Fiber Monday 29: New Year New Project

So, I mentioned last week that I wanted to make some Amigurumi this year!

So I'm starting with one that I thought would be pretty easy.

It's Kirby!

Now, to be fair, I've only gotten to halfway through his body, but he's made of basic shapes, and so far, it's all been increases and single crochet, so if you can do single crochet and increases, you'll be 100% fine, so grab your pink worsted weight (#4) yarn and a 3.5mm hook and try hooking along with me!

Uh... I couldn't make the original start to this project work, FYI, so I used the Magic Ring approach (make a loop, then crochet around the loop, pull tight, ta-da, a ring!) Hopefully, that doesn't mean I've botched it :|

So, this ring is what they say you're supposed to start with.
I couldn't get things to work right, so I gave up.
If you can follow the pattern (ch 5, make into a ring with a sl st) more power to you!

This is the tight little ring I made with the magic ring.
The starter is 5sc.

inc 4 times, then 3sc in the last st

Here's where things get a bit weird.
Since this is in a base of 5 with abnormal increases, we have to go from 11 stitches around to 16.
This means we:
inc, sc 2, then [inc, sc,] 4 times (16 st)

sc 2, inc, sc 3, then [inc, sc 2] three times, then inc (21 st)

This is the next round, though the blog calls it "rounds".
Basically, we're making a pink blob.

Personally, I think this looks a bit inappropriate...

Also, it's not very dynamic to photograph...

Should this go see a doctor? Lookin a bit lumpy...

It almost looks like a hat, tbh

Now, be aware, I've done all the way to the center of this first part of the project...
This is round 10 of 13 so far...

Round 11

Round 12

Round 13 is honestly the easiest. It's just straight single crochet around.
45 single crochet stitches in a nice clean circle.
And yes, I've been snickering most of this time.

Aside from the... mammarian appearance of Kirby's head, this is a pretty simple project so far!

Hopefully finishing the head and then making the feet & arms won't kick my butt too hard. I will admit to a great deal of trepidation regarding his face - I'm garbage at embroidery & sewing!!!

Thankfully, however, I have finally found my plastic yarn needle, so I shouldn't have to do that thing where I desperately hook into the project to basically sew it together, but messy.

That's all for me for this year. Wow. 2018 is finally over.

What a relief.

Happy New Year, everyone,

and go Enjoy Something!
FC

Survival Sunday 29: New Year's Nabe Ramen

I know, today isn't New Year's Eve, but I couldn't let that almost-alliteration pass me by!

My guy and I made Nabe Ramen (which autocorrect believes is "Nave" ramen, but hey, let's not split hairs...). This dish is a hot-pot, which means it's usually brought out to the table in the stoneware vessel it's cooked in. Z & I don't have a clay hot-pot, so we just simmered it on the stove for a good long while before ladling it over our prepared ramen noodles.

This is another delightful find from Umai Crate, who are not sponsoring this blog, but boy, do I love the noodles we get from them.

All of our Umai Crate spices, our sesame oil, and our teriyaki hot sauce.
Also: ramen noodles, red pepper flakes, and the soup bases for the Nabe.

Our Nabe ramen! Such a great photo...

The Shizumi Nabe Soup entry

Our veggies: green onion/scallion, little shiitake mushrooms, and a carrot.

Closeup of the hot sauce.

Now, as for an ingredients list:

Nabe soup base (we used all 3 servings!)
Ramen noodles (we used all 3 servings of this, too)
1 egg
green onion/scallion
carrot
shiitake mushrooms
frozen corn
roast beef lunchmeat slices
teriyaki hot sauce
curry powder
hot pepper
red pepper flakes
ramen pepper
garlic powder
sesame oil
soy sauce

If all of that seems like a lot, it is, but it's also unnecessary. You can, in fact, enjoy the Nabe with just the prepared soup base packets and the noodles. If you can find the Nabe soup packets. If not, then I suggest concocting your own sweet & salty broth using some brown sugar (that's what we think was in it), soy sauce, and any other herbs & spices that strike your fancy. It's a dark, reddish-brown broth, so we have no idea what we ate.

The first thing we did was we divided the labor. Z did 90% of this dish between his expert cutting and spicing skills. All I did was scramble the egg in a bowl with the sliced scallions and boil the noodles. I also stirred a little. Wow.

I boiled the noodles first, since it's suggested that you portion them out before the soup is finished.

Now, the instructions were, as they often are, a bit vague and confusing, so we winged it by using 1 cup of water per pair of soup packets (there were dry packets and wet ones, one of each, so by using 3 servings, I put in 3 cups of water). This meant that we got plenty of flavor & liquid in our massive bowls of ramen!

Z did all the work on the soup part, so I'll just put the photos down and do my best to narrate:

Here we have all of the packets added to the water.
The dry packets were what gave us the idea that this might contain brown sugar.

We've dumped in the sesame oil at this time.
I can't remember if we actually added the soy sauce, but I think we did!

We put the carrots in first, knowing they'd need the longest to cook.

Ah. Here's where we added the soy sauce!

We also added frozen corn, which brought the temperature back down.
I did most of the temperature fiddling, but again, Z did the hard work!

I'm not a huge fan of mushrooms, tbh.
They definitely added something very nice to the broth, though!

Weird tip: If you scramble egg and add your scallions to the egg,
you end up with these tiny omelets in your soup wrapped up in green onion!

Z hard at work, now that he's added more spices!

You wouldn't think plain lunchmeat would work in Nabe ramen.
You'd be wrong. It was delicious.

Our eggy scallions added in. This was moments after he dumped the bowl in!

Eggy, spicy, delectable scents were rising at this point and we couldn't wait any longer!

Z's bowl with its shiitake mushrooms!

My bowl had no mushrooms because I don't care for the texture.

In the end, this was a delight. Since I was still a little sick (and now I just get stuffy every so often, so I think I'm over the cold!), the amount of spice Z had added was perfect. My mouth was on fire, and my sinuses were clearing! To be fair, I'm pretty sure the Nabe seasonings from the pack weren't that spicy, but Z & I like a little fire in our bowls, so he ramped up the Scovilles just for us.

Hopefully, our kitchen experimentation here has inspired some of you to meddle with your instant noodles. Don't be afraid to add lunchmeat and let it cook up with your noodles. Experiment with your eggs. Toss in some veggies to give yourself some vitamins and leach out some of the sodium!

Basically...

Go Enjoy Something!!!
FC

Saturday Casual Gaming 29: Merge Dragons

Merge Dragons is a free-to-play casual mobile game from Gram Games. I've been playing on my cellphone for about a week now, and I'm not very deep into it, but it's cute, it's fun, and it fills a match-3 void for me, since I actively despise Candy Crush and its ilk. Call me crazy, but I have a hard time enjoying Candy Crush when I know how little they care about what their players can afford. While, yes, there are plenty of opportunities to spend real money in Merge Dragons, however, Gram Games has taken pity on those of us with tight budgets and, at least so far, I haven't had to shell out for anything. You can get the premium currency for free in-game (kind of like how, if you're patient and have enough high-CP Pokemon in Pokemon Go, you can just spam the gyms and earn up to 50 gold per day...).

Now, I'm not saying I'm any good at this game, but it's pretty fun, and if you like dragons the way I do, then this will scratch that itch, too. There's so many different breeds in different colors, and it hits that collector part of my brain hard. I love match-3 games, too, so this has been a lot of fun.

This is what the "Camp" section of this game looks like, btw.
The purple d20 in the upper right corner is the premium currency

As you may be able to tell, this brightly-colored game has some really interesting elements to it, and you don't have to stop at matching 3 of a kind. You can match as many as you like, tbh. Those three big stars? You can combine them. Do you have 5 sprouts? Match them for extras. Chaining matches gets you fat bonuses.

Individual levels look like this.

Now, the dragons you collect, hatch, raise, and combine do all the heavy lifting - they gather those yellow hearts from flowers, they can harvest things from nodes, and they build things for you. Your job is to make matches. Some objects cannot be matched (some evil bushes or certain chests, for instance), but must things can. Have three coins that look alike? Match them to make bigger coins worth more. Three berries? Match. Three statues? That might be the end of your level, so make sure you've got what you want from the level (like a treasure chest that might contain extra coins or something...).

The storyline here is basically this: bad guys have killed everyone and it's up to you and one last dragon to resurrect the world and put things to rights. The tutorial teaches you everything perfectly, so I don't really have to tell you how to play the game. The game will let you know what you need to know!

It's not all sunshine and rainbows, though. I have some bones to pick (well, outside of the cleanup I'm doing at my Camp, at least). There are timed levels. Those of you who know me know that I hate timed levels at anything. I don't like the stress and I don't perform well when I'm trying to beat a clock. These are something I could do without. My other bone of contention is far less annoyed and more bemused: This game is seriously addicting.

Sometimes I still see those stupid fluffy seeds floating past my eyes when I close them. I'll look at a trio of bushes irl and think "I wonder what those would turn into". It's definitely not something you want to be playing if, like me, you've been sick with a cold that makes you... slow.

That being said, it's so much fun to see what matching three seeds will produce, or seeing how far you can chain your mushrooms until you get free chests, or to hatch eggs and combine your dragons!

It's one case where, after having been pestered with ads for this game for nearly a year, I can honestly say it was actually worth the download.

So that's all I have to say about Merge Dragons.  Well, that and "you should probably play this if you're on mobile!"

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Filmic Friday 29: Bad Blood

I know I've promised a proper Cabot Count for Outlaw of Gor, but I've been sick this week (since Christmas Day, actually), so I haven't had the presence of mind necessary for such a task! I promise, I'll do it (eventually). It's necessary. It's for science. Or something.

Instead, here's what we watched last week on VHS:

An action movie from 1994 staring Lorenzo Llama and his ponytail!

This movie is amazing. The basic plot is that Travis Blackstone (Lamas) is an ex-cop who drives a tow-truck and punches people before going home to sleep with his hot stripper girlfriend (this movie is made of boobs and 80s/90s hair). Meanwhile, his little brother Franklin (Hank Cheyne) has moved in with Travis's hot ex, Rhonda (Frankie Thorne), and their dad (John P. Ryan) into an enormous mansion. Huh. Rhonda apparently had money to begin with (I think?) but where has this money come from?

It's a 90s movie.

It came from the mob.

In this case, Franklin technically borrowed it from the bank, but it's the mob. And they're after him for repayment now. Hot Stripper Girlfriend is quickly recruited by the creepy leader of the gang who are after Franklin (and therefore Travis, as a form of collateral), and she kind of turns on Travis, because she's convinced he's going to run off with his ex. It's not made clear that she's his ex until later when he dreams about the last time they banged, so we were all pretty confused as to why this stripper was so insecure. I guess because she was a stripper and they could only have one badass female for the movie.

One does not mess with Rhonda. She will blast your butt into next week and look great doing it!
She kinda reminds me of 1990s Cynthia Rothrock, before the Santa's Summer Home debacle...

In the end, of course, Lamas has to take down the villain (Joe Son) (who tells Hot Stripper Girlfriend to call him Buddha while forcing her to take drugs with him) and his gang in some of the best action sequences I've seen in ages. Seriously, this movie has some great fight scenes, fantastic explosions, and really unsettling deaths. Also, there's a bunch of implied torture that almost makes you feel bad for Franklin. Uh... and no one really wins.

For a guy who does not look intimidating in still frames, I still think he's one of the best action movie villains I've seen in a while! Seriously. This guy is 100% grade A creepy. And he loves his work.
[Edit: it's been brought to my attention that this man is, in fact, a monster for realsies. Yikes]

Yeah. No one really wins. The death toll by the end is monumental, and when the smoke clears, Rhonda and Travis have both lost everyone they loved. Except for each other. But even then, it's hard to be romantic with someone who you know watched the life fade from your loved one's eyes and couldn't do anything to save them. Ouch. Kinda bleak.

But in the end, it was still a fantastic film!

If you don't recognize this movie with the title Bad Blood, there's probably a reason for it!

This movie has another title!

And a much redder cover...

So if you remember this film as Viper instead of Bad Blood, you're not crazy. Neither title really makes much sense in the context of the movies, but I guess Bad Blood is a little less out there, considering it's a crappy brother who gets him into trouble in the first place.

Also, call me crazy but...

Bret Hart from 1994

 +

Don Callis aka "The Jackal" from WWF

 =

Lorenzo Lamas in this cover

You see it too, right?!

Alright, that's all from me today.

Go Enjoy Something!!!

FC

Thursday Art Walk 29: Still A Little Ill

Sorry!

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Wednesdaymania 29

This week in wrestling:

• The Elite discussed their year in review in their Christmas Episode of Being the Elite where Cody Rhodes had a little to say about the future, claiming that we, the fans, have given him "real hope" that whatever strange things All Elite Wrestling will produce, they will be successful.
• MLW Fusion gave us a fantastic set of matches including a bizarre and frankly courageous flag match between MJF (representing the USA) and Puma King (representing Mexico and Konan). Why is this a courageous/bizarre match? Because the USA are being represented by a Grade A+ heel (MJF), who everyone wants to deck, and Puma King is not in the least being played as a scary foreigner. In Chicago. Airing on Christmas Day. It's a fantastic match in a fantastic episode, and as always, the heel/face-work of MLW is 100% on point. It's basically like if ROH was flashier, more racially diverse (not that they're doing a bad job over at ROH in any way shape or form!), and very easy to watch on the internet.
• Speaking of ROH, they've got one of my favorite guys until April - Marty Scurll. The Villain was confronted by the Kingdom (lead by Maine's own Matt Taven) and cornered. Suddenly the lights went out (and because it wasn't Lewiston, it was on purpose this time), and when they came up, Brody King (of MLW) stood beside him, ready to brawl with the Kingdom. Then the lights went down again and electricity crackled. It was the arrival of PCO (also formerly of MLW), who is also now part of Marty's new stable! Ladies and Gentlemen (and Dappers of all other names), please welcome Villain Enterprises!
• OSW Review, one of my favorite internet review shows, has begun their journey on the Lex Express in earnest, discussing the raw footage that recently went up on the WWE Network, and reviewing the Body Slam Contest, which was 100% of the build that Lex got towards making him go from heel (The Narcissist) to Face (Lex Luger, American Hero). It's an incredible review, and you should go watch it.
• Finally, WWE are apparently making their own version of Botchamania, so if you like those delightfail videos that Maffew produces, I'd get on those and start binging them now before Vince's attack dogs go after him. I would honestly rather watch an independent producer like Maffew than the shined-and-polished version WWE is sure to try to put out, especially since the current crop of Botchamanias do not have any apparent agenda to them, and the WWE loves to attack people using their mistakes (especially old rivals or people that didn't "play nice" with Vince). You know whatever they produce will have a bullying edge because that's what they do.

So that's what I've watched and learned about wrestling this week - if you have more you'd like to add, please feel free to discuss it in the comments!

As always

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Christmas 2018

Happy Christmas, everyone.

There's no blog today.

Have a cat instead:

Merry Christmas, Fellow Casuals!

Fiber Monday 29: Snow-el

Yup. I've finished my flakes!

Here's a peek at what it took to starch the little suckers, and hopefully next week I'll start working on something new... maybe an amigurumi!!!

As you can see, I utilized an Umai crate and a large number of pins for this project.
I rested the box at an angle, pinned on the snowflake, and sprayed it with spray starch I found in the cellar.
No way was I going to make my own starch. That looks miserable.

In the end, the flakes all came out pretty well, and I've got them bundled off to the proper people (happy holidays, relatives!)

I had to make two of the pins, and they weren't very sturdy, but all I had left was a little jeweler's wire, so that's what I used. Be bold in your projects, I say!

The last one isn't quite dry yet, but it goes to my father's mother. Hopefully, she likes it!

Also hopefully, it doesn't get all wrinkled up, since I couldn't pin it (I ran out of pins & time).

It looks alright though, so I'll let you know later how it looks.

Tonight being Christmas Eve, I hope everyone celebrating can have a wonderful time doing whatever it is they're doing.

May your days be merry and bright
And may all your Christmasses be white! (Even if you have to make it yourself!)

Now Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Grumpy Christmas Kitty demands it!

Survival Sunday 28: What Did I Try?

So, it's not exactly a secret that Z & I have a subscription to Umai Crate. Umai Crate is a subscription box from Japan where you give them money, and they send you delicious noodles, ramen, udon, soups, snacks (sometimes), and fun or useful household items. So far, we have about a wall-full of boxes (which are great for Christmas & Birthday wrapping...) and a collection of noodles that would make someone on a low-carb diet explode with either envy or rage, depending on their chill level.

Usually, we eat what we're given because we love noodles of all kinds and have fairly adventurous palates.

Sometimes, we'll get something that has too much shrimp or shellfish in it and we give it to a friend who loves that kind of thing.

And sometimes, we receive something that's too weird not to try but also intimidating.

Case in point: In one of our latest crates, we found a package of soup. Now, it's a miso soup, and we love miso, but it's a raw miso soup, so we were already intrigued. Then we saw what else was in it.

Natto.

What is natto and why would that give us pause?

Natto is fermented soybeans. It's sticky. It's stinky. It's slimy. And it's occasionally referred to as the lutefisk of Japan. If you're from certain parts of Europe or you're Lutheran, you probably know what I'm talking about. If not, I strongly suggest looking it up.

Now, I like stinky food. I eat enough cheese that I'm probably 1/10 dairy at this point. I like smelly vegetables like Brussels Sprouts and cabbage. I legit enjoy sour or bitter foods. I like miso.

But I've never had natto. Our local sushi restaurant has a warning about natto being an acquired and divisive taste.

But if I can get over my fears of raw fish, raw eggs, and eel in a matter of months, then I was sure I could get over my fear of natto.

Besides, the stuff in the soup mix was dried! That meant that it would be milder.... I think.

Regardless, we prepared our soup. Two portions. One bowl.

And it was a bit... well... it wasn't a lutefisk stink. It wasn't so strong we had to open windows or take it outside. We didn't even offend our friend who was in the next room. It was about as strong a smell as a proper boiled dinner. It wasn't unpleasant (to me). Just kinda punky and odd.

Then we took it into the dining room and began to eat.

The soup itself was a very strong miso. It was salty, rich, and it had that warm, borderline bitter flavor that I love in miso, but stronger. The natto pieces were floating, rehydrated from the soup itself. It took a few spoonfuls of broth for me to get brave enough to take a taste. Actually, Z tried it first.

"Couscous," he said, thoughtfully. "It kinda tastes like weird, salty, cheesy, almost stale couscous."

And he was right.

It had a slightly grainy, overcooked bean texture, a little slick on the outside, but it was basically just a faintly cheesy (think Parmesan or Romano), salty, almost stale couscous flavor. Not unpleasant at all. Just odd.

I'd eat that again in a heartbeat, though I'm still a liiiiiiittle wary of the "fresh" stuff. (I put fresh in quotes because, again, this is a fermented food, so freshness is a relative state here.)

If you find yourself faced with a bowl of rehydrated natto miso soup, have no fear. Be bold. So long as you aren't allergic to, say, soy, you should be okay!

A shockingly good, if strange, lunch!

Well, that's all from me today!

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Saturday Casual Gaming 28

Today I'm going to do something a bit different.

I've talked about a particular creator on occasion (dustinaux and his Enchanted Cave series, for instance), but today I'm going to talk about a Belgian creator named Bart Bonte. I first discovered him through the game Where Is Cat? on Kongregate, but I've played the other Cat games (there are several), and I can't believe that the internet isn't utterly obsessed this guy and his adorable games!

These games!

Then again, I'm not as good at his Factory Balls series, so maybe that's my problem...

And he does holiday games!

This guy has a lot of skill in creating simple art or physics-based games, point-and-clicks, and just... it's so relaxing. And the song looping in Where is Cat? just makes me so happy. The art styles are varied and the music is wonderful and everything about his games is greatness :)

Another point-and-click adventure (super cute)

From "Cat In Japan"

A fun, challenging game

If you're looking for a short, fun game, then hit up his website, look him up on Kongregate, or check for his games in the app stores on your mobile devices!

That's all from me today!

Go Enjoy Something!
FC