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Discolor Online

Weblog of the sweetest person you never want to piss off.

 

Today's Progress

Thanks to a Honda Element from Zipcar (picked up downtown since there are no longer any Zipcar vehicles on Beacon Hill) I managed to make a few runs to the various recycling and transfer centers around Seattle. I cleaned out enough boxes of Styrofoam packaging to fill the whole cube-y back of the Element and made a trip to Total Reclaim to recycle useless electronics including:

3 broken routers
1 SCSI Zip Drive
2 dead Palm devices
6 dead phones
4 broken keyboards
8 defunct mice
3 Palm chargers
2 calculators
1 headset
3 or more phone chargers
1 broken CPU fan
20+ miscellaneous power cords for unknown devices
1 USB hub
1 multi-card reader
1 defunct 10-key pad
1 broken wireless hub
1 ancient power screwdriver
3 external modems (going back to 2400 baud)
1 bubble jet printer
1 old alarm system, or the broken components thereof
1 half-sized beverage fridge (RIP old game-night friend!)

I think we finally may be hitting the end of the electronics graveyard that we've been maintaining for the last decade. Back before recycling operations were as affordable and easy to access as those we have today, I just couldn't bear to throw these things out with the trash. Dumping illegally along the side of the road (like so many of my neighbors resorted to after responsible cities stopped accepting electronic junk with their garbage pick-ups) was never an option, ever ever ever. That's not how I roll, as the kids used to say. I held on and waited for a solution to present itself.

It was worth every penny of my $17.50 to rid us of the 51 pounds our miscellaneous defunct electronics and the $20 to have a responsible recycler take the dead 'fridge off my hands.

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Green Ronin Podcast

I spent last Thursday chit-chatting with fellow Ronins Pramas and Sass for a new Green Ronin Podcast. Tune in to hear us discuss recent staff changes, game design versus game development, Supervillain's Handbook, the proper pronunciation of Leitheusser, True20 Freeport: The Lost Island, A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying, Flying Spaghetti Monster, Doctor Who, Mutants & Masterminds Second Edition's fifth printing, Freedom's Most Wanted, Wild Cards, the Green Ronin Online Store, the Green Ronin Character Record Folio, Family Games: The 100 Best, and Walk the Plank (plus shout-outs to some Friends of Green Ronin and their current and upcoming projects).

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Zipcar Haiku

Today I received an e-mail pleading for my love. Zipcar loves it's "zipsters" and wants to be BFFs. They're even willing to pony up a free Valentine's Day reservation or a $25 driving credit to prove they didn't mean those things they did. Yep, they're having a Valentine's Day haiku contest. Heh. You know what they say about a woman scorned, right?

Here's what I came up with:

When Flex became Zip
I had high hopes -- now I long
for the way things were.

Zipcar wants my love
in haiki form but they broke up
with me and moved north.

If Beacon Hill had
Zipcars left to rent
it would be true love.

I think my haikus
will not win a free credit
or reservation.

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Dinner 2/9/09


Dinner 2/9/09
Originally uploaded by Nikchick.
I haven't gotten around to doing any posting of new recipes yet, but I've tried quite a few new dishes already in 2009. Tonight's dinner was roasted vegetable couscous (photo here) and which you can find online at MyRecipes.com here. I followed up with some tea-poached pears in chocolate sauce made from the cooking liquid, served with a little Greek honey yogurt (recipe from The Veganomicon).

So far 2009 has been good for getting my head back in the cooking game. I received some gift subscriptions to cooking magazines over the holidays, though I am sad to note that Bon Appetit is now half the magazine it used to be (literally! I compared the March 2009 issue to the March 2001 issue still on my shelf and it's half as many pages). My latest new cookbook is the aforementioned Veganomicon. I'm in no danger of converting to the lifestyle ("I'll eat your food, but I won't join your cult!") but I would very much like to have more modern, less hippy vegetarian recipes at my fingertips. I like vegetables! I like soy! I am not satisfied with the old school vegetarian recipes ("slather tofu strips in barbecue sauce, broil.") any more than I'm satisfied with the old school family recipes that involve opening a couple of cans of condensed soup, mixing with hamburger, and calling it a "casserole".

The Veganomicon has potential but the authors are already running afoul of one of my hardcore recipe peeves: don't measure things in "one carrot" or "a small onion"! What is a small onion to you? What if I don't have a small onion, only a jumbo onion? How much chopped onion do you want me to end up with? That kind of easy-breezy writing style has a place but I prefer a little more precision in recipes. I might branch out or do my own thing after I learn a recipe but I grit my teeth every time I have to stop and figure out for myself what they're asking for when I'm first trying out a new dish.

Anyway, maybe I'll get back to the Veganomicon later.

Recipes I've tried but haven't written up so far in 2009:
Mixed Vegetable Biryani
Buttermilk Oven-Fried Chicken
Gratin of Belgian Endive with Bacon
Vegetable Tagine with Preserved Lemons
Kalamata Olive Bread with Oregano
Slow-Cooked Tuscan Pork with White Beans
Cherry Tomato Spaghetti with Toasted Pine Nuts
Roasted Root Vegetables in Maple Glaze
Pork Chops with Ancho Chile Rub and Raspberry Glaze
Peanut Crusted Chicken with Pineapple Salsa
Sesame Noodles with Broccoli
Satay Burgers
Roasted Tomato-Beef Goulash
Lemon Chicken with Olives
Baja-style Grilled Tempeh Tacos
Creamy (vegan!)Tomato Soup
Kasha Phyllo Pie

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