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May Day 2020

Business as usual is a broken, deadly paradigm. We have the opportunity to change, but we have to be willing to examine our individual habits.

(Content note: a version of this first appeared on my Instagram feed on 1 May, 2020.)

My original plan was a celebratory Beltane image, but, well, I may start my own Beltane Fire tonight by burning my list of plans for 2020. LOL (sort of).

One lesson of COVID-19 is abundantly clear. We need to do some collective soul searching because WE CANNOT GO BACK TO BUSINESS AS USUAL.

Business as…

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Look at Something New

Look at Something New

Now that we’ve all been holed up, hunkered down, and banned from going places for over a month, you’re probably tired of looking at the same four walls and are ready for something new to gaze upon.

So why not buy a print from my photography site?

This photo is one of several currently available at victoriaklum.com. Look for the “Prints for Sale” link on the left sidebar.

Treat…

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Pets Are Family: Include Them In Your Emergency Plan

Pets Are Family: Include Them In Your Emergency Plan

Well hello there! It’s been a minute since I’ve been here. The freelance hustle is non-stop and, well, this became fallow land.

Anyway, we’re at the height of hurricane season (not to be confused with Hurricanes Season, which will get underway in a few weeks). In fact, we already had Hurricane Dorian hit North Carolina a week ago. Thankful that we were, once again, spared here in Raleigh, but…

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Wallowing In My Own Obscenity turned 10 today! Happy birthday to my fallow Tumblr site!

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Away From Keyboard: WRAL Azalea Gardens The azaleas in the WRAL gardens started blooming a few weeks ago, so I took a field trip to have a look. Photos will come later, once I have a chance to finish my editing.

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All I wanted was some fresh-baked bread. I got a lot more.

As you’ve seen in my #WhatsForDinner posts, I’ve been sharing many of my recent cooking escapades. While I typically don’t bake a whole lot (other than occasionally tossing in some cornbread muffins), it suddenly became important to me to bake whole wheat bread.

I don’t eat a lot of bread, though I do enjoy toast with hummus or avocado. To my memory, I’ve never baked a loaf of bread on my own…

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The Raleigh World: One Year

The Raleigh World: One Year

All righty, then. It’s taken me a while to get around to this post. Sometimes other projects and Real Life just demand more attention. (And also I’m finding myself more and more dissatisfied using WordPress as a content system, but that’s for another rant.)

I look up at the cork board above my desk and see some of the souvenirs of my first year in Raleigh. Maps of William Umstead State Park and E…

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About Last Night

Last night’s Super Blood Wolf Moon Eclipse was a gorgeous sight! Alas, it occurred directly overhead here in my neck of the woods and I just didn’t find quite the right spot to capture it.

Also, it was really cold outside. By the time the eclipse reached its peak, my feet and legs were DONE and I retreated back inside for a hot bath.

I like what I got with the early eclipse shots, but am not…

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One Year Ago Today

One Year Ago Today

The Journey began.

https://www.vicster.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/img_5966.mp4

My goodness, I look so exhausted. I WAS exhausted! I had only given myself a couple of days between ending my office job and leaving town and ran balls-to-the-wall right to the end.

I woke up around 2:45 that morning with a massive headache and we had to be up (well the plan was to be up) by 4:00/4:30 a.m. to…

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What's For Dinner: A Southern New Year's Tradition

What’s For Dinner: A Southern New Year’s Tradition

I haven’t looked at the legislation to confirm this, but I’m pretty sure it’s compulsory to eat black-eyed peas with collard greens and cornbread on New Year’s Day.

While I was watching WRALlast week, they had a segment with a recipe for a black-eyed peas, collards, and cornbread casserole that looked interesting. Thank goodness I remembered the gist of the recipe because I had a heck of a time…

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The Raleigh World: Eleven Months

The Raleigh World: Eleven Months

Wow. We’re closing in on an entire year in Raleigh. It still blows my mind that I actually moved across the United States.

With two cats.

(Who hate car rides.)

I have yet to get over to the beaches but at least I no longer have to constantly remind myself that the ocean is EAST and the mountains are to the west.

Although the power bill was actually the harbinger of winter here in Raleigh, the…

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What's For Dinner*: Tofu Quiche With Spinach And Sun-Dried Tomatoes

What’s For Dinner*: Tofu Quiche With Spinach And Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Let’s clean out Vicster’s fridge again, shall we?

A few weeks ago, I realized that I was missing having quiche on my vegan menu, so I went in search of inspiration. I found an easy one on Minimalist Baker and used that as a template for creating my own Vegan Clear The Fridge Quiche.

The crust is shredded potato because potatoes give me life. I shredded about 3 cups of potatoes in my food…

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The One Where Vicster Tries New Things

The One Where Vicster Tries New Things

So I’ve been interested in making videos for a while but never really did anything about it. Earlier this year I attended Amy Landino’s “Vlog Like A Boss” presentation for the Triangle Marketing Club and my curiosity was piqued again. But what? Why? How? WHEN???

Well, over the past few weeks I’ve had the bug to change up some of my blog content, particularly around my monthly updates (The Raleigh…

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What's For Dinner: Sofritas So Good

What’s For Dinner: Sofritas So Good

My name is Victoria, and I’m somewhat obsessed with Chipotle’s sofritas.

I first tried sofritas a year or so ago, when my (then) office had lunch catered by the neighborhood Chipotle. This was one of the first times I had something made with tofu that wasn’t cut into flavorless blocks with the texture of a kitchen sponge.

I was hooked.

Being a vegan freelancer on a budget, frequent trips to…

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What's For Dinner: Emergency Saag and Lentil Stew

What’s For Dinner: Emergency Saag and Lentil Stew

I had a couple of bags of spinach from (local grocery store) that I had just bought a few days before. I thought I’d use some in a recipe, but mostly I looked forward to enjoying spinach salads for several days. Then I opened one of the bags and already the spinach was turning into a slimy, disgusting mess.

I salvaged most of both bags but there was no way either was going to be anything…

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A Very Vegan Vicster Thanksgiving

A Very Vegan Vicster Thanksgiving

I grew up on those big turkey Thanksgiving feasts, where grandpa and all of the uncles, aunts, and cousins came over and we stuffed ourselves silly. Well, since going veggie almost five years ago, those big turkey dinners are wasted on me. The closest I would get was picking up 1/4 pound of ground turkey from the local butcher and cooking up a treat for Dos Gatos Locos.

I wasn’t sure what I was…

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An Unforgettable Fire

This was taken from the ferry to Alameda in 2017. Today the San Francisco skyline would not even be visible.

California is burning again and the devastation is incomprehensible. The entire town of Paradise was leveled in the Camp Fire. Seventy-one known deaths and over 1,000 people are unaccounted for as of 11/16. I can’t even wrap my head around that.

My heart is broken for the families who have…