Recipes for Distraction

New Favorite Boardgame: Quoridor

noreply@blogger.com (mothproof) — Tue, 20 Oct 2015 07:24:00 +0000

I picked up this nice little boardgame called Quoridor at an ukay-ukay store not too long ago. It was my lucky day; all the pieces were complete and intact, the board was clean and scratch-free, nary a fold on the included booklet. Usually, the boardgames you find at thrift stores have a few pieces missing, and you'll have to make do. This Quoridor game is as spanking new as new can be, and for such a steal.

Designed by Mirko Marchesi, Quoridor is basically a turn-based game where players race each other to get to the opposite side of the board. At each turn, you can do one of two things: either move your pawn one square at a time or erecting a wall. The trick is to thwart your opponent with your strategically placed walls. You can't lock your opponent, and you always have to keep a route to the other side of the board open for them. But you can make his or her journey as circuitous as possible, in the hopes that the lovely maze that eventually transforms over the course of the game doesn't hamper your own token.

Face off!

Notice I said "lovely maze". Ever since I was a kid I've always been fascinated with mazes. In grade school, I'd painstakingly draw elaborate mazes on a piece of bond paper, the kind with portals that transport you back and forth both sides of the paper.

It must have been that entry about the word "labyrinth" in Webster's dictionary , and how in Greek mythology the grisly Minotaur was stationed there--why I'm so fond of mazes. (Further reading into how the Minotaur and the Labyrinth came to be will lead you into topics of betrayal and bestiality, but I digress.)

The original Labyrinth

Anyway, there was that Labyrinth game we used to play on Famicom, based on Jim Henson's movie, which up to now I still haven't watched. The game, too, I never did get to finish. And one other maze-related game I loved as a kid: the Crystal Maze!, which deserves a revival. Oh wait, they're doing that already.

But back to Quoridor, my new favorite offline game. The game that Gigamic produced is so beautifully crafted, from the dark slotted wooden board to the wooden walls to the four tokens, the whole thing is almost a work of art. Gigamic actually produces various other boardgames in luscious wood configurations. All of them are deviously simple and fun to play, and you can just leave them on the coffeetable like some incidental decor.

What's to love about Quoridor:

Easy mechanics.
Easy enough for kids to be pitted against adults.
Takes about eight to ten minutes to play, so faster turnaround.
Requires a good mix of skill, strategy, and luck
Can be played by 4 players as well.

Online versions of Quoridor have cropped up, mostly using crappy animation. This is one of those games that is best played in the real world.

Tear-sipping Butterflies and Accommodating Turtles

noreply@blogger.com (mothproof) — Sun, 23 Aug 2015 16:22:00 +0000

My favorite photograph thus far, courtesy of Ama la Vida TV last year. This would be the photo I'd send a photo to outer space for other intelligent life forms to find and know about our planet. How two unrelated and non-communicating creatures of Earth can help out each other, feeding on each other's tears and loneliness, or something equally romantic.

In the animal kingdom, this act of sipping and feeding on tears is called lachryphagy. Moths are also notorious for this, even going as far as injecting their proboscis inside closed eyelids of birds. That looks nasty and invasive on a photograph so let's stick to butterflies and turtles.

Of Monsters and Ultramen: Google Doodle Pays a Tribute to Ultraman's Creator

noreply@blogger.com (mothproof) — Tue, 07 Jul 2015 10:47:00 +0000

Woke up at 2:30 AM today (Yes, 2:30 AM, we have a somewhat regular office job now, which takes up my time, which explains the infrequency of my blogging output these days). So anyway, what do we see on my tablet but a nifty interactive Google Doodle featuring Ultraman!

Turns out it's a tribute of sorts to Mr. Eiji Tsuburaya, the creator of Ultraman, whose many versions only the die-hard fans can keep track of. (Apparently there are more or less 38 Ultraman versions.)

Anyway, back to Tsuburaya-san. He's also head of special effects for many Japanese sci-fi films, especially when they involve wanton destruction of entire cities brought about by humongous monsters. How we loved that as a kid, seeing Ultraman battle it out with the monster of the week, them trampling boxy buildings and trees and power lines, complete with ensuing sparks, fire, smoke, and debris. The entire scenario always looked staged and fake despite the very best efforts of Tsuburaya's production team, but that's okay. Funny, we don't recall seeing long- and close-up shots of city folks fleeing in panic while a massive fight was going on above them.

So today's Google Doodle is a set of mini-games all that gets strung together into a monster film, whose horrific (or comedic) value depends on how you played each one out.

Hunting down a pair of silicon pads for my headset.

noreply@blogger.com (mothproof) — Wed, 27 May 2015 13:05:00 +0000

Two weeks ago we lost the silicon pad of our favorite AKG headset. The adhesive had worn off months ago, and we've repeatedly glued it back in place (both Elmer and Shelby were of no use), only to have it pop out when we least expect it. This time around, on the bus, the damn pad came loose, fell to the floor, and was nowhere to be found. The headset was a cheap one, just under a thousand bucks but we like it for the fact that it doesn't go all the way inside our ear canal, but sits right at the opening. And we didn't want to fall out of love with it just because of a missing silicon pad and an exposed metal.

Thankfully AKG sells replacement parts, but you have to get them at their service center. We suppose we could have simply ask them to just deliver the pads to any of their concept stores, particularly at SM North EDSA, but we rather liked the idea of tracking down a couple of tiny rubbery silicon pads. We ended up in Topy's Place in Eastwood, specifically Calle Industria, so-called, we think, because it was a headquarters hub for several other companies. One thing we hate about going to Libis is that there's only one jeepney line servicing the area, and it's only via Cubao. Yes, there are cabs, but we're scared of riding cabs alone.

So anyway, much walking and getting up and down flights of stairs, we finally found the place, which turned out to be just a ho-hum office building. There's a bunch of JBL, AKG, and Harman Kardon speakers stacked upon each other on the lobby, could be dead, could be newly refurbished, we couldn't tell. They looked so ordinary and stripped of their premium feel which they usually have when they're displayed in the showrooms. And to think these things cost a lot.

The guy who took our order gave us a pair of the silicon pads, gray and smoky and translucent, and charged us 100 bucks for them. And we left, happy because it's good to know that in this age of disposable culture, there are some things for which you can still buy replacement parts. And we won't have to disown our headset after all, but we were left a little bewildered too because we travelled all the way to here for a couple of tiny things other normal folks can painlessly live without.

Manny, You'll Always Be The Winner.

noreply@blogger.com (mothproof) — Sun, 03 May 2015 17:01:00 +0000

Come to think of it, we've always consciously avoided watching Manny Pacquiao's boxing matches. Maybe we just don't want to jinx them, or maybe we just can't handle the tension because we wince at the first and slightest instance of Manny becoming hurt and compromised. Or maybe because we're certain Manny will always emerge as the winner.

Today, while the so-called Fight of the Century was happening, we weren't watching either. Our sister and our 94-year-old grandmother were glued to the TV, while we just peeked every now and then. And each time we did, all we saw was a one-way fight, with Manny Pacquiao throwing most of the punches, while Floyd Mayweather vigorously run around in circles, dodged behind his gloves, and basically hugged him. All the slo-mo replays showed Manny in his glorious, if slightly fumbling, fighting form, whereas his money-toting opponent was simply being elegantly evasive. Turns out Mayweather's "fighting" style is what the judges are looking for in the Fight of the Century.

Play: The 7th Guest, Does Not Commute, and Implosion

noreply@blogger.com (mothproof) — Fri, 01 May 2015 01:31:00 +0000

The 7th Guest

Time for some spooky classic puzzler set in a horror mansion. Long before all those escape-themed games came out one after the other, there was The 7th Guest. And this here is the remastered edition to celebrate its 20th anniversary.

(from Google Play)

Henry Stauf's mansion has been abandoned for as long as anyone dare remember. Stauf was a master toy maker, a maker of amazing puzzles and this strange, eerie, mansion was his greatest creation. It stands empty, rotting ever since children started dying with his toys near them, ever since six guests came and were never seen again.Now, you are in the house, moving from one room to another, trying to remember and trying to forget. Because Stauf's game isn't over. There were six guests the world knew about - and there was one other. The mansion of horror comes to life again and only you can end this mad nightmare and learn the secret of the 7th guest.

Does Not Commute

Mediocre, the devs behind Granny Smith, Sprinkle, and our favorite aggression-therapy game Smash Hit, is out with a new game, with vehicles this time. The goal is to drive cars around town, a new vehicle each time, but in such a way that you avoid crossing into the route of the previous cars you've driven earlier. Just like those games wherein you create orbits of planets around a sun, hoping they don't collide into each other. Does Not Commute isn't just pure, mindless driving around though, there's actually a story behind every character. Nice.

(from Google Play)

A strategic driving game from the award-winning maker’s of Smash Hit. Does not Commute is a temporal paradox in which you have no one to blame but yourself. What starts out as a relaxing commute in a small town of the 1970's quickly devolves into traffic chaos with hot dog trucks, sports cars, school buses and dozens of other vehicles. You drive them all. Plan ahead. Don't be late.
In this small town, discover the characters and their secrets – what world-changing experiment is inventive dentist Dr Charles Schneider hiding? Will Mr Baker quit his job in advertising? What is that strange mask on Mrs Griffin's face? Will Mr Mayfield’s peculiar obsession with Yorkshire Terriers take over his life?

Implosion - Never Lose Hope

From devs Rayark, Implosion - Never Lose Hope, is a heavy sci-fi action adventure that lets you play as Jake, humanity's last hope against the evil force XADA. Don't worry, you're outfitted with the War-Mech series III battle suit, giving you incredible abilities, letting you dish out those fatal combos that feel good to unleash on your enemies. Post-apocalyptic games with tightly-woven stories, exhilarating action, plus a lush music score from Grammy Award winner John Kurlander (who did the Lord of the Rings)--what more can you ask for?

(from Google Play)

Bringing AAA console gaming experience to mobile devices.
Twenty years after the fall of Earth, the remnants of the Human race are once again faced with extinction. The time has come to justify our existence. A mysterious life form known as the XADA squares off against humanity's last weapon - the War-Mech series III battle suit.

The Little Prince gets the celluloid treatment.

noreply@blogger.com (mothproof) — Tue, 28 Apr 2015 14:35:00 +0000

There have only been a handful of books that made us cry. Charlotte's Web, the Little Prince, a couple of short stories by Ken Liu and Eliza Victoria, and one of the stories in Joy Luck Club. So that's two children's books, a couple of short stories, and a novel. Elsewhere, our tear ducts are mostly intact.

The Little Prince however takes the cake because I remember crying long after I've read it. It's one of our favorite books to give as a gift. From time to time, we can't help but wonder if we're turning/or have turned into the businessman, or the king, or the conceited man, or worse, that petulant Rose. Anyway, we were lucky we found a hardbound copy of the Little Prince in Booksale (there's even a dedication written by a women to her grandson, wonder if he ever read the book because the pages are still crisp).

Here's the trailer to the upcoming Little Prince movie. Because we readers already know how the story goes, a fresh viewpoint is needed, and that comes from a girl, an entirely new character named Mackenzie. And, woot, we love how the universe of the Little Prince is done as a stop-motion animation, which is just the perfect style to use.

The movie is voiced by Paul Rudd, Rachel McAdams, Jeff Bridges, Marion Cotillard, James Franco, Ricky Gervais, Benicio del Toro among others.

Badland's April Fool's Day Prank | A Belated Post

noreply@blogger.com (mothproof) — Tue, 28 Apr 2015 12:57:00 +0000

Well of course April Fool's Day, that day when we prank each other offline, and more lovingly, online--well it's long over, but we just found this out, and and had a good laugh at it.

Badland being ported to the Nokia 3310. Oh wow. So nostalgic. But knowing the virtuoso of the guys at Frogmind (creator of Badland), you never know what might be possible.

Incidentally, we've just reinstalled Badland on our phone again (the memory card finally died after two years--too many writes on our part). After Pew Pew, Badland is that game that we simply must have on our phone. All else is just noisy pixels. We were just too happy to see there are 10 new levels called Dreamdream, which had been free to download since December of last year as a tribute to the 20 million downloads the game has had so far. For some reason we never got around to update the game on our phone.

So anyway, apparently Badland had backing from the Finnish government, who also gave financial support to Rovio (the people behind Angry Birds and Bad Piggies).

How very progressive and open-minded of the Finnish government. Leaders of other states and nations spend billions and billions on arms and other war-related expenditures. But the government of Finland, well they're just too happy handing out cash to support indie game developers. And lo and behold, the result is the whimsical, exhilarating genius of Badland

Almost forgot, Nokia is from Finland too, which explains Frogmind's April Fool's prank.

And oh, here's a thrilling crossover done by no less than the peeps at Frogmind:

Flappy Bird negotiating the perilous obstacles in Badland

Modding our headset

noreply@blogger.com (mothproof) — Sun, 26 Apr 2015 14:45:00 +0000

Much as we hate the deluge of Chinese products in our country--from fancy smartphone cases and accessories to cheap kitchen utensils and home decor to imitation bags and shoes to school supplies--there is one item whose existence we can appreciate:

Those plastic curly cord protectors.

Photo from luckyjollyshop.com

You've probably seen them being sold at cellphone and gadget shops or even by the sidewalk. They hang like kinky leis in a rainbow of hues, at 10 Pesos each. If you're going to wrap your headset, you'll need at least 4 leis, if it's a regular length charger cable, you'll need 3. Forty bucks is a small price to pay for something so useful. See, these things protect cords from getting bent or twisted or nicked, and also make them less prone to tangling (Some physicists have tried to unravel the mystery of why our headset cords mysteriously entangle themselves seemingly on their own accord.)

After wrapping our headsets and charger cables, we just can't imagine how we've ever lived without them. Some people use DMC embroidery floss or paracord for protecting their cords, but the plastic setup is much nicer.

It's a wrap!

Other peeps go crazy with modding their headset, alternating three or more colors in dizzying combinations.

As you can see, we're pretty boring and safe with our color choice. The one on the right is a translucent smoky grayish white. While the one on the left is a sort of amber, that looks like dull gold when wrapped around black cables. We like the translucent curlies better than the solid-hued ones because the cords end up having that serious industrial look in them, with the black cables running inside. They even look like giant metallic guitar strings.

In some weird way we find the monotonous act of wrapping the cables somewhat relaxing (it takes about an hour to wrap a headset.) Our mind begins to wander with curly thoughts. Like why can't the Philippines do something about all these disposable Chinese goods ~~entering~~ flooding the market for example, or those islands rapidly taking shape where they shouldn't be.

14 Minutes of Mortal Kombat X Gore

noreply@blogger.com (mothproof) — Sat, 18 Apr 2015 13:51:00 +0000

As a public service, The RadBrad over at YouTube has compiled every fatality in the new Mortal Kombat X. It's fourteen minutes of ruthless, graphic, and soul-numbingly fun.

There's a bit of a fixation with the head here. Lots of decapitation and sliced faces and cracked skulls, oozing brain, even eating it, blood and all. And to think when we were kids we were already shocked with that sick move of pulling the spine out of one's throat/mouth. There's even Cassie, Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade's daughter, taking a selfie with her freshly killed victim. Signs of the times.

When the kombatants of Mortal Kombat aren't fighting each other, they're actually embroiled in a complex and centuries-spanning mythology. Gamers have uploaded entire clips of the game's cutscenes, spoilers be damned. It's great because anyone coming to the franchise for the first time can just watch and learn and realize it's not always mindless violence that pervade Mortal Kombat. They've built a story into it, based on the classic battle between good and evil, but because of the many switcheroos going on, good and bad is not always that clear-cut in Mortal Kombat.

By the way, we love the new dark and gritty look of the game. And the devs at NetherRealm have really upped the graphics of the game, everything looks stunningly clear and crisp we couldn't take our eyes off Johnny Cage's very detailed eyebrows.

Lots of new characters in MKX. Lots of women empowerment here, as well as the first ever gay character in the franchise.

Cassie Cage - Joined Special Forces with her mom General Sonya Blade. Armed with just pistols and a nightstick, but packs a serious punch.

Jacqui Briggs - the daughter of Jax, and is also a member of Special Forces. Because she's only human, has to wear mechanized gauntlets for deadlier punches.

Kung Jin - The bow-and-arrow guy, and Mortal Kombat's first ever gay character. This mysterious ally of Cassie and Jacqui can use a simple bow and arrow to deadly effect in battle. We want to boink ourselves in the head for missing Raiden's advice to Kung Jin when he hesitates joining the Shaolin: "They care only about what is in your heart. Not whom your heart desires."

Takeda Takahashi - Telepathic just like his father Kenshi. Armed with a whip and katana. Was raised and trained by Scorpion.

D'Vorah - Very insect-like with her wings and nasty wincers that can pluck her opponent's heart and brain in an instant. She also employs bugs and other creepy crawlies as weapons. Also delivers bug-filled death kiss.

Erron Black - A cowboy-inspired character complete with pistols and wide-brimmed hat. Used to be from Earthrealm but now serves Kotal Kahn.

Ferra & Torr - Annoying two-in-one character in a pointlessly symbiotic relationship. The dinky clawed Ferra hitches on the back of the beastly Torr.

Kotal Kahn - The current Emperor of Outworld, fighting against Mileena and her plans to subvert him. Like an Aztec warrior (he's actually from the realm of Osh-Tekk), Kotal Kahn is fond of feathered headdresses.

MKX doesn't just delve on the violence, there's also some nice character development being fleshed out. In one scene, while whiling away their time incarcerated, Cassie, Jacqui, Kung Jin, and Takeda Takahashi discuss what it's like being the child of a renowned fighter. A love story also blooms between Jacqui and Takahashi, although somewhat out of the blue. As for Kung Jin's sexuality, well played because the devs and writers didn't make such a big deal out of it, although of course we're curious too who he might be romantically involved with.

Already fans are divided on the issue of whether sexual orientation even matters in Mortal Kombat. Of course it matters, one fan argues. What do you make of Sonya Blade getting pregnant by Johnny Cage then?

The Benefits of Going Stickless.

noreply@blogger.com (mothproof) — Fri, 17 Apr 2015 15:18:00 +0000

We almost bought a selfie stick last month when we were in Baguio with Edge and his mom. The guy selling silver jewelry at Burnham Park had a bunch of selfie sticks for sale, just P150, but we resisted all urge.

All things considered, we thought there were real benefits in going stickless.

1. It's more challenging to elongate one's arm to take a proper picture that included all three of us.
2. It's more interesting trying to balance our humble phones on whatever appropriate surface it could be laid on, and then hit the self-timer.
3. And it's definitely more fun asking complete strangers to take our pictures, in return for us taking theirs.

Seriously, I miss the days when cameras only had 12, 24, or 36 shots in a roll. That would really force you to choose where you aim your lens, and afterwards when you're out of film you can simply start enjoying the day for real.

This woman, for example, on the beach allegedly just took selfies all day with her handy dandy selfie stick and did not relish the water at all. Then again, who are we to dictate what's enjoyable and what's not?

Photo from Treehugger

Back when we didn't have smartphones and digicams, taking photographs was either a formal or a clandestine affair. You either posed for a group pic, or someone simply stole photos of you for voyeuristic purposes. Like Miroslav Tichý and his battered, seemingly toy-like cardboard camera.

Apparently, it takes gorgeous artsy photos.

Photo by Miroslav Tichý

Yes there's an invasive if not slightly creepy element to the voyeuristic shot, but you can't help but applaud the beauty of its candidness, the subject blissfully unaware. Nowadays everyone knows their best side, everyone knows how to play up to the camera.

The Selfie Shoes

Sleeping Arrangements

noreply@blogger.com (mothproof) — Wed, 15 Apr 2015 02:09:00 +0000

Thanks to Grace for the alert

We just love this poster. Hardware and hobby stores should put this on a tag or sticker and put them on their tents and sales would fly.

And it's true, there really are more stars when you're up in the mountains because you don't have city lights competing with the twinkle of the stars. No smog either that might cloud the view. And probably also because you're situated high up, although we're thinking a couple of thousands of feet above sea level don't really make a difference. Still, the stars are much, much brighter up there. Everyone should climb a mountain at least once in their lives.

Currently reading Naomi Mitchison's Travel Light.

noreply@blogger.com (mothproof) — Tue, 14 Apr 2015 13:59:00 +0000

If we weren't paying attention, we would have thought Naomi Mitchison's Travel Light was just a self-help book regarding the joys of letting go of one's emotional baggages. Thankfully we took a closer look, read the blurb (Le Guin has some nice words about it), and saw the whimsical cartoonish drawings of dragons and unicorns and village people.

It's been years since we last time read a fantasy novel, specifically the Narnia series, so we were naturally just excited to read this one.

The thing we noticed about Travel Light is how fast-paced the story is, and yet it doesn't appear rushed at all. It's about the little girl Halla banished from the kingdom by the evil stepmother. She grows up instead among bears and dragons in the forest where she becomes more in tune with the ways of the animals than with humans. Her situation thus offers a refreshing perspective--dragons apparently aren't merciless predators out to torch entire villages just to loot treasure, they're actually brainy, wise, meticulous, if not very possessive creatures with colorful personalities to boot.

On the other hand, the hero, the village's chosen one who will attack the dragon's lair to end all the dragon-induced suffering, is painted in a bad, laughable picture, eager to rescue princesses, even if "no princess was ever asked whether she wanted to be rescued and carried off by a dragon-slayer.” Very nice indeed the way it upends traditional roles of heroes and kings in favor of the much maligned and thoroughly misunderstood dragons.

Halla's journey begins when her dragon mentor Uggi dies from battle with the villainous hero, and suddenly she finds herself stripped of their jeweled possessions. Alone in the forest she meets the All-Father/Wanderer who advises her to travel light, both literally and figuratively.

Actually this way of traveling light is exactly how Mitchison tells her story so that it deftly transitions from one fantasy moment to another. One moment Halla is in the woods being licked clean by bears, the next one she chaperones the Marob men in the treacherous city of Micklegard, confronted by shady priests and kings.

Maybe this is the book that'll get us reading fantasy novels again. We've been eyeing Tolkien for quite some time but have always dreaded the weighty pages. For now, we're glad we picked up Travel Light.

Coconut Flour Pancakes and the Art of Messy Baking

noreply@blogger.com (mothproof) — Mon, 13 Apr 2015 05:04:00 +0000

There's a scene in Starting Over Again where Iza Calzado's character ever so coolly lectures Toni Gonzaga's character about how baking is a science, always needing the exact measurements of ingredients, unlike cooking (particularly sinigang), where it's often a matter of taste and experimentation.

Well, we've been defying Iza Calzado's canon, and have been doing what we call "messy baking." No, we don't have sticky dough up to our elbows and splattered all over the table. We just don't measure the ingredients that's all. We know it sounds wrong and profane, but surprisingly whatever we're making turns out all right. Not just passably edible, but deliciously all right.

We've been making flat breads and pancakes, which apparently are a cinch. Just mix the ingredients to a nice consistency (not-so-runny, not-so-viscous), and there you go. The trick is to make sure you're using a bit more of the rice flour than the coconut flour because the latter tends to crumble easily.

These days, because it's summertime and there's lots of energy demand, we thought we'd forgo the oven and just cook over the stove. Just rub the pan with a tissue soaked with the tiniest amount of coconut oil and nothing will stick on it.

The thing with pancakes (and apparently there's a science to this) is that the first one always never turns out right. Afterwards though the succeeding pancakes have that perfect, even browning which we like.

Ingredients

coconut flour (about 1/4 cup)
glutinous rice flour (about 3/4 cup)
ground flax seeds (3 tbsp)
muscovado sugar (1 - 3 tbsp.)
rock salt (a pinch)
coconut oil (3- 4 tbsp)
cinnamon (1 - 3 tsp)
honey (3 - 4 tbsp)
1 egg, beaten
milk (1/2 cup)

Shaping Sounds.

noreply@blogger.com (mothproof) — Fri, 10 Apr 2015 13:29:00 +0000

So apparently our smartphones aren't just good for discovering, streaming, playing, and sharing music. They're also capable of creating music, thanks to ingenious apps that straddle the line between casual game and seriously legit musical instrument. And it doesn't matter if you know doodley squat about octaves and beats, practically anyone who can touch and tap can make music with them. Here are a few of our favorites, from unique to vintage to full-fledged.

SoundBow
Developer: Binaura
Free

With its minimalist UI, Soundbow lets you trace lines on which dots can travel, striking and activating heavenly-sounding harp strings along the way. Drag lines slow or quick to vary the rhythm, and push the record button to save your masterpiece as a WAV file.

Chromiano
Developer: GnomeDome Studios
Free

Chromiano stands out from the multitude of virtual piano apps out there, not just because of its rainbow-hued keys, but because of the wide variety of music possible with it. Toggle between various waveforms, semitones, custom scales, and tonics, and start happily tapping away.

SphereTones
Developer: Binaura
Free

SphereTones lets you create spheres with various musical signature, and bouncing balls that strike them at your chosen interval, like a beautifully orchestrated set of drums. The minimalist UI belies the infinite variety of sounds you can create here. Sadly there's no option to record your musical mayhem.

kosm
Developer: igorski.nl
Free

With kosm, you're given a blank slate you can fill with various orbs and balls that buzz and clang and resonate as they bounce off each other. There are no preset scales to work with, everything depends on gravity so you're encouraged to rotate and shake your phone to create the music. Depending on how you place your elements, the resulting symphony can be chaotically scratchy or delightfully serene.

Stylophoney
Developer: ZORAC
FREE

Relive the funky electronic music of the '70s with Stylophoney, with its realistic sounds and a real-life stylophone UI. Whether you mindlessly fooling around with it or get real serious, there's a record button to immortalize your freshly-created music.

MikroWave
Developer: igorski.nl
FREE

Wrapped in a tiny package with a gorgeously clean and simple UI, MikroWave lets you shape your music with its clever synthesizers, keyboard, drum and of course, sequencer. The app is good enough even for serious musicians to mess around with to inspire them, as well as for newbies just wanting to transform their phone screens into something musical. Sounds can be exported as WAV file, shared on SoundCloud, and editable as MIDI.

Coconut and Rice Flour Cookies

noreply@blogger.com (mothproof) — Thu, 26 Mar 2015 13:31:00 +0000

So we made some cookies. Out of rice flour and coconut flour again. Because gluten-free.

We realized the recipe for bread and cookies are basically the same. Just that you'll need yeast for the bread. With cookies, you can make them as simple as you want, and you don't have to wait for the batter to rise.

(Last time when we made bread we didn't have a proper dough, it was more of a batter because it was quite soupy from too much water and coconut milk, which was why the bread was a bit moist inside, but really they turned out fine.)

But back to the cookies. These ones are so easy to make that we wonder why we've never baked cookies before, like those good school girls who go door to door in the movies. Actually for this cookie recipe we didn't use exact measurements. We just poured out the ingredients into the bowl as we saw fit, mixed them well, and then hoped for the best. Seriously. The irony is that those times when we really were strictly following measurements for making cookies or bread, the blasted things never turn out what they're supposed to be.

If our bread batter was a bit soupy, our cookie batter was quite sticky that it was a bit of an effort to stir. We resisted the urge to add some water. We tasted a tiny bit of it to check if it's just the right sweetness. Never mind the raw egg, a little raw egg can't hurt. After that we scooped out a spoonful of the batter onto an oiled Pyrex dish and popped it into a pre-heated oven. Seriously we didn't even consult which temperature is the best, and for how long. Our default temperature is always 100 degrees Celsius because that way there's no danger of getting them toasted black.

Ten to fifteen minutes later we had cookies. Yummy, guilt-free ones. Edge thought so too. Okay, there's sugar, but we have to live a little. Really should have made more because they promptly disappeared into our mouths.

Ingredients

1/2 cup Coconut flour
3/4 cup Glutinous rice flour
1/4 cup Skim milk
2 tbsp ground Flaxseed
4 tbsp Muscovado sugar
1 tsp Baking soda
1/2 tsp Cinnamon

1 Egg
2 tbsp Honey
brokent bits of Dark chocolate
6 tbsp Coconut oil

Preparing
Sift the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
In a separate bowl, mix the wet ingredients.
Add the wet ingredients into your first bowl.
Fold it in evenly until everything is mixed.

Baking
Preheat your oven for 10 minutes at 100 degree celsius
Next, smear some coconut oil on the inside of a Pyrex dish
Place spoon-sized dollops of the batter on the dish, spacing them evenly
Bake for about fifteen minutes, or until the cookies are nicely puffed and cracked on top.

The X-Files Will Be Reopened.

noreply@blogger.com (mothproof) — Wed, 25 Mar 2015 08:43:00 +0000

The big important news that only matters to us now is that The X-Files will be reopened! Fox plans on making a 6-episode mini-series in the near future. No exact date so far.

We've always wondered that if The X-Files were still around, given our world today, Mulder and Scully would have lots more interesting cases to solve and more insidiously convoluted conspiracies to deal with. 1993 seems so far away, and 2015 is a vastly differently world. The Internet for one has showed us that stranger, more mind-boggling things happen on a daily basis all over the world.

Actually, we're also happy because now they'll have better and cooler technology at their disposal.

Truth be told, after the X-Files ended in 2002, we didn't watch that much TV any more. There were lots of spinoffs to the paranormal genre but they didn't mattered to us because frankly nothing was at stake. With Mulder and Scully's journey, every action led to innumerable fateful consequences.

We hope the new generation of viewers will be curious enough to find out just what The X-Files is all about. They certainly could use a bit of clever storytelling from Chris Carter, Darin Morgan, et al. And we hope this is just a trial run, which if successful, will lead to a full season. Oh man, oh man, I'm shaking to find out. And I can't wait to believe again.

Bookends at Baguio

noreply@blogger.com (mothproof) — Thu, 19 Mar 2015 08:45:00 +0000

Baguio is ukay-ukay heaven, we all know that. But it's not always pre-loved apparel; there are books too! And lots and lots of them.

We found Bookends a little off Session Road (T. Claudio St. to be exact). It's a shop brimming with, well... second-hand books.

This being Baguio, various other stuff are for sale too, neatly arranged along with the books. There are lamps, vases and figurines, framed pictures, baskets, and various collectibles. Of course the usual ukay-ukay fare: clothes, shoes, bags, toys. True to its name, they've got a collection of bookends, although they're not for sale. There's even kapeng barako for just PhP30, although they've only got a lone table.

Thankfully, they've done a nice job arranging the books by genre--from cookbooks to YA to children's book to inspirational. But alas we couldn't find our favorite authors such (Atwood, Bradbury, Murakami, etc.) Turns out, majority of the books came from Australia and New Zealand. There are some familiar titles from the US, but mostly it's Australian fare. Which is okay, it's about time we knew something about Australia anyway.

After much digging, we found this. Captain Freedom by G. Xavier Robillard (a satire about superheroes that didn't get much good reviews on Goodreads, but hey, let's give it a chance), and a children's book called Cork on the Ocean by Mark Sommerset (very nicely told and illustrated.) The last time we bought a book in Baguio was in 2007. It was by the roadside, Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale for just 50 Pesos, a book that gave us chills long after we finished it.

Anyway, the lady at Bookends, after some key-pressing on her dandy calculator, told me it'll be 200 Pesos for the two books, but we didn't believer her. So we said we'll just pay PhP50 each, and she yielded.

Our Almost-Perfect Bread

noreply@blogger.com (mothproof) — Fri, 13 Mar 2015 13:39:00 +0000

We're calling this our almost-perfect bread because frankly this is the first time we've baked wherein the output is fortunately just what we expected. Or more or less what the recipe told us to expect. We've baked bread before but never with yeast, so usually they either turn out too dense or too crumbly. Actually we don't even follow a recipe; it's always been guerrilla-baking for us. Resting the dough is unknown to us. We don't even have a dough to happily knead, usually it's a batter.

There was this other instance where we also successfully made bread, from coconut flour, which we oven-dried and shredded from fresh coconut flakes. The bread didn't crumble at all, and because I didn't scrimp on sugar, you could actually enjoy it.

If you'll notice we still haven't made sourdough bread. The sourdough starter would be all bubbly and alive for a few days, then suddenly deflate like nothing. Failure to thrive. We tried reviving it, making an entirely new batch, etc. We figured 2 kilos of wasted flour is the limit for us, so we stopped right then and decided we'll try sourdough once we're inspired again.

So about this bread. We figured if we can't have sourdough bread, we'll just use rice flour to solve the gluten thing. We're not sure if we have celiac disease or if we're gluten-intolerant. And no, it's not because it's suddenly hip to be gluten-free. It just occurred to us it would be nice to be able to bake bread without wheat flour, because hey there's rice flour anyway.

Dry Ingredients

1 1/2 cup glutinous rice flour (we're using the Peotraco brand)
1/2 cup coconut flour
4 tbsp muscovado sugar
2 tbsp freshly-ground flax seed
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon crushed rock salt

Wet Ingredients

1 1/2 cup coconut cream
1 tbsp muscovado sugar
4 teaspoons active dry yeast
3 eggs
5 tbsp coconut oil

1. Sift all the dry ingredients in a bowl.

2. Meanwhile, stir in the yeast, sugar, coconut cream in a bowl and let the mixture double in size after 5 to 10 minutes.
Whisk in the eggs and 5 tbsp coconut oil.

3. Combine the dry and wet ingredients.

4. Pour in a Pyrex dish that's been greased with a little coconut oil.

5. Preheat oven to 120 degree Celsius

6. Bake at 120 degree Celsius for 40 minutes until the top forms a nice brown crust.

The Day They Changed the Camel Cigs Packaging

noreply@blogger.com (mothproof) — Sun, 08 Mar 2015 22:29:00 +0000

We had no problems when they updated the Campbell soup can's label because much as we adored Andy Warhol's work, they don't really mean much to us. But that's not the case now with the Camel cigarettes. We don't smoke, we just happen to have read Tom Robbins' Still Life with Woodpecker, possibly one of the coolest, non-sappy novel ever written about love.

To be fair, the design's clean and modern in keeping with the times. There's still the palm trees and pyramid, but mostly they blur in the background. Even the camel looks cleaner and shaved. Maybe we just miss the classic Old World charm of the previous packaging. Hopefully, when new readers of Still Life.... will still have an idea what Mr. Robbins talks about when he describes the magic contained in the imagery of the old Camel pack. There's always Google search, of course to help them.

Gregg Alexander Resurfaces

noreply@blogger.com (mothproof) — Sat, 07 Mar 2015 23:52:00 +0000

This is rather late, from last year, but we just found out about this. Gregg Alexander, the brilliant reclusive frontman of New Radicals, he of the bucket hat, giving a rare interview for Billboard.

Gregg Alexander nowadays, in plain view, sans the bucket hat

"But before we get into all of that, we have to go back to where it all started for Alexander: in Motown. "Me and my mom would get in the car, drive around and listen to A.M. radio in the metropolitan Detroit area," he tells me. Raised a Jehovah's Witness and with a diverse group of friends, all of his favorite music was soul and rock and roll. He remembers listening to "Band on the Run" by Paul McCartney, the Everly Brothers' "Cathy's Clown," George Clinton, and the like; fooling around on the family piano, "just instinctively writing my own melodies because I couldn't really learn other people's"; and then later focusing on the guitar and drums. "But the game-changer for me was seeing Prince in Purple Rain at 13 or 14," he says, noting that he snuck into the R-rated movie. "'Let's Go Crazy' knocked me over my head, but then when I heard 'The Beautiful Ones' it was all over. At that point I knew I was gonna be running away to California."

New Radicals will always remind us of the refreshingly cool '90s, so rife with issues and promises. These days bands try to be political and rebellious just for the sake of doing so.

Incidentally, the song looping in our head this past few weeks is "I Hope I Didn't Just Give Away The Ending," a song slash story-telling vehicle about drugs and porn. Gregg sings improvisationally in disjointed voices on the first part--crooning and whispering to your left and right and right in front of you. Then the song proper begins, deftly flitting between states of melodramatic lovesickness to maniacal rage. There's a very lovely meta line there that goes:

"By the way this girl was sexy and she would touch you
That may not be true, but I said it so you'd feel involved with the song!"

Gregg Alexander's First Interview in Fifteen Years

And maybe a resurfacing too.

How to Eat in a Fast Food Restaurant

noreply@blogger.com (mothproof) — Fri, 06 Mar 2015 14:12:00 +0000

This in the news: McDonald's is planning on phasing out antibiotic-rich chickens from its menu as part of their healthy agenda. That sounds good to us, but we've long ago stopped eating at McDo because, you know, junk food. When it comes down to it, we've realized that the only good food to eat at McDonald's is their rice and a cup of brewed coffee. All else is just crap. Seriously. Sometimes though we wish we could eat a bag of their French fries with the same youthful abandon as we did before, but, nah, not really.

So these days me and Edge no longer dine out at fast food restaurants for the simple reason that we've become distrustful of the food being served. We don't mean the subtle glob of spit courtesy of the waiter, which only happens when you're not nice to them.

We mean the very ingredients themselves. The oil (and if it was heated till it was smoking hot and used how many times), the pesticide-laden vegetables, the suspect meat, the rampant seasoning, the cheap hydrogenated margarine, the reckless sugar and its many unhealthy versions.

Yes, that sort of paranoid thinking kills the joy, but what can we do? We'd rather eat something we actually prepared. And here, simplicity is the key.

We still sit ourselves down in a resto from time to time. Our favorite is Kenny Rogers' Roasters because at least they don't deep-fry their chicken. We'd order maybe a plate of their roasted chicken (yummy and peppery) and spare ribs (juicy falls right off the bone), but we've also brought our own baon. Sometimes it's a papaya, the native variety that's greenish and yellow-orangy, not the other kind sold at the groceries. And bananas and carrots and avocado and turnip, whatever's in season. Sweet potatoes are our favorite too. At PhP 25-30 per kilo, they're absolutely delightful, just wash and scrub, slice into chunks, boil in a little water, store them in our plastic food boxes, and tadah, good carbs.

The fun part is the peeling and slicing part. We each have our trusty bread knives with us, a serrated stainless steel blade sold by Edmark. If you frequent the Dept. Store at SM, you've probably seen the kitchen demos where the guy cuts chunks and chunks of produce with a cleverly designed plastic gizmo, maybe a domed chopper or a space-age peeler. They don't specifically showcase the knives, they just use them without any mention at all, blurring in the background. The onlookers have no idea how nice those kitchen knives really are. They're sold at PhP 300 for a pair, one serrated, the other flat-bladed, and they'll last you a lifetime. They're so sharp they can cut just about anything, from bread to pineapples.

The guards at the restos don't seem to mind us when we take out our knives. Them knives aren't pointed anyway, and all you get is a sawing action from the serrated blades. We've never been stopped at our tracks while Edge peels a kamote and I'm working on a chesa. When we're done eating, we save the peelings, bag them, and then toss them at the compost later at home. Zero-waste. People really should take responsibility for their own waste and not expect others to clean up after them. Just seems the civil thing to do.

The Power Rangers Film Reboot They Should Be Making

noreply@blogger.com (mothproof) — Fri, 06 Mar 2015 03:30:00 +0000

There's this dark and lovely Power Rangers short film online right now, but it's not officially endorsed nor funded by Saban. It's the handiwork of music video maven Joseph Kahn, who has decided that the franchise needs a bit more gore, grunge, and grit.

When news came out that PR is scheduled to be released in 2016, we thought, oh wow, there's a milk cow again, what sort of satisfyingly non-corny story could they possibly tell about Power Rangers. Well to be sure it's going to be a summer movie meant for everyone, stripped and made wholesome. That's why fan films are more exciting because of their freedom. In the hands of Joseph Kahn, it's more so.

POWER/RANGERS (UNAUTHORIZED NSFW BOOTLEG) from Joseph Kahn on Vimeo.

There's blood galore here, some sex, and drugs, and pure treachery served cold. Not exactly the Power Rangers we were used to as kids. But we grew up, and so did the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. Heck, even James Van Der Beek is all grown up. I totally had no clue that was him, giving the rough sexy talk for a full ten minutes or so. Forgive me, Dawson.

Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman: darkly beautiful and quietly violent stories

noreply@blogger.com (mothproof) — Fri, 27 Feb 2015 03:06:00 +0000

Picked up Neil Gaiman's Fragile Things at National Bookstore a couple of years back, for just PhP 350 more or less. My first Gaiman book. (We all have to start somewhere.) We figured we'll sample his short fiction first before diving into his novels. There something to be relished from the potent distillation of the short story form, and, man, in the hands of Neil Gaiman, the short story becomes a formidable force, a pure experience.

The stories in Fragile Things do a good job in sending chills down your spine. Which is remarkable because they're supposed to be just short stories, takes one sitting to read, very low-risk and low-pressure. Yet after each story, we have to look up from the book, check the room we're in to see if the world was still all right as we left it.

There's a great variety of style here, one could almost say they're on the verge of being gimmicky. But good thing there's more of the really good ones.

Our favorite stories in the collection:

The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch. (Notice he didn't simply say Disappearance. He meant Departure.)

The Problem of Susan (an explanation of why Susan, of the Narnia Chronicles, went astray)

Instructions (a poem, actually, steeped in fairy tale trope)

Closing Time (the story of a playhouse in the middle of a clearing, whose door simply closed in on three boys, leaving their other friend behind, alone and pondering the whole thing. Perhaps the most disquieting story in the book.)

Monarch of the Glen (set in the mysterious expanses of Scotland, this novella length story picks up where American Gods left off. We were thrust into a feverish anticipation of a party, whose magnitude has frightful consequences.)

Ginataang Pechay Recipe

noreply@blogger.com (mothproof) — Wed, 18 Feb 2015 06:43:00 +0000

Ginataang pechay. Why didn't we think of that before? We grew knowing that pechay was only good for sautéeing, you know, with tomatoes and onion and garlic and meat and soy sauce and water and oil.

We were supposed to make paksiw na ginataang galunggong because we can't get enough of it, but the fish suddenly vanished from the fridge, so we had to make do with the pechay leaves.

You'll notice we don't use cooking oil anymore, even if we've switched to coconut oil. It turns out we can cook food without oil. Instead of sautéeing the onions and garlic in oil, we simply let them cook in a little boiling water. Anyway, whatever meat we're cooking will oil up eventually, so no need for the extra preliminary oil. Instead of frying eggs, you can simply cook them in water too, sunny-side up.

So back to the Ginataang Pechay recipe:

Ingredients

A big handful of bunch of pechay leaves
200 g Pork meat, cut into small strips
5 pieces green finger chili (deseeded and cut into squares, leave an extra one whole and intact)
Garlic, minced
Onion, minced
Salt
Pepper
Spanish paprika
Coconut milk, 1 cup
Coconut cream, 1/2 cup

1. Rinse the pechay leaves and stalks under running water (Set a bowl beneath to save the rinsewater for your plants).

2. Cut the leaves and stalks in 1" strips.

3. Pan-fry the pork strips, seasoning it with salt and pepper. Remove from the pork once the pan becomes brown and crusty.

4. Deglaze the pan with a little water and half of the coconut milk.

5. Add the onions, garlic, and chilis, as well as the pork strips.

7. Add the pechay.

8. Pour the rest of the coconut milk. Cover with a lid and let simmer until the sauce is reduced.

9. Add the coconut cream.

10. Season with salt, pepper, and paprika.

11. Serve with a plate of steaming rice. Enjoy!