What has my attention this week?
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Book: Your Idea Machine by William C. Martell
I stumbled onto Martell’s Screenwriting Blue Book Series when researching for a new series on dialogue I plan to start over on Helping Writers Become Authors next year. Based on the covers, the series doesn’t look like much, and they’re ridiculously riddled with typos. But the info is excellent. The two books I’ve now read in the series, including this one, are both packed with useful, insightful, and hands-on writing information. I’m not generally a big fan of writing exercises, but Martell consistently offers some of the most applicable I’ve ever seen. If you can get past the horrible presentation, they’re well worth reading.
TV: Smallville, Season 1
Superman has never been my favorite superhero, but what can I say? I’m a sucker for this stuff. Plus, I adore origins stories. I’m just about finished with Season 1, and my overall reaction is ambivalent-but-growing-toward-interested. It started out pretty corny (which seems appropriate for the Kansas setting, right?), but it’s steadied out over the course of the season. It’s still not brilliant by any means, but I see the potential for something really good, especially as I hear they get rid of the villain-of-the-week approach in later seasons. Of course, I want Lana to die and Lex to be redeemed—and I know that’s not gonna happen…
Music: Leverage by Lyriel
I get all the myriad subgenres of metal mixed up. I think you call this one folk metal—from German band Lyriel. I just call it wonderful. Great driving melodies, soaring vocals, and chewy lyrics. To me, this is “story” music. It makes my imagination start spinning every time, so of course I like it!
Food: The Best Macaroni and Cheese Recipe Ever
A few weeks ago when I shared my daily routine, someone asked me what my macaroni recipe was. Today, I’m going to share it, because I really am hopped up about it. I adore macaroni and cheese. It’s squishy and warm and salty and gooey—best of all the food groups! But I’ve struggled for forever’n’ever to find a homemade recipe that measured up. Usually, the homemade ones end up being way too liquidy and not gooey enough to suit me. So I experimented, and this simple beauty is what I came up with.
Your favorite and mine: mac and cheese.
Ingredients: Pasta, cheddar cheese, heavy whipping cream, Parmesan cheese, pepper, garlic-stuffed olives (optional).
Instructions: Mix cooked pasta and lots of cheddar cheese. Then pour heavy whipping cream over it (just enough to make it moist) and stir in with a couple good shakes of Parmesan cheese. (Basically, I’m just adding a white sauce to the cheese.) Add ground pepper and sliced garlic-stuffed olives. Bake until gooey. Yumzers!
Style: Jamberry Nail Wraps
I fell in love with Jamberry last year. Unlike nail polish, these adhesive wraps come in all kinds of stylish designs, last for three or more weeks with zero touch-ups (on your toes at least) , and don’t involve nasty chemicals such as those in nail polish and nail polish remover. This is my last batch for the summer: Flapper style.
Cute Animal I Want This Week:
Photo Credit: Freeimages.com/Mehmet Goren
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6 Things I’m Watching, Listening To, Eating This Week
6 Things That Have My Attention This Week
6 Things I’m Reading, Watching, Eating This Week
6 Things That Have My Attention This Week
Suggestion for your cute animal list: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAuMg2h_sDk
Well, how about that! It really is adorable!
Six things that have my attention this week:
1/ KINDRED by Octavia E. Butler
2/ Homeland, Session 2
3/ tonikom, Seeking the Lost Mind
4/ gnocchi and pretty much anything
5/ EEEK!! Katies painted toenails! 😛
6/ Kangaroo rat
I keep wanting to try gnocchi–especially now that I know how to pronounce it.
I’m also wondering why we can’t post with pictures. Our posts would be better with pictures! 😛
I think you can *if* the pic is hosted elsewhere and your use the code < img src = "URL" > –but without the spaces.
Edit: Whoops. WordPress won’t show the code when I put the spaces in. So you’ll need to know HTML to do it.
1. The Memory of Running by Ron McLarty
2. Modern Family – Season Two
3. “Now” by Joywave
4. My Wife’s Spaghetti (I’m a simple man)
5. (This section intentionally left blank)
6. Three-toed sloth
Is your sloth named Sid? 😉
.. Cheeky Katie. Cheeky.
Love the bunny! I want one!
1. The Last Policeman (Novel) by Ben Winters
2. Hatch Green Chilis are here. Crock Pot Beef stew with Green Chili Sauce.
3. The chipmunk who lives in my deck’s storage closet. He likes sunflower seeds.
4. An Epic Fantasy music mix on You Tube. (Brunuhville)
5. The Bridge, a Swedish murder mystery series on Netflix DVD
6. Decided to cut my hair short again.
Awww! You have *real* cute animal of the week. *jealous*
Book: The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins – Talk about an author bringing characters to life. Paula’s made me feel like I intimately know these people… or that I’m becoming these people.
TV: So You Think You Can Dance on Fox – I look like a rabid beast when I dance, but I love watching others emote their uniqueness through music.
Music: Ben Howard’s Every Kingdom – After experiencing a one-of-a-kind writing conference last weekend, this album helps recapture much of the emotions I experienced at it.
Food: Grits – Had some for the first time in Tennessee this past weekend. Wow, great stuff.
Style: Polos and no suit jackets – I’ve been dressing down this past week and it’s been a solid change-up.
Cute animal of the week: Unicorns – A friend says I must own one because a few wonderful things went my way this week. Holler if you know what to feed these guys…
What to feed unicorns? Rainbows, of course. 😉
Great idea for a blog post. I look forward to reading more.
Thanks for stopping by!
1. Book: Johannes Cabal the Detective by Jonathan L. Howard. – Whimsical and fun.
2. Music: Diabolical Streak by Jill Tracy – Her voice is delicious and chilling.
3. Chocolate Chunk Muffins (or are they cupcakes?)
4. Games: Spinning some fantastic tales at the RPG tables at the Strategicon Game convention this weekend in L.A.
5. Mangoes
6. Book: Behold the Dawn. (I’m halfway through and enjoying it, in fact, I’m inspired to do a bit of fan art, with your permission.)
Well, how cool is that? Of course you have my permission–if I get to see it! 😀
Cheers, I’ll let know once it is finished.
The hubs and I just got NCIS Season 11 on DVD. We don’t have cable or Hulu or such, so we only watch “TV” when we can get the shows we love on DVD. NCIS is a long-time fave, and I’m trying to multitask by taking it as both entertainment and a lesson in developing complex, interesting characters.
Otherwise, watch-wise, I’m (not very) patiently waiting for The Man From U.N.C.L.E. to release on DVD and show up at the Redbox.
I missed U.N.C.L.E. in the theater too, but it looks like a ton of fun. Armie Hammer is hilarious.
I fess; I saw it on Monday past. 😛 And it was funny; in places, hysterical. I wasn’t expecting any of it, but it wasn’t an unpleasant surprise. A bit like a quirky book I’m slowly reading. 😉
Ah, that’s great to hear! On both counts. 😉
1. Finally got to watch Avengers: Age of Ultron. Very satisfying overall, although I would’ve like more screentime for some characters. I can’t blame the writing, it was a hard task. A bit worried about Civil War in this regard.
2. Finished Stephen King’s On Writing in a few days. Really loved King’s relaxed and casual tone. Neat writing advice, I was glad to notice I was following some of it instinctively.
3. I really should read the Fountainhead more, before I forget the events of the first 150 pages.
4. Watched 3 idiots, indian movie. Never laughed so much in a long time. The leading actors is in his late forties but looks like a 20 year old guy, which is exactly his character. Surreal.
5. Listened to the various songs in the Metal Gear Solid V trailers, very enjoyable and a bit of an earworm for some.
6. Played an hour of Metal Gear Solid 3 after two months of hiatus. Way too busy these days.
Nice conglomeration! I really need to see Ultron again. I was pretty disappointed in it when viewing it in the theaters, but maybe it’ll sink in better on re-viewing.