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Dina James

Chronicler of the Paranormal

On Cookery and Recipes and Other Things

If you follow this blog on the semi-regular basis that I update it, you’ll know that Dina In The Kitchen is generally a bad idea. I’ve gotten mustard on the ceiling while making fried chicken.

Don’t ask. Just…don’t. Don’t even think about it. You’ll hurt your brain. Just take my word for it. This is a story that is often told by my mother whenever I go into the kitchen to do something as simple as put the kettle on for tea.

It’s just a bad idea.

Now, having said that, this post will contain recipes. (Recipes involving meat, for those who don’t want to read about such things – you’ve been warned.)

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Holiday Rant

WARNING and DISCLAIMER:

THIS IS A RANT. Turn back now/abandon hope all ye who enter here, etc. The content below contains language, opinion, general stuff that’s probably going to piss people off and hurt some feelings. Do not come whining to me if you get yours wounded, because YOU WERE WARNED.

Still with me. All right.

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Shall We Play Another Game?

I’m so recycling this post from the previous one about #dietgame.

Welcome to your doom.

Just kidding.

If you’re here, you probably want to know about #dietgame on Twitter. Well, you’ve come to the right place.

Background: A few months ago, on September 3, my Wii Fit made bad jokes about how much time had passed since my last workout and made the Noise of Disappointment when it did my body test that morning. So, of course, I wrote it a nasty tweet in return, announcing my weight loss goals in an effort to ensure some kind of accountability besides that of the Evil Wii Fit. (That thing is EVIL, I tell you, and not in the good way!)

Long story short, #dietgame has been invented. It’s like #wordathon for weight loss.

In that regard, here are the “rules”.

1) You must have a weight loss goal.

2) You must start as soon as possible/as soon as you find out about this.

3) The end date for this edition of #dietgame is March 4, 2010. 90 days from today (or 3 months if that’s how you want to think of it).

4) You must tweet your progress at least once a week (Thursday is good, as it’s the day we’re going to end on March 4). Use the hashtag #dietgame so that the rest of us playing can kick your – um…”offer encouragement”.

Other things:

Your weight loss goal does not have to be pounds. It can be inches, body fat percentage, whatever. This is a motivational/accountability exercise/encouragement/ass-kicking group, “sponsored” by yours truly and @Zombie_Joe.

This is a FRIENDLY competition, but those of you who play #wordathon know I have an alter ego in the form of #gunnyjames. This is my R. Lee Ermey-style motivation-by-degradation, and you will get screamed at and told to get your lazy ass on the treadmill if #gunnyjames is in-or-pro-voked.

Like #wordathon, there is no “winner” or “prize”. This is about reaching a goal, and that goal can be in pounds lost, percentage lost and percentage of goal reached. Suppose we reach March 4 and the best among those playing #dietgame have only reached 80% of their goal? Well, that person “wins”.

Now, this is not a “diet” or “weight loss plan”. You do your own thing. Whatever works for you/however you want to lose weight. There are no suggestions, we’re not all joining Weight Watchers or going on the South Beach Diet or Atkins or whatever. This, like the way we #wordathon players write, is highly individual. You do whatever works for you. Some of us do a daily thing, some of us push hard a couple days a week, some of us wait until the last minute, whatever. However you want to do it. Up to you. This is a motivational thing/friendly competition, NOT an advice column. Play at your own risk, etc. etc., no one assumes any liability for your weight loss or lack thereof, blah blah blah, etc. etc.

So, you in?

Good. Now put down that donut and go clean out your pantry before I kick your ass.

-DJ

In Which I Recycle Last Year’s Post

Like I need to add anything else to the upcoming busy month, but hey, I’m apparently masochistic at the moment.

Okay, yes…I’m one of those people who has started listening to Christmas music already. I know, I know. But I really love the holidays. Halloween used to be my favorite until I came out of my Goth closet and could dress how I wanted to every day of the year and not care about being seen as a freak (for the record, I was 25), but now Christmas is my favorite.

Thanksgiving, however, was not overlooked. I mean, a foodie like me ignore a holiday that’s all about FOOD? PIE? LOTS AND LOTS OF PIE?! (Not to mention leftover pie!!) And turkey and mashed potatoes and corn and stuffing…. At the moment, I never want to eat again, though I know I’ll make a plate of leftovers in a few hours.

Anyway, what was I writing about? I mean, before my stomach started doing the writing? Oh, yeah! Masochism! I mean, the holiday spirit!

Okay, here’s the deal. It’s not like a contest or anything, because I don’t have the time or energy for that, but I’m making an attempt at initiative and preparedness and updating my holiday card list.

Yes, you heard right. No, I’m not too early. It’s after Thanksgiving (just)! I mean, by the time I get the list done and cards mailed, I’ll be right on time! Theoretically.

If you want to be on my holiday card list, post a comment here (don’t worry, these will be screened!) or e-mail dina [at] dinajames [dot] com with your snail mail addy, and I’ll send you a holiday card.

If you received a card from me last year, you’re still on the list, unless for some reason you annoyed me between the last time I made the list and now (or I’m just a techie prat and somehow deleted you by accident or never put you on it to begin with – which I’ve done). If you received one last year and don’t want one this year for whatever reason, let me know that, too.

If you’re feeling in the holiday spirit yourself, or are one of those people who will torture yourself with guilt and angst if you don’t return the favor, my snail mail addy is:

Dina James
P.O. Box 574
Astoria, OR 97103
USA

I keep this list for subsequent use, but will remind you all yearly to send me any updates. I realize people move about and change names and such, so let me know if your address has changed from the last time I sent you one, if that’s happened!

And just to let people know up front, the card design will once again be drawn by the very talented Becky Hitchin, NOT by me. I, personally, can’t draw anything beyond what I learned to do in my high school art classes, so before you even ask, NO, I did not draw the picture on the card you’ll receive.

I’m setting you all a deadline of December 15 to get me your address. This will (hopefully) give me time to get my act together and send them on time.

And so to work.

-DJ

Commitmentophobe

It’s that time of year again.

NaNoWriMo.

I have never participated, but encourage others to do so. Now, before you call me a hypocrite, let me explain.

I am a commitmentophobe. Or a Sagittarian, however you want to phrase it. What? To borrow a phrase from Huck Finn, I don’t put a whole lot of stock into astrology, but it really is uncanny sometimes how “accurate” it can be.

If you look at the qualities of a Sadge, it’s pretty much dead-on about me.

Sagittarians don’t like commitment, BUT – once we do commit to something, it’s done. It’s all or nothing.

Hence my ambivalence about joining NaNoWriMo.

It’s not fear of failure or anything like that. I know I can do it.

It’s just that I know myself too well. I have to want to do it, and I’m not sure I want to. I, being a freedom-loving Sadge, don’t like the idea of HAVING TO write/be creative on demand. (Deadlines are different and I love them – they’re like a challenge.) Yet I know that writing daily is what you’re supposed to do as a writer and so NaNoWriMo is an excellent tool – for most other writers. Hence my encouragement to join.

Having that accountability works for a lot of writers. It works for me too, with other things – like going to the gym. I’ll perfectly happily stay in bed and sleep late, but if I know one of my friends will be disappointed or let down if I cancel our gym date, I’ll suck it up, leave my warm nest and go.

This does not mean, however, that I will go happily, or that I will go sans complaint.

But that’s neither here nor there. This is about NaNoWriMo.

I did kind of a little, personal, unofficial NonNaNoWriMo last year, where I attempted to write daily. Yeah, that so didn’t work. It worked for about a week.

Don’t ask me how this differs from crunch time on a deadline. It just does. I never claimed I was in any way sane.

However, this year I’m tempted to try the Official NaNoWriMo. Just to see. Just to say I’ve done it. I know several people who are doing it, but everyone knows that I’m not a joiner.

Maybe that’s got to do with being a commitmentophobe, but really I just think it’s got to do with me being an anti-social loner. I don’t “join” things. I work alone, thanks. If “everyone is doing it”, then I want no part of it. I’ll wait until everyone else is doing something else before I wander over and take a look at what they were so fascinated with.

But there’s also the hypocrite/”practice what you preach” aspect. Can I justifiably encourage writers of all levels – beginners, n00bs, semi-pros, professionals, wannabes and wish-they-hads – to do something that I, myself, am not doing/haven’t done?

Again, hence the ambivalence. Here it is, three days until the start of NaNoWriMo, and I’m still undecided about joining. I’ve got myself about 70% convinced that I should do it.

Go on, Dina…give it a shot.

70% is much better than last year, in which I didn’t think twice about NOT joining. I’d made up my mind that I wasn’t going to do it, and didn’t. At least, not officially.

This year…well…*straddles the fence*.

I work really well under pressure. That’s not the issue. Like I said, I’m not worried about being able to do it/make with the words.

I’m just not sure if I want to do it. For some reason, it’s all right if I want to do something. Then it’s my idea, and therefore cool, not something I’m only doing because “everyone else is doing it”.

What? It makes a warped kind of sense to me, and that’s all that matters.

So there! /maturity

Now here’s the part where I’ll pretend to let you all decide my participation (actually, it’s because I can’t seem to make up my own mind about it, and therefore will put the responsibility of the decision onto someone else – avoidance of duty FTW!):

In the form of a comment with one of the answers below, give me a yay or nay.

Should Dina subject herself to NaNoWriMo this year?

A) Absolutely! I want to watch her suffer! No way she can do it!

B) Give it a go! It’s a brilliant writing exercise and after all, you’ll get something out of it even if you don’t make it to the end.

C) Go on, you little hypocrite. Join up and row with the rest of us.

D) Don’t kid yourself. You’ve worked hard the last month anyway and did nearly 40k in a week alone! You deserve a break!

E) You’re considering this why? It’s so not you! Forget about it!

F) You’ve got work to do. Join NaNoWriMo and get to it, slacker!

I appreciate your input.

Oh, and if YOU are a past or present participant (alliteration, FTW!) in NaNoWriMo, let’s hear from you. If I do join, I’ll want to know what it’s like. I’m an inherent researcher by nature (another Sadge trait) and I’ve already gotten past the “how to” and “what’s involved” part.

Now I want to know how it feels/what it’s like to participate, not the mechanics of it.

Thanks in advance!

Cheers,
DJ

P.S. For those participating this year, read these awesome words of encouragement from Neil Gaiman.