chapelle. This is a very small church compared to a lot we’ve seen but it feels very special because of the windows.

It’s impossible to capture these windows in a selfie. The stained glass is so uniquely beautiful so I’ll also post a non-selfie! Somehow we lost Luke and had to use all our boyscout training to find him. He forgets his sim card for ONE DAY and manages to lose us! We eventually find each other and meander our way homeward.   

On our walk home we saw several weird but notable sights. The first was a toy store filled with really realistic animal stuffies. Once inside we saw a staircase with a sign that said “zoo”. Intrigued, we headed down the stairs to find what can only be described as a dungeon of dolls...It was actually kind of creepy and strangely cold and also it smelled weird. 

Next we ran into a pet store with real animals inside! There were so many puppies Brandi and I were sobbing heaps on the floor. Destroyed by the cuteness.

It took a lot of effort to rip ourselves from the pet shop but we had to hurry home in order to record another collab for our pod! This time my friend Eve came on to talk to us about David Cerney! It should be a pretty good episode.

Our final plan for the evening was to get some raclette! The basic idea is that they serve you cheese and a little melty oven to melt the cheese in and then you pour it over potatoes or bread or meats. As we approached the restaurant we were met by the powerful smell of cooked cheese. It was flowing in waves all the way down the street. They sat us underground in another dungeon. But this time it was a cheese dungeon!

This restaurant also had fondue and we were pretty overwhelmed with the choices. We ended up getting a beef fondue and a mixed raclette dish. The server informed us that we’d have to order for 4 people so we agreed. The result was that we ate SO MUCH meat and cheese. The server told us that we had unlimited potatoes and cheese included in our meal and we just laughed at her.

By the time we left we all smelled very strongly of oil and cheese. Our original plan was to join Vincent to go dancing but we were too full to even consider. We rolled home and immediately threw our clothes in the washer. 

[theklaudinelog-blog]

SAPPORO 🇯🇵  1/2

Hey!

A few days ago I was in Sapporo freezing my cheeks off with my best friend and it was one of the best trips so far this 2019. Granted, it’s only January but we’ve got to be positive! It’s the new year! 🤗

We only had one legit day to spend around Sapporo and although we could have done so much more while we were there, we had a really good time still. Our flight landed around 7:45 in the morning and we got to the hotel around 8:15 checked in and what not so we were out of the hotel in our winter clothes and in search for some food because we were hangry. 

Right across from the hotel we have a good selection of food chains. So decided to cross the street and go for KFC, I know right, I’m in Japan but I go straight to a KFC, no judgement, I’m h a n g r y at this point. But it was closed when we got there, literally got escorted out of the established because gomenasai, we are still closed, lol. 

Oh well, off to the mall we go since we saw people come in and out of it already. In Manila, malls open around 10 am if it’s SM, 11 am if it’s Shangrila so it wasn’t our first option since we assumed it would still be closed but the mall near us opens at 9 am! Thanks, AEON! 

So we made a beeline for the food court. Went around and looked at our choices and we ended up eating Udon and Tempura for breakfast. I was thinking I could do this for the rest of my life, eat deep fried vegetables and chase it with fat carby noodles like it’s no big deal but I would get sick and be fat and I would have to eventually die faster so –– this is getting out of hand. 

But you know what I mean. Yum. 

Pretend I caught the tempura party in this photo but soon after I took this photo the lady was pleasantly smiling whilst she places the fried veg on that sad empty white plate. 

After that we went around the mall, scouted the grocery store because we are slaves for Japanese grocery stores and the home things they sell.. THE HOME STUFF, GOSH. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thought about purchasing several pots, pans, containers, trash cans, basins, chopsticks, convection oven, blenders, coffee makers in one go with a 23kg baggage limit, not even considering Japan uses 110V and all the appliances I will buy will just blow up the moment I plug it on. Good times. 

And then of course, we found some cute things I wish wouldn’t be nuisance after I bring it home and toss it to the pile of things I-thought-I-needed-but-ended-up-becoming-trash or the I-would-totally-use-this justification excuse we always come up with when we’re faced it smol cute things.

But I really wanted those coasters and those side dish plates would look nice with all the cooking I will do. (I won’t)

Okay, listen. Aside from all of the junk I have lying around my house, these kinds of cups will always find a home in my cupboard but I didn’t get one since they look so fragile and I’m not as gentle as you think I am. 

*internally screams as I take this shot* Look at Bokuto and Akaashi. They facing each other instead of looking to the right, my heart. 

Then it was snowing like this when he headed back to the hotel, it was snowing so hard that it got into our mouths, noses and eyes. It was pretty intense. Snow looks cute and all but they’re pretty intense when they want to be. The winters in Sapporo seem to be super intimidating because of it but that’s not what I meant when it came to being intense, Canadian, European and some American winters are for sure harsher and much more biting cold than Sapporo’s but the snow just never stops and it covers the roof of houses so satisfyingly perfect like the ones you see in animes. It’s real y’all! lol 

Anyway, stay tuned for part 2 where I’ll show you photos of when we went to the famous Sapporo Beer Museum, Susukino district and more snow! 

X,

Klaudine ✨

[codenamecynic]

Conventional oven-style Kalua Pork recipe for the lovely @jadesabre301​ who I am still like 87000% in love with because she is the best. Also, I’m sorry in advance. But not sorry enough to stop.

OKAY CHILDRENS LISTEN UP, WE GON COOK A THING WITHOUT ADULT SUPERVISION

I'm pretty sure that I can never top my recipe for crock pot kalua pork for sarcasm and sheer epic style, but sometimes let's be real - you hangry and you ain't even got time to wait 24 hours for actual food.

So here's the bad news - you still have to wait like four to six hours.

But also, here's the good news. YOU ONLY HAVE TO WAIT FOUR TO SIX HOURS, which is less than 24. Do the (as Travis Willingham would say) reverse math.

If you want a little bit of backstory on what kalua pork is, check out this post. If you just happen to have a big ass hunk of pork in your fridge and you are desperately trying to figure out what to do with it before it starts to turn green and you have explain to your army of cats that you went grocery shopping without a list again, READ ON.

So fun story, for the last couple of years my family has decided that turkey is done AF and we're all sick of it by the time the Christmas holiday rolls around, so we've started the holy tradition of the Xmas Luau. We're talking steamed rice. Lomi salmon. Mac salad. Spinach Luau. Musubi. Manapuas. Purple sweet potato and haupia pie. Butter mochi. The whole thing (and yes, I know none of you know what any of this is, GOOGLE IT). 

But you super can't have a luau without a main dish, so kalua pork is definitely the go-to.

The really nice thing about Hawaiian food (at least, the food from my childhood) is that a lot of it is really easy to make in catering portions. Food in Hawaii is like 100% grandma levels of 'you're too skinny, have another plate of food or twelve' so it's hella useful to be able to make things that are super simple to do in huge batches and then gorge yourself for days on the leftovers like an anaconda that's gotten uppity with a crocodile and can't move because gravity is a non-negotiable force of nature.

Is your body ready? Okay good.

INGREDIENTS

This is literally the same shit as in the other post, but since you're going to make it in a conventional oven instead of a crockpot, the amount of pork you want to cook is only limited by the size of your oven and the power of your will. Also, spoiler alert: once again we're not going to measure jack shit. I expect you to feel your way through this like a proper chef, and even if you're not one it is literally so hard to fuck this up.

You need:

An oven.

A pan that will fit in the oven. One of those disposable foil situations works fine.

Some aluminum foil. This is actually optional, for those of you who are motivated enough to want to do an additional step. I've done without and it works fine.

A hunk of boneless pork that will fit in the pan that will fit in the oven. Pork butt or loin works fine, and if it's got a bit of fat on it even better.

Salt. It does not have to be bougie salt of any particular kind, literally grab the rock salt that goes in the grinder you got at your wedding 15 years ago and still haven't managed to use up and that legit works fine. If you're real unprepared for this culinary adventure you can also use table salt, just use a light hand or you will possibly salt yourself into the grave.

Liquid Smoke. In a pinch you can use soy sauce, just dial back the salt or for real, you will have regrets and you will also have brought shame upon my house.

*For those of you who REALLY NEED MEASUREMENTS, a) this is not the cooking class for you, and b) I've had fairly decent results with using 4 tbsp of liquid smoke and 1/8 cup coarse salt per 5 lbs of pork. 

**For those of you who like to live that YOLO life, remember that you can't take away salt once you've added it, and it's really kind of hard to use too much liquid smoke.

NOW HERE'S WHAT WE GON DO:

1. Score your pork lightly in a crisscross pattern. Stop screaming, I have a visual aid.

You don't even have to do it as deeply as I did here, because I went hard as a motherfucker and was being real sloppy this day, which was naturally when the hubster was like LET'S TAKE SOME PICTURES FOR YOUR SIBLINGS LIKE THEY'RE EVER GONNA MAKE THIS THEMSELVES (they have cooked this exactly 0 times to date). Somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 an inch is fine. Make sure you do this on both sides.

2. Sprinkle on your salt and dump in the liquid smoke. You don't have to be fancy and do precisely half on each side like Martha, you can just literally throw it in the pan if you want and then roll your pork around in it to get things evenly distributed.

3. Massage your pork. Eh heh heh. No but really, distribute that shit evenly. Really grind it into the places you cut like they’re the bleeding wounds of your enemies. There are only three ingredients in this recipe, don't be lazy and also please wash your hands before and after, don't be gross.

4. Cover with foil and roast in oven at around 250F for four to six hours (or longer if you're trying to make enough food for six years so you don't ever have to cook again).

Here's a thing about that: Kalua pork, like all pork, can end up a bit dry if you don't take the laziest and most halfhearted of steps to prevent this. If you roast it covered until it's fully cooked (read: shreddable with a fork/disintegrating in the pan like it failed its DEX save) you'll be able to reserve more of the drippings (you want to do this for later steps). Also, if you want a bit of nice browning and texture on the outside, just take off the foil and let it roast for another half hour or so, or until you're too hungry to wait any longer, whichever comes first.

5. Skill challenge: Reserve the juices from the pan without scalding all your skin off. Please be careful, I am not responsible for your poor life choices or your delicate human flesh. Set aside.

6. Shred pork. Obviously kalua pork fresh from the oven is the most excellent and is at its juiciest, but you may still find that you want to add back in some of the drippings to moisten things up. Just remember - IT'S SALTY. Be like a chef on Chopped and taste your food.

7. Profit

Bonus Round: Reheating

Like I said above, this is a super easy dish to make in batches and take to parties, so odds are you'll find yourself in need of reheating a large portion of this at some point. The easiest way to do that is in the oven, same as how you cooked it the first time. Just cover your pan in foil again to retain as much moisture as possible, and if you find that the extra heat is drying things out, add in more juices.

BUT CYNIC I DON'T HAVE JUICES. Well that's a personal problem. You can always substitute in vegetable broth or chicken stock if you need to, just again make sure you're watching the sodium content.

AND THERE YOU HAVE IT. Oven kalua pork in *mumbles* hours or less. Steam some rice and enjoy!

[megmckinney]

63 Ciruela - Our home & a little history + rambling thoughts

Our home is named the house of Sweet Dreams. Every home here has a ceramic plate with a house name on it. When you buy property in Mexico, it basically comes with everything in it already including beds, furniture, silverware, coffee makers, pots & pans, etc.

The owner Maty and her husband live in LA. His parents live on site and manage the space. It’s so nice having Maria & Ramon on site to answer any questions. Maty responds right away via WhatsApp, also,

For our stay, cleaning once a week is included, laundry is free although since being here for just 9 days, the dryer has been broken twice. Maty is looking into getting a new unit asap, though. They bought this place just one month ago so are kinda figuring out what needs to be fixed based on the complaints that come in. Not the best way to figure things out but hopefully people are understanding.

Our stove and oven are pretty old. To turn them on, you have to use a lighter. So you turn the dial, and then take the lighter to add the flame. I don’t mind doing this every morning. It’s really quick & easy. I’ve been enjoying some of these aspects. The stove gets super hot which is awesome and cooks our food perfectly. I don’t cook much but will make us breakfast, coffee, maybe some pasta for lunch.

I really like our place. I can’t quite understand why but I just feel an overwhelming love & peace here. I think I love how tiny it is, there is minimal cleaning. We only have 4 small plates, 4 large plates, 4 bowls, 4 coffee mugs, 4 plastic water cups. It’s so easy to maintain and keep tidy. We don’t have a ton of clothes and since laundry is so scarce I really appreciate when I get the opportunity to do it. Unlike in the states when I hated the loads of laundry we had to do. The cleaning service comes in once a week for the sheets, bathroom, floors. They will also do any dishes in the sink. it’s so nice. I never leave dishes for them, I enjoy doing the dishes in the morning. In our airbnb we did have a dishwasher but I don't feel the need to use it.

There’s a simplicity here that is so calming. No worries in a way. I did request a new coffee maker because this one requires more water than coffee comes out and you have to push a button for the coffee to come out and it is the thinnest slowest drip. I think the unit in general could use a simple and working coffee machine.

The shower head is the only other upgrade needed for this place. It works fine but kinda shoots out in random places and is so high up that the pressure is not as strong. I am short, though. So I mentioned that if she is going to come and do upgrades, that could be a good one.

Overall I feel very safe, I love the roosters that crow all day long. A couple nights there has been a cat meowing in distress that wakes me up. Matt went out to find it and scare it away twice but couldn't find it. That’s hard because the sound feels so close. One night it was screaming in distress. The second time just meowing at 4am. We are hoping no more cats come back.

The main road in our neighborhood is dirt and then getting onto the Main Street that takes you to town is cobblestone. Luckily there are sidewalks because it’s really hard to wheel the stroller or wagon on the cobblestone. Sayulita was declared a Pueblo Magico years ago so the government helps fund the city. With this money they received public benches, trash bins, and paved some of the main roads.

Supposedly 5 years ago it only cost $10,000 to build a house. Now it’s closer to $50,000. The gentrification in this area is different than in the states. In the states people renting get pushed out of their neighborhoods because they can no longer afford the rent. But here, all the Mexicans own their property. So if they sell, they are leaving with a big chunk of change. And, of course, they don’t need to sell. They could always develop it themselves. There has been a lot of change in the past 50 years as tourism began. The older generations said it was great living in Sayulita until the tourists came with their money. The poor people lived on the beach as it was less desirable. You couldn’t farm your land near the beach, the ocean water ruins buildings, etc. So it’s been a huge shift in the city to see the poor become rich through developing their properties.

There isn’t much crime here. The cartel is in charge. People don’t mess with the tourists because they bring in the money. A few years ago, there was some riff raff going on where tourists wallets were getting stolen with their passports, etc. There was a Facebook page with a number you could call to let them know your stuff got stolen. The cartel would get involved and make sure their documents and whatever else was returned. For that reason, there is a sense of safety here. There is legit law & order. You don’t mess with the cartel. A few weeks ago there was a murder in Puerto Vallarta which is really rare but it was a political crime. It was completely planned. That’s the different. In America, you can walk down the street and accidentally get killed because of gang violence. Here it’s different. No one is selling drugs unless they go through the cartel, no one is stealing unless it’s through the cartel. The law & order makes people feel safe. I wish we could enact stricter punishments in America. It’s ridiculous that we are accepting all the riots, looting, crime going on in the name of racial equality or whatever else. It’s bullshit. 

I’ve learned a lot about American culture being here. We are literally so spoiled and entitled that we have no problems, so we create them. Our streets are clean, our appliances work, we have access to anything we could possibly want through amazon, fed ex, etc. Three numbers and we can dial the police for help, we can choose where we want to live, we have paved roads and easy access to get anywhere. We have 100 different park and grocery store options. Everyone has a smart phone and a car.

It’s different in Mexico. The trash system is good but could be improved. Many appliances could be improved. The beaches, streets, park could definitely use a clean up crew. You can't even put toilette paper in the toilette. You eat what you grow, what you caught, or what you have. There are problems to be solved so people aren’t looking towards some idealistic vision of life. They are happy with what they have. I wish Americans could be happy with what they have. I mean, in Mexico, I don’t really even know if there is a democratic system because the cartel is in charge. I’m sure there is a downside to that. They don’t have a bunch of red tape and regulations. People can work. It’s just different. It’s simple. You mind your own business, you don’t judge, you become okay in the dust, the dirt, the garbage, the dog poop on the streets. It’s a different and more accepting type of life.

[sarazanmai]

Thoughts on the MP100 English dub. Episode eight.

Tome and Mob are such a good duo

“hey, so are the two of you on a date?” can we appreciate that this is the first interaction Teru’s had with Mob since he shaved his hair, blew off his clothes, and flipped his worldview on its head

I like that Teru is basically tattling to Mob, like he’s one step away from calling their mom

considering Teru’s actor also voices Sonic in OPM I’m curious for how that turned out

neither wikipedia or MP100 wiki list who’s voicing Koyama

“watching two siblings fight isn’t exactly the classiest thing to do” Teru pls

Mob is so happy Ritsu has powers, I’m gonna go crawl in my oven

considering that moment with Ritsu at the end of episode five, there is some truth to what he’s saying here

I mean his admiration for Mob is genuine and I think Ritsu’s on a high that’s making him deny that, but the fear brought on by not knowing or understanding the extent of Mob’s powers I think is legit

“I’ve lost all interest in our relationship” bitch stop lying

“I’m terribly sorry that my little brother hurt you, he lost his temper that’s all. please look past this and be friends with him.” Kyle McCarley is doing such a good job

 Koyama sounds so good and I’m angry no one has his voice actor listed yet

Sakurai sounds really good too and get this, not only can I not find who his English voice actor is I can’t even find who voiced him in Japanese

I’ve always loved how quickly and rapidly Mob’s meter rises when Koyama starts taking action

“look at all you pathetic dipshits” not that this isn’t in character for Koyama, because it is, I’m just surprised to hear a heavy swear word in this dub

and here we have the beginning of the fight that Crunchyroll voters picked as being the best from 2016

and I don’t disagree its just that this isn’t a series that uses action in the way most shonen anime do where its something cool for us to marvel at, Mob hates fighting so when he is put in these positions we are aware of the ways this makes him suffer

basically I get the feeling a lot of voters missed the fact that we’re still seeing a grown man assault a 14 year old boy and its very much Not A Good Thing

“I don’t want to grow up and become this guy” dayum

“you’re so light, you fly like a bird” and its lines like this that drive home my point that MP100 isn’t glorifying the adults who start fights with children, we’re not supposed to enjoy seeing this

“it hurts. I can’t exhale, or inhale. my stomach is burning.” this also reinforces my point

I’m not saying the action scenes in this anime aren’t interesting or anything, because they are, its just I feel like the average anime fan who just wants to see people beat each other up is likely to have not picked up on the complexities to the action in this series and fails to see the irony in awarding it

Max Mittelman is selling this crying scene

“can you feel it...rage burning in me?” I’m still gonna call this 100% Animosity

yeah Kyle really hits the nail on the head with Mob being visibly angry yet still having a stillness in his voice

100% Animosity isn’t my favorite explosion, that’s either Gratitude or Courage, but Bones really went hard with the animation here

oh yeah Dimple’s here

and Dimple tattled to Teru

“so they just told her that and took the money? how irresponsible” oh you

I could REALLY go for one of Reigen’s massages

and 90s Grandma Teru has arrived

ever since someone edited his outfit to have that sketchy cup pattern on it I can’t unsee it

can we appreciate the little nick nacks on the shelf in Teru’s room?

“what do you think you’re doing Hanazawa?” “introducing ourselves.”

and thus the Claw Arc has officially begun

tune in next week where we’ll meet a creeper in a gas mask that sounds like a ten year old girl

“option B involves buying the Blu-Ray and the manga” Reigen I already planned on doing that, just GIVE ME A RELEASE DATE

[flapperfromthefuture]

I have been baking. Like, obsessively. After watching a beautiful tombstone-grey sunset at 3:30 in the afternoon, I had the urge to bake because “You can’t stick your head in the oven if there’s other stuff in there.”

I’ve even gotten fancy. I made a povitica, the Aaron Burr of breads, with raspberry and then apricot jam (very sticky, but tasty). Then I wanted to try a savory challah, so I experimented with adding different amounts of cardamom and THEN za’atar.

I tried making challah with harissa because I love harissa, so it seemed like a good idea at the time. It was super messy getting the harissa into the dough and then braiding it before the whole loaf could fall apart, but the end result was delicious and made my kitchen smell like a spice market in the midst of somewhere warm that is not Michigan.

I made two Bienenstich, or bee sting cakes, which I hadn’t attempted since my brioche class. I managed not to overdo the topping this time! No almond-induced structural collapses here.

Then I made this gigantic cinnamon roll, which the recipe claimed was an Estonian Kringla, and since the best cinnamon roll I’ve ever had was in Estonia, I tried it out. And it was pretty good, but didn’t quite get me to pre-winter euphoria levels, aka enough energy to stay awake past mid-afternoon because it’s so dark outside.

My sister really wanted to make Halloween desserts together, which translated into me buying all the supplies and then baking everything myself while she lay on the floor.

She had just run a half-marathon . . . five days earlier.

I don’t really like making Rice Krispie treats as they are a tactile nightmare. Everything you touch sticks to you forever and then continues to stick to you even after you die. I also gravely miscalculated how many marshmallows to buy (because weight and volume are different, apparently? They never covered that at school) and my mom will not let me live it down—anyone who stops by the house is asked, “Do you want something to drink? Or maybe some marshmallows? Elizabeth bought a thousand.”

Stella likes to say, “God knew you’d be too powerful if you were good at math.”

I don’t enjoy cooking as much as baking, but I made my yearly stab at sides for Thanksgiving. These harissa sweet potatoes looked beautiful but were a little too spicy for my weak-ass family.

(I also may have put in too much harissa. But it’s expensive and I wanted to use it all!).

A and I are officially in the throes of cabin fever, and when our beloved Midnight Madness rolled around, she decided that we needed to mix things up and elected to check out a jazz club downtown that we had never visited or heard anything about. Our friend Julia was with us and her mom was in town from the East Coast, so A thought we’d show them a sophisticated time . . . after visiting the petting zoo, of course, and making a quick stop in the Himalayan Bazaar to see if the Yeti was around—he was not, because he never is, BUT I WILL SEE HIM NEXT YEAR SO HELP ME. 

Stella did not join us for Midnight Madness, electing instead to stay in and watch The Crown, which in hindsight, was too much of a gamble to take without supervision.

We swept into the jazz club with our heavy coats and dorky beanies and I immediately felt too uncool to chill with the jazz cats. Everyone had sleek scarves and trendy eyewear and even the gorgeous modern light fixtures seemed to judge us as we sat at our table.

There was a lady wearing sunglasses inside. At night. In winter.

It was below freezing out. I thought, “Is this an awards show?”

I had only eaten roasted almonds and hot chocolate for dinner so I needed something revitalizing . . . or barring that, mozzarella sticks.

This jazz club did not have mozzarella sticks. They had charcuterie plates, pate, foie gras PB&J (why?), and charred baby octopus (WHY?), and everything was super expensive, but there was a jazz quintet onstage that seemed really legit, so I was excited to get some culture, even at the expense of mozzarella sticks.

A stared down at the menu like she could intimidate it into submission. She will eat anything, but draws the line at baby animals that have been set on fire.

“I don’t know what to get,” she said. “This never happens to me.”

“What are you guys ordering?” I asked Julia and her mom.

And then, out of nowhere, SLAM, a hand smacked our table loud enough to make me jump. An older man glared at me and said, “I’m not paying to hear you talk.”

He looked a lot like Santa, which made it even more distressing. I don’t want to get in trouble with Santa!

A is from Chicago and doesn’t take anyone’s shit (which is good for me because to quote John Mulaney, “You could pour soup into my lap and I’d apologize to you“), so she looked Santa right in the eye and said, very calmly, “You don’t need to take that tone. We’ve never been here before and we’re trying to figure out what to order.”

Santa scowled and said, “Just be quiet.” Like we were children, which we are not. We patronize jazz clubs!

A was taken aback. She was the most well-behaved child who ever childed and practically showed up to preschool with a briefcase. No one has ever told her, “Just be quiet.” And I was so hyperfocused on craft kits and Legos that no one ever told me that either. In fact, adults scolded me to be less quiet because “You’re like a little ninja.”

“That wasn’t very Midwestern,” said Julia. “Don’t get the wrong idea, Mom. People in Ann Arbor are usually very chill.”

“He’s probably a boomer,” said Julia’s mom, who is a boomer herself, and incredibly cool.

We ordered our drinks and tried to enjoy the jazz.

Here’s the thing about jazz. People think they enjoy it, because music, right? Who doesn’t like music? Everyone loved La La Land, and there was jazz in that, right?

But what you don’t know about jazz, until you’re trapped in a jazz club with incinerated child octopi and furious boomers, is that the average jazz song is about fifteen minutes long. There’s the normal part, that sounds like a song and tells a story you can follow and enjoy, and then the improv starts. Every musician starts playing scales or hitting the drums in a way that should be exciting but really isn’t, and should build to something musically but really doesn’t, and then when they’re done the audience claps and the next person does the same thing, but it’s like listening to several minutes of set-up lines with no punchline. Over and over, until they just stop and then the next song starts.

“Are they going to do this for every song?” I thought about saying, but then did not, because I didn’t want to anger the man.

Instead, I checked my phone for a quick primer on jazz appreciation.

Just kidding.

I still hadn’t eaten anything and A had declared that we wouldn’t be ordering any food so we could leave sooner . . . but not soon enough.

Other people were chatting and eating and enjoying the music, but I wasn’t doing any of those things.

Julia and her mom weren’t super into it either, to the point that Julia claimed that if she rushed the stage and pretended to be the next act by riffing on a triangle, no one would question it. Her mom was supportive of this, so it was time to go.

We said good-bye outside, relieved at finally being allowed to speak freely.

“That drum solo went on FOREVER,” said Julia.

“I thought the cymbal crash meant it was over but it just kept going!” said A.

“I really liked La La Land an hour ago and now I hate it,” I said.

So, when it comes to beating the winter blues (or full-blown seasonal affective disorder), there are a lot of options—baking with such frenzy that you start buying the 18 egg containers and the person at the register says, “Big weekend plans?” every. single. time, or expanding your horizons with such gusto that you get dropkicked by a jazz enthusiast.   

Or keep it simple and just get some mozzarella sticks.

          Baking vs. Jazz: Holiday Showdown I have been baking. Like, obsessively. After watching a beautiful tombstone-grey sunset at 3:30 in the afternoon, I had the urge to bake because "You can't stick your head in the oven if there's other stuff in there."

[freshintentions]

Need a Recipe?

This Thanksgiving was super exciting.

Like a brand-new puppy on Christmas morning kind of exciting. I know I know, you’re rolling your eyes, but Thanksgiving to me means spending time fine-tuning new recipes, which I get to share with friends and family. And what made it even more exciting were all the firsts this year. First time cooking in the new kitchen, first thanksgiving for my sister’s kids, first time we had friends feast around our dinner table together.

Because I’m still thinking about all the deliciousness (while simultaneous scouring Facebook marketplace for a used Kitchenaid), I wanted to share with you our recipes. I’ll preface by saying I eat only veggies and I have family members that are gluten-free, so I’ll also throw out some cooking variations.

Appetizers:

Winter squash galette. This was well worth every second of making it. The homemade bread put it over the top. I followed this recipe to the T, and made the dough the night before (keeping it in the fridge until ready to use). I used the delicata squash from our garden, and you’ll catch a theme with all the rest of the dishes too…

Spinach dip. I definitely took liberties with the recipe, adjust based on what’s in your pantry. 

First Course:

Roasted Pumpkin Bisque With Pumpkin Seed Dukkah with rolls. If you’ve never cooked with sugar pie pumpkins, this is a great one to start with. This was a crowd fave on Thanksgiving. I baked the pumpkin the night before in the oven, so just had to throw it into the crockpot the day of (I doubled the amount of leeks it called for). Don’t know what Dukkah is? Neither did I until I made this, and it was such a unique addition.

Stuff Mushrooms, prepped the night before and popped in the over just 40 minutes before serving.

Lemony Green Salad with Radicchio & Pepitas, cause we needed something light right? We used some left-over mustard greens from the summer, and I added an Asian pear and watermelon radish for color, crunch and sweetness.

Main:

Kale Goat Cheese & Bow Tie Pasta. Bryan and I eat this, not going to lie, at least once a month. We had yet to share it with others, and thought this occasion would be perfect. We used GF noodles, and I’d recommend adding olive oil to the dish to keep the noodles tasty.

Roasted asparagus with lemony walnut crumble. Opps, I forgot to add the lemon and seasoning. Last dish to go on the table kind of problems. Also, we added beans to this mixture.

Creamy Roasted Fingerling Potatoes. Solid, go to seasonal side.

Miso Pot Pie. This was a fun one. And we had TONS of leftovers. Cooked with winter specific veggies like turnips, turnip greens and I added parsnip as well, the wine reduction is what helps turn the sweetness on this dish up a notch. For friendsgiving we added some chicken for our meat-eating friends.

Dessert:

Homemade Apple Pie. A friend’s grandmother’s recipe. We added a woven pie top before the streusel. This put to use all the apples I froze this summer (not nearly enough though!)

Strawberry rhubarb plum pie. Not going to lie, this wasn’t my favorite recipe as it calls for too much cheese. I’d recommend halfing it and cooking the fruit on the stove prior to adding to the dish. We did a second version of this in cupcake tins (minipies!) the second time and it was legit. Another fun one to use the rhubarb and plums I froze from the summer.

Here was the gluten free crust recipe I used. Make sure to use a gluten-free flour mix, not just pure gluten-free flour. You’ll need those binders. I used Bob’s Red Mill Paleo Baking Flour and it worked really well.

Here is the regular, non-gluten free crust I used. I watch a lot of cooking and baking shows. Guilty pleasure. But one of the shows recommended using shortening with butter, which this recipe calls for. They weren’t lying, it was legit. I used Crisco butter-flavored shortening and Bob’s Red Mill Organic Flour.

Where to shop:

I bought as many veggies as I could from the Milwaukee Winter Farmers Market. It was PACKED, but worth it considering all the mushrooms, onions and squashes I needed and the fact these farmers worked their butts of bring this food to our thanksgiving table.

Woodman’s for some great produce options (turnip greens anyone?) and affordable spices.

Costco for pre-made foods, like crackers and cheese, cause they know how to do apps!

 Timing:

I prepped as much as I could the night before, mainly all the dough. Which gave me all day on Thanksgiving to actually cook everything. Timing worked out well, so if you have 2 days to cook, you should be able to knock out all the above recipes including shopping for ingredients and the random grocery store run for that stick of cream cheese you forgot!

Hope you get some inspiration for all those yummy veggies!

[ntrending]

Last week in tech: Snap’s new spectacles, Sega’s Genesis Mini, and the clickiest new keyboards around

New Post has been published on https://nexcraft.co/last-week-in-tech-snaps-new-spectacles-segas-genesis-mini-and-the-clickiest-new-keyboards-around/

Last week in tech: Snap’s new spectacles, Sega’s Genesis Mini, and the clickiest new keyboards around

Snap’s stylish Spectacles have evolved into a high-end product, while Facebook’s failed Sombrero With a Camera Built In didn’t quite pan out after its release in 2017. (Snap/)

Back in 2016, Snap released the original Spectacles. The quirky-looking sunglasses had a built-in camera that shot round video, which no one really wanted. As a tech product, Spectacles weren’t all that impressive, but they excelled at generating hype. You could only get them through limited “drops” from vending machines placed in secret locations. Prices on eBay and other secondhand outlets went nuts.

This week, Snap unleashed the third iteration of Spectacles. It’s a decided jump forward in terms of tech, adding a second HD camera for shooting in 3D and applying augmented-reality filters to the footage you capture. But the styling represents the biggest change. The new $380 fashion-forward frames look like something an Instagram model would wear, and that you’d start seeing knock-off versions of at flea markets and mall kiosks. They’re certainly too hip for me, and that seems like exactly the right move for Snap.

But, those fashionable shades weren’t the only story in the tech world this week. Even in the summer slowdown, there’s a lot to take in. Here’s a rundown of this week’s most-pressing (and sometimes even depressing) technology stories.

Listen to the latest episode of Techathlon

In case you haven’t heard, the Techathlon crew is back in full-force this week after a slight summer break. We spent our time away training hard. Personally, I dedicated hours to scrolling through Twitter and playing this weird smartphone game where you shoot bouncing balls with a cannon. This week’s episode includes tech trivia, making fun of crummy company branding, and trying to wrap our heads around the increasingly ridiculous array of smart gadgets on the market.

You can listen in the player above, add us on Stitcher, subscribe on iTunes, join us on Anchor, and even check us out on Spotify.

The Sega Genesis Mini is coming next month

It looks just like a classic console—only more adorable, because it’s smaller. (Sega/)

It seems cruel that Sega would wait until school is back in session to release the Genesis Mini. The 40 pre-installed games seem like a really great way to waste a summer drinking Capri Suns in front of the TV. But, despite the bad timing, the system itself looks great. The controllers are legit and the included titles include classics like Earthworm Jim and Echo the Dolphin. Pair it with a tube TV, unrequited middle-school crushes, and Surge soda if you want a perfect recreation of my childhood.

Users were accidentally preheating their smart ovens in the middle of the night

June’s smart oven is a rather impressive appliance that takes commands from a smartphone app. Unfortunately, some users woke up to find their cookers accidentally preheated to 400 degrees. June has addressed the issue and submitted an updated app that will reportedly add some protections to prevent this from happening in the future. There are no reported injuries or damages, but I like to imagine at least one person woke up to a preheated oven and said, “Well, I guess it’s pizza rolls for breakfast, then…”

Logitech released new mechanical keyboards

The perfect keyboard for loudly and passive aggressively typing the phrase, “per my last email.” (Logitech/)

If you’re addicted to the clickety-clack of mechanical keyboards, Logitech has some new options for you. Both of the new boards are basically the same, except the G815 attaches to your computer with a wire, while the G915 uses the company’s Lightspeed Wireless connectivity. There are three types of switches from which to choose, including linear, tactile, and clicky. Googling the difference is a great way to fall down a Friday-afternoon rabbit hole learning about mechanical keyboards.

You can’t bring your bad MacBook Pro battery on a flight

Recently, Apple issued a recall for some 2015-era MacBook Pro computers because of faulty batteries that could catch fire. This week, the FAA issued a ban that prevents passengers from bringing those computers on a plane. It’s not out of the ordinary for the FAA to do this, because pressurized plane cabins and fire don’t mix well. If you have an affected MacBook Pro, be sure to get it serviced before heading into the sky.

DJI made an impressive new smartphone gimbal

Smartphones do a surprisingly great job on their own of keeping video steady, but if you want truly pro-looking results, a gimbal makes a world of difference. The DJI Osmo Mobile 3 costs $119 and folds up so it’s easy to throw in a bag. It holds pretty much any smartphone perfectly stable, even if you’re engaged in action sports or trying to make a video as you run from airport security to sneak onto a plane with your 2015 MacBook Pro.

Samsung built a 108-megapixel smartphone sensor

Why would you want a smartphone camera with more than 100-megapixels? Well, we can answer that for you here. But, you can expect to see these high-res chips show up more and more down the road, which will make your Instagram posts look that much more #blessed with less work.

Written By Stan Horaczek

[mikemarko567-blog]

Is Online Business Something You Can Trust? | Dan Lok Review

Thinking about coming to be a Pampered Chef supplier or celebration host so you can make payments off the business’s products? If so, you’re probably asking yourself if the company’s legit or otherwise.

I can answer that inquiry for you in this Pampered Chef review. I’ll reveal you if Pampered Chef is a fraud, exactly how you can successfully run a Pampered Chef organization as a supplier, and also whether or not Pampered Chef is the right suitable for you.

So, if you prepare, allow us to get started! It only makes sense, to begin with, the vital inquiry.

What Is Pampered Chef?

Is Online Business Something You Can Trust?

Pampered Chef was founded by Doris Christopher in 1980. It is a Multi-Level Advertising and Marketing (ONLINE MARKETING) business that’s basically the matching of Tupperware for food preparation products. The items you offer are related to the kitchen or food preparation.

Also, initially, it offered products based upon a party-demo or display system. That means representatives or vendors host an event where they display and also use Pampered Chef items. Visitors at the celebration are then motivated to make acquisitions of those products.

You make commissions off of sales and can likewise benefit from sales of individuals you hire right into the company to your “team”. Once more, that’s basic for an internet marketing firm.

Today, the brand name belongs to Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway Company. Much of the means it works stays the very same, though.

Products Of Pampered Chef

Pampered Chef business makes some pretty good items that a cooking fanatic might really enjoy selling. To offer you a suggestion of what to expect, here are several of one of the most popular Pampered Chef items:

Big Micro stove for Microwave ($ 28.99 below $39.99)

Mini Tart Shaper ($ 18)

Nylon Pan Scrapers Establish of 3 ($ 14.99)

Celebrate Party Present Boxed Serving Plate ($ 37.92)

5.Parmesan-Garlic Oil Dipping Seasoning ($ 11.99)

Teriyaki Sauce with Honey (14.99)

On the Pampered Chef website, you can locate an entire listing of various other cooking products. They’re not all profit-centered, nonetheless. There are in fact items with a charity attached to them.

For instance, there are items that mention that a section of the profits from the most likely to a defined charity. That can be an added consideration when you think about whether you want to promote or disperse Pampered Chef items.

Note that there are likewise higher-priced products in the Pampered Chef brochure than the ones detailed above. That issues because higher-priced products can get you closer to the sales limit you might be aiming for (we’ll chat more concerning this later).

Below are some instances of the extra costly items in the Pampered Chef catalogue. To all appearances and also based on purchaser reviews, they appear to be genuine, relatively good-quality things as well:

Cookware Device and Tool Holder Establish ($ 149.00)

2.6-piece Nonstick Cooking Equipment Establish ($ 450.00)

Blade Establish ($ 369.00)

Rockcrok Dutch Oven XL ($ 250.00)

Quick Stove as well as Add-on Establish ($ 285.00)

Stainless Steel Nonstick Wok ($ 240.00)

Nonstick Grill Frying Pan ($ 190.00)

Steak Blade Establish ($ 129.00)

Indoor Outdoor Portable Grill ($ 129.00)

Ceramic Amusing Establish ($ 159.00)

There are so many Pampered Chef items at various prices that it can be difficult to determine their price factor. However, they all appear to be at affordable prices, essentially. Some items are probably valued just a little bit higher than other brands’, but the idea is that these are made with a little bit even more treatment than your typical cooking product.

Expense To Sign Up With Pampered Chef

The business possibility prices either $159 for a New Consultant (Deluxe) Package or you can get what’s called a Mini Set for $80.

It’s additionally possible to receive a Flying start Box from a Pampered Chef Consultant as well as you enter into their team. This set is expected to include various directories and getting approaches so that you can launch your company quickly and be up and also running quicker.

Basically, the higher-priced the package, the more items and also business tools you get with it. Which one should you try if you have an interest in beginning a home-based business based on Pampered Chef distribution? It truly depends on you.

If you’re certain in your sales abilities as well as have a big network of pals to touch available for sale, go ahead and obtain the Ultimate Package at $249. If you want to start out sluggish, however, better choose the smaller sized kits first.

Pampered Chef Compensation Strategy.

Hosts of Pampered Chef events win totally free and also decreased cost products. You additionally get factors that can go in the direction of earning prizes and also bonus offers (like holidays), and 3% payments off the sales of participants you recruit right into the Pampered Chef representative network.

The commission you receive from your own sales boosts as your sales quantity increases. Below is a basic malfunction of the compensation percent ladder based upon minimum sales thresholds:

21% commission for individuals who offer $1 to $749 per month

22% compensation for individuals who offer $749 to $1249 monthly

23% payment for individuals who market $1250 to $2499 each month

24% commission for people who market $2500 to $3999 each month

25% payment for individuals who market $4000 or even more products per month

Pampered Chef provides a lot of service tools as well as options for distributors to make use of in displaying their items. They don’t require to always execute the common show-and-tell event. The business likewise supplies devices for representatives to establish sites or digital celebrations to show their goods as well as take orders for them on the internet.

Verdict On Pampered Chef

So, to conclude, this Pampered Chef evaluation has determined that the business isn’t a fraud. If you actually go to one of the events held by its suppliers, you’ll be able to see on your own that its items are authentic. Distributors are likewise generally favorable about the settlement plan, which is described very clearly on the firm’s website (a good idea for any NETWORK MARKETING!).

The only inquiry continuing to be is, can you make money at home making use of Pampered Chef? Well, you can, however, the inquiry of whether it’s sustainable might rely on the number of people you know, whether or not you can create a team to aid you, and also just how good you go to getting new leads.

That’s due to the fact that you’ll at some point lack individuals to welcome to Pampered Chef parties in your prompt individual network. You possibly just have numerous family and friends who prepare, besides. When you’ve had them over several times, they may not be as eager to keep purchasing cooking products.

That claimed, some individuals seem to make an excellent revenue out of Pampered Chef circulation. The trick may hinge on the ability to find brand-new prospective customers as well as excellent employees for your downline. So, if you assume you can handle that quickly, go on and get a Pampered Chef circulation set. It may very well be your ticket to the large dollars if you understand what you’re doing.

Source: Pampered Chef Review

[thesecretsuper]

Mission Three: Cook/Bake something that you find intimidating or complex (featured concept: DON’T GET CAUGHT)

Unfortunately for those who lives in a house with multiple siblings, means that there is never anything good to eat laying around. It also poses as a problem when your best-friend arrives for a surprise sleep-over, and you have no food to give them. So I decided that I will cook with whatever we had at the moment, this included: a loaf of garlic bread, rump steak, cucumber, giant tomatoes, cheddar cheese, lettuce and peppadews. 

Another problem was that there was barely enough items to create a almost decent meal for only me and my friend, so getting caught by any member of my household was not an option. My little brother had to be the first to go, he always want’s to hang around when my friend is over. So I managed to get the attention of the neighbors’  kids and left them playing with each other. My sister was doing a art project, so I generously told her were I hid my personal art supplies and told her she can only borrow it with specific conditions (like only use them in this room, away from the main house, and how it dries quickly if it comes in contact with natural air, so all the windows and doors needed to be closed) you know all “totally legit” art supply reasons. 

My final sibling posed no problem, if you plan to hide yourself in your room and play X-box, you make my job easier. Besides she can really immerse herself in her games, so seeing her will be like meeting a unicorn. My parents weren't home so no need for planning there.

Now the reason this is intimidating for me is because all this ingredients i have only means one thing, ‘braai’ . Yes I love a good  braai  every now-and-again but the most I do during these occasions is setting the table, pouring drinks and making salad... I never actually  braai-ed  before, and I never truly paid attention when my father or anyone else did . The meat is also a really nice cut, being rump and all so I really didn't want to waste it (and it’s expensive). Also fire... I was a good kid, and didn’t play with lighters or matches, and now I had to intentionally start a fire, and maintain it... 

After I resigned myself to my fate I started, I made a fire with the wood we had stockpiled and some pine-cones and ‘blitz’ for getting it going. While I was waiting for the coals to form, made a very strange salad, with the mish-mash of supplies we had, using cheddar cheese to replace the usual feta. I popped the garlic-bread into the oven while the fire was getting ready, since I wan’t to be done quickly, but I also want the bread to be crispy. 

 Checking the bread every now and again, I remembered something... smell.  braai-ing has a very distinct (very delicious) smell and my family are blood hounds. So I decided to burn some incense in the house, the smell usually gives me a giant headache but it’s a price that had to be paid. 

Soon the coals were ready and I placed the meat, and also fetched the bread out of the oven to heat it further over the coals, this allowed me to keep an eye on it since I’m aware it burns quite easily. Rotating  the bread every few seconds (it’s still wrapped in it’s foil because i’m not a complete dunce) I managed to successfully cook a decent meal. With spices I used our regular braai -salt, and surprisingly it came out perfect. 

The meat was tender but well-done and best off all not dry. The bread was crispy and the pre-placed butter melted away into the crust, leaving no awkward clumps and the cheddar in the peppadew salad was an amazing balance. And best of all, me and my friend didn't have to share a single bite...

For my next mission my concept will be.... 

CRISPY