One of the things I really enjoyed in Mexico was a vegetarian pepper-free pozole.  Being someone who is capsicum-free, it left me with the sensation of mexican food but without the rosacea flare.

Herewith my experiment in creating something like it but with chicken.

Ingredients:

• 6 cups of vegetable or chicken stock
  
• 1 large can of tomatillos or 1-2lbs fresh ones
  
• 1 medium onion
  
• 1 bunch cilantro
  
• 1 tsp oregano
  
• 1 tsp cumin
  
• 1 tsp ground coriander
  
• black pepper and salt to taste
  
• 4-5 cloves of garlic
  
• 2 cans of hominy (if you need to avoid corn, roasting a bunch of small chunks of potato could be substituted for a hominy-adjacent effect)
  
• 2-3 chicken breasts or if you're vegetarian, either canned or freshly cooked dried blackbeans.
  
• limes
  
• cabbage (I used a bag of pre-shredded "cole slaw mix" because I am lazy AF)
  
• avocados
  
• radishes
  

Instructions:

If using chicken breasts -- poach them in your stock. Remove from stock, let cool to shred.

If using fresh tomatillos, oven roast them until they're mushy and bubbling with a bit of browning, if not, just open a can

In a pan, toast up your garlic, add your spices, drop these in a blender with the tomatillos, some of the stock and half the bunch of cilantro. Puree. This should turn a very bright green.

Drop the puree into the rest of the stock, add the thinly sliced onions, shredded chicken (if you're doing that) and hominy or potatoes. Simmer until the onion is translucent and the broth is a less bright green.

To serve,

1. Put a pile of cabbage in a bowl
   
2. Add beans if you choose them (you could add beans directly to the broth, I just wanted mine more flexibly available for other things so I kept them out)
   
3. Ladle soup over greens and beans
   
4. Garnish with avocado, more fresh cilantro, some thinly sliced radish and a bit of black pepper
   
5. Squeeze lime over the lot.
   

Obviously anyone who can eat capsicum and wants peppers can roast them with the tomatillos and puree some or all of them controlling for heat. This may not be "pozole" from the pt of view of a purist who insists on peppers and heck if you take hominy out, pozole is officially the hominy part -- but it's yummy and I'm currently eating the heck out of it.

I haven't. I've been going to work each day, going to physical therapy twice a week, brain therapy twice a month, karaoke kids weekly or more, wrapping up the home renovations, organizing brunch club, trying to get back into yoga now that I'm allowed, and all the other things.

 Today I was thinking about being the part of GenX raised on media singularly derisive of compassion and "hippie" values like tolerance and peace. How even given a steady drumbeat of how loser those peaceniks were, I remain shocked and disgusted by how cruel Republicans are.

This is Archer. He is a Bergamansco Shepherd. 

Yes, he is covered in dreadlocks, which protect his delicate skin. They swing like curtains when he runs and flop like cheerleader pompons when he frolics, which is often. If you get your fingers in between his dreads and give his skin skritchies, he will love you and love you. He is the sweetest boy. Or, one of them, anyway. It's really hard to get a picture of him because he runs around playing so much. 

I'm really struggling with an article I'm trying to write for work. 
Matthew presented me with some data he wanted me to use in an article about what podcasts do for your brain. The data has no citation or explanation of how it was gathered. The information simply said, "there's a famous study where people had to listen to the 'I Have a Dream' speech and the study found that when people listened to it, they were more engaged and remembered more details when they listened to audio only, rather than watching and listening to a video."
Again, nothing to back this up. Were the participants in an MRI machine? Did they self-report afterwards? Who did the study, and when? 
I've been beating myself up trying to find a reputable, consistent study that proves audio is more memorable than video. Turns out, it's not true. They're stored in different kinds of memory in different ways.  Citations available upon request. It took me over a week to get this info because I'm using Duck Duck Go. 

Last night, I was so frustrated that I made this video. It's about eight and a half seconds long. Watch this, then close your eyes, and ask yourself: 
What did I hear? (and, if the question applies, how many?)
​​​​​​​What did I see?  (and, if the question applies, how many?) 

Your answer will help me figure out this effing article and stop obsessing about this section of the article. 
​​​​​​​Further details as events warrant.

My dog is farting up a storm. 

Heavy clouds came through and a rain storm slid right past us. Instead, we got this: 

Nature is wild. 

Taking the Odyssey (Thaddeus' ship which he named after an old book he found in the ruins of a library on Lullingstone) out of hyperdrive, Thaddeus navigates his ship toward a giant cloud covered planet. "This must be Ventura."

Finding a safe corridor between the clouds, the Odyssey twists and turns between dark clouds and lightning bolts until it finds its way to solid ground. The landing gear deploys and the ship lands with a soft bump. The crew breathes a collective sigh of relief as they emerge from the safety of the ship, stepping out onto the alien landscape of the storm-wracked planet.

The landscape stretches out before them, shrouded in swirling mists. Flashes of lightning dance across the sky and the faces of the crew. Dark clouds loom overhead, casting shadows that play across the rugged terrain. Despite the chaos of the storms, there is a certain stark majesty about it; jagged rock formations jut up from the ground, and valleys below them seem to be carved by relentless winds. The air feels charged with electricity, like lightning is crackling within the very molecules of air they breathe. And the booming thunder is almost melodious in its rhythmic certainty.

Amidst the scene, one of the crew members draws Thaddeus's attention to a distant light flickering in the darkness. Squinting against the swirling mist, Thaddeus can just make out the faint glow of a ship approaching through the storm. As it draws nearer, it becomes clear that something is indeed making its way towards the landing site.

Starlog of Paladin Roach as told by chadnorth:

Having unloaded a cargo of daggits to brokers on Diamond ‘Captain’ Roach now decides to use all of Precious’ fuel to accept a cargo of pilgrims to the planet Rapelje on the Outer Rim. The cargo consists of about 27 adolescent females robed in red with white hoods to be delivered to the Central Temple of Joris (the hierophant). As expected the trip is concluded with his normal precision (they made it). There was a parade planned for all of the newcomers as few travelers come out this far. Paladin is uninterested in the fanfare. He does not seek an audience with Rapeljeins nor does he provide a grateful donation; he thinks delivering the pilgrims with their virginity intact is more than sufficient especially after such a long trip.

Upon collecting payment he heads for the nearest hostel. While on Rapelje a lone figure dressed in black arrives at night and offers up a fair price for his next delivery.

Extremely bored while waiting for a landing clearance that may never arrive, Willy Minmax uses his time in Gondilly orbit to negotiate with the owner of the pointless scissors.  Willy manages to talk a gentleman named "Rip Higgs" down from "heavily discounted, free on board Gondilly" to "on consignment".  Why the seller would feel comfortable putting his goods onto a confessed "tramp steamer" is not disclosed, but Willy promises to do his best and return with the profits as soon as practicable.  Suspicion and regret fill his mind, despite the far greater justification for Mr. Higgs to own such feelings.

Do any of you recall my brief attempt at NaNo back in 2022? I've been thinking about that a lot lately.

Why? Well, it's because I'm being... condescending. Not my proudest moment, but if I can't be honest with you folks, who can I be honest with?!

Condescending how, you ask?

Well, I've been listening to a lot on Audible recently. (Yes, I know there are other, ostensibly better audio book storefronts out there. Yes, I should give them my business.) Like, A LOT of audio books. I stopped listening to podcasts altogether for a few months. That dumped a lot of listening time back into my schedule. On top of that, the hours for this 'new' job are... significantly longer.

If I'm doing the math right, I've listened to 42 books since starting the job in November. Some of these are pretty lengthy.

All but two of them are in the LitRPG genre.

I'm kinda fascinated by what I'm hearing. Partly because it fits that ooooold fantasy trope that I so enjoy - someone from 'the real world' going to a fantasy world. This trope is not the newest thing in the world (the Guardians of the Flame series was one of my favorites as a kid) but the LitRPG genre is at least new to me.

So I'm making a little 'study' of the genre. Trying to figure out the similarities and differences between the different authors. Figuring out what the audience of the genre expect.

From what I can piece together, the LitRPG genre is to fantasy novels as streaming is to video game playing. There's this sense of 'no real start or stop - just follow along with out hero on the adventure!'.

Some series even seem to eschew the whole 3 act format. More than once, I found myself surprised by the Audible Guy saying "Audible hopes you have enjoyed this program." Side note: if you see me in person? Ask for my imitation of that guy. I have heard so many audio books, I feel like I can actually nail his every nuance.

What's more, the writing is... not amazing. Some series are better than other, for certain. And the voice actors really help here. Still.

Seeing it yet?

My NaNo thing was fun for me in part because I used a randomizer to create a kind of prompt for that day's writing. That, in turn, made the whole thing a bit like a solo TTRPG for me.

And I think that the audience for the genre is so hungry for MOAR they don't care that it's not as polished. Call it the YouTube-ification of novel writing.

I say all of this to simply say that I write moderately well during my first draft of most creative writing.

In other words "I could do that. Maybe better than that."

A novel series (especially in an audio format) is obviously a looong way out. If I was to get a three book series completed, it would arguably be the biggest accomplishment of my life.

But I'm looking at NaNo 2022 and thinking...

Did you read my efforts in 2022? Would you like to see Morgan make a return?

ETA: Looks like I never posted the words I did for Day 4. I'll see about doing that asap.

The tale of Hirila as told by nikkinoorden:

Desperately longing to leave her home planet, but never old enough to travel, Hirila finally, finally was granted a license to leave Tibro. Growing up in such an advanced society may have its benefits like being educated enough and access to technological refuse to fashion your own ship from secondhand parts, but Hirila may have been the odd one out since the pressure and expectations from a society who prides accomplishments above personal happiness or self worth was suffocating. Thus, rather than studying the mystery behind “Ghosts” like her family demanded of her, she worked hard and made her one person shuttle to leave.

She submitted her traders license number and a cargo list at the traders' guild. Her destination? Urakaze, home to probably the most inhospitable environment. However, she had heard of a rumor while repairing space vessels that there was a lone continent that wasn’t tainted by industrial waste and was uninfluenced by the Algebras. A place she could gather a few meager resources as well as hope she could venture farther out into the unknown, leaving Ghosts and her do or damned society behind.

The tale of Paladin Roach as told by Doug Hoek (chadnorth):

Paladin Roach was a late starter. He managed to scrape together enough money to repair the engines on the crashed ship that he inherited from his uncle. He posted on an Intergalactic message board, “Have ship will travel” along with his coded contact information. Then the long wait, wondering who’d be dumb enough to to risk their cargo in this old clunker named “Precious.” Finally an interested party made contact -- a load of pet robots are needed to be delivered to Diamond. Paladin researched Diamond’s import policies and restrictions, weighed the costs and and benefits, and after taking enough payment to cover initial costs blasted off.

Once in orbit around Diamond the cargo was transferred to an awaiting shuttle (an unexpected cost plus tax) to be offloaded to the consortium itself (more cost and taxes).  "Should be able to show enough profit to get wherever the next load may take me", he said.