Exmortis
Exmortis 2
Exmortis 3
This series relies on somewhat bloody body parts, lots of blood and a very dark atmosphere to create fear in the player. The actual scary stuff isn't actually scary, most likely due to the poor Flash effects used. Well, at least for the first game. Personally I find the ambient sounds and darkness to be the most effective tool employed by the series creator.
Creepy, shocking. Probably the two words best for describing the first two games.
Unfortunately, the third is a demo, gotta pay for the rest of the game. =(
I wish they would make a MMO version of Fallout 3 soon. With the world being so large in the Fallout universe, the possibilities would be almost limitless. Even with 3 games and 4 expansions in this series, they've only covered less than 10 states of the US.
Right now they're still screwing around with lawsuits instead of working together to make a game before the public forgets about it. All this legal bs began only because the original creators of the game series went ahead to make the game without enough sponsorships, despite agreeing with Bethesda that they would do so, according to the contract in which they also sold most of their rights to the Fallout series to Bethesda.
I'll have to admit that making a MMO version of Fallout 3 would be incredibly ambitious, to say the least. But anything less (ie reverting to the old 2D style) would only cause disappointment among most of the fanbase, who began to love the Fallout world only because of Fallout 3.
I failed again with my jerky. I might have added too much salt and after the beef dried, salt crystals had formed on the surface. Crunchy jerky. =(
Next time, soy sauce instead of salt. And black pepper again. Hard to go wrong with red meat and black pepper.
I was surprised to see I have a single follower on Twitter. I only opened an account because I needed one to get a certain free gift on Runes of Magic. For that particular giveaway event, they were offering a set of special equipment (limited stocks too), one of which could only be received by followers of RoM on Twitter.
I wasn't even sure of my Twitter password. Kinda forgot since I've only logged on once. Good thing I was right after a few guesses.
One thing I've learnt about cooking, after some experimentation, is that just following the recipes' instructions to the word isn't going to make a perfect dish. The thing about cooking is that though cooking can be a science, cooking dishes that actually taste good is an art.
Hence, it is not necessary to do exactly as the recipes say, as long as you know what you're doing.
Experience is very important. The ability to slice meat thinly takes some skill with the knife that only comes with a long time of using this tool. Knowing what to use to marinate your food to create the preferred tastes is another example.
Anyway, I found some interesting simple recipes I can't use.
1 Chuck Roast
1 Large Onion
1/2 Bag of Potatoes
1 Bag of Baby Carrots
1 Can of Beef Broth
1 Can Mushrooms (or Golden mushrooms)
* Cut the carrots in half (or smaller, however you want them) and cut the potatoes in a chunks. Then dice the onion coarsely,
* Make a bed of carrots, potatoes, and onion in baking dish. Season with salt and pepper (other seasonings optional).
* Lay chuck roast on top and season as well.
* Pour mushrooms over roast, followed by 1/2 can to 1 can of beef broth (depending on personal preferences).
* Wrap with aluminum foil and bake for 3 hours at 300 degrees.
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MexiChicken
You will need:
couple pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken (I always use thighs as they are cheap and extremely difficult to dry out)
1/2 to 1 cup jarred, reconnaitred-from-mexican-place, or homemade salsa
taco seasoning (this recipe assumes with salt; if salt-free, apply salt as well)
black pepper
olive oil
Equipment: one ceramic or pyrex baking dish, large enough to hold chicken in a single layer, knife, cutting board
Preheat oven to 400deg F.
Trim chicken of excess fat and skin, leaving the skin on top intact (advanced users may want to score the skin here, too). Rub taco seasoning, pepper, and oil all over chicken and under skin. Grease dish lightly with a few drops of oil, then add salsa, spreading thinly along the bottom. Place chicken skin-side-up on salsa and get it in the oven.
Bake at 400 for 15-20 minutes, turn heat to 350, and then bake another 20-30 min until chicken is cooked through.
Eat with quinoa or some rice, and some vegetables or a salad. This recipe makes juicy, wonderful chicken because the moisture of the salsa steams the meat and prevents drying while the high heat renders the skin on top and making it nice and crispy.
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Crock-Pot Pulled Pork
1 large cut of pork. Shoulder or butt roasts are best, get one that will fit in your crock pot.
1/2-1 cup dry spice rub. Zillions of recipes, heat levels, etc. Scale amount to size of roast.
1 to 2 bottles of barbecue sauce. I like Cattleman's.
Flavoring Options (note that you can completely ignore these and make with just meat; also, make sure these play well with what you've got going on in the spice rub).
-Tex-Mex: lime juice, tequila, can of jalapenos, sliced garlic.
-Adobo: can of chilis in adobo sauce, sliced, a half cup of strong brewed coffee.
-Southern BBQ: couple shots of bourbon or whiskey, mustard...
Sky is the limit, but don't add vegetables or fresh herbs here, as they will get absolutely mushified in the cooking process.
Directions:
Cut away some fat on the roast; you'll want to leave a little, but most of these cheap cuts have a lot of nasty fat on them. Rub meat with your spice rub, and sear in a pan or under the broiler on all sides. It will smell rank; rendering pork fat is not nice.
Drop in crock pot and add sauces and liquids and whatever else. Cook on low setting for 6-8 hours. Depending on your meat, you may need to go in with salad tongs or something and pull off fat, but I've only rarely had to do this. Add fresh seasonings near the end (cilantro, more lime juice, more liquor, whatever).
Pull out roast, allow to cool slightly, shred with a fork or your fingers. You can add cooking goo (skimmed of fat) to the meat if desired to add flavor and moisture. Eat on storebought or homemade buns with a nice heap of vegetables and salad on the side. You can store the pulled pork in a tupperware or some such in the fridge for a couple days, or you can freeze it. Just scoop out a bit and nuke it as you need it.
You can also braise this in a covered pot in an oven at low heat (300 tops) for a couple hours, if you lack a crockpot. Same method, just put in pot instead.
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Mutton Shank
The key is slow cooking. Crockpot is your friend. Use mutton from an older animal, like 3-6 years.
Marinade for 10 minutes in Worchestershire sauce. Brown the meat in pan thoroughly, deglaze with red wine or wine vinegar, put everything in pot.
Add onions, potatoes, garlic cloves, carrots, whole peppers and some corn.
For sauce, add pinch of thyme, ground pepper, oregano, pinch of cumin, salt in beef stock. Reduce a bit.
Serve with rice.
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This is a Boston Butt (pork shoulder). It is rubbed with a mixture of smoked Spanish paprika, salt, pepper, and green chile sugar (spicy sugar, buy in bulk at Whole Foods).
My alternate rub is 3 tbsp each of paprika, brown sugar, pepper, 2 tbsp salt, 1 tsp cayenne.
Roast at 400 for 30 mins, then reduce oven to 225.
Cook to an interior temp of 190.
Cooking will take 6 hours or so, depending on size of your shoulder. Pull by hand, mix with Carolina BBQ sauce (essentially brown sugar, cider vinegar, red pepper flakes, and ketchup), and eat with slaw.
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So this is how you use a large oven, other than for baking cakes and bread. Baking meat looks so easy. Too bad I don't have such an oven.
Also, this shows a large difference in tastes between the Chinese and Westerners. As you can see, all the meat in the recipes are obviously cooked to the point where we would consider it overcooked because the meat is soft and probably tasteless on its own without gravy/sauce. Kinda like the meat we find in our soup, but slightly better.
Just finished Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke. In short it's about the exploration of an alien spacecraft that flew into our Solar System. Oh right, can't forget this...
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SPOILER ALERT! SKIP THIS IF YOU INTEND TO READ THIS BOOK IN THE FUTURE!
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SPOILER ALERT! SKIP THIS IF YOU INTEND TO READ THIS BOOK IN THE FUTURE!
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I find this book to be quite interesting, but ended in a somewhat disappointing manner. The astronauts barely mapped the entire interior of the ship when they had to leave. Though they found lifeforms, they seem to be automated organic robots that form part of the crew of the ship.
Never was any of the Ramans, the name the humans gave for the aliens who built the ship they now call Rama, ever seen. It was a lot less than what I expected. At the very least, they could have found some information on what the Ramans were, other than an image of an unnamed lifeform found in an archive.
So after the entire book, the mystery of Rama was still a mystery. What was the ship's purpose? Why? How does the ship work? Where is its destination and origin? When did it start its journey and when will it end? It was like having a very long session of foreplay that never ended in an orgasm or even actual sex. All the readers can learn from this book is that the ship contains a giant habitat for oxygen-using humanoids. That's it.
There are still three other books that follow it but they were written by a duo formed by the original author and an engineer working with space technologies of the 70s. According to most reviews, they were written in a different style, giving me the impression that they were basically written by Gentry Lee instead of Arthur C. Clarke, but in the same universe.
Since the Ramans did everything in threes, which can be deduced from their architectural style, I'm mildly surprised there are four books in the series.
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End of spoiler.
End of spoiler.
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It seems lots of people are being too paranoid and too naive at the same time. If you've gotten any security software that I didn't recommend (and I only recommend NOD32) and no one else seems to be using it, it may be a scam. That is, unless you're good at this sort of thing.
So be careful out there in the dangerous internet. Contrary to popular belief, much of the internet is really a lawless place.
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