Posted on

Terrorism as a Marketing Tool, pt 2

First of all, let’s revisit my 2003 rant about GeeDuhbya and his use of terrorism as a marketing tool. Ok, caught up?

Now I invite you to change out references to Duhbya and insert Obama. Still pretty much works, right? Not the imperialism so much, but most of it still fits. I am never disappointed when it comes to politicians finding creative ways to divert attention from important issues. Gotta hand it to them, sleight of hand is their forte.

And the media. Ah, yes, the media. I used to think CNN was a reliable source of news, but after last night’s stupidity, now I put them with FOX in biased sensationalism. From their reports last night of “100% certain!” to today’s “Um, well, there is no body, but, um, he was buried AT SEA! Yah, at sea, and uh…” Yah. Sad. If that asshole CNN commentator said “Osama bin Laden is dead” once, he said it 100 times. He was practically chanting it! Wow, trying too hard? They REALLY want the public to believe this.

Good thing I’m not part of the sheeple herd CNN was clearly chanting to. :/

From the CNN site today: “There are photographs of the body with a gunshot wound to the side of the head that shows an individual who is not unrecognizable as bin Laden, the official said.” Um, what? Spin much? Here’s the ever changing article. CNN keeps revising this post – no doubt to make sure to cast as much golden glow of accomplishment onto the administration as possible.

From my Twitter feed:

WTF? “not unrecognizable”?? I call bullshit. Buried at sea? BULLSHIT. Gov’t LIES to divert attn from its ineffectiveness.

And this ALSO shows quite nicely how Obama is not above the ole shuck and jive if it behooves him. Whatever it takes to get reelected.

For all of you who preach the Gospel of Obama, I’d like each and every one you to SUCK IT. He is the lowest of the low: a politician.

I love this WikiAnswers post about Muslims being buried at sea. The answer is the BEST.

The Obama administration is creating this bullshit story – that can’t be proven, with the convenient “burial” of the body – for several reasons:

    1. to play off Duhbya’s efforts to kill bin Laden – and be “successful”
    2. to divert attention from the fact that this administration has been ineffective at dealing with, well, pretty much anything, just pick one: economy, immigration, health care, reversing the Patriot Act, foreign policies, tax reform, etc., etc.
    3. to rally the Obama Faithful and remind them that he is the messiah and ensure his reelection (which is assured IMO, since there will be no viable opponents)

The Obama Faithful will find my comments most unseemly, I’m sure. And they can all eat a bag of dicks. The fact of the matter, which I have stated from the first day of The Messiah’s reign, is that he’s first and foremost a politician. Therefore, his first and foremost goal is extending his reign. He is not above using lies, ruses, unprovable events or whatever is available to make himself look good to his flock of sheeple.

Any politician worth his salt would do the same thing. Politicians are all the same, people. They are grabbing power and money as fast as they can grab ’em. They have gone out of control and sheeple just keep on being led by whatever ruse is presented.

WAKE UP AND SMELL THE LIES.

Here is the transcript of Obama’s victory speech – complete with plenty of god references at the end. Gee, hope that doesn’t hurt anyone’s widdle feewings. Feh.

Posted on

Long weekends are nice

We enjoyed a four day weekend thanks to Nick’s Monday off falling yesterday. We got a LOT done around here. Not much in the name of going out and/or partying, but lots of home projects are off the list. We were going to attend the It’s Not Lupus show at Doo Gallery and pooped out on Saturday. We were supposed to go to L5P for comics and The Porter yesterday and I pooped out. :/

Freecycle worked flawlessly for this batch of crap we got rid of. Between that and Nick taking all the spare lumber up to the warehouse we can now actually see the floor of the crawlspace. Miracle! Freecycle is either really great or really shitty – I got lucky this time.

I’ve got a box of size 9 shoes that I’m gonna get rid of: heels, boots, con shoes, etc. If anyone is interested I’ll post a pic. Next will be the closet. I’m cleaning that bitch out and getting rid of stuff I know I’ll never touch again. Mostly con crap, but some dressy dresses, too. Sizes range from 8-11. Again, if anyone is interested, I’ll post a pic or two.

Free Comic Book Day is May 7. We are getting ready for it. We’ve got a new storefront over at storenvy.com (http://indigodragon.storenvy.com) We are really loving storenvy! All our small merch and books are at the storenvy shop and our Tshirts are still at spreadshirt.com.

I’m working on my coasters. I’ve got the dimensions of the transfers where I want them and the transfers look pretty good. Now it’s the damn oil based polyurethane that’s driving me mad. That shit will NOT dry. AND it is NOT clear, it’s yellow. Feh. I’m going to try a batch with water based poly and see how that is. Since the transfers are full bleed (no border), the more opaque look of the water based poly should be ok. We’ll see. The oil based is just too slow. Dry for 3 days for each coat? Who’s got the time!! ;)

Hmm, what else? It’s hot. Already. We’re gonna fucking BROIL this summer. Being fat does NOT help with the hot/sweaty thing at all. I’m a sweater at any weight, but being this fat makes me absolutely drip with sweat. Not pretty. Speaking of fat, if you want men to magically LOVE your fat ass, I highly recommend getting Avenue jeans. Every time I wear the ones I just bought, I have men stalking me and telling me how awesome my ass looks. ?? It makes me giggle!

Nick’s god mother and hubby are coming to the ATL for a conference this weekend, which means I’ve got to get this place ship shape. Gotta dust and clean the floors. I’m glad I got the new furniture from my Gran’s. Did I mention that? Oh, I got the curio cabinet, the console stereo (it works!) and her sewing machine. The cabinet is in the living room and the stereo is now the phone/recharge table. The sewing machine will not fit in this postage stamp of a house, so it’s at the warehouse for now. Which is the perfect segue into what we’ve decided to do for upgrades around here.

We’ve got several things that need to be done: windows, bathroom and kitchen cabinets. We decided SCREW THAT. We’re going to build a small shed for our lawn equipment as practice, then we’re building a studio. Fuck this house. It’s worthless to us now and frankly, we’d get FAR more pleasure from a studio than more infrastructure around here. We could move much of the crap that’s clogging up the house out into the studio AND I can have the sewing machine out there, too. Probably the treadmill will go as well. Getting all the art stuff and comics boxes out of the house will be a godsend. The studio will have heat/air and perhaps water. We’ll also have ethernet and phone out there, too, natch. :) I’ll put my flower power iMac out there. We’re currently thinking 12×16 with a mansard roof if we can manage that. Downstairs will be studio space with stations for whatever it is: sewing, windows, painting, silver fabrication, etc. We’ll have a loft upstairs for comic books, records and slide storage – stuff that needs temp control. So much of our stuff can’t be put in the attic because it’s too hot/humid/cold/etc.

It’s exciting. I hope we can do it. If my brother gave a shit, he would come help, but he won’t. So we’ll do it our damn selves! Ha! Hey, maybe we should have an old fashioned barn raising! FREE BEER! :D

Welp, that’s the round up, I think. We’ll be a Criminal Records and Oxford Comics on FCBD then on to Athens for Lissa’s Birhaversarywarming. SAHWEET!

Posted on

Ah, Politics!

I’ve come to realise that pretty much across the board, young people who are raging liberals really don’t get it. They are completely unwilling and/or unable to see that entitlements and government intervention into private issues really won’t work for the long term. It never has! This is not a new idea! I’ve never been a raging liberal OR conservative, so I really don’t get the reasoning behind it.

I’m a centrist. Every single political test I’ve taken puts me smack in the middle of all the various parties. Which means, of course, I have absolutely no one representing me, ever. I’ve never been all that liberal or conservative. I’ve got liberal ideas such as free college and healthcare but conservative ideas about entitlements and civil rights and drug enforcement. Just want to get that established before I go into my frustration with 20 somethings who worship Obama and blame the problems of the world on Republicans. Continue reading “Ah, Politics!”

Posted on

Easy Coq au Vin

Classic Coq au Vin can be a bit of a pain with the day before prep and the straining and all that. Here is my simplified version for one pot cooking in about an hour and a half. I think it’s one of the best Coq Au Vin recipes I’ve made! Enjoy!

Easy coq au vin
Angela's Easy Coq au Vin

* 1 small chicken cut up or 2 breasts, 2 thighs and 2 legs
* flour for dredging chicken
* 4 strips of bacon
* 2 T olive oil (more or less)
* 1 onion, frenched (How to French cut onions.)
* 2 med shallots sliced
* 6 carrots, cut into 1 inch pieces
* 15 (1 small carton) button mushrooms (I like Cremini)
* 24 pearl onions (about 1 cup, I use frozen, these are optional)
* 4 stalks celery, cut into 1 inch pieces
* 5 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
* Salt & Pepper to taste
* .75 of a 750ml bottle red wine, approx 2.5cups (whatever you like to drink is fine)
* 1 cup chicken broth (more or less to taste)
* 2 Tbl tomato paste
* 21 Tbl brown sugar
* 3 sprigs of thyme or 1 teaspoon of dried
* 1 tsp herbes de provence
* 3 bay leaf
* 1/2 c Italian parsley, roughly chopped

Remove skin if you wish, rinse and pat dry the chicken. Make your flour dredge – don’t forget to season with salt and pepper.

Add olive oil to coat bottom of dutch oven and put heat on med. Fry up the bacon slowly to render the fat. Remove bacon, set aside and retain bacon fat. Snack on bacon. Dredge the chicken and brown in fat/oil mixture, skin side down to create a crispy skin. (YUM!) The chicken will not be cooked, just browned in about 15 mins. Monitor your heat and don’t burn it! Remove golden brown chicken and hold. (I suggest a pan with sides to catch the delicious juices!) Hold the dredge flour as well.

Over medium flame, cook carrots, onions, shallots, celery and shrooms until fragrant. Add garlic last so as not to scorch. The veg does not need to be cooked through – since this is a braise, they will cook with the chicken. Add in about 1 Tbl of the dredge flour, stir in and cook for a minute or so. This is to thicken your sauce. If the pan becomes too dry, add a splash of stock.

Turn up the heat to med high and add in the aromatics (thyme, herbs, bay leaves), tomato paste and brown sugar and sautée until tomato paste is broken down. Add wine and broth and scrape up the flavour bits from the bottom of the pan. You should have a thick sauce. Taste for seasoning. Place chicken skin side up (if you left the skin on and it’s crispy) and try not to immerse the skin so it will stay slightly crispy. Bring to boil then reduce to slow simmer and put the lid on the dutch oven. Let simmer covered for about 10 mins, then partially open the cover to allow steam to escape and the sauce to reduce. Check your seasoning. Cook for another 30-45 mins on low. If the sauce is too thin, you can make a cornstarch slurry with 1T cornstarch dissolved in chicken stock and add in. Or you can simply continue to cook uncovered to reduce the sauce. I’d try to reduce first, if that doesn’t work, then do the slurry and don’t forget to bring to a boil to cook it. If it’s too thick, add more stock.

Serve in a big bowl dressed with a dash of red wine vinegar and fresh parsley. Add crusty bread and red wine for a wonderful classic French meal.

Posted on

Party, DnD, New stuff

The party was smashing! Just enough ppl to have great convos, not so many as to crowd the place. Perfect! Thanks to all who journeyed from Far Far Away to join us! I was very pleased by the amount of food put away. You know us Southerners, clean plates = happiness. :)

We attended Decatur Drink n Draw at Mellow Mushroom last night. Very fun! It was good to catch up with Miracole and Chris before they disappear for 5 months doing a gig. I love MM pizza! We had the Greek one and it was TASTY!

There’s always stuff knocking around in our heads for Weasel merch and such. The current ideas are, in no particular order:
– Larry the Llama (Alpaca, actually) shirts
– Weasel Pair shirts
– some sort of Weasel character Shrinky Dinks. Keychains? Earrings? Suggestions welcome!
– comic strip templates. People ask Nick about this all the time, so we’ve decided to sell them in hard copy form as well as a pdf download on the site. We’ll sell them at Cons, too.
– new pins! Not sure of which characters yet, but probably 3 more

Also, we are going to roll out two new comic sites before Heroes Con (June 3-5). We are rolling out Drama Llamas, Inc and Awkward Ninja Squad. The Intermission Comics folks will have their own space eventually as well. :)

As for my personal projects, I’ve made a ton more earrings for my Etsy shop, which I need to photograph and get up. I’ve also procured some magic marker brush pens so I can make colourful art on my jewelry boxes. These are not as good as the Japanese brush pen, of course, but fine for small stuff and in colour!! I practiced my calligraphy and art at the DnD last night. I also got some Lazertran decal paper to make coasters. I’m going to use my flower photography to make decals for tiles. Should be a fun project.

Heroes will be cool this year. Just us at the table, doing our respective artsy things. I’m going to have the jewelry displayed as well as the boxes. If the boxes get interest, I may get assorted sizes and sell those. I plan to have some coasters ready to go as well. I may give the hand painted flowers a go once more, but I tell you, I just can’t get the pure lines that I want out of Photoshop. There’s always too much grayscale. We’ll see about that one. Or I may just print them full color onto watercolor paper and sell them that way. Ooo, which gives me another idea for the shrinky dinks! I could print the flowers and make earrings out of those! :)

The stupid storms kept me up practically all night, so I’m a bit out of it today. I’ll probably collapse later. Nick overslept and when he finally got to work, most of the power was out there. They must’ve gotten it back up since he’s not been back here for extension cords.

Welp, that’s the state of Mrs Weasel. Hope ya’ll have a great day!