I’ve been buying books lately and not getting around to reading them. Part of my downfall is that I see a book I’ve been wanting to buy on sale, then buy it because I know I will do at some point in the future, and may as well save the money now…
Apart from having just finished Looking For Jake and Other Stories by China Miéville, and being about a third of the way through Neal Stephenson’s The System Of The World, I still have to read (in no order):
Revision’s going to be difficult this next term then…
Tags: books
Finally set up some proper hosting for the site. Penguin Internet Ltd. are hosting. I’ve installed Wordpress 1.5 (with the intention to upgrade to the 2.x series soon), and the (I think, awesome) Fluidity theme from Kaushal Sheth, based on Dave Reeder’s original design.
Tags: themes, WordPress
My grandmother used to make these cakes whenever we went to see her; she grew fresh parsley in the garden, but it’s easier to just buy it…
Take a similar weight of defrosted white fish and peeled new potatoes. Boil some water in a saucepan on the hob, and put the potatoes in the water. Take a colander and put the fish in it, then use the pan with the potatoes to steam the fish. Once the fish is soft (it doesn’t need to be totally cooked, but it doesn’t matter either way), and the potatoes are boiled, take the fish off and leave it aside, then drain the potatoes.
Cut the fish up roughly, then add it to the saucepan. Mash the potatoes and fish up together, then add a sprinkling of chopped parsley. Dust a chopping board with flour, then take a small handful of the mixture, and press it on the flour into a patty. Keep doing this until you’ve used up the mixture.
Take a fryingpan and heat up a generous amount of oil (olive oil ideally, but this is up to you), until it’s hot but not smoking. Place the patties in the oil until they brown on the bottom, then turn them over with a fish slice, and brown on the other side.
Serve the fishcakes with toast, or salad, or chips, or anything else you can think of that goes with fish and potato. You shouldn’t need sauce with this, as it shouldn’t be that dry.
Tags: Cooking, fish
Finished ICOw the other day, and in short, I wish they made more games like this.
You play Ico, a boy born with horns, who, when he is 12, is cast away from his village by his people. They lock him in a castle, and from here the object of the game is simply to escape. Things are complicated somewhat when you discover Yorda, a highly incompetent girl who is liable to be killed if you leave her alone for more than a minute…
But it’s not really the story or the characters which grab you, it’s the atmosphere of the environments, and this is only helped by the quality of the control system - mainly the fact that you have control over the camera, and not only does pressing R1 call Yorda to you, it swings the camera around to point to her.
The slow pace of the game allows you to explore, and commendably for a puzzle-oriented game, it’s impossible to get yourself stuck with in an unsolvable situation.
If this is any indication of the style or quality of Shadow of the Colossus, I think I’ll be purchasing a new game in the very near future…
Tags: computer games, ps2, Sony
Aha! That caught you out huh? Yes, one of the main topics of this site will be cooking. It’s only in the last year or so I’ve been cooking in earnest, so it’ll be good to record some of the things I’ve been doing.
First, put enough water in a sauce pan so that you could just cover the height of the fish you’re cooking (I’m assuming the fish will fit on the area of the bottom of the pan without overlapping, if not you’ll obviously have to put in more water), then add a dash of white wine, a sprinkling of Tarragon, a sprinkling of Parsley, a dash of garlic (I used pre-chopped, I guess it’s better to buy fresh cloves though), and a dash of black pepper. Stir it all up while you bring it to the boil, then leave the liquid simmering.
I used white fish, but this is definately up to you. Make sure it’s fully defrosted, then if you planned to chop it, do so before adding it to the simmering water. Put the lid on the saucepan and leave until the fish is soft (~ 5 mins). When it’s done, scoop out onto a plate. I ate this with some salad (with home-made dressing which I’ll talk about some other time!)
To be honest, I’m not sure how much the fish benefitted from the wine and herbs… I’d have to repeat the whole thing with plain water to be sure however. Recipe inspired by Cooking For Engineers. Cheers!
Tags: Cooking, fish
Yesterday I traveled to Peterborough in order to arrive in time for a job interview I had agreed to attend this morning with Emapw, the publisher. I’m looking to get a one year industrial placement when I finish the second year of this current Computer Science degree (which, all being well, I will do in May, when I slay these exams).
The train travel and hotel were pretty unremarkable (I’d recommend the De Rosalia to others), so: the interview. I think it went well, I probably talked too much, but hopefully that’ll be just taken as nervousness. I think I could do the work and would enjoy it, the only think that puts me off (and this isn’t that big a deal), is Peterborough itself. I wandered around for a while yesterday, and got the impression that the town is incredibly dull. The streets are wide and pleasant, and there is actually quite a large commercial centre, but everything seemed so lifeless… Maybe I just saw it on an “off” day. Also, having just walked through Manchester is bound to have given me a bad comparison.
Next week I’m told I’ll get a get a call to let me know what Emap think (that is, whether or not they’re going to offer me a job!)
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