I love me my little hacks

For instance:

    foreach var string module ( $*modules_available ) {
        # FIXME: get the values in less hacky manner
        var string section = get_plural_phrase( 0, "module_${module}_section" );
        var int order = int(get_plural_phrase( 0, "module_${module}_order" ));

        $*module_sections{$section}[$order]=[$module];
    }

(but I should probably not let something like that creep into core. Long list of if-statements, it is.)

More tuna, less eggs for breakfast

So it was pointed out to me that what I was thinking of as an omelette was actually scrambled eggs (pictures on the other end. Look very yummy). My definition of scrambled eggs was eggs + only liquid ingredients. My definition of an omelette was eggs + solid ingredients.

So this means that I know I have finally made scrambled eggs! \o/ (Now to figure out the omelette thing)

Cooked eggs again for breakfast three days ago. I have been trying to add one new thing every day. That day, it was vegetables, chopped fine. We call them pechay baguio, similar to pechay tagalog (which I believe you guys will know as bok choy?). I don't know any other names for it, though.

( pictures of ingredients )

That day, I learned some important things:

• chopping up vegetables(anything!) into thin strips is hard! Tends to be too thick most of the time, and uneven


• Peeling garlic before crushing it is tedious. I learned the next day to crush before peeling. That went much better


• Chopping onions ;_;


• Your cooking spoon/spatula thing should not be wet! Got stung by hot oil (just little pinpricks) because I didn't realize it shouldn't be sizzling like that. I thought it was one of the hazards of cooking, and I was terrified but I had to go on because I was stubborn I thought it was normal. Turns out it isn't. Oops


• Getting stung by pinpricks of hot oil? Not the end of the world. Startling, annoying, still makes me jumpy, but not permanent, not earth-shattering

Then the past two days, I was getting bored with cooking eggs, so I looked through our pantry, discovered we have something like two dozen(!!!) cans of tuna in there, and started experimenting.

First experiment with tuna, just frying with some oil + some garlic (what do you call that? It's gisa in Filipino, emphasis on the second syllable, but I can't think of the equivalent in English), until the garlic was browned, then putting in the tuna to make it smell good + heat it up + just play (with fire. hah).

Then once the tuna was removed, and since the pan was still hot, I decided to play about a bit by cooking some pear slices on the pan. I got the idea that you could cook pear from pauamma's descriptions of what he sometimes cooks... though I am certain that how I cooked it is not what he had in mind :-)

It looked boring, so I drizzled some honey on! Bad idea, left a burnt smell, though surprisingly not much of a burnt taste. I have since gotten more ideas for cooking pear from #dw. Also other ideas for cooking tuna (tuna melt, mmm). Thanks guys!

I then chopped up the pear into my tuna. Tuna was dry, pear was moist. In hindsight, I maybe should have tried cooking the pear with the tuna, but overall it was, hm, interesting at least. Bearable. Not something I'd inflict on someone else, but it satisfied my hunger.

Also helped out with lunch and dinner! Did maybe half of the work, with a lot of handholding (chicken with potato carrots for lunch, salmon for dinner!)

So then yesterday, I got out the tuna again, but this time I chopped up a huge Fuji apple and cooked three quarters of it with the tuna, to make it moist. That part worked, but the Fuji apple tasted too much like tuna, and the tuna didn't taste enough like apple, so as an experiment it's only about a 7 or so (a 5, with +2 factor added for experimentation that didn't actually blow up in my face). Maybe I could have mixed the remaining quarter of the apple in with the rest post-cooking, to make things sweeter/apple-r tasting?

I also used a wok, instead of a frying pan to minimize splatter (this wasn't my idea, it was suggested to me. It was a great suggestion!). Other ingredients -- garlic, uhhh and I guess that's it.

That was the day I burned my finger. Applied this amazing balm (I don't know the name, but it felt like it leeched all the heat out of the burn). It's healed quite well now. Spent half a day typing funny, until I could put pressure back on my finger. Now my index finger feels strangely numb, and I think that's a blister, but it's not painful or tender.

And today, I want to code too much to do any cooking, so I'm eating whatever I can find in the refrigerator.

omelette du fromage (laboratory)

First of all, you guys have been amazingly supportive and helpful <3 And second, eggs. Must repeat, EGGS.

So remember how yesterday, I wanted to do scrambled eggs, and got sidetracked and ended up with poached eggs instead? Well today, I decided I would do scrambled eggs, but then got sidetracked and ended up with cheese omelette.

PS. No-stick pans FTW!

This day marks the first time I tried cooking with oil (zarhooie is right -- cooking eggs with oil does not lead to the scary splattering that deep-frying say, chickens, would. I feel better now :-)).

I think I've also managed to figure out a technique of cracking eggs that works for me. I got suggestions to crack against a flat surface, with a spoon, but not against the rim of the bowl, and so far, cracking the egg sharply but firmly against the counter top has been win \o/ No egg-shell fragments, and much easier to pull apart. (Thank you so much to everyone who gave me videos, instructions, and a list of steps *G* Food is so much less gritty this way)

So today was still exciting for me:

I figured out how to figure out when there are flames on the stove. The trick, you see, is to not stare straight down at the top of the pan, which blocks the view of the flames below. The trick is to stoop slightly, and look aslant, to be able to see the flames against the bottom of the pan. (I may have turned the stove on and off some five times, convinced that the stove wasn't working right)

So I let the pan heat up. Grabbed an egg, tapped it against the counter, things were going well, and then I managed to sprinkle about half a teaspoon worth of black pepper all over it. Oops! I scraped off as much as I could, but there was still an awful lot of black. I ended up grabbing a second egg (and the milk carton, since I was staring at that section of the refrigerator already), (the countertop rapping thing worked again :DDD) (I think I love milk in my eggs, now that I have tried doing it on my own).

Some olive oil on the pan, poured the egg on, swirled it around with the fork a bit (systematic scraping in a circle.). And then fit of inspiration, ran to the refrigerator and back, and broke pieces of cheese all over the omelette.

(It was definitely an omelette now, and not scrambled eggs, which were my original intention. I wonder if I shall ever make real scrambled eggs?)

SO GOOD THOUGH. All gooey and cheesey and melty and warm and toasty.

Breakfast may now be my favorite meal of the day :-) Now to figure out what I shall do tomorrow.

Perhaps scrambled eggs?

(Originally posted on Dreamwidth, April 8, 2009)

First blood

Was trying to cook tuna with chopped up apples in it (following on the discussion of tuna with cooked pears yesterday). Using a wok with a short handle for the first time, for less splatter, instead of the long-handled pan I had been used to until now.

Noticed it was going askew, grabbed the handle. STUPID. Don't touch hot metal.

Left index finger too shiny and sensitive to touch anything right now. Left thumb somewhat painful but at least can put pressure on it. Still able to type, but with some hilarious slowdown around the letters near the center of the keyboard. (for my layout that would be "u", "y", "k", "i").

Left hand askew to compensate and so left middle finger can do all the work my left index used to. Have already told someone to "have gun", when I meant "have fun" (or did I? *mysterious background music* coding hard, need backup.)

Typing weird. Sound funny. Send help. (Balm has soothed the initial pain. I can concentrate on things other than the throbbing of my finger now, as long as I don't try to put any pressure on it.

(Originally posted on Dreamwidth http://afuna.dreamwidth.org/5735.html)

I love me some little hacks

For instance:

    foreach var string module ( $*modules_available ) {
        # FIXME: get the values in less hacky manner
        var string section = get_plural_phrase( 0, "module_${module}_section" );
        var int order = int(get_plural_phrase( 0, "module_${module}_order" ));

        $*module_sections{$section}[$order]=[$module];
    }

(but I should probably not let something like that creep into core. Long list of if-statements, it is.)

(Originally posted to Dreamwidth http://afuna.dreamwidth.org/6673.html)

Rocks, sticks, stones

Just joined two new communities:

dwrocks - for posting things about Dreamwidth that rock
dwstones - for throwing stones posting things about Dreamwidth that bother you

Note that neither of them is official! But I think I'm going to enjoy any discussions that these communities will spark.

Grapher, released as a program

Whoo! Remember the graph I showed you guys a while back? foxfirefey just released the source ^____^

Note: I think you need to be at least fairly technical and have Python on your system to use it.