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Sunday, August 29, 2021

Riverwatch

The Nowhere Waterfall came from Below. A raging torrent, it cascaded from the clouds and eternal night of Below in exactly the same way a typical waterfall ought to behave, only upwards. From a distance, zeppelin passengers would be forgiven for thinking the falls were a massive geyser, throwing its plum of water high into the sky. But as one drew near, it was quite apparent that this was not the case. That, indeed, the water was most definitely a waterfall -- if a very peculiar one.

    The waterfall charged upwards hundreds of meters through the crisp blue air of the sky, until, with a crash, it struck the rocky underside of Basin Isle. Upwards it continued to climb along the side of Basin Isle, it’s rocky skin frothing the waters to white. Over countless generations the falls had carved into the side of Basin Isle, forming a river every bit as impossible as the falls. Up and up and up the water climbed, until reaching the top edge of the basin (for which basin isle naturally received its name) at which point it crashed over the basin’s edge, filling it to create Basin Lake.

    Sade sat on a small, water smoothed boulder, which was probably too close to the sky-edge of the basin. A whale tusk horn and two long delicate spears sat forgotten beside her as she stared along the length of the falls. The rock was damp and had slowly seeped into the leather of her breeches, leaving her backside damp as well. The crisp autumn wind added a chill that left her miserable and in a foul mood. The rock next to her was covered in slimy green algae and she used her third spear’s tip to scratch a tally each time she saw a shadow in the water. The tally currently consisted of a crude drawing of a boat breaking in half as grinning, fanged Sade bit it in half. Zero.

    She sighed and looked across the water to Tau. Her brother was three years younger than she was, but despite his age had already been assigned to riverwatch. He was perched upon a boulder that was a much more sensible distance from sky-edge than hers. He squatted, all the weight on the balls of his feet. In one hand was his horn, ready to blow at a moment’s notice. His long black curly hair had been pulled up high into a bun to stay out of his eyes, which stared intently at the water. His backside was undoubtedly still dry, Sade observed sourly as she tried to push her own unruly hair behind her ears.

    Tau sensed her gaze and looked up. His dark eyes stared at her intently for a moment before his lips split into a mischievous grin. “You look like your butt’s wet!” Sade tried to glare back. But only managed to look more miserable, causing his smile to break into a giggle. He may be twelve, old enough for riverwatch, but when he giggled he was still Sade’s four year old brother who followed her everywhere, determined to go on adventures with his big sister. Even if the adventure was just visiting Boat Town for supplies.

    “Careful or you’re the one who’s going to be wet when I throw you in!” Sade called back. It was an idle threat. Everyone knew you didn’t go in the water. Too many things from Below lurked within its depths. Going into the water was a death sentence. It was the death sentence. Still, she hopped to her feet, snatching a rock and flinging it into the river to emphasize her point. Tau only giggled harder.

    “Wet butt!” He teased again. “You should know better to sit on those damp sky rocks, Wet Butt! And you throw rocks real bad. That wasn’t even close!”

    Sade sighed and laughed. He wasn’t wrong. She did know better. But she liked sitting on the edge. To see the other Isles floating through the sky above and to be able to stare all the way down to Below. Look into the inky dark and writhing clouds that concealed the unknown lands below. If there even was land Below. Nobody really knew anymore. There were only the old tales, muddled and changed through the generations. Now there were so many tales and myths and theories that no one could really say what was true. If any of it was. The clouds continued to swirl slowly, moving against the wind. If you watched long enough scholars claimed you could discern patterns in their movement. The Nowhere Fall had to come from somewhere. Didn’t it?

    A rock struck the boulder she was standing on. Snapping her gaze back from Below. Tau’s smile had vanished, replaced by deep worry. Worry too old for one so young. “Don’t look down there. Below will swallow you.”

    Sade shivered and nodded. Looking away. Below will swallow you. Just like mom.


Monday, June 05, 2017

"Italian" Ragout

Craving the flavors of a good ragu, but pasta is a big no. Instead, I improvised an "Italian-style" Ragout.
Potion Ingredients: 
  • 1lbs Ground Beef (I use 85% lean, the fat make my ketosis happy.)
  • 1.5lbs Italian Sausage (My goto is Falls Brand Old Fashioned Recipe - Hot.) 
  • 10 Mushrooms
  • 2 Small Zucchini
  • 1/2 Onion
  • 1 Red Bell Pepper
  • 8 Cloves Garlic
  • 2 - 28oz cans Italian Recipe Diced Tomatoes (I used S&W brand, because they were the lowest carb version I could find at the supermarket. A lot of the brands sneak in sugar.)
  • Crushed Red Pepper 
  • Italian Seasoning 
  • Kosher Salt
  • Black Pepper
Brown the meat while you coarsely chop all the vegetables. Then saute the veggies with the meat. I didn't drain the meat, because with my keto diet I'm not avoiding fat in any way. It also made it so I didn't need olive oil to help the veggies become awesome. This is the stage I also add my dry seasonings since the oil and heat can help draw out their flavors. I just did it to taste, but remember that lesss is more. You can always slowly add more as the meal simmers but you can never add less. Once the veggies are tender add the tomatoes. I then let the whole thing simmer for about 30 minutes. Portioned it out and then ate with a dusting of shredded parmesan cheese.
 
Nom-Nom Nutritions:
Makes six servings. 
  • 569 Calories
  • 40g Fat
  • 21g Carbs
  • 5g Fiber
  • 31g Protein
Nutrition info is based on MyFitnessPal suggested values. I do my best to make sure everything is accurate, but your mileage may vary.
 
Less Flair, Same Stare. 

Wednesday, February 01, 2012

Martian Bear Day!

The red planet rises:

Iron Brigade (formerly Trenched) was one of my favorite games of last year. No surprise really since it came from one of my favorite design studios Double Fine. It is a shooter-tower defense hybrid that has more character than the average 5-6 games combined. Even better, its co-op is shit tons of fun to play. Martian Bear is the first paid DLC for Iron Brigade and I hope not the last. It is safe to say, that with my computer blown up at the moment some tubes are gonna die tonight.
 
Also on the XBLA front.  Bastion is the Xbox Deal of the week and is 50% off. I recently got this game and am about halfway through. The world is beautifully illustrated and well realized. Plus the narrator is just too fantastic to miss.  At $7.50 it is a steal of a game. I heartily recommend it.   

Finally, Double Fine also released today a new game for Kinect, Happy Action Theater. I don't have a Kinect so can't recommend it off of firsthand knowledge, but at this point I haven't met a Double Fine game I didn't like so I'm just going to stick it in the "must buy" column. If you have kids this game looks especially awesome.

Trailers for Bastion and Happy Action Theater below the break.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Game List

Just read this article on Joystiq.  I was already pretty interested in Kingdoms of Amalur, but calling it Secret of Mana plus Diablo II may have sealed the deal of it being a "must buy".   Sadly though I have a lot of must buys.   A lot that don't get played.  My life, like everybody's, is busy.

I try to squeeze in video games when I can but a lot fall to the wayside.   Some seem like they shouldn't be allowed to be forgotten.  So I'm creating a little blog list of upcoming games I want to play and games I've missed and hope to get cheaply.  I figure the list will help me remember and may inform some people of stuff they didn't know existed.

List is to the right.  I'll expand it and shrink it as I find, play, or remember, games.   If you have suggestions of your own put them in the comments section and I'll check them out.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

SKeLeCRon

This article has tourettes.  You have been warned.

One month since my post on having completed no models in a year and I have now "completed" two.  Completed gets little quotey marks because they're not based.   They also don't have photos other that the half-assed ones I took at my painting table which you can see to the side.  Actually half-assed is probably the moral of these two guys.  Though it was intentional.  Lemme esplain.

The last year or so pretty much made me lose the fun of the hobby.   I got locked in a cycle that I could do hobby work or hobby hobby.  If I was doing hobby hobby that meant I wasn't doing hobby work and thus guilt would ensue.  If I was doing hobby work then it had to be "World Class Excellent #1 Accept No Substitutes blah, blah, blah" which is stressful.

Monday, October 03, 2011

Lentil & Sausage Stew

Well, I'm pretty much broke at the moment.   Which is not uncommon considering my cavalier spending habits.  One of the quickest ways to save myself a ton of money is my food budget.  Fortunately, one of my favorite food blogs happens to be the aptly named, Budget Bytes.  I've tried a handful of Beth's recipes over the months since I found her site and, in general, they've turned out quite nice.

We're starting to have cold nights here so I figured that it was time to break out some soup.   Soup tends to be super cheap and is one of my favorite categories of food anyway so I'm always eager to add an additional recipe to my repertoire.

I tried out her recipe for, Lentil & Sausage Stew and it turned out quite tasty.   For the most part I followed the recipe exactly, with my only change being that I used ground turkey instead of turkey Italian sausage.   The plain turkey was on sale and it was easy enough for me to season it to taste like the Italian sausage version.  I also added two extra cups of water about 2/3 of the way through since it was getting a bit dry as the lentils softened.

Like most soups it was super easy and made a ton.   Should save me a penny of two over buying lunch every day.  Yay, team.

Monday, September 26, 2011

Sadness.

Whelp, it's officially been 1 year and 5 days since I painted a model.