Hie Thee Hence!

As some may have noticed, there are a couple new blogs in the "Random Blogs" List. One is the Medieval Cookery blog, the fantastic companion blog the medieval cooking website. There's lots of interesting information there.

Speaking of cooking, I recently came into possession of a bunch of home-grown pears (thanks Tif!) and I'm debating between using them for a pear tart (which is about what you'd expect - spicy, sweet, and in a pie shell) or Peeres in Confyt (which is poached pears in a sweet wine and ginger syrup--I've also seen it include juniper berries, which sounds kind of fascinating, though I have none to use). I'm leaning toward the second, partly since I'm abyssmal at making pie and tart shells.

Another blog--only one that deals with the wretched failures of cuisine, rather than triumphs--is the Cake Wrecks blog, which cleverly displays the most awful and ridiculous of cakes. Hilarity ensues.

Clicking the Classics

I recently discovered Digital Classics, which is a library of "over a hundred literary masterpieces, digitized, and bound in the finest electronic leather." They have a "reader" that pops up, and you're able to view the pages as you would with a normal book, and click on the corners to turn backward and forward.

Though I do prefer a paper copy of a book in my hands, this was a pleasant way to ingest a little classic that was perfect for this time of year--Frances Hodgeson Burnett's The Secret Garden. What a perfect thing to read this time of year, when everything is becoming green and growing. Despite some of the melodrama (people making exultant exclamations!! All the time!!) of the time, the book was sweet and as charming as I'd remembered it, and I do recommend it.

If I were reading it to a child, I might consider skipping some of the bits about India, as the view of "primitive natives" at the time it was written doesn't fit in with the world these days. That, or take a couple minutes to discuss with the child about the time it was written.

These little things don't stop the book from being wonderful and magical, and one I loved dearly as a child. Speaking of books, I'm making over a cheapie little book-shaped wooden box from a craft store, and hopefully it will turn out to look at least somewhat like an actual book.

I've used an exacto to cut fine lines on the edges of the box, and have used a dry brush to paint on some gold for the edges of the "pages." Hopefully they'll eventually look like actual, weathered pages by the time I'm done with the outside.

I'm also "imprinting" the top of the book with a design I've blatantly stolen from a gorgeous 1910 copy of Oliver Wendell Holmes' Autocrat of the Breakfast Table. It's a beautiful book--even the inside cover pages are gorgeous. In any case, I'm trying to engrave that same sort of design into this book, though I'm not sure what the title will be, yet.

The Cusp of Autumn

For those of you wondering, my dad came through heart surgery well, and is making a good recovery--which makes me very very relieved. Life can be pretty sucky at times, but mercies like that can make all the other stuff seem pretty irrelevant and small.

I realize I'm a worrier a lot of the time, but I hope I'm not a pessimist. It's only because I forget to remember the things that are good. Er...unless that's the definition of a pessimist. I think of them as someone who's aware of what's good, but manages to imagine everything is going to be awful anyway. I'm working on encouraging my tiny, withered seedling of optimism to grow up into an oak tree or a skunk cabbage or whatever.

Yes, I know. It's been for-freaking-ever since I've blogged. As an apology, I would like to offer these tasty morsels:

• What do you get when you combine Johnny Cash's vocals, Led Zeppelin's drums, Beastie Boys bass, Ted Nugent's guitar, and the Beatles lead guitar? No, not an apple streusel, silly--It's quite possibly the BEST MASHUP EVER.
  

• When it comes to storytelling flash games, many times they're a digital cacophony of crappy animation and awkward gameplay. However, Samarost is different. It's essentially a beautiful interactive children's book with lovely music, interesting art, and engaging puzzles. I've linked to the walkthrough, because I did get stuck a couple times. Point and click adventures force you to think a little differently, and it takes a bit to catch on. There is a second installation of the game as well.
  

• Also, who doesn't like a simple game that basically just involves Japanese Victorian ladies slapping each other?

• This is a concept I can get behind. "The more unhappy you are, the more ice cream you need."

• For those of you with small dogs, this is valuable info. And it's darn cute.
  

• Here's a highly entertaining look at what the world of 1910 envisioned the year 2000 to be like. The page was originally in French, and I've linked to the Google translation, so the text may be a bit awkward. The ideas are an awful lot like we used to dream up for the future as children. Machines that put on your makeup! Pills for dinner! Ah, the glorious future...

• And if you'll excuse me now, I have to go take my daily chocolate supplement.