Culinary

Oct. 19th, 2025 07:19 pm
oursin: Frontispiece from C17th household manual (Accomplisht Lady)
[personal profile] oursin

This week's bread (because last week's suddenly got The Mould): a loaf of Bacheldre Rustic Country Bread Flour, v nice if turned out a bit crumbly.

Friday night supper: sorta-nasi goreng with saucisson sec and red bell pepper.

Saturday breakfast rolls: Tassajarra method, einkorn flour, maple syrup, dried ('apple-juice infused') blueberries: turned out particularly well.

Today's lunch: pork belly slices slow-braised in soy sauce, rice wine, maple syrup and 5-spice powder; served with slowcooked tenderstem broccoli (lime rather than lemon at the end), fine green beans and chopped red bell pepper roasted in walnut oil with fennel seeds and drizzled with elderflower vinegar, and cornbread (plain white flour + baking powder, half and half with mixture of fine/coarse cornmeal)..

james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


Mars being unfit for humans, there is no alternative but to make humans--or at least a human--fit for Mars.

Man Plus (Man Plus, volume 1) by Frederik Pohl

Flashing by . . .

Oct. 18th, 2025 07:57 pm
sartorias: (Default)
[personal profile] sartorias
Viable Paradise is about to begin, which means hunkering in the bunker.

But today the weather was perfect for the protest gathering at a very busy five-points intersection here on Martha's Vineyard, with A LOT of people and some winsomely unique signage. Lots of laughter and horn honking, and although there were two protesters for the current regime, and a couple of cars went by with passengers waving thumbs down, there was no violence whatsoever. Yay! I wish that would be true everywhere.

Interesting patterns in signage; many quotes from the Bible and from the Constitution, and so very many crowned clowns. One frog, one unicorn, and a bee. Many, but not all, were my age or older.
oursin: Cod with aghast expression (kepler codfish)
[personal profile] oursin

When I glanced through Mr J Jones' review here of Sami artist Máret Ánne Sara’s Turbine Hall installation (spoiler alert: he did not like it), my thought was, there is no point in asking Mr Jones for an opinion on anything which does not feature nekkid laydeez, because I can remember him being snotty about a Barbara Hepworth exhibition. (And we are not that keen on his opinion on the nl's, either.)

Anyway, two correspondents take to the letters column to have a go at him:

completely misses the point. The land the Sámi live in is “quite big”, just as the Turbine Hall is in Jones’s words, but the Sámi do not take over the entirety of their landscape. They live within it. The “fort” is not a place to “hide”. That is a city-boy reading rather than a deeper understanding of the ancient methods that Sámi families use for herding reindeer in the vastness of their lands, combined with the political realities that surround them. Jones is too close to playgrounds and not close enough to the realities of the Sámi and northern political history.
***
I was appalled by Jonathan Jones’s review.... There is something incredibly unique and, in the end, pristine about existence in these Nordic villages. Maybe it is the ultimate quiet that falls upon the forests at times. Everyday life is not silent, but the forest silence after a day’s work is peace. Is art not art unless it includes some gore, an exhibit of violence? The artist has captured the ordered existence necessary for survival in harsh conditions and the peace that comes from living with nature rather than against it.

james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


Seven books new to me. Well, six and one replacement. Four fantasy, one historical, one horror, one science fiction. Two appear to be part of series.

Books Received, October 11 to October 17


Poll #33737 Books Received, October 11 to October 17
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 48


Which of these look interesting?

View Answers

Boys With Sharp Teeth by Jenni Howell (July 2026)
6 (12.5%)

Behind Five Willows by June Hur (May 2026)
16 (33.3%)

Daggerbound by T. Kingfisher (August 2026)
31 (64.6%)

Heir of Storms by Lauryn Hamilton Murray (June 2026)
4 (8.3%)

City of Others by Jaren Poon (January 2026)
19 (39.6%)

Starry Messenger: The Best of Galileo edited by Charles C. Ryan (November 1979)
7 (14.6%)

How to Lose a Goblin in Ten Days by Jessie Sylva (January 2026)
17 (35.4%)

Some other option (see comments)
0 (0.0%)

Cats!
32 (66.7%)

(no subject)

Oct. 18th, 2025 12:32 pm
oursin: Brush the Wandering Hedgehog by the fire (Default)
[personal profile] oursin
Happy birthday, [personal profile] tavian!

New Worlds: Are You Insured?

Oct. 17th, 2025 05:02 pm
swan_tower: (Default)
[personal profile] swan_tower
Insurance is rather a hot-button topic these days, especially (but not only) in the field of healthcare. How did it even get started? That's the topic this week at the New Worlds Patreon -- hint, it involved ships sinking at sea. Comment over there!

(originally posted at Swan Tower: https://is.gd/N18vHc)

Round 180 Theme Poll

Oct. 17th, 2025 09:50 am
runpunkrun: combat boot, pizza, camo pants = punk  (punk rock girl)
[personal profile] runpunkrun posting in [community profile] fancake
Poll #33735 round 180 theme poll
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: Just the Poll Creator, participants: 88

Pick the next theme of fancake:

Mystery & Suspense
40 (45.5%)

Protest & Revolt
27 (30.7%)

Whump
21 (23.9%)

Sport for fun and sport for - not

Oct. 17th, 2025 04:13 pm
oursin: Picture of Fotherington-Tomas skipping, with words subversive male added (Subversive male)
[personal profile] oursin

Though even conkers people take seriously apparently: 'King Conker’ cleared of cheating at World Conker Championships (Is nothing sacred?)

However, this sounds like it brings a certain anarchic spirit to the business: ‘Cheating is encouraged’: nut crackers at Peckham’s Conker Championships go for the fun

But apparently the TikTok generation post videos of gently unpeeling them???

The conkers danger is actually a Top Elf'n'Saftee Myff: 10 ridiculous Health and Safety myths debunked.

Am not sure why conkers should be having a moment just now, because they were dropping off the local trees several weeks ago, and are surely now past.

But at least the people playing conkers seem to be having fun: apparently - and counter to all those exhortations to do this thing for the good of your mental health - doing marathons has a downside: One in four endurance runners displays ‘worryingly high’ levels of anxiety and depression.

One wonders how far it's the obsessive dedication as much as any physiological factor that has an adverse effect.

The Last Door (2014, 2016)

Oct. 17th, 2025 11:00 am
pauraque: Guybrush writing in his journal adrift on the sea in a bumper car (monkey island adrift)
[personal profile] pauraque
This cosmic horror point-and-click was released in two "seasons" of four episodes each, which I believe were produced as Kickstarter funding allowed. The two seasons together comprise a complete story.

Set in Victorian Britain, Season One follows Jeremiah Devitt, an alumnus of a remote boarding school where he belonged to a secret society performing occult experiments. As an adult, he receives a cryptic letter from a former classmate, but by the time he arrives, the classmate has died by suicide, prompting Devitt to investigate. Season Two follows Devitt's psychiatrist Dr. Wakefield, now investigating his patient's mysterious disappearance and the true nature of the secret society and the hidden reality it has uncovered.

an oak casts a dark shadow on a red building and is silhouetted against a sepia yellow sky

This one is sleep-with-the-lights-on scary. Lots of suspenseful sequences and expertly timed jump-scares. Something horror games can do that horror movies can't is to make you decide to keep walking further into the dark hallway where the creepy voice is coming from, and this game really leans into that. There were many moments when I found myself creeping forward inch by inch, dreading what was coming but knowing I had no choice but to press on. I loved it.

cut for length )

If you really want to be scared this spooky season, I highly recommend The Last Door. It's available on Steam (Season One, Season Two) for $9.99 USD per season, but GOG (Season One, Season Two) currently has both seasons on sale for $3.49 USD each.
mific: (Fraser and Ray smiling)
[personal profile] mific posting in [community profile] fancake
Fandom: due South
Characters/Pairings: Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski, Ray Vecchio, Harding Welsh, Renfield Turnbull, Sam Franklin
Rating: Mature
Length: 26,765
Content Notes: no AO3 warnings apply
Creator Links: feroxargentea on AO3
Themes: Uncommon settings, Friendship, First time, Action/adventure, Complete AU, In Space

Summary: Androids are going missing on the giant spaceship Chicago! A Mountie and a space cop team up to investigate why, and to find their friend before it’s too late.

Reccer's Notes:
As I mentioned earlier, there are very few due South fics set in space - and this is an excellent one! The familiar due South characters and settings are translated into space, with their base being on the Spaceship Chicago, and Vecchio in trouble over at spacehub Vegas. There's action, adventure, banter, romance, plot and drama as Fraser and Ray work to solve the case and rescue Vecchio. A cracking read!

Fanwork Links: Build a Rocket, Boys!

Profile

shark_hat: (Default)
shark_hat

June 2023

S M T W T F S
    123
45678910
11121314 151617
18192021222324
252627282930 

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Oct. 20th, 2025 05:24 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios