Appropriate uses for dulce de leche: Thinly spread on crêpes. Thickly spread to sandwich two butter cookies. A generous dollop in coffee. Over fruit (bananas, mangoes), sprinkled with chopped peanuts. On and in ice cream, of course.
Inappropriate uses for dulce de leche: Spackling compound (too sticky). A treat for your cat (unhealthy). Ignored on the shelf (so sad).
I offer you my first past-year booklist for fiction (1). I know these are just capsule summary-reviews, but I want to keep track of what I’ve read, lest I fall back into the bad habit of forgetting.
I’ve limited this entry to non-graphical works (2). Books are sorted alphabetically by author, then publication date. Because it is a damn long list, I’ve added a lightbulb icon 💡 to ones I highly recommend. I’ve also made a separate section for books I didn’t finish.
There are so many animé television series. Many are gems, but several just cannot maintain my interest or attention. I’ve noticed that after watching the first (infrequently the second) disc, I’ll decide to continue with or drop a series. Usually I get that feeling of Meh where I wind up finding the plots, characters or themes uninspired, annoying, or too traumatic for me to tolerate. Occasionally it’s an animation style that’s insipid or lackluster. (I tend to be a lot more tolerant of visual or auditory techniques in animation than I am of the actual content.)
Update: The Animé Blog, which I just stumbled upon today, published a thought-provoking article asking “What’s It Take For You To Drop An Anime?” Just to quickly spell out a few of my aversions, which are like alarm bells (rather than the aforementioned indifference towards the hackneyed, irritating or overly violent, which is more common):
The main point of this entry is to keep track, so as to avoid accidentally watching these again. I’ve left out even brief summaries or opinions, since I prefer to spend more of my time writing about animé series I do manage to complete.
Mediocre restaurants are unavoidable. But some of the baddies, ah, how they stick in my mind. Some of these are favorites for some of my friends. Oh well! To each their own (1).
Sonya has wondered several times about creating a database of recipes that our friends use on a regular basis. For good reason, too: It’s a fine idea to see what constitutes day to day eating in other households! Although it’s more like dishes we prepare vaguely periodically, since some ingredients are seasonal, and our moods and tastes change. O:-)
I love eating with my hands. Considering my hand-washing compulsion, it’s ironic yet compatible. Combine that with spicy food, and Ethiopian cuisine can winningly satisfy me. Some standbys and favorites:
Long waits seem to be an attribute universal to Ethiopian restaurants. Take it as an opportunity to exercise one’s conversational skills with one’s companions. 😉 Several places do take away, so perhaps I’ll call ahead to take a meal home, one of these days.
Two restaurants succeed in more respects than others: Zeni and Rehoboth, both located in San José. (Neither serve any seafood, though.)
Because I no longer require user registration, I finally removed all Subscriber accounts on this site. You should still be able to leave comments, of course, as well as subscribe via the feeds. (My comment policy otherwise remains the same.)
I’ve been using GreenCine’s DVD rental service for over a year. On the whole, my opinion of GreenCine has become pretty much similar to that of Netflix. Both are slow with delivery. Furthermore, both have huge catalogs, yet they almost never respond to customer suggestions for DVD additions.
Shipping was damn fast when GreenCine had their warehouse in the Bay Area. Then last summer they moved to Van Nuys, in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. Over a period of two months, while they transitioned to their new location, delivery was painfully protracted —up to 3 weeks for some discs! Even without throttling, rental shipment now takes as long as Netflix.
As a partial solution, I’ve continued the habit of borrowing DVDs at my local libraries. I go through my Rental Queue, and if a disc exists at a library, I remove it from the queue. This works for mainstream films, TV series and moderately known documentaries.
What other DVD rental solutions are out there, which would better satisfy my video needs? I’d be keen to hear your suggestions.
For the longest time I wouldn’t read non-fiction books outside of work or school. “What is this non-fiction for pleasure you speak of?” The key wasn’t to follow what’s necessarily popular, best-sellers on history, politics, or purely goal-oriented how-to books. The key was to start with my gut-level (as it were) interests: food, travel, biology. I still read more fiction, but that’s fine. At least the world of non-fiction writing has opened up and can hold my attention.
I’ll write up what I’ve read this year…around the beginning of next year. For now, here are some snippet-thoughts on the non-fiction books I’ve read over the past few years. I’ve excluded technical / computer books, and food books which are encyclopedic or primarily cookbooks, since I write about those in other entries.
Here’s an example of my being a food mutant: I don’t like pizza. To clarify: I don’t like deep dish pizzas, which are far too soggy. Thin crusts tend to change my mind. I don’t like tomato sauces —oh, I love tomatoes, sauces and tomato sauces, but on pizzas the gloppiness issue crops up again. White pizzas which use little (usually non-tomato) to no sauce, do pique my interest.
And the toppings! How insanely I denounce sausage, pepperoni, salami, ham, pineapple, bell peppers and olives. “Criminy, what else is left? What could possibly remain to grace the surface of the best beloved savory pie?” Ah, many things. Such as chicken, cheese and chutney.
I’d love to hear about your favorite unusual, unconventional (yet tasty) pizza toppings!