Fable 2: Unplayable

Literally.  I got to the end of Fable 2, and was working on getting the rest of the gargoyle heads, when I dropped into Archon's Knot, where my LAST gargoyle head was.  As I swam out of the water, my character bugged.  I could shoot a single bullet, so I got the gargoyle, but I can't swing a weapon, and casting a spell acts like I never release the spell button.  The big hurt, though in this bugged mode, I can't get into the menu to save (you know, because I got all the Gargoyles!).  So I wandered my way (no fast travel if you don't have the menu) to a game master, loaded up spinnerbox, and exited so it would autosave.  Then I reset my Xbox.

Well, in saving my progress, I also saved my bugged character.  I'm locked in a mode where I can't attack, can't equip items, can't save, can't fast travel.  

So I guess I'm done playing Fable 2.  Shame it had to end this way.

Seeking Translation

I had the idea to check out google.cn today to see if I could find a lamian recipe.  Well, I found video of a cooking show in which it looks like they explain... everything?  I'm not sure, but there's information about alkali in there.  I can't read it, however.  I'll have to get some translation done.

The website is http://www.zuiya.com/play-2047.html.

Here's some screenshots of particular importance.  I need to call my chinese friends to see who can read it :D

Braid

I had 6 hours of free time yesterday, so I decided to take some time to catch up on Xbox Live games.  I was figuring I'd land on Bionic Commando, but I tried the Braid demo first.  If you haven't played it yet, and you're like me, you probably look at the screenshots and go "meh".  It looks a little... bubbly, I guess.  The name and the graphics don't let on to how cool it is.  I immediately bought it after getting to the end of the demo.  Bionic Command will have to wait.

Maybe the reason I didn't know what Braid was about was because it's kind of hard to explain.  It's sort of like Mario Bros. in that they have a princess and she's "in another castle", but the game is really about puzzles.  At any point in the game you can reverse time.  If you die, rewind.  The puzzles come into play largely by having objects that aren't affected by time in the same way as your character.  There's also an interesting story to tie it all together.  You get a little story at the beginning of each or 6 worlds, and then jump into puzzles.

From a technical standpoint, Braid is amazing.  When you rewind, everything goes backwards, exactly as you played it out, even the sound, which I'm really impressed by.  Playing things backwards is not something most software is designed to do, and the software geeks behind Braid have done a really good job.  And the thing about being able to play back your gameplay is that you automatically have a nearly perfect bug reporting and reproducing system, which makes debugging easier.  The game is smooth.

I don't know.  After writing this I realize it's really hard to explain Braid.  I bet they're losing a lot of sales because of that.  If you're a details type person, you can notice that they took a lot of time balancing the puzzles, working out the gameplay, and making sure it was technically perfect.  As far as Xbox Live games go, I think it's one of the best (but I haven't played Bionic Commando yet).  If I had a rating system, it would receieve 13 out of 14 bacon strips.

The Kingdom of Loathing

Holy crap. I don't know how I missed out on this one all these years. I was reading last week's escapist issue, and came across this article. "What kind of a name is 'The Kingdom of Loathing'", I thought.

I checked it out. It's awesome.

The Kingdom of Loathing is a browser based pseudo mmo. Let me clarify. By browser based, I mean it runs in your browser, but it doesn't use flash or fancy graphics. It's all framed html, img tags, and a bit of javascript. A very plain UI. By pseudo mmo, I mean that you are playing alongside many other people, but they may as well be in parallel universes. You can communicate with them, give each other items, and apparently PvP (i haven't checked it out yet), but on the whole you just play it alone.

All the graphics are hand drawn stick figures, and the humour in the writing is a lot like Douglas Adams; the humor is all in how it's written on the page. For example, in the game, one of the quests takes you to The Misspelled Cemetary, where you fight Ghuols, Skleltons, and lihces.

And since it's free, you should check it out. No, read the article, and then check it out. The guys behind this make their living purely on the donations, and they have an interesting story.

Proud Father of Four

I've been learning about Bonsai lately, and I planted some seeds about two weeks ago. On Friday after work, I was delighted to find that some of my seeds had started growing. A chinese wisteria came up:



As well as two Jacarandas:


Now that was enough, but today (sunday), I also found that one of my giant california redwoods has also sprouted:


Now here's the interesting thing. The Jacarandas have been growing like I'd expect them to, but the Chinese Wisteria is going wild. 72 hours after the first picture, it now looks like this:


Simply amazing.

How To Make Hand-Pulled Noodles: Overview

I've made three posts now going through the process of making hand-pulled noodles. Here's a quick recap:

An image of the final product

Information on ingredients

Recipes and mixing instructions

Kneading and pulling technique

I'll update this posting with any links to posts I make that have more information.

If anyone discovers this and is successful in making noodles, link some photos or make a comment about your success. I'd love to hear about it!

UPDATE June 25 -- I modifed the description of note 1 on the kneading and pulling post. It sounded like you had to throw your dough away after your tried to pull it ONCE. In actuality, you should be able to practice on the same ball of dough repeatedly for upwards of an hour. My point with that note is that the dough acts a little different if you put it in the fridge and try to knead it the next day.

UPDATE July 20 -- I've gotten some questions recently about using only all-purpose flour in the dough recipe. Unfortunately, this doesn't work. I put together a recipe like this in my trials and the result is something the seemingly never loosens up. I spend 45 minutes or so on it and threw it away. Moral of the story, if you want a recipe that uses one type of flour, you're better of trying to use all cake flour (which loosens up, but a little too much) or picking out a flour from your local asian market. I've had great success just randomly picking chinese and korean flours from the shelf at my local market. They all have pretty low gluten levels.

UPDATE October 20 -- I've found an interesting video on a chinese website.  I need to get it translated, but it's a cooking show where they make hand pulled noodles.  Also, in an effort to figure out a dough recipe that takes a little bit less kneading, I've order some gluten relaxers to do some experimenting.  If I learn anything, I'll be sure to post it.

How To Make Hand-Pulled Noodles: Kneading and Pulling

I thought about taking a bunch of pictures to show show to actually pull the noodles, but it's better explained in a video. So I've broken the whole ordeal up into two parts. The first deals with how to knead the dough and what to look for to know that it's time to pull some noodles. The second shows you how to pull the noodles, and how to get the most practice time out of your dough.

Part 1 is here:



You really have to work the dough to get it pullable withing 20 minutes. Don't be discouraged if it takes you 30 or 40 minutes to get the dough there.

And Part 2 is here:



The pulling technique I show here works really well for small balls of dough. I have yet to pull noodles out of a big piece of dough, but I think it requires the whipping technique you see in so many of the other videos on the web.

Some further notes that I'd like to mention:

1. Once you've kneaded the dough to a pullable consistency, it's do or die. If you decide you're done practicing, just throw the dough away. I haven't had good luck with dough I've put back into the fridge for next day. To clarify, I'm not saying you get one chance to pull noodles for each batch of dough you make. Just don't try to pull noodles out of the same batch on two different days, and you'll be alright. The dough seems to lose just a little bit of stretchiness after it's been kneaded and then gets put back into the fridge.
2. I once took my dough to a high elevation on and tried to pull it there. I had trouble with it, and even when I brought it back I had trouble. I don't know anything about dough and elevation, but it seems to have caused issues.
3. Keep at it! It's not easy to get this right, and it takes a lot of practice. Don't try to pull noodles from recipe that are greater than 300g until you're confident in your abilities. Larger dough is quite a bit hard to pull evenly.

Some Cooking notes:

1. The noodles don't need a lot of boiling time. Maybe 3 to 5 minutes max. The first time I was successful, I had them with a little sesame oil and some Magi sauce (close to soy sauce in flavor). The two recipes I've posted have good flavor, but the selling point on hand pulled noodles in the texture. YUM!
2. For summertime, serving the noodles cold is good too. Go to an asian market and get some Somen sauce ( a light soy flavored sauce). Cook your noodles like normal, and rinse them in cold water. Put them in a bowl with a few ice cubes, 70% somen sauce and 30% water. Very refreshing on a hot summer day :)

Best of luck to everyone!