Helpfulness And Handshakes...

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Here's a little bit more of the third installment in the Petri Dish Chronicles! As always, the disclaimer is that this is a draft and, as such, it's unedited and likely full of errors and is subject to revision, revamping, and being completely scrapped and rewritten. But, with that in mind, I'm reasonably satisfied with the basics of it, at least at the moment, or I wouldn't have bothered posting it. Enjoy! :-)

Excerpt from the third Petri Dish book:
You act as if there’s no doubt I can do this. But it’s not for certain it’s even possible.”

“There is no doubt in my mind. As I said, I believe this is what your mind instinctively tried to do, at first. Are you familiar with the term ‘handshake’ with regard to computer networks?”

“A what? What?” The seemingly random change of subject was too much for Petri to keep up with, when her mind was already spinning trying to figure out a way to protect her friends.

“A ‘handshake’ is an exchange of data between two networks, during which they sync their protocols so that they can communicate. Think of it like a negotiation on how to send messages to a friend, so that you both know what to expect and how the messages will be coming to you. I believe you underwent such a process when you learned how to connect to the Arcanum Collective. Your mind adapted the patterns it uses so that they would be compatible with the patterns the Arcanum use. But it took some time and effort for you to be able to learn how to make that adaptation.”

Thinking back over what it felt like to learn to link to the Collective, Petri tried to figure out if what Vlad had just described was what had happened. “Um… Maybe? I’m not sure. But even if that’s true, that doesn’t mean I can do it with a computer. It’s totally different.”

“The patterns are different, but the concept is the same. It’s like learning a different language. The Arcanum have spoken only their own language all their lives. They’ve only heard their own language spoken. Their minds have been rigidly trained in the patterns required for their language. Within their patterns, they are adept and nimble, but the patterns are so deeply ingrained they have difficulty escaping them to establish a new pattern. You are not nearly so practiced in the patterns the Arcanum use. You mentor has informed me that you’ve only connected with their Collective a handful of times, and the connections were of short duration and not of any great depth.

The only exception to that was when you shattered the internal patterns within the larger pattern of their Collective. The patterns that shield the individual minds and cloak private communications within the network. But you weren’t able to do that by adhering to the protocols they had established. You had to override those protocols and superimpose your own pattern. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have penetrated their Collective, you would have simply destroyed the connection entirely.”

“I’m…not sure. I don’t really understand what you’re talking about.”

Vlad shrugged. “It doesn't matter. You don't need to understand, at this point. When you enter the rainbow, we will work together to find the right pattern that will allow you to connect to a digital network. All you need to know now is that there are two circumstances I am aware of under which your mind exhibited the capacity to use different patterns to establish connections. The first is when you were first trying to learn to use the rainbow, and the second is when you overpowered the shields used by the Arcanum in their Collective. These combined indicate that your mind not only has the flexibility to establish a communication protocol with a digital network, you also have the necessary power to amplify the signal of your individual mind so that it does not attenuate into non-existence.

“And we will help with that, child. If you agree to aid us with this, we will channel the combined energy of the Collective into sustaining your and your pets' bodies to give you the time you need to master this skill. And we will boost all of your mental patterns within the machine, so that you do not fade or get lost. This much we have learned we can do from experiments with other lesser beings.”

Something Worth Watching?

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I'm back today with another video I wanted to share. This one is just another reminder of exactly how genuine Democrats' support of #MeToo was.

Roasted Veggies And Pasta #Recipe!

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This dish is a really easy, and delicious, way to incorporate more veggies into your diet. Enjoy! :-)

Ingredients:
3 cups pasta (your choice of shape)
2 cups broccoli chunked
2 cups cauliflower chunked
2 cups sweet potatoes chunked
2 cups zucchini or yellow summer squash chunked
2 cups carrots chunked
1 large onion chopped
2 cups kale chopped
1 12 oz package button mushrooms sliced
1 cup vegetable stock
1/2 cup red wine
1 cup olive oil
4 tbsp butter
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp harissa paste
8 cloves garlic minced
2 tbsp ginger minced
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp oregano
2 tbsp flour
Salt and pepper to taste

Put all the chunked vegetables, half the chopped onion, and the kale into a large zip-lock bag. Add half the olive oil, half the wine, the harissa paste, the soy sauce, the ginger half the minced garlic, the oregano, and salt and pepper to taste to the bag and seal it. Squish the bag around to coat all the vegetables with the seasoning and put it in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight.

Dump the contents of the bag into a buttered baking dish and bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for approximately 30 minutes or until the vegetables are soft and starting to brown. Add the pasta to salted, boiling water and cook it until it's nearly soft. Drain the pasta and mix the roasted vegetables with the pasta and set them aside.

In a large skillet, add the rest of the olive oil, 2 tablespoons of butter, and the rest of the onion. Saute until the onion softens and starts to brown. Add the mushrooms and the rest of the garlic and continue sauteing until the mushrooms soften. Add the rest of the butter and the flour and cook them until the flour starts to brown. Deglaze the pan with the rest of the wine and simmer it for a couple of minutes. Add the tomato paste and the vegetable stock and whisk continuously until the sauce combines and starts to thicken. Add the roasted vegetables and the pasta to the pan and stir until everything is coated with the sauce. Serve warm with a side of crusty bread.

Bon appetit!

#Spring Flings & #Book Things #Giveaway! $39 #Cash #Grand #Prize! #Free To #Enter!

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There's a new giveaway for Spring!  Please take a moment to check out the Spring Flings & Book Things Giveaway!!  There are lots of awesome books and prizes!! :-)  It's free to enter, there are over 26 prizes, and the grand prize is $39 cash payable through PayPal!! :-)  Now isn't that worth taking a few minutes to check out? ;-)   Here are all the details:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thank you so much for stopping by today!  And don't forget to check back tomorrow for the next installment of Mistral Dawn's Musings! :-)

Communication Skills... ;-)

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Since it's Friday, I thought I'd share a little fun to start your weekend off right. Enjoy! :-)

Excerpt from Bound by the Summer Prince:
He tucked her hand into the crook of his arm and continued on down the path. Briefly, he considered letting the matter rest where it was; but he really needed to know what had caused her to become so incensed when he had refused to take advantage of the magical attack that had caused her to lose their bet. Since it was so apparent to him that she hadn’t truly wished to take him to bed, he would have thought she would have been relieved. Instead she had been enraged.

“Roni, at the risk of upsetting you again, I need to ask: why did you get so angry the night of the banquet?”

“You mean the night that someone tried to take control of me with magic, not once but three times, and then actually succeeded? The night I realized I’m not much safer in the castle than I was in the forest, and I’ll never really be safe again because I can’t go home. The night it was made clear to me that I’m completely dependent on you, and then you rejected me. That night?”

Closing his eyes, Uaine sighed. Put that way, her actions were perfectly reasonable. “I am sorry Anamchara. I failed you miserably that night, and never even considered how that must have made you feel. It is my job to protect you, and you have my vow that I will always do my utmost. You are safe in the palace, for the most part; there are numerous security precautions, both magical and otherwise, in place. The only reason the spell that affected you went undetected before it took effect, was that it was a relatively mild spell. You would not know this, of course, but the intention of the spell-caster affects how the magic ‘registers’ to the people and spells that monitor magical use within the castle.”

“If the spell-caster had intended to take control of you in order to cause you to harm yourself, or to make you go somewhere that you could be harmed, then the spell would have set off alarms. Unfortunately, since they only intended to make you walk a few feet, and do something relatively harmless, it slipped through the cracks. I am sorry for that, but you need to understand that you were never truly in any danger from anything other than embarrassment.”

Roni pulled her hand out of his and walked a few feet away, turning her back on him. “Has it not occurred to you that I don’t want to have to rely on you for protection? That I’d like to be able to take care of myself?”

Walking up behind her and putting his hands on her shoulders, he said; “I understand. But here everyone relies on others to do their parts. For the most part, the Fae are not as flexible as humans when it comes to taking on many roles. Because the majority of us are so closely tied to our natural origins, we are not able to assume duties that do not belong to the function we perform. That is why the structure of our society works for us, when a similar structure did not work for humans for very long. There is no jockeying for position among the different types of Fae, because we are all so different from each other, and we would not be able to fill the place of another type of Fae.”

“It is not a matter of being inferior or superior to each other. We are just very different. That is why acceptance and tolerance are also so important to our society. The idea that other Fae are so alien to us in their thoughts, manners, and behavior, as to be nearly incomprehensible at times must be ingrained in us from infancy; so that we can live in such close proximity to each other without it resulting in eruptions of violence. Our natures are fixed, so it would be wrong, and impossible, to try to change the nature of another.”

“I am the Court prince, soon to be the Court king, it is my duty to protect everyone within the Court. You are my Anamchara, and soon to be my queen, so my obligation to you is even deeper. There is no shame in accepting my protection, and it does not imply a lack of strength or ability on your part, it is just the natural order of things in the Season Courts.”

“It might be your way, but that doesn’t make it mine. And if I’m your Anamchara, if I truly am your soul-mate, why don’t you want me?”

Uaine blinked. Did she truly think that? “You can’t possibly believe that I don’t want you!” Turning her around to face him, he looked into her eyes and realized that she did think that he didn’t want her; or at least she wasn’t convinced that he did. “Roni, I burn for you! But I will not take you to bed when I know that you do not truly wish me to.”

“Oh?” She cocked one eyebrow. “And how would you know what I do or do not want to do? Or do you just not trust me to be able to think for myself?”

“I could smell the fear on you that night!”

“ ‘Smell’ the fear on me?”

“I sometimes forget that humans do not have as sensitive a sense of smell as most Fae. Yes, Roni, I could smell that you were afraid of me. Do you honestly believe I would ever make love to you under those circumstances?”

“Even if I was afraid, how do you know it was of you? Maybe I was scared because someone had just taken control of my body away from me and I wanted you to comfort me, did that ever occur to you?”

He opened his mouth to respond, and then closed it and just stared at her. Truthfully, that interpretation hadn’t occurred to him; though now it seemed not just possible, but likely. Kicking himself, he realized that he might very well have pushed his mate away just when she needed him the most. “I concede the point. My assumption about the cause of your fear may have been in error. Is that what happened that night?”

Roni turned away and continued to walk towards the town. “I guess you’ll never know, now.” she threw over her shoulder.

Hurrying to catch up, Uaine walked by her side in silence, considering everything his Anamchara had said. It was clear he needed to start listening better if he wanted to win this female.

Want to see if the Prince succeeds at his goals? Grab your copy at the link below. Happy reading! :-)

Bound by the Summer Prince

#APC #Spotlight: The Dark Valley: An Electric Eclectic Book By Claire Plaisted!

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I've got Claire Plaisted in my APC spotlight, today! Lisa is an active and supportive member of the  Authors-Professional Co-op Facebook group and her young adult, witches and magic, dark fantasy, short story, The Dark Valley, looks great! Here's the description:

A dark fairy tale with some not very likeable creatures called Trolls who run mines to source precious gems.

The Crones are witch-like characters who want what every older woman wants – to be young and pretty. They also have magical powers, and they take the soul of the young people to help them achieve this. That is until along came Clarissa who is determined to break the curse on their valley.ve them, she must learn to open her heart and sacrifice... everything.

If you think this sounds like something you might enjoy, go ahead and grab your copy here:

Thank you all so much for stopping by! Happy reading! :-)

#Agent Thoth's #Personal Log: Day 1124

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Agent Thoth discusses more of the trials and tribulations associated with living with hominids. Incidentally, if you've missed Agent Thoth's earlier entries, you can find them here: Thoth's Journal

Department for the Preservation and Confirmation of Intelligent Life (DPCIL)

Agent Thoth's Personal Log

Day Eleven-Hundred-Twenty-Four:

Now that I have had some time to recuperate, I am ready to report on the unmitigated disaster that my attempt to evade my hominid-servant’s restrictions on my movement long enough to conduct my research turned into. I will admit up front, though it pains me to do so, that I do not appear in the most favorable light during course of these events.

To begin, I waited for what appeared to be the perfect opportunity. The hominid who delivers my hominid-servant’s parcels never fails to provoke a show of aggression from the canid. So, when this individual arrived, I waited until the canid had worked himself into a state of near-hysterics, and then created a loud noise by knocking some breakable items from one of the horizontal platforms my hominid-servant has placed throughout my domicile. I knew this would have the multi-effect of adding to the confusion the canid’s excessively loud vocalizations were already causing for my hominid-servant, further fueling said creature’s already exaggerated feelings of aggression and causing my hominid-servant to have to focus her attention on restraining him, and startling the juvenile felid. Accomplishing the murder of multiple small, winged avians with one manually propelled projectile, as the hominids are fond of saying.

I knew, of course, that the little idiot would react to the sudden burst of adrenaline caused by the sudden cacophony by engaging in a frantic display of movement and interjecting himself into the chaos initiated by the canid and aggravated by my efforts, further exacerbating the commotion and distracting my hominid-servant. My intent, obviously, was to use the created confusion as a diversion that would allow me to evade my hominid-servant's attention long enough to escape the confines of my domicile and conduct my research.

Alas, as I have already intimated, the results were not what I had hoped for. However, I fear I have been spending too much time among the hominids, for I find myself, once again, overcome with emotion as I relive the humiliation I endured. I must take some time to compose myself before completing this report.

Oh, my! The best-laid plans of mice and men, it seems. ;-) You may have noticed that Agent Thoth has a new look. I hope you like his new picture as much as I do, but I'd love to hear your thoughts, either way. Feel free to let me know what you think in the comments. ;-) Happy reading, everyone!