Sara Raasch's Blog, page 505

LOTR drinking game: every time Legolas’ eyes are brown, do a shot.

LOTR drinking game: every time Legolas’ eyes are brown, do a shot. 

miriamforster:songoharotto:ghostanswers:FUCK YESThere’s...

miriamforster:

songoharotto:

ghostanswers:

FUCK YES

There’s ‘black comedy’ and then there’s M*A*S*H.

*pulls out M*A*S*H DVDs* *rewatches*

Childhood flashbacks.

*scrambles to find M*A*S*H shows*

Homemade sfiha and tzatziki!Sfiha recipe here. Relatively easy...

Homemade sfiha and tzatziki!

Sfiha recipe here. Relatively easy and SO. FREAKIN’. YUMMY. I used Pillsbury biscuits for the dough, which made it even easier (and gave it a nice sweet flavor), and straight molasses as opposed to pomegranate molasses. I didn’t have aleppo pepper or even cayenne pepper, so I used paprika and chili powder, and I also used ground beef instead of lamb. Even with all these substitutions, it was still incredible!

The tzatziki recipe is my own, and not gonna lie, I make a stupidly good tzatziki. I could eat it as its own dish.

Sara’s Stupidly Good Tzatziki

1 container of Greek yogurt (I used the little single-serve ones)

1-2 tbl honey (depending on how sweet you want it)

1 tsp salt

1 tbl ground/chopped dill 

2 tsp garlic (fresh or powdered)

2 tsp lemon juice 

1/2 of a cucumber, cubed (about 1 cup total)

Combine all. Adjust based on flavor preferences (like it saltier? Add more salt. Like it sweeter? More honey). Stick a spoon in and gobble it up!

"Fantasy is silver and scarlet, indigo and azure, obsidian veined with gold and lapis lazuli. Reality..."

“Fantasy is silver and scarlet, indigo and azure, obsidian veined with gold and lapis lazuli. Reality is plywood and plastic, done up in mud brown and olive drab. Fantasy tastes of habaneros and honey, cinnamon and cloves, rare red meat and wines as sweet as summer. Reality is beans and tofu, and ashes at the end. Reality is the strip malls of Burbank, the smokestacks of Cleveland, a parking garage in Newark. Fantasy is the towers of Minas Tirith, the ancient stones of Gormenghast, the halls of Camelot. Fantasy flies on the wings of Icarus, reality on Southwest Airlines. Why do our dreams become so much smaller when they finally come true?



We read fantasy to find the colors again, I think. To taste strong spices and hear the songs the sirens sang. There is something old and true in fantasy that speaks to something deep within us, to the child who dreamt that one day he would hunt the forests of the night, and feast beneath the hollow hills, and find a love to last forever somewhere south of Oz and north of Shangri-La.



They can keep their heaven. When I die, I’d sooner go to Middle-Earth.”

-

- George R.R. Martin  (via indisposablehero)

This is one of the most beautiful quotes I think I have ever read. I love it, and I will treasure it for my entire life.

(via draodoir-mna)

Giveaway of SCINTILLATE by Tracy Clark

Giveaway of SCINTILLATE by Tracy Clark:

tracyclark:

yaseriesinsiders:

YA Series Insider member, Tracy Clark, has a new book coming out on February 4th, and we’re so excited to offer a giveaway of a final copy! Fill out the Rafflecopter form at the bottom of the post for your chance to win!

Scintillate by Tracy Clark

A mighty flame follows a tiny spark.

…

And it will be a SIGNED copy, too!

SNOW.For obvious reasons.

SNOW.

For obvious reasons.

IMPORTANT!!! Why You Should Be Freaking Out About The End Of Net Neutrality

IMPORTANT!!! Why You Should Be Freaking Out About The End Of Net Neutrality :

shycustis:

jimfear138:

isaidwhat:

ofpotterandwho:

Net neutrality is dead.

Net neutrality is dead

At least that’s the verdict of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which today struck down a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) order from 2010 that forced Internet service providers (ISPs) like Verizon, AT&T, Comcast and Time Warner Cable to abide by the principles of network neutrality. These principles broadly stipulate that ISP network management must be transparent, and that ISPs can’t engage in practices that block, stifle or discriminate against (lawful) websites or traffic types on the Internet.

That’s the bare bones story, wrapped in ugly acronyms (FCC, ISP, etc.). But why should you care that network neutrality (“net neutrality”) may be gone for good?

1. No more net neutrality means ISPs can now discriminate against content they dislike.

Everyone gets their Internet from an Internet service provider — an ISP like AT&T, Verizon, Comcast or Time Warner Cable. Under net neutrality rules, these ISPs have to treat all content you access over the Internet “roughly the same way" — they can’t speed up traffic from websites they like or delay competitor’s traffic.

Now, with net neutrality gone, ISPs can discriminate, favoring their business partners while delaying or blocking websites they don’t like. Think your cable CEO hates free online porn? Now you’ll know for sure!

2. No more net neutrality means ISPs can now force websites to PAY for faster content delivery.

You know how some sites you go to just load slower than others? Usually, that’s just because the slower site is image heavy, poorly coded, or dealing with intense server load. But with net neutrality gone, ISPs can now start charging hefty fees to websites that want quick content delivery — shifting the long load times to poorer sites that can’t pay up.

Prefer indie retailers to Amazon.com? You may be in for a frustrating future.

3. Destroying net neutrality is bad for small businesses.

Put together items one and two and it becomes clear — negating net neutrality is bad for small businesses. If ISPs force website owners pay for faster load times, tiny retailers and personal websites will be the ones to suffer from slower content delivery.

Alternately — or additionally — ISPs will have no reason not to favor partner sites: Time Warner Cable, for instance, might favor the website of CNN (owned by the Time Warner Corporation) over the websites of competing cable news networks MSNBC and Fox News. Still, it’s the indies again that will lose out here. While Time Warner Cable might favor CNN and Comcast MSNBC, independent news networks almost certainly won’t get special treatment from any ISPs. Expand this out to music sites, web publishing, etc., and you begin to see the problem.

In extreme cases, ISPs may hinder or block content that isn’t produced by partners —much like AT&T did when it owned the telephone networks back in the day.

4. Without net neutrality, entire types of online traffic (like Netflix) may be in jeopardy.

Netflix watchers and BitTorrent users might want to beware — soon your beloved services may not work like they used to. Now that net neutrality’s down for the count, ISPs can discriminate against entire types of traffic: For instance, an ISP could slow or block all peer-to-peer file sharing, or all online video streaming.

Think it sounds unbelievably stupid for an ISP to stifle a certain traffic types indiscriminately? Comcast has seen reason to stifle both streaming video and peer-to-peer in the past.

From an ISP’s perspective, discriminating against some traffic types makes business sense: Many ISPs are also cable television providers, which means the “cord-cutting" enabled by peer-to-peer and streaming online video isn’t good for their bottom line.

5. Without net neutrality, your ISPs can make even more money without actually improving the Internet.

Right now, America’s broadband is slow. It’s slow because ISPs can already make gobs of money by charging the rich a ton for high-quality Internet while leaving the rest of America with subpar (or no) service.

Now, with net neutrality gone, ISPs will be able to make even more money off their existing customer base. They won’t need to improve service or bring broadband to rural areas because they’ll be able to keep growing (financially, at least) by charging content providers more for faster delivery and charging customers more for faster access. In all likelihood, Tuesday’s ruling means the problems with America’s Internet will be magnified.

This FINALLY shows up on my dashboard and it only has 300 notes.  

Here’s a petition on Whitehouse.gov that needs 88,000+ by the middle of February:

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/restore-net-neutrality-directing-fcc-classify-internet-providers-common-carriers/5CWS1M4P

SIGNAL BOOST THE FUCK OUT OF THIS SHIT AND LET THEM KNOW THAT WE AIN’T HAVIN’ IT!

YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE A US CITIZEN TO SIGN THIS.
Why should someone outside the US care? What passes in one industrialised nation gives companies and politicians more leverage to pass similar laws in their own.

Having this sort of discrimination in the hands of companies has political consequences in addition to the ones mentioned above. Think of the influence these ISPs would have if allowed to keep these powers? Any ISP with a political bias, or influenced by a political party, would have the power to direct access to information on the internet at their will.

SIGN AND REBLOG LIKE CRAZY.

America: Two steps forward, five steps back.

vindictev:Zutara Month: AfflictionBecause they understand...

vindictev:

Zutara Month: Affliction

Because they understand each other in a way that no one else possibly could.

…though honestly, that’s my reaction to EVERY Zutara pic.

sjmaas:behindthebloom:We’ve revealed the title for book 3!...

sjmaas:

behindthebloom:

We’ve revealed the title for book 3! Can’t wait till September!!!

YAYYYY! So, so excited to finally reveal the title!!

hypable:You can now live the life of an Arendelle Disney...

hypable:

You can now live the life of an Arendelle Disney princess. For one night, at least. A Quebec ice hotel has teamed up with Disney to create a suite inspired by Frozen.

In a press release, Walt Disney Studios and Quebec’s Hôtel de Glace unveiled the suite, which is modeled after Anna and Elsa’s bedrooms. The collaboration also includes a “Frozen Activity Cave.”

See the photos at Hypable.com

Dude.

I think I know where I need to have SNOW LIKE ASHES’ launch party now…