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Photos of Tokyo

2015-06-09T21:13:00.000-07:00

Work is busy and I'm barely over the jetlag. Also the reverse culture-shock is waaaay worse than the culture shock itself was, and that gets me down. Buuut these photos are burning a hole in my exports folder, so I post them without commentary.

Beacon of Light

Bike Head

Conductor

Hello, I am a police station

Itakuraya

Shinjuku from Skytree

Skate Nerds

Stairs

Night Scene

Reflecting on Tokyo Tower

Train Approaching

Walkway

Yamamoto line

Yõshoku (洋食) - Western Style Meal

2015-06-04T23:45:00.000-07:00

To be honest, I only decided that it was time to go to Tokyo when I found out about Royal Host (and it's relative Cowboy 家族 (Cowboy Family)). You might ask why I'd be so intrigued by a place where the hamburgers come with garlic cream sauce but no buns, and the beef java curry comes with an egg in the morning. Or a place where the staff dress like cowboys and bow after singing happy birthday [I was going to take rakka to cowboy family for her birthday but they're waaaaay out in the burbs]. Those links might be enough to explain it, actually.

But more exciting than the seeming quirkiness, they led me to discover the concept of Yõshoku (洋食). It translates directly as "Western Style Meal" but I think it's really about western foods that have become Japanese. The saucy burger with no bun is a great example. It's not just a kooky thing that they do at Royal Host, it's an established form, ハンバーグ (Hambāgu) and is essentially Salisbury steak. (I just figured that out. I learn so much researching these posts).

These sorts of cultural crossovers are fascinating. Especially if you come from the source culture. It gives you a window into the values of the borrower culture. What they keep and what they leave can be telling. This does need to be tempered with some history though. For instance, to understand Japanese curry you need to know that it was filtered through British Navy culture before it got to Japan. Speaking of curry...

カレー (curry) is the big, obvious example. It's hugely popular in Japan. It has evolved so far from indian curry that it's completely it's own thing (for one, it's often beef). And it's the best thing to eat before you go to prison.

Scene from 転々 (Adrift in Tokyo)

I've made Japanese curry before from those roux packets you can get at the asian grocery. Makes my head go all funny (not in a good way) and rakka has made it from a Japanese cookbook recently. But my first taste of the real deal was at CoCo 壱番屋 (CoCo Ichibanya).

Fried Chicken and Veg Curry

Sausage Curry

It's a chain, but no worse for that. Bold curry taste, not too spicy, didn't make my head go funny. I liked it so much that I went for curry in the airport on the way home (it's the only food I had twice in Japan). Airport curry is not as good. CoCo Ichi is the way.

Then there is Omurice (オムライス). It's just what it sounds like. It's an omelette on rice. Usually with ketchup. I got a cheap one from Lawson and it was really tasty.

Lots of ketchup

You can see it's just rice with egg on top, but it's おいしい (Oishī - Delicious)!

Since we've been home we've accidentally invented spicy omurice. We ran out of ketchup so we used Sriracha sauce. Talk about Oishī! And since Huy Fong Sriracha is born and made in America, we have now westernized an easternized western food. I love that.

Spicy Omurice

Oh, and speaking of Lawson. Like 7-11, it's a conbini (convenience store) that started in the US and is now a Japanese company. Unlike 7-11 they don't have any stores in the US anymore. Also unlike 7-11 they are everywhere in Tokyo. Near our hotel in Hamamatsuchõ there was one 7-11 and four Lawsons. Like, they're everywhere.

There is another dish that I've been enthralled by ever since I saw the 深夜食堂 (Shinya Shokudō) movie on the plane. The movie, based on a show based on a manga, is about a diner that's only opened from midnight to 7am (english title "Midnight Diner"). The dish is Spaghetti Naporitan.

Sadly I didn't find any in Japan, but we don't let that stop us around here. Since we've been back there are already two new Japanese cookbooks in the house. One of them has a recipe for Naporitan, and rakka just made it last night. I stupidly didn't take a picture because I'm stupid, but it seems pretty easy. Just spaghetti, some veg and sausage, and a sauce made from ketchup and a little sake and stuff.

Yep. Ketchup again. I guess you can't really avoid the war completely. This dish is said to be inspired by the rations at GHQ, the US's head office for the occupation. (Related, I've heard that the popularity of ramen started after the war too, because the US imported lots of wheat to help with shortages.)

The process of making western foods into Japanese foods is, of course, still ongoing. My favorite new innovation that we found was the モスライスバーガー "海鮮かきあげ (塩だれ)" (Moss Rice Burger "Seafood Tempura (with salt)) (sorry for the western quotes there, effin' blogger).

Moss Rice Burger

It's a seafood medley on a bun made from 焼きおにぎり (yaki onigiri - grilled rice ball). This if a fantastic idea and I salute it. Even if it was not very flavorful. At least it wasn't as flavorful as this Freshness Burger.

フレッシュネスバーガー FRESHNESS BURGER

It doesn't really count as Yõshoku, because it's just a burger. Hokkaido pumpkin buns not withstanding. It was so oishī though. Better than most fast food burgers I've had in the states. Seriously, In-n-out is like ashes in my mouth compared to even the most basic Freshness Burger.
Add to that all the other stuff we sampled, from various conbini sandwiches, to ice cream (hokkaido melon ice-cream!), chips, and pastries (oh, god the Totoro cream puffs! OMFG, say it twice more) and you can only come to one conclusion: Japanese food is amazing, even when it's western food.

I will talk about "Traditional" Japanese food in a forthcoming post, but honestly I don't know if I'll be as excited about it.

Some quick impressions of Tokyo

2015-05-28T20:20:00.003-07:00

If you follow me elsewhere you probably know that rakka and I just went to Tokyo for the first time. I did some G+ and twitter stuff from the road. But here is where the longer form stuff will go. I'm going to start off with a sketch, and I'll fill in some details in later posts.

Tokyo is Dense

And there is a lot of it.

A view from Sky Tree

A view from Tokyo Tower

But for all that, the dominant scale is human

There are Contrasts of Scale all over the place.

Big and Little

But when you get off the main (named) streets and in to the neighborhoods it tends to scale right down to a livable human size. This is true even around business districts. Below, we see a bunch of low rise buildings on one of the unnamed streets of Hamamatsuchō. Here we are only a few blocks away from the Tokyo World Trade Center and two train stations totaling 5 subway lines. It's not overwhelming at all. It gets busy with pedestrians at rush hour, and all the restaurants fill up quick, but you never feel like you're being crushed.

Human Scale Hamamatsuchō (浜松町) with Tokyo Tower

Tokyo can be Crowded

That's not to say that Tokyo isn't crowded. It can be. Just like any city, if you go to a popular place at a popular time it will be full of people. I took this picture at Tsukiji fish market at 6am, before I found the streets that were really crowded (too crowded to mess with cameras). But the walk to the market was basically devoid of people.

Tsukiji fish market

The trick is, that crowds in Tokyo aren't bad to move through. There's a rhythm and a method, and people don't want to make your life hard. So as long as you watch and follow the pattern it's pretty easy to deal with. The only time it gets bad is when there are a lot of westerners around, like in Akihabara. And then wow, the contrast is intense. And stressful.

Tokyo Tower really does dominate western Tokyo

You see it in a lot of my pictures, and that's because you can see it from everywhere. For my money, it's more fun than Skytree (but that could be because we went to Skytree on the exact 3rd anniversary of it's opening; it was a mad house. Mad. House).

Tokyo Tower

Looking down from Tokyo Tower

Tourists are Attracted

Tokyo Money is happy to spend itself to attract more money. On Odaiba, the man made island and emblem of the pre-crash economy, we found the big Gundam. So did everybody else, obviously. That's what it's there for.

It took me a long time, by the way, to realize that the mall's name, Diver City, was a pun. DiverCity, DiverSity. Get it? Yeah.

Gundam at Diver City

To be honest, after the Gundam, I was a little sad that Venus Fort (the Venice theme'd mall across the way) didn't have a river running through it. It did have blue skies and a classic car museum for an entrance, for some reason.

Tokyo is very green

People, myself included, love taking pictures of how dense and populous Tokyo is. That leaves something out though. Tokyo full of plants. There is green all around.

Some kind of tree with droopy things in Shiba park

And there are parks anywhere

In Minato there are a couple Edo era parks. You pay a few hundred yen to get in, but it's worth it. They are perfect, beautiful quiet places. They're also great places to experience earthquakes, which we did in this park. (It was a 5.6 and made the news. Kinda freaky, but nothing bad happened)

Kyū Shiba Rikyū Garden (旧芝離宮恩賜庭園)

We did find a few free parks in other neighborhoods too. Equally nice but smaller and so closer to the noise of the city. Still, a nice refuge if you're in the area.

And lots of them have Shinto shrines

Shiba Park is free (it's near Tokyo Tower) and like so many it has a small Shinto shrine in it. It extends across the street and under the shadow of the tower, where there is another shrine. I didn't get a good picture of that though.

Shinto shrine at Shiba Park (芝公園)

There are also shrines just all over the place. I'll probably do a whole post on them.

Trains are a big deal

We took a lot of trains. From driverless robo-trains through rackety old locals. We didn't spend a single day without being on a train at some point. Most days it was 4+.

Speeding Train

Tokyo people are nice

This is harder to photograph, but it's true. People are very kind. Not just the polite efficiency that everybody exhibits on the job. But even beyond that, people seemed to like us. All we did was dress ever so slightly more formal than your standard tourist garb, tried to speak Japanese whenever we could, and try not to get in the way. And by the third day little old ladies were making sure Rakka got free samples at the Hokkaido Antena Store (more on that later).

That's it for now. More later this week, or next week, or something. I still don't even know what day it is. (Can you believe I'm back at work already? I can't)

A day out

2015-04-20T21:19:00.001-07:00

Sunset Over Bremerton

There has been a ton of stuff going on with me. I haven't been sharing because it's mostly like "did some taxes." "did some more taxes." "sent a business form." "oh, it's tax time again." This working from home gig is great, but as a contractor I'm running a business and to be honest I think an LLC reporting as an S-Corp might be overkill. You supposedly save on taxes but you're literally doing taxes and business stuff all the time.

Between that and watching the sidewalk in front of the house finally get repaired (yay!), self diagnosing myself with vitamin D deficiency, scheduling and canceling a trip to chicago, scheduling a trip to tokyo (and another to california), and having a back flair up it's been a busy quarter.

Still, trip to tokyo coming up. That's very exciting. More on that later, probably.

But the big news is that I got out of the house this weekend. That maybe doesn't seem like big news, but when you work from home these things begin to take on significant moment.

And it was great. Rakka and I went over to seattle to visit our friend k. We got lunch. It was a beautiful day; we hung out in the yard with some drinks. Good stuff. Here's what it looked like.

Fried Dill Pickles and Collard's

Ribs

Lillac

Treefingers

Even the trip home was pretty good. That first picture came at the end, but this was the beginning of the end.

Ferry

Oh, and while I'm here. Some unrelated stuff. Another thing about being home all the time, I start to pay more attention to my space. Or maybe I have more time to notice because 4 hours of commuting takes 4 hours, even if it is on a pretty boat ride. Anyway, I got some stuff from cb2 to brighten up the place.

Teapot

Foxy Brown, the paperclip fox

Oh, yeah, and so that barbeque was that first red(ish) meat I'd had in a while. Except for the burger I had the night before, but before that it had honestly been at least a month. You know, I feel much better. I either need to make a habit of this or increase my dark green leafy veg intake by a factor of 1000.

Palm Springs

2015-03-01T21:11:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I took a little road trip from Irvine to Palm Springs with a few of my coworkers. My first time in Palm Springs. We took the cable car up to the top of the mountain for a little hike. Ice prevented us from making the full circuit. We were unprepared.

Blue and Yellow, Palm Springs

Blue Mountains, Palm Springs

Mountains, Palm Springs

Open Road

Tree

Palm Springs

Sunny Palm Springs

Wind Farm Highway

Dino Sighting

So that was the trip.

It's hard to find beauty in Irvine, but while I was down there I did manage to find a little. Socal does have some nice sunsets. Even in February. Even when you're standing next to a some giant industrial cooling tower that's running so loud that you can hardly see.

Palm

Sunset in Irvine

Trees and Sun

It's not enough to make me move there. I do really enjoy my job. But I also really love not owning a car. And you can't do socal without a car.

Well, I did, this trip. You can kind of pull of carless in Irvine if you a) don't need to commute farther than you're willing to walk, and b) don't need to go anywhere, ever. You do get the sidewalk all to yourself though, so that's something.

Oh, hello Sakura.

2015-02-11T22:21:00.000-08:00

It's only February but the cherry tree down the street is springing into action already.

Sakura Already

I can't say I'm upset about that. We need a little color around here. Though maybe this is too much?

Sakura in High Contrast

Oh, and here's a fun thing. Remember tilt shift? It was the biggest thing since "old 70s photo" filters a few years back. Yeah, you remember. Well I just realized that it's built in to my camera, so I'm going to bring it back.

My Camera has a tilt shift feature. Oh, it's on now.

I hope you're ready for that.

EDIT
Bonus Update. More Sakura.

More Sakura

Diffuse Glow

2015-01-31T15:26:00.000-08:00

Lighthouse

It's been foggy for the last few days. Probably an inversion layer over puget sound or whatever. This is bad for breathing but it does make for some interesting photo opportunities. The fog wasn't distributed evenly. As my ferry approached Seattle it encountered a very distinct fog bank. At one point the front of the boat was in fog, and the back wasn't. On the way in there was this one moment where you couldn't tell where the sea stopped and the sky started.

Blue and White

Gull

Later on, back in Bremerton, the fog caught up with us. Every street light became a special effect. On nights like this it's so easy to get an interesting photo it feels like cheating.

Illuminated Tree

Beams

But it was sunny one day this week. This is from wednesday morning? Doesn't matter. It was sometime.

Green Stripe, Red Stripe

Rainy Day Photography

2015-01-18T17:35:00.001-08:00

Wet Gray Blanket

Cloud Cover

Oh God, help I'm so Googie.

Bright Sunny Day

Zeotrope

2014-11-22T15:22:00.000-08:00

Everysince stumbling on Imogen Cunningham I've been turning my camera on to black and white most of the time. Instead of just some of the time. Anyway, here are a couple of photos and a video.

Light's Shadow

Cord

I must admit this video is inspired quite a bit by Light Music by Lis Rhodes (1974). My old post on Brutalism has a bit of it that you can see.

Zeotrope

The Grand Cena

2014-11-04T19:27:00.001-08:00

I hadn't had a bite to eat or a drop to drink all day so I was treating myself to a bit of a feast. At least, it was a feast according to the standards defined by my limited means. There were no beautiful slaves to put the food in my mouth for me. Just the gruff taberna owner who gave me the stink eye when I asked him to leave the jug of wine. While I was waiting for the mains I sat back munching on some bread — wheat because emmer's for chumps — and olives and thought back on what lead up to this.

I had woken late that morning. My head was thick and achy. I was supposed to be at work at dawn to relieve the night shift, but when I opened my eyes the sun was in the sky. I was up and out the door in a flash. I normally tuck something dense and tasty in my uniform that I can sneakily have bite now and then throughout the day. If it comes to that, I usually have a meal before I leave the house. But this morning I was in such a panic that I did none of it.

I got to the pole. Lucius Laelius was placid as ever. He's a pro. But I know him pretty well by now; I could tell he was fuming. Luckily it was still early enough that there was no one around. I stripped off my hood and cowl — they make us cover up the uniform when we're not on duty. "Never let the punters see too much." my boss always says. I tucked away my kit and put on my white beard and my stringy white hair. This is the worst part of the job, by the way, it's so itchy. I think it's made of horse hair.

Anyway, after a quick look round to make sure there was still no one around, and properly attired in my crazy old hair and my loincloth I shimmied up the pole. Lucius Laelius pulled me up with an air of hatred. I'd been apologizing under my breath the whole time and I did so louder now. He gave me the worst look. I don't know what I had been keeping him from, but he obviously didn't like being kept from it. I promised I'd make it up to him but I know he'll be holding this one over me until we're both dead.

In a sense though that made the day go by easier. Sitting on top of a pole all day looking contemplative is much easier if you actually have something to contemplate. Still, by noon, the lack of food was starting to take its toll. I began to contemplate the meal I was going have that evening. I'm sure the people passing on the road below could hear my stomach rumbling. I shouldn't wonder if it couldn't have been heard all the way back in Rome. But I know it wasn't as loud as all that. If it was my boss would have heard it. He'd have been at the bottom of that pole in a flash, screaming about how I was supposed to be beyond hunger and did I want these punters thinking I wasn't up here communing with God so they didn't have to?

Eventually, the sun began to go down. After what seemed like years. Lucius Laelius came back and we traded places. I repeated my apology, but it's going be awhile before he's talking to me again.

I was so tired and so desperately hungry I almost forgot to put my hood and stuff on. I think Lucius Laelius hissed at me from the pole and I came to my senses. As hungry as I was I couldn't go out to eat in this stupid horsehair beard. I shlepped up the insula stairs to my tiny little room, hardly more than a cell really, an had a quick wash and brush up. In regular clothes I felt better. I went straight back down to the taberna on the ground floor.

Which brings me back to the start. The grand cena.

The proprietor brought over a heaping plate filled with eggs, fish, roast pig and a young fruit compote for after. He is prideful of his cooking, but this was my day so I asked him bring me some extra garum. He didn't like it, but he brought it and I liberally sprinkled it on everything. I considered really letting myself go and asking for some un-watered wine. But then I remembered that that's what got me in to this mess in the first place and thought better of it. Life as an ascetic is truly hard.

Some photos.

2014-10-27T21:26:00.000-07:00

Just a random assortment of photos today.

night light

sun slur

yellow

Literally vs. Figuratively

2014-10-22T09:37:00.001-07:00

Literally vs. Figuratively is very important. Back when I was a stick up kid I stole a bag off this dude on the train.

He told me I didn't want what was in the bag.

I told him fuck you and I have the gun.

He said if I opened that bag I would literally enter a world of hurt.

I left, found a quiet spot and opened the bag. It was a portal to hell and it sucked me in like magic.

That was a bad time. I'm only here to tell you about it because I'm so clever and resourceful. I found my way back out of hell again.

But it just goes to show, if somebody says "literally" you better know if they literally mean it.

Imogen Cunningham

2014-10-18T22:42:00.001-07:00

It started when I stumbled over the iconic photo of Imogen Cunningham: Imogen and Twinka at Yosemite, yet again. It happens a lot. You've probably seen it many times too. That photo is by Judy Dater, and as beautiful as the nude Twinka is in that photo, the most interesting thing in it is Imogen.

Since finding out about Imogen's work, just a few hours ago admittedly, she has become my favorite photographer.

Imogen could capture depth where others could only capture surface. Take for instance the case of Joan Blondell. She was a Hollywood actress in the 30s. Do an image search for her. She was beautiful right, but in that Hollywood way where she almost didn't seem real. Now compare those stills and promotional photos to the photo below.

Joan Blondell, 1933

Here Joan is a real person, in a room with a light, a camera and Imogen. And she's more beautiful than a fleet of Hollywood producers ever managed.

But that's not the only thing to love. Imogen studied the chemistry of photography, and you can feel the process in her work. You can almost still smell the developing fluid on Gas Tanks even though it's just a jpeg.

Gas Tanks, 1927

Even very early she was playing around with process. I am in love with this pair of prints. They're obviously made from the same negative. The line between night and day is decided in the darkroom.

Morning Mist and Sunshine, 1911

In Moonlight, 1911

And this Magnolia Bud. Can you not just feel the room around it?

Magnolia Bud, 1920s

Most photographers would soften that light, to hide it's source. They wouldn't want you to think about the light, they'd want you to think about the Magnolia.

But Imogen lets it shine through. We still think about the magnolia, but then we do think about the light. Maybe it's a normal desk lamp, an anglepoise. From there we think about the room. The curtains are drawn so that lamp's voice will shine bright. A black cloth is draped behind the subject. Pointed at the table is the camera on it's heavy wooden tripod. And bustling around all of it, adjusting, checking and finally capturing the image is Imogen.

Like the portrait of Joan Blondell we can feel Imogen's presence in her photos, regardless of the subject. Most photographers try their best to remove themselves from their photos. Imogen has put more of herself in Magnolia Bud than most photographers ever manage in self portraits. And that's what makes her so special.

I'll leave you with some more of my favorites.

Edward Weston and Margrethe Mather 3, 1922

Her and Her Shadow, 1931

This portrait of Man Ray reminds me more of Nude Descending a Staircase than that Man Ray picture.

A Man Ray Version of Man Ray, 1960

Oil Tanks, 1940

The lady herself. One of many self portraits.

Self Portrait, 1933

The post to end all posts (not really)

2014-10-14T21:15:00.001-07:00

Last week was somehow nuts without anything happening. No, that's not true. I watched some really good films (more below), lots of good tv (poor Chetna! poor Richard! OMG, Frank's soul! Henry Parish/Jeremy Crane/The Horseman of War is so mean! That was spoiler by the way, don't read that), broke my toe chasing after the cat, and had Chinese food delivered for the first time in the casa.

Hell yeah

It was proper Amero-Chinese takeaway and I don't know why we haven't gotten it before. Probably because we got burned so many times trying this in seattle.

Actually, to be honest, I've been a bit blocked by trying to write about La Dolce Vita. Watched it a week ago plus. And there's so much to say that it's going to have to wait a bit longer. I will just show you this as proof that it's worth talking about.

Consider this a preview

Then there's the forthcoming bluegrass post. Flatt & Scruggs are obviously top of the class, so maybe I shouldn't make the comparison. But recently I've added The Dillards (The Darlings from The Andy Griffith Show) first album to my lineup. They sound so dead. Why is that? Overproduced? Too technical minded? I need to listen to a wider range of their stuff maybe, before I can formulate a complete thought and/or extrapolate a life lesson from it.

Born Day

2014-10-04T01:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, in celebration of the anniversary of my birth, rakka made for me a medieval feast. She's done a really good write up already, of course. But I'm gonna do that thing too. Mostly as pictures. Mostly the same ones.

Thanks for the card jrhyley!

Before the medieval thing started (this was actually a couple days ago), there was princess torte. It only dates to, like, the 30s. And it's for princesses, which I'm not. But it was on bake off and we were intrigued.

Princess (peach) torte in all its glory

It's a really complicated cake. Three layers of cake, one of jam, two of custard, and a big pile of whipped cream on the top, then the green marzipan layer.

Inside the cake

It seems crazy but it's totally worth it. Each bite is like a journey through the layers. It starts with the cream, moves through the jam and finishes with the almond from the marzipan. So good. Also, did you know that fresh made marzipan actually tastes really good? Like almonds. Like concentrated almonds. This is new knowledge for me.

Now we start the medieval stuff.

zabarbada of fresh cheese and black bread

Spinach, fig and mushroom pies

Cod poached in wine and a green salad.

alows de beef

Braised apple and goat cheese

All of this stuff was incredibly good. Especially the apples. And the beef. And the mushroom pies. And the spinach ones. Oh, and the fig ones. Oh my god the fig ones. And the fish. And the cheese stuff.

Not pictured, a baked chicken. We were going to do it in front of the fire, rotating on a string. Proper roasting. It also was going to be cold and rainy, but it was like 75F. That's a little too hot to light a hot ass fire and have it burn for like a hundred hours. Seriously, the log was huge, it would have gone for days.

The games we play (I mean I. The games I play)

2014-10-01T20:47:00.001-07:00

First, the random

So, as you might have noticed, it's Gilmore Girls day at casa rakkaleff. Because netflix just got rights and is streaming the whole thing starting today. The early years were nice but I'm not sure I'm that ready for a full steam rewatch. Everysince I realized that the dialog has the same cadence as that in Dragnet I just can't help think of all the parts being played by Jack Webb and that guy from M.A.S.H.

Aside: Why isn't there a British show about the Korean War called B.A.N.G.E.R.S.?

More stuff.

When I work from home, Ms Peel sometimes insists on playing Cat and Mouse

Larb Gai that rakka made for me. Just the right amount of fish sauce!

Aside: When eating things with fish sauce do you ever think about the relationship between Classical Rome and East Asia? Did garum travel on the silk road? If so, in which direction?

The Games

I've been wanting to talk about games. I go in phases with video games, and I've been in a fairly heavy phase this last few months. There are a lot of really neat games out there these days. Me, I've been playing a lot of early access stuff. Which can be frustrating, true, because they're all buggy. But it's also fun to watch them evolve. Anyway, here's a few screens.

Beautiful but deadly cold in The Long Dark

My actual town so far in Banished

I've been playing a shit ton of this game 7 Days to Die, which I like because you can easily build a house/fort/whatever. But it's in alpha and it hasn't gotten as far as letting you make stuff that can move.

Here's my roman villa (pretty old, the UI has moved on). It had a courtyard, of course.

Planet Explorers is in alpha too, but it has a 3d editor that lets you design vehicles and stuff (you can also make buildings but it's not quite as robust). In story mode you still have to acquire materiel to make the stuff or it wouldn't be a challenge. I needed an air vehicle but I didn't have much stuff.

LAV Flying Table MK1 in Planet Explorers

The Flying Table is practical early game when they give you a rotor but withhold landing gear and such. But it gave me an idea.

LAV Flying Banquet X1 in Planet Explorers

The Flying Banquet is still in the prototype stage, but it seats seven and comes with an elegant silver table service.

A couple more random ones.

Detective Grimoire is short but fun

Lifeless Planet starts of really well. Creepy. But I got stuck on a bug and haven't been back.

I'm also playing the Half Lives. I never have, and the Orange Box was like five bucks on steam. No screenshots though. You've probably seen it already if you want to.

There's a lot to talk about

2014-09-29T22:18:00.000-07:00

Let's start with...

The Food

This is the smažený sýr that rakka and I made over the weekend. It's fried cheese, Czech style. When it's served as street food in Prague it comes as a sandwich as mayo. I missed my chance to try it when I was there this past February, so you know I gave it a go. I'm duplicating rakka's post a bit here, but this stuff deserves it.

smažený sýr sandwich

For cheese we used a pretty decent gruyère. After battering in breadcrumbs and we fried it in the new pans. Did I mention the new pans, btw? Stainless steel with aluminum core, and flat bottomed so they work on the stupid glass top stove. Fantastic. Good tools are where it is fucking at.

Look how shiny that pan is! It cleans easy too.

I won't bother to go into more detail because rakka already did and it's part of my new blogging policy to not bother linking stuff all over the place. It gets in my way and you have access to a wide range of search engines.

So it's on to the pickled eggs. To be honest, I didn't do much for these (just shelling). Pickling is usually my thing but rakka is doing more nice things for me than usual because my birthday is coming up. Also, she used a british pub recipe so when these are ready we can feel like we're in over there.

Eggs and Brine, a natural combination

The creepy egg face is probably just a refection

And we're not done there. Rakka also got us tapenade stuff. So we made that. People at work were jealous of my homemade muffaletta today. I'll tell you that.

The Shows

Also watched a bunch of shows. Outlander continues to be good though not as stunning as last week. Sleepy Hollow though! Holy shit! Frank! Henry! Franklinsteins Monster!

Then there's the ongoing project to watch all the old Doctor Who in order. This weekend was The Dalek Invasion of Earth. The Daleks motivation doesn't make any sense, but then when has Terry Nation ever let story stand in the way of fantastical set pieces or dramatic tension? The answer is never.

The set pieces are pretty fantastical though, conceptually. In practice they're let down a bit by the budget; you see them mostly in reaction shots. They put most of the money into the dramatic tension. The image of a destroyed Battersea and the location shots in bits of London that were still bombed out was money well spent.

If you need a refresher, btw, I made this some time ago. It may help.

If that doesn't work there's also the silly one.

And I was going to talk about some games I've been playing, but imma save that for later.

Banished to the rainy land of depressing novels

2014-09-25T20:30:00.002-07:00

Light was nice the other day (yesterday? who knows). It's gone to shit since, but I have this photo to remind me.

Aaaaaaaaawwwwwww. reverbrbrbrbrbrbrb.

I've been reading The Catcher in the Rye. Or re-reading it? Who can tell. If I read it before I was forced to for school, and therefore did my best to not get anything out of it. I used to be really good at that. I'm getting lots of things out of it this time.

But one of them is depressed, so I took a break and read Troublemaker, the 3rd Dave Brandstetter novel. Yeah, because that was going to be so fucking uplifting. No. That didn't help my spirits much either.

But it was better than watching the slow death of my village in Banished, the medieval hippie commune simulator. Well, it's a town simulator, but the people are so obliging. They just do what's best for the community without ever getting revolty. And there's no money. See, hippies.

This image from shiningrocksoftware.com because I'm too lazy to switch to windows and get a screenshot of my own town

It's fun, but (or because) it's a very tetchy simulation. Easy to mess it up. Hard to notice that you have. I've driven a number of villages into the ground.

So all my leisure activities are depressing. And now it's the rainy season. I'm set. For what, I don't know. But damn if I'm not set.

Beard Update

2014-09-23T21:11:00.001-07:00

The big news this week is, of course, you guessed it, I'm going to say it right now, Sleepy Hollow season 2 started! It's the kind of show that people usually pretend not to watch. Or pretend like they're watching it ironically.

Fuck that. Just admit that SH is fun as hell (even if they have only gone as far as Purgatory). Yeah, I know, it's totally over the top, but the rapport between Abby and Ichabod is just sublime. Nicole Beharie and Tom Mison could do a reality show about ditch digging and I'd watch it. If Lyndie Greenwood (Jenny Mills) and Orlando Jones (Captain Frank Irving) made guest appearances I'd buy the dvds.

I am not on #TeamIchAbby though. I do not ship them. If you need time traveling love triangles, Outlander has that shit locked down.

That was a pretty good wedding episode [Outlander s1e7], I must admit. The fantastical setting leads to a pretty unique set set of emotions for our hungover bride. You've seen it right? Ok. She's still married to Frank, but he and Jamie are never alive at the same time so technically it's not adultery. She loves them both even though nobody believes that she loves Frank. That's gotta be confusing.

Jamie's hair was terrible though. Even I know that.

The show did a surprising good job of showing us Claire's confusion too. Having her and Jamie tell each other (and us) the story was a brilliant move, because it simultaneously told the story of them breaking the ice and becoming an actual couple. It was a good call to spend the whole episode on it.

In Other News

As I've gotten older, my beard has become evil. Not that I grow it out much, but I skipped trimming for a couple weeks and it made itself known. But being evil, it refuses to be photographed. To help you understand what's going on with it, I've produced this simulation.

Simulation of Leff's Evil Beard

And Now: Unrelated Images Seen At Work

Seen at work: Hemp Farts

Honesty in Marketing: Hemp Farts

Eaten at work: Ramen with stuff in it

It's hard to transport soft cooked eggs, so these are hard boiled, like my heart

La Grande Bellezza

2014-09-19T12:37:00.000-07:00

I've been sick all week, and that sucks, but I did manage to experience some beauty. The Great Beauty as a matter of fact.

Rakka has been telling me about this film for months but I've been putting it off. It's not a film you just watch and forget. You have to have time to process it. I couldn't sleep that night. I just lay awake thinking about all the threads.

This is the same shot everybody uses. Know why? Because you just have to watch the damn movie.

I loved this film so much I'm not going to tell you anything about it. I understand now why rakka wouldn't say details. Anyway, just follow these two rules when you watch it.

If it seems a bit frivolous at first, wait for the music to slow down.
Don't have anything scheduled for the morning after.

It might be a good idea to watch it with somebody too. You'll want to talk about it. Of course, you can always drop me a line if you need to.

I ain't gonna work tomorrow. And I may not work next day

2014-09-15T17:06:00.000-07:00

It seems that I've brought home a cold and given it to Rakka. It could be Enterovirus D68, which is in town. I've gotta stop being a slave to fashion; I'm tired of catching all these trendy diseases.

At least my dentist was nice enough to not charge me for skipping out on my appointment tomorrow. I can't have a sandblaster in my gob and a fever at the same time. I just can't.

Sick or not, reading still has to happen. This weekend it was The Unorthodox Engineers, a collection of short stories from the 60s-70s. It's premise is that the farther you travel (in space) the less you can take, so you have to wing it. To prove it, it pits some figures drawn on cardboard against some silly, made up physics. Total pulp. At least it managed to not be actively sexist; which is a feat for sci-fi (especially older). But it only achieved this by being passively and exclusionarily sexist; not even a mention of a female in the whole thing.

But it was a quick read, and I was already coming down with this cold, so I read it all. If that doesn't sound like a recommendation, then you've been paying attention.

Anyway, it was better than that Jonathan Gash novel I was reading. I abandoned it. Lovejoy is better on tv.

Also this weekend. The Reign of Terror is missing a couple episodes, but they found the audio and animated them. It is jerky to the point of nauseating. They did a better job with The Invasion, which we'll get to later.

Looks great in stills though

In other news, people are moving out of Seattle. Wize. Very Wize. I can't wait to join them. http://www.planetizen.com/node/71243

I saw the light hun, I saw the light

2014-09-09T21:02:00.000-07:00

Sometimes good things have bad consequences. Sometimes it's the other way.

Like today, on my way home my sinuses half cleared up for once so I could smell things. This happens once every month or two and for a few hours it's like a whole new world.

It kicked in when I was sat right next to someone with a bag overflowing with the smell of dying. Every time the bag opened. Hospital smell. Hospice. Death bed. Except the one time. Chocolate muffin. Factory muffin. Lifeless. Overpowering.

As it passed under my eyes, the Jonathan Gash novel also felt a bit like dying.

Eventually I got up and roamed around.

I saw the light.

I photographed it.

On the clouds (phone pic via twitter)

Over the navy yard and up the blackridge mountains

Under the big sky (and over the fire)


The fire

Seagull conference

Departing

Flight

Highlight

Sometimes bad things have good consequences.

Carnival of Sasanachs

2014-09-07T12:17:00.000-07:00

Watched the new doctor who, but rakka and I also watched The Sensorites and that was pretty good. It was no The Aztecs, but definitely serviceable. Lot's of similarities between The Sensorites and the Carnival of Monsters. There's the scheming subordinate, the City Administrator and Kalik, respectively; each have similar sidekicks, firing pins and personalities. The costumes are even sort of similar. In the 60s they blew over the caste system, in the 70s they made a big deal of it. I wonder what conclusions we can draw there. Oh, also, Carnival of Monsters is where the Miniscope reference came from in that stupid Robin Hood episode.

City administrator and his sidekick in The Sensorites

Kalik's sidekick (Orum) and himself in Carnival of Monsters

Speaking of scheming. Somebody that should be, but isn't, is Claire Beauchamp. She's always telegraphing her position, trying to score points off people or trying to make them behave by 20th century standards. Seems like, in her position, she should be holding her tongue and concentrating on scheming her way out. But she kind of comes across as a snotty teenager.

My soul is like a raging river. Or something.

And yet Outlander stays at the top of my priority queue. Not sure why. 'shiping on Clair and Jamie? Maybe. Conspiracy Theorizing that it's funded by the campaign for Scottish independence. It's a fun thought. Especially after episode 5. In the end, the photography is a good enough reason.

In the background I've been enjoying the comedy styling of the classic Experiencing Architecture by Steen Eiler Rasmussen. Actually, it's a really nice summary of what makes buildings nice, which doesn't change much.

Corbusier even makes the cover.

But it's from 1959 so there's some good stuff about how great highways are, and how great Le Corbusier was. At the time Corbusier was still alive and probably considered almost as a god in some circles, but I don't think Rasmussen actually liked his stuff. Every compliment comes with a barb.

The Secret Place

2014-09-04T18:25:00.000-07:00

The Secret Place

Even though I've been working from home, I've been working from home. So it took me until just now to finish The Secret Place. It really is tremendous. Tremendous literature. It's genre fiction, sure. Turns out those two things aren't mutually exclusive.

In other news, rakka has started counting down to my birthday by giving me little things. Yesterday it was a chocolate orange, and today it was a book on what to do after you retire. Haha. Now I just have to retire.

I didn't take pictures of the chocolate orange (rakka did). I was too busy eating it. But it was an orange/chocolate cake in a hollowed out orange. Super tasty. Thanks Rakka!

Captain Haddock: Space Pirate

2014-09-02T21:54:00.002-07:00

You Pestilential Pachyderm! You miserable blundering barbecued blister!

I would have paid good money to see Captain Haddock: Space Pirate. And while Captain Harlock: Space Pirate was beautifully rendered, it was absolute nonsense and Harlock didn't once threaten to reduce anybody to powder. I was a little sad about that.

But, being me, I want to track down the original shit from the 70s. And I probably will. Or I'll forget.

Also. In the ongoing quest to watch all the doctor whos with rakka, in order, we watched the The Aztecs over the weekend. You know something, it was really good. Story telling wise, it was packed with excitement. Sure you had to use your imagination ever so slightly to fill in the gaps left by the budget, but damn that Tlotoxl is a bad man.

Barbara, in the thick of it and kicking ass like usual

I used to not like it. Don't know why. Probably because no space monsters. But the storytelling is good. Plot's pretty tight. Pace is quick. For '63 especially.

Also, also. You know the yakuza movie where the main guy pits 2 or 3 clans against each other and everybody dies, including the main guy. Yeah, it's all yakuza movies. At least it seems that way. But it's always fun to watch Beat Takeshi do that twitch thing.

The Outrageous Beat Takeshi

But I have the new Tana French, and that's all that really matters. Are you not in The Secret Place yet? You best get on it.

At 50%, very good so far.