Only anarchists are pretty...

I give you...Puppet New Moon:



And if you haven't seen its predecessor, check out Twilight The Puppet Saga.

Both come from the mad genius of my old pal Spooky Dan.

Enjoy.

For Thanksgiving yesterday, I decided to try my hand at making cranberry sauce. Turns out cranberry sauce is ridiculously simple/easy to make. I used this recipe from Epicurious:

Cranberry Sauce with Crystallized Ginger
Bon Appétit | December 1990

Yield: Serves 12

2 12-ounce bags cranberries
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup orange juice
1 cup water
1 tablespoon grated orange peel
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 cup (about 2 ounces) minced crystallized ginger

Combine first 6 ingredients in heavy medium saucepan. Bring to boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Boil until cranberries pop, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Cool. Mix in crystallized ginger. (Can be prepared 3 days ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)

I used ruby red grapefruit juice instead of orange juice. It turned out lovely. :)

I'm thankful for a great many things today and always: Family, friends, good fortune, everything. And as I head off to my mum's place to help make and eat an overabundance of food, I'll leave you with a couple of tweets that sort of sum up my feelings on this holiday.

From Professor Melissa Harris Lacewell:

"Happy Thanksgiving! A true USA holiday... Troubling, racist, imperalist beginnings but a damn fine party nonetheless."

And from writer Warren Ellis:

"Here in Britain, of course, it's Thank Fuck We Got Those Weird Jesus Bastards On The Boat Day"

Cheers!

None.

I believe people, kids and teens included, should be able to read what they wish and make up their own minds about what they read.

I've actually given this question a lot of thought. Thinking about such issues is probably a by-product of being into supernatural fiction, fantasy, sci-fi, etc. I've narrowed it down to a top 3 super-powers that I'd be really happy to have (in theory - you know these powers all have side-effects, etc., that no one ever talks about):

1 - Teleportation. I love to travel. If I could travel without the cost and hassle of flying/driving/taking the train, that would be fabulous. If I could leave my apartment to get places about a minute before I'm supposed to be there instead of calculating how long it will take, that would be great. BUT - I would still choose the journey sometimes...one does discover things on the way.

2 - Time stoppage. If I could just stop time when my alarm goes off, then grab another hour or 2 of sleep, that would rock. Same when I'm coming up on a deadline and just need more time. But I bet it would be creepy to have the whole world stopped around you...

3 - Buffy-esque strength. I'd love the ability to take on all comers, and the feeling of not having to walk down the street scared of what might happen. The accompanying responsibility to fight crime would be something I think I could take.

Have a nice weekend, all...

As ever on this Veterans Day, to all those who serve and who have served, especially (for me) my family and friends, thank you.

The passage of the Stupak Amendment has soured any positive feelings I might have had about the passage of the health care reform bill in the House of Representatives. See my Twitter page for more reaction.

For those who don't understand why I'm furious and downright sick about this, check out the full text of the amendment. Here's what jumps out at me:

No funds authorized or appropriated by this Act (or an amendment made by this Act) may be used to pay for any abortion or to cover any part of the costs of any health plan that includes coverage of abortion

Can you see how broad that is? As Planned Parenthood states: "The Stupak/Pitts amendment would result in a new restriction on women’s access to abortion coverage in the private health insurance market, undermining the ability of women to purchase private health plans that cover abortion care, even if they pay for most of the premium with their own money."

Make no mistake: House Dems (65 of them) that voted for this amendment have voted to throw women, especially poor women, under the bus in order to be able to say they passed health care reform.

This is it. When I re-register to as a Michigan voter, I will be registering as Independent. If the Democratic Party refuses to fight for me, then I refuse to fight for it.

This seems to happen with more and more frequency as I get older. I find out that someone to whom I used to be somewhat close, someone with whom I've lost touch, has passed on. And I feel this sort of gentle, yet building, wave of regret that I didn't find a way to stay close, or get back in touch.

So...Stuart. You were a friend in the giddy old days, when we would stay out all night at clubs and house parties, doing lots of substances represented by initials that were so bad for us but felt damned good at the time. You were someone I had a good time with for so many nights back in the mid/late 90s. You were someone I knew I could trust and feel safe with in terms of letting go of control and inhibitions back then, which was a sometimes-rare thing. You were the guy it was so easy to get silly with, and who just appreciated people, all people. I remember one night when we were hanging with our usual affection, and we talked about you being gay and my being straight, and you smiled and shrugged and said, "I just like cute people." A simple little statement, but one that said something about your openness and disposition. I remember running into you years later in Chicago, and us being happy to see each other, but distant. Time had passed, and the days weren't so giddy anymore, and that reckless abandon with which we'd lived life before was replaced, as it should have been, by cautious sensibility. I thought at the time that maybe we'd never had much in common beyond partying. I wonder now if we would have found common ground beyond partying if we'd tried. I don't know. Now we'll never know.

Goodbye, Stuart. I wish I'd had the chance to know you again before you left. You were a bright light when I knew you. I hope you're in a better place now.

Just a couple. :)

Friday night: She-Hulk:



Saturday night: Gothy-girl:

To get in the spirit of things...here are a few of my favorite fun clips that join 2 of my favorite things: Horror/spookiness and Muppets.

This year's Halloween mix is finished, and, if I do say so myself, it rocks. Thanks to Hype Machine for helping me find tracks I didn't already have (and turning me on to some new artists).

( Halloween Mixes 2009 )

Halloween plans:

Tonight:
-House party
-Perhaps Control at Rocky's

Tomorrow:
-Perhaps Bowloween at The Clique
-KH gig in E. Lansing

I'll be in my She-Hulk costume tonight:


But I still haven't decided if I can handle being green tomorrow night, too. I may just fall into my old standby: Gothing out and being my evil twin.

Have a spooky weekend, all! I'll have this year's Halloween mix listing up later today (hopefully).

U.S. LJers: The Great Pumpkin is on tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern on ABC. The Peanuts pumpkin patch is most sincere, I'm sure.

But of course:

You Are a Vampire

Like a vampire, you can be a bit cold and heartless at times. You are very calculating. You think with your head, and you know better than to follow your heart. While you are as thick skinned and resourceful as a vampire, you aren't necessarily as evil. You can easily manipulate people into doing what you want. Whether you actually choose to manipulate them or not is a different matter.

Hmmm...not quite (but I do like white pumpkins):

You Are a White Pumpkin

You are sweet, cute, and a delight to see. People seem to instantly adore you when they meet you. You believe that life's too short to be negative. You always have a smile on your face and a skip in your step. You see the best in others. In fact, you tend to be easier on people than they are on themselves. You love it when the people you're closest to are happy. You'll do what you can to support your friends... whether that means being a cheerleader or a therapist.

Maybe?

You See Halloween as Scary

You are an outgoing person who's a bit of a showoff. It's likely that you dress up for Halloween every year. You definitely think of yourself as someone who has a dark side. And part of having that dark side means not showing it. Your inner child is stubborn and a bit bossy. You truly fear the dark side of humanity. You are a true misanthrope. You're prone to be quite emotional and over dramatic. Deep down, you enjoy being scared out of your mind... even if you don't admit it. You are a traditionalist with most aspects of your life. You like your Halloween costume to be basic, well made, and conventional enough to wear another year.

I just made spicy peanut noodles using this recipe from Food & Wine.

Of course, me being me, I played around with the recipe a bit: Could not find toasted sesame oil at the store to save my life, wasn't wanting to mess around with the fresh ginger and garlic this time, and am not a fan of celery or cilantro. So I found some sesame sauce from Ty Ling that contains soy sauce, garlic, ginger and sesame oil (among other things) and substituted that for the sesame oil, soy sauce, garlic and ginger in the recipe. I left out the cilantro and celery (but would maybe throw in some carrots in the future). Not having a blender , I melted the peanut butter in the microwave to make it more liquid, and mixed the sauce by hand with a whisk.

It turned out well, and I'm liking the sneaky spiciness that contrasts with the sweet, salty and nutty flavors. Not quite as good as my favorite restaurant cold noodles in Chicago, but a pretty damned good substitute.

(If you decide to make this, remember that once the sauce cools, it tends to solidify, because of the peanut butter. If it's too solid to mix when you get it out of the fridge the next day, shake the noodles in their container to remix it. Or heat it up to mix it.)

It's a funny thing.

If someone hurts me, I do to eventually forgive and will likely end up at least on civil terms with that person. (I almost never forget, but then, I'm the sort of person who remembers most things.)

If, however, someone hurts a loved one? THAT is when I hold a major grudge, and I'm quite likely to cut the person who hurt my loved one out of my life completely.

If it's just corny, it'll get a groan out of me, which is good enough for most people.

If, however, it's not merely corny, but offensive in some way, I try to speak up, even if only to say I don't find those sort of jokes funny.

DO YOU REMEMBER THESE FILMS? At of the height of the razors-in-apples hysteria, films like these ruined Halloween in classrooms everywhere. Now it's Art of Bleeding's turn to slash and adulterate...

Win.

Via caseystratton:

Taken from the randomly generated Infinite Teen Slang Dictionary.
Look up another word:-

Never doubt that I will artemiswinter all over your ass.

The best thing I've read today, hands down. Ah, autumn, how I love thee...