Geeky_Apple posted this on DAR a few months ago, and I just saw it again and felt like killing some time. Besides, when do I get over here to post anymore? 

This taken in whole from the "Very Good Taste" blog:

The Omnivore’s Hundred

Here’s a chance for a little interactivity for all the bloggers out there. Below is a list of 100 things that I think every good omnivore should have tried at least once in their life. The list includes fine food, strange food, everyday food and even some pretty bad food – but a good omnivore should really try it all. Don’t worry if you haven’t, mind you; neither have I, though I’ll be sure to work on it. Don’t worry if you don’t recognize everything in the hundred, either; Wikipedia has the answers.

Here’s what I want you to do:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst -- wait!  Saw it ... did I actually have it?  Thought about ordering it for so long now I can't remember if I did!  Ah, Europe without Sleep...  
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe -- well, absinthe, at least
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse -- at least not on purpose
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

Anything seafood that I marked as tried was a taste only.  Just don't like seafood, but I am curious, and usually want to try a bite of whatever comes to the table when dining out. 

A couple of these I need to look up just in case I had a local version of something here with e fancy-pants name...

For your meme responses--

Some serious hunkage.





(isn't embedding fun? :})

It seems only fair... from mrsevilpigeon 's snag of a snag...

If you comment to this post, I will

1. Respond with something random about you.
2. Tell you which color you remind me of.
3. Tell you my first memory of you.
4. Tell you what animal you remind me of.
5. Ask you something I've always wondered about you.
6. Tell you my favorite thing about you.
7. Tell you my least favorite thing about you.
8. Challenge you to post this on your journal.

...and probably not do it nearly as quickly and impressively as she did! 

Okay, because I'm perverse and oppositional on a variety of fronts, I ended up with this part one of a two part fic request response (okay, let's call them two related drabbles so they get close to the actual request).  geeky_apple 's request was "Just because a totally overlooked couple, how about Jonas and Margo?" and I promise they actually will be a part of this -- but then this part arose to become the lead-in for them to appear.  It was to be all one story, too, but this was done and with time constraints, I wasn't sure when the rest would be ready, so... heh... here's a completely non-responsive response to the request.  I suppose if nothing else, at least it's another "overlooked" couple, and you might not have seen this coming!

( this )

Plundered from Geeky_Apple, who took from Ms. Evil Pigeon who took from Spastic Visions (will embed links later, wasted too much time on fun this work-break as it is!):

The first TEN people to comment in this post get to request that I write a drabble/ficlet of any pairing/character of their choosing. In return, they have to post this in their journal, regardless of their ability level (or not, your call). If you do it, you do it. If not, there's no drabble police. Just sayin'.

Bear in mind my limited fandoms -- primarily Dark Angel & NCIS; watch them too much as it is -- but hey, you want to throw in something you think I might know, ask...  (and I so don't expect 10 responses... had to bat away enough cobwebs to get this far anyway!  Still, what the heck; I wanted to beg fic, so turnabout is only fair and is part of the deal!)

...and if you hit the link and go to their site, it will give you as many new ideas as you can stand...

...because it's not safe to really spill about this anywhere else outside the privacy of our own little circle of ex-pats:

I have now passed the 10 year mark since having moved from a quasi-cosmopolitan city in the northeast portion of the US midwest to a much smaller town in the Deep South -- as in deep, Deep South.  I expected change, but had no idea it would be like moving to a completely different country -- one with a state religion, completely different culture, the whole works.  I have several frustrations & rants from it, but today's final straw rant relates to one of those unexpected variations on how insular 80% of the population in the area where I work is (the other 20% is made up of  those who either have come from elsewhere, or who lived away from here for a time before coming back and who therefore have some clue about the rest of the world).

The genteel Junior Leaguers here will tell you how they/Southerners are so much friendlier, more gratious and polite and mannerly than those up North; often when one of them returns from places like Boston or NYC or even Kansas City or Indianapolis or Minneapolis they'll say how rude Northerners are.  Well, a) they confuse directness with rudeness, as no one here (sorry, but expecially women) will be direct, preferring to manipulate and be passive aggressive, I suspect because they think being direct isn't polite.  They really, really believe this is better.  b) they're just NOT nearly as gracious and mannerly as they think they are -- they snipe and skewer behind others' backs, they are uncharitable and callous to those they think are beneath them (and oh yes, they still see the world in terms of  'servant class' -- or worse).  And as for 'more gracious and polite'  -- in the 10 years I've been here I have given (individually, not kick in for group gifts) three (rather expensive) wedding gifts (one to a friend's child, I didn't even know the bride & groom), three baby shower gifts (different couples even ) and two baby gifts.  Go on, ask me how many thank you notes I've received ... go on, you know what's coming.   

Zip; zero; nada.  NONE.  

I work in a professional office with people who consider themselves pillars of the community, quite literally junior leaguers, yacht clubbers, hobnobbers ... all of whom will tell you how they are so much more mannerly and gracious and hospitable than those from 'up north.'

Yeah, well I may prove them right, because the next time I hear that I might just let fly with a whole new vocabulary that they are just too too refined to ever use themselves...

My rant is less the lack of basic manners or even kindness, it's the combination of that and their smug insistence that they truly are so much more socially adept and polite and all that -- and will tell you as much.  I am ever thankful that I'm in a university town which draws people from all over, even if I work in a town that does not.  I wish I could say that I have met some exceptions, but while some are better than others, there is not one native I would trust with a secret.  Period.  And I can't say that I have ever had that sense before, in any other workplace.

What a place, y'all.

Recent challenge fic for Latenightrain in the BBWW Christmas in July challenge -- still a WIP but as one of LNR's prompts/wishes was "water," it seemed a fitting prompt response (even though we're not quite done with the water yet!)

Title:  FIGHTING THE POWER: the Blackout Edition
Fandom:  Dark Angel
Characters:  Logan Cale & Max Guevara
Prompt: #51, Water
Word Count:  WIP
Rating:  GP
Summary:  Early in their working relationship, Max is badgered by her friends -- and her own curiosity -- to see how Logan's doing during a late night blackout.

Author's Notes:  Written in response to a challenge in which one of the prompts was "water," so it seemed only fitting it be added here.  Crossposted to fanfic100  -- my Little Damn Table may be found here.

On to the show...

Never tried posting a video before, but this is worth a try:  my favorite non-role video of MW ever--



(woo-hoo! it works!! :D)