It might not be in the holiday spirit, but we want to know anyway: What's the best present you received this year?
See this post.
Apparently my daughter has a hidden talent: "What goes ha ha, thud? Laughing your head off."
Oh yes, I understand she has plans for ski pictures and such soon. But the woman has so much booze in her blog. When Cimmy stumbled across this I couldn't help but think of her. Not like I'm suggesting she's gotten that snockered, oh no. I have no idea. Merry Christmas, Daisy!
Fay McKay's famous "The 12 Daze of Christmas":
Use this as a much desirable alternative to fruitcake! It uses candied fruits, too, but... it is NOT fruitcake, OK?
Two disclaimers:
- This is written for 1.5 and 2 lb. bread machines
- I do not think making the glaze from soynog would be a good idea. Fortunately, it is quite tasty sans glaze.
Ingredients (2 lb. amounts in parentheses)
1/2 C. (3/4 C.) canned or dairy eggnog
1/4 C. (1/2 C.) water
1 egg
2 T (3 T) butter or margarine, cut up
3 C. (4 C.) bread flour (all-purpose works fine)
2 T. (3 T.) sugar
3/4 t. (1 t.) salt
1/4 t. (1/2 t.) ground nutmeg
1 1/4 T. (1 1/2 T.) active dry yeast or bread machine yeast
1/3 C. (1/2 C.) mixed candied fruits and peels
Select loaf size and add ingredients to machine according to the manufacturer's directions for your machine. Bake on basic white bread cycle.
The eggnog glaze is made from 1 cup sifted powdered (confectioner's) sugar and about 1-2 T. of eggnog, whisked together. It should be of a "drizzling" consistency, according to the book. If Purplesque can manage this with soynog, I guess I'll be damned. I'm not sure of the other substitutions; I'm guessing the egg has to be replaced with oil and I'm assuming coconut oil (which is butter/margarine/shortening consistency at room temperature from what I've been told) or vegetable shortening would be the substitution for the butter or margarine. I'm sure I will get a reply stating what worked for a vegan adaptation.
Do you recall any outstanding family trips or summer holidays you experienced as a child?
Okay, my first thought was "Gah, not another summer-themed question in the winter!"
But the one I'm thinking of was actually done in February, which was supposedly the slow season for our destination: Oahu, Hawaii. Part of me wishes very much that I could go there soon, especially as Cimmy was jealous the last time I related this story.
The thing that most anyone has got to realize about Oahu is that it was a vacation paradise-- about 50 years ago. But as long as you can look past the tourist traps and enjoy it for what it is, it's a nice place to go.
My grandfather is a Marine and so of course a good chunk of our visits were to the military-related stuff-- Pearl Harbor, the Punchbowl Cemetery, Diamond Head, and things like that. But my favorite places were the Polynesian Cultural Center, Hanama Bay, the North Shore, and Chinatown.
And... my muse just fled. Will have to edit this later.
In short, I took an evening out to return to the pool. I found a pair of trunks that fit-- not the ones I'd been wearing, but they fit. *sigh* It was nice, but it will take some time to unstiffen yet.
Never a dull moment, though-- talked to a few regulars I remembered. Also talked to this young Hispanic guy that was "high on God". A few moments of dissention, but mostly agreement, as we found common ground. He asked me to pray for him, which of course I agreed to sincerely, and explained my position as such. Anyone that asks me for my thoughts, prayers, meditations is free to all of them. Allow me a small chuckle here. It seems the Court Club has at least one person there who is young and spastic, but very eager and hungry for approval when I talk to them. Sometimes the person is male, sometimes the person is female. Sometimes the person is a fellow member (as he is), and sometimes the person is a staff member. Maybe some of you remember mentioning the others-- the guy with the Ryan Seacrest/Ed Grimley 'do that always insisted I must be in my 20's (the age dropped every time he mentioned it) and that I should hit the weight again, or the young lady behind the counter that would fill up my water jug with ice at the end of the night and once raved about my pozole soup. (Hey, I promised I'd bring some when she asked, so I did.)
They are always wound just a little too tight for my total comfort, but I smile and affirm them the best I can. I could hardly wish for a world where everyone was introverted and able to hold agonizingly long and drawn out conversations.
I'm listening to some guest samples of music at Hearts of Space. I miss listening to it on the NPR station.
So I just found out yesterday that Atari pulled the plug on the Premium Modules to Neverwinter Nights (NWN/NWN1) back in August. This means that they can no longer be purchased at the Bioware Store. (Those that purchased them beforehand, however, can still redownload them at any time, for now.) Theories as to why are long and complex; one user guessed that Atari might decide to bundle them later and offer them at a bargain bin price, but more than likely, they will be offered for Windows. Maybe a slim chance for Mac as well, but Linux will likely be left out in the cold.
This is sad, seeing that NWN1 is one of the few commercial games out there that can be run natively on Linux. I purchased the Diamond edition when I was still on Windows; however, the Kingmaker module on the disc is Windows only. (I had to download binaries from Bioware to get it up and running on Linux.) I was going to grab the modules eventually; but now I am limited to Ossian Studio's Darkness Over Daggerford (which was going to be a Premium Module, but didn't make the cut) and community made modules, which often require the Community Expansion Pack-- and they all differ as to which version they use and are based on.
I liked the approach Bioware had with NWN. Its format was no less a very different approach to mods; it was not merely a tacit acknowledgment that they existed; but rather that the very structure of the game encourages it.
Anyways... apart from Bioware's release of a Linux client, the other option is companies that release code to the open source community for older games. The Freespace series is one of these; after finding that I was missing some discs from my unpatched Windows version, I simply repurchased it from Good Old Games in a fully patched version. I have Freespace 2 up and running now, but I need a good USB-controlled flight stick. (I bought an old Wingman Warrior for M.A.M.E. purposes-- specifically the arcade version of TRON, but I cannot get it working.)
Then there is the gemrb project, which is an open source replacement for the Infinity Engine that runs Baldur's Gate II and Planescape: Torment; both excellent games, but more so the latter for storyline freaks like me. Those working on the project offered Torment players wonderful fixes and mods in Windows, but their work on the open source Linux engine is very slow, and it remains incomplete. As for me, I cannot get the code compiled whatsoever. It's beyond my limited geek skills, which are quite poor on the coding side.
Finally, there are the independent companies. One game of note is World of Goo, and there are rumors in the Linux Mint (Debian family) community that the demo might be added to the repositories for that distro. In any event, I had it installed when I ran Ubuntu full-time; my daughter was quite hooked for a bit.
The rest is hobbyist sendups-- ports of games from older computer systems, arcade and console system emulators, and rehashes of old games that have long been in the public domain (mostly first-person shooters, from the look of it). The upside, I'd say, is if games like Solitaire and other mainstay entries of Windows included in the OS are your thing, there is a lot more offered to you in Linux. Granted, there are divides between those designed for the Gnome, KDE, and XFCE desktops respectively. They can all be run together no matter which aforementioned desktop you use, but you'll see seams in the GUI since those desktops don't look the same. My wife and my daughter did like the wider variety of options, however.
To summarize: People believe that a flag hung upside down outside a Mexican restaurant run by Mexican-American residents is an unintentional insult to the national pride of the U.S. Although the owners claim it was a mistake, they protest loudly, although the city chief of police, among others, believe them.
No offense, but I see political whackery in Richland. If someone's staging a political protest, the majority of the time it's in Richland-- in front of the federal building, or along George Washington Way, which is the main drag through town. It's not always the right wing, but more often than not, it is.
Perhaps I should share another example. This is the local NBC/Fox affiliate sharing excerpts from letters they received. Claims of reverse discrimination. Implications of excuses and lying. A thinly veiled suggestion that someone flying a flag upside down somehow insults the troops. Oy...
I've worked for that city hall. As far as I could see, everyone was pretty nice. And yes, it's probably true that the city council cares not a whit for the desires of its citizens, but, I do have to wonder... is what they want necessarily good for them? As far as this-- no, no, I don't think so.
I e-mailed Tim Wise about this; I had to be sure to let him know that another white guy isn't just closing his eyes and pretending he's discriminated against, and that there hasn't been a sense of entitlement. But, then again, depending on how many labels stick to me, I'm not exactly a good, wholesome W.A.S.P. either.
By the way, I was going to restrict access just to avoid backlash, but... that would be covering something that shouldn't be private. I guess we'll see how many come along to tell me to kiss their...
