I am an independent director and producer who likes to ride his motorcycle in dusty places.

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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 14th, 2023

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  • When looking for my last vehicle, I still needed a midsize very-light-duty truck for my business (film production), I drove the Chevy midsize truck (Colorado?) first on my checklist of trucks to drive. It was a piece of garbage (and this made me sad because I was [trying to be] open to finding an excellent US-made midsize truck). The sales guy was super-enthusiastic, of course, to the point of pushy obnoxiousness. When he asked me “HOW GREAT IS THIS TRUCK???!!!??” I was like “I wouldn’t complain if someone gave one to me, but I have other trucks to test.”

    After test driving four other competitors, I ended up with Honda Ridgeline (which beat out my second favorite from Toyota), that I have now had for 4+ years and absolutely love it - it is a great midsize+ truck. It’s kind of a unicorn in Texas (so many Fords and Dodges), but I saw a ton of them in Arizona and other Western states. Great vehicle, and it has CarPlay. Sadly, it’s in the shop at the moment (I, uh, backed into a bollard, cough) and my rental is a brand-new Dodge Charger which drives like a lead brick on wheels compared to the Ridgeline. Interior finish isn’t bad though…and the UI, while not CarPlay, is polished).




  • I don’t mean to polish my knob, but I am doing a vegetarian menu this year that blows those insipid recipes out of the water. I guess I should start a foodie website and rake in that sweet-sweet ad revenue from click-bait.

    (Totally being sarcastic)

    Here’s the menu:

    • Velouté de Châtaignes (creamy fresh chestnut soup)
    • Spanish tortilla with homemade saffron aioli
    • My grandmother’s green bean hot dish (excellent, not your basic beans+soup+canned fried onions mess at all)
    • Roasted root vegetables with garden herbs (rutabagas, etc, with sage and rosemary from the garden)
    • Winter salad with buttermilk dressing (updated Waldorf)
    • Fresh corn soufflé
    • Onion-Mushroom-Roquefort-Walnut tarte tatin (centerpiece dish)
    • Fresh homemade pickles
    • Fresh homemade baguettes
    • Risalamande (Danish rice pudding for dessert)

  • Soap: a bar of unscented oatmeal-based soap

    For deodorant: I have had very good experience with “Thai stone” style salt-based deodorants. These work simply by making your skin inhospitable to odor-causing bacteria while not causing you irritations. You need to apply it liberally (after slightly wetting the stone, I just count out 8 strokes under each arm), but a single stone will last you … a very long time … and it does really work for a whole day. It has no scent, per se, so you will just smell like you smell without the sulfurous bad smells caused by BO bacteria.

    Or so I gather…



  • Steel-cut oatmeal is super-easy, set-and-forget (1 cup water, 1/4 steel-cut oats, pinch of salt, Bring water to boil, stir in oats, salt, lower to bare simmer, uncovered 30 minutes, flavor as desired, eat).

    But that can get boring. For something a little more exciting, super-nutritious, and almost zero-prep, do a sort of Norwegian-style open-face cracker (no, you don’t need “the tubes”, but if you can find them, knock yourself out). For this I take a tin of fish (usually smoked salmon or trout, but sardines, mackerel, or even tuna would work fine), a piece of cracking toast or a Scandy flatbread cracker (Wasa, knekkebrod), and some kind of “schmear” (a thin spread of cream cheese, sour cream, yogurt, or - my favorite - Trader Joe’s Everything But the Bagel Yogurt Dip/Spread). I can get all these ingredients both cheaply and well-made at Trader Joe’s (TJ Smoked Salmon in a tin, TJ Norwegian seeded flatbread, and the aforementioned dip). For a little additional oomph toss on tomato or cucumber slices.



  • I just finished my CP2077 (first) play-thru. I had no fore-knowledge of game or outcomes. When I play RPGs, I abide by a strict “choices matter - there are no mulligans”, in that I won’t fish reloaded saves for “better” outcomes. If I make a bad choice, I live with it.

    About a week before I finished, I was having dinner with some friends who had played it already and they were probing me to see how I think the game would end. I said, matter of factly, “Oh, I think my V is doomed, like Arthur [RDR2] was doomed.”

    And if there was a magic happy ending in Phantom Liberty, as there seemed there might be because Sol pointedly asked V twice “Are you sure you don’t want it?”, my V had given it to Songbird.

    When I came to the pinch at climax where Jonny presents you with your options and you have to pick what to do, I probably sat on that dialog wheel for 15 minutes. I’d vacillate between the options presented and listen and watch carefully how Jonny reacted and think things through. I had played a V who was never comfortable with the loss of his autonomy and desired, more than anything, to live his own life his own way. This V was also sort of a mensch, too, inclined to empathy and sympathy. He had pity for Jonny’s situation. After much contemplation, V reached out to Panam - I would say almost desperately as it seemed the only path that really gave V any hope - and events ensued and they arrived at what I called “The Sunset Ending” (which I considered a great success).

    I felt I had arrived at a very satisfactory conclusion for this V and I really have no desire (in a good way!) to play CP more - the story was over, if bittersweet.

    The feeling of completeness matched reaching the Sunrise Ending in RDR2, which kinda devastated me.


  • Just finished CP myself yesterday, with a 9 hour push through the “final day”. I had previously in my run rejected the (possible) helpful offer at the end of Phantom Liberty to find my own solution to my problem and, after spending far too much time debating over a single dialog choice, I settled on one that lead to a satisfactory, if bitter-sweet, conclusion.

    The sense of finality was quite profound and pleasing. I have no wish to play my V anymore, as I think their story is done. While this means I may never revisit NC again (which makes me a little sad), I can live with that. I guess I can look forward to CP: Boston in 10 years :-).


  • Same, my friend and I gave up on Baldur’s Gate and will let the developer “finish” tweaking it. I like what Larian tries to do in its games, but I really, really despise the need to mash the quick save button after anything representing even minor progress because you might stumble into TPK combat while exploring. This happened to us in Divinity and when we got a whiff of the same in BG3, we wrinkled our noses and left the game.

    I subsequently went on to play CP2077 v2.0 and really enjoyed myself, which I just “finished” yesterday with a satisfactory, bitter-sweet ending.


  • While there is cross-pollination between macOS and iOS Macs are general purpose computers. And while it is true you cannot, like most PCs, crack open and customize a Mac and that to date most games are developed for PCs and not Macs as a side-effect of this (game development and hardware/graphics card development are incestuous), Macs are extremely capable computers that can meet demanding needs.

    I have used Macs and PCs all my life. At this very moment I am playing Assassin’s Creed Odyssey in full pretty mode on a PC while my Mac in the other room renders a film and I type this message in an iPhone. I prefer using my Mac over the PC for most things - and certainly the Mac is where my bread is buttered - my PC is a fancy launcher for Steam.

    Without being impolite, it sounds like you looked at the Mac, but didn’t bother to actually use it for anything practical, tasks at which it excels.


  • claycle@lemm.eetoCooking @lemmy.worldCreamy Tuscan Chicken
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    1 year ago

    One often (in these parts) sees dishes with cream and spinach described as Florentine, aka in the style of Florence, which is in Tuscany…

    Apart from that tenuous connection, I have no idea. Why not just call it what it is instead of trying to brand it: seared chicken breast with spinach-tomato cream sauce…???


  • People read their phones on the toilet - probably every single modern phone user has done it at least once. It is not inconceivable that a small, but significant, number of them have fumbled the phone and it has fallen into the bowl.

    Likewise, pools, beaches, and boats are places people are very likely to go with their phones in tow and in use. It is not unlikely some of those - one can assume - millions of instances have produced some contacts between phone and water.

    I ride a motorcycle and mount my phone on the handlebars for guidance. I spend a lot of effort keeping it dry and have actually lost a couple of USB cables (but not the phone, thankfully) to damp.


  • claycle@lemm.eetoCooking @lemmy.worldRefried beans
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    1 year ago

    Nope no other suggestions. Lard and bacon fat are the most common around here (Texas). Olive oil will often appear on menus ostensibly for health reasons. Avocado oil use is growing. I, too, have used ghee but I found the flavor off-putting. (EDIT: However, there are very similar Indian lentil- and bean-based recipes to refried beans where the ghee is perfect, of course. )

    Really, what’s most important is getting the generous-but-right amount of fat into the beans to emulsify them. Too little and they’re chalky and paste-like. Too much and they’re overbearingly rich and greasy. Just right and the beans are silky and soft (EDIT: almost but not quite runny when the plate is tilted). That is where I come down strongly and die on that hill. But the particular fat used to achieve this? I have my preferences which I think I can defend, but I am not religious about it.

    (This makes me think of a complete side note, Hummus-bit-Tahini needs the same attention to emulsifying the bean with a proper amount of fat. Too many hummus recipes on the internet have far too little oil in them…)


  • claycle@lemm.eetoCooking @lemmy.worldRefried beans
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    1 year ago

    That’s better. :-)

    The following is not direct criticism, as I have used butter to make refried beans and it is easily available - but, butter should be the low down the fat choice list as it has a strong flavor that competes with the beans. The first and most obvious/traditional fat to use is pig lard, but a neutral oil or shortening works perfectly well, too. My grandmother would use saved, rendered bacon fat from a Folgers coffee can she kept near the stove (because she always had bacon fat, grandaddy had to have bacon for every breakfast). I have also used olive oil, but only if making black beans (which can stand up to the flavor). Avocado oil works well, too.


  • claycle@lemm.eetoCooking @lemmy.worldRefried beans
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    1 year ago

    You lost me at the lack of added fat, a critical component for refried beans. Yes, there’s a little butter called for with the onion, but not nearly enough fat (ie, none) added to the beans.

    Call me a pedantic purist gatekeeper who grew up eating these almost daily, but you posted mashed beans, not refried beans.



  • I have made several sites (and maintain one) with RWC. However, I found that using Hugo (installed with Homebrew) for static sites was worth the effort learning Hugo. It’s just more fun to me to actually write HTML (et al) and watch Hugo compile everything into a site that sit so high and remote in RWC (plus, if I can pass the site off easily to anyone).