It may be too much of a gut reaction, having only read twenty-six pages, but there is a certain feeling about the author that I got from reading this book that turned me off.

Senlin Ascends

Quote from: p19Senlin was unprepared for marriage in every way. He possessed neither the imagination nor emotional warmth that intimacy required. [..] Here was the moon and the rocking crib and the far from prying eyes and every romantic thing a man could request, and what did he do with it? He was drowning in opportunity.

Marya lay propped on her elbow watching him appear to sleep with his eyes open. She pressed the flat of her finger against his cheek, lifting up a smile like a fishhook, trying to tease some life from him. She tugged at his earlobe, bit lightly at his shoulder, and blew on his neck. Still he lay, sometimes flinching but not responding.

Quote from: p18What sort of husband loses a wife?

Quote from: p6He imagined she had married him because he was kind, even tempered, and securely employed.

[..]

Of course, Marya had a few unusual habits of her own. She read books while she walked to town[..] She was fearless of heights and would sometimes get on the roof just to watch the sails of inbound ships rise over the horizon. She played the piano beautifully but also brutally. She'd sing like a mad mermaid[..] And even still, her oddness inspired admiration in most.

Quote from: Back of the bookMild-mannered headmaster Thomas Senlin prefers his adventures to be safely contained within the pages of a book. So when he loses his new bride shortly after embarking on the honeymoon of their dreams, he is ill-prepared for the trouble that follows.

To find her, Senlin must[..]

If I were to put it into words, I'd say that this story hinges on a sort of philosophy of gender roles and relationships that I don't subscribe to and don't find interesting. It's possible that the book will subvert them - like I said, maybe this is too much of a gut reaction - but we have Senlin, practical guy who somehow gets married to quirky mermaid girl Marya. He's all stiff and stoic and she's described in this awe-struck way as a lovely creature of beauty, and she's trying to crack through his shell, and in about the first ten pages she's fridged to motivate the hero's journey.

I made a batch! It was pretty great. Quite tomatoey and the turmeric stained the pot yellow, though...

I used whole coriander seeds, and you can taste them occasionally. Definitely want to use ground next time.

Whole cumin was fine.

I think I'm done reading this book. All I can find are viewpoints that I find borderline reprehensible. I'm sure there is some wisdom in these pages, but the tenor has been set and I want nothing to do with it anymore.

Quote from: p211Suppose I start wearing a FitBit for the sake of my health [..] Then I become obsessed with beating my friends at the FitBit measure. Suppose that, in fact, taking a lot of steps per day turns out to not be a good path to health for me. Perhaps, given my physical history, I would have actually been far better off with a balanced program of running, yoga, and weight training. But since yoga and weight training aren't counted by FitBit, I'm not motivated to do them.

[..]

The value clarity that FitBit provides is seductive. It distracts me from my goal

The issue here is not with gamification or value clarity, but with the author's given example of submission to it. On the next page Nguyen says "value clarity can undermine my autonomy, since it runs against my attempt to form a good heuristic for my value," but value clarity is synonymous with good heuristics. FitBit provides some number of excellent heuristics; as with games, you choose to submit to its rules, and only once you're no longer participating in the activity, no longer inside the magic circle of "do a million steps," you are truly free to examine the effects.

Full, knowing participation in a system with high value clarity is a beneficial way to practice getting into a focused mindset, where the far-off goal ceases to matter quite so much. That's a valuable state to be able to slip into when necessary -- you can get a job because you need to eat, but then forget about your need to eat in order to immerse yourself in, and dare I say even enjoy(!!!), that job in the moment.

What a concept, that doing a job might be enjoyable. :/

Quote from: p19But games also offer one more promise. They can function as a refuge from the inhospitality of ordinary life. In practice life, the world is mostly fixed, and our values, relatively inflexible. Most of us cannot help but desire company, food, success. The recalcitrant world and our inflexible values generate certain obstacles. These are not the obstacles we wanted to struggle against, but they are the ones we must overcome in order to get what we want. So we must try to sculpt ourselves and our abilities to fit the needs of the world. The world tells us we must eat, so we must find a job and pretend to ourselves that we enjoy it. The world tells us that we must find romantic partners, so we learn to be witty, or at least to make a decent online dating profile. The world tells us that if we wish to be professional philosophers, we must grade an endless sea of student papers, no matter how mind-numbing we find the task. So we put nose to grindstone and force our way through.

I hold in great contempt the attitude that art is valuable because real life sucks and art isn't real life.

The people at the table.

I enjoy writing about feelings, experiences, dreams, goals, fears... not the mechanical minutiae of worldbuilding, but these kinds of human moments used to illuminate relevant, relatable details.

Chickpeas are basically the same. Reference card: https://detoxinista.com/wprm_print/29112

Cook at high pressure for 50 minutes, then allow the pressure to release naturally for 10 minutes.

Source: https://www.thefieryvegetarian.com/wp-json/mv-create/v1/creations/10/print

Recipe:

0. If making instant pot chickpeas (for step 4 below), prepare ahead; it will take about an hour!!!

1. Heat
-- 3 tbsp sunflower/canola/peanut oil
in a large pan over a medium-high setting.

1b. Sauté:
-- 1 large onion finely chopped
until golden.

2. Add:
-- 4 cloves garlic, crushed
-- 1 inch ginger, finely grated
and cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring frequently, until the garlic doesn't smell raw anymore.

3. Mix in:
-- 1 tbsp ground coriander (Whole coriander is very noticeable. Don't recommend.)
-- 1/2 tbsp ground turmeric
-- 1/2 tbsp ground cumin (You can use whole cumin, it turns out fine)
-- 1/4 - 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper or chili flakes
and toast for two minutes, stirring often

4. Add
-- 1.5 cups crushed tomatoes (400g)
-- 2.5 cups cooked chickpeas (400g)
-- 1/2 cup vegetable stock (120 ml)
Increase the heat to high and once boiling, lower to medium-low to maintain at a simmer for 10 minutes

5. Add
-- 1/2 tsp salt
-- 1 tsp sugar
-- 1 cup frozen chopped spinach or 100gm fresh/frozen chopped spinach (or if you're like me and have unused frozen kale in the freezer, use up that kale!)
... If the spinach (or kale!!!) is frozen increase the heat until the curry is bubbling away again.
Simmer for an additional five minutes.

6. Add
-- 1 tsp garam masala
-- 1 tbsp lemon juice (rice vinegar seems to work fine)
-- (OPTIONAL) 1/4-1/2 cup full-fat coconut milk (50-100 ml)
and stir.

6b. Sprinkle over:
-- 1 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro leaves
and serve hot.

TIP:
Served with some "enjoy tonight" grocery store naan heated up on the stovetop. Very good.

QuoteI am a snail with the meat on the outside.

Quote from: The Many Deaths.. p767[..] but she was just too young. Most of her earnest conversation seemed so naive, or even foolish, that it became hard to recall a time when I was that age, still idealistic and hurling myself at life headlong, believing that truth and right must inevitably triumph.

I kept my opinions to myself. [She] did not deserve to have her surviving optimism skewered by my bitter cynicisms.

SPOILERS

Quote from: The Many Deaths.. p676He felt no particular elation. What he felt, in fact, was sorrow. All their lives, his and theirs, had come to no more than this. For a moment there was even the temptation to shout a warning. To cry out that that prideful fool who had made such a stupid choice in Dejagore so long ago had not meant any of them to come to this. But, no. It was too late. Fortune's die was cast. The cruel game had to be played to its end, no matter what anyone wanted.

The impact of this piece of writing doesn't reach its full significance until later in the war (battle?), when Mogaba's trap is sprung on a huge number of main characters. The title of the volume, The Many Deaths of the Black Company is really pushed here... and yet it's also strangely distant? I love the way it's written, the deaths are both deeply impactful as well as very removed. As it often is in the series.

Looking back on Mogaba's sorrow is the bitterest part of this and the most interesting to me. There are other moments leading up to the conflict, moments of hesitation and regret and inevitability... somehow I wasn't expecting such tragedies to befall the Black Company.

I suppose the horror of the trap is not especially visceral. The trap's mechanisms are described but the details of suffering and loss are left entirely unprovoked, between the lines. (Actually there are two traps. And in both cases, the annalist doesn't dwell on much. It's not even clear when a major character dies... Is that what it would be like, in a chaotic wartime situation? This occurs many times throughout the series; there is a discovery, afterwards, of exactly who is lost and who is still alive.)

Worked well. But the macarons were very hollow.

+ 1 tray on top rack (no bottom protection)
+ 325 for 8 mins
+ release steam
+ 315 for 2 mins
+ release steam
+ 310 for 2 mins

CONCERN: 2nd and 3rd batches are left out too long and develop too much of a skin

C. Thi Nguyen's "Games: Agency as Art"

Quote from: p3, footnote 1For simplicity's sake, I will speak as if there is a single game designer, when in actuality, games are often designed in large teams.

Quote from: p3, for example[..] the fact that the game designer specifies goals and abilities [..] is precisely what makes games distinctive as an art form.

I think this is wildly... irresponsible? Something? If there is often no singular "game designer," why talk about it this way?

Foie Gras - this is the one

feb 10, 2022
12:15 - started chopping onions
12:58 - done chopping and sweating bacon; bacon removed; all chopped stuff and 2c milk in pot
1:33 - potatoes boiled, soup blended, seasoning complete. i've been snacking on lychees & we're waiting for the bread bowls to bake :)