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Steak and Lobster at the cafeteria. That was awesome. Thank you, whoever came up with that. It made me feel like I should have been wearing a top hat and a monocle.
November 1st, 2007
March 27th, 2007
Fan of Orson Scott Card? Check it out! Classic critical essay by Elaine Radford, on "Ender's Game" and sequel "Speaker for the Dead", just placed online yesterday. Difficult to find in real life - originally published in now-extinct Fantasy Review, followed by republication in Contemporary Literary Criticism - if you like digging in library basements go ahead. Yesterday, Elaine Radford was kind enough to post this classic critical essay online, and all Orson Scott Card fans can now enjoy and revisit the controversy of whether Ender Wiggin was, in fact, Adolf Hitler.
Link:
http://peachfront.diaryland.com/enderhit
Link:
http://peachfront.diaryland.com/enderhit
March 12th, 2007
Originally posted to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif)
bookish, here.
I read some of the 23-volume (actually 24-volume) Rick Brant Electronic Adventure series when I was young - they had originally belonged to an older relative. Spanning the late 40's to the 60's, they are easy-reading juvenile science fiction but display good writing and prescient plotlines, and are basically pretty good examples of sci-fi of the era. Anyway, I have had the delightful opportunity to somehow come into possession of the entire series, even the mysterious #24 which was never published until 1990 and only in a limited edition then, and I do plan to read them all. The ones I've read before, and the ones that I haven't.
In this installment, I cover volumes 1-3 in a hopefully spoiler-free manner.
bookish, here.I read some of the 23-volume (actually 24-volume) Rick Brant Electronic Adventure series when I was young - they had originally belonged to an older relative. Spanning the late 40's to the 60's, they are easy-reading juvenile science fiction but display good writing and prescient plotlines, and are basically pretty good examples of sci-fi of the era. Anyway, I have had the delightful opportunity to somehow come into possession of the entire series, even the mysterious #24 which was never published until 1990 and only in a limited edition then, and I do plan to read them all. The ones I've read before, and the ones that I haven't.
In this installment, I cover volumes 1-3 in a hopefully spoiler-free manner.
( Read more... )
February 7th, 2007
January 28th, 2007
Originally posted at bookish, here.
I often read books pretty much at random. A hint from someone in real life or online that a certain book might be worth reading, and I'm very likely to read it, assuming that I can get it at the library or using IRC and don't have to pay. And I have been known to grab random books at the library, as well. This is usually a rewarding activity. However, sometimes I get a book which seems to be a story, but turns out to be a political tract instead. Quite often any semblence of storytelling falls apart at this point. And Libertarian/Objectivist writers (please do not ask me to differentiate these, although I know many people would) are especially guilty. Heinlein was cool, because he'd tell the dumb story anyway. And Rand - she was the real thing, whatever it was that she was. However, I wouldn't say the same for most such authors. Has anyone here ever accidentally read a Liberatarian pseudo-novel?
Two books that tricked me that way are "The Great Idea" by Henry Hazlitt, aka "Time will run back" in subsequent editions, and "The Rainbow Cadenza" by J. Neil Schulman.
bookish, here.I often read books pretty much at random. A hint from someone in real life or online that a certain book might be worth reading, and I'm very likely to read it, assuming that I can get it at the library or using IRC and don't have to pay. And I have been known to grab random books at the library, as well. This is usually a rewarding activity. However, sometimes I get a book which seems to be a story, but turns out to be a political tract instead. Quite often any semblence of storytelling falls apart at this point. And Libertarian/Objectivist writers (please do not ask me to differentiate these, although I know many people would) are especially guilty. Heinlein was cool, because he'd tell the dumb story anyway. And Rand - she was the real thing, whatever it was that she was. However, I wouldn't say the same for most such authors. Has anyone here ever accidentally read a Liberatarian pseudo-novel?
Two books that tricked me that way are "The Great Idea" by Henry Hazlitt, aka "Time will run back" in subsequent editions, and "The Rainbow Cadenza" by J. Neil Schulman.
January 14th, 2007
originally posted to bookish
A review of a very odd book, "281 Zen Koans with Answers" by Yeol Hoffman, which consists of a commented translation of the 1911 work "A Critique of Modern-Day pseudo-Zen" by a pseudonymous monk Ha Ho U-O.
What is the sound of one hand clapping?
bookish A review of a very odd book, "281 Zen Koans with Answers" by Yeol Hoffman, which consists of a commented translation of the 1911 work "A Critique of Modern-Day pseudo-Zen" by a pseudonymous monk Ha Ho U-O.
What is the sound of one hand clapping?
( Read more... )
January 12th, 2007
I guess as long as I made a LJ account so I could make comments, I should have a LJ myself. So this is just another lonely Friday night. Just got paid tho, so I am cooking a very nice meal. At least I hope it'll be a nice meal. I'll find out soon.
When I cook, I like to just go to the store and see what's on sale that looks interesting. Tonight Stop N' Shop had whole flounder. It was $4.99 a pound, which is kinda a lot compared to their other whole-fish offerings (such as tilapia), but it's a cool-looking fish that I've never eaten before. It has both eyes on one side, the poor thing, and I guess it lays on it's other side most of it's life. God knows how it catches food. Maybe it has a roommate that brings it to it. It looks like a real lazy fish that just lays there all the time. While I was at the store, I got myself other things to go with the flounder. A bunch of green onions, a lime, a small ginger root, and a can of coconut milk. Also a bottle of Coke, to drink with this fine meal. Total expense $10.50, so this meal had better be pretty good.
Upon getting home, I put some butter in a frying pan and sliced up a couple cloves of garlic. I had those items already. Chopped up the green onions and put them in there too. Then the lime, just washed it and cut off the knobbly end bits and sliced the rest real thin with the peel on, why not, put that in the pan too. Also made a half-ass effort at peeling the ginger root (with a potato peeler) before slicing it up and putting it in there too.
Then I inspected the fish. Washed it off, it seems to have been cleaned through the belly so there's a bit of a divot there - the scales feel real rough if you rub them the wrong way across your hand. They're totally smooth if you rub them from the head-to-tail direction, though. Guess this is a fish with a serious directionality. So it swims and is streamlined? Beats me. Like I said, it looks like one lazy-ass fish, but maybe it swims sometimes. Maybe to look for the TV remote or something.
Oh well. In the pan with you, flounder. Soft side down, I assume that's the side I'm eating so better make sure it gets cooked enough. The short little tail didn't quite fit in the pan so I let it hang out. Let the whole mess sizzle for a while, and then dumped the "coconut water" onto it. Oddly enough "coconut water" has little white chunks of coconut in it, but that's cool. This made the sizzling stop, I turned up the heat and got it to a mild simmering boil. Let it go like that for 20 minutes or so.
Then I figured I should turn the fish over. Tried to pick it up by the tail but the tail came off. Oh well. It looks just as tasty without the tail. Used a spatula to flip it instead. The soft side is looking real good. Just let it sort of simmer there, laying on it's hard side, like it never did during it's lifetime.
Time to disassemble and eat! Pretty tricky getting the meat off the tiny, deadly little bones. Taking special care not to scatter them about the pan cuz I want to safely enjoy the veggies too. Turns out the soft-side skin is edible too. Oops, almost got some little bones. Being careful ----
You know, this would be real good with a pot of curry rice. I think I'll make that next and eat them together. Definitely this is good. The quantity of meat - well I dunno if this is a $10.50 QUANTITY of food, but the quality is good. I guess flounder is worth trying.
When I cook, I like to just go to the store and see what's on sale that looks interesting. Tonight Stop N' Shop had whole flounder. It was $4.99 a pound, which is kinda a lot compared to their other whole-fish offerings (such as tilapia), but it's a cool-looking fish that I've never eaten before. It has both eyes on one side, the poor thing, and I guess it lays on it's other side most of it's life. God knows how it catches food. Maybe it has a roommate that brings it to it. It looks like a real lazy fish that just lays there all the time. While I was at the store, I got myself other things to go with the flounder. A bunch of green onions, a lime, a small ginger root, and a can of coconut milk. Also a bottle of Coke, to drink with this fine meal. Total expense $10.50, so this meal had better be pretty good.
Upon getting home, I put some butter in a frying pan and sliced up a couple cloves of garlic. I had those items already. Chopped up the green onions and put them in there too. Then the lime, just washed it and cut off the knobbly end bits and sliced the rest real thin with the peel on, why not, put that in the pan too. Also made a half-ass effort at peeling the ginger root (with a potato peeler) before slicing it up and putting it in there too.
Then I inspected the fish. Washed it off, it seems to have been cleaned through the belly so there's a bit of a divot there - the scales feel real rough if you rub them the wrong way across your hand. They're totally smooth if you rub them from the head-to-tail direction, though. Guess this is a fish with a serious directionality. So it swims and is streamlined? Beats me. Like I said, it looks like one lazy-ass fish, but maybe it swims sometimes. Maybe to look for the TV remote or something.
Oh well. In the pan with you, flounder. Soft side down, I assume that's the side I'm eating so better make sure it gets cooked enough. The short little tail didn't quite fit in the pan so I let it hang out. Let the whole mess sizzle for a while, and then dumped the "coconut water" onto it. Oddly enough "coconut water" has little white chunks of coconut in it, but that's cool. This made the sizzling stop, I turned up the heat and got it to a mild simmering boil. Let it go like that for 20 minutes or so.
Then I figured I should turn the fish over. Tried to pick it up by the tail but the tail came off. Oh well. It looks just as tasty without the tail. Used a spatula to flip it instead. The soft side is looking real good. Just let it sort of simmer there, laying on it's hard side, like it never did during it's lifetime.
Time to disassemble and eat! Pretty tricky getting the meat off the tiny, deadly little bones. Taking special care not to scatter them about the pan cuz I want to safely enjoy the veggies too. Turns out the soft-side skin is edible too. Oops, almost got some little bones. Being careful ----
You know, this would be real good with a pot of curry rice. I think I'll make that next and eat them together. Definitely this is good. The quantity of meat - well I dunno if this is a $10.50 QUANTITY of food, but the quality is good. I guess flounder is worth trying.