Friday, August 25, 2017
Sorry, no new content release for today. We'll have something for you to devour on Monday. I think the rumors point towards a certain son of Hypnos, with a coat of black and white and a box full of dreams made of horn and bone. Shall we see?
I have a good enough understanding of probability theory to avoid playing the lottery very often. In fact, given the way my luck normally works, I avoid most sorts of gambling. I'm crazy lucky when it comes to day to day stuff... playing games, being in the right place at the right time. Some people actually treated me much like our Whateley mutants get treated because I would just casually raise my hand for no apparent reason only to catch something that had been thrown at me by some bully/jerk. I always argued it as good peripheral vision or a reflection in my glasses allowing me to see some things that would otherwise be out of my line of sight... but truthfully, I don't know how it happened... it just did.
But... put money on the table? Or really, anything material? And my luck disappears. I once, playing poker for mini-candy bars with friends for a brief bit while waiting for kids to come to the house for trick or treating, was dealt a full house; a four of a kind, and a royal flush... but when I play for money? I will rarely even see a pair.
But, despite my regular bad luck; when the lottery gets up into the really high numbers, I'll buy a ticket. Just one... not appreciably improving my odds to get more than one, after all. Over 100 million.. I'll play if I think about it. Over 200 million, I start to actually pay attention to it. When it gets as high as it is right now... over 500 million (that's half a billion)... I make a conscious effort not to miss picking up a ticket. Mainly because... while I know there's very little chance for me to win it... the amount of money is significant enough that I can't help but think of ways I could make a difference with it.
So... Powerball for half a billion dollars, tomorrow night. Think about how many Whateley Universe stories we could be publishing if we could compensate our authors for their time spent, allowing them to be full time Whateley story writers... for example... :)
In the meantime... there's some new content! Since the last news, we've had part 2 of "A Dragon Abroad" from Astrodragon... Part 2 of Morpheus' "The Absinthe of Malice" and E. E. Nalley's "Dague de L'esprit" ... today, please enjoy "A Very Imp-Portant Date", Part 3... from Morpheus. Remember to take time to comment on these stories and join in the feedback in the forums!
As may or may not be obvious, some of the restructuring includes moving the News off the Front Page. With that change, I may no longer Regularly address the community from the perspective of announcing the stories... instead, I will post News when there is relevant news to share. That may be daily... weekly... or you may not get posts from me with some time between them. I will, of course, still be active in the forums.... just taking less time putting together news announcements that most people were skipping over anyway.
On the bright side, now that its not on the Front Page... maybe some of the other authors will make News posts instead of just announcements in the forums. We'll see...
As far as knowing what new story has been released on a given day? Well... looking at the "Newest..." lists in the sidebars may help. Or you can just click straight over to "Read Stories" where the newest stuff should always be at the top of the blog style format.
On top of those existing methods, I hope to add a little active display or coloring or font size... something... that is especially visible for the first week or two of a new story's life on the site. I'm not sure 'what' exactly that will be yet or how to achieve it... but it's something in the plans.
I've been working on some revisions to the site layout and menu structure to make things a little more streamlined, especially for new visitors. That's especially important if we're going to do some advertising and try to increase our audience size, as we want people to be able to come by, actually find the stories, and be able to work their way through things in the same sort of way that someone might find a long running web comic and catch themselves up to the present by going through the archives.
Part of this is going involve moving the 'front page news' off the front page. The "news' will move to being the 'cover sheet' for the Community section, while the community/forum rules/policy will move to a less prominent location.
There will be a new menu option "New to Whateley?" which will include some info about the Universe, an authors' bio, a 'dramatus personae' (character listing) and some other similar things that will help people get an idea of what's going on around here in a quick glance. We'll also get the various guides and help articles up to date with the new layouts... and write a few more to show people how to quickly navigate the site. Expect those changes to be occurring over the months of August and September.
For today's content release? We have a couple pieces from E. E. Nalley that are probably going to break some people. In the Gen 1 period, "The Angel and Cecil Barrows" brings you a bit of perspective on one of the big picture backstory areas and a character that has roused a lot of emotion in readers over the years. The second takes place in Gen 2... "The Sorrows of Red October" makes some revelations that some forums members will take with an 'ah ha' for solid deductive reasoning... and most of the rest will be picking their jaws up off the floor. Prepare for minds to be blown. It's plot twists all around, today.
Sorry all, no recipe today. Just a quick announcement about today's content Here's another piece from Lancer's corner of the universe, from Phoenix-Spiritus, we give you "Hank 6: To Companions, New and Old!"
Enjoy, comment!
Hmm... cake. Unfortunately, I'm not going to bake a black forest cake... or share any recipes today. Unless you want my Bachelor's Goulosh recipe... I could share that:
In a skillet, with virgin olive oil, fry up a half pound of cheap ground beef. Mince a clove of garlic and throw that in, and about a garlic clove sized bit of onion. Generously dust this with Lemon-pepper.
When the burger is cooked through, add a handful of rice. NOT instant rice.
As you continue to fry, keep the rice moving so it is all covered in olive oil and burger fat, which it will absorb. If you don't keep it moving it will stick. The rice will appear to dry out and change texture... and even start to brown.
At that point, add enough 'hot' water to cover the rice completely with some extra to spare. Be sure to use hot water because the pan will be very hot at this point and between hot water and the pan's heat, your rice will be close to a boil immediately. Turn this down to be hot enough to stay at boiling temperature but not cook off too much water.
When the rice is about half done, add a handful of frozen corn.
This will cool it all down a little and add a bit more water. You know its done when the water has either been absorbed completely by the rice or cooked off.
Ok... recipes done.
For today's content release, we've got another Gen 2 piece. This one is from Wasamon. It's title is "Meanwhile in Castle Groenwald" ... which should explain my black forest cake reference. :P
I've been psyching myself up all week, having decided its been far too long since I've had a good Philly Cheese Steak. For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of nomnomnomming their way through one of these Pennsyvanian works of art, you don't know what you're missing. So... I'm going to tell you how to prepare one so you can enjoy the experience.
First, you're either going to need a decent size grilling surface... or a couple frying pans. On these surfaces, you need to start melting some old fashioned salted butter (not margarine, not oil, real butter).
You're also going to need (per sandwich):
at least 1 lb of skirt steak or other thinnly cut steak, which you want to allow to thaw in advance, and slice into strips about a cm wide before shorting the strips so they are no longer than 2-3 times the width of the strips.
Half a small sweet onion, sliced to create 'thick' rings (about the same as you would onion rings) and then put the large end flat on the board and cut the rings in quarters. Your largest onion pieces should still be a little smaller than your steak pieces.
Half a green pepper, seeds out and the pepper cut in strips, strips cut in half (about the same as you'd prep these for a veggie tray)
(Optional) Generous handful of bella mushrooms. Sliced up about the same size as your steak pieces.
Take a butter brush and with some of your melted butter, brush the outside of your hoagie and put it in a toaster or overn to give it a little crunch.
Sautee your steak. When the steak is about halfway done, give it a couple generous splashes of Worchestershire sauce and a dusting of Ground Black Pepper.
Seperate from the steak, also sautee the veggies. Some people will tell you that you can make a Philly Cheese Steak without peppers or mushrooms. They are few in number and deluded. Many more will tell you it should just be onions and peppers. And that is, truthfully, the way many of them are made. I like the ones that include mushrooms (all three), personally. But I won't judge if you leave the mushrooms out. Peppers though? No, judging will commence quickly.
When the steak is well cooked (there are no 'rare' cheese steaks), pile it up to roughly the shape of your hoagie and cover it with slices of Provalone cheese (you can also grate it to help it melt faster). Let this sit long enough for the cheese to really melt into the steak.
Then use your largest spatula to lift the whole mess onto the hoagie bun, and then pile on the onions/peppers/mushrooms, so the cheese is between them and able to melt into everything.
Feel free to thank me from the bottom of your heart once you've enjoyed your sandwich. :)
Now... for today's content? E.E. Nalley has been working up a little something in the Gen 2 world for you all. Here is it "Reckless Reputations."
And remember, even if the rest of us are enjoying Philly Cheese Steaks... E. E. lives on comments and feedback. So please don't forget to let him know what you think! And ignore him if he complains that he wants a Cheese Steak, too. :P
Yay, more Absinthe! And another story about her, too. Enjoy this first part of the second Absinthe story, from Morpheus here is "Absinthe of Malice".
Comment!
Who are they? They're not that kind of fan. I got a couple new dual window mountable fans to replace the old high speed box fan that had been sitting in my window keeping me from dying of heat stroke in June. Instead, it died over the weekend and I've been doing my best to stay cool while these shipped to me. The uncool part is that I didn't budget for fifty dollars to replace my fan this summer, so tight finances are looking even more tight. That much more reason to get my next novel finished and up on Amazon, I guess...
Speaking of Amazons... no, wait. No speaking of Amazons... yet. Too soon.
Instead, let us speak of today's content. We have two for you today because they're shorter pieces. One is set for the Original Timeline and one for Gen 2. We have "The Gates of the Garden" from JG... and from E. E. Nalley, we have "The Autumn Leaves"
Enjoy!
And remember, E. E. lives on comments. But be careful sneaking them to him past JG. I think JG has been using E. E.'s comments stash like flavor crystals for his coffee. To help, please accept these labels to apply to your comments so both of them know exactly whose comment each one is.
| Oh Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling From glen to glen, and down the mountain side The summer's gone, and all the flowers are dying 'Tis you, 'tis you must go and I must bide. But come ye back when summer's in the meadow Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow 'Tis I'll be here in sunshine or in shadow Oh Danny boy, oh Danny boy, I love you so. And if you come, when all the flowers are dying And I am dead, as dead I well may be You'll come and find the place where I am lying And kneel and say an "Ave" there for me. And I shall hear, tho' soft you tread above me And all my dreams will warm and sweeter be If you'll not fail to tell me that you love me I'll simply sleep in peace until you come to me. |
So, if that doesn't make it obvious... today's story is going to be about Danny, Kayda's younger brother. Here's Part 1 of Elrod's new story arc "What's New, Pussycat?"
Remember to leave comments and post some feedback!
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