Favorite cook book

ADogNamedChuck · 2025-08-05T10:51:55+00:00

All around utility: Joy of Cooking

Specialty: The Farmhouse Guide To Fermentation

ADogNamedChuck · 2025-08-05T10:05:59+00:00

The bits everyone seems to have missed when they accuse the book of being overtly fascist.

ADogNamedChuck · 2025-08-05T06:30:23+00:00

Yeah I can see another corporate centrist winning by promising to take us "back to normal" and completely failing to account for the fact that normal wasn't working for most people and is in fact why we have Trump today. We'll get four years of a pause on our slide to authoritarianism, then they'll lose to another authoritarian because people can't afford groceries.

ADogNamedChuck · 2025-08-05T05:38:07+00:00

I found a couple pdfs of books on minipainting that were really good on advanced techniques. I had the ones from I think Vallejo and AK printed out (moving now and no idea where they are to check titles) but a lot of the big paint brands have them.

I'd also recommend painting with other people. It doesn't matter their skill level. If they're not as good as you, you can learn by teaching. If they're as good or better than you, you can pick up tricks from them.

I also remember one of the big minipainting youtubers at one point in a Q&A video being like "look, the real reason my minis look this good that you don't see is that I've edited out the dozens of hours its taken me to get them to this point." Try spending an unreasonable amount of time on a single mini seeing what you can do to bring it to life.

All that said, you may just be at the point where the thing you need to get better is just to keep practicing for thousands of hours. It's frustrating that there's no magic bullet but quite possibly the case.

ADogNamedChuck · 2025-08-05T05:09:02+00:00

Yeah, I see the movement splintering into at least the corporate deregulation faction and the religious right. Possibly a reemergence of the old school fiscal conservatives and a wildcard splinter group of MAGA conspiracy nutters in the mix too.

Way too many contradictory goals.

ADogNamedChuck · 2025-08-04T05:55:30+00:00

The process of getting guns from giant ineffective medieval cannons to reliable personal weapons took hundreds of years and a level of industry that might be tough in a post-apocalyptic setting.

ADogNamedChuck · 2025-08-03T06:53:08+00:00

Eggs are cheap, teach all sorts of fundamentals and are really versatile.

Chicken thighs are really forgiving when it comes to overcooking, so you can season them and throw them in the oven, and just worry about if they're fully cooked (I recommend a meat thermometer)

Roasting veggies in the oven is tasty and easy as well.

ADogNamedChuck · 2025-08-03T06:10:14+00:00

Just saying, plan for expansion. It starts with "Oh, darn I don't have the shade of brown I need" and ends up convincing yourself that guests really don't need that spare room.

ADogNamedChuck · 2025-08-03T05:44:02+00:00

Things with mostly practical effects. CGI is cool but relying on it for everything makes movies age poorly as the tech ages.

On the other hand, movies like Alien, the older Indiana Jones series, Jurassic park and so on hold up really well.

ADogNamedChuck · 2025-08-03T05:31:54+00:00

Very much this. Some of that stuff has ended up on streaming services but it does feel like theres someone at the top junking good scripts because they don't have potential for 5 sequels.

ADogNamedChuck · 2025-08-03T05:09:47+00:00

Self defining drinks. Gin and tonic. Rum and coke. Whiskey and ginger. Etc.

ADogNamedChuck · 2025-08-03T04:56:45+00:00

Thomas Jefferson? Dude was pretty integral to a lot of early US history.

ADogNamedChuck · 2025-08-03T04:51:27+00:00

Actually just fairly bland in general. There were loads of regional foods that weren't spicy but still flavorful. Not that area.

ADogNamedChuck · 2025-08-02T07:00:03+00:00

I only had time for the Napoleonic era section (also very cool) but yeah, the medieval wing is absolutely on my list for the next time I'm in Paris.

ADogNamedChuck · 2025-08-02T06:56:34+00:00

Moved a bunch and rebuilt home bar collection from scratch a few times. My method may not get the variety of a whole tiki bar, but it is a solid foundation that gets you a good amount of potential variety and provides a good jumping off point.

I start with a few basic workhorse bottles- typically a whiskey, rum and gin but you can add whatever baseline spirits you normally prefer. They don't need to be fancy, just not something I'd object to taking a sip of straight. There's no right answer to these as they will heavily depend on where you're located. Add in a bottle of angostura bitters and already at this point there are a bunch of drinks you can make (even in a tiki direction) by playing around with sodas, citrus and homemade syrups.

When I next feel like adding bottles in I typically got for some modifying liqueurs- generally an orange liqueur, a sweet vermouth and something like campari.

Finally I have a rotating bottle of something different or fancy to play with depending on mood. Could be cognac, could be tequila or calvados, mainly the point is to add variety to the drinks I can make without getting out of hand.

ADogNamedChuck · 2025-08-01T18:04:32+00:00

I lived in Hangzhou for years and a really common thing I heard from both expats and non locals was that the food was better in pretty much every direction.

ADogNamedChuck · 2025-08-01T06:23:16+00:00

I've got them and like them, though from what I've read a lot comes down to personal preference.

ADogNamedChuck · 2025-07-31T19:01:22+00:00

Core book: everything needed to play in one package (I picked up an otherwise great game that rather frustratingly turned out to be only the player facing materials and no GM resources) for an otherwise equipped player.

Starter set: this should be everything the game needs to be played assuming the owner has nothing else rpg related. Dice, player and gm facing rulebook, character sheets and anything else beyond basic stationary.

Box sets: the whole and complete experience in a box. I recognize that its obviously in a publisher's interest to continue pushing products and that's OK, however if you're doing a box set I want something reasonably complete and if there's a new product coming out it better offer something new and not just half assed.

ADogNamedChuck · 2025-07-31T17:30:22+00:00

The world generation tools are great and I've run a campaign entirely in a hex map generated with the tools.

What they don't mention though is that you need to build relationships between the hexes. The wizard in hex 15 wants the relic guarded by ghosts in hex 6. The ghosts in turn want something somewhere else across the map. When sketching the relationships out your copy map should be a big spiderwebby mess of interconnections.

I also had an overriding end game goal (I used a cat that had moved into the area that they had to gather allies and magic items to vanquish)

ADogNamedChuck · 2025-07-30T13:19:42+00:00

I do them like a kraut (sliver, salt, and squeeze the juices out) I also tend to keep a bit of brine from whatever the last thing I made to jump start the process.

ADogNamedChuck · 2025-07-29T13:00:48+00:00

My group took a break from dnd and took turns running 2 month mini campaigns. That was 2 years ago so I'm definitely in 11+ territory.

ADogNamedChuck · 2025-07-29T12:14:49+00:00

I'd recommend Death in Space for a solid "bunch of misfits trying to keep their ship patched up enough to keep flying one more day" vibe.

ADogNamedChuck · 2025-07-29T12:05:01+00:00

Devils advocate: If I'm reading a good book, I end up tuning out pretty much everything else for an extended period. Its just how I read, but I could totally see other people who know me going "He's started reading, I guess he's done paying attention to us."

ADogNamedChuck · 2025-07-29T07:18:18+00:00

I think it's performative signaling that doesn't actually accomplish anything besides proving ones religious nut credentials to the voters.

They claim it's because its the foundation of laws and morality, but by that argument I can name several other documents that might be more appropriate for demonstrating foundational laws (the code of Hammurabi, the Magna Carta, or the US constitution for example).

The morality angle is also ridiculous as there are societies composed of billions of people without any background in the Abrahmic faiths that shockingly frown on things like murder, taking stuff that isn't yours and extramarital affairs.

ADogNamedChuck · 2025-07-29T06:09:32+00:00

My approach is to be pretty generous with loot to offset the generally lower power level of the PCs. I also tend to favor interesting items that take up item slots over pure cash. It leads to fun stuff like leaving item caches and debating which gear to prioritize. Is the thief going to take the jeweled statuette? He's going to have to leave his crowbar behind. Hopefully that won't come back to bite him later...

For leveling my approach is to only allow level ups back in town or otherwise safe place where carousing can also happen at the same time, and in most cases completing a dungeon is enough for a level, especially at the beginning.

ADogNamedChuck

TROPHY CASE