reading and watching and eating and stuff
Jan. 14th, 2018 10:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kindkit1) My seven-year-old Sony ebook reader has, after long and faithful service, bricked itself. *sigh* I don't like reading on my computer (plus I'm having some vision problems that make it easier to read on a screen or book that I can hold close to me), but I'm reluctant to put my ebook files on my phone because, um, quite a lot of them were acquired through alternative means because I have no money. And as much as I love my phone and use it all the damn time, I still think of it as corporate spyware I carry around with me. I may need to buy a Kobo if I can ever afford one. I don't want to get a Kindle because Amazon, spyware, etc., plus I have the Kindle app on my phone anyway so I don't need a separate reader.
I'm nearly ashamed to admit this, but I don't think I like paper books anymore. Except if it's cookbooks, or books that aren't available in any other form. But I've gotten used to the light weight of an ebook reader, and the adjustable type size, and the built-in dictionary, the search function, etc.
Plus, it's much harder to find decent affordable secondhand books than it used to be. Maybe it's where I live now (a small town without a university), or maybe it's that ebooks + amazon are killing used bookstores, I dunno. But when I go into local used bookstores I can never find anything interesting.
2) I was a bit startled when the most recent episode of The Good Place turned out to be the last of the season. I liked S2, though I didn't think it was nearly as brilliant as S1. But the premise of S3 is amazing and I'm looking forward to it.
3) Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency got cancelled by BBCAmerica, which apparently wants to air nothing but gardening and antiques shows in the daytime and Doctor Who reruns and 1990s movies at night. Any hope that Netflix (which was BBCA's partner in making the show) will continue it is fading as the weeks go by with no announcement. It's a shame, because it's a really good show and I recommend it a lot. (S2 does have a proper ending, no cliffhangers or anything, so the two seasons make a satisfying watch. I just want more.)
4) I've been watching The Doctor Blake Mysteries (which my brain keeps renaming Doctor Blake, Medicine Woman even though Dr. Blake is a man) on Netflix. It's an Australian show set in 1958, about a mystery-solving police surgeon with a Tragic Past, and it's . . . okay of its kind? Slightly above average? None of it's terrible in terms of objective quality, but none of it's great, and it does this annoying thing where it wants to be socially relevant but doesn't quite have the courage of its convictions, so that, for example, we get queer characters for one episode where queerness is a plot point, and all the main characters get to demonstrate their tolerance, but none of the main or recurring characters is queer. Similarly for immigrant characters and characters of color. And so far there have been no indigenous Australian characters at all. Yet I keep watching. It's very much a popcorn show--like popcorn, there are both tastier and more substantial things you could be consuming, but it's easy to munch down a lot of it.
5) Speaking of consuming, I've managed to do a little cooking and baking. Yesterday I baked some Blue Sky Bran Muffins, using some peach and sour cherry compote from my freezer as the fruit. I fiddled around with the recipe, as I tend to do--I substituted oat bran for a little of the wheat bran, and whole wheat flour and barley flour for a little of the all-purpose flour. And I mixed the compote into the batter instead of making a little pocket of it--I've made the recipe both ways and in my experience, the result of trying to put the fruit in the center is not worth the trouble. Anyway, they came out nice and now I have a bunch of them in the freezer.
I also made some cornbread with bacon, cheese, and green chiles. I based it on this recipe at Serious Eats, but with changes. I used 1.5 cups of cornmeal and .5 c flour, cut the sugar by half, omitted the scallions/green onions and added some roasted chopped green chile. Also I don't have a cast iron skillet so I used a metal pie tin instead, and it worked fine. I should note that I followed another Serious Eats tip and cooked the bacon in the oven (on a rimmed baking sheet lined with aluminum foil, at 425 Fahrenheit for 20 minutes) and it worked great. I will never cook bacon on the stovetop again.
Today I'm going to made stuffed red peppers using things I have on hand, namely rice, some cheddar and blue cheeses, and some of the vast quantity of ham I still have leftover from Thanksgiving.
I've discovered lately that many kinds of leftovers can be successfully turned into soup. Perhaps this was only news to me? Anyway, I've made soup from the leftovers of a baked rice + tomatoes + ham dish (added to commercial chicken broth along with some beet greens) and from leftover potato gnocchi in what turned out to be an excessively strong puttanesca sauce--yes, I know, but it seemed like a good idea at the time--once again added to commercial broth along with some spinach and some frozen bell-pepper-and-onion mix. (I've been buying frozen veg because at this time of the year it's as good as the fresh vegetables in the supermarket and both cheaper and easier, which helps me eat more vegetables when my desire to cook is fairly low.) In both cases, dishes that had been no more than okay in themselves made quite tasty soups. This makes me happy, because I take a weirdly strong pleasure in using/transforming food that might otherwise go to waste, and because it's a way to have soup for virtually no effort.
6) And now I should start cooking the rice.
I'm nearly ashamed to admit this, but I don't think I like paper books anymore. Except if it's cookbooks, or books that aren't available in any other form. But I've gotten used to the light weight of an ebook reader, and the adjustable type size, and the built-in dictionary, the search function, etc.
Plus, it's much harder to find decent affordable secondhand books than it used to be. Maybe it's where I live now (a small town without a university), or maybe it's that ebooks + amazon are killing used bookstores, I dunno. But when I go into local used bookstores I can never find anything interesting.
2) I was a bit startled when the most recent episode of The Good Place turned out to be the last of the season. I liked S2, though I didn't think it was nearly as brilliant as S1. But the premise of S3 is amazing and I'm looking forward to it.
3) Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency got cancelled by BBCAmerica, which apparently wants to air nothing but gardening and antiques shows in the daytime and Doctor Who reruns and 1990s movies at night. Any hope that Netflix (which was BBCA's partner in making the show) will continue it is fading as the weeks go by with no announcement. It's a shame, because it's a really good show and I recommend it a lot. (S2 does have a proper ending, no cliffhangers or anything, so the two seasons make a satisfying watch. I just want more.)
4) I've been watching The Doctor Blake Mysteries (which my brain keeps renaming Doctor Blake, Medicine Woman even though Dr. Blake is a man) on Netflix. It's an Australian show set in 1958, about a mystery-solving police surgeon with a Tragic Past, and it's . . . okay of its kind? Slightly above average? None of it's terrible in terms of objective quality, but none of it's great, and it does this annoying thing where it wants to be socially relevant but doesn't quite have the courage of its convictions, so that, for example, we get queer characters for one episode where queerness is a plot point, and all the main characters get to demonstrate their tolerance, but none of the main or recurring characters is queer. Similarly for immigrant characters and characters of color. And so far there have been no indigenous Australian characters at all. Yet I keep watching. It's very much a popcorn show--like popcorn, there are both tastier and more substantial things you could be consuming, but it's easy to munch down a lot of it.
5) Speaking of consuming, I've managed to do a little cooking and baking. Yesterday I baked some Blue Sky Bran Muffins, using some peach and sour cherry compote from my freezer as the fruit. I fiddled around with the recipe, as I tend to do--I substituted oat bran for a little of the wheat bran, and whole wheat flour and barley flour for a little of the all-purpose flour. And I mixed the compote into the batter instead of making a little pocket of it--I've made the recipe both ways and in my experience, the result of trying to put the fruit in the center is not worth the trouble. Anyway, they came out nice and now I have a bunch of them in the freezer.
I also made some cornbread with bacon, cheese, and green chiles. I based it on this recipe at Serious Eats, but with changes. I used 1.5 cups of cornmeal and .5 c flour, cut the sugar by half, omitted the scallions/green onions and added some roasted chopped green chile. Also I don't have a cast iron skillet so I used a metal pie tin instead, and it worked fine. I should note that I followed another Serious Eats tip and cooked the bacon in the oven (on a rimmed baking sheet lined with aluminum foil, at 425 Fahrenheit for 20 minutes) and it worked great. I will never cook bacon on the stovetop again.
Today I'm going to made stuffed red peppers using things I have on hand, namely rice, some cheddar and blue cheeses, and some of the vast quantity of ham I still have leftover from Thanksgiving.
I've discovered lately that many kinds of leftovers can be successfully turned into soup. Perhaps this was only news to me? Anyway, I've made soup from the leftovers of a baked rice + tomatoes + ham dish (added to commercial chicken broth along with some beet greens) and from leftover potato gnocchi in what turned out to be an excessively strong puttanesca sauce--yes, I know, but it seemed like a good idea at the time--once again added to commercial broth along with some spinach and some frozen bell-pepper-and-onion mix. (I've been buying frozen veg because at this time of the year it's as good as the fresh vegetables in the supermarket and both cheaper and easier, which helps me eat more vegetables when my desire to cook is fairly low.) In both cases, dishes that had been no more than okay in themselves made quite tasty soups. This makes me happy, because I take a weirdly strong pleasure in using/transforming food that might otherwise go to waste, and because it's a way to have soup for virtually no effort.
6) And now I should start cooking the rice.
no subject
Date: 2018-01-14 07:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-01-15 03:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-01-15 03:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-01-14 08:57 pm (UTC)Wait that was the last episode of The Good Place? Wikipedia says there are three more.
no subject
Date: 2018-01-15 03:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-01-14 11:00 pm (UTC)I get all my books online now too, because it's just so much easier on my hands to hold a reader rather than a book, and much more portable!
no subject
Date: 2018-01-15 03:43 am (UTC)it's really funny to see familiar things on screen
Cool. I knew Ballarat was roughly in your region, but I wasn't sure how close it was.
the lead actor is currently involved in a series of sexual harassment and sexual assault accusations
*headdesks repeatedly* Men in the entertainment industry need to just . . . stop. Primarily for the safety, sanity, and careers of the people who work with them, but also so that I can enjoy a damn show without worrying about whether anyone involved with it is a rapist.
so much easier on my hands to hold a reader rather than a book, and much more portable
Yes to that. I'm starting to have arthritis symptoms in my hands and large or heavy books can be uncomfortable.
no subject
Date: 2018-01-15 03:15 pm (UTC)For heavy books, I recommend one of those folding trays designed for breakfast in bed. Then you just have to turn the pages.
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Date: 2018-01-14 11:10 pm (UTC)I like my Kindle and Kobo, but 1) Kobo ebooks are expensive and 2) ebooks by well known writers are ridiculously expensive - the same price as paperbacks is just not on. There's almost no overhead to electronic delivery so play fair, people.
I now rely on cheap recs via Bookbub which means I'm always reading unknown or old writers. This can be good, like the fantasy series I'm currently really enjoying and I've found some great writers that way, but OTOH I've abandoned stuff that's appallingly badly written and/or full of typoes. I do read reviews, but people don't tend to warn about crap writing; maybe they have vanishingly low expectations. I've left some vitriolic ones though.
Almost forgot: we've watched the Dr Blake series too, and mostly enjoyed it. It's not something I'd be desperate to keep up with, but it's an OK series to entertain when there's not a lot available in this era of shit reality crap.
no subject
Date: 2018-01-15 03:52 am (UTC)It's so true! I used to live in a moderate-sized city with a great public library (and also, because there was a big university, a number of very good second-hand book stores). The library actually had books I wanted to read! I miss it so much.
Ebooks seem to be ridiculously overpriced, I agree, considering how much cheaper they are for the publisher than printing and distributing physical books. And considering that they cut out the secondhand book market. I can't afford ebooks usually, hence my reliance on alternative methods. Though I do try to support newer and less successful writers, or writers whose works do things I think are particularly important (like queer inclusion).
people don't tend to warn about crap writing; maybe they have vanishingly low expectations
I think a lot of people either don't have the tools to tell good writing from bad, or they don't care. I will admit that I had quite low standards for my pleasure reading until I started to write fanfic and think about the craft of it all.
no subject
Date: 2018-01-15 08:47 am (UTC)it does this annoying thing where it wants to be socially relevant but doesn't quite have the courage of its convictions
This bugged me so much! It was on the ABC, it could have managed to be a little more nuanced than that, seriously.