NaNoWriMo Winner - Exclusive Excerpts for the Next Few Days

After 30 long days and nights, I finally did it. I finally beat my 75,000 word challenge and went over by 2,007 words. It's been very long, very hard, but extremely worth it, I've gotta say. Now, I'm a writing nut, and of course I didn't just stop after I verified my win. I'm still working on Who's Taken Me? from my trilogy, but I did the whole second part and a bit of the third part. With this under my belt, I hope I can finish this book soon, so I can start to tie and cut the knots of the entire trilogy. Then it can be ready for publishing.

One odd thing I realized is I really really REALLY need to revise the first book. It's not a bad read at all, but I have so many other things to add, remove most definitely, and switch up. It's going to be serious business that gonna take up a great deal of my time, not to mention other projects I have, my art, and that doggone manga, Axolotl... But I hope to be able to keep it all up, keep it together, and keep sharing this stuff with you guys.

It's not really that obvious by the title or anything, but I'll be posting excerpts from my third novel's first draft over the next few days. Bear with me if some parts don't make sense. After all, this does happen to be a first draft and taken completely out of context to boot. Without further ado, here's the excerpt that's on my NaNoWriMo profile.

***

Secrets. Over the past few days, I’d acquired such amazing secrets, both accidental and purposeful. I’d shared one of my own. With someone I thought I’d never trust: a doctor. I grinned wider like Osiris. I liked secrets. I liked hearing them as much as I liked finding someone to share them with. But these were special secrets that I heard in the dispensary. Very special secrets. Precious secrets. War secrets, I thought to myself. I got a shiver down my spine, it sounded so exciting. I, Specialist Private Sheldon Quincy Lamar, had war secrets that the General of the Army himself believed I could handle and veil as needed. All of a sudden, all the doubts and qualms I had about my military service dropped about a thousand miles or 17,600 double time military paces. No matter what, I would follow Osiris’s orders to the letter, to my limits, and to the grave. I would prove myself to him, my would-be father, that I was worth it. That I was worth the risk he took to include me in this war secret. I told myself that snowy night that one day or one night, whatever, I would join his side and protect what he swore to protect. Even his Celestialite secret.

***

Hope you enjoyed it. I don't know for sure how many other excerpts I'll be uploading, but I think if you enjoyed this, you'll enjoy the others *nods vigorously*. Some of them are funny, some of them sad, dramatic, you name it, Sheldon's going to fling it at you.

Just be aware, to all you younger viewers out there, there is some mature content in Sanitize. It's mostly language and violence, but keep in mind, immature Sheldon and his main group of acquaintances in this book are mostly teens and young adults in the army, so very crude humor and reference ensues. And this instance of reference he made at some point. Plus, there's that PG-13 type of thing with battle sequences and frightening images, that kind of thing. But you know, if you're under 16, I wouldn't read it without that thar parental consent. Who's Taken Me? is considerably darker, more violent, and more adult than the last two books, although the second book as it is now contends well with the this one. You'll thank me later. Or not, as the case may be.

Later.

GCS Exclusive Picture: Sleeping in California

This picture didn't have to take me as long as it did. My original intention for it was to ink and color it, but I decided against that and went for working on my traditional, or non-digital, style. But with NaNoWriMo, I haven't been drawing that much, so the production of this picture was slowed.

This is one of the first, if not the first, time I've ever drawn someone from Sanitize asleep. It's considerably harder than it looks. The muscles have to relax and look limp. Plus, you have to be aware of how gravity will be pulling everything down in relation to the surrounding objects. And how restful and peaceful the person's sleep is... There is a number of things you have to be aware of when drawing sleeping persons.

I drew this a very long time ago, so I don't remember exactly the order I drew everything, but I probably drew the bed first without the sheets. Then I may have drawn a rough image of his head then his neck, body, and his limbs. The pillows probably came next and then the background. And then the outside world. Then I shaded, fixing things as need be.

It's very hard to draw a muscular torso from the side, in my opinion. One has to portray the wideness and depth of the back as well the breadth of the shoulders properly to make the buff guy/girl look right. It's even harder when there's clothing involved. Line value is really important with clothing folds in traditional works, especially when the person you're drawing is sleeping. I decided to draw him above the sheets because he's in California but from a colder place, he gets hot very easily. And it was a simpler task to draw him without the sheets over him. It also helps exaggerate his size.

The hand could have been drawn maybe, but I put it there for a good reason. Sheldon is very tense, and he is tense even when he sleeps, so the hand makes him look slightly less relaxed than most when they sleep. Secondly, it makes it look vaguely like he's been tossing and turning in his sleep.

Sheldon's hair is normally shoulder-length, but at the beginning of the third Sanitize novel, he has very long hair.

His muscles were harder than normal to draw in this position. I don't know why it was harder, but this pose was horizontal and I've avoided drawing horizontal bodies in the past because I regularly prefer standing characters. I don't normally draw bare or even semi-bare legs either, so that was an added challenge. I drew his lower half rather large to create the illusion of depth and size. Because Sheldon does indeed have very wide hips and very big *cough**cough* fat *cough* thighs.

Sheldon's cover is of lightweight material but of a sturdy substance. That's why it can hold folds the way it does while holding many of them as lightweight fabrics do.

I haven't yet adapted Sheldon's own drawing style to his pictures, but I probably will as soon as I do another picture where he has drawn something. But anyhow, the pictures of Daisy are a staple in his room, and when he moves to different rooms, he tends to plaster his walls with pictures of his little sister and scraps of things devoted to her.

The outside is one of my favorite parts of this picture. I actually drew it freehand, but you guys and gals can probably tell. I stroked the eraser through the penciling a few times to give a reflective, shiny feel to the buildings like the morning sun is shining down on the sides of the city. For a tropical feel, I put in some palm trees, and California has palm trees anyway, if I'm not mistaken. As for the clouds, I drew those today. It's one of those sunny, pleasant days were clouds look like mashed spuds.

Well, that's it for this picture. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more! With NaNoWriMo ending at midnight tomorrow night, I can be doing more drawings.


This picture, Sleeping in California, is an exclusive picture only available on this here blog. Additional exclusive, you-can't-get-them-anywhere-else pictures, story excerpts and more will be available only on here, The Cooking Shed. Hooray for sounding like a stuffy corporation. Other pictures, story excerpts, etc., by Genre Chowder Studios (this happens to be me) can be found at GCS's deviantART page.

Later.

Sheldon Draws His Second Voice, Shelby

This is Shelby. Sheldon drew him for reasons that are secret as of now. But I will say this: in Sheldon's mind, Shelby is stringy, the same height as Sheldon, brown-haired, brown-eyed, and plain in dressing.

Sheldon, as I mentioned before, has schizophrenia, undifferentiated schizophrenia to be exact. One of the symptoms of schizophrenia is hearing voices. Sheldon has three voices he hears in his head, and the second one he starts to hear is called Shelby. He first started to hear him when he was eight after his first voice, Thelma. And here is a bit about him.

Of the three voices Sheldon has in his head, Shelby is the only definite male and the most "friendly" on the grounds that he sometimes says encouraging things to Sheldon. One could probably argue that Taylor Dusty the Weeper is nicer, but that's just 'cause Dusty doesn't say anything coherent, therefore is never rude on those grounds. Often, Shelby gives Sheldon little pep talks that actually make him feel better sometimes. Shelby and Thelma, the female voice in Sheldon's head, are almost always at odds, always arguing and seizing on each other's words, picking fights, that kind of thing. Kind of like siblings now that I think of it.

The strangest thing about Shelby is the way he sounds. His voice sounds exactly like Sheldon's, which understandably makes Sheldon very uncomfortable a lot. It's, in fact, the reason why Sheldon draws him with a mouth similar to his own. But normally Shelby is personable, even amiable. When he and Thelma argue, he is almost always defending Sheldon or Sheldon's choice.

However...

Shelby has a tendency to prod at certain things. Things that tick off or else really bother Sheldon. And Sheldon has had to learn the hard way that he just has to ignore him. Because if he doesn't, if he gets mad and ticks off Shelby (and it doesn't take much at all, let me tell you), Shelby explodes and turns nastier than sadistic Thelma, usually culminating in an excruciating guilt trip for Sheldon and a command to self harm from Shelby. Yeah. Shelby, for the most part, is the one that introduces Sheldon to orders of self harm. In fact, something he said nearly made Sheldon commit suicide. The only real way to mollify Shelby when he's mad is to just do what he says; at some times, Sheldon and Shelby's relationship vaguely echoes that of a domestic violence environment.

As he gets older, Sheldon learned to be careful when responding to Shelby, though sometimes he's not careful enough, and he just barely saves himself from savage insults to his character and defaming. When Shelby's getting annoyed, he starts to act bitter and victimized, saying Sheldon should "be grateful for what he's done for him" and listing many a reason that seem "plausible."

On a less dark note, Shelby, like Thelma, comes off as rather less than intelligent, both in how he instigates conversations and how he responds to people's remarks. For reasons Sheldon can't figure out, Shelby frequently mimics sounds Sheldon makes like panting when he's out of breath.

Well, that's all on his persona. Now let's take a look at the picture quickly. Seeing as I did this in about 30 to 45 minutes, there's not really much to talk about except for some little things.

For instance, this is Sheldon's style of drawing as I've said before. This is actually really different then the way I draw most of the time. That's cause Sheldon's drawing style and habits are dissimilar to mine. I'm gonna list the differences below for you to see.

• Sheldon never inks his pictures. I almost always do.
• Sheldon doesn't draw full body shots often. I tend to more often.
• I prefer to make my drawings round, bold, cartoonish, and with just a hint of humor. Sheldon's art is usually long, kind of pointy, gaunt and somewhat more realistic than mine. This is how he sees things.
  
• Sheldon usually draws tiny hair details like split ends and misdirected strands of hair. I don't normally draw things like split ends.
• Sheldon leaves his lines open or faded in places. I rarely do that.
• I draw characters in general with shorter, more compact necks. Sheldon's necks look over long.
• Sheldon signs all over his pictures and obsessively puts nine copyright symbols by it. I use an online watermarking program for most of my picture, especially my digital works.
• The thing that takes me the longest is usually the face. For Sheldon, it's the hair.
• My handwriting is awful. Sheldon's handwriting is REALLY awful.
  
• And last but not least, I almost always, always, always color pictures before I present them. Sheldon nearly never does.

As another point of interest, Sheldon draws to help cope with his illness.

I hope you enjoyed this. Stay tuned for more later.

This picture is also on deviantART.

Later.

Mother and Son

This picture took me WAY longer than it had to. About a week and a half. I drew it quite a long time ago and started coloring it during the crunch to finish my second novel before NaNoWriMo, which I did. When I did the skin (I did them on the same layer), it was too harsh so my original plan was tone it down, but I found that using a Gaussian Blur softens skin tones considerably.

The eyes never pose a problem for me, but of the late, the newer way I do hair slows me down. I fill in the basic area in and around the hair, and then I go back with an eraser and rub it down to size. You'd think, with him having less hair, that Sheldon would be the easiest, but it wasn't. His hair is spiky, so I couldn't maneuver around his hair smoothly. But I got it down. Logistically, lighting and shading wasn't much of a problem.

I recalled "Hey! Laura Lamar's mouth is supposed to look kinda like Sheldon's!" A little reddish color mixed with her skin tone on a low opacity in the Hard Light layer worked very well, I'm happy to say.

Now, Laura's eyelashes do not have the same intensity of Sheldon's lashes, but their eyes hold similar intensity. They're the same color and relatively the same shape (if you look at Sheldon's eyes when he's older).

As always, after coloring the skin, eyes, and hair, I was up against hardness: clothes, props, background, and overall lighting. Sheldon's clothes were easy, took me only about 10-20 minutes *waves a hand dismissively.* But Laura's top was so difficult, mostly 'cause I approached it without a plan. I went through Impressionist Brushes and textures and funky fade-y patterns for about 3/4 of an hour before settling on what's here using fill colors and a special brush. The lace stuff on her sleeves wasn't nearly as difficult; I used the color from the green flowers, colored the lace, and did minor shading. Wouldn't even put it at 15 minutes.

The sofa... It took me some time to figure out what I wanted to do, but I got it right. I used the Bucket Tool and the Burn and Dodge tools with spatter brushes. Then I Burned the shadows. It was the wall, maybe, that was the hardest. I couldn't figure out what I wanted to do with it. I thought about stripes, but it looked bad, and the Lamars don't have striped walls anyway. After about 20 minutes, I came to using the Impressionist Brush, and thus, the end result.

You can't really see it, but there is a Soft Light Layer on Laura and Sheldon. I wanted to keep Laura's beautiful complexion visible rather than obscure it under a bath of orange, so I dropped the opacity considerably, but it lends enough effect to make a difference. Though... maybe that's 'cause I know what it looks like without the light.

And of course, Sheldon is a runny-nosed baby, so I had to incorporate snot in there somehow. The snot bubble was easy to do, but I wasn't sure how it would look against Laura's clothes. I hid the layer until I was done with them, it turned out fine, so I was good to leave it there.

This picture is also on deviantART.

That's all for now. Stay tuned for another picture later!

Later.

Pierre Hutchinson in the World of Robinson

I don't think I've mentioned him before, but I have these characters named Pierre Hutchinson and Louis Henri Francois.

This is his bio: http://fav.me/d2k7hwf
And here's his best friend, Louis's Henri Francois's bio: http://fav.me/d2ki49x
And in case I didn't put it up here before, here's the link to the first part of his first story. http://fav.me/d2jekzp

Yeah, deviantART's really helpful for this kinda thing.

But anyway, Pierre and Louis's story is about two French boys and their adventures in a world based on the Robinson projection. So my original idea was to have just that story that's in that link over there, but I got this awesome idea for another one. Mostly 'cause that one place they went to can't be the only place there; it stands to reason that there would be more areas to go to. Though not all these new stories will be about them going places. They'll be mostly going places, but a nice slice of them will be about their (or rather Pierre's) shenanigans on their port.

Basically, their stories are a collection of short stories and maybe one long one, but nothing like "Pierre and Louis's Big Movie" or "Pierre and Louis Make It Big" or anything corny like that... God, I honestly had a hard time typing those titles 'cause they are so bad...

Oh yeah, and I recently got into watching "Adventure Time with Finn and Jake."

Later.

Prologue

I uploaded the first part of my Sanitize: Vol. 1: Am I Real? prologue to deviantART. Here's the link. http://fav.me/d2ozh89

I know I'm gonna upload the whole prologue to deviantART, but after that I don't know what I should do. What do you think? Should I upload the first few chapters, the first part, the whole darn thing??? Or should I just upload a couple thousand words every whatever? I'm gonna make a poll about this so you can tell me, or you can leave a comment if it pleases thee.

Later.

Enough is Enough

Well, I just plain don't like writing scripts, as I realized earlier today. So I'm not continuing with Brooke Road for ScriptFrenzy. Don't get me wrong, I'll still work on it. I am gonna try to get it onto the silver screen. I just don't enjoy writing a script, so I won't be banging out those types of pages that much.

On the sunny side of the fence, I'll be on deviantART more! In no way'll it be a lot, but more often.

Later.

Such a Win, It Becomes a Fail...

Hey, me again.

I have 17 pages in my script so far, which is not good. I should, according to my calculations, have 49 pages... But at least I figured out who's the murder, and I have a vague idea how the murder happened and the reasoning behind it. Plus, I have a pretty good idea how much I need to right every day to catch up. If I write 2500 words a day, I can maybe turn out over a dozen pages per day! Yay for moi.

Also, since I'm not on deviantART that much right now, I figured I'd have more time for blog stuff, so to familiarize you people out there with Iris Dexter, I'll work on a blog/character bio/pic thing for her like I did with Taylor Dusty the Weeper (who I'm actually thinking about redesigning) and Sheldon. I'll work on it when I have no idea what I want to do with my script. Ehh...

Gee, I was so pumped about this ScriptFrenzy thing, I didn't think to hard about what I actually wanted to do, which is probably why I'm so behind.

FAIL... I hope not.

Well, I have my diagnosis and my prescription, so my prognosis looks mighty fine, that it does.

Later.

Brooke Road

I've gotten some progress done on my script. Awesomeness. Five pages in less than 24 hours. Booyah.

I've figured out, so far, that Iris is 10 going on 11 at this time and has discovered a case of a dead woman named Lula Frauhau. Actually, there're a few Sanitize characters in here, seeing as Iris is a minor then major Sanitize character, even though there's no fantasy in this movie. It's all real stuff, and it makes sense, 'cause it's a little bit before the trilogy starts. A few years.

I couldn't do the script on Microsoft Word. I don't know why, but Microsoft Word just has the wrong feel for a script. So I had to download Celtx. (For free, of course. I'm not paying for a download. Heck no... T_T ) And almost immediately I got into the groove and cranked out five pages. I learned the basics, too, so it's a pretty smooth ride. Word. XD

So about the script. I'm serious about this movie, people, and when it hits the big screen, I'd guess it would be rated PG-13. The title is Brooke Road, it's a murder mystery, like I said in my last post, and I have several scenes written. Not all the way out, of course, it's just a first draft. I have three scenes that are finished for now, and I'm happy with them for now. I've had to take time off deviantART to have a better focus on my script and my novel. So I won't be uploading stuff there for a while.

Later.

Comic Strips and Movie Scripts

You'll see I changed my layout.

The term "comic strip" sounds weird, 'cause it sounds like a Western-style comic. But that's what it is so... I made a comic strip about a bad April Fool's joke. Here's the link to the first page.

Bad April Fool's Joke Page 1

Enjoy.

Anyone out there heard of ScriptFrenzy? It's basically a challenge to write the first draft of a script in 30 days. Pity; they couldn't put it on a 31 day month? I'm doing it, and I intend to win it, just like NaNoWriMo. This year, I plan to do a murder mystery with my character Iris Dexter, and I've got a few seeds growing in my head, but they're still small. And my progress so far?! Nothing. Nada. Zilch. But I'm not giving up. Wish me the best 'o luck.

Later.

The Only Way to Go Now!

Well, the ABNA contest kicked me out, but my resolve remains strong! Now I'm convinced self-publishing is the only way to go with "Sanitize," so I'm gonna do a little more text work. Total control, man. Plus, I've decided on how I'm gonna do the illustrations for the chapters. You know, something like "Chapter Whatever Number" and there'll be a pic somewhere suggesting what the chapter's about. I haven't figured out if I'm doing the illustrations in B&W or color, but they'll probably be in B&W. I can't wait to work on the cover!

I've been so busy, I haven't had a chance to work on my website! Noes...

Later.

Sheldon and Taylor Dusty

This was the surprise I was working on. I'll have exclusive pictures on my blog you won't find anywhere else.

I'm very proud of this pic. It took me forever, but it was worth it. The strange looking background is kind of reflecting Sheldon's faulty reality perception. The building in the backdrop is Milkwood, Sheldon's school. Hmm... Blogspot made the quality of this all funky and weird.

This is actually a scene from Vol. 2 Should I Fit? : it's the first day Sheldon meets Taylor Dusty the Weeper, and it told him to dig a huge hole at some point, and Shel was just finishing up some other little things. A while back, he dropped some school supplies here, and now he's found them, and he's just picking them up... I love that stupid, blank look on Dusty's face.

The relationship between Sheldon and Taylor Dusty the Weeper is a strange one. I'd better start at the very beginning.

In Vol. 1 Am I Real?, Sheldon first hears the high, robotic voice in the illusion village. For over two years, he doesn't hear it again. But after the traumatic experience of the hate crime inflicted by a group of high school girls in "Should I Fit?", he dreams of Dusty (nameless at the time) carrying him to a trash bin where he meets Dusty's "pet." Several times after this, he sees one or both of these beings at random, often at crucial moments. Eventually, Dusty begins to chase Sheldon, causing him great distress.

One day, Sheldon has had enough, and he stops running from the doll and demands why it's chasing him. And Dusty responds, saying it just wanted to... say hi? Right from there, their whole relationship changes. From fear of being killed to a kind of awkward friendship.

While Dusty sees itself as Sheldon's servant, it's never actually seen doing anything for Sheldon. The doll, on first appearance, tells Sheldon that it is a Dutch miner, despite its very American accent, working for a French princess named Opal. In Sheldon's mind, Princess Opal switches bodies with his older sister, Ophelia, often. Dusty follows him around a lot and talks to him and remarks on what it does in a childish and innocent way. Speaking of which, Taylor Dusty's actually one of the only non-threatening hallucinations and voices Sheldon has, and Sheldon comes to enjoy Dusty's company and misses it when it's gone. However, whenever Taylor Dusty shows up again, it has a very different "past" and when Sheldon tries to call upon something it's mentioned before, Dusty either tells it differently or completely denies that it ever said that at all, apparently because it's on the run from the Brown Police. This is personally my favorite aspect of their relationship.

As for Dusty's personality, it's a little dimwitted like most of Sheldon's hallucinated beings, and Dusty's voice, when only in Sheldon's head, repeats the same words over and over: CD, my, cute, friends, flat, in any order whether it makes sense or not, occasionally adding an extra verb or two and often using the nouns in the plural. The doll with the physical form has a strange speech pattern; it inappropriately uses synonyms. E.g. "That's good great," "Yeah yes," and "What a surprise and unexpected moment." Annoying, isn't it? Shelby and Thelma find it relatively irritating as well. At some point, Dusty drops a hint that it would like friends, but everyone thinks it's ugly and repulsive. While friendly, easygoing, and sometimes downright jolly, it's the only hallucination that consistently tries to cheer Sheldon up. Also, it often stands near its "master" with a blank expression similar to the one seen above. A few times, Sheldon has asked Dusty for its gender in vain. There are instances in which it tries to hold its "master's" hand with just as much luck. Even though Sheldon's situations are dire, Dusty usually acts relatively carefree.

Taylor Dusty has a more serious side, though. When Sheldon is threatened, it tries to "defend" him, despite the fact that it can't do anything against anyone. Which brings me to another interesting point. While Shelby and Thelma often state plainly that they know they are voices in Sheldon's head, Dusty doesn't seem to know it's not a real thing. Sometimes, it even tries to interact with other people, unaware that they can't respond to it. Dusty at times shows an inability to listen to its "master," Sheldon. Though not shown here, Taylor usually carries a Death scythe or a trident but rarely both at the same time.

To sum it all up, the relationship between Sheldon and Taylor Dusty the Weeper is one of hallucinated subservience, friendship unfortunately directed to the wrong being, and a great deal of confusion.

Submitted!

At last, I've submitted my first novel to CreateSpace! Yes! Also, about that surprise, I'm about to working on it. | D

The website is going okay, but it could be going faster. Darn. I really don't have very much to say.

Later.

Editing Almost Over!

As the title implies, my editing is almost over! I have (hopefully) have this one last revision to work on before Vol. 1 Am I Real? is a finished manuscript. Of course, I already uploaded the file to Amazon, but I'm editing still. Oh yeah, and later on, when I'm done with this, I'll have surprise for you guys. | )

So far, I had to add Sheldon's hallucinated color shifts, and I thought it'd be a right pain, but it wasn't that much of a murder. Now I have to make him mention it, but that's not so hard. Plus some minor changes. I've been rather busy of the late, so I'm yielding things at a slower rate than normal. Bit irritating, really. But I'm working on this very intricate picture, and it's taking forever. Aah...

Later.

Losing Steam

I've gotta say I'm having trouble focusing on this revision stuff. I recently added over 750 words to the second novel in the trilogy, and I keep thinking about writing this scene I've been wanting to write for months. Not only that, but I find it easier to get distracted. Grr...

Besides, I have to comb through this story I've read about five times and drop in symptoms I forgot to give Sheldon. Curses... Well, I haven't got much I longer, so I'd better get back to it.

Progress in my Novel So Far

Well, I oughta stop mucking around with stuff I don't like and recipes and get down to business.

Here's a summary of my fantasy psychodrama novel, Vol. 1: Am I Real?, from my trilogy, Sanitize:

The story begins. A powerful substance sends the Oregon town, Sage, into frozen time. Holed away in the home of a learned (and no less paranormal) Irish family, eight year-old Sheldon Lamar receives a distress call from his baby sister, but after saving her, she's almost immediately kidnapped.

Determined to save her, Sheldon joins with his pint-sized, less than lion-hearted friend and the children of the Irish Greenwich family to save her from Shoadow, master of black void. However, Sheldon's lost sister isn't the only problem; it's not the easiest thing, going on a dangerous trip through a mystic Woodland and fighting monster hybrids, when your own mind is turning against you.

Be a part of the trilogy in which a young boy battles two forces: dark inter-dimensional forces and early-onset schizophrenia. But which is more formidable?

It's three parts and 24 chapters. So far, I've done five revisions in preparation for that big Amazon contest. Plus, I have a website devoted to Sanitize, and I can't wait to put it up! But it'll be some time before the website is ready, so stay tuned!

Later.

Olive Oil Rice: It Tastes Very Nice

Lately, I've been craving plain rice. I don't know why, but it's good. Nice, simple with a creamy-ish texture...

Yeah, anyway, while I like plain rice, the rest of you might be going O_O, X_x, >_<, or something of that nature. Not everyone likes the taste of plain rice or they think it's no use (useless or not good), and sometimes I don't want plain rice either. So I came up with a nifty way to make rice taste different and good. Hooray for me.

You should uh, probably read this BEFORE you start making your rice.

Take however much rice you're going to eat and put it in a bowl. It doesn't matter if it's white or brown, but I personally like the taste better when it's white. Add 1 1/2 tablespoons of water and a small amount of butter. I'm gonna say half to a whole teaspoon depending on the amount of rice, how much you like the taste of butter, blah blah blah. Then drizzle about a teaspoon (depending on the amount and stuff) of olive oil on the rice. Add salt if it pleases ya. Put it in the microwave, covered with a damp napkin or paper towel for two minutes on high (depending on the rice, the strength of your microwave, yammer yammer yammer). Then go do something for two minutes. I'm not responsible for how bored you get.

Two minutes are up? Aye, that's good. Take it out carefully and stir it around. If there's still water at the bottom, you can put it back in for a minute or two, but I personally don't care about the water. Most of the water, at any rate, should've steamed the rice and made it nice and fluffy and soft and stuff. The rice shouldn't be too oily or too overpowering with olive-y taste, 'cause that's nasty, but have a light sheen on it and a slight olive oil taste. Of course, unless you like it like that. I prefer to eat it with a spoon, but you know, that's just me. Chopsticks, forks, bread, your hands (don't burn 'em), whatever you want.

You could eat this by itself or with a meal. Hmm. I suddenly envisioned this rice sitting on a cream-colored plate with beef tenderloin and steamed broccoli. Maybe with ginger ale in a Coca-Cola cup? Or maybe some sauteed fish and spinach with garlic aside some juice in said Coca-Cola cup? Meat and vegetables mixed in the rice would be good with a cup of Pepsi in aforementioned Coca-Cola cup?

..................... Darn it, now I'm hungry.

Later.

deviantART! And some other stuff...

YES! *pumps fist*

I have a deviantART account! http://genrechowderstudios.deviantart.com/
Go there! I COMMAND Y- Well, not really. =)

But if you've got time check it out!

Anyhoo, I did a whole math lesson earlier today. By myself. In my room. In the morning. Before school actually started. So when it came time to do math, I was free 'cause I did it already! So I slept.

I know I'm not the only one waiting for the final HP movies.
They. Had. Better. Not. Mess. This. One. Up. It has endless opportunities for mess-ups, but if they can pull it off, I wouldn't be surprised. Warner Bros. IS pretty good. Speaking of movies...

What the HECK did they (whoever made it) do to Dragon Ball?! What was that abomination "Dragon Ball Evolution?!" They changed almost everything! Son Goku NEVER went to school! He was NOT American, and come on! Why didn't they just give Bulma some blue hair? What, they ran out of money when they were buying stuff for their terrible plot??? COME ON! At the very least, people! They couldn't have even stuck some plush, half-chewed tail on the guy's behind?! They couldn't have given him some new hairdo?! They couldn't just give Bulma some hair dye?!

........................... I'll stop ranting now. T_T

Later.

Snacks and Pasta

Me again. You know, I figured since this thing is called The Cooking Shed, it would be dumb if I didn't have any food related posts. But that's just me.

Snacks, huh? The so-called evil of healthy living? No way. If you eat something healthful in a reasonable serving, it's actually beneficial. It keeps your metabolism running and that helps burn fat. Plus, you're not hungry between whatever meal and whatever meal and then you overdo it later.

Now I'm not saying eat 24 hours straight, 'cause you'll make yourself sick and that's just... not very smart. But if you're hungry and it's not, say dinner time yet, get some tea or an apple or a frozen yogurt or something light. I personally like tea and tortilla chips; they have a nice amount of fiber. But drink something with your 'lots of fiber,' people, or you, your intestines, and everybody else will regret it.

Now I have a recipe for pasta. Read it BEFORE you start making it.

Boil a medium pot of water. Salt it to taste and pour in a little bit of extra virgin olive oil.
Pour in each needed serving size small pasta, like rotini, shells, etc., and cook for at least 10 minutes or until the pasta is soft but not falling apart.
That's right. Past al dente.
Strain it, then put it back in the pot to keep it warm. Add 1/2 tsp of dried parsley (fresh is a bit hard to eat and gets stuck in your teeth -.-') per serving and a 1/3 of a tsp of dillweed per serving. Be careful mixing it; it might collapse on you if you're too rough. Put it in some nice-looking bowls and you're done!

Here're some variations:

More Traditonal Preparation: Just cook it until it's al dente this time.
Heartier Preparation: Chop up half a chicken breast or some crabmeat for every two servings. Don't eat this preparation too often. It get very old very quickly. I've only eaten it three times in my life and I'm already sick of it.
Just Plain Weird Preparation: Cook this in two different pots. Put five drops of one food coloring in one pot, five drops of another in the other pot. You could split it even more, in thirds, fourths... but after a while, it starts to look nasty... And creepy...
Sideshow Preparation: Just make this as a side dish.

That's pretty much it.

Later.

Tidbits of Interest

Heya, I came as soon as I heard.

Apparently, some people found two pieces of music that might have composed by Mozart. Neat, huh? I wonder what they sound like.

Also, I saw a program about how symptom relief for multiple sclerosis. Bee stings. Sounds weird, I know, but according to Pat "The Bee Lady" Wagner, the bee stings patients with MS, and it releases melittin, which is a super-strong anti-inflammatory substance. It's like hydrocortisone x100! Wow! I heard about this info on an Animal Planet program called "Weird, True, and Freaky" about bizarre treatments, but I got the info for this post (I forgot the
major points... -.-') by searching "bee stings MS," and it's the second thing I saw I clicked.
Me oh my, that's a grand thing! But it would be a desperate situation indeed if an MS patient had bee allergies, so before treatment, it's critical to check for bee allergies BEFORE taking this treatment. At Discovery Health is where you'll find the full thing. I don't own Discovery Health, Animal Planet, or any of the treatment.

Live life and prosper. I love shamrocks. ^-^

Later.