Habibi, by Craig Thompson, is like the lovechild of a Coleman Barks' Rumi translation and an older, wiser, kinder Neil Gaiman.

It's also the best comic I've ever read (yes, better than Sandman), and is up there with one of the best books I've ever read.

See more of it here, and if you like Gaiman, and you like Sufi poetry, just get the darn thing already. XD 

There's a bit of an interview here, with the author. I'm not sure where all this 'White Man's Burden' stuff that the interviewer talks about is coming from. I don't remember any white folk in the book at all. But then, since I'm not any of the ethnic groups in that thaar book, maybe that's why I missed it.

Awesome no-fail blondies from Inspired Taste!

Get da no fail blondies recipe by Joanne from Inspired Taste!

They taste awesome, and have a really nice crispy-top texture and moist dense insides that somehow manage to be fluffy at the same time. Very 'more-ish', which isn't usually how I feel about sweet baked stuff. Nugget is all about the meat... the MEAT! But these are so more-ish that I had 2.5 pieces, which is 1.5 more than usual for any sweet stuff I make.

Mine looks a little different because I added pecans and blueberries. I put the blueberries on a light layer of panko breadcrumbs to stop them falling to the bottom of the blondies. People usually use flour for that, but I was lazy, and I had panko I wanted to finish up. The idea is that the flour (or panko) absorbs the blooberreh juices as they scream and essplode and die, thereby stopping them from falling to the bottom.


Google Web Designer can't open HTML unless... wtf? LoOoOoOoOoL

Soooooo I downloaded and installed Google's shiny new toy, Google Web Designer.

I load up the application, and try to open an HTML file I've been working on.

Imagine my wtfbbq reaction when it shows me this.


Yes, an application with 'Web Designer' in it can't open an HTML file. WTF?

But wait! It lets me create HTML files, so why can't it open them? Hmm! It seems that it can open its own files... why?


Well it turns out, if I want to open a HTML file in Google WTF Designer, I have to first open my HTML file in a text editor, or any OTHER HTML editor of my choice, and insert <meta name="generator" content="Google Web Designer 1.0.0.924"> into the meta tags. Then it works.

What on earth were they thinking? Anyone who works with HTML should easily find this. Are they trying to lock the people who don't want to look at their HTML at all into the Web Designer? When any bloody text editor can open... Oh my brain.

The End Result


Stones (Ultima Theme) by David R Watson on Jeff Wilmott's 4-hole pendant ocarina

A couple of months ago, I picked up this really cute little ocarina at the St Kilda Beach market, from Jeff Wilmott's stall.

I call it my baby hamster, because I clutch it and it squeaks. >.>

One thing led to another, and before long, I acquired a rather large Focalink Triple Dolce AC ocarina, which I call my 'Fat Hamster'. On account of it being well... bigger and fatter! Last Sunday, I brought my fat hamster down to Jeff's stall for him to have a look and a feel. He very kindly gave me his songbook, which I have used for the nefarious purpose of putting together an ocarina score for David R. Watson's Stones - more commonly known as 'the Ultima theme'.

And here's me tootling it on my lovely little baby hamster. Any ickiness you hear is due to my noobness, and not the little ocarina I'm tootling on. This is the first tune I learned to play on the baby hamster, and I was too shy to play more than the first few bars in front of Jeff. *scuffle*

Big thanks to Jeff for setting me on the path to hamster... I mean ocarina love! =)



Lovely fatty gelatinous LAZY rice cooker pig trotters of braised doooooooooooooooom!

I looooooooooooooove animal fat! Fried, baked, stewed, boiled, broiled, cold from the fridge (mmm butter), melted in my tea (mmm cream) - glorious animal faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!

I also love food where the majority of the 'cooking' involves me ignoring it while I go kill mobs. XD

These braised pig trotters are therefore, in a word, perfect!

Crafting materials
2-3 pig trotters (chopped into whatever size your butcher chops them for you)
Soy sauce (5 parts)
Chinese cooking wine (3 parts)
Vinegar (2 parts - doesn't really matter what kind of vinegar. I used apple cider vinegar.)
5 spice powder (1 part)
Ginger, chopped finely (1 part - I used the tube stuff because I'm lazy)
Garlic, chopped finely (1 part - I used paste because... yes I'm lazy)
1 large onion, chopped into bits however small you get to before you get lazy
Brown sugar (a bit)
Ground white pepper (a bit)
Sesame oil (a bit)
Garlic cloves x 5, still in their little skins (Optional)
Enoki mushrooms (Optional, I just love the darn things)

Crafting method

  1. Blanch the trotters, leave them to cool, then scrape off and discard whatever bits look dubious to you (usually hairy bits)
  2. Mix all the ingredients together except the trotters, chopped onions, garlic cloves and enoki mushrooms
  3. Galoosh the liquidy ingredients into your trusty rice cooker
  4. Dump in the garlic cloves, onions, and trotters
  5. Add enough water so that the trotters are just covered
  6. Stir everything until the liquidy ingredients are homogenously... liquidy
  7. Separate the enokis into slimmer bunches and strew them on top of the whole liquidy trottery mass
  8. Close rice cooker and set it either on Soup/Cook for 2.5 hours, OR set it on Steam for 2.5 hours (this will depend on the kind of rice cooker you have)
  9. After 2.5 hours, open the rice cooker and add more water so that the trotters are covered again.
  10. Give everything a stir
  11. Cook on Soup/Cook OR Steam for another 2.5 hours
  12. Splat all that unctuous gooey gelatinous fatty piggy goodness on a plate of white rice and NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM. If you can find a decent sambal oelek, even better!

Note
You need to blanch the trotters first (boil them for a short while until they turn white and scummy stuff comes to the top of the boiling water pot) so that they don't smell piggy in a bad way, vs piggy in a good way! Which is what they'll smell like after you get rid of the Bad Piggy by blanching...