Requests or submissions for links come in four basic varieties, I’ve found. First I should mention that I have a fairly automated links directory that allows folks to submit their own links, because we get so many link submissions that I just couldn’t keep up with it manually. (It already contains more than 1600 links; I’ve been collecting them for about 9 years now after all.) My main goal with that directory is to provide useful links to our readers, and I will only include links that fall into areas that I think might be of interest to our readers. This is pretty clear simply by the fact that there are only four major categories: research links, tabletop RPG links, computer RPG links, and writers’ links. The directory contains so many links that much further sub-categorization has been necessary to allow any sort of easy browsing; the briefest glance will make it clear that there are no single links at the top-level categories. Everything is further categorized.

So, those four types of link submissions. The rarest is the person who actually looks around, determines that their link is appropriate to the directory, finds a sub-category that makes sense for it, and submits it through the “submit new link” function there. I tend to approve these fairly quickly assuming I click through and the site looks relevant and functional.

The next is the person who totally ignores the fact that submissions for the directory are automated and emails me asking for a link. Since they apparently can’t even be bothered to look at the site before asking for a link, I might or might not write back to them depending on whether I feel like it, I have the time, and their link looks worthwhile. Of course, all I tell them is that they can go find the relevant category/sub-category in the directory and use the “submit new link” function to submit their link there.

Third is the person who submits their link, but dumps it in the top level category. I don’t know if these folks think their links should get special treatment and be listed above all others, or they just don’t care to put in the effort to find the relevant sub-category and figure that’s my job. Either way, these tend to sit around in my admin panel until I have absolutely nothing else to do–which can take quite a while. (If their link’s placement isn’t worth the time and effort to them, I don’t really see why it should be worth the time and effort to me. I have much better things to do.)

Finally, there are the links (and there are far more of them than I’d like to admit) that have nothing whatsoever to do with the directory. It’s hard to believe that with such a focused directory these people really think their links are going to get in, yet they still keep trying. Usually they stop after one or two tries, although of course I’ve gotten chewed out by some folks for daring to reject their links, which I always find amusing. Today I finally had to look up how to ban IP addresses because the same few types of links kept getting submitted over and over (and no, no matter how many times they try I’m not going to post get-rich-quick scheme links in a directory for writers and roleplayers).

Sigh…

Level 70 Nerd Dark T-Shirt

Technorati Tags: links

Random cooking tip: how to make yummy sunny-side-up fried eggs with whites that are cooked all the way through yet yolks that are still soft.

My problem with fried eggs was always this: either you had soft yolks but undercooked whites on top (*shudder*), or you had cooked-through whites but the yolk was hard and perhaps the bottom of your eggs was burned. At some point I found the perfect solution to this:

Heat your pan to about medium; spray with cooking oil or whatever you prefer to use. Break eggs into a bowl and slide into pan (this makes it easier to fish out any bits of errant shell); season as desired. Now–here’s the oh-so-simple and yet oh-so-important part: LID THE PAN with a see-through (i.e. glass) lid. This causes steam and heat to pool over the top of the eggs as well as beneath them, cooking them through from both sides, effectively.

In my experience when the yolks just film over with white they’re about perfect (hence the need for a see-through lid), but you’ll find your own perfect point with practice. Not only does this result in fried eggs with soft yolks yet cooked whites, but it also results in very creamy, soft egg whites.

“I’ll get my own dinner, thanks!
Now just step a little bit closer…”

Technorati Tags: cooking, eggs

So, as you may or may not remember, we entered our I’m not lazy, I’m just out of mana dark t-shirt in CafePress’ “Big Idea Holiday Contest” 2006. I wasn’t convinced that such a niche design could place, but hell if I wasn’t going to try my hardest. Well much to my surprise and delight, we came in second!

Not content to rest on our laurels, we fully intend to enter the upcoming “Anti-Valentine’s Day” contest, which begins on the 15th. Keep an eye out here for an announcement when we put our design up in a couple of days.

Molten to the Core Dark T-Shirt

Technorati Tags: cafe press, cafepress.com, t-shirts

Today’s review is of Emily Luchetti’s A Passion for Ice Cream–a wonderful cookbook full of impressive and delicious frozen dessert recipes. Other than that, well, it’s been one of those slow & sleepy days. I’m making headway through a review book called “The Beginning Writer’s Answer Book.” It’s very thick with information and not really meant to be read cover-to-cover the way I’m reading it for review, so it’s taking me a little time to finish. Hopefully soon, though!

Technorati Tags: book reviews, books, cookbook reviews, cookbooks, cooking, reviews

Selene update: the collar came off on the Friday before New Year’s. She’s all healed up, although it looks like she’s going to have a straight scar line down her belly, which is pretty weird, since this thing started out as an allergic reaction. Of course when she had the collar on for several weeks she couldn’t groom her fur, which drove her nuts, so now she’s over-grooming and leaving herself with little bare patches. Hopefully we’ll get her to stop that soon!

I have some good news regarding the cafepress shops, but it might be a couple of weeks before I can post it, so instead in the meantime here are some of our latest designs. First, the ones from the Gamers’ Heaven store:

And then of course, the ones from the Caffeinated Chicanery store, still in that new series of ours:

Technorati Tags: cafe press, cafepress.com, cats, t-shirts

The following obituary is reprinted from the Beckett Funeral Home website. It’s the obituary for my aunt’s husband. Sadly I never got to meet him, as they were only married for a few years when he was struck by brain cancer. Many of the following, quite amazing, details are things we never knew about him, because he was a modest man who didn’t brag of his accomplishments. Most of what I knew was that he made my aunt happy, and really, that’s all that was important. I might not have met him, but for that reason I’ll miss him.
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The problem with taking a week off is that invariably we end up playing Warcraft with friends, which means we come up with more T-shirt ideas, but I’m not also putting together new designs–so I end up with a stack of ideas that could last me the rest of the year! I’ve gone ahead and put up the first few new ones, although I intend to stretch them out a bit so there’s always something new going up.

By the way, I don’t think I’ve noted this before, but cafepress does provide a nice little newsletter interface so that folks can sign up for newsletters from their favorite stores (the signup box is generally found at the bottom of the left-hand nav bar in each shop). We do use this feature, although we keep the newsletters brief and to the point, and once monthly for each shop. We’re going to start including subscribers-only sales in each issue, so please sign up if you like our stuff!

We have one new design up in the Caffeinated Chicanery shop, but it’s the start of a long series. In it, a mysterious graffiti artist has found a number of quotes about life and crossed out the ‘l’, replacing it with a ‘w’. The results should prove interesting, particularly as we were really on a roll the night we started churning these out (we have more than 30 ideas to cull):

Get a (W)ife Women’s Dark T-Shirt

There are also a couple of new designs in the Gamers’ Heaven shop, some of which are appropriate to both mmorpg and rpg players alike:

Technorati Tags: cafe press, cafepress.com, mmorpg, roleplaying, rpgs, t-shirts

I’ve just posted a review of Grandmother’s Cookbook, by Elizabeth Rose von Hohen and Carrie J. Gamble. If you miss your grandmother’s cooking, you really must check this one out.

There will hopefully be more to come later today. I have another cookbook I plan to review today or tomorrow, a bunch of T-shirts to start designing, a Twilight Time issue to work on, and more. It all depends on what order I end up going in!

I hope you’re all having a wonderful 2007–Happy New Year!

In yesterday’s post (links to the full series found here) I mentioned that I was hoping to create entries from the matriarch’s journal rather than simply describing it when the party found it. I did, in fact, do that. I also managed to dig up some nice marbled paper to print it on that I bought years ago. Here I’ve included the text of that journal.

As a note, since this comes from a people about whom the party knows very little, and whose history the party knows little about, I made up the month names and year referents and such as I went along, planning to flesh them out later. Like I said earlier, you don’t need to know everything in advance in order to run a good campaign. I did print this out using a somewhat handwriting-like, elegant font, but I made sure to pick one that wouldn’t be too difficult to read (I don’t like sacrificing utility for appearance).

Technorati Tags: AD&D, D&D, d20, Dungeons & Dragons, roleplaying, rpgs

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