Project 365 New Things: Day 28

Today, Young Company was cancelled because of the shootings at the Capitol. I'm just sort of tired of humans being awful, and that's all that I have to say about it right now.

In happier news, my new thing today was that I participated in a role-playing game of the dice and character-sheet variety. I don't know if I've extensively mentioned my literature group on this blog, but here's a sketch of them just for background. The group consists of six of my friends and me, and every Thursday we meet and discuss a work of literature. I love all of these people. We drink a lot of tea. We have deep discussions about characters. We talk about a lot of fandoms. We call ourselves "hermits united."

Anyway, today we brought a Doctor Who RP game to play after the discussion. It went quite well. Before we even began, we lost the dice (I think Ellen had been sitting on them). Kaila and I had an argument over whose character was more attractive, and Elizabeth lamented the fact that Martha Jones didn't get a special object whenever Rose Tyler was in the game. We all discussed the metaphorical resonance of this rule. Then we realized that Elizabeth didn't have a discernible pulse, and was probably dead. She thought this was amusing. Then, Elena, Kaila, and Missy and I began checking for our own pulses, and after some initial fear, finally found them.

I suppose we sort of deviated from the direction of the game when our characters stole a shop full of unattended candy, all donned bikinis (especially Captain Jack), and they all boarded a pirate ship on which they found the body of Jay Gatsby, covered in shirts. At this point, Joseph, our game master, claimed that there weren't any rules in the game book that pertained to this scenario. I remain skeptical on this point.

I don't think we're ever going to get invited to D&D meets. Maybe we'll become writers for SNL or something instead.

~Maddie

Project 365 New Things: Day 5

Long day today. My adventures included making ad hoc cookies, carrying home a dog, and wondering via spontaneous song what lunar dust tastes like. But, more importantly, today I invented a new kind of ice tea for my fifth new thing.

Now, a bit of background.

I actually have many strange and somewhat useless hobbies/skills. These include such things as being able to catch escaped crickets like a ninja, interpreting the body language of geckos and playing a mean game of Pacman. The useless skill that has relevance in this situation, however, is my ability to make tea out of fresh ingredients. I have an absolute mania for tea. I took this obsession to the next level by planting a tea garden, in which I grow several kinds of mint, lemon verbena, and stevia (a plant that is used as a natural sweetener).

And now, the recipe for my new kind of ice tea:

Fresh mint (I used chocolate mint (yes, such a thing exists), pineapple mint, garden mint, spearmint, and a type called Kentucky Colonel).

Stevia leaves

Two black tea bags

Honey

Vanilla extract

I heated up some water on the stove, chopped up all the leafy things and put them in a tea ball infuser, and put it in the boiling water. I added the two prepackaged tea bags, some honey, and just a tiny bit of vanilla (do NOT overdo the vanilla with this one). I let it steep, put it in the fridge and iced it. It was actually really delicious.

As always, let me know about what you've been doing and share any ideas with me, if you feel so inclined.

Until tomorrow!

~Maddie