Finished Shadow Puppets [1/29/2008]

I think this is probably my least favorite of all the Ender/Bean books so far. The whole stolen embryo thing was too predictable and too obvious to seem realistic. I couldn't believe Petra suspected Volescu did not have a non-destructive test, but, she didn't suspect he'd help Achilles. I also had a lot of trouble believing that Bean and Petra would not have taken the embryos with them or had much more security to protect them.

Also, will Peter ever realize his parents aren't dumb? Even when they saved his life he was grateful, but, didn't seem to realize they always know more then he thinks they do.

The only thing I really liked was getting to know Alai better in this book.

Porter Sampling No. 2 [1/15/2008]

Brewery	Name	Location	Short Description	Rating
Bear Republic Brewery	Big Bear Black Stout	Healdsburg, CA	Hoppy, Flavorful	89
Stone Brewing Company	Stone Smoked Porter	Escondido, CA	Very Smokey	85
Beer Valley Brewing Co	Black Flag Imperial Stout	Ontario, OR	Strong Alcohol 11%, Hoppy, Thick/Heavy	92
Ballast Point Brewing Co	Black Marlin Porter	San Diego, CA	Decent	86
Rogue Ales	Shakespeare Stout	Newport, OR	Nutty, Yummy	90
Great Divide Brewing Co	Yeti Imperial Stout	Denver, CO	Very Hoppy, Strong Alcohol, Flavorful, Rich	89
Bison Brewing Co	Chocolate Stout	Berkeley, CA	Yummy	89

See Also:
Porter Sampling No. 7
Porter Sampling No. 6
Porter Sampling No. 5
Porter Sampling No. 4
Porter Sampling No. 3
Porter Sampling No. 1

Finished Shadow of the Hegemon [1/15/2008]

It was hard for me to imagine a strategist like Bean transforming himself into a soldier fighting on the ground in a combat situation. However, I wasn't surprised by his courage and dedication. Will he ever open up to Petra?

Petra's voice was very believable. I wonder what she'll think of Peter. I also wonder what Peter was doing while in Haiti, and how he was changed by losing Valentine.

Finished Ender's Shadow [1/09/2008]

You'd think covering the same time period and a lot of the same events as Ender's Game only from Bean's perspective would be too predictable and lack the suspense of the original. Well Card pulled it off. I was just as interested this time through Battle School.

The timing was great: I didn't think any parts of the story were too long or too short. I think the editors may have listened to readers complaints about too much philosophy/theoretical diversions in Xenocide and Children of the Mind. Personally, I wasn't bothered by it in those books. But, I can see how those criticisms may have made this book a cleaner read and kept it at the right length.

Card really succeeded in getting me invested in Bean's character. I was happy to find he continued writing more books with Bean. I'm interested to see him grow (literally and metaphorically).

Holiday Eating [1/03/2008]

The last few weeks of celebrating have been filled with some great meals. Here is just a sampling of the deliciousness:

Latkes

Baguettes with Munster/Lingonberry Jam and with Basil Goat Cheese/Capers

Mojito Cupcakes
Japanese BBQ

Christmas Cookies [12/24/2007]

I made two batches of cookies to give away for Christmas. Here are the two recipes:

Russian Teacakes
1 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sifted powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup very finely chopped pecans
Powdered sugar

In a large bowl, cream butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract until light and fluffy. Sift in flour and salt; stir until well mixed. Mix in nuts. Refrigerate 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Roll dough into 1-inch balls. Place onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until set but not brown. Remove from oven and cool slightly on wire racks. While cookies are baking place the powdered sugar in a shallow dish.

While still warm, roll cookies in powdered sugar. When cookies have cooled, roll them again in the confectioners sugar to give them a nice even coating of sugar. Store in an airtight container.

Chocolate Mint Cookies
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup Baking Cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 10oz. package of Andes Creme de Menthe Baking Chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350º F.

Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in a large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in chips. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until cookies are puffed and centers are set but still soft. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Finished Monster Island [12/24/2007]

Throughout the whole book I was wondering why Gary didn't try to make more intelligent zombies like himself. Wouldn't he want an peer to bounce ideas off of? Mael was too entrenched in religious fervor to think rationally. Then finally at the end I could sort of understand why he waited until Dekalb proved himself to be a worthy opponent and match of character.

I'm still wondering why the Egyptian mummies were more agile then the other zombies. It also seemed a little unclear what their motivations were.

Porter Sampling No. 1 [12/24/2007]

I discovered I like Porter! I'm undertaking a sampling/rating of all the porters I can find in the Phoenix area. Great fun. This is the first set:

Brewery	Name	Location	Short Description	Rating
Sonoran Brewing Co.	Vanilla Porter	Arizona	Sweet, not nutty	92
Breckenridge Brewery	Vanilla Porter	Denver, Colorado	Clean, Tangy	92
Ska Brewing	Ten Pin Porter	Durango, Colorado	Too bubbly even more than champagne	50
Browar Witnica	Black Boss Porter	Poland	Sweet, Strong Alcohol, Wine-Like, Distinctive	98
Samuel Smith	Taddy Porter	England	Bitter, Strange	71
Widmer Brothers	Snow Plow Milk Stout	Portland, Oregon	Clean Stout, No Creamy Head	85
Left Hand Brewing Co.	Milk Stout	Longmont, Colorado	Chocolate Milky/Nutty	88
Kona Brewing Co.	Pipeline	Kona, Hawaii	More like coffee than beer	85
Anchor Brewing Co.	Porter	San Francisco, California	Distinctive, Nutty/Hazelnutty	86

See Also:
Porter Sampling No. 7
Porter Sampling No. 6
Porter Sampling No. 5
Porter Sampling No. 4
Porter Sampling No. 3
Porter Sampling No. 2

those pesky shrooms [12/06/2007]

This is from an awesome book that I found out about because Anna has a copy. It's out of print, but I ordered a used copy. It's called Legal Daisy Spacing: The Build-A-Planet Manual of Official World Improvements by Christopher Winn and it's full of stuff like this.

light painting [12/03/2007]

I've been playing around taking long exposure pics of LEDs. The green one is my router and modem, the blue a light on the computer speakers, the red part of a case fan. Original large sizes and more over on Flickr.