For newer readers, here are some posts from a year ago.

Quick Steps

• Break Away #15 - November 21, 2006
• Inspiration Tag #19 - November 22, 2006
• Say What? Take #20 - November 27, 2006

For newer readers, here are some posts from a year ago.

Quick Steps

• Break Away #14 - November 14, 2006
• Inspiration Tag #18 - November 15, 2006
• Shopping Countdown - November 16, 2006
• Say What? Take Nineteen - November 20, 2006

The idea behind Break Away is to let your mind go and see if it will break away from your normal thought patterns.

The word is “Certificate”

Here’s how it works:

1. Write the Break Away Word in the center of a paper (or if you’re lucky - a whiteboard).
2. Write/Draw the first thing that comes to mind when you look at the Break Away Word.
3. Write/Draw the next thing that comes to mind.
4. Continue the process for 10 minutes or until nothing new comes to mind

Let your pen or pencil find its own way, don’t try to force any associations into a pattern.

When you’re done, take a look at your paper/whiteboard. Where did you end up? Are there any connections that surprise you?

For newer readers, here are some posts from a year ago.

Quick Steps

• Break Away #13 - November 7, 2006
• Actors Alphabetical - November 8, 2006
• Inspiration Tag #17 - November 9, 2006
• Name Game #3 - November 10, 2006
• Say What? Take Eighteen - November 13, 2006

Here’s this week’s Say What?

“Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that life is serious.”

–Brendan Gill

If anyone has tried to check our NaNoWriMo Progress page, they may have noticed that the reports didn’t have any information in them. That’s because NaNoWriMo has been having a tough time with site problems.

As of this morning, they were able to get the word count API working again. So if you’d like to see where Gem and I are, just click the link in the side bar.

Been a while since we’ve had one of these, but I was playing in the kitchen again and didn’t have absolutely everything on hand that I wanted, so substitutions were made and my partner liked it. And since it’s getting colder outside for some of us I present it to you…

Barley and Lentil Stew with Sausage

You’ll need

Hardware:
Dry Measuring Cups/Spoons
Wet measuring cup
Skillet
Cooking spoon
Crock-pot

Software:
1 lbs pork sausage
.5 cups barley
.25 cups lentils
1 bay leaf
1.5 tbs olive oil
1 medium onion (chopped)
10 crimini mushrooms (quartered – and any kind of mushroom will work)
2 cloves of garlic (chopped)
1.5 tsp marjoram
1.5 tsp oregano
2 or 3 beef bullion cubes
4 tbs dill
2 tbs soy sauce
Salt & Pepper to taste
Approximately 5 cups water

Plug in your crock pot and turn it onto the medium setting. Add 2 cups of water, the barley, lentils and bay leaf, cook for about 40 minutes, checking periodically.

Meanwhile, chop veggies and garlic and place to the side. Fry your sausage with the olive oil until it crumbles nicely, do not drain this.

When the timer for the barley and lentils goes off remove the bay leaf and stir, add in 3 cups of water and 2 to 3 beef bullion cubes. Stir and set timer for 10 minutes.

When the timer goes off add the sausage, veggies and garlic, stirring after each addition. Add spices and soy sauce and cover.

Wait approximately 3 to 4 hours, stirring occasionally, for the stew to simmer and flavors to blend and serve with warm biscuits and butter.

Keep your knives sharp, your marble board cold, your spice rack neatly organized and use your kitchen creatively.

I don’t usually buy into the “click here and help me” pages. So very many of them are nothing but get rich quick schemes and phishing sites waiting to take your money and your life, and not particularly in that order.

However, when I’m looking at the same thing from what I would call two reliable sources, Neil Gaiman’s Journal and R.K. Milholland’s Something Positive, I stand up and take notice.

And what I found is a site called Project Download – A click a day saves a life. Erin, the site founder, is suffering from Chiari malformation and cranial lesions and is looking at having to undergo a lot of surgery in the very near future; as anyone in the United States can tell you, if you don’t have health care insurance you’re pretty much screwed.

So what does this have to do with creativity? In this case, it’s a very creative way to earn the money she needs to afford her surgeries.

Instead of asking for donations she’s hooked up with MegaUpload and figured out how to raise the money she needs with their help. You don’t have to send her money; instead you click on a little link and download a small, virus free file that tells you a little bit more about her and her maladies. Five million downloads earns her ten grand for her medical expenses. All the details are on her site.

She’s even got a LiveJournal and Yahoo Group that’s being updated day to day on how things are proceeding. If you want my opinion, and if you got this far you’ve already gotten it, it’s a creative solution to her woes.

Give it a click, get the details for yourself and maybe download the file and help save a life.

The idea behind Break Away is to let your mind go and see if it will break away from your normal thought patterns.

The word is “Access”

Here’s how it works:

1. Write the Break Away Word in the center of a paper (or if you’re lucky - a whiteboard).
2. Write/Draw the first thing that comes to mind when you look at the Break Away Word.
3. Write/Draw the next thing that comes to mind.
4. Continue the process for 10 minutes or until nothing new comes to mind

Let your pen or pencil find its own way, don’t try to force any associations into a pattern.

When you’re done, take a look at your paper/whiteboard. Where did you end up? Are there any connections that surprise you?

For newer readers, here are some posts from a year ago.

Quick Steps

• Break Away #12 - October 31, 2006
• Inspiration Tag #16 - November 2, 2006
• Fiction in a Flash #6 - November 3, 2006
• Say What? Take Seventeen - November 6, 2006

NaNoWriMo 2006

• ? Countdown to NaNoWriMo 2006 - October 31, 2006