Cooking Round the Clock (Review)

I posted my review of Rachael Ray's "'Cooking Round the Clock" this morning. It's a great cookbook, so check it out! We're in the middle of making recipes from Jim Fobel's Old-Fashioned Baking Book, and if the raspberry cream pie is anything to go by, I'm going to gain some weight over the next week or two.


In other news, Selene has been sneezing a lot, so apparently she might have an upper respiratory tract infection in addition to the asthma problems. We're taking her back to the vet today, which she's just going to loooove. Thanks to a pointer from a very kind reader (you guys are great!) we're currently looking into the concept of raw feeding for cats--i.e., feeding them a more natural diet based on raw meats and such. Supposedly it's great for things like allergies and immune system issues. It's far from a miracle cure, but I'll take what I can get at this point!

Danger, Will Robinson! (Exercise)

Quick! Spend ten minutes listing out every kind of danger you can imagine putting a character into. These could be physical dangers, dangers to a character's way of life, emotional dangers--if it strikes you as a danger, it's fair game. Just list as fast as you can with as little thought as possible. Usual free-write rules apply: don't worry about spelling, grammar, punctuation, or capitalization. Don't worry about whether the ideas are any good. Just get 'em all out there and go back later to find the gems.

Sentence Variation 4 (Exercise)

Take any of the following words and use them in ten sentences each. Each sentence should express a different complete thought, and try to use the words in ways that are as different as possible:

• scholarship
  
• crystal
  
• participation
  
• confidence
  
• antidote
  
• instrument
  

"We got an issue!"

Let's see...

A wonderful reader told me about the raw food diet for cats. It's supposed to make a big difference with allergies, so if we get to the point where it looks like we'll need to get Selene another shot we will talk to our vet about giving it a try. The shots can really wreck a cat's system if given repeatedly--they can cause diabetes, liver problems, and kidney problems. I think a more expensive diet sounds much better than that!

I'm dropping the dosage of my med, so hopefully I won't be so sleepy soon, although it may take a little time. The doc is also running all the usual tests--thyroid, anemia, so on. They took blood right there at the clinic, and I had some excitement. I'm making my next appointment and my arm feels wet. I look down, and apparently my vein had decided it didn't want to stop bleeding yet. Blood everywhere. The receptionist yells, "Mel, we got an issue!" and the nurse comes running. The bleeding has pretty much stopped by then, she cleans it up and puts another bandaid on and we all get a good laugh out of it.

Looks like I'll get to review some more Lodge cookware (yay!). I also just have two last recipes to make out of the Rachael Ray cookbook I'm testing before I review that. I'll post a writers' exercise later this morning. Have fun!

Edited to add: For those who've been asking, I swear I'll post more cat photos soon, probably next week. It takes me a little time to crop them, adjust them, get them online, and so on, and the sleepiness has been getting in the way of that.

Word Jumble 4 (Exercise)

When you do a word jumble, you take two or three random words and free-write off of the combination. You have a couple of options: make sure to include all of the words in whatever you write, or free-associate off of the combination and see what emerges. Here are some combos to choose from this morning:

• apple, torn, playtime
  
• wall, coffee, crash
  
• jacket, bee, complexity
  
• deep, sense, craft
  
• share, certificate
  
• biscuit, bell
  
• easy, python, asset
  

You could just start writing and see what emerges. You could also choose one of the following structures (or one of your own choosing) to work from:

• poem
  
• memoir
  
• essay
  

Newbie Player Tips (WoW)

If I could give a handful of tips to every new player starting up with World of Warcraft, it would be these. Note that many of these would apply to almost any online game.

Use the tooltips. When you first bring up the game it starts up automatic tips that teach you about the interface and gameplay. Judging by some of the ridiculously simple questions I see people asking on the general channels, there are far too many people who turn these off and then can't figure out what they're doing. Leave them on for a little while until you get the hang of things.

Read the manual. The manual explains a lot of things like how professions work, how the auction houses work, etc. Yet I see people asking questions all the time that are answered there. If you don't want to take the time to read the manual before playing, fine, but at least look things up in it (or on the official website) before asking how to do them.

Read the quest. If you're having trouble figuring out where to go or what to do for a quest, read it thoroughly before asking for help. 90% of the time when I see someone asking "where do I find X?" or "how do I get X?" or saying "I can't find X," it's a question that's answered in the quest text (usually quite clearly, although sometimes there's a trick to it). Read it carefully, paying attention to wording. For example, if a quest says "look for so-and-so by the caves," then he's probably by the caves, not in the caves. Asking for help without reading the quest first makes you look lazy, and the people who know the quest answers your question won't want to help you.

Don't assume the other players are being mean if they don't answer your question. I can't count the number of times I've seen someone ask a question on the general channel, ask it again a moment later in all caps with question marks and exclamation points, and then get very angry that no one has answered them. Take a deep, calming breath and realize several things:

• The other players are not your personal tip line. They are not getting paid to act as customer service reps. They have no obligation to help you out. It's nice of them to do so, but they don't have to.
  
• It takes a few moments to type in an answer, particularly if it's a complicated one. Sometimes I've seen people get upset before most people would have even been able to type out an answer to their question.
  
• There might not be someone around who can help you or who knows the answer to your question right now. Most people don't bother writing "sorry" or "don't know" because there are so many players in these games that it would completely clutter up the channels.
  
• The player who does know the answer to your question might be in a position where he can't immediately answer it--like a pitched battle with Murlocs. Don't expect someone to drop everything and get his character killed just so you can get your answer right this very second.
  
• The player who does know the answer to your question (or the player you're talking to if you're talking to someone in specific) might not be looking at her chat log right now. She might be looking at a different part of her screen, or she might be talking to someone in real life, or whatever. Don't assume she's being rude.
  

If you don't get an answer to your question, do one of several things. You could wait five minutes and ask again; by then there might be someone around who can answer you. Just make sure you wait the five minutes or people will get annoyed that you're spamming the channel. You can also check out one of the web sites that collect information on quests and such, such as Thottbot or Allakhazam.

Talk to people before inviting them to your group or guild. It's a basic social thing. I don't accept such wordless invites any more because I generally find that the social skills of such people are so incredibly lacking that I end up having a lousy time working with them. There's an insanely high correlation between these invites, in my experience, and "ninja looters", sexist jerks, self-righteous jerks, etc.

Remember you're dealing with real people. Try to behave in a semi-civilized manner; you're more likely to actually get along with people, make friends, and end up having a good time. Don't ninja-loot (steal resources and treasure out from under people), don't make sexist or racist comments, don't bully, etc.

Use your English. A lot of people think that English skills don't mean anything. I've seen people make the argument that it just doesn't matter if you're being grammatically correct or spelling correctly as long as you're getting your message across, to which I always want to nod vigorously and say, "yes, that's the problem exactly." A lot of people think they're being clear when they aren't. I've seen people ask questions that were worded in such a way that they could mean any of several equally valid things. Think about how you word your communications; you may think you're being clear, but people who can't read your mind might see things differently.

Talk to people before hitting them with a duel challenge, guild charter to sign, etc. Partially this is for the above social reasons. However, in this case it's also a practical matter. I've had people send me these things when I'm in the middle of transacting business--dealing with quests, crafting, vendoring, dealing with something AFK--and it's really annoying under those circumstances. Without asking someone first you can't be sure they aren't in the middle of something.

Look around. The game is actually very good at funneling where you should go next. For example, I'm forever seeing people ask where trainers are, but all you have to do is right-click on a guard and not only will they tell you where the nearest trainer is, but they'll mark it on your map. I'm always seeing people ask where the next higher trainer for a skill is, but if you go to your current trainer they'll tell you who to go to next. Usually when it's near time for you to move on out of a region you'll get a quest directing you onward. If you need more information on areas that are relevant to your level, just check out the official World of Warcraft website; it has things like charts of zones with appropriate levels. If you want quests to work on, all you have to do is look around.

Don't beg. It's a game. You're supposed to go out and do quests, kill things, and generally earn your way up. Although people often enjoy helping each other out, they don't like to do everything for you by and large. They certainly don't like it when people beg for money and items. It's okay to ask for help; but don't beg and don't act like you're entitled to whatever you want.

Listen. You might not agree with your party-mates if they ask you to alter your behavior, but if you want to have a good grouping with them then you should pay attention to the fact that they seem unhappy with something you're doing. Whether or not you agree with them it might be a good idea to at least make an effort to find some way to compromise. If you can't compromise, then move on and find people you get along with better.

If you're asking for a service from someone (such as getting a lockbox opened), offer to pay. People will often offer to do it for free, but you shouldn't expect them to.

Empathize. Remember that other players have different wants and needs than you do. Remember that they have real lives, interruptions, distractions. They find different things difficult or easy. They enjoy or dislike different aspects of the game. Allow them that freedom without ridiculing them.

Most of these suggestions boil down to a couple of basic guidelines:

• Try to figure out something yourself before asking how to do it or asking someone to do it for you. People like helping those who help themselves, and there are a lot of resources you can make use of.
  
• Remember that you're dealing with real people and treat them in a reasonable fashion.
  
• If you get upset, take a deep breath and try to move on. Try to empathize with others and put yourself in their shoes.
  
• Talk to people at least for a moment before interacting with them in other ways, if you can.
  

I think you'll find, if you follow these suggestions, that people will respond to you much better. You'll have an easier time figuring out what you're doing, and people will be much more willing to answer your questions, party up with you, and so on.

Mental Illness (Work/Exercise)

Mental illnesses are complicated, curious things, rarely like what you see in the movies and on television. They defy easy diagnosis, classification and treatment. Each person's manifestation of symptoms and response to treatment is different, and a given person's issues can change over time.

Getting work done has always been something of a challenge for me. I was first diagnosed with bipolar disorder when I was 18 (I'm in my early 30s now). I find it fascinating that many of the drugs used to treat bipolar are also epilepsy drugs; I'm sure someday the field of medicine will reveal why this is so. First I went on lithium, which didn't help much. Then I went on tegretol, which did. However, when we hit a point where we needed to raise the dosage we couldn't because I'd experience weird toxicity effects (I'd turn my head and one eye would turn faster than the other; now that's disorienting!). That's another downside of all of this--a lot of the treatments are toxic at near-therapeutic levels or cause side effects that not everyone is willing to live with.

A couple of years ago I was having so much trouble getting anything done that I went to see a psychiatrist known for untangling odd knots of disorders. I'd been told when I was a child that I might have ADD (attention deficit disorder) and he confirmed that diagnosis. He also diagnosed me with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), which was a surprise. He replaced the tegretol with depakote, added wellbutrin, and sent me on to a therapist for the PTSD.

Then we moved. I finally found a good psychiatrist down here (don't ask about the bad one I found first) and he added another diagnosis to the equation: generalized anxiety disorder. It's actually pretty common for one person to have multiple issues. He also switched me from wellbutrin to effexor, and I found a great therapist in the area.

For me effexor was a godsend. My concentration drastically improved, as did my motivation level. I started getting quite a bit of work done! Unfortunately now it's been followed by a different problem. Everyone's body is a bit different. Mine has a very unusual and rather notorious habit of changing how it metabolizes drugs over time. This happened several years after I started taking the tegretol; my blood level dropped and the company that makes it told my psychiatrist that simply couldn't happen. Now my blood level of the depakote is mysteriously rising and I'm getting... sleepy. Doesn't sound like a big deal until you realize that by sleepy I mean that I'm taking up to three naps a day and not getting much done when I am awake. I still have motivation; I still have concentration. I just don't have energy. Luckily I'm seeing the doctor tomorrow to talk about dropping my dosage, so hopefully that will improve things.

There are several things to take away from this:

• Mental illnesses are complex. They can be difficult to unravel, diagnose, and treat. It's even harder when one person has multiple illnesses, which is quite common.
  
• Many mental illnesses are biological in origin. ADD and bipolar are both believed to be biologically-based (there are some interesting studies out there showing marked differences in the brains of people who have ADD). PTSD causes long-term biochemical changes in the body. These aren't simple things, and they aren't "all in your head." You can't simply decide to get over them.
  
• Studies have shown that the most effective course of treatment for mental illness involves both medication and therapy. Either one by itself is less effective.
  
• Therapy is more than just touchy-feely "tell me how you feel." It also involves learning coping skills to deal with the problems you experience in your life. For instance, my therapist and I discuss ways to alter my lifestyle to increase my energy and motivation. She teaches me calming techniques for when I experience anxiety, etc.
  
• Often you have to peel away problems in layers. First you deal with one issue, such as difficulty concentrating. Once that's improved it allows you to see that you have problems with motivation, so you peel that away. That allows you to see that you're drowsy, so you deal with that next.
  
• Most mental illnesses cannot be "cured." They are lifelong conditions that must be treated.
  
• People with a mental illness can sometimes function normally, or almost-normally, such that you aren't even aware that they have a problem. Or you aren't aware that the problem is of a serious nature. I've been described as a "high functioning" bipolar, which means that I don't have hallucinations and haven't had any major mood swings or other bad symptoms in a long time (let's hear it for modern medicine!). Most people who meet me have no idea that I have a mental illness at all, much less four of them.
  
• Mental illnesses are a lot more common than most people think. Odds are that you know several people who have diagnosable mental illnesses.
  

My series of articles on mental illness in roleplaying addresses a number of these issues, and we also have a set of links to sites presenting information on mental health. Many writers want to work with a character that has a mental illness, but because they don't understand the true nature of mental illnesses they fall back on stereotyping and cliches.

Today's Exercise: Pick a fictional character (one you've already created, one from someone else's work, or one you create for the purpose). Next pick a mental illness you wish to explore through that character; don't go with something garish and flashy (in other words, don't immediately think "serial killer"). Use one of the sites or articles linked to above to research the illness. Take notes. Look for case histories if you can find them. Next, free-write for at least ten minutes on how that illness developed in the character's life. Then free-write for ten minutes on how that illness affects the character's life today. Finally, free-write for ten minutes listing out any ideas this gives you for interesting character quirks, plot developments, themes, etc. Then go back through this material and cross out anything that sounds trite or obvious, or that clashes with what you've learned about that illness.

Did you come up with anything interesting?

Character Questions 4 (Exercise)

Here's another bunch of questions to ask of a fictional character to help you draw out her past, personality, and depth. Choose one or more and just start writing:

• What was her first day of school like?
  
• Who was her first best friend?
  
• What type of behavior in others makes her righteously angry?
  

Remember, as always, that you don't have to be straightforward in your answers. You could write journal entries, short stories, vignettes, etc.

Photographic Memory (Exercise/Update)

Today's Exercise: If you were entering some sort of witness protection program (changing your name and identity, unable to contact anyone you previously knew or cared about) and could only take along one photograph with which to remember your former life, what would that photograph be of? Describe it and explain why it's so important to you. Or tell the story of that image. Use any format--journal entry, short story, essay, etc.--but concentrate on one image.

Site update: I just put up two new recipes, a biscuit and shortcake recipe and a recipe for berry shortcakes.

I think by the end of the week I should be ready to review another cookbook, and the writing book I'm reading is coming along well. We got our photos back so eventually I'll be posting some of the ones that came out decently. This afternoon we have to take Selene in for her steroid shot, so I expect that to be exciting. Oh boy...

Edited to add a photo:

That's a recent photo of Cahlash, one of our cats, being sun-drunk on the cat furniture. It links to a larger version.

Player Attitude (WoW)

I've run into all sorts of annoying attitudes in the World of Warcraft; I think bad attitudes tend to show more on the internet because you don't have to look someone in the face. There's more of a feeling of bravado or righteousness when you're sitting alone behind your computer. People can be nastier, or more self-centered. A couple of examples:

The other day someone invites me to a party. Since I'm waiting for a quest boss to respawn so I can kill him I break my "don't accept an invite from someone who hasn't talked to me at all" rule (it can suck to have multiple people waiting for a respawn, because then one gets the kill and the other has to wait again) and accept. The guy walks up to my character, looks at her, and whistles. So I left the party and killed the bad guy myself as he respawned. (It's rude to walk up to someone in real life, stare at them, and whistle; I don't see why I should have to put up with it online either.)

Last night we went adventuring in an instance with a couple of people. Surprisingly the guy who was running around like a maniac turned out okay; sure, he pulled a few extra mobs and such, but he was actually pretty relaxed. It was the guy who seemed okay who turned out to be a pain. He booted someone from the party just so he could try to find a healer to go with us, then of course he couldn't find one so we went in minus a person (never mind that we were actually slightly over-leveled for the dungeon, so while it might be inconvenient not to have a healer, it wasn't the end of the world). When he got killed he flipped out and got really angry at the rest of us for not noticing the guy who killed him (it was right at the end of a massive series of mobs--things got awfully confusing). Umm, death really isn't that big a deal in World of Warcraft--mostly it means a small amount of time wasted as you run back to your body. But he was determined to lecture us and make a big deal out of it.

Let's take high-level characters who go back to lower-level areas, perhaps to help out a low-level friend and walk them through their first handful of levels, or maybe just because they feel like it. I've had a couple of experiences here that make good examples. In the first, I was killing a boar. The boar was two levels lower than I was and was hardly presenting me with a problem; it was almost dead and I still had most of my hit points left. So this guy who was about three or four times my level comes along, dismisses his mount, and kills the boar in one blow. I thought he did it to be funny, so naturally I laughed. He got very upset; I guess he wanted me to be all impressed with his virility or something.

Then there's the 20th-level mage taking her 7th-level friend through Fargodeep, where I happened to be questing. Every time she passed me she'd kill whatever I was fighting. I imagine she thought she was helping me. However, on none of those occasions was I actually having any trouble. In fact, I think every single time it was a similar situation to the last one: I was a higher level than what I was fighting; it was close to dying; and I had most of my hit points left. She simply assumed that because I was lower-level than she was I must either need or want her help. That's a fairly condescending attitude, and involves a certain amount of stereotyping and generalization (which is a whole 'nother kettle of spoiled fish). Not to mention that it ignores the fact that some of us play for the fun of playing, not just for the cool items and loot money, so it takes away that fun gaming experience from us. I don't mind people stepping in to help when I'm having trouble--in fact I think it's quite nice of them--but there's a difference between that and simply assuming that everyone wants you to save them without even looking at how badly hurt they or their opponents are.

I've had guys try to flirt with me then get very rude when I don't flirt back (once it was fairly entertaining, too, since the reason they didn't get any reply wasn't because I was ignoring them--it's because I was interacting with a merchant and didn't notice their emotes). I've had people challenge me to duels at ridiculous times (when I was turning in quests, interacting with merchants, crafting, AFK) and then become verbally abusive when I declined.

And of course, so many of these people try to justify their behavior with, "it's just a game." Well, yes; because it's a game I like to relax and have fun, not get cursed at, blamed for other people's problems, condescended to, treated like a sex object, and so on. Just because it's an electronic world doesn't give people an excuse for bad behavior. It doesn't mean they have to be on their best behavior, either, but I do expect certain minimum standards of humanity from the people I play with.

Edited to add: I don't want you to think because of the above that World of Warcraft is full of creeps. It's like any other internet community: it's full of variety, and the creeps yell louder than everyone else so they're easier to notice. I've also had a lot of fun there and met some great people.

Which class is best? (WoW)

I'm continually seeing arguments about which character class is "best" (either overall or for PvP) in World of Warcraft. I think discussions of the pros and cons of a class are interesting, but usually these discussions boil down to statements like, "warriors suck for PvP" and "no they don't they own!"; "my rogue beat up two warriors last night," "well my warrior beat up two rogues last night!" and so on. That's pretty useless, in my opinion, and pretty meaningless to boot. ("My class's daddy can beat up your class's daddy!")

The truth is, different people have different play-styles. Different people find different types of play easier or harder. One person will find a rogue's fast-paced intricate style of play very natural, while someone else just won't be able to keep track of all the variables or simply won't be able to master stealth. Another person will be able to make a mage's ranged attacks work in very deadly fashion, while another will find mages unworkably fragile.

You're best off finding out what works best for you rather than asking which class is best. If you want to ask questions, instead ask what the strengths and weaknesses of a class are. Ask what the pros and cons are. Ask people to tell you about their favorite and least favorite aspects of their class. Compare those to your own play-style, and perhaps try a character class out for a few levels to see what you think.

I remember two people arguing about how difficult a particular instance dungeon was. One kept arguing that it was very difficult (and thus a third character was too low-level for it), while a second kept arguing that it was really very easy and that only "a retard" would think it was difficult. Finally I couldn't help myself and broke in with, "good grief. Different players have different play-styles and find different areas difficult or easy. Cope." I didn't actually expect that to end the argument--I was just venting my spleen--but amazingly enough it did.

So ask yourself a different set of questions. What are your strengths and weaknesses as a player? What do you find easier or more difficult? What characterizes your individual play-style? And what are the strengths and weaknesses of the classes you might play? Use that to figure out what's best for you.

Cats and Asthma

We're going to be taking Selene to the vet's on Monday for a long-acting steroid shot; supposedly it'll last for about a month, and hopefully it'll control her coughing. After that we may or may not have to give her antihistamines since they don't like to give steroids too often; apparently they've come up with an interesting way of compounding some medications that involves mixing them into a gel that gets rubbed into the cat's ear. Amazing the things they come up with, and nice to know we aren't the only people who have trouble medicating their cats!

Topic Mishmash 1 (Exercise)

Sometimes it can be tough to sit down and come up with a topic for yet another article, story, essay, column, editorial, or whatever. Today, pick one of the following sources and read or browse through it, skimming articles:

• A newspaper
  
• A magazine
  
• A newsletter
  
• FARK (Warning: ads may contain objectionable material)
  

Take notes on anything at all that catches your eye. Try to take several pages of little notes. Next, go through these notes and make a list of interesting topics. They don't have to be things you necessarily expect or want to write about at this stage--just things that sound interesting. Then apply one of the following questions to each of the items on the list (you can apply different questions to different items if you wish):

• Mix and match items from your list using questions such as, "what if X happened during Y?" or "what if person A was in situation B?"
  
• What happened next?
  
• What could have happened differently?
  
• What are your first three thoughts regarding the situation?
  
• What about the situation caught your interest? How could you expand on that?
  
• How does the situation make you feel?
  

Finally, ask yourself, "what do I feel like writing today?" An essay? An editorial? A journal entry? A short story? The outline of a novel? Do any of the topics you've come up with inspire you in that area?

Medicating Cats

Turns out that Selene has perhaps a very mild bronchial infection with underlying asthma problems. We're supposed to finish out her round of antibiotics and give her a round of prednisone. We already know at this point that we can't pill her. We can't crush up a pill, mix it with water, and give it to her by eyedropper. We can't grind it up and mix it with food. The vets' next suggestion was these nifty new "pill pockets," treats with a pocket in them for pills. She took one sniff and wouldn't even touch them.

Back to the drawing board. *sigh* Supposedly there are long-acting prednisone shots, although they're not as effective.

This is one ornery, clever cat. The vet receipt has a little digital picture of her face on it, that I think they took when they were taking her chest x-rays. She looks so peeved in it. I don't think I've ever seen another cat that could do cranky so well!

Character Situations 1 (Exercise)

One of the exercises I've given you before has involved asking questions of one of your characters (or a character you create for that purpose). Today I present a variation on that theme: putting your character into a situation and seeing what happens. Pick one of the following situations, preferably either something that immediately sparks an idea or something that seems outrageous or unusual for that character, and, with as little thought as possible, put your character in that situation and just start writing the scene:

• Your character is at some sort of meditative retreat.
  
• Your character is being chased by a dangerous beast, and it's closing in.
  
• Your character hasn't slept in three days.
  
• Your character has a garland of unusual flowers on his head.
  

Today I'm waiting for the vet to call and tell us whether Selene has asthma or a bronchial infection. Then I can ask her what we can do to try to medicate this very ornery little girl. We learned something new when we saw the vet Monday: apparently Rexes are popular with the boating community in Maryland because they like to swim! You learn something new every day, I guess. Our vet has nifty digital x-ray stuff, so we got a detailed tour of our cat's chest x-rays. I'm amazed at the amount of space a cat's heart and--in particular--stomach take up.

Variable Endings (Exercise)

In James Scott Bell's "Plot & Structure," he says that one of the best ways to avoid trite turns of plot is to cultivate the sort of imagination that "considers several possibilities before deciding which scene to write." So today, pick up a piece of writing you've been working on, no matter what stage it's in--planning, rough draft, editing, half-done, etc. Pick a plot point and spend at least 10 minutes brainstorming various alternate events or outcomes for that plot point. Go through each of them and evaluate them based on their originality, their ability to hold the reader's interest, and their potential to lead to yet more interesting plot points.

Oh boy... (Cats)

So we took Selene to the vet last night. They took chest x-rays, and she has a bit of fluid in her lungs. She has either asthma or a bronchial infection, it seems, and they're running blood tests to figure out which while we give her antibiotics in case it's an infection.

I kind of hope it's an infection--that's curable. Asthma she'd have to be treated for the rest of her life. :(

Edited to add: ARGH! She's too smart for us. Even when her medication's designed to taste good she notices we've added something to her food and won't touch it. I'll have to call the vet later and see if we can figure out some way to get her to take her antibiotics.

Edited again to add: Sigh. I know the folks at the vet's office mean well. But it doesn't help to grind the pill up, mix it with water, and use an eyedropper to pour it down her throat. We just end up with a lot of liquid antibiotic all over the bathroom and a very angry cat that's foaming at the mouth, poor thing. We've tried everything at this point, I swear. We read articles on pilling your cat. We've looked at photos on the proper technique for holding her. We've tried hiding the supposedly-tasty pill among treats, grinding it and mixing it with canned food (one sniff and she knew not to eat that), and so on. But Rexes are very determined and clever cats.

"Bookstore" Going Away (Burning Void)

For a while we had put up an affiliate bookstore with links to Barnes and Noble and Amazon. It was mostly because we had lots of books we wanted to mention, and it also made a nice way to experiment with the new web site design before we implemented it full-scale. Anyway, now that we've turned so seriously to reviewing, I found that updating the bookstore was mostly just duplicating review content. It made more sense to just let people use the review section to find the books they wanted rather than having two sets of the same material. I've removed the bookstore from the menu, and put in redirects from (in theory) all the pages to various parts of the review area. Also, in cases where I had some good listings of extra books in the bookstore that I haven't reviewed, I added those to the review area. Let me know if I broke anything in the process, please, and thank you for your patience with these changes!

Plot & Structure (Exercise)

I'm reading two books for review right now: Koven's "Going Deeper" as mentioned earlier, and now James Scott Bell's "Plot & Structure." Variety is good, and I really enjoy reading books on writing. I'm crazy that way.

For today's exercise, answer the following questions:

• Why do you write?
  
• What is a plot?
  
• What is a character?
  
• What do you write?
  
• What keeps you writing when you don't want to write?
  

Hefty Serve 'n Store Everyday Tableware (Review)

I just posted a review of Hefty's nifty Serve 'n Store Everyday Tableware. Enjoy!

Pactiv
Hefty
Serve 'n Store
Hefty Serve 'n Store

Zoo (Exercise)

Pick an animal from the zoo. It could be your favorite animal, a random animal, or an animal you're curious about. Do just a little research about the animal if you don't know a lot about it--do a web search or look it up in a recent encyclopedia. Then write a journal entry or vignette from that animal's point of view centering around a day or event at the zoo.

Meet my favorite animals--the cheetahs.


We have an appointment for our own small cat with the vet so we can get her coughing looked into. Apparently feline asthma is not all that uncommon and can sound like constantly trying to cough up a non-existent hairball, so we're a little worried it could be that. The litter was born prematurely and her brother, our other cat, has feline herpes, so they both have a few health problems. If the photos we've been taking come out well we'll finally have some adult photos of them. In the meantime, we do have old kitten photos.

Cornish Rex cats look pretty odd when they're really little, but the older pics are more representative of what they look like now. They have incredibly soft fur and they're really wonderful. We got Rexes because they don't bother my allergies as much as most other breeds do. Some people mistakenly think this is because Rexes are somehow non-allergenic, which isn't the case. It's just that different people respond differently to different breeds, and because they have such short hair it can be easier to control the spread of dander with Rexes.

Fearsome Foursome (Cheetahs!)

We went to the Smithsonian National Zoo this weekend, mostly to stare at the cheetahs. They ran one of the cheetahs, and we sort of got to see one of the litters of cubs from a distance. I took a zillion photos; hopefully some of them will come out well and I'll be able to post them.

We thought that Selene, one of our cats, had been having hairball troubles, but now we think she's actually coughing. So later today I'll need to call the vet and make an appointment to take her in. It could be a respiratory tract infection, or allergies--we already know she has some allergy problems.

We even got a small amount of Stargate SG-1 roleplaying in yesterday. (Woohoo! It's been a while.) Now we just have to do some yard work this week (sigh... never enough time for everything).

Later today I'll post an exercise, and hopefully a couple of reviews as well. Have fun!

Lodge Enamel-Coated Casserole (Review)

I've posted the review of the Lodge Enamel-Coated Cast Iron Casserole. It refers to a particular amusing story; it got a bit of unusual kitchen-testing while we were using it! Rumor has it I'll be getting to review more pieces of Lodge cookware (yay!), so look for more in the future.

In the meanwhile I'm still reading Koven's book (it's a time-consuming read), I have a friend visiting this week, and I've started making recipes from the next review cookbook (by Food Network's Rachael Ray). I look forward to reviewing more soon!

Solo Play in World of Warcraft (WoW)

Sometimes you just want to play an MMORPG like World of Warcraft solo, without a party or guild. Maybe you've just had trouble finding a good one, or you log in at odd times, or you want the relaxation of being able to do whatever you want whenever you want. However, soloing can be difficult. MMORPGs are basically social games, and they're built to reflect that. They encourage reliance on others. So how do you solo comfortably? Here are a few tips:

• Unless you're the kind of player who only feels comfortable playing one main character, create several of widely differing classes in the same faction (Alliance or Horde). For example, create a mage, warrior, rogue, and perhaps a warlock as well. Do your best to spend your talent points in ways that make solo play easier, and try to alternate playing them such that they stay within several levels of each other.
  
• Play to your own strengths as a player and do what you can to account for your weaknesses. Watch what you have trouble with and account for it. For example, I find that when soloing health is a huge problem for me, so I collect stamina-buffing items. I spend talent points on things that increase my chance to hit and crit (so I can kill things as quickly as possible), decrease my chance to be hit or reduce the damage I take, reduce my chance of having spells interrupted by damage, etc.
  
• Make sure to give each character a different set of trade skills, for example: tailoring/enchanting (mage), mining/blacksmithing (warrior), skinning/leatherworking (rogue), herbalism/alchemy (warlock). Aggressively pursue those trade skills, collecting as many recipes as you can and building up your skill level as much as possible.
  
• Have each character support the trade skills of the others. Cloth drops off of most humanoids, so send any useful cloth to the tailor. If you can't sell a magic item send it to the enchanter to be disenchanted. Both blacksmithing and tailoring sometimes require leather, so have the skinner send it to them when necessary. Have your alchemist send potions to everyone else as needed, and have the others send any herbs they loot in return. Looted ores can go to the blacksmith. Patterns go to whoever can use them. Gemstones go to whoever most needs them, or can be kept by the finder until needed later. Please keep in mind if one of your characters joins a group and looting is based on need that no one cares about the needs of your alts (alternate characters), so declare your needs only for that character; it's rude to take more than one character's share of loot for yourself.
  
• Have each character support the monetary needs of the other. Send money where it's needed most at the time, to cover training, etc. I find that giving a character a little extra cash at low-level so they can get decent armor, weapons and training can make a huge difference in their own ability to accumulate cash later.
  
• By aggressively pursuing your trade skills you can satisfy a greater proportion of the armor and weapon needs of your characters without having to buy things or loot them. Mail armor and weapons where they're needed most as you make or find them. Having a variety of characters with different needs aids this, as they don't have to compete for the same things. Keep in mind that it takes about one hour for items to go through the mail and cash arrives nearly instantaneously. Also keep in mind that you can only mail things to members of the same faction (Alliance or Horde) which is why I specified that your characters should all be of the same faction.
  
• Spend some time farming the materials you need in areas that are a level or two below you. Since you're alternating between characters you'll get double experience points most of the time for being in a rest state, so you can collect items, cash, and experience this way without spending as much time dead.
  
• The World of Warcraft website has a page on finding quests for your level that includes a chart describing which areas are suitable for which character levels. If you don't want or can't find a decent group with which to hit the instance dungeons it can be tough to level by going through the appropriate sequence of areas for your race. So, hit the right area for your level for your race, then hit the right area for your level for another race, and so on. Move around doing whatever quests you feel up to until you're ready to move on.
  
• If you spot a particularly good deal for one of your other characters in the auction house then grab it and mail it. It might be gone by the time you log out and log back in again.
  

If I think of anything else I'll add it later, but I hope you find these tips useful if you want to solo in World of Warcraft. Certainly they're strategies that work well for me. You advance a bit slowly this way, but you do advance!

Edited to add: Found a great humor post on the forums this morning. It's worth reading through the partial flame war (or skipping over it) to get to the absolutely hilarious humor bits.

Sentence Variation 3 (Exercise)

Take any of the following words and use them in ten sentences each. Each sentence should express a different complete thought. Try to use the words in ways that are as different as possible.

• Mythological
  
• Strain
  
• Bounce
  
• Polish
  
• Growth
  
• Expert
  

Well the chimney is cleaned, the gutters are cleaned, the chimney cap and flue cap are replaced, and I even made a recipe out of one of the review cookbooks we have (yum!). I plan to review a piece of Lodge cookware later today, and I'll be spending most of the day reading a review book. Hopefully I'll get to do some weeding of the garden, too, since we finally raked leaves and mowed the lawn this weekend.

Delays

I can finally review that Lodge cast iron casserole!

However, we have people coming today to replace the chimney cap (it blew off in the last big storm), clean the chimney, and give us an estimate on cleaning the gutters, so I probably won't get to the review today. Hopefully tomorrow.

I also have an old friend visiting this week, which tends to keep me from getting as much done. :) But we were productive this weekend--we finally raked up all the leaves from the fall, mowed the lawn, and pruned a bunch of bushes. So things are going well.

The cats are most definitely not going to be happy when I put them in the back room to keep them out of the way of the folks cleaning the chimney. I need to get an extra litterbox for downstairs (the basement is finished) so that when we have contractors come they can have the run of a whole floor of the house.

Status Report and Joke/Flirt (Exercise)

Unfortunately I haven't gotten to cook this week as I'd intended, so I can't yet review that Lodge casserole dish (I have one last thing I want to do to it); in theory we'll get to do that tonight or tomorrow.

I got two new cookbooks for review: Rachael Ray's "'Round the Clock: 30-Minute Meals" (which looks amazing!) and "Old-Fashioned Baking Book," which appeals to me as we head into summer. The funny thing is I'm hoping to start back up dieting around now. One might find this ironic, but I think it'll work. I like the Weight Watchers POINTS system precisely because you can eat just about anything you want as long as you eat the bad stuff in small amounts and balance it heavily with good stuff. It's worked well for me before, so I expect it will again. It actually took a long time for me to start regaining the weight I lost last time, and I'm still about 30 pounds lighter than I was at my heaviest. But I have some minor comfort issues that I find are alleviated by reducing my weight, so that makes good incentive. Now I just need to start getting some exercise again...

I'm in the middle of Jean-Clude Koven's "Going Deeper," the next review book on my stack, which is a bizarre and interesting read. I'll save any more commentary for when I'm done with it, but I will say that this man does have an engaging and lively writing style which could make almost anything an interesting read.

Today's Exercise: In the World of Warcraft strategy manual it says that if you use the "/silly" and "/flirt" commands for a given race and gender of character a handful of times and listen to the jokes and entertaining flirts that result, you'll get an idea of whether the race's style would appeal to you. I only mostly agree with that, since I only really like about half of the human female ones and hate the other half, but enjoy playing human females. However, to a certain extent it does show some surprising insight. You can learn a lot about someone by the jokes they tell and the ways in which they flirt. So, take a character from a fictional world (one of your own if you're a fiction writer, or come up with one on the spot) and free-write about their style of joking and/or flirting. If you want, write up a scene or three that shows us how the character jokes or flirts.

Word Jumble 3 (Exercise)

Take any of the following sets of words (or a set you create yourself). Set a timer for 10 or 15 minutes and freewrite using those words as inspiration. Try to use them all in the piece of writing, or simply combine the concepts and free-associate off of that.

• Memory, death, renewal
  
• Love, mail, connection
  
• Bully, lunchtime
  
• Severe, sunshine, complete
  

You can either just start writing and see what emerges or use one of the following formats:

• Short story
  
• A fictional character's journal entry
  
• A dialogue between characters
  
• Memoir
  

It's a warm, sunny day today. I've started in on the next review book, Jean-Claude Koven's "Going Deeper," which is an interesting read so far. It's also rather big, so it will probably take a little time. I also picked up the World of Warcraft Strategy Guide and will review that at some point as well.

My Rules for MMORPG Pick-Up Groups (WoW)

1) Never accept a group invite from someone who sends you an invite without so much as saying one word to you first. I tried giving people the benefit of the doubt for a while, but not once did it work out well. I finally came to a conclusion about why: If someone's social skills are lacking enough that they don't realize that it might be wise to at least ask someone if they want to team up, or ask them what they're actually working on, or whatever, before teaming up with them, then they probably aren't going to be fun to work with.

2) People make mistakes. Someone might accidentally press the wrong key, or get distracted, or miss seeing something, or momentarily forget a detail of how something works. Don't simply assume that they don't know what they're doing unless they keep making the same mistakes over and over or the things that they say indicate a lack of knowledge. If you team up with someone and they find it necessary to patiently explain in great detail exactly what you're doing wrong and the very basics of how your abilities work every time you make the slightest mistake, it's probably time to find a new party member.

3) Things go wrong--it happens. It's easy to mis-judge distances and accidentally pull an extra mob or some such thing. Sure, if someone's constantly doing the same thing wrong over and over and won't respond to pleas to do otherwise then you have a problem. But if you constantly blame your party-mates any time anything goes wrong, they aren't going to want to group with you.

4) Remember you're on a team. Teamwork is important. If you aren't coordinating well it's time to come up with plans for how you can do so--not simply toss blame around. Come up with loot-sharing rules you can all agree on (or at least settle on). Try to find compromises that make everyone happy.

5) "It's just a game" is something that it is important to remember; getting killed may be inconvenient, but it isn't the end of the world. Mistakes may make things more difficult, but they aren't the end of the world. However, "It's just a game" is not a valid excuse for behaving badly, nor a valid reason why people should have to put up with bad behavior.

Yes, this is spurred on by a particular experience, in addition to a handful of general ones. One of my more frustrating experiences happened last night. Someone asked to join up with a group I was in. He proceeded to take over, giving orders and telling everyone how to do things. Fine, okay, he had some grasp of strategy, so we were willing to let him do that. However, where we drew the line was when he constantly told everyone how to do their jobs, what they were doing wrong in great detail, and blamed them for every little thing that went wrong (even when he was the one who charged ahead and attacked things without warning, or didn't let anyone know who he was attacking, and so on). He was incredibly self-righteous and patronizing and had an attitude of "I know everything"--yet couldn't communicate worth beans and couldn't understand why anyone objected to his attitude.

I really enjoy World of Warcraft and have met some people through it who are truly fun to game with. But I've noted some patterns in the people who turn fun gaming experiences into exercises in frustration. They're the people who don't understand how to deal with others. You can often recognize them by their lack of social skills, evidenced by things like failing to ask before inviting you to a group, assuming stupidity in everyone around them, insisting "it's just a game" as a reason to excuse bad behavior but taking anything you do or say way too seriously at the same time, and so on.

Don't be one of these people. Remember that you're dealing with real people behind the characters you see on the screen, and that you have to treat them as such.


Edited the next day to add: We went back to the same place a day later without said obnoxious person because we still needed to complete the quest there. We were worried about trying it with one less person, but thought it was worth a shot. In fact, without the person who kept insisting that we were the ones causing all the problems, we were able to complete the quest without a hitch and without dying once! I find that rather satisfying.

Speaking Up (Review/Exercise)

"Speaking Up: What to Say to Your Boss and Everyone Else Who Gets on Your Case," By Mark Ruskin, is one of the most useful books I've ever read. I'm serious here. Go get it. If everyone read this book, the world would be a slightly better place--and I don't tend to say that about much of anything.

Today's Exercise: Think about the last conversation you had that really went badly. Write down as much of it as you can remember. Now, write an alternative version of that conversation in which you thought of better things to say and kept things from blowing up out of hand. If you're a fiction writer, imagine one of your more socially competent characters in this sort of situation and ask yourself, "what would she say?" If you're a fiction writer you can also create some other versions of this exercise, such as writing out versions of the conversation displaying all of the ways in which it could go wrong--after all, so many good plot twists hinge on misunderstandings, miscommunications, arguments, anger, and so on.

"All criticism ... is useful."

I'm in the middle of reading a book on dealing with difficult people (Mark Ruskin's "Speaking Up"), and it has a chapter on "taking your lumps," or dealing with criticism. One of the things the author says is:

[Y]ou should not let criticism roll off your back. You should not armor yourself against it. You should not ignore it. Negative though it is, you should accept criticism as an opportunity. ... Please entertain the following notion: All criticism, even unmerited criticism, is useful to you.

He goes on from there, explaining how such criticism can be useful, and I look forward to saying more when I review the book after I'm finished reading it. One of the things I've always found disturbing about many writers (and everyone else, really) is how poorly they handle any kind of criticism. Tell someone you don't like some teeny-tiny aspect of how they did something and they're liable to completely flip out and dismiss you out of hand.

I got an entire article once out of how to handle being reviewed, in which I pointed out that not only can you often learn something from the criticism you receive, but other people are entitled to hold opinions about your work that you disagree with. You wouldn't want someone to tell you how to feel about a book, for example (and would probably be pretty angry if they tried), and you shouldn't tell someone else how they're "allowed" to feel about your work either. Sure, the comments I've gotten on my work from editors and reviewers have really stung sometimes, and I haven't always agreed with them. But I've also learned an awful lot from them.

In short, I'm really impressed with this book. It not only teaches people how to handle difficult people and situations, but also works to make the people reading it much easier to deal with as well. It teaches you to approach situations as problems to be solved, not confrontations to be had, and that's invaluable. I'm really enjoying this man's work.

Strawberry Buttermilk Cooler (Recipe and Exercise)

I thought I'd share our recipe for strawberry buttermilk cooler--an incredibly simple recipe that works equally well as a rich beverage or a first-course fruit soup. It's one of those recipes that seems much more impressive than the effort it takes to make it, so it's wonderful to serve to guests.

Today's Exercise: Make a list of some of your favorite dishes, preferably about ten of them. Pick out the ones that have very ordinary names that purely describe the dish, like macaroni and cheese. Sit for a moment and imagine each one in turn, picking out significant details about how they look, taste, smell, feel on the tongue, make you feel, etc. Now try to come up with at least one imaginative name for each recipe.

There are all sorts of ways that people tend to name recipes. For example, some might use the name of the person who created it ("Amalie's Amazing Apple Appetizer"). As the previous example also shows, devices such as alliteration aren't out of the question either. Instead you might go by appearance; perhaps a macaroni and cheese dish uses yellow cheddar and has additional cheddar sprinkled on top that browns a bit in the oven, and you decide to name it "Golden Sands Macaroni and Cheese." You don't have to come up with something elegant and lovely that would look great on a five-star restaurant's menu; the point is just to play around and get your creative juices flowing.

Kenmore coffee maker review!

I just posted a review of our Kenmore coffee maker. Enjoy.

This weekend we saw our first ant in the kitchen. After our experience in our last house, which had a carpenter ant infestation, we kind of went nuts cleaning as soon as we saw it. We cleaned out every cupboard, cleaned up the counters, cleaned the floor, etc. It was reassuring--we didn't see any other ants, nor any sign that anything in the cupboards had spilled or leaked, so hopefully it was just an anomaly. Regardless we should get a pest control guy out here; our county is notorious for pest problems, particularly termites. There are also supposed to be black widows in the area, which let me tell you, thrills me to no end (yes, that's my sarcastic voice).

We used the rush of energy to also start cleaning up the yard and pruning things, which felt good. I've started digging up weeds--our tree is apparently attempting to multiply, be fruitful, and take over the entire front yard. We even took the mower in for its yearly tuneup so we can finally mow next week. Yay! I feel so productive. And sleepy...

Character Questions 3 (Exercise)

When you're answering questions about a character, there's nothing that says you have to simply write out dry answers. Your character exploration could take almost any form: a short story, an interview of the character, a diary entry written by the character, an internal monologue, a flashback, a dialogue with someone the character knows, etc. With that in mind, here are today's character questions:

• Imagine you've opened up your character's photo album to a random page. What photos do you find?
  
• What was your character's worst experience with an animal? How has it affected her view of that animal?
  
• What one thing most frightens your character, and how does she handle it?
  

In other news, I'm working on reading a book about speaking up to difficult people (for review), and over the next couple of weeks I'll be making some recipes out of cookbooks I want to review. I'm also making a last couple of recipes in a Lodge casserole dish that I'll be reviewing, and I have every intention of reviewing our new coffee maker later today.

Why I'm Addicted to World of Warcraft (WoW)

I think I've finally figured out why I'm so addicted to World of Warcraft. You see, I have this bird-like fascination with shiny objects. Always have, and probably always will. When I was little all I cared about in a toy was whether it was colorful and nifty and could be played with. Didn't matter if it was dolls or robots, Barbie or Transformers--if it was colorful and collectible and came in a million varieties, I was there.

I think that's why I love WoW. The landscape changes from area to area. The trade skills let you make hundreds of different items. The items all look different and nifty. You can learn tens of interesting skills, spend your talent points in so many different ways. You can design characters to look different every time. And each time they issue a patch, there are more different items, faces, hair styles, quests, etc.

In other words, it's a shiny thing.