Given that they regularly eat the fuzz off of deer antlers* after they are shed, I am open to any odd dietary choices from porcupines.

*this odd porcupine factoid was of great amusement to one of our kids when they were of kindergarten age and liked to play the “guess what animal I am game.”

Thanks! I’ll add that to the original post.

As frustrating as it may be, my best recommendation is to borrow basic cookbooks from reputable authors from a public’s library or online library.

Here’s one that we have that has recipes that work:

https://archive.org/details/newcanadianbasic0000ferg

https://openlibrary.org/books/OL7643452M/The_New_Canadian_Basics_Cookbook

You will need to build some techniques and learn to measure and to follow recipes to start.

This means learning to decode what recipes are telling you and replicate what they say. It means not making substitutions until you can predict what the outcomes will be.

It also means to be willing to do repetitive and tedious tasks.

In the past, we learned this from family, helping and picking up basic skills.

Now it’s harder. In theory, cooking videos could and should help but when the emphasis of cooking videos is to perform and get views, it’s not so successful as it could be.

Start with some simple recipes with not too many ingredients and not elaborate ones with complex techniques.

The show clearly shows Murderbot as being ACE and uncomfortable with the sexual and gendered reactions of others towards them — which is as important in my view the outward and physical apparent gender.

There’s absolutely no incentive to log in to YouTube now that subscriptions and bells do nothing to control your feed. End stage enshittification.

There’s currently an Redexit of Canadians who are looking to get off US-controlled social media.

Lemmy.ca has had a huge spike in enrolment as it’s the one that was most prominently promoted in r/BuyCanadian. Apparently, it’s had over 9k signups in the past day.

Yoon Ha Lee really plays with fun math concepts. Great stuff. The Ninefox trilogy was a real entry point for me to begin to appreciate Korean mythology.

Yup, lack of advanced science concepts and an accumulation of errors despite a pretension to working problems for the audience.

Even some basic geography errors - early in the book, he claims that the sample had to be landed in Saskatchewan for a high latitude to match the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Baikonur is at 45 N latitude, about the same as the border between North and South Dakota. Everywhere in Saskatchewan is North of the 49th parallel and south of 60. Sigh.

I have to say that I just don’t get the hype about this book.

Project Hail Mary is really targeted at a middle grade reading and maturity level. I would have happily given it to our kids to read in middle grade (as I did The Martian).

It’s a Robinson Crusoe meets a buddy in space boys-own-adventure tale (although Weir insists on male gendering a hermaphrodite when ‘they/them’ is well understood). There are clear indications that the story was told to pull in immature readers - starting with the ludicrous scene where Grace has spent days waiting for zero G without stowing any of his lab equipment or supplies.

It’s a compellingly written ‘work the problem’ read but anything beyond high school science concepts isn’t really there. Once again, I feel like we’re seeing more overhyped STEM based on concepts that haven’t advanced beyond what a mid 20th century bachelors degree would cover.

It held my attention as an easy read while fighting a bug, I can’t see picking up another of his books for myself.

There are a few very odd ‘too much information’ references to sexual relationships and use of alcohol that seem almost awkwardly placed to bump up the level, but there’s not really enough in there to even warrant the ‘school edition’ treatment that ‘The Martian’ got. Otherwise nothing stretches past middle grade emotional maturity.

All told, I was expecting more.

Working through ‘Ten Low’ by Stark Holburn now. My partner is through the sequel already and recommended.

Love Scalzi but wish he could vary his voice more. I find I have to spread out reading his books as the snark will all blur after a while.

The orgy in The Diamond Age isn’t much better.

Stephenson got a pass on a lot of his weird stuff.

I found The Sea of Tranquility a bit dry but whimsical nonetheless.

In a genre overburdened by books with two dimensional characters and core dumps of exposition, it was an interesting puzzle but it also isn’t making me want to reread it either. 7.5 or 8.

Hugely disappointed by The Diamond Age after Snow Crash. It really lost the plot.