|
|
A few years ago, before you could buy Absinthe in the US, I had some shipped to from Spain. I collected a few different bottles of the stuff. Drank it, enjoyed it, and then kind of left it behind.
I thought about absinthe today and thought I’d have a glass, and do a little write up about “the absinthe ritual”. I don’t profess this to be 100% accurate but this is, as I understand it, how absinthe was often partaken in it’s heyday
First you need the tools of your trade: absinthe, sugar cubes, a glass, an absinthe spoon, and an absinthe fountain.
As you can see from the picture, the absinthe fountain holds ice water, not absinthe. It should really be called a water fountain, I guess if there were a statue in it…
This stuff is a great don’t-drink-me-I’m-glass-cleaner green and note the flame retardant thingamajig(tm) in the the bottle. At about 140proof – keep away from open flame.
I tend to mix the absinthe with the water at about 5 parts water to 1 part absinthe but adjust to suit your own taste.
After pouring, we set the spoon on the glass and a sugar-cube on the spoon and position under the fountain.
 Absinthe, Glass, Spoon, Sugar  Flame Retardarnator Then we open the fountain up to drip or a thin stream.
 Dripping Fountain As the water runs the sugar cube will melt and the absinthe will change from transparent green to a milky greenish white.
 Changing Color When the glass is full, give it a stir and you’re done.
I had a lot of issues with opening PDF in a browser window. Reader settings were set to “open in browser” but pdf links always opened in a separate Reader window. Uninstalling, deleting adobe registry keys and re-installing didn’t work either.
This registry edit is what fixed it, in case it helps anyone out:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\7.0\Originals\bBrowserIntegration
This was 0, I set it to 1, Reader then worked as desired.
Yes, that is 7.0 in the registry, despite this being reader 9.0.
I’ve mellowed slightly re: my stance on the iPad. I think it is an overpriced toy, but from playing with it a couple of times, it is a neat one. The fact that it is just an iPod Touch with a large screen doesn’t detract from the fact that that in itself is a pretty neat thing.
Up to a point, a bigger screen on anything increases usability; though it impacts portability. And I can see this being a very useful device compared to the iPod Touch.
It’s a shame that Steve Jobs’ rhetoric and defense of the company’s policies concerning iDevice development still makes me cringe. It seems that as the world moves towards more “open” computing, Apple is becoming more closed; Which is a shame. Apple was the first widely available personal computer and I see that time as a time of exploration and development into this new field. All I see regarding the iPad is a company that so desperately wants to control everything. I never felt that way about Microsoft, even in the heyday of Microsoft-bashing.
Now that Apple has shown success with large format touch screen, hopefully there will be an alternative before too long. I’d pony up for a similar android device; if the hardware were acceptably good. I’m also eyeballing the upcoming round of touch screen netbooks. Who knows, maybe I’ll even buy an iPad- Because, Lord knows, I need another gadget.
 Imogen Heap‘s last album Speak for Yourself immediately lodged itself into my list of top favorites, and her new release Ellipse is headed right up there with it.
She continues to builds songs in clean layers of instruments and vocals with crisp, clear production.
Like Speak for Yourself, every track is different from another and hard to pigeonhole into a particular genre. There’s Earth- a great semi-acapella piece driven by pizzicato vocals and counterpoint and Little Bird- electronic arrpegios under building layers of vocal harmonies.
Swoon- Roll up pop goodness, with a touch of Siouxsie and a theremin thrown in for good measure.
Aha! is like what you’d get if Danny Elfman had written a track for Sarah McLachlan’s first album and “Bad Body Double” may have the catchiest chorus ever.
If you liked “Speak for yourself” you’ll like “Ellipse”… Then again, if you liked “Speak for Yourself” you’ve probably been waiting for this release anxiously. It doesn’t dissapoint.
According to this Readability Test:this website is just under a 6th grade level. I wonder if I should work on my writing a bit?
I’ve just started The Vampire Earth series and, so far, it’s been good to me. The setting is a post-apocolyptic America that is ruled by the Kurians. The Kurians live off of a beings “living aura”, which they consume by proxy via Reapers: beings reminiscent of the traditional vampire legends of earth. You know; only come out at night, hard to kill, drink blood etc…. Given mankind’s new role as cattle: Most of the remaining population of earth is just trying to survive, some collaborate with the enemy, and some fight.
But that’s just the setting, The books themselves chronicle the adventures of one David Valentine; who jumps at the chance to join the resistance and fight against the Kurians. The focus is really on him and his battles and travels through an America that’s returned almost to a Frontier level of technology.
Part science-fiction, part war story, these novels continue to be an interesting read.
Another recent read – The Johnny Maxwell Trilogy – Three small books by Terry Pratchett, of Discworld fame. These are children’s books, but entertaining nontheless.
Only You Can Save Mankind – Johnny gets a copy of the latest video game, but the aliens he’s supposed to be blasting surrender and ask for his help to save them from all the players who zap them every day.
Johnny and the Dead – Johnny discovers he can see dead people in a local Cemetery just before the cemetery is to be made the site of a new building project.
Johnny and the Bomb – My favorite – Johnny and his friends travel back in time to the blitz, where he is the only one that knows about the single WWII bombing of his hometown that is about to occur.
These are fun books. The first is the weakest but still a good read. Don’t let the fact that they’re children’s books throw you off. Pratchett doesn’t treat children readers as idiots. In fact, his “young adult” Discworld books are among some of the best in the series.
In short, recommended.
I recently finished Orson Scott Card’s “The Ender Saga”. I’d read Ender’s Game, and Speaker for the Dead, previously. C was listening to these from Audible around the house, and we started Xenocide to pass the time on a trip. When we got back I read the rest of it and the final book, Children of the Mind.
All in all, a good series. This isn’t a review, though, this is a public service announcment. Even if you never pick up any other book in the series, read “Ender’s Game”.
I’m thinking of Treason. And by that I mean Orson Scott Card’s “Treason”. It’s a page by page rewrite of an earlier work of his, “A Planet Called Treason”, and it’s awesome. I love the setting, the things that happen, and the general unexpectedness of every reveal.
The basic outline is that young Lanik Mueller, next in line for the throne in his region of the iron-poor planet Treason, is banished due to a genetic defect. The normal super-regenerative ability of his people to runs amok, causing him to grow extra tissue, or even limbs.
On Treason, the only way to acquire iron is to trade things with the Ambassadors; machines that transport away whatever is placed within, returning the priceless metal if the offering is deemed valuable enough.
Given a final request from his father to use his defects and banishment to find out how a neighboring region is recently getting so much iron, Lanik’s adventure begins.
Deleted all my imported LiveJournal posts and comments. Starting fresh!
|
|
