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Apr. 6th, 2018 05:07 pmMaaaaaaan writing is hard. I decided to write A THING a couple of days ago and it swallowed me up a bit. I have a weird kind of "irreducable complexity" sometimes where I start what I think is going to be a straightforward quest plot and then before I know it there's this huge alien world-building thing going on.
ANYWAY, MORE FOOD:
Indian Fish Pie With Coconut and Spinach
This was as yummy as life itself. Basa fillets, which you will recall I consider bland, is livened up with turmeric and garam masala and the whole thing is baked in t'oven with mash on top like a pretend shepherd's pie.
Harissa Chorizo With White Bean Mash
I appear to be ordering mash-heavy selections without intending to at present. This was very tasty, with shallow-fried chorizo and some red onion and pepper in there too.
Lamb Keema Saag, Nigella Rice and Naan
The Keema Saag is the star of this dish. Not much to say other than it was totes tasty
Indonesian-style Chicken Rice With Satay Sauce
The satay sauce didn't overpower this dish as much as it did with the one from the other week. Again not much to say other than it was delish and I would make it a million times.
NON-FOOD:
In VR news Oculus have been having an anniversary sale so I bought a couple of games. Lone Echo is a bit like Mission ISS in that you pull yourself along in micro-gravity and have to solve space-station type problems. There is a Babylon-5 style plot in which a super advanced spaceship comes through a temporal anomaly and you have to investigate it. You play a robot who I totally shipped with the only other character but it transpired that they were probably not doin it. Anyway, it was a good use of VR and my only complaint is that towards the end a lot of the gameplay is (1) find a dead battery (2) charge up the dead battery (3) put in a thing that needs a battery (4) goto 1. Also the locations are a bit samey and it's easy to get lost, you could do with a map.
Edge of Nowhere is an Uncharted style third-person mixture of platforming and fairly repetitive stealth-based combat set in the early 20th century. It's atmospheric though the plot is a bit more predictable than it thinks it is and I REALLY don't like jump-scares in VR. You might think that third-person doesn't work well in VR but it's actually pretty good, and the gameplay with its scaling up ice walls with ice picks might not work as effectively in first-person. The only problem is that you seemingly can't turn the camera independent of the headset so if I wanted to backtrack there was a lot of looking over my shoulder and hoping my guy didn't fall off a ledge I forgot was there.
Finally, I wish there was a better selection of VR video out there. The best app seems to be something called Amaze but it doesn't have a large selection and they're mostly just watching white women do yoga or dance on a pole. Those poles don't look very sturdy, I hope they're safe. There are 360 degree videos, but without the stereoscopic component people appear very giant. Perhaps the issue is download size, even a short video in decent enough resolution for VR can be multiple gigs. Still, I think there's a big gap in the market for immersive video that isn't just porn-adjacent. I briefly thought about making some myself but soon relented when I saw that the recommended camera for 360 degree capture is $45,000. Made by Nokia, apparently.
SO THAT IS FOOD, VR AND FINDING WRITING DIFFICULT
ANYWAY, MORE FOOD:
Indian Fish Pie With Coconut and Spinach
This was as yummy as life itself. Basa fillets, which you will recall I consider bland, is livened up with turmeric and garam masala and the whole thing is baked in t'oven with mash on top like a pretend shepherd's pie.
Harissa Chorizo With White Bean Mash
I appear to be ordering mash-heavy selections without intending to at present. This was very tasty, with shallow-fried chorizo and some red onion and pepper in there too.
Lamb Keema Saag, Nigella Rice and Naan
The Keema Saag is the star of this dish. Not much to say other than it was totes tasty
Indonesian-style Chicken Rice With Satay Sauce
The satay sauce didn't overpower this dish as much as it did with the one from the other week. Again not much to say other than it was delish and I would make it a million times.
NON-FOOD:
In VR news Oculus have been having an anniversary sale so I bought a couple of games. Lone Echo is a bit like Mission ISS in that you pull yourself along in micro-gravity and have to solve space-station type problems. There is a Babylon-5 style plot in which a super advanced spaceship comes through a temporal anomaly and you have to investigate it. You play a robot who I totally shipped with the only other character but it transpired that they were probably not doin it. Anyway, it was a good use of VR and my only complaint is that towards the end a lot of the gameplay is (1) find a dead battery (2) charge up the dead battery (3) put in a thing that needs a battery (4) goto 1. Also the locations are a bit samey and it's easy to get lost, you could do with a map.
Edge of Nowhere is an Uncharted style third-person mixture of platforming and fairly repetitive stealth-based combat set in the early 20th century. It's atmospheric though the plot is a bit more predictable than it thinks it is and I REALLY don't like jump-scares in VR. You might think that third-person doesn't work well in VR but it's actually pretty good, and the gameplay with its scaling up ice walls with ice picks might not work as effectively in first-person. The only problem is that you seemingly can't turn the camera independent of the headset so if I wanted to backtrack there was a lot of looking over my shoulder and hoping my guy didn't fall off a ledge I forgot was there.
Finally, I wish there was a better selection of VR video out there. The best app seems to be something called Amaze but it doesn't have a large selection and they're mostly just watching white women do yoga or dance on a pole. Those poles don't look very sturdy, I hope they're safe. There are 360 degree videos, but without the stereoscopic component people appear very giant. Perhaps the issue is download size, even a short video in decent enough resolution for VR can be multiple gigs. Still, I think there's a big gap in the market for immersive video that isn't just porn-adjacent. I briefly thought about making some myself but soon relented when I saw that the recommended camera for 360 degree capture is $45,000. Made by Nokia, apparently.
SO THAT IS FOOD, VR AND FINDING WRITING DIFFICULT
