vital functions
25 January 2026 21:59![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaberettReading. ( Scalzi, Tufte, Duncan )
Writing. Introduction continues to take shape. Word count hasn't gone up much, but that's partly because I am doing a reasonable job of Whacking Down A Bunch Of Words and then reassessing and deleting...
Listening. More of The Hidden Almanac. I continue to fret about not keeping super great track of it, which is in part because I seem to be extremely prone to going to sleep if it winds up on in the car...
Playing. We are finding an Exploders Inkulinati run alarmingly straightforward. Learning Continues.
Sudoku also continues to eat my brain. :|
Cooking. Dinner tonight included: another attempt at the Roti King cabbage poriyal, this time with more coconut, which I think has worked v well; a... loose attempt at a generous interpretation of Dishoom's gunpowder potatoes (no lime, no spring onion yet, no leaf coriander, not new potatoes...); and some pomegranate molasses-tamarind-yoghurt-chaat masala goop to sit some paneer in.
Earlier in the week I ticked a couple more things off the Cook (Almost) All Of East project (kung pao cauliflower; mushroom bao); this evening I have also had a first stab at recreating the Leon spiced tahini hot chocolate, which was Very Acceptable.
Eating. Finally managed to get a meal at the Viewpoint restaurant at Whipsnade (we keep not going at a time when it's open); mildly disappointed by the sourdough pizza, probably because I have a vague memory of a previous incarnation having aspirations to Fancy Restaurant, which I think the current set-up doesn't. Still v pleasant to eat food I didn't cook sat looking out over the Downs, though.
Exploring. ZOO.
Growing. I do not understand where the sciarid flies keep coming from but I am so, so, so over them. I am SO over them. WHY is the lithops container SUDDENLY FULL OF THEM.
That issue aside: lemongrass continues to have Leafs! If (if!) it keeps going like this I'm going to wind up needing to dispose of a bunch of plants via Freecycle/Freegle, goodness. Physalis still not doing anything visible. Ancho chillis almost but not quite All The Way Ripe.
It is almost certainly time to start sowing More Things but I think perhaps I will hold off until after I've had a chance to apply some nematodes...
we went to the ZOO
24 January 2026 23:32kaberettfor a Treat. and we saw (highlights edition):
- the baby white rhino!!! three and a half weeks old, nose still not pointy, ridiculous little ear tufts; at one point got startled and did a tiny canter, and at another point was subsided into the straw pile with its eyes closed and its ears doing intermittent sleepy waggles
- the baby giraffes!!! two of them, both with TONGUES and both (obviously) much much taller than us
- ostriches doing A Gentle Jog, and also flapping their wings about a bunch
- The Pygmy Hippo (who also at one point got startled and GALUMPHED about it)
- the New Tapir, who is not a Common Hippos
- a CHEETAH (who then decided everything was Too Loud and it was going to slope off to the private paddocks thank you very much)
- The Flamingoes, who were almost all asleep; majority were on two legs not one, and it was Immediately Apparent from watching the one-legged sleepy flamingoes swaying enthusiastically that this was on account of The Wind
- Medium Elephant once again became Very Startled, made a Loud Noise With Her Face, and needed reassuring by All Her Grown-Ups
- baby giraffes (again)
- wolverines go LOLLOP, and
- A Penguin Pedicure (and lots of porpoising)
(Many other good things included Running Creatures, a very muddy tiger, the sleepy bongos, a baby monkey bum, the ponies labelled Lesser Rhea, a selection of sheep, and a sleepy African Wild Dog.)
The weather was extremely cooperative. I am very very glad we managed this outing. (And then I fell asleep listening to The Hidden Almanac in the car on the way home...)
some good things make a post
22 January 2026 22:56kaberett- Saw the Child! Was given a Very Important Solar System Biscuit.
- Successfully slogged through a Whole Entire Exercise Routine, thanks be to company, and only tried to fall over for balance reasons rather than presyncope reasons. The Socks Continue Good. (We shall leave aside the part where my watch firmly told me I should start winding down for bed right before I began it...)
- A has indulged me to the tune of staying up late (post-wiggles and once we have finished our takeaway, which we have) so that the bread I did not manage to bake earlier in the day will be Ready To Be My Breakfast.
- Brain was willing to put down sudoku and actually read some book today! I am a bit closer to finishing a reread and embarking on the new thing!
- It feels like I might actually be able to fall asleep in reasonable time today. Goodnight. <3
[food] parsnip risotto, redux
21 January 2026 23:11kaberettBack in November I made a ridiculously overengineered parsnip risotto, as a way of dipping a toe into my next cookbook project. I said at the time that it was very tasty, and also I was unlikely to ever make it again.
vital functions
18 January 2026 23:07kaberettReading. Small progress on Index, A history of the (Dennis Duncan); quite a lot of Wrangling My Terrible E-mail Situation feat. skimming geochemistry abstracts; flipped through some of the latest batch of Alex Was Sad cookbooks; also some more poking to see if there's, like, An Official Formulation of CBT-(for-)I(nsomnia), and came to the conclusion that the reason I can't find it is that there isn't. Exactly.
Writing. Alas I have not made sufficient progress this week to announce that the number at the front of the wordcount of The Putative Book has got bigger, BUT I have spent a bunch of time tinkering with ideas and asking you lot things, so. Maybe. Maybe this will be the week the second complete reworking of the introduction actually takes shape.
Playing. I continue with Squardle (via vass) and, despite its shortcomings, Metaflora (via ewt). Sudoku remains The Special Interest Of The Moment.
Cooking. It has been a Weird Week for food because A and I have mostly not been eating together (because A has been unwell and mostly not eating), but: another dal variant for my breakfasts (thereby also ticking off another item on the Cook The Cookbook project list), and lots of minor variations on Leon's ~superfood salad~ from days of yore.
Making & mending. Technically progress on glove and learning continental knitting; in practice I'm probably going to frog it and have Attempt #3 At Tension.
Growing. Lemongrass is germinating! Lithops are germinating?????
At home: the overwintered bell peppers and ancho chilli are turning Ripe Colours. The overwintered jalapeño is extremely unwell and I should... do something about that. Both orchids continue Determinedly Making Flower Stems.
At the plot: I MADE IT TO THE PLOT, Project: Bulk Up The Spinach Seed is progressing, and I have done a tiny bit of weeding and infrastructure (mostly taking down last year's growing supports...). At some point I will want to kick the things that are currently in the propagator out of the propagator in order to sow the next batch of seeds, but they'll get a little longer yet.
And more saffron keeps appearing in the various places it's planted on the patio, though I sincerely doubt any of it will flower...
[eyb] you continue magnificently helpful!
17 January 2026 23:01kaberettThe context for yesterday's frivolous low-stakes question was of course indexing for Eat Your Books, where I've been stalled on my current cookbook for... a while... for ...reasons... including but not limited to needing to ask for a bunch of new ingredients to be added, and then having a social anxiety about ever touching the work-in-progress again.
And then I did touch it again! And a recipe where I'd requested the new ingredient "mixed leaf salad" had instead... been given the ingredient "mixed greens", synonymous with the base ingredient "mixed lettuces".
The cookbook in question is The National Trust Cookbook; The recipe is Goat's cheese tartlets with pickled cucumber; the headnote to the recipe includes
Serve with a home-grown asparagus, pea and broad bean salad mixed with baby salad leaves.
The ingredients for the salad, helpfully listed under the subheading "To serve", are:
12 spears of English asparagus, woody ends trimmed off 55g/2oz podded broad beans 85g/3oz fresh or frozen peas 70g/2½oz mixed leaf salad with rocket leaves 3 tbsp extra virgin rapeseed or olive oil 1 tsp runny honey
So I am reassured that the breakdown of opinions falls almost entirely along side-of-the-pond lines, suggesting that the reason I'm going "this is neither of these two things??? if EYB told me I needed mixed greens for a recipe and turned out to mean mixed leaf salad I'd be extremely annoyed??? if a recipe told me I needed mixed greens for a recipe and turned out to mean lettuces--" because, yes, I think "mixed greens" are a thing that need cooking (probably referring to brassica but I only roll my eyes a little at pre-packaged bowls that decide that various forms of pea, broccoli, and leek also count), and "mixed lettuces" is a strictly narrower category than "mixed leaf salad".
I had absolutely no idea that this might be a point of US/UK confusion, and thank you all for providing me with Data!
academia.edu
17 January 2026 16:22ewx
Well of course it was!
(On the other hand, the less said about the mention in a Copper Slag paper, the better.)
Ultimate edition of Innovation
17 January 2026 10:25jackUltimate edition of Innovation (photo on FB), with tweaked rules and all the expansions. I didn't know there were *any* expansions.
I assumed the expansions would be more variety of base cards, but no, instead they're *all* add ons which add a new sort of card to each age. The cards from each expansion are drawn in a different way, and act differently, but can be melded into the player board somehow like base cards.
So far the extras only come up every so often, but matter when they come up.
I can't believe the new edition added a new age, age 11, prudence, after age 10, the information age. But it *does* seem to fit. More powerful than age 10, but less wildly accelerating. I guess they can add a new age every 15-20 years when real world society has moved on far enough...
This game was with cities. I *again* relied on mathematics to skip through ages, but this time managed to score just enough to get the achievements first rather than second as I went. The game ended when I got computers, internet, and a couple more cards that meld and execute a card from age 10, catapulting my board into three age 10 cards, one age 9, and one age 1.
I assumed the expansions would be more variety of base cards, but no, instead they're *all* add ons which add a new sort of card to each age. The cards from each expansion are drawn in a different way, and act differently, but can be melded into the player board somehow like base cards.
So far the extras only come up every so often, but matter when they come up.
I can't believe the new edition added a new age, age 11, prudence, after age 10, the information age. But it *does* seem to fit. More powerful than age 10, but less wildly accelerating. I guess they can add a new age every 15-20 years when real world society has moved on far enough...
This game was with cities. I *again* relied on mathematics to skip through ages, but this time managed to score just enough to get the achievements first rather than second as I went. The game ended when I got computers, internet, and a couple more cards that meld and execute a card from age 10, catapulting my board into three age 10 cards, one age 9, and one age 1.
you are all magnificently helpful - thank you <3
16 January 2026 23:58kaberettToday's frivolous low-stakes question is: if following a recipe, to what extent do you consider "mixed lettuces", "mixed greens", and "mixed leaf salad" synonymous?
What were you taught about atoms?
15 January 2026 23:40kaberettExpanding on one of the things I mentioned yesterday: for Pain Project reasons, I'm interested in knowing what you learned about atoms at school, and roughly what age you were. I'm especially interested in whether (and when) you were exposed to the Bohr model (there's a nucleus, with electrons orbiting around it at fixed distances) and the current consensus model (electron orbitals defined as regions where an electron is most likely to be found).
( Read more... )
(no subject)
14 January 2026 13:39jackSmoke LARP festival in London for two days.
Game 1 about dysfunctional committee running a large LARP event. This was hilarious and cathartic for a lot of people. Everyone had a character, the auteur overcommitted to the vision, the overly emotional over verbose writer, etc, etc who are over the top. And it's so easy to run with -- whenever someone asks "We can tear the fittings down for extra costumes?" you can say "Yes, obviously!"
Game 2 about Superheros matching Nemeses speed-dating style on a reality TV show style. The characters were all hilarious.
Game 3 about the Greek Gods running a gameshow, spiralling slowly out of control. 13/10 for Binney as the overworked madcap Hades. My favourite moment was seeing Hades getting increasingly many semi-anonymous requests handed over from the GM, and as Poseidon writing out a note in the same style and handing it over. And not discovering until the end that Hades had just taken it on board and "More death! Put Hecate in charge! Don't trust Odin! MORE SQUID!!!" had blended in perfectly with all the other notes and he'd gone on to do all those things. And second favourite when hades was waving the post-it representing the necronomicon for an unspecified plan, taking it and helpfully tearing it up before handing it back.
Game 4 Canterbury Tales. Set just before the End of the Wars of the Roses when the tales had just been printed. I had to leave early, with my fate hanging on the outcome, when we'd just heard a rumour that Henry had been slain and Richard captured by Henry's forces. It turned out later that Henry's widow and a putative Edward V Prince in the Tower had both proclaimed themselves, potentially leading to turmoil. But I'm pleased they both had a good chance, and that probably removed the problems hanging over my character from the previous politics 🙂
Game 1 about dysfunctional committee running a large LARP event. This was hilarious and cathartic for a lot of people. Everyone had a character, the auteur overcommitted to the vision, the overly emotional over verbose writer, etc, etc who are over the top. And it's so easy to run with -- whenever someone asks "We can tear the fittings down for extra costumes?" you can say "Yes, obviously!"
Game 2 about Superheros matching Nemeses speed-dating style on a reality TV show style. The characters were all hilarious.
Game 3 about the Greek Gods running a gameshow, spiralling slowly out of control. 13/10 for Binney as the overworked madcap Hades. My favourite moment was seeing Hades getting increasingly many semi-anonymous requests handed over from the GM, and as Poseidon writing out a note in the same style and handing it over. And not discovering until the end that Hades had just taken it on board and "More death! Put Hecate in charge! Don't trust Odin! MORE SQUID!!!" had blended in perfectly with all the other notes and he'd gone on to do all those things. And second favourite when hades was waving the post-it representing the necronomicon for an unspecified plan, taking it and helpfully tearing it up before handing it back.
Game 4 Canterbury Tales. Set just before the End of the Wars of the Roses when the tales had just been printed. I had to leave early, with my fate hanging on the outcome, when we'd just heard a rumour that Henry had been slain and Richard captured by Henry's forces. It turned out later that Henry's widow and a putative Edward V Prince in the Tower had both proclaimed themselves, potentially leading to turmoil. But I'm pleased they both had a good chance, and that probably removed the problems hanging over my character from the previous politics 🙂
VeggieTales
14 January 2026 13:39jackTIL more about VeggieTales. I had heard they avoided depicting Jesus as a vegetable. But apparently they specifically (a) will not show Jesus as a vegetable and (b) do not show the vegetables as having a redemptive relationship with Christ.
The show shows some vegetables living on a kitchen counter. Those characters then morph into a Christian-friendly story, either an old testament bible story, or a contemporary "someone learns an important lesson about goodness" story. So you have Larry the vegetable transplanted into a Biblical Joseph role. In the story, God exists. But the plain vegetables aren't Christian. Because the creators think that Jesus died for *humanity* and any other intelligent species was not fallen (like Angels) or not been saved (like Demons) or had its own relationship with God (like Narnia).
And even in the story, none of the characters are ever Jesus, because that would seem disrespectful. What does happen in the later series is that the characters portray nativity plays, where a unnamed non-Christian baby vegetable acts as a non-Jesus baby human character, who is pretending to be baby Jesus. Also in the early series there's a couple of nativity stories with a crib, but you only see golden light from the crib. Or sometimes a swaddled form, but not whether it contains a doll, vegetable, human and/or god :)
https://justinkuiper.substack.com/p/highlights-from-the-comments-on-the
The show shows some vegetables living on a kitchen counter. Those characters then morph into a Christian-friendly story, either an old testament bible story, or a contemporary "someone learns an important lesson about goodness" story. So you have Larry the vegetable transplanted into a Biblical Joseph role. In the story, God exists. But the plain vegetables aren't Christian. Because the creators think that Jesus died for *humanity* and any other intelligent species was not fallen (like Angels) or not been saved (like Demons) or had its own relationship with God (like Narnia).
And even in the story, none of the characters are ever Jesus, because that would seem disrespectful. What does happen in the later series is that the characters portray nativity plays, where a unnamed non-Christian baby vegetable acts as a non-Jesus baby human character, who is pretending to be baby Jesus. Also in the early series there's a couple of nativity stories with a crib, but you only see golden light from the crib. Or sometimes a swaddled form, but not whether it contains a doll, vegetable, human and/or god :)
https://justinkuiper.substack.com/p/highlights-from-the-comments-on-the